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UK rail operator Chiltern Railways is to partner with travel technology company SilverRail Technologies in the development and pilot of a ticket-free travel. This development will allow passengers to use their smartphones to detect commencement of travel and use Bluetooth to open ticket gates, automatically charging the customer the best price for their journey at the end of the day. At un-gated stations geo-location tools are used to locate the customer and the trains travelled on. The app will also

The US Department of Transportation (US DOT) has announced new Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) guidance (link http://www.its.dot.gov/v2i.) that aims to improve safety and mobility by accelerating the deployment of V2I communication systems. The guidance complements the Department's efforts to reduce crashes by advancing vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication technology announced in a proposed rule in December. V2I communication is an important component of a connecte

A recent survey conducted by Nanos Research on behalf of the Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships (CCPPP) indicates that 64 per cent of Canadians prefer paying tolls rather than higher taxes or going into debt in order to cover the costs of public infrastructure. The survey also suggests six in ten Canadians think governments across the country are not investing enough in public infrastructure. The same number supports a larger role for the private sector in financing and managing infrastruc

According to the Transport Research Laboratory, TRL, the UK will continue to play a key role in shaping future European transport policy following its award of the latest European Commission (EC) Automotive Safety Framework. The agreement, which follows on from TRL’s involvement in a previous eight-year framework, will see experts from TRL help EC policymakers prevent future road collisions and casualties through improved automotive safety. Areas of focus include connected and autonomous vehicles, crash

A consortium of US researchers has announced the development of a universal, free, and open-source framework to protect wireless software updates in vehicles. The team issued a challenge to security experts everywhere to try to find vulnerabilities before it is adopted by the automotive industry. The new solution, called Uptane, evolves the widely used TUF (The Update Framework), developed by NYU Tandon School of Engineering Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Engineering Justin Cappos to secure

The acquisition of Essa Technology extends the Group’s expertise in software for traffic enforcement and public safety & security. The Jenoptik Group has acquired UK company Essa Technology in a deal which the Group says will extend its expertise in software for traffic enforcement and public safety and security. Based in Plymouth, Essa Technology is a specialist in police automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) back office and traffic enforcement software. Its back office software allows for ANPR d

Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU) and Dutch automotive semiconductor supplier NXP Semiconductors have launched Singapore’s first Smart Mobility Consortium, the NTU-NXP Smart Mobility Consortium, to focus on testing and developing smart mobility technologies. The technologies will be tested on the NTU campus, which serves as a living test bed, bringing together 12 industry partners including Panasonic, American software multinational Red Hat, automotive system manufacturers Schaeffer and

One in every four passenger vehicles sold by 2025 is poised to feature digital instrument clusters, dedicated passenger infotainment systems, and integrated biometrics with bought-in device functionality, says Frost & Sullivan. Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are tackling the design of components that are in line with fast-changing technology trends and customer expectations. “The luxury segment car of the future will have augmented reality HUD, OLED displays, interactive cabin doors and windows,

Transport for London (TfL) has upgraded WebCAT, its online planning tool for showing how well-connected a location is in terms of transport. It includes a range of new data to help the city’s planners design the housing and business developments of the future. As well as previously released information such as the levels of public transport by location and journey time, the latest version of WebCAT now includes heat maps which show users how well-connected an area is, not only by public transport but no

The Australian Government is to invest US$9 million (AU$12 million) in a two-year program looking into the future of Satellite Based Augmentation Systems (SBAS) positioning technology in Australia. The funding will be used to test instant, accurate and reliable positioning technology that could provide future safety, productivity, efficiency and environmental benefits across many industries in Australia, including transport, agriculture, construction, and resources. Federal Minister for Infrastructure

Alstom is taking a minority stake in EasyMile, a start-up company developing the EZ10 electric driverless shuttle. The two plan to develop integrated solutions for urban transportation. The EZ10 is capable of transporting up to 12 passengers and operates from a transport hub to a final destination within a precinct or defined area. According to Alstom, the investment will enable it to expand its expertise into driverless technology and development of smart mobility technology. EasyMile will benefi

Thales has been awarded a contract by China Steel Corporation for the implementation of a signalling system for the extension of the light rail transit (LRT) in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. With almost 2.8 million inhabitants, Kaohsiung is the country’s second largest city and was the first city in Taiwan to launch a tramway project in 2012. It was also the first to deploy a modern electric tramway system. The current line has 14 stations and the extension will add a further 23. The completed 22-kilometer circula

A wheelchair user has won a partial victory at the UK Supreme Court over priority use of wheelchair spaces on buses. The case arose when wheelchair user Doug Paulley attempted to board a bus operated by FirstGroup, which carried a sign asking passengers occupying the wheelchair space to “please give up this space if needed for a wheelchair user”. The wheelchair space was occupied by a woman with a baby in a pushchair who refused to move when the driver asked her to. The driver took no further action and

TomTom announces that it has acquired Autonomos, a Berlin-based autonomous driving start-up, in a deal that is intended to strengthen TomTom’s position in autonomous driving. Established in 2012, Autonomos has provided research and development consultancy services for automated vehicle assistance systems and has built up expertise and technologies in the process, including a full demonstration-level autonomous driving software stack, 3D sensor technology and digital image processing. With the acqui

The city of San Pedro Cholula in Mexico has installed new Metric Elite LS parking across the city, the first time drivers have been charged for on-street parking, with the scheme part of the municipality’s urban mobility strategy. The paid parking zones will mainly be in commercial and tourist areas of the city. The solar powered parking machines are coin-only and include a 40-way key pad to capture vehicle registration plate details.