October 2000
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October 2000 |
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Industry Snippets:
October 2000 |
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Dr. Dragos Maciuca, formerly of California PATH and Nissan, has joined the staff of BMW as an Advanced Technology Specialist at their Palo Alto Technology Center. Leadership of the Center has shifted as well, as director Patrick Popp left the company earlier this year. The new director is Holger Jeebe. [Top]
Delphi Offering Traxxar Stability Control System Delphi Automotive has developed Traxxar, their next-generation Stability Control system. The added sophistication of this system, in terms of being able to control other vehicle subsystems, leads one to believe that stability control systems may be laying the electronic foundation for the active collision avoidance systems of the near future. In a significant step beyond StabiliTrak (their first generation system, now operating on General Motors automobiles), Traxxar interfaces with electrical systems for brakes, throttle, steering, and suspension. In addition to controlling the brake and throttle, the system automatically adjusts steering, if needed, in emergency situations. Delphi claims this more encompassing system approach actually provides for total control of the vehicle. Delphi appears to be following this development with a logical -- but promising nonetheless -- evolutionary move: it's now integrating the system with other Delphi systems that monitor the space around a vehicle to detect hazardous situations. [Top]
SmartMove Developing IV Software Platform SmartMove NV announced that it has acquired Information Technology Center in Belgium. The move should further efforts to develop a Java-based "intelligent vehicle platform" that enables communications between information service providers and hardware/software applications within a vehicle. [Top]
Kuciemba Succeeds Starsman as ITS America VP Steve Kuciemba has been appointed by ITS America as its new vice-president for technology. Mr. Kuciemba was previously vice-president of operations at SmartRoute Systems and chief of the ITS division at the Maryland State Highway Administration. He is in charge of all technical activities, including standards development and intelligent vehicle activities as they relate to cars, trucks, and buses. He fills the slot vacated by the retirement of Ray Starsman. [Top]
Altra
Names New President, VP of Sales Gary Beeman has joined Altra Technologies as president. Altra provides collision warning systems to the commercial truck and snowplow market with its 360-degree SmartSensor™. Mr. Beeman was co-founder of Network Communications Corporation as well as FieldWorks, Inc. Both companies went public under his leadership. Altra says Mr. Beeman brings a strong background in sales and marketing to their efforts at product promotion. In particular, he has successfully created and managed channels of distribution to the trucking industry. Joining Mr. Beeman in moving over from Fieldworks is Roberta Herron, who is Altra's new VP for Sales. Altra founder Dick Gunderson will continue in his role as Chief Executive Officer. [Top]
Danish
RUF Gains Increasing Support The originators of the futuristic RUF dual-mode personal transportation system were thrilled when Dansk Metal, one of the most influential entities in Danish industry, started their annual conference recently with these words from their chairman: "Danish innovators have developed and patented the principles for the cars of the future, which can be driven as electric cars on the short distances and be coupled to a rail system on the longer distances - the so called RUF-system. We warmly recommend the Danish government to use considerable amounts of money to further develop the project. If the idea is realized, it will be able to both solve the traffic problems and create a new Danish industrial adventure." RUF supporters say that the consequences of this statement could be quite positive, as Dansk Metal has very close ties to the Danish Government. (For more on RUF, see the IVsource archives or visit www.ruf.dk. [Top]
Detroit Diesel Corp. has signed a merger agreement with DaimlerChrysler North America (which until now owned 21% of the company). The deal includes a merger arrangement between Detroit Diesel and a DC subsidiary. [Top]
Congress
Funds USDOT's IVI Program for FY2001 The US Congress has enacted funding legislation that will keep USDOT's ITS program going for the Fiscal Year 2001 (October 2000 - September 2001). Funds totaling $268 million are dedicated for ITS programs, with $50 M of that amount providing for ITS infrastructure. In keeping with a long-standing tradition of "spreading the wealth" when it comes to infrastructure funding, Congress chose to "earmark" $118 M of the $268 M for ITS deployment projects in specific cities or regions. Another $100 M is targeted for ITS research projects. The legislation states that within the allocation provided for research -- which includes ITS standards, research, operational tests and development -- $7.3 M is for commercial vehicle research and $30 M is for research directly related to the Intelligent Vehicle Initiative. The law further stipulates that $5 M of the IVI funding "shall be available for the initial phase of an operational test to advance collision avoidance technologies in the light vehicle platform." It is not known at this time whether those funds could be applied to continue funding of the existing NHTSA-GM Advanced Collision Avoidance Systems program (which will operationally test rear-end collision warning on light vehicles), or whether the intent is for USDOT to initiate an additional operational test. [Top]
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Copyright 2000: IVsource.net and Richard Bishop Consulting (RBC). All Rights Reserved. |
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October 2000 |