August’s top news stories

SCE receives approval for EV charging infrastructure programme

Southern California Edison (SCE) in the US received approval from state officials for an electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure programme worth $436m, known as Charge Ready 2.

The light-duty EV charging programme will add approximately 38,000 new chargers across the 50,000-square-mile service area.

It focuses on providing charging infrastructure at workplaces, public parking lots, schools, hospitals and destination centres.

Ford selects INRIX’s parking and fuel services for SYNC 4 vehicles

Ford selected INRIX’s parking and fuel services for its SYNC 4 connected vehicle system-equipped vehicles to allow drivers to easily find, compare and navigate available parking spaces.

The new services will soon be made available in Ford vehicles across the world and will help drivers find cheaper, alternative options for fuel prices, as well as available parking spots.

SYNC 4 will initially be available with the all-electric Mustang Mach-E, the Bronco two- and four-door models, and the new F-150 vehicles.

Toyota to accelerate Cloud-connected services development with AWS

Japanese automobile manufacturer Toyota Motor expanded its global collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to fast-track the development of Cloud-connected services.

Under the partnership, the Japanese automobile company will be integrating AWS’s services to enhance its Toyota’s Mobility Services Platform (MSPF).

MSPF is an ecosystem to help Toyota engineers develop and deploy data-driven mobility services to ensure driver and passenger safety, security and convenience through company’s Cloud-connected vehicles.

Jaguar Land Rover programmes self-driving cars to reduce motion sickness

British automotive company Jaguar Land Rover announced that it is developing a software that will help in reducing motion sickness by adapting the driving style of future self-driving cars.

The technology will be used to assess passenger comfort and accordingly adjust driving controls to minimise the impact of motion sickness, which affects around 70% of people.

In the first phase of the project, the Jaguar Land Rover research team developed a personalised ‘wellness score’ that can reduce the impact of motion sickness by up to 60%. 

Velodyne Lidar’s sensors power intelligent traffic management in Nevada

Velodyne Lidar teamed up with University of Nevada and Reno to advance research in transportation infrastructure in the US.

The university’s Nevada Center for Applied Research, in collaboration with the Nevada DOT and Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development, is using Velodyne’s lidar sensors in its Intelligent Mobility initiative.

This initiative is intended to gather data to make transportation more efficient, sustainable and safer.

Queensland starts work on next phase of Cleveland-Redland Bay Road

The Queensland Government commenced work on the next stage of its A$60m ($43.8m) Cleveland-Redland Bay Road upgrade in Australia.

Work under the project will generate approximately 99 job opportunities in Redlands.

As part of the government’s ten-year plan for Redlands roads, construction commenced at the Anita Street intersection along the stretch of Cleveland-Redland Bay Road.

Balfour Beatty wins nearly $131m road contract in UK

Balfour Beatty secured a contract worth £108m ($130.8m) on behalf of Highways England for the construction of a dual carriageway that links the M67 with the A57 in Mottram Moor, Greater Manchester, the UK.

The scheme forms a key part of Highways England’s Regional Investment Programme, for which the firm was appointed two years ago through the Delivery Integration Partnership Framework.

Under the contract, Balfour Beatty will design and construct a dual and single lane carriageway and an underpass at Mottram Village.

EIB and Mobility House agree to boost electric vehicles integration

The European Investment Bank (EIB) and technology company The Mobility House signed a €15m agreement to promote the integration of electric vehicles into the energy markets.

The loan will allow The Mobility House to proceed with the research and development (R&D) for its intelligent Charging and Energy Management system ChargePilot.

This will economically support the rollout of electric vehicles, along with their optimised integration into the European power grid.

ChargePoint raises additional $127m to accelerate growth

US-based electric vehicle infrastructure company ChargePoint secured new funding to accelerate its growth plans.

The company closed $127m in incremental equity financing, raising a total of $660m through fundraising.

ChargePoint will use the new funds to expand its commercial and fleet portfolio in North America and Europe. The proceeds will also be used to increase marketing and sales efforts.

Montenegro to upgrade 180km of road along five routes

Montenegro became set to rehabilitate and upgrade 180km of road along the five main routes in the country.

These projects will be financed through a €40m loan to be provided by the European Investment Bank (EIB) after signing the second tranche. The first tranche was signed in November 2018.