(Source: Washington Post , FoxNews.com, & CNET)

Image Courtesy: CNET - Trapster alerts you to nearby speed cameras and "Smokey takin' pictures."

A must-have iPhone application for people who drive a lot is “Trapster” the app for avoiding speed traps. Or a better description by Paul Carr before he was fired from The Guardian: “Yes, that’s Trapster: the mobile distraction for when driving at high speed isn’t fucking dangerous enough.”

The free program uses the GPS receiver built into new iPhones to track a driver’s location and warn of nearby speed traps and red light cameras. It’s also available for phones running Google Android and some BlackBerries.  Drivers can add new locations to the app by hitting buttons to mark speed traps and red light cameras for other drivers. Users can also rate the accuracy of speed trap reports, which helps weed out fake inputs.

It’s been nearly a year since the debut of Trapster, a controversial but popular app that alerts you of nearby speed traps, cameras, and the like. It’s had more than 1 million downloads, and is “getting about 50,000 downloads a day right now” to add to that.

Version 3.5 released back in September, bringing with it some impressive–and, for many users, long-awaited–new features. Here’s the rundown ((courtesy of CNET):

• Improved interface Five features (some of them new) are now accessible by tapping blue icons that span the right side of the screen.
• Bluetooth audio If your car supports Bluetooth, you can pair Trapster to your stereo to get audio alerts over your speakers. Even better, if your car supports A2DP (i.e. stereo Bluetooth), you can take advantage of:
• Built-in iPod controls Tap the little musical-note icon to slide open Trapster’s iPod audio controls. Obviously, you don’t need stereo Bluetooth to use them, but it sure is a nice combo.
• Rotating maps Trapster tacks your position in real-time on a moving map. Now, that map can rotate depending on your direction of travel rather than staying in “always-North” mode. The top blue icon toggles this feature on and off.
• Real-time traffic The bottom blue icon slides out a Google Traffic map, which shows you trouble spots in your area. Handy, but it’s too bad the developers could’t integrate this with the main map instead of requiring you to view a second one.

Image Courtesy: Trapster

Trapster crowdsources the data from its users who report speed traps.  This information is stored in the server and sharing with other Trapster users who come later near the same location, thus making the road safe . The more users, the more data, and the safer the roads are for speeders. The app potentially can help users speed or run lights more often. Nonetheless, police are largely supportive of Trapster, because they hope it will get users to slow down.

“Anything that gets people to slow down on the highway, or drive in a more responsible manner, is a good thing,” said Corinne Geller, public relations manager for the Virginia State Police.  She said the state itself uses that logic to announce some red light cameras and speed-limit enforcement areas.  “We don’t hide,” Geller said.

Here are some interesting stats from the Trapster website (as of Sep 10, 2009)

• 1,621,254 Total Trapster users world-wide
• 1,402,349 iPhones using Trapster
• 818,205 Traps reported world-wide
• Trapster is the 20th most downloaded app for the iPhone out of all 85,000 odd apps.
• Everyday more people download Trapster for iPhone than all other traffic/driving related apps COMBINED.

Click here to read more.

(Sources contributing to this hybrid report: Boston.com, ULTraPRT.com & ABC7)

The city of San Jose is planning to build a PRT system that will run between the airport and a Bay Area Rapid Transit station as well as a nearby light rail station. They say it will include up to five stations, but this and other details are still being worked out.

Back in 2008, the city has issued a request for proposals and allotted $4 million to conduct an economic and technical evaluation, and then to work with a vendor. When San Jose compared PRT with an automated people mover, the kind of large, driverless shuttle that is common at airports, officials decided that PRT would be cheaper and more convenient for passengers. The government has not sworn off other options during this exploratory phase, but officials say they will most likely proceed with a PRT system.

Image Courtesy: ULTra PRT - Click the image for more details

One of the vendors, ULTra PRT whose first deployment is scheduled for London Heathrow Airport in Spring 2010, expected to serve Heathrow’s new Terminal 5, has published more details on this project.  The website notes ULTra PRT is an electric, 200-mpg-equivalent, elevated transit system with many 5-person vehicles.  Working as circulator transit for office parks, airports, universities, and other major activity centers, PRT is faster than a car. In these applications, PRT makes carpooling and transit more effective, by solving the “last mile problem.”

Laura Stuchinksy is a sustainability officer for San Jose’s Department of Transportation. She and other city officials are considering the idea of having such a public pod system link the Mineta San Jose International Airport with area businesses, hotels and other nearby transit options, like Caltrain, BART and the VTA Light Rail.

