Transport & Telematics – IOT NETWORK NEWS

Vancouver Airport uses lidar to improve passenger happiness

December 7, 2023December 5, 2023 Editorial staff

Vancouver International Airport is using 3D lidar to analyse footfall and passenger journeys and improve user “happiness”. The 3D lidar sensor and advanced perception software solution, Q-Track, YVR, is enabling the airport to identify, classify, and track people and objects for enhanced operational insights. Queue analysis and people-counting Prior to Quanergy’s deployment, YVR had employed a number of camera-based and 3D stereoscopic sensor solutions to provide queue analysis and people-counting in several areas around the airport. But it said the airport still struggled to gather accurate data due to restricted…

Neom announces investments in future land and sea travel

December 1, 2023November 24, 2023 Editorial staff

Neom, the smart, regional greenfield development being built in Saudi Arabia, which includes The Line smart city, has announced investments in both autonomous vehicles and electric sea gliders. It will invest $100m through the Neom Investment Fund (NIF), into Pony.ai, a global autonomous driving company. Additionally, a joint venture will be established for autonomous technology solutions for the region. NIF has also closed an investment into Regent, the US-based electric seaglider manufacturer. It makes Neom the largest single contributor in Regent’s series A round, enabling the company to take its…

EHang gains world-first eVTOL certification in China

October 27, 2023October 25, 2023 Editorial staff

Urban air mobility (UAM) technology platform company EHang Holdings has announced it has received the Civil Aviation Administration of China’s type certificate (TC) for its EH216-S passenger-carrying unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) system. The TC demonstrates that the model design fully complies with CAAC’s safety standards and airworthiness requirements, and that the EH216-S is qualified for conducting passenger-carrying UAV commercial operations. Unmanned electric vertical take-off The CAAC formally accepted EHang’s EH216-S TC application in January 2021 and EHang claims it has obtained the world’s first TC for unmanned electric vertical take-off…

Is this the future of express freight?

October 24, 2023 Editorial staff

Transportation and technology licensing company HyperloopTT has unveiled details of HyperloopTT Express Freight, its new innovative freight transport capsule system. The system has been illustrated in this animated video. The system was designed in collaboration with design consultancy Tangerine and is based on four key drivers: loading freight as fast as possible; integrating with existing infrastructure; maximising freight volume inside capsules; and being flexible enough to cater to different customer demands. Hyperloop feasibility study In HyperloopTT’s Great Lakes Hyperloop Feasibility Study from 2020 conducted by the firm Transportation Economics Management,…

Bolt and Starship partner for robot deliveries

July 14, 2023July 12, 2023 Editorial staff

Autonomous delivery services company Starship Technologies has announced a partnership with European mobility super-app Bolt. The companies say the partnership “opens the door” to thousands of robots doing Bolt Food deliveries across multiple countries later this year. Multimodal options The announcement coincides with Starship celebrating what it claims is an industry milestone, become the first company to complete five million autonomous commercial deliveries around the world. Bolt has more than 100 million customers in some 45 countries and 500 cities, including in Europe, Africa, West Asia and Latin America. The…

Neom and Volocopter complete electric taxi flights in Saudi

July 12, 2023 Editorial staff

Neom, the smart and sustainable regional development in northwest Saudi Arabia, and the urban air mobility (UAM) firm Volocopter, have announced successful completion of a series of air taxi test flights. According to Neom, this marks the first time an eVTol (electric vertical take-off and landing) aircraft has received a special flight authorisation and performed test flights in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Electric UAM ecosystem The flight test campaign lasted over a week and built on 18 months of collaboration between Neom, the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA),…

UK council partners for robot grocery delivery service

June 26, 2023June 19, 2023 Editorial staff

Robots Wakefield Co-op Starship Technologies

UK supermarket group the Co-op has announced it is extending its autonomous robot delivery service to Wakefield, offering deliveries to 13,000 residents in the west Yorkshire town. Wakefield Council has partnered with the Co-op and Starship Technologies to offer the service to Outwood’s residents. Food delivery app Residents in some 6,500 households can place orders through the Starship food delivery app, which will be picked fresh from the local Co-op store on Meadow Vale, Outwood, and delivered in minutes. The launch of the service in Wakefield continues the expansion of…

Full-size electric seaglider mock-up unveiled by Regent

June 19, 2023 Editorial staff

Regent has unveiled a full-scale mock-up of its electric seaglider, which is slated for flight-testing in 2024. It has also announced plans to expand its global headquarters in Rhode Island to include up to 600,000 square feet of new manufacturing and test facilities to begin fulfilling $8bn in commercial orders by mid-decade. All electric, zero emission vehicles Regent seagliders are a new category of maritime vehicle that combines the high speed of an airplane with the low operating cost of a boat. These all-electric, zero-emission vessels operate exclusively over water…

