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The Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) has launched an on-demand microtransit programme to help better match public transit services with how commuters want to travel. The one-year pilot, called OC Flex, will allow riders to take an eight-person shuttle between two zones – one in Huntington Beach and the northern city of Westminster and the other in three cities: Mission Viejo, Aliso Viejo and Laguna Niguel. Lisa Bartlett, OCTA chairwoman, says: "We hope that this innovative alternative will h

Automotive giant Continental has signed a deal with autonomous driving specialist EasyMile to create a joint R&D facility in Singapore. The combined team will work on solutions for driverless mobility, focusing on perception and deep learning, to prepare autonomous vehicle (AV) technology for tests. The companies call their memorandum of understanding a “stepping stone in a structured approach to AV testing on public roads in Singapore”. The city-state of Singapore is looking to AVs to improve its trans

Several organisations are coming together in Detroit, US, to pilot a new tool to analyse mobility data for dockless bikes and scooters. The aim is to allow urban authorities which work with dockless mobility providers to share and analyse trip data, including trip origins and destinations, neighbourhood availability, travel times and usage. This should give them the chance to allocate street space to sustainable transportation, improve safety and provide more equal access to transport services. Detroit M

Flir Systems says its wearable sensor platform combines video, audio, location data, Internet of Things (IoT) capabilities and cloud and management software. Called TruWitness, the real-time situational awareness solution is expected to assist public safety organisations which require on-scene, real-time mobile surveillance. Users can also mount the device on the inside of their vehicle. Jim Cannon, president and CEO at Flir, says security personnel could stream video of a situation to their command c

Technology company Greenlots has partnered with Volvo Trucks to implement an electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure for fleets operating out of warehouses in southern California. The project is part of a public-private partnership, in which the California Air Resources Board (CARB) awarded $44.8 million to the South Coast Air Quality Management District. The funded was used for Volvo’s Low Impact Green Heavy Transport Solutions (LIGHTS) project. As part of LIGHTS, Greenlots will equip warehouses

McCain’s variable speed limit signs have been chosen for the new Interstate 76 (Schuylkill Expressway) smart corridor initiatives. The Swarco Group subsidiary says the deal with Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDoT) is one of its largest variable messaging signs (VMS) deployments on the US east coast. McCain distributor M.H. Corbin has been awarded the contract for 76 signs to be installed over the next year along nearly 50 miles of the I-76 between King of Prussia and Philadelphia – a majo

Bird is to roll out an app feature which allows people to report poorly parked or damaged electric scooters to the company. It is an attempt to solve one of the biggest bugbears surrounding the deployment of scooters and dockless bikes – the issue of what happens when users abandon or abuse the vehicles. Bird says the app’s new ‘community mode’ will improve parking and safety in the cities where it operates, such as Portland and Salt Lake City. The company will use reports to reposition poorly parked e-

Jenoptik is to deliver hundreds of systems for speed enforcement to two clients in the Middle East & Africa (MENA) region. Before the end of the year, Jenoptik will deploy 600 of its radar-based TraffiStar S390 measurement systems as well as 300 TraffiTower 2.0 housings for stationary speed enforcement to an unnamed client in the Middle East. Also, Jenoptik will upgrade the customer’s back-office processing software.

Aimsun is taking part in a UK study which is using human driver data to help improve the performance and acceptability of connected and autonomous vehicles (C/AVs). The one-year project, Learning through Ambient Driving Styles for Autonomous Vehicles (LAMBDA-V), will also look at how driver behaviour can be analysed and used to accelerate the adoption of C/AVs. Aimsun says new rules for safer and more efficient driving behaviour could be created from existing vehicles, based on road laws and on how h

Bosch and Daimler will trial an automated driving (Level 4/5) ride-hailing service in San José, California, during the second half of 2019. SAE International (formerly the US Society of Automotive Engineers) has established Level 4 as the vehicle’s ability to operate independently while allowing the driver to go to sleep or leave their seat. Level 5 is classified as fully autonomous and does not require human intervention. Dr. Michael Hafner, vice president drive technologies and automated driving at Da

Software firm Sensible 4 and Japanese retail company Muji have joined forces to develop Gacha, an all-weather autonomous shuttle expected to operate in Finland by 2020. Sensible 4 is providing the technology for the vehicle’s positioning, navigation and obstacle detection. Muji is designing the vehicle. Gacha will make its debut at a launch event in Helsinki in March 2019, and will then be available to riders in three cities: Espoo, Vantaa and Hämeenlinna. Sensible 4 is now looking for industry partne

Intertraffic Mexico will highlight best practices from the traffic technology and mobility industry at an event which is expected to host 4,000 ITS professionals this week. Laura Barrera, director of Intertraffic Mexico, says the third edition will recognise companies and organisations that contribute actively to solving mobility challenges. "We want to highlight innovative projects in the industry, which is why we hold the second edition of the Intertraffic Award Latin America,” Barrera adds. In

Kapsch TrafficCom has acquired eTrans Systems, a Virginia-based provider of connected and autonomous vehicle (C/AV) solutions. Alexander Lewald, chief technology officer at Kapsch, says eTrans’ knowledge of embedded, mobile and Internet of Things technologies will improve the company’s offerings in the C/AV field. Kapsch will integrate eTrans’ on-board and roadside unit applications into its portfolio. These applications support Vehicle to Vehicle, Vehicle to Infrastructure and Vehicle to Pedestrian

Heliox has delivered a fast-charging network for electric buses operating in Ostrava, Czech Republic, in a bid to reduce emissions. The deployment supports the country’s stated ambition to gradually phasing out diesel-powered buses. Heliox’s OC 450 kW chargers are expected to provide Ekova Electric’s e-buses with ‘opportunity charging’, which allows batteries to be charged several times during the work cycle (usually eight hours). The company says the system utilises a pantograph to begin chargin

ComfortDelGro will trial an autonomous shuttle bus in real traffic conditions at the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Kent Ridge Campus from March 2019.