PRT also enables longer bike commutes and shopping trips.  The only existing, functioning example in the world is an eight-mile network built in the 1970s to move people around the West Virginia University campuses (which also happens to be TransportGooru’s Alma Mater; enjoyed riding this system while studying there back in the 90s).

San Jose is anticipating population growth of a half million people over the next 30 years, so an automated pod transit system could certainly improve quality of life in the city – plus generate thousands more clean-tech jobs. Here is a video  coverage of this story (courtesy of ABC 7).

(Source:  WUSA9.com & Moving Momentarily)

Washington’s aging Metro system will be getting a 21st century security makeover that will include video cameras capable of integrating with other “facial recognition” systems in use in the National Capital region.

Some $78 million in grants for enhanced security were recently approved by the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security.  Grants also include money for 20 additional transit police officers, 3 bomb-sniffing dog teams and security training for 9,000 “front line” employees. The lion’s share of of the grant money will be spent on enhanced video surveillance of Metro’s sprawling rail and bus system.

And $27.8 million in grants from the Department of Homeland Security will pay for cameras on buses, in ventilation shafts, at station entrances and near the end of platforms over the next few years. $7.1 million is designated to monitor passengers inside rail cars. Metro Transit Police officers will be able to view in-railcar cameras in real-time on portable computers.

Moving momentarily editor poses an interesting question to the readers and riders: How do you feel about Metro getting federal monies for facial recognition technology at stations? Does it make the system safer?  Register your thoughts below in the comments section.

(Sources: Green Car Congress, Red Orbit, & Reuters)

Jean-Louis Borloo, France’s Minister for Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development and the Sea, presented a national 14-point plan designed to accelerate the development and subsequent commercialization of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids in France.

France will invest 2.5 billion euros ($3.6 billion) over 10 years in research, subsidies and infrastructure development for electric cars as automakers race to get the vehicles on the road, its energy minister said.  Speaking at a presentation of the government’s plans for electric vehicles on Thursday, minister Borloo said the investment would be split between pilot projects, battery production and bonuses for carmakers building green cars.

The investment would also cover the biggest cost, namely adapting the electricity grid to allow for the creation of a million charging points by 2015 and over 4 million by 2020.  Borloo said around half the charging points would be in private homes, with almost as many in offices, as well as 75,000 “back-up” charging points in streets and car parks.

The 14 elements of the plan are:

1. ADEME (the French Environment and Energy Management Agency) will launch in early 2010 a new call for projects on infrastructure costs, to support plug-in demonstrators and trials combining infrastructure, applications and target territories, and to validate the functioning of the ecosystem of rechargeable vehicles. Budget: €70 million (US$102 million).
2. ADEME will establish early in 2010 a roadmap for specific new mobility solutions, dealing with developments in transportation of people or goods, based both on technology (new vehicles, dissemination of renewable energy, electric traction, etc.) and service (Vélib, Carsharing, Carpool, etc.) ADEME will then launch a new call for projects, with a budget of €25 million (US$36 million).
3. Renault will establish a Li-ion battery factory in Flins, in partnership with CEA (France’s Atomic Energy Commission), at an investment of €625 million. This site may produce more than 100,000 batteries per year. Bolloré, Dassault and Saft are also conducting parallel projects.
4. A group of large companies and associations of local and state officials are committing to purchase electric vehicles with a range of at least 150 km. The public tenders and private joint purchasing will target a market fleet of 100,000 vehicles by 2015. The first 50,000 are already identified. Led by La Poste, the group includes EPA, Air France, Areva, Bouygues, Darty, EDF, Eiffage, France Telecom, GDF SUEZ, SNCF, SPIE, UGAP, Veolia, Vinci, associations and communities represented by Association of Urban Communities of France and the Association of Regions of France.
5. A €5,000 grant for the purchase of vehicles with CO₂ emissions less than or equal to 60 g/km until 2012. Hybrids with CO₂ emissions are less than or equal to 135 g may receive a bonus of €2,000, as will LPG or natural gas vehicles.
6. Availability of a standard outlet to charge the cars outside of the home. Specifically, no charge should be needed at home.
7. By 2012 the construction of buildings (offices and homes) with compulsory integration of charging systems.
8. Supporting the installation of charging systems in condominiums.
9. Compulsory charge points in parking for office buildings by 2015.
10. Agreement on common European charging standards.
11. Municipalities to receive support to deploy the public recharging infrastructure.
12. Organize the operational deployment of the network. €1.5 billion for public infrastructure.
13. Maximize the use of low-carbon or renewable electricity for recharging vehicles.
14. Giving batteries and battery materials a second life after their vehicular applications, either through reuse (in grid storage, for example), or recycling.

