News

Ford has given no explanation for the decision to abandon its ride-sharing shuttle service Chariot, but said it came after “significant consideration”. The service will stop operating on UK shuttle commuter routes tomorrow – after just a few months - and on US routes after 1 February. All Chariot services will cease completely by the end of March. A statement from the company gave little clue as to why: “In today’s mobility landscape, the wants and needs of customers and cities are changing rapidly. We a

Bosch has received an automated driving system (ADS) permit from the Victorian government to test automated vehicle technology on high-speed rural roads in the south-eastern Australian state. Bosch is to use a $2.3 million grant from the Connected and Automated Vehicle (C/AV) Trial Grants Programme to develop the technology, which will be tested later this year. The C/AV programme funded through the government’s $1.4 million Towards Zero Action Plan – an initiative which provides guidelines on how V

The impact of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) on the taxi and private hire sector will come under close scrutiny at the 2019 MaaS Market Conference in London on 20-21 March. Lauri Suokannas, head of business development for Helsinki Taxis, will share his company’s experience in participating in the MaaS platform that has been operating in the city since November 2017. Not only are such services seen by many as the future for urban transport, globally MaaS is also predicted to replace 2.3 billion urban priv

Innovations such as Mobility as a Service (MaaS) will help to make transport more free-flowing for individuals – but that must not be done at the cost of society or the environment. That was the message from Paul Campion, CEO of the UK Transport Systems Catapult, speaking at the Westminster Energy, Environment & Transport Forum’s seminar on intelligent mobility this week. He told delegates at the London conference that innovations in the 20th century had put travel within reach of most people, and tha

More than two-thirds of people do not know what a smart city is - and around a quarter find the concept worrying due to lack of available information, says a new study. ATG Access surveyed 1,000 UK participants and found that just 24% of people in this category believe the concept would improve overall safety. Smart Cities: Turning the dream into a reality says educating the public on how smart cities can help solve challenges on traffic congestion will be key to solving consumer reservations. Of

Alstom is to test its Aptis electric bus in a range of depots and urban environments in Spain as part of a six-week roadshow. The initiative will evaluate vehicle’s charging system, autonomy and its performance in traffic. It is starting in the Barcelona Metropolitan area this month and will continue in Madrid and Vigo in February. Altsom says the vehicle comes with two steerable axles minimise the turning radius and the footprint on the road while an automatic parking system reduces space for parking.

Israeli start-up Foretellix has received $14 million in funding to further develop a solution which measures the safety of autonomous vehicles (AV) in a range of scenarios. Foretellix says its coverage driven verification solution enables developers to test AVs in hundreds of millions of driving scenarios. Ziv Binyamini, CEO of Foretellix, says: “This funding will help us accelerate the industry transition from ‘quantity of miles’ to ‘quality of coverage’ and broad deployment.” The company then automat

Chinese property developer Evergrande has acquired 51% of shares of NEVS (National Electric Vehicle Sweden) in a bid to help the smart car firm develop green mobility solutions. Evergrande’s business covers technology, real estate, health and cultural tourism. The deal is expected to help NEVS develop a second car manufacturing plant in Shanghai which will be used to develop electric vehicles and transport solutions. Currently, NEVS has a manufacturing plant in Tianjin, China, and Trollhättan, Sweden

Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) has launched a trip planner app in San Francisco to provide commuters with access to various transportation modes and information on service disruptions. The BART Trip Planner was developed in collaboration with HaCon – whose software processes transit data from more than 30 operators including buses, trains, ferries and cable cars. BART says the app takes walking, cycling and car routes and the state of traffic into account to give users a realistic comparison of their commu

International Road Dynamics (IRD) is to use weigh-in-motion (WIM) technology to help maintain commercial vehicle enforcement solutions in the commonwealth of Virginia, US, over a two-year period. The scope of the $4.2 million maintenance and support contract also includes the deployment of IRD’s road side and in-station electronics and computer systems. The company will also use automated vehicle identification equipment, variable message signs, vehicle tracking systems, overview cameras, vehicle dimensio

Security specialist Irdeto has teamed up with Access Co to develop protection for the increasing amount of personal data that is generated by Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Vehicle to Everything (V2X) communication. As cars are increasingly turned into open environments due to advances in connectivity, the threat of data theft has risen. Niels Haverkorn, general manager of connected transport at Irdeto, says: “We are partnering with Access to create a complete and secure ecosystem, which means that V2X communicatio

GMV is to upgrade the onboard video surveillance system for Spanish operator Seville Metro’s 21-train fleet. GMV says it will help improve safety for passengers and those outside the train, by recording and sending the video signal of all the train’s cameras to a control centre in Seville, the capital of Spain’s Andalusia region. The company will also replace the control centre’s back office software to allow operators to display real-time images of the different cameras, as well as track down and run rec

Ticketing specialist Masabi’s Justride mobile ticketing platform is to be incorporated into Japan’s transit market. The deal sees Japanese trip planner Jorudan integrating Justride into its transit apps. The firm will also use the Justride external orders API to deliver tickets to users’ smartphones when purchased through Jorudan’s transit search and travel planner websites. “The problems that mobile ticketing solves are universal, with transit operators from Kyoto to Kettering wishing to speed up

Transdev is to launch an electric and automated shuttle service by 2020 in France and Germany. The company is to integrate its autonomous shuttle transport and supervision system with a shuttle provided by the e.Go Moove joint venture – a partnership comprising e.Go, a manufacturer of electric vehicles, and chassis technology firm ZF. ZF will provide the shuttle’s electric drive systems, steering systems and brakes as well as its ProAI central computer – a system which acts as a central control unit with

GoTo Mobility has integrated its vehicle sharing technology platform with Moovit’s Mobility as a Service (MaaS) app to offer commuters in Israel with access to shared cars. The partnership is expected to allow GoTo Mobility customers in Israel such as AutoTel and Car2Go to display car-sharing services in Moovit’s app. GoTo Mobility provides a modular technology solution for one-way, free-floating or round trip corporate fleets and peer-to-peer car-sharing services. Moovit users will now be able to vie