Location Based Systems

Daimler Trucks launched its newly developed autonomous transport truck, the Freightliner Inspiration, at an event that turned the Hoover Dam in Nevada into a large projection screen. The Level 3 autonomous truck uses Highway Pilot sensors and hardware with cameras and radar to safely operate under a range of highway conditions, and has been granted a licence to operate in Nevada. The Freightliner Inspiration is based on the US Freightliner Cascadia model, but with the addition of the Highway Pilot techno

The Eurocouncil of the Federation Nationale de l’Automobile (FIA) claims that EU policymakers must take responsibility for facilitating the deployment of automated motoring. Made up of 73 FIA Automobile Clubs in Europe and with 37 million members, the Eurocouncil believes in the potential for automation to improve road safety, and urges EU institutions to streamline the deployment of this technology. The declaration was adopted at the annual FIA Region I Spring Meeting, taking place in Gammarth, Tunisia fro

Swiss provider of wireless positioning and communications modules and chips to the automotive industry, u-blox, has become a member of the Car 2 Car Communication Consortium. The consortium is dedicated to the development and deployment of Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS), with the ultimate goal of improving road traffic safety and efficiency. It is working to develop roadmaps for vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications and to harmonise related standar

Hot on the heels of the announcement of California Governor Jerry Brown’s Executive Order to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the state to 40 per cent below 1990 levels by 2030 comes the news that the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LA Metro) has taken delivery of its first five battery electric transit buses. These 40-foot buses are built by local Southern California Electric Vehicle manufacturer BYD Motors and will be integrated into their daily operations, as the buses are

Fleets of TaxiBots and AutoVots could deliver today’s mobility with significantly fewer cars, says a new study. Self-driving shared cars could make 90 per cent of conventional cars in mid-sized cities superfluous, according to the study published by the International Transport Forum at the OECD. Even during peak hours, only one third of the current number of cars would be needed to provide the same number of trips as today. ITF researchers used actual transport data from Lisbon, Portugal, to model the

David Crawford looks at the latest developments in emergency response. Ensuring speedier reactions to transport and travel crises is becoming increasingly important. US statistics suggest that as many as 1,000 ‘saveable’ lives can be lost each year in major cities because of operational defects in their SOS operations.

Autonomous vehicles will enter mass production by 2020 as more and more major auto makers in recent years have committed to their R&D, according to Topology, a division of TrendForce. Furthermore, the scale of the market will likely surpass a million vehicle mark by 2035. Eric Chang, analyst for Topology, stated the future development of autonomous vehicles will depend on the following technologies: sensors for reading biological data inside vehicle and environmental data outside; communication technology;

UK company Delphi Automotive has completed the longest automated drive in North America, travelling from San Francisco to New York in the first coast-to-coast trip ever taken by an automated vehicle. Nearly 3,400 miles were covered with 99 per cent of the drive in fully automated mode. The drive was used by Delphi engineers to research and collect information that will help further advance active safety technology – the most rapidly growing technology sector of the auto industry. The team collected nearly

Honda has announced a joint venture with the Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA) to test its driverless Acura RLX sedan at the Concord Naval Weapons Station in California. In conjunction with the City of Concord, Honda will use the newly branded GoMentum Station test-bed site at the CNWS to advance its technologies. Honda also plans to participate in a consortium committed to making Contra Costa County home to a premier testing facility for automated drive technologies. GoMentum Station, a