Innoviz Technologies, a lidar technology company, and the BMW Group, a manufacturer of vehicles and motorcycles, have collaborated on a B-sample development phase for a new-generation of lidar. Under the development agreement, Innoviz will develop the B-samples based on its second-generation InnovizTwo lidar sensor to enable Level 3 automated driving capabilities.
“Lidar is one of the critical technologies underpinning Level 3 or even higher automated functions,” Nicolai Martin, BMW Group’s SVP of driving experience, said. “Optimizing lidar technologies and costs are the major challenges in order to bring Level 3 highly automated driving into the mainstream.”
The companies already have been working together for a few years on an existing program that includes the first deployment of lidar-enabled highly automated technology on the BMW 7 Series, which will launch later this year.
In addition to the lidar solution for the BMW 7 Series, the BMW Group and Innoviz have started the first phase of development for a lidar-based minimal risk maneuver system (MRM). The MRM acts as a secondary safety driving decision platform that will leverage the InnovizTwo lidar sensor to manage real-time driving decisions.
Pointer Telocation Ltd. – a developer, manufacturer and operator of Mobile Resource Management (MRM) — signed a contract July 18 with CET RIO (the Rio de Janeiro Transit Authority) to provide technology and integration services during the 2016 Olympic Games, managing the vehicles and personnel responsible for transit control, emergency and contingencies.
More than 200 vehicles will be monitored in real time which will be managing, controlling and supporting the traffic management systems starting Aug. 5 and throughout the games.
The system will use Pointer’s Web Fleet Software Platform and will be integrated into the CET Control Center as well as the COR (the city’s Operation Center), providing a unified view of traffic information throughout Rio.
“We are very pleased to be playing an important role in the smooth running of the Olympic Games this summer,” said David Mahlab, chief executive officer of Pointer. “Our selection by Rio’s Transit Authority for this very high profile event and mission critical task, demonstrates a strong level of trust in our solution. We look forward to successfully delivering on this contract, and we believe this will provide us with very strong references for further work in the region.”
Eight million GPS/wireless devices are used to manage fleet vehicles, trailers, construction equipment and mobile workers, according to a new report by C.J. Driscoll & Associates, a supplier of telematics market research and consulting services.
According to the “2016-17 U.S. Mobile Resource Management Systems Market Study,” by 2019 this market will expand to more than 14 million units, and annual hardware and service revenues will grow to nearly $4.7 billion.
Growth has been strong in the local service and delivery fleet market, where the use of commercial telematics solutions is expanding at a rate of 15-20 percent per year. However, the trucking sector’s rate of growth is projected to exceed the local fleet market because of the recently issued regulations requiring the use of Electronic Logging Devices (ELