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ITS provider HMI Technologies and its subsidiary Ohmio will develop a manufacturing plant for autonomous vehicles and an artificial intelligence transport research centre in the Heshan, China. The project is part of a $20m agreement with the city’s Industrial City Management Committee and will commence from 1 July.

Singapore-based bicycle-share firm oBike has “temporarily withdrawn” from Melbourne, according to city authorities. Unlike many other bike-share schemes worldwide, oBike has no docking stations – and this has meant that oBikes have been abandoned around the city by users. Pictures of the distinctive yellow bikes in trees, on bus shelters and in the Yarra river circulated widely on social media. A memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the city and the company says that oBike is responsible for ensu

UK technology company Truvelo is launching a mobile speed enforcement camera to combat driving offences. Called LaserCam 4, the solution combines laser speedmetre capabilities with high-quality video and can be used by static safety camera partnership vehicles. LaserCam 4 records evidential video clips of speeding and other infractions onto internal solid state memory.

Tolling specialist Q-Free will integrate a traffic signal module into the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s (PennDoT’s) advanced traffic management system (ATMS) Open TMS. Q-Free says the upgrade will allow the PennDoT to add 10,000 intersections to its system to help manage the traffic network in real time. Under the agreement, the traffic module will allow Q-Free subsidiary Intelight to integrate its Maxview ATMS with PennDoT’s system.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is investing $2.5m in Sri Lanka-based ride-hailing company PickMe, whose taxi app allows users to request auto rickshaws and luxury cars. Amena Arif, IFC country manager for Sri Lanka and Maldives, says the country has the potential for a digital start-up ecosystem but has been held back by a lack of global funding. IFC says only 5% of start-ups get cash-for-equity seed funding to raise their first significant round of venture capital. IFC’s venture cap

Hyperloop Transportation Technologies has partnered with the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine to create a commercial Hyperloop system. The project’s first phase will utilise a 10km track to create a legal framework to certify the system before extending to a broader network which will play a major role in connecting Europe and Asia, says Hyperloop. Volodymyr Omelyan, minister of infrastructure, says the technology will help the country create a smart and sustainable transportation infrastructure.

Transportation company Nauto has launched its Prevent solution to help eliminate distracted driving by alerting motorists when their eyes have strayed off the road for too long. The company hopes to reduce accidents and collisions - before the large-scale arrival of autonomous vehicles. A report by TechCrunch says the device will send a voice notification if motorists are distracted for more than five seconds and are driving at 60mph. An alarm will follow if the user's attention has not returned to drivi

Cubic Transportation Systems (CTS) has entered an R&D agreement with the iMove Cooperative Research Centre to improve traffic flows in Melbourne, Australia. The $55m government-funded project will consider the interaction of all transport modes to identify blockages in the management of an integrated multi-modal system. The two-year initiative - called the Implementation of a Multimodal Situational Awareness and Operations Regime Evaluation Platform – sees CTS collaborating with the University of Melbou

Applied Information is to provide traffic signal priority for Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) buses in a bid to make bus transit faster than car journeys in the city. Applied’s Glance Smart Cities Supervisory technology will be used at 23 intersections along Atlanta’s Campbellton Road Smart Corridor. The initiative, which also involves system integrator Temple, will be implemented between the Oakland City MARTA station and I-285 – an interstate loop which encircles Atlanta – and

Tolling specialist Q-Free is to provide cameras, sensors and services for vehicle and number plate recognition at various points on Norway’s borders from 2019. The two-year agreement with the Directorate of Norwegian Customs will also serve the Norwegian Public Roads Administration and Norwegian Police. Q-Free estimates the contract will be worth 40-60m NOK (€4.2-6.3m).

Toyota Motor Corporation is investing $1 billion in Grab Holdings, the Singapore-based ride-hailing platform provider. Grab, which has merged with Uber in south-east Asia, offers services which use a variety of transport modes, from bicycles and shuttle buses to cars and taxis. The companies say Toyota’s investment means they will also “strengthen and expand their existing collaboration in the area of connected cars, to drive the adoption of new mobility solutions across south-east Asia”.

Parsons will implement its tolling technology along a key toll road in California. It will work on the Orange County segment of the four-lane, 18-mile 91 Express Lanes to improve services along the corridor. The company was chosen by the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) to deliver technical and operational services, including specifications development for toll and ITS, tolling-related planning and construction activities.

The General Assembly of the European Machine Vision Association (EMVA) in Dubrovnik has expanded its board of directors to nine members. Jochem Herrmann (from Adimec) has been re-elected president and will serve another three years. Michel Ollivier (Tiama) has been made vice president and Dr. Jean Caron (Euresys) remains the association’s treasurer. New members include Dr. Dirk Berndt, business unit manager at Fraunhofer IFF, and Arnaud Destruels, European product marketing manager for Image Sensing

Swiss power and automation company Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) has deployed 30 fast-charging stations to Zurich to support the city’s transition to sustainable mobility. The Terra 54 stations will be implemented in central, publicly-accessible locations in the city and surrounding areas. ABB says the solution is suitable for charging electric cars, buses and trucks quickly to add range of 100-300km.

German tunnel sensor monitoring manufacturer DURAG has taken a 50% stake in the Austrian tunnel air and lighting monitoring company JES Elektrotechnik. JES, based in Hallein, Austria, manufactures and sells environmental monitoring solutions for transport infrastructure applications such as tunnels, underground car parks and road weather stations. JES also sells sensors from manufacturers such as DURAG. Its markets are mainly in German-speaking countries worldwide and it also carries out maintenance on b