The unveiling of the so-called “battle of the electric cars” plan follows hard on the heels of another scheme announced just two weeks ago that the French government would invest some seven billion euros ($10 billion USD) in the development of a modern freight-transporting railway system in an effort to reduce congestion on the nation’s roads and highways.

French President Sarkozy also announced his plans for a new carbon tax on businesses and private households that is set to go into effect next year. All three interventions are critical elements of Sarkozy’s “green plan” with which he hopes to drive down France’s dependence on carbon-based fuel and lower its emission of greenhouse gases.

Borloo says that nearly two thirds of the 1.5 billion euros ($2.2 billion USD) needed to fund the program will be procured through state loans set be started next year.

Included in the electric car plan is the construction of roughly a million battery-charging facilities by 2015, some 90 percent of which will be in private homes, while the other ten percent will be installed in car parks and at roadside stations.

Additionally, beginning in 2012, all new apartment buildings with parking lots will come equipped with battery-charging stations. By 2020, the plan’s architects say they hope to have some four million charging points throughout the country—or nearly two per electric car.

The ecology ministry stated in the meeting that the emissions-free sector of the French automobile industry should be worth a whopping 15 billion euros ($21 billion USD) by the year 2030 and constitute an estimated 27 percent of the total market for vehicles.

Click here to read the entire article.

Note: A big heartfelt thanks to our friends at Green Car Congress who made a concerted effort to provide the readers with an English Translation of this 14 point plan.  For those who wonder, this plan and every other material on the Ministry’s website is only available in French.  What’s up with a Government website only published in French? What were these egalitarian and patriotic Frenchies thinking about non-French speakers when they made the decision that things will get published only in French?  Damn, these folks are very biased in that aspect compared to the Americans.  BTW, I wonder what would Glenn Beck say about the French plan if he found out that Sarkozy is spending more money than Obama on improving/modernizing his  country’s transportation infrastructure?

(Source: Mashable & TechCrunch)

Quick Pitch: Aha Mobile is an iPhone app that taps into the collective wisdom of actual drivers to create customized travel information for you.

Genius Idea: Navigation apps and GPS systems let you know how to get where you’re going, but what about other utilities for drivers who already know the route? Aha Mobile is a service designed to provide useful utilities to drivers while on the road.

Their first product is a free iPhone app that provides details on traffic flow, points of interest nearby, and short audio message “shouts” from other drivers who might have useful information about the route ahead.

The Aha Mobile app is designed for ease of use while driving, although they stress it should only be used when traffic conditions permit (and you’ll want to check your state laws relating to cell phone use in the car as well). With large buttons and graphics in a simple interface, it’s easier to pull out relevant information at a glance than trying to make sense of a small map.

After firing up the app you’ll see 4 buttons: traffic, shout room, nearby, and settings. The latter is where you can enter your personal details, including your Facebook and Twitter accounts for pushing your shouts out to your social networks. Yes, the app itself only has four buttons! It seems to be designed with safety in mind,  and with only 4 buttons it is a lot safer to use at speeds of 65 miles per hour or less. You can preset the roads into your app before you get on the road, so you can automatically access them without taking your eyes off the road to input the information.

Aha also alerts you to nearby food and drinks; pulling in information from Yelp. But if you want to find a coffee place while you are on the road, Aha will simple pull in the four, top-rated coffee shops nearest to your locations, instead of making you scroll through listings. Aha also pulls in bathroom locations from SitOrSquat and info about the locations of red light or speed cameras from Photoenforced.com.

Crowdsourcing traffic information is another compelling part of the app. With the Aha App, drivers simply tap their iPhone, speak for up to 15 seconds and, without taking their eyes off the road, safely broadcast voice messages, known as Aha Shouts, to drivers nearby. For example, if you witnessed an accident on the 101 highway, you could tape a shout and Aha would store this Shout so that another users could access this information when he or she is driving along the same route.  A face icon indicates one or more “shouts” are available for this route, either from other drivers or from industry sources INRIX and Clear Channel. Shouts can include information about how traffic is flowing, congestion, accidents, and other relevant major incidents that might impact your route.

Drivers can now post Aha Shouts automatically to Twitter and Facebook for others to hear. With Aha’s new Facebook and Twitter integration, drivers can customize which types of Shouts go to each of their social networks. One humorous feature of Aha’s app is the “Caraoke” room that lets Aha users record 15 seconds of singing along to any song in the car. Fellow Aha users can see other users’ recordings and you can also publish your “Caraoke” to Twitter or Facebook.

