Skip to main content

Q-Free unveils futuristic Q-City virtual reality experience

Q-Free broke the mould when it unveiled Q-City at 2014’s Intertraffic. A computerised rendering of a modern urban area, Q-City allows users to look at how the company’s large suite of ITS products work with each other to make roads safer, cleaner and less congested. At this year’s show, Q-Free and Q-City have gone a step further and visitors can enjoy a fully immersive virtual reality tour.
April 4, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
Jenny Simonsen of Q-Free
108 Q-Free broke the mould when it unveiled Q-City at 2014’s Intertraffic. A computerised rendering of a modern urban area, Q-City allows users to look at how the company’s large suite of ITS products work with each other to make roads safer, cleaner and less congested. At this year’s show, Q-Free and Q-City have gone a step further and visitors can enjoy a fully immersive virtual reality tour.


Q-City brings the process of understanding ITS into the 21st Century. Starting from a bird’s-eye view, it makes it possible to zoom in and out to explore application areas such as tolling, traffic management, parking and infomobility and to see how these previously discrete sectors have moved together to become more holistic and connected. The new virtual reality experience enables users to stand at street level and gain an even more ‘hands-on’ perspective.

“We’re a technology innovator, so it makes sense to use technology to demonstrate what we do,” says Jenny Simonsen, Q-Free’s Global Director Marketing & Communication. “It’s more than just a gimmick. By being able to move quickly around a cityscape, either alone or in the company of our technology experts, it’s possible to gain a real feel for what ITS can do far more quickly than might otherwise be the case.

“The virtual reality tours aren’t the only way in which Q-City has evolved. Q-Free has spent a lot of time since the last Intertraffic expanding and fine-tuning its portfolio. We’ve needed to reflect the new additions and the finessing which has occurred,” says Simonsen. “This latest version of Q-City is right up to date and features all of our products and services.”

Q-City also forms the centrepiece of a group experience here at Intertraffic. Each day at 3pm, the company’s Chief Technologist, Knut Evensen, will use it to give a guided tour of the company’s ITS capabilities, followed by drinks and networking opportunities.

Related Content

  • February 2, 2012
    US IntelliDrive cooperative infrastructure programme
    The 'rebranding' of the US's Vehicle-Infrastructure Integration programme as IntelliDrive marks an effort to make the whole undertaking more accessible both in terms of nomenclature and technology. Shelley Row, director of the ITS Joint Program Office within USDOT's Research and Innovative Technology Administration, talks about the changes
  • December 15, 2022
    Editor's comment: 'Workforce must see leaders who look like themselves'
    Diversity is vital for the future of transportation businesses everywhere, says Adam Hill
  • January 31, 2012
    Federal Signal supplies all the elements of end to end tolling
    Manfred Rietsch, group president of Federal Signal Technologies (FST), talks about the recent acquisitions forming FST and the organisation's plans for the future. "Our philosophy is going to be about open access" Federal Signal has been on a buying spree. An energetic policy of acquisition over the past few months has seen the company reposition itself as an end-to-end provider of Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) systems with what it states is a portfolio of proven, best-in-class technologies which will al
  • April 25, 2012
    Debating contactless toll charging by smartphone
    Developments in the mass transit sector could provide indicators of potential for greater use of mobile consumer electronic devices for charging and tolling, according to Consult Hyperion’s Mike Burden. However, opinion among toll system suppliers is divided. Jason Barnes reports The combination of mass-market devices and their protocols, typified by smartphones featuring near field communication (NFC), points to some exciting cross-fertilisation possibilities in the charging and tolling sector, says Consul