News

Johnson Controls has announced plans to invest US$138.5 million to convert its battery plant near Toledo, Ohio, in the US, into an Absorbent Glass Mat (AGM) battery facility for Start-Stop and other high efficiency vehicles. Subject to final state and local incentives, the facility will be the company's first such plant in the United States.

IBM has announced that two industry leaders, Asahi Kasei and Central Glass, will join its Battery 500 Project team and collaborate on far-reaching research with the potential to accelerate the switch from gasoline to electricity as the primary power source for vehicles. In 2009, IBM Research pioneered a sustainable mobility project to develop lithium-air battery technology capable of powering a family-sized electric car for approximately 500 miles (800 km) on a single charge.

Phillip Walsh, principal manager, intelligent transport systems at VicRoads in Melbourne, Australia, is joining Sensys Networks as director Australasia, Singapore and Malaysia, effective 11 July, 2011. Most recently, Walsh has been responsible for the operation and development of VicRoads central ITS, as well as management of technical standards and strategic alignment of projects. In his previous role at VicRoads, Walsh was project director, freeway management system, responsible for developing and impleme

Test World Oy is building a year-round winter test centre in Finland which will fulfil the needs and demands of vehicle and tyre manufacturers. The first phase of construction will start in next month and this part of the site will be in operation before the end of the year. The three-phase project, which will create a 30,000 m 2 test centre serving vehicle manufacturers and sub-contractors, will be completed by the end of 2015.

Hi-Tech Solutions (HTS), a developer and provider of optical character recognition (OCR) computer and vision systems, has announced the establishment of HTS Brazil along with its partner Ergos Tecnologia. This new extension of HTS, which will be headquartered in Santos, will focus on answering the needs within the Brazilian markets including traffic, port automation and security, enforcement and safe city opportunities.

Telvent GIT has been selected to expand Alberta Transportation’s current road weather information and traffic monitoring systems. The project will build upon the success of the company’s original development and deployment of a comprehensive road weather information system (RWIS) that has contributed to improved road safety throughout the Canadian Province for the last six years.

GreenRoad, the specialist in fleet driver performance and safety management, has added new functionality to GreenRoad 360 which includes posted speed performance, idling heat maps, and extended data integration with new APIs.

According to a new research report from the analyst firm Berg Insight, the number of active fleet management systems deployed in commercial vehicle fleets in Europe was two million in Q4-2010. Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20.7 per cent, this number is expected to reach five million by 2015.

Garmin and the shareholders of Navigon have signed an agreement for a subsidiary of Garmin to acquire privately-held navigation provider Navigon. As part of the deal, Garmin is also acquiring one of the top-selling navigation applications for the iPhone and Android platforms – something the company expects will help drive revenue for the combined company going forward.

Fujitsu has announced the July launch of a cloud service that employs location data gathered from vehicles and a variety of sensors and which the company is calling Spatiowl. It consists of two different service types: platform-provisioning service and task-oriented services.

TRW Automotive Holdings has developed a range of curtain airbag technologies that the company claims help mitigate the risk of occupant ejection. According to Norbert Kagerer, vice president of TRW's Occupant Safety Systems business, the recent US legislation regarding occupant ejection mitigation underscores the importance of a number of airbag technologies designed to help keep occupants inside the vehicle. For example, TRW has developed one piece woven (OPW) curtain designs that include the unique X-T

SmartDrive has won the prestigious Fleet Safety Product of the Year award at the 2011 Brake Fleet Safety Forum Awards for Excellence for its advanced in-vehicle video safety programme that improves driver behaviour and reduces collisions. Another honour at this Brake event, the ‘Safe Vehicles’ award went to online grocery retailer Ocado, a SmartDrive customer.

Kapsch, ITRI International, Cohda Wireless and Cisco Systems, and Savari Networks have been selected by the Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Programme Office (ITS JPO) to provide roadside equipment as part of the Connected Vehicle Safety Pilot Programme. The contracts were awarded by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) which solicited quotations from suppliers to provide all the necessary equipment, materials, and services for the development and production of the devices. Each of the device

ZoomSafer, a provider of risk management software to prevent distracted driving, and Ovation Wireless Management, provider of enterprise mobile device management solutions, have announced a new partnership that integrates ZoomSafer’s FleetSafer policy management solutions with Ovation's mobile device management software to enable companies to monitor employee compliance with mobile phone use policies. ZoomSafer offers two enterprise software services for enforcing cell phone use policies. FleetSafer Vision,

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA) has selected a joint venture of AECOM and Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB) to provide conceptual planning and preliminary design for the US$1.4 billion Metro Regional Connector Transit corridor project, also known as the Downtown Connector or Downtown Light-Rail Connector.