News

German company myTaxi, which has revolutionised the European taxi market in less than a year, has extended its group of current investors. Daimler AG subsidiary company Car2go joins the board of the Hamburg-based company acquiring a minority stake. Lars Hinrichs, founder of XING and Hackfwd, is also added to the group of myTaxi shareholders. The existing investors T-Venture, the venture capital arm of Deutsche Telekom, and KfW Bankengruppe, all contributed to the capital increase to promote the rapid growth

Idle Free Systems, a leading provider of year-round idle elimination solutions for trucks and school buses, has announced a new business partnership with AmeriQuest Transportation Services through which the Idle Free electric APU system will be the first electric idle-elimination solution to be available directly to AmeriQuest members. AmeriQuest Transportation Services, with more than 1,500 customers representing 700,000 vehicles, is a privately-held transportation services company. As Jim Sweeny, VP of ca

Writing in the newsletter of TISPOL, an organisation established by the traffic police forces of Europe to improve road safety and law enforcement on the roads of Europe, Danijel Kumberger, National Traffic Police Unit, Slovenia, has revealed how smart the force has had to become to catch law-breaking truckers. As he points out, with automotive technical progress, it is vital to keep in touch with innovation because in modern vehicles, it is all about electronics, data sharing and processing of all kinds of

Bosch Automotive Aftermarket division is in the process of undertaking its largest ever acquisition with plans to acquire the service solutions business of US-headquartered SPX Corporation which develops, manufactures and sells diagnostic and service tools, workshop equipment, and software for the global automotive aftermarket. For 2011, the business, based in Warren, Missouri and which employs some 2,700 people in 17 countries, primarily in the US, Germany, France, and China, is expected to generate sales

Bus schedules in the Canadian city of Calgary will be more accurate and predictable as Xerox installs a new intelligent transportation system made up of computer-aided dispatch and vehicle location technologies. As part of a two and a half year, US$14.5 million contract, the computer-aided dispatch and automatic vehicle location (CAD/AVL) system will help Calgary Transit improve fleet management and on-time arrivals. Xerox will install the new system so Calgary Transit can track and dispatch all 986 buses a

RouteMatch Software has been selected by Nebraska Department of Roads (NDoR) to become the state's primary ITS partner, providing a standardised and integrated passenger transportation management technology platform for 13 Nebraska rural public and tribal transit agencies. The technologies address NDoR's primary goals of improving mobility management and creating seamless, consistent transit coordination amongst these agencies. The RouteMatch partnership will also allow NDoR to closely facilitate paratransi

Garmin has announced that it will transition its map provider for the majority of its Nuvi range of personal navigation devices (PNDs) to Navteq from February 2012. Garmin PNDs in Australia and New Zealand released from next month will join the majority of Garmin's global range that already use Navteq as a map provider. "Navteq has been Garmin's map provider in the United States and throughout most European countries for many years and they have invested heavily in the Australian and New Zealand markets to

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Mobisoft Oy and the Finnish Meteorological Institute, with support from partners, have developed a communication system for drivers to inform them about weather and road conditions and prevent serious or fatal accidents. When there is snow or ice on the road, the risk of an accident is increased by a factor of 4.1 compared to normal conditions, according to research conducted at the Tampere University of Technology.

Fifty cities in seventeen countries have signed up to join the EU-funded Quest (Quality management tool for Urban Energy efficient Sustainable Transport) project that will improve the quality of urban sustainable transport. Quest’s overall goal is to set up a quality management tool for sustainable urban mobility which can be applicable for all European cities. The focus is to support cities in making progress in urban transport planning because many cities face problems to organise and manage traffic in a

Peter Aylward has been appointed by the Hoeft & Wessel Group as managing director of the Metric subsidiary, headquartered in Swindon, in the UK. He will be responsible for the business activities of one of the world´s leading producers of car park terminals, reporting directly to the board of management. In addition to the parking division, Aylward also remains responsible for all business activities for Almex ticketing systems in Great Britain. This will help to lay the foundations for further extension of

Sumitomo Corporation of America, in conjunction with its car builder partner Nippon Sharyo, has received a contract award from Virginia Railway Express (VRE) for 50 Gallery-type Bi-level passenger cars. The base order is to supply eight cars at a contract price of $21 million and is scheduled to be delivered in 2014. This contract includes an option for VRE to purchase up to an additional 42 cars. If the option is exercised, the total contract would amount to $119 million. VRE will use the cars procured thr

UK-headquartered Clearview Traffic Group has announced the proposed merger of its Count On Us traffic survey and market research arm with Sky High, which will also see Clearview taking a significant equity stake in Sky High, with representation on the board of the merged company. Sky High is involved in the capture and analysis of traffic and transport data using video, automatic, manual and market research techniques.

Ford has upgraded its state-of-the-art Virtual Test Track Experiment simulator with improved image rendering technologies and capabilities to study driver performance, helping in the development of safety and driver aid technologies. The company says the simulator has helped in the development of heads-up displays, drowsy driver alerts and lane departure warning technology soon to be available on the all-new Ford Fusion.

OmniVision Technologies, a developer of advanced digital imaging solutions, has announced that its flagship automotive image sensors, the OV10630 and the OV10635, have both received AEC-Q100 Grade 2 qualifications, meeting the high standards of quality and performance for automotive applications. Additionally, the company announced that both sensors are in volume production and will be shipping to multiple automotive customers. The two sensors are similar in functionality and performance but are integrated

TomTom has announced the availability of its MultiNet suite of map products in Esri’s file geodatabase format. Large TomTom datasets may now be consumed directly by Esri applications in a file geodatabase format that is configurable within the customer’s environment, saving time and effort for GIS professionals. The geodatabase format enables Esri users to utilise their TomTom data within multiuser access and editing environments for desktop, server and mobile environments.