22 January 2020

British electric van company Arrival has received €100M of investment from Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Motors Corporation.

The deal marks the start of a strategic partnership aimed at accelerating the adoption of commercial electric vehicles globally.

It will also see Hyundai and Kia use key Arrival technologies to help achieve their recently announced goal to develop mobility services and electrify their vehicle fleets.

Arrival’s aim is to create EVs that surpass traditional vehicles in cost, design and efficiency. Its model will see these assembled using small footprint microfactories, located in areas of demand and profitable at thousands of units.

Avinash Rugoobur, Arrival’s Chief Strategy Officer said, “We are excited to come out of stealth mode with our partnership with Hyundai Motor Group, and our complementary expertise will allow us to rapidly design, build and roll out vehicles together.

Albert Biermann, President and Head of Research and Development Division at Hyundai Motor Group, added “The eco-friendly vehicle market in Europe is expected to grow rapidly due to reinforcement of environmental regulations.

“Through the joint development of commercial electric vehicles with Arrival, we will be able to gain a competitive advantage and progressively establish our leadership in the global eco-friendly vehicle market.”

Youngcho Chi, President and Chief Innovation Officer at Hyundai Motor Group, said, “This investment is part of an open innovation strategy pursued by Hyundai and Kia. We will accelerate investment and cooperation with companies with advanced technology such as Arrival, to respond to the rapidly changing eco-friendly vehicle market.”

23 January 2020

Our cars, vans, trucks, buses and coaches are all becoming ever-more intelligent and connected and, as we know, the development of driverless technology is well underway.

But it’s not just inside our vehicles where technology is helping to improve safety, comfort and efficiency.

Even our infrastructure is benefiting from advances in technology and greater automation.

Just this month. Highways England added the latest ‘robot’ to its fleet – this time a specially-designed, cone-laying vehicle, that can prevent workers having to lift an average 10 tonnes of equipment per shift.

Two automated cone laying vehicles are being developed, with testing due to get under way next month at a centre in Lutterworth, Leicestershire. If these tests are successful, the machines could start to appear across the country by the end of 2020.

Cones are needed to protect road users and road workers while essential improvements or maintenance is carried out on the busy routes.

But dramatic footage released by Highways England shows how terrifying it can be for the workers who traditionally put the cones out, working in tandem from the back of a vehicle as motorway traffic thunders past just yards away.

The new robot removes the need for cones to be manually placed. This will improve safety and free up two workers to carry out other tasks.

And if testing meets Highways England criteria, namely that the machines offer a safer method for highways workers, are safe for all road users and pose no further risk to traffic, they could soon enter service nationwide.

It’s all part of Highways England’s drive to make it work maintaining the nation’s road network safer, faster and more efficient.

First came the introduction of self-driving dump trucks as part of a trial on Britain’s biggest road upgrade, the £1.5 billion A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon improvement.

The dump trucks, which move huge amounts of earth, have the potential to work around the clock, so could help reduce the length of time roadworks are on the ground.

And by being autonomous they reduce the risk of road workers being involved in incidents on site.

This was followed by the introduction a quirky machine that uses precise positioning technology to mark out where white lines need to be painted on new or resurfaced roads.

It has already saved hundreds of hours of working time on various Highways England projects across the country, including the A14.

It also recently pre-marked eight miles of the M6 in Staffordshire in four hours. This work would usually take two engineers over a week to complete.

Savings elsewhere include saving 27 hours of working time marking three miles of hard shoulder on the M4 in Berkshire, 77 hours covering five miles of the M6 in Warwickshire, and six hours working on two miles of the M1 in Leicestershire, with further work done on the M60 smart motorway at Manchester.

Besides helping drivers, it also has safety benefits for roadworkers and enables them to focus on completing other essential work on each project.

Julian Lamb, construction director on the A14, where the all the robots have been used, said, “We’re always looking at innovative new ways of working, which can help road users, and make our projects more efficient while supporting improved engineering.

“With safety our top priority, the time savings the robots can provide, coupled with removing our operatives from a potentially hazardous situation, make it a great solution.”

He added, “These technologies are also supporting new jobs, with the engineers of tomorrow needing to learn new skills such as programming this autonomous equipment.”

22 January 2020

A Los Angeles bus operator and early adopter of electric buses has surpassed the two million emissions-free EV miles mark.

Antelope Valley Transit Authority, which serves communities including Palmdale, Lancaster and northern Los Angeles County, hit the milestone shortly before Christmas.

It now aims to become the first transit authority in the United States with a 100% electric bus fleet.

AVTA Chairman, Marvin Crist, said, “Thus far, approximately 512,821 gallons of diesel fuel have been saved with the new battery electric fleet. This equates to a net savings of $801,190 in fuel costs after paying for electricity.

“Even more impressive, those two million all-electric miles represent a carbon footprint reduction of more than 12 million pounds of CO2 and 29,063 pounds of particulate matter.”

AVTA’s current fleet of electric buses – now more than 50% of its total fleet of 88 vehicles – have been manufactured by BYD at its plant in Antleope Valley as part of a five-year deal.
As part of the overall project to electrify its network, the authority has also installed ground-breaking inductive

AVTA Executive Director and CEO Macy Neshati, said, “Our goal from the start was to be the first transit agency to implement electric bus technology on a broad scale, and we have met that goal.”

22 January 2020

All New Routemaster buses operating in the capital will be converted to make the rear and middle doors exit only.

The move follows research which showed passengers using the doors to dodge fares was costing TfL around £3.6 million a year.

In addition, a pilot on the route 8 proved using only the front doors for passenger boarding caused no delays.

Boarding using the middle and rear doors on all New Routemasters will be phased out, starting with the routes 55 and 267 on 25 January.

Customers will be advised of the changes to boarding with emails and on-board announcements. Signage will also be changed on buses. Customers with wheelchairs and pushchairs will continue to be able to board through middle doors.

TfL’s team of more than 450 revenue inspectors operate across the whole network day and night, using new technology and intelligence to identify anyone travelling without a ticket.

Fare evasion is a serious criminal offence that could lead to prosecution, a criminal record and a fine of up to £1,000. The changes being made to New Routemasters are part of a wider programme of activity designed to drive down fare evasion across the whole TfL network.

Claire Mann, TfL’s Director of Bus Operations, said: “Fare dodging is criminal and unfair, and it deprives London’s transport of the investment it needs.

“Our successful pilot on the route 8 has shown that boarding using the front door only doesn’t delay the service and reduces fare evasion, so we will change all other New Routemasters to follow suit.

“Customers with wheelchairs and pushchairs will still be able to board using the middle doors and will find it easier to access the priority space on buses as – like on other buses – they will be able to use the middle doors to board without having other customers doing so at the same time.”

15 January 2020

DAF Trucks is introducing a new Remote Tacho Download function to its DAF Connect fleet management platform.

The feature will allow operators to read, store and analyse the memory of driver cards and tachographs online and in real time.

This will allow them to maintain an accurate tacho administration system and to save time.

The new feature will be added as an app to the DAF Connect dashboard, giving instant access to information including driving times and rest periods.

DAF Connect Manager Marketing, Jorg Wijnands, said, “Maintaining an accurate record of driver cards and the tachograph’s memory is very labour intensive and prone to error. You can end up paying thousands of euros for each instance of inaccurate bookkeeping.”

“With our system the transport operator can also monitor its trucks and drivers constantly to ensure that they are complying with driving and rest period guidelines and to intervene where necessary. This offers a greater sense of security in terms of road safety and the risk of fines.”