News

Bentley Systems has hit the acquisition trail, buying two digital companies.

Irdeto has opened an office in Pontiac, Michigan, to encourage collaboration with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), automotive suppliers and fleet operators on improving security for connected and autonomous vehicles (C/AVs). Niels Haverkorn, general manager, connected transport, Irdeto, says: “The key challenge is to identify a comprehensive security solution that is able to protect the vehicle itself and safely implement innovative business models.” The move follows a previous initiative where

Omnitron Systems says its high-power Power over Ethernet (HPoE) switches enable fibre optic distance extension to HPoE powered devices. Sankar Ramachandran, Omnitron’s product marketing director, says the PoE RuggedNet and OmniConverter fibre switches allow users to deploy Pan-Tilt-Zoom cameras with heaters and blowers, small cells, and multi-stream wireless access points at any distance from the head end network equipment. According to Ominitron, the RuggedNet is designed for transportation and Internet

Cohda Wireless is to trial two autonomous vehicles (AVs) in Australia this month. The MKZ Sedans can communicate with traffic lights and each other – and the company also expects them to be able to detect pedestrians around blind corners. The initiative, approved by the South Australian government, will take place in Adelaide’s central business district on closed-off roads. Dr Paul Gray, chief executive officer of Cohda Wireless, told ABC that the technology is intended to reduce the chance of huma

Toyota Motor and Softbank will launch a Mobility as a Service (MaaS) business in Japan by April 2019. Called Monet Technologies, the company will combine Toyota's mobility services platform and information infrastructure for connected vehicles with Softbank's Internet of Things platform. Initially, Monet intends to deploy an on-demand transportation service as well as corporate shuttles. By the second half of the 2020s, Monet says it will launch an autonomous MaaS fleet using Toyota’s battery-ele

Highways England is leading a project to establish a high tech corridor on the A2/M2 in Kent which will allow specially-equipped vehicles to interact with roadside infrastructure. As part of the initiative, Highways England hosted a week-long Testfest event in Chatham, Kent, this week, showing how test vehicles receive information on road conditions, road works and the time left for traffic lights to change to green via a wireless network. Jo White, head of Highways England’s intelligent transport system

Here Technologies says its cloud management service will make it easier for developers and map makers to manage location data. The Here XYZ, available in Beta, provides map makers and developers of location-aware applications with access to uploaded data, rendering tools and cloud services to share their locations, the company adds. The solution allows developers to access the XYZ Hub API where they can upload location datasets and edit them via the Command Line Interface. ‘Casual’ mappers can also use

Electromobility trade association AVERE has slammed a key European Union Council position on future CO2 emissions in cars. AVERE says the stance agreed this week by EU environment ministers “falls short in providing the e-mobility sector with right signals to support the e-mobility transition”. The Council has suggested that cars should put out 35% less CO2 by 2030 compared to 2020 – but just last week MEPs called for a 40% cut. This means that EU states have chosen “to support and prop up old business m

Cam2vision has launched a camera which it describes as an ‘all in one’ hardware solution to carry out the whole automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) process. The Embedded ANPR Karabin consists of colour and IR cameras, electronic boards which carry out image processing and a lighting system for specific plate imaging, the company adds. Karabin also features violation records for speed, traffic zone entrance and red lights. According to Cam2vision, the camera also comes with a heavy vehicles traffic

US authorities have signalled that voluntary – rather than compulsory – standards will be the way forward to integrate automated vehicles (AVs) into the country’s transport system. The US Department of Transportation (USDOT) has issued new AV guidance but warns that the new document - Preparing for the Future of Transportation: Automated Vehicles 3.0 (AV 3.0) - does not replace the voluntary guidance it provided in Automated Driving Systems 2.0: A Vision for Safety. “The safe integration of automated

Spanish firm Ficosa has pulled back the curtain on its new centre for developing electromobility solutions. The €10 million, 1,200-m2 ‘e-mobility hub’ near Barcelona in Spain, currently contains four new labs and will be the location for developing and manufacturing software and hardware solutions for hybrid and electric vehicles, specifically battery-management systems and on-board chargers. It is home to 120 engineers, and the company says it will take on 100 more in 2019, as well as adding a new

Vietnamese ride-hailing company FastGo intends to expand its service to Indonesia and Myanmar by the end of the year. In a report from Việt Nam News, Nguyễn Hữu Tuất, FastGo’s CEO, says the company expects to occupy a 30% market share in Indonesia and take second place after Grab in Myanmar. The company aims to raise US$50 million in a new round of funding to help accelerate regional expansion, Tuất adds. According to Tuất: “We chose Myanmar and Indonesia as we have relevant strategies for them in place.

Transport company ComfortDelGro is trialling MaaS Global’s Whim app in Singapore. The Finnish mobility company secured a €9m funding round for the app in August to support its ambition in revolutionising the way people move. ComfortDelGro says the Mobility as a Service (MaaS) app’s users will be able to access its fleet of taxis as well as transition from a train or a bus or choose to finish the trip on a bicycle. Kaj Pyyhtiä, MaaS Global co-founder, says the company will use the initiative to enter

The Australian government and the US state of Michigan have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to develop vehicle and road systems to help improve road safety. Michael McCormack, deputy prime minister and minister for infrastructure, transport and regional development, says the agreement is part of a strategy to position Australia for safer roads through automated and connected vehicles. “This is just one way the government is promoting safer vehicles on safer roads, including for our region

CAVita, a subsidiary of Econolite which focuses on connected and autonomous vehicles, has appointed Barry Einsig as principal. Abbas Mohaddes, Econolite president and chief operating officer, says: “Working closely with various levels of governments, automakers, and broad enabling technologies, Barry brings exceptional expertise that will be invaluable to CAVita’s clients.” Einsig was previously an executive at Cisco Systems, where he was responsible for global automotive and transportation solution