Click here to read the entire article.

(Source: Ars Technica; CNET)

At Technology Review’s EmTech conference last week, MIT professor Joel Schindall told the audience at a panel on energy storage why ultracapacitors may have a significant role to play in our transportation future. The good properties of these devices—fast charge/discharge cycles and an essentially unlimited number of cycles—make them a compelling choice for powering an electric vehicle. Schindall also explained why their downside, a far lower charge density than batteries, might not be as much of a problem as it might appear at first glance.

Schindall, who had spent some time away from academics, explained that during his first stint at MIT, a capacitor that could hold 350 Farads would have filled the whole stage. Before he returned, someone working on fuel cells had accidentally produced the first ultracapacitor. Now, with refinements, he was able to walk on stage with a 350 Farad ultracapacitor that was about the size of a D battery. The current generation of devices use activated carbon to hold charges, as its highly complex topology creates a lot of surface area across which charge differences can build up.

Although the improvements have been dramatic, Schindall said that ultracapacitors still badly lag batteries in terms of the storage density, holding only about five percent of the charge per volume of lithium batteris. Which is unfortunate, because they have some properties that would make them excellent for a variety of applications, including very rapid charging and the ability to withstand many more charge cycles than a battery. Schindall claimed they could be recharged indefinitely, since “greater than a million times, to me, is indefinite.”

Schindall’s research group has focused on replacing the disordered structure of activated carbon with a more ordered one that can increase the packing: carbon nanotubes. His research group has developed a vapor deposition process that can grow densely packed, vertically oriented clusters of carbon nanotubes on conducting surfaces. Current industrial processes for the production of carbon nanotubes tend to produce a variety of diameters and lengths, but Schindall told Ars that the process his group has developed keeps everything very regular—he was actually surprised by how even the lengths were.

In the U.S., early-stage companies designing the materials and electrolytes for ultracapacitors include Graphene Energy,EnerG2, and Ioxus. Much hyped EEStor, backed by venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, has signed asupply deal with electric vehicle company Zenn, although its products are still not commercially available.

Compared to batteries, ultracapacitors can’t store a lot of energy, so they wouldn’t typically be used alone to run plug-in electric vehicles. On the other hand, ultracapacitors are “power dense,” which means that they can discharge the energy they do have quickly. Conversely, they can be recharged quickly–in seconds or minutes, and with almost no degradation in performance over time, say backers.

Schindall projects that ultracapacitors eventually will be able to store as much as 25 percent of the energy of batteries, a jump he said would be “disruptive.” Right now, nanostructures developed by MIT researchers can hold twice as much energy as activated carbon. In the coming months, his team expects to show it can hold five times the energy as activated carbon, he said.

Click here to read the entire article.

(Source:  Autoblog green)

Image Courtesy: Autobloggreen

If nothing else, the big news of the day is that your iPhone can now make cars honk. The key fob would, of course, work just as well, but it’s not as flashy as using your phone.

The horn honking feature is part of the newly-released Zipcar App, which makes finding, reserving and controlling your Zipcar possible through the iPhone (and, over WiFi, the iPod touch). The app wont’ be able to unlock any car in the system – you still need to scan your Zipcard to start the reservation; only then is the app able to honk that horn. The App is free and available now in iTunes. You can take a tour here.

(Source: Green Car Congress)

Click here for more details

Researchers from the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) are cooperating to develop and test a method for predicting the real-world fuel and electricity consumption of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) by adjusting dynamometer test results. After examining data on the only PHEV currently available in large numbers, the new adjustment method shows promise for reasonably predicting PHEV average fuel and electricity use, despite differences in design.

Current rules for conventional vehicles do not work for plug-in hybrids because the vehicles run on both electricity and gasoline; industry debate centers on the rules for estimating miles per gallon. This was highlighted by the reaction to GM’s announcement that the Chevy Volt would attain 230 mpg in the city cycle, given a single charge per day, along with combined cycle electricity consumption of 25 kWh/100 miles, based on a draft EPA methodology. (Earlier post.)

PHEV testing is further complicated by the fact that these vehicles operate in two different modes based on the distance they are driven (initially depleting energy from the large vehicle battery, and eventually sustaining the battery charge for longer distance driving). Consensus is building on techniques to handle these first two complications, but one question that remains is how to adjust raw certification cycle test results to best predict a PHEV’s average real-world energy use.

Click here to read the entire article.

