News

The European Union has launched an infringement procedure on Germany’s introduction of a law introducing a road charging scheme for cars. At the same time, it passed a law ensuring that vehicles registered in Germany benefit from a deduction of the road charge from the annual vehicle tax bill. This will lead to a de facto exemption from the charge for cars registered in Germany. Commissioner for Transport Violeta Bulc said: "A toll system can only be compliant with European law if it respects the fundame

As part of the European DESERVE project, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Iveco Finland and TTS-Kehitys are developing a new software platform which will bring autonomous driving features to trucks. The truck of the future will sense nearby obstacles and possible safety risks and inform the driver. The vehicle will also monitor driving behaviour and draw the driver's attention to possible hazardous situations. TTS is implementing and testing the safety equipment development platform. A driver mo

Dubai Traffic Police is upgrading its enforcement on the arterial roads of the emirate, including the six-lane Sheikh Zayed Road. Over fifty new Vitronic PoliScan LIDAR systems will replace the existing radar-based speed cameras, enhancing the enforcement capabilities of the authorities. In addition to simultaneous speed enforcement of multiple vehicles across all lanes, the police can now automatically document vehicles that are tailgating or driving on the shoulder – two major causes of serious acciden

Electronics giant Samsung has developed a solution that may make the problem of overtaking a truck on a single lane road a thing of the past. Developed for Argentina, whose statistics on traffic accidents are among the highest in the world, with most of these accidents occurring on two-lane roads and particularly in situations of overtaking, the Safety Truck consists of a wireless camera attached to the front of the truck, which is connected to a video wall made out of four exterior monitors located on t

Jaguar Land Rover, part of the UK Autodrive consortium, has demonstrated a remote control Range Rover Sport research vehicle, showing how a driver could drive the vehicle from outside the car via their smartphone. The smartphone app includes control of steering, accelerator and brakes as well as changing from high and low range. This would allow the driver to walk alongside the car, at a maximum speed of 4mph, to manoeuvre their car out of challenging situations safely, or even to negotiate difficult off

American Trucking Associations (ATA) president and CEO Bill Graves has told members of the House Ways and Means Committee that Congress must act quickly to find a sustainable funding source for the Highway Trust Fund. "It is important for all to understand that the decisions made by this Committee over the next few months will have effects beyond the immediate solvency issues. The federal commitment to investment in transportation, if not properly addressed this year, could be placed in jeopardy for many

Vysionics has been working with the UK’s Network Rail on a development project to reduce the number of fatalities that occur on the rail network. This included the development of a new Home Office Type Approved (HOTA) device that allows for automatic, unattended enforcement of vehicles that misuse level crossings. Vysionics’ Vector LX level crossing red light enforcement system has been awarded HOTA certification and is now operational at sites across the UK; the first ever non-invasive solution to ac

UK company Smart Parking Technology has begun the installation of 225 RFID-equipped SmartEye vehicle detection sensors, linked via SmartLink data transmitters, in some of Cardiff’s central parking hotspots. The company’s SmartPark system is intended to make it easier for drivers in the city to find a parking space, enabling them to make better informed decisions about their parking location and seek parking in less occupied streets close to their desired destination. Drivers will also soon be able to

The City of Sugar Land, Texas, a growing suburb of Houston, has opted to use Trafficware’s state-of-the-art pod wireless detection system to implement detection upgrades along the city’s busiest roadways on US 90A and SH 6. With this contract the city will equip 18 of its largest multilane intersections with approximately 700 wireless pod sensors to provide the needed data collection capabilities for real-time performance measures of city arterials. Pods will gather data that can be used for analysis,

Ertico has elected Cees De Wijs, CEO of Swarco as its new chairman at the recent General Assembly held in Brussels. Twenty supervisory board members were also elected, representing public authorities, research, service providers, suppliers, traffic and transport, users and vehicle manufacturers. Ertico’s 53 partners met to discuss the achievements of the previous year and the next strategic steps, which include the five Ertico programmes, started in 2015 and covering the different areas of intelligent trans

The Technical Committee Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) has issued its technical specification, Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS); Cross Layer DCC Management Entity for operation in the ITS G5A and ITS G5B medium. The document, ETSI TS 103 175 V1.1.1, specifies: the support functions of DCC that need to be in the management plane, i.e. cross-layer DCC operations; the required interface parameters between the DCC management entity and the DC

San Francisco's Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) has ordered an additional 40 light rail cars from Siemens for its Muni transit system. Leveraging an option under the original 175 light rail vehicle order signed in September 2014, the 40 additional vehicles are part of the biggest Siemens order ever for light rail cars placed in the US. Siemens will deliver a newly-developed light rail car based on its Model S200 for the San Francisco order. The car is especially energy-efficient thanks to a light-we

Iteris has reported record revenue for fiscal year 2015 and significant progress on strategic initiatives. Total revenues for the year have increased by six per cent over 2014 to US$72.3 million, while total gross margin improved to 39 per cent. Revenue for roadway sensors revenues has increased by 15 per cent to US$36.4 million.

Siemens has extended its range of kerbside detection solutions with the introduction of a new Heimdall kerbside volumetric pedestrian detector. Based on advanced above-ground radar technology, the detector has the capability to indicate the occupancy of the pedestrian waiting area at any given time, allowing the most appropriate kerbside strategies to be selected depending on the numbers of pedestrians waiting to cross. The new detector is suited to areas of high pedestrian presence, such as shopping centre

Videalert’s new fully hosted civil enforcement solution, which enables local authorities to outsource the hardware and software required for civil enforcement, has gained Department for Transport (DfT) Manufacturer Certification.