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Speaking at a self-driving convention in San Francisco, US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx told delegates that government regulators and the automotive industry must work together to test autonomous driving technology before the vehicles hit the road, reports Associated Press. He said a more rigorous review of robotic controls is needed to reassure consumers that autonomous vehicles are safe before people entrust their vehicle’s steering and brakes to a robot. "This could help assure consumers t

The UK’s Freight Transport Association (FTA) and FIA Europe have welcomed the European Commission’s package of measures, presented this week, to accelerate the transition to low carbon emissions in all sectors of the economy in Europe. The EU says the measures set clear and fair guiding principles to Member States to prepare for the future and keep Europe competitive. Responding to the announcement, the FTA said that the proposed measures are a step in the right direction to reducing freight carbon e

Launched earlier this year with 25 cities, the TomTom City traffic portal, which provides live traffic and travel information, has now extended to 50 cities worldwide, including Manchester and Glasgow in the UK. The portal showcases the extensive range of traffic information available on a city by city basis and provides a platform to connect traffic authorities, businesses and drivers to jointly manage sustainable and efficient mobility. It has so far proved popular, with Istanbul receiving the m

UK professional services company Capita is to integrate Morphean’s software into its CloudVision platform, a hosted video surveillance and analytics service using automated technology to simplify security management and intelligence gathering. The system’s sophisticated analytics include cross line detection, which detects moving objects that cross a virtual line, and digital auto tracking, which automatically detects and follows moving objects such as people and vehicles. CloudVision also offers intrusi

As a result of collaboration between VicRoads and the Technical University of Crete in Victoria, Australia, to find new ways to reduce congestion, drivers on the M80 are to benefit from new technology. Following a manual trial in 2014, the Adaptive Variable Speed Limit has now been implemented on the M80 ring road in Melbourne. The system recognises when traffic is starting to build up and adjusts traffic speed, regulating traffic flow and providing a safer and more reliable journey for the 160,000 drive

More than one million Compass Cards are now in use for Metro Vancouver’s public transit users since its launch in 2015. Compass Card is the contactless smart card payment system designed and integrated by Cubic for the region’s transportation authority, TransLink. The system is also processing more than 42 million card ’taps’ each month. Compass links all of TransLink’s services and fare products in Metro Vancouver to a single payment system, including West Coast Express, SkyTrain, SeaBus and buses, r

Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz Future Bus made its first autonomous trip on a public road recently, when it was driven at speeds of up to 70 km/h on a section of a bus rapid transit route in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. The 20 kilometre route, which links Schiphol Airport with the town of Haarlem, provided a challenge for the bus, with its numerous bends, tunnels and traffic signals. Although a driver was on board for safety reasons, for the most part the bus met the challenge autonomously, stopping at bus sto

The PTV Group is to collaborate with the University of Melbourne on smart cities and smart mobility research, including a number of initiatives and projects, such as the National Connected Multi-modal Transport (NCMT) project. The two organisations signed a memorandum of understanding at the recent Executive Transport Forum 2016 in Melbourne, which, with the University of Melbourne, is currently involved in different future transportation projects.

The University of California, Berkeley Transportation Sustainability Research Center (TSRC) has released results from the first-ever study of one-way car-sharing in North America and its impact on mobility. The researchers say the findings clearly illustrate that one-way car-sharing reduces the number of cars travelling on city roads and occupying parking spaces on city streets. The study, which gathered data from nearly 9,500 North American car2go members residing in Calgary; San Diego; Seattle; Van

The majority of insurers are completely unprepared for the arrival of driverless vehicles, according to a new study from KPMG. Its Autonomous Vehicle Insurer report canvassed the views of senior executives from many of the UK’s largest insurers and brokers on the impact driverless vehicles will have on their business. It found that most of them believe it will take two decades for driverless vehicles to impact the automotive sector. Despite acknowledging that driverless vehicles will touch every a

The New South Wales government’s 2015 speed camera review shows that speed cameras continue to deliver positive road safety benefits, say the report’s authors. Overall, the trend in road fatalities and annual speed surveys shows that the mobile speed camera program continues to deliver positive road safety benefits, compared with results before the reintroduction of the mobile speed camera program in 2010. The 2014 road toll of 307 fatalities on NSW roads is the lowest annual figure since 1923. This i

International Road Dynamics (IRD) has been awarded a US$4,618,555 contract from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) for the installation, calibration and maintenance of weigh-in-motion (WIM) systems across the state. This contract has an initial term of two years and provides an option for renewal for up to three additional years. PennDOT currently has 38 active IRD WIM systems that are covered under this agreement. Nine of these include overview camera systems. Data collection and pl

A joint whitepaper published by Here and SBD argues that new levels of vehicle automation will increase traffic congestion in the foreseeable future and it's up to the automotive industry to enhance its collaboration in order to create a seamless transition as we reach these new levels of automation. According to co-author of the study, Andrew Hart, director at SBD, autonomous cars have the potential in the long-term to revolutionise mobility and radically improve the safety of our roads. However, the pa

The Pick&Mix project currently under development in Scotland aims to create one of the country’s first ever Mobility as a Service (MaaS) applications. The digital service, taking the form of an app or software, will be co-designed by young people, for young people. It aims to improve how they relate to, use and combine travel modes and transport services to meet their lifestyle needs without the requirement to own a car. The Pick&Mix project will take advantage of all available transport options in the u

Carnegie Mellon College of Engineering researchers in the US have concluded that the public could derive economic and social benefits today if safety-oriented, partially automated vehicle technologies were deployed in all cars. The researchers examined forward collision warning, lane departure warning and blind spot monitoring systems. These technologies can include partially autonomous braking or controls to help vehicles avoid crashes. Chris T. Hendrickson, director of the Carnegie Mellon Traffic21 In