(Source: USA Today; Carkeys, UK)

Image Courtesy: USA Today

Automobile technology has exploded over the past two decades and todays cars are far more “intelligent” than the cars of the 70 and 80s.  These days there are more computers and sensors (collectively captured under the term Intelligent Vehicle, a terminology that is more familiar to those involved in Intelligent Transportation Systems) operating side by side with the driver to ensure that the vehicle operates at optimal efficiency while managing the safety of the vehicle by avoiding or alerting/warning about impending collisions.   The state of the art technology deployed in some cars can even slow down the vehicle by applying brakes without driver’s assistance, just to minimize the impact of the crash.  Now, that will soon become yesterday’s technology, thanks to vehicle safety pioneers at Volvo who are hard at work to deploy “full auto brake” and “pedestrian safety” functions.   USA Today reports on this latest vehicle technology development at the Volvo shop.

By now, collision avoidance systems that automatically apply the brakes to a speeding car have become pretty common. But while cars will suddenly slow if they detect an accident is about to happen, automakers have been hesitant to bring them to a sudden and full emergency stop.

Volvo is about to change all that. With the launch of the S60 next year, Volvo will introduce a “full auto brake” and “pedestrian safety” function. Cars will come a full stop at speeds less than about 15 miles an hour if their radar systems detect they are about to strike a car or a person. If the car is going faster, the car will try to come as close to a full stop as possible.

“If the car is traveling faster, the aim is to reduce the impact speed as much as possible. In most cases, we can reduce the collision force by about 75%,” says Thomas Broberg, Volvo’s safety expert. “Considering the large number of pedestrian fatalities that occur, if we manage to reduce the fatality risk 20 percent, this new function will make a big difference.”

Carkeys.com, a British website reports that this effort is part of Volvo’s 2020 vision, which has two goals – firstly, that nobody will be killed or injured in a new Volvo and, secondly, that the average CO2 emissions of the entire range will be below 100g/km. As part of addressing this first goal, the first step forward from the current situation regarding safety is the introduction of Collision Warning With Full Auto Brake and Pedestrian Safety, both of which will be introduced in the new S60, due to be launched next year, and Volvo is also upgrading its Adaptive Cruise Control so that it now maintains a gap to the vehicle in front at speeds right down to zero, rather than the present 18mph minimum.

Further development depends on vehicles being able to communicate with each other – the idea being that they recognise it and take steps to avoid a collision regardless of what the drivers are doing – and this in turn will require a suitable infrastructure. “We believe that the key is to use systems that are already available for other purposes,” says Jan Ivarsson, Volvo’s Head of Safety Strategy. “The air around us is already charged with communication, most of it used for pleasure or convenience.

“Adding traffic safety communication to this existing architecture is a far more sensible route than trying to invent and agree on a completely new ‘language’ for communicating in the traffic environment.”

Fifty years ago, Volvo introduced seat belts, which are now a “standard” in all vehicles entering the market(s) and has been credited for saving millions of lives world over since its introduction.  Hope this new introduction can repeat the magic for the 2nd time and further cut the vehicle-related fatalities and crashes.  Click here to read the entire article.

The next *IntelliDrive^SM Working Group Meeting will take place October 29-30th at the Doubletree Guest Suites Fort Shelby/Detroit Downtown Hotel.  The purpose of this meeting is for the major partners and stakeholders to present future plans and focus areas of the program and to discuss stakeholder involvement in all focus areas.  On the first day, each of the major partners (the states, auto industry, and USDOT) will discuss their upcoming plans, projects and focus areas. Day one will end with a facilitated discussion of the Working Group structure and stakeholder involvement to accommodate new focus areas including environmental applications, mobility applications based on various communications systems, and inclusion of aftermarket devices and applications.  Day two will include breakout sessions on specific focus areas for the program, including safety, mobility, and environment.

Who should attend?  The Working Group meeting will be open to members as well as other interested participants.

Date:  October 29-30, 2009 Oct 29th full day; Oct 30th half day, ending by 11:30 AM.

Location:  Doubletree Guest Suites Fort Shelby/Detroit Downtown Hotel.

525 West Lafayette Blvd, Detroit, Michigan, 48226

Tel: 1-313-963-5600

Registration:  Registration for this event is free.  However, a registration form must be completed by October 23 and sent to Brei Whitty at bwhitty@itsa.org in order to attend.

Click here for a registration form.

Hotel Info – Link

Airport to Hotel Transportation Information – Link

*IntelliDrive is a registered service mark of the US Department of Transportation. IntelliDrive was formerly known as the Vehicle-Infrastructure Integration (VII) program. More information about the program is available at www.intellidrive.org.