News

Panasonic Europe has announced the acquisition of Alan Dick Communications, a move which provides Panasonic with an opportunity to expand into the rapidly-growing rail market, incorporating mainline rail, London underground and other light metro infrastructure in the UK. The acquisition is part of Panasonic’s wider approach to provide turnkey solutions to its customers that include connectivity, hardware and software alongside engineering services. It also reflects the company’s continued commitment to

WSP/Parsons Brinckerhoff has been appointed by the UK’s Network Rail to provide design and engineering services on the Digital Railway’s Multi-Functional Design Framework (MFD). The digital railway is a government supported, industry-wide programme aimed at increasing the role of digital technologies to improve capacity, connectivity and reliability. Through the framework WSP/Parsons Brinckerhoff will provide a range of strategic engineering and project management services to support the delivery of the

Two major US traffic equipment suppliers, Eberle Design (EDI) and The Traffic Group (TTG), have formed an alliance that aims to provide state DOTS and other agencies with customised real-time traffic data. Announced at the recent ITS America annual meeting, they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding, creating a strategic alliance to provide a suite of EDI privately-labelled custom products to TTG’s customers in the traffic data collection and planning market sector. EDI is a major manufacturer o

The Ricoh Arena, home to Premiership Rugby team Wasps and Coventry City Football Club, has awarded Newpark Solutions a major contract to install a new ticketless pay-on-foot parking system. The Fusion system will be used to manage 2,000 onsite parking bays at the venue, which offers a mix of state-of-the-art conference, training, banqueting, exhibition, hotel, music and sports facilities. Seven pay terminals will be installed at strategic locations across the 40 acre site where visitors can pay fo

Research by Visiongain claims that the worldwide demand for connected cars is increasing at a rapid pace. Last year, the amount of customers willing to change the car brand for better connectivity has almost doubled. The willingness to pay the subscription for connected services went up by 10% in the same period. Chinese consumers are especially excited about car connectivity; more than half are willing to change their car for better connectivity. Visiongain assesses that sales of new passenger cars equi

Russian banking and financial services company Sberbank and Austrian road construction and traffic management company Swarco have signed a Memorandum of Understanding aimed at ‘participation in joint initiatives and the cultivation of mutually profitable cooperation between the two parties as well as their subsidiary structures and groups’. The signing ceremony was held during the St Petersburg International Economic Forum. “The bank intends to actively develop the cooperation with the company in orde

Vehicle technology integrator and 3D-printed car creator Local Motors of Arizona, US, has unveiled its self-driving electric shuttle vehicle which is currently used on local roads in Washington, DC and will be introduced to Miami-Dade County and Las Vegas late in 2016. The vehicle, dubbed ‘Olli,’ was unveiled during the opening of a new Local Motors facility in Maryland and transported Local Motors CEO and co-founder John B. Rogers, Jr. along with vehicle designer Edgar Sarmiento into the new facility. T

According to the latest report from market research firm HIS, Automotive Electronics Roadmap Report, as the complexity and penetration of in-vehicle infotainment systems and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) increases, there is a growing need for hardware and software solutions that support artificial intelligence, which uses electronics and software to emulate the functions of the human brain. In fact, unit shipments of artificial intelligence (AI) systems used in infotainment and ADAS systems are

Following the completion of its separation into two publicly traded companies, Xerox has announced the names of the new companies that will be created. The Business Process Outsourcing company will be named Conduent and the Document Technology company will continue to be called Xerox Corporation. The name Conduent is inspired by the new company’s expertise in connecting clients and their constituents through seamless transactions at massive scale in areas such as customer care, transportation solutions,

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation has entered a data-sharing partnership with Waze, the real-time traffic navigation app, to provide motorists with real-time traffic conditions across Massachusetts in a bid to ease traffic congestion. Designed as a free, two-way data share of publicly available, crowd-sourced traffic information, the Connected Citizens Program promotes greater efficiency, deeper insights and safer roads for citizens of Massachusetts along with more than 70 other partners aro

ALMAGuide, developer of the Advanced Lane Management Assist (ALMA) advanced lane guidance technology for cars and trucks on freeways, has received approval for two US patents. These describe technology that takes information from centralised traffic management control centres, conditions the data and uses proprietary algorithms and propriety data structures to tell the vehicle (either with driver or driverless) both the best lane to be in on the highway, based on traffic flow several miles ahead of the

Launched in 2015, the Missouri Department of Transportation’s (MoDOT) ‘Road to Tomorrow’ initiative is ready to move on five pilot projects, according to Equipment World. MoDOT plans to utilise innovation and construction to rebuild the state’s oldest interstate highway, Interstate 90 and make the highway from Kansas City to St Louis available to private industry, entrepreneurs and innovators as a laboratory for construction of the next generation of highways. MoDOT has made a 2016 TIGER Grant request

Israeli wireless connectivity specialist Siklu is to provide the wireless part of a hybrid wireless connectivity network for the city of Bradford, UK as part of an extensive smart city project to integrate multiple information and communication technologies. The project includes providing the wireless connectivity for more than 300 surveillance cameras and two-dozen traffic management devices. The system was installed by solution integrator Net View Systems. The new Siklu-enabled network connects the Bo

The Volkswagen Group is making plans to become a world-leading provider of sustainable mobility; its ‘TOGETHER – Strategy 2025 provides the framework, with the focus on transforming the core business and tapping potential new revenue streams. The Group is planning a broad-based initiative in this area: it intends to launch more than 30 purely battery-powered electric vehicles (BEVs) over the next ten years and estimates that such vehicles could then account for around a quarter of the global passenger ca

According to research by P&S Market Research, the global hybrid and electric vehicle battery market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 20 per cent in terms of value during 2016-2022. The report, Global Hybrid and Electric Vehicle Battery Market Size, Share, Development, Growth and Demand Forecast, claims that, among the various applications, the electric vehicle segment accounted for the largest share (46.5 per cent) of the hybrid and electric vehicle battery market in terms of value in 2015. Electric vehi