News

Two years ago, the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment, through Connekt (ITS Netherlands) instigated the Lean and Green programme. This set out to link logistics and ITS, and find ways to increase businesses’ competitiveness and customer appeal whilst also reducing environmental effects. Over that time, it has proven that being greener is no barrier to business and in some cases – for instance where customers have articulated policies which prescribe the use of sustainable logistics partners –

Kapsch TrafficCom IVHS has announced plans to help speed interoperability of electronic toll collection by publishing its Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) specification used in equipment supplied by Kapsch to the E-ZPass Group and other customers throughout North America. The move will provide developers and companies with open and free access to the Kapsch TDM specification and is the latest E-ZPass Group and Kapsch contribution to support interoperability and industry compliance with Moving Ahead for Prog

Toyota is trialling a new driver information system which, if successful, could start to appear in Japanese cities around 2015. Trials started in March this year. The Next Generation Vehicle Infrastructure Co-operation Service consists of sensors mounted on city streets that communicate with vehicles by radio. Vehicles would require an onboard unit to receive the data. The information is particularly designed to help drivers in crowded urban streets whose visibility is obscured by large vehicles such as

Foreign tourists to Spain who commit motoring offences then leave the country will find it harder to escape fines in future, following the signing of a deal between the Spanish Association of Municipalities and Provinces and Italian company Nivi Credit. Nivi already traces motorists who have committed parking or other offences in Italian and Dutch municipalities and issues notification of fines. The Spanish contract, which becomes operational on 1 November, will allow 8000 Spanish municipal and provincial a

The German Aerospace Centre DLR has arrived at the 2012 ITS World Congress with a unique system for rail safety – for preventing collisions between trains and improving safety for track workers. Whereas conventional train collision avoidance systems involve networks of base stations, DLR’s Railway Collision Avoidance System (RCAS) uses direct communication between trains or hand held devices without expensive infrastructure and so with substantial reduction in cost. “RCAS communication is via the Tetra stan

Developments are hotting up in the world of C2X communication between vehicles and infrastructure, and NEC is ready with technology developed for when these and other new systems of ITS are deployed. This is the company that built and operates Japan’s Nexco Central national traffic control centre and installed the cameras and sensors covering 2000km of Japanese roads (a system that delegates can observe at next year’s ITS World Congress in Tokyo). The latest components NEC has ready for deployment include c

A tradition of innovation demonstrated by Honda over the years is continuing with the company’s high level and unique involvement in C2X communication between vehicles and infrastructure. As a leading global vehicle manufacturer and partner in the Car2Car Consortium, Honda is playing a key role in harmonising developments in the three main regions of Europe, America and Asia-Pacific. Honda is also the only company to have contributed a system for including motorbike safety in the European Drive C2X developm

Panasonic is showcasing the evolution of vehicle On-Board Units (OBU) which combine electronic toll collection with provision of real-time travel information to drivers. The first generation of DSRC-based OBUs launched to market in Japan back in 2001, where around 40 million are now in use. The technology is especially relevant in Panasonic’s home country, as all motorways are private and congestion is a common problem. Value-added services such as local parking information can also be accessed.

Orange is showing off a Citroen C-Zero electric car that has completed the first round-the-world trip by a battery-powered car. The car took eight months, travelled 25,000km through 17 countries and consumed just €250 ($325) of electricity. Orange said the object was to show that a standard electric vehicle could cope with such a trip. Orange outfitted it with its M2M fleet management system, which enabled the company to track the vehicle and monitor its condition at all times. Data received from the M2M

Denso is showing what it says are the largest head-up display (HUD) images to be used in a vehicle environment. Its system – although in a slightly smaller format – has already been installed in Kia’s new K9 luxury car and Denso says it is in talks with US and European manufacturers over adopting the system. The image area produced by the HUD on Denso’s stand measures 230 x 90mm, with road information such as speed limits and directions being projected into the driver’s line of sight.

Visit ETSI, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, on stand P32 to discover the latest developments in European standardisation and to pick up a copy of ETSI’s CD-ROM collection of transportation related standards. ETSI develops standards for all aspects of ITS communication systems, working in close cooperation with other standards bodies including CEN, ISO, IEEE and with the Car2Car Communication Consortium. Interoperability is key, so ETSI, with Ertico, organises events for suppliers of coo

Board delegations from ITS Germany and ITS Network Germany are at World Congress this week discussing a merger of the two associations. ITS Germany represents singular members of transport telematics companies, while the ITS Network acts as the umbrella organisation of regional and thematic associations. As a visible sign of intentions, ITS Germany and ITS Network share a stand at World Congress in Vienna this week. Both parties have agreed that current developments in European transport, particularly the E

Satellic is using the World Congress to launch ‘Tolling as a Service’. Satellic, a brand of T-Systems, designed and implemented major parts of the German HGV tolling system on the country’s motorway network some years ago and is now introducing a second-generation version of the system. The pioneering system uses satellites and GPS connected to in-vehicle devices to measure the distance travelled by trucks on toll roads. Now, however, Tolling as a Service gives toll operators the option of not having to dea

Turkey’s Kentkart comes to the World Congress having signed seven contracts in seven months for its KentTablet onboard public transport computer. The KentTablet is positioned beside the bus driver and has multiple functions. It acts as a ticket validator, a vehicle tracker (it has GPS and GPRS installed) and transmits information such as time of arrival to ‘smart’ bus stops. The device first became operational in Belgrade, Serbia, early this year. Since then, it has been designated as the main product in pu

A curious looking white dome has appeared alongside the Messe centre as the European Space Expo reaches Vienna and the ITS World Congress, the latest stop of its tour of Europe. The Space Expo is essentially promoting and providing information on Europe’s space programme, much of which has direct relevance to ITS systems of tolling, goods tracking and satellite navigation, among other things. According to the Expo’s head of communication Donna Reay, in previous years the European Union has exhibited to indu