Skip to main content

Siemens snaps up Aimsun in deal agreed at Intertraffic

Intertraffic was the venue for the announcement of one of the biggest deals of the year as electronics giant Siemens acquired Barcelona-based mobility modelling specialist Aimsun for an undisclosed sum. Initially spun out from a university research lab team, TSS-Transport Simulation Systems, as the company was initially known, has spent 20 years developing its microsimulator into a multi-level integrated modeling platform. Aimsun systems and algorithms use real-time traffic data to optimise traffic flows
March 22, 2018 Read time: 2 mins

Intertraffic was the venue for the announcement of one of the biggest deals of the year as electronics giant 189 Siemens acquired Barcelona-based mobility modelling specialist Aimsun for an undisclosed sum.

Initially spun out from a university research lab team, TSS-Transport Simulation Systems, as the company was initially known, has spent 20 years developing its microsimulator into a multi-level integrated modeling platform.

Aimsun systems and algorithms use real-time traffic data to optimise traffic flows and identify future problems before they become apparent – and it was this ability that attracted Siemens. The German conglomerate is working on an urban mobility operating system, which requires the ability to predict traffic problems. “We should not wait for problems to occur before taking action to mitigate the effect – otherwise this is too late,” said Marcus Schlitt, CEO of Siemens Intelligent Traffic Systems.

This is important for our digitalisation strategy. Aimsun has software that can predict traffic problems and we can’t easily duplicate this technology. We are closing a portfolio gap,” he said before adding that Aimsun will continue to function as a separate and wholly-owned entity. Aimsun has grown substantially over the past few years with 4,600 users in almost 80 countries; its CEO, Jaime Ferrer, said: “Siemens will give us the scale that we need to continue growing – we share a lot of views, our culture fits very well and our software will be a key piece in future mobility systems. [The deal is] a mixture of the best of all worlds – the scale of Siemens and the agility of Aimsun.” Siemens said it expects to close the deal next month.

Stand: 12.308

%$Linker: 2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 link-external www.siemens.com Siemens website link false https://www.siemens.com/global/en/home.html false false%>

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Ford and Baidu to trial self-driving vehicles in China
    November 5, 2018
    Ford has joined forces with technology company Baidu to test Level 4 self-driving vehicles in China over the next two years. Level 4, established by the SAE International (formerly the US Society of Automotive Engineers), will allow the vehicles to operate without intervention from a human driver. A report by CNBC says Ford’s self-driving vehicles are equipped with Baidu’s autonomous driving system Apollo. The cars are expected to be deployed in on-road tests by the end of 2018. Sherif Marakby, pr
  • Ride-hailing and taxi drivers could face tougher criminal checks in England
    February 14, 2019
    Drivers who ply their trade on apps such as Uber could be under greater scrutiny as part of proposals being put forward by the UK government. The potential risk to passengers from the explosion of ride-hailing apps, as private-hire drivers are perceived to receive less thorough vetting – for example, to flag up past convictions – has long been argued. Incidents such as the murders of passengers by a Didi driver in China heightened such concerns - although critics point out that a US Uber driver who ad
  • Bird enables reports of poorly parked and damaged e-scooters
    November 15, 2018
    Bird is to roll out an app feature which allows people to report poorly parked or damaged electric scooters to the company. It is an attempt to solve one of the biggest bugbears surrounding the deployment of scooters and dockless bikes – the issue of what happens when users abandon or abuse the vehicles. Bird says the app’s new ‘community mode’ will improve parking and safety in the cities where it operates, such as Portland and Salt Lake City. The company will use reports to reposition poorly parked e-
  • Alpha release of (SET-IT) software
    July 14, 2014
    The USDOT's Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office (ITS JPO) has announced that the Systems Engineering Tool for Intelligent Transportation (SET-IT) software is available as available as an Alpha release. SET-IT software integrates drawing and database tools with the CVRIA so that users can develop project architectures for pilots, test beds, and early deployments. The Alpha version of the SET-IT software is provided as-is with the current capabilities of the tool at this point in i