Industry
Snippets
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Demo 2001 a No-Go For undisclosed reasons, ITS America has dropped plans to stage Demo 2001 (see related report in the Fall 1999 IVQuarterly). Demo 2001 was envisioned as the first IV demo focused on the general public as the audience — the consumers who will eventually power the high volume sales of IV systems. IVsource speculates that the cancellation is an artifact of significant staff changes at ITS America within the last six months, as well as shifting priorities. [Top]
According to Bill MacDonald of Transintel, approximately 1000 of their advanced technology RF tags are being shipped to Bechtel, Inc. for testing and characterization in the Federal Highway Administration’s Sensor Friendly Highway program. The tags are capable of sending an information-encoded radar return when illuminated by a vehicle radar, to identify targets such as bridge abutments and guardrails. Vehicular radar systems such as Adaptive Cruise Control are challenged in making sense of all the radar data received by the vehicle in a complex highway environment, and roadside assistance of this sort is seen as a potential means of increasing the robustness of vehicle systems. [Top]
Raytheon, still strapped for cash after absorbing the defense segment of Hughes Corporation several years ago, finalized a definitive agreement for its Engineers and Constructors subsidiary (RE&C) to be sold to transportation infrastructure heavyweights Morrison Knudsen Corporation. The dollar value of the sale is estimated in the $800M range. RE&C has been working with Virginia DOT for the last year to finalize an agreement to implement a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system serving the Dulles Corridor near Washington, DC, which would incorporate precision docking for transit buses. Company officials say that their efforts will continue at full steam under the new ownership. [Top]
AB Volvo of Sweden has signed a deal to acquire Renault VI, the truck making side of Renault. Renault VI is the parent of Mack Trucks, Inc. in the US. The combined company represents the world’s second-largest truck company and is expected to double Volvo’s volume of truck sales. Irisbus, a joint venture of Renault VI and Iveco, is not included in the arrangement. The effect on Mack and Volvo operations is the US is unknown — Mack has engineering offices in Maryland and Pennsylvania, with manufacturing in Maryland and South Carolina; Volvo has engineering offices in Virginia and North Carolina and manufacturing in North Carolina. Within the ranks, most expect any changes in US operations to occur after the end of 2000. [Top]
Oak Ridge Integrating IV Components According to reports at the ITS America Annual Meeting, Oak Ridge National Laboratories (Tennessee, USA) is performing a driver-vehicle interface integration study, combining capabilities such as forward collision warning, navigation, cellular phone, and e-mail. IVsource expects to have more info on this study in the near future. [Top]
NIST Looking at Objective Measurement Methodologies for NHTSA The National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST), part of the US Department of Commerce, has been in discussion the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) regarding an R&D project to develop objective performance measurement methodologies and systems. This is driven by NHTSA’s desire to have an objective means of comparing the performance of, say, different lane tracking or collision warning products. (Some have called for NHTSA to establish a "national testing center" to certify the safety and performance of products as safety-critical systems emerge on the market in the next several years; however, no serious discussions are known to be taking place within the government at this time.) [Top]
St. Louis Considering Bus-Only Lanes Over Rail According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, regional planners have mapped out an exclusive bus lane route as an alternative to an expensive Light Rail Transit (LRT) system. The $238M concept was recently endorsed by the region’s East-West Gateway Coordinating Council. A rail-based system to serve the same area is estimated at $614M. Some local groups and politicians are crying "foul" with the bus option, believing rail is the only way to go. It’s all talk for now — both options are unfunded. [Top]
Motion-Free Radar Scanning Alliance A subgroup within Carnegie Mellon University’s National Robotics Engineering Consortium (NREC) is focused on advancing radar technology for vehicle applications. The Motion-Free Radar Scanning Alliance is looking to develop a narrow beam radar for production costs of $2000-5000, which would go beyond simple ranging capability to provide actual "image understanding." The desire is to be able to quickly zero into any single point in the scene. An equivalent laser to do this job now costs $50K, and the equivalent radar (using mechanical scanning) costs around $80K. The system design is geared towards a range of 2-100 meters. The US Department of Defense is providing some funding, and industrial partners include Toro (the lawn and golf equipment manufacturer), Eaton, and Caterpillar. [Top]
Magnet-Guided Snowplows on the Rise Both Arizona and Alaska are proceeding with plans to equip roads with magnetic markings and snowplows with sensor systems to track them. Alaska has a tentative plan to adopt discrete magnetic markers of the type pioneered by California PATH, with the University of California at Davis developing the vehicle sensor system. Arizona is performing a comparison of the commercial 3M Lane Awareness System, which consists of magnetic tape and on-vehicle sensors and driver interface, and the California system (although costs for the California system are higher than expected and discussions are underway to resolve this). Other states and locations are also showing interest. [Top]
Irisbus Hosting US Transit Officials in Lyon Irisbus North America, which is promoting the CiViS guided-bus Bus Rapid Transit system now being implemented in Europe, has received significant interest from transit agencies in the US. John Marino, director of Irisbus NA, says that groups from Las Vegas and Phoenix are expected to be visiting the CiViS demo and engineering facilities in Lyon, France this summer. [Top] |
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