News

French driverless shuttle company Navya and the South Australian State Government have agreed on plans to establish Navya’s Asia-Pacific manufacturing facility in Adelaide. Navya’s ARMA shuttles are electric, 100 per cent driverless and can carry up to 15 people. South Australia hosted the first demonstration of a driverless vehicle in Australia in 2015, while Adelaide hosted the inaugural International Driverless Cars Conference in November 2015.

New research by UK motoring association the RAC reveals that nearly one in four drivers still makes or receives calls while driving, despite the doubling of penalties for the offence in March 2017, to six points and a £200 fine. In September 2016 the RAC revealed that the illegal use of handheld mobile phones at the wheel had reached epidemic proportions. Days later the Government announced the penalty for the offence would increase to six points and a £200 fine in a bid to stamp out the dangerous habit.

Technology and management services provider Serco has been awarded a new contract to provide safety service patrol support for the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) Austin District. Under this new contract, Serco will manage the safety service patrol (SSP) services delivered across 310 miles of roadways in Austin to help minimise incident duration and improve driver safety during traffic incidents.

Oklahoma Department of Transportation recently carried out a trial of International Road Dynamics’ (IRD) Tyre Anomaly and Classification System (TACS) powered by the VectorSense tyre sensor suite. These systems provided Oklahoma with new, technologically advanced facilities that enabled cost effective screening of commercial vehicles for weight, credential or safety violations.

Engineering researchers at Canada’s University of Waterloo are developing technology which can accurately determine when drivers are texting or engaged in other distracting activities. The system uses cameras and artificial intelligence (AI) to detect hand movements that deviate from normal driving behaviour and grades or classifies them in terms of possible safety threats.

German transport operator Transdev and IVU Traffic Technologies have signed a framework agreement to provide an integrated ticketing system for Transdev’s 43 subsidiaries, including 27 bus transport operators.

Seattle Public Schools in the US has launched the Student Safety Stop Arm Camera Program initiative, in partnership with King County and American Traffic Solutions to deter drivers from illegally passing school buses that are loading and unloading students.

US-based connectivity solutions provider Moxa has partnered with Microsoft and the OPC Foundation to develop the MC-1121, an industrial-grade IoT gateway with an integrated OPC UA Publisher module. By using Windows 10 IoT and OPC UA Publisher, it provides an effortless way to obtain data from field side devices securely and reliably to the cloud for analytics and monitoring through a dashboard. The MC-1121 not only gives system integrators a scalable, flexible solution for their projects, but also opens up

Netherlands-based fleet management company LeasePlan Corporation is to become a founding partner of EV100, a new major global transport initiative designed to fast-track the uptake of electric vehicles among corporate companies. LeasePlan will also transition its own employee fleet to electric cars.

Siemens has been chosen by the City of Knoxville, Tennessee to retrofit nearly 30,000 streetlights with new energy efficient light-emitting diodes (LEDs). The retrofit is estimated to cut the City’s streetlight operation budget in half by saving US$2 million annually in energy and maintenance costs and is expected to pay for itself in less than ten years.

The first tram on South Yorkshire Train Tram project (SYTTP) has been named Theo after the mascot of a local children’s charity. The first passenger service is scheduled to be completed next year and will run from Sheffield to Rotherham with the pilot project running for two years to measure customer satisfaction, passenger numbers and costs.

The transport users' association in Fnaut Ile-de-France (FLDF) is lobbying local politicians to consider trolleybuses as a replacement for diesel buses, according to a report in Ville Rail Transport. FLDF’s study includes the investment and operation, determination of priority lines and estimation of implementation timeframes of the trolleybus which it has presented to the region’s president Valérie Pécresse in the form of a letter. It believes trolley buses present lower technological risk than the vari

A new market research report by MarketsandMarkets estimates that the market for vehicle analytics will grow from US$1124.1 million in 2017 to US$3637.4 million by 2022, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 26.5 per cent. According to the report, the major driving factor for this market remains advances in technologies, such as machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI) and predictive maintenance to enhance fleet management, as well as increasing use of real-time data collected from sensors and

Norwegian public transport operator Tide Buss has placed an order for 25 Volvo 7900 electric buses for operation in the city of Trondheim. The fully electric buses will run on four routes in the city, covering distances of between 12 and 15 km each, with operation due to start in August 2019. The buses will be fast-charged using opportunity charging, via rails installed at the end stops. The charging stations will be based on an open interface known as OppCharge, which means they can be used by othe

International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association president Emanuela Stocchi is to speak at the European Traffic Police Network’s (TISPOL) new Project EDWARD road safety campaign day, European Day Without A Road Death, which takes place on 21 September. Stocchi, director of International Affairs, Associazione Italiana Società Concessionarie Autostrade e Trafori (AISCAT) based in Rome, Italy, will deliver remarks to the event focusing on the role of safety as “the most deeply-held, shared commitment t