News

CO2 emissions from Danish cars are the lowest within the EU, according to new data, based on information provided by all EU member countries about passenger cars sold during 2010 and published by the European Environmental Agency. Danish passenger cars' CO2 emissions amounted to 126.6 g/km, followed by Portugal at 127.3 g/km and France at 130.5 g/km. Denmark is also among the countries that have reduced their CO2 emissions from new cars the most compared with the past year.

VeriFone Systems has announced its Payware Mobile Enterprise and managed services solution has been selected by Austrian company Westbahn Management for use as a mobile ticketing validation and payment service when its innovative rail service begins this December.

The long awaited and much needed commercial telematics consolidation movement is finally coming to fruition, according to ABI Research. With Trimble’s acquisition of PeopleNet and Masternaut and Cybit combining forces, the extremely fragmented commercial telematics industry, which consists of hundreds of locally active players, is consolidating to become more globally-minded. These changes will allow the fleet management industry to grow towards yearly global revenues of US$6.43 billion by 2016.

Ford Motor Company and Toyota Motor Corporation have announced they will equally collaborate on the development of an advanced new hybrid system for light truck and SUV customers. The two companies also agreed to work together on enablers to complement each company's existing telematics platform standards, helping bring more Internet-based services and useful information to consumers globally.

The technology architecture associated with electric vehicle (EV) charging is continuing to evolve as utilities and other key players in the industry ecosystem identify business requirements and risks associated with adding significant new demands on the electrical grid. One of the most pressing challenges is related to securing financial transactions and end-to-end communications throughout the EV charging infrastructure, and a recent report from Pike Research indicates that these areas will be the focus o

Innovative measures to cut the number of rush hour road works have been announced by UK Transport Secretary Philip Hammond. Under ‘lane rental’ schemes, councils would be able to charge utility companies to dig up the busiest roads during peak times when road works cause the most disruption. Companies would be able to avoid the charges by carrying out works during quieter periods or, if appropriate, at night.

The Northern Capital Highway (NCH) consortium has been named the preferred bidder in the tender for the central section of St Petersburg’s Western High-Speed Diameter (WHSD) project. Should NCH win the tender process it will build and then operate the entire stretch of the toll road. The consortium comprises VTB Capital and Gazprombank from Russia in partnership with Italian company Astaldi and Turkish firm Ictas Insaat.

At a CAGR of 27 per cent, commercial telematics systems shipments are set for solid growth. However, the fleet management industry continues to be haunted by structural problems: extreme levels of fragmentation with too many ‘me too’ and ‘dots-on-a-map’ providers and proprietary solutions littering the landscape.

The US Department of Transportation’s (DOT’s) Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) has announced six winners of a national competition seeking ideas for using wireless technology to enable vehicles to communicate with each other. The winning ideas may be incorporated into ongoing research on using technology to improve vehicle safety and transportation operations.

State Farm and Hughes Telematics are announcing a major joint effort to bring connected vehicle services and telematics savings programmes to drivers across North America. The new effort is called In-Drive and has been tailored specifically for State Farm policyholders by Hughes. The service debuts in Illinois in September with more states to be added in 2012.

The current UK government, which pledged to cut bureaucracy, had set its sights on the annual MOT vehicle inspections. “Cars are more reliable and the annual test has not changed in 50 years,” transport secretary Philip Hammond announced. The plan was for vehicle testing every two years instead of annually.

Activu Corporation, a leading provider of IP-based visualisation and collaboration solutions for mission-critical command and control centre environments, has been qualified as an approved vendor by Florida’s Department of Transportation (FDOT) following independent testing and validation by FDOT’s Traffic Engineering Research Laboratory (TERL) in Tallahassee. The IP-based visualisation software has been approved as fully compatible with FDOT’s SunGuide software for ITS, meaning that Activu’s video wall sol

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded US$3 million to UQM Technologies for the development of non-rare-earth magnet electric motors for use in electric and hybrid electric vehicles. The company will cost-share 25 per cent of the $4 million effort under the development programme.

A preliminary study to develop a modern intermodal hub at the Fontanarossa International Airport in Catania, Italy, will receive €1 million (US$1.44) in EU support from the 2010 TEN-T Annual Call. The study will develop plans for the optimal solution for building a single intermodal hub at the airport able to provide an effective multimodal interchange.

Fujinon (Europe) and Fujifilm Europe have completed a merger through which Fujifilm has taken a major step towards the consolidation and integration of core business activities in Europe. Prior to that, in July 2010, Fujifilm Corporation, Tokyo, had absorbed its wholly-owned direct subsidiary Fujinon Corporation which lead to respective changes being initiated in other regions of the world.