Recharge Wrap-up: Houston's bus revival, autonomous trucks on the Autobahn
Thu, Apr 7 2016
Automakers sent autonomous semi trucks on the German Autobahn as part of the European Truck Platooning Challenge of 2016. Mercedes-Benz, Volvo and Scania, among other groups, sent platoons of trucks between Stuttgart, Germany, and Rotterdam, Holland. In Mercedes's platoon of three trucks, the lead truck was fitted with lasers and other sensors to guide the convoy down the road. The two following trucks relied on vehicle-to-vehicle communication to trail 50 feet behind the lead, making room for cars to come between them and closing the gaps when able. The close following distance provides fuel economy gains of up to 10 percent in the rearward trucks on account of the reduction in drag. Read more at Hybrid Cars.
Renault has reduced NOx emissions in its Euro 6b diesel vehicles in real world driving conditions. By improving its exhaust gas recirculation systems and NOx traps, nitrogen oxide emissions are cut in half on average, under certain driving conditions. The improvements will be included in vehicles leaving the factory beginning in July of 2016. Beginning in October, owners of Renault Euro 6b diesels can have the modifications added to their cars for free. Read more from Renault.
Tata Technologies is creating an innovation lab in California to partner with EV technology companies. Having a tech center in California allows Tata to work on technologies that will largely be deployed in the company's main market of Asia. "Today, we are partnering with companies and startups who have aspirations to sell in China, but a lot of what they do is in California," says Samir Yajnik of Tata Technologies. Read more from The Economic Times.
BMW's i Ventures is investing in mobility-as-a-service software provider RideCell. RideCell provides technology for services such as carsharing, ridesharing and other transit services. "The convergence of transportation trends in cities is of key importance to BMW," says Ulrich Quay, head of BMW i Ventures. "RideCell's technology platform provides agile tools to power services that span the entire mobility spectrum, including but not limited to car sharing; making them an ideal partner for BMW." Read more in the press release below.
BMW i Ventures Announces Strategic Investment in RideCell.
New York. BMW i Ventures has announced a strategic investment in RideCell, the leading provider of software to power mobility-as-a-service (MaaS), including car-sharing, ride sharing, fixed-route, and dynamic transit services. RideCell has pioneered a ground breaking mobility software platform that enables multi-city mobility providers, cities, and campuses to launch new mobility services in weeks and scale them to tens of millions of users, with minimal operational expenses. RideCell's unique differentiator is "autonomous fleet operationsTM": technology that automates end-to-end business operations from consumer apps to the day to day fleet management, demand and supply analytics, marketing, CRM, and payments.
"The convergence of transportation trends in cities is of key importance to BMW. RideCell's technology platform provides agile tools to power services that span the entire mobility spectrum, including but not limited to car sharing; making them an ideal partner for BMW" said Ulrich Quay, Head of BMW i Ventures.
"We are very excited to have BMW as a strategic partner to collaborate on building the future of mobility" said Aarjav Trivedi, CEO of RideCell. "Our vision is to build tools that allow our customers to run the world better. Our platform is completely autonomous and our multi-modal offering across fixed route, on-demand and car sharing services in tens of cities provides insightful data giving us a unique perspective on designing cities"
New York. BMW i Ventures has announced a strategic investment in RideCell, the leading provider of software to power mobility-as-a-service (MaaS), including car-sharing, ride sharing, fixed-route, and dynamic transit services. RideCell has pioneered a ground breaking mobility software platform that enables multi-city mobility providers, cities, and campuses to launch new mobility services in weeks and scale them to tens of millions of users, with minimal operational expenses. RideCell's unique differentiator is "autonomous fleet operationsTM": technology that automates end-to-end business operations from consumer apps to the day to day fleet management, demand and supply analytics, marketing, CRM, and payments.
"The convergence of transportation trends in cities is of key importance to BMW. RideCell's technology platform provides agile tools to power services that span the entire mobility spectrum, including but not limited to car sharing; making them an ideal partner for BMW" said Ulrich Quay, Head of BMW i Ventures.
"We are very excited to have BMW as a strategic partner to collaborate on building the future of mobility" said Aarjav Trivedi, CEO of RideCell. "Our vision is to build tools that allow our customers to run the world better. Our platform is completely autonomous and our multi-modal offering across fixed route, on-demand and car sharing services in tens of cities provides insightful data giving us a unique perspective on designing cities"
- News Source: CityLab, Vimeo: Streetfilms, Hybrid Cars, Renault, Economic Times, BMW
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By John Beltz Snyder
See also: How long will the 'golden age' of performance last?, Recharge Wrap-up: Renault Zoe recall, Proterra buses log 2M miles, Race recap: 2016 Australian F1 Grand Prix a rowdy start to season.