EHang conducts first autonomous passenger flight over Japan

April 20, 2023May 2, 2023 Editorial staff

The electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL), the EH216

The electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft flew along the coastline of Tanoura Beach in Oita city, carrying two passengers and without a pilot. Urban air mobility (UAM) technology platform provider EHang has completed its first passenger-carrying autonomous flight demonstration in Japan. The electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL), the EH216, flew along the coastline of Tanoura Beach in Oita city. Autonomous air mobility In July 2022, EH216 completed Japan’s first eVTOL point-to-point demonstration flight for air mobility in Oita City, Oita Prefecture. EHang and its partner, Okayama Kurashiki…

AI traffic counter enables citizen science data projects

March 14, 2023March 13, 2023 Editorial staff

Telraam S2 multimodal traffic counting device

Telraam has released its upgraded S2 multimodal traffic counting device, which can be used in citizen science data projects to improve urban mobility and planning. The latest iteration is easier to install and uses artificial intelligence (AI) and internet of things (IoT) technology to count cars, vans, bikes, pedestrians and more. Monitor street mobility The Telraam S2 camera device was designed in Belgium and built in the EU to help address the need for affordable devices that monitor street mobility in more locations than would be possible with traditional counting…

Hyperloop transportation companies form industry association

February 14, 2023 Editorial staff

A group of seven hyperloop companies have come together to form the first global association for the new, high-speed form of transportation. Hardt, Hyperloop One, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, Nevomo, TransPod, Swisspod Technologies, and Zeleros Hyperloop Association have signed a constitutive act to create The Hyperloop Association. Hyperloop transportation Hyperloop transportation systems consist of an autonomous, fully electric pod levitating and travelling at high speeds in a low-pressure environment. Hyperloop will significantly cut journey times of passengers and cargo between cities and countries and will be more energy efficient and sustainable…

Micromobility alliance publishes incident data on e-scooters

January 25, 2023January 17, 2023 Editorial staff

2021 Incidents with personal damage on shared e-scooters in Europe

Micro-Mobility for Europe (MMfE), the EU association of shared micromobility providers, is releasing incident data involving shared e-scooters in Europe. The aggregated data is based on the usage of e-scooters from its six founding members of Bird, Bolt, Dott, Lime, Tier and Voi. Road safety policies The association has published a factsheet of the data and hopes such transparency will inform road safety policies that reduce incident risks for vulnerable road users, such as e-scooter riders, cyclists, pedestrians, in close collaboration with EU and local authorities. Based on over 240…

Strategic alliance to deploy EV chargers in Latin America

January 19, 2023January 17, 2023 Editorial staff

Blink Charging has announced a collaborative agreement with Citybest, a transport mobility app, to deploy electric vehicle (EV) chargers in Latin America and help advance the EV charging ecosystem in the region. Initially, 70 EV chargers are scheduled for installation through this alliance in Mexico and Chile to help meet driver demands – according to Americas Market Intelligence data more than one million electric vehicles will be sold in LatAm by 2030. Free charging Through the agreement with Citybest, Blink will install 50 Blink MQ 200 chargers at hotel chains…

Mobility-as-a-service spend to grow more than 350 per cent

January 2, 2023 Editorial staff

Mobility‑as‑a‑service (MaaS) will generate revenue of $92bn globally by 2027; up from $20bn in 2022, according a study by Juniper Research. Growing by 357 per cent over the period, Juniper reports that the main drivers will be the cost and convenience of MaaS solutions and the increased investment in MaaS infrastructure. Integrating MaaS with smart city ecosystems The report urges transit planning authorities to take a holistic approach to urban mobility by integrating MaaS into the wider smart city ecosystem to leverage real-time data from smart city sensors and maximise…

China plans world’s largest driverless ride-hailing area

December 18, 2022December 30, 2022 Editorial staff

Artificial intelligence company Baidu has announced plans to build what it claims will be the world’s largest autonomous ride-hailing service area in 2023. The plans outline a goal to expand the operation area for its fully driverless robotaxis, allowing Baidu company to reach more potential customers. Driverless ride-hailing cities Since August 2022, Baidu has operated fully driverless ride-hailing services in the cities of Chongqing and Wuhan, with access to hundreds of square kilometres of operational area. It will continue to expand on this area next year. Additionally, Baidu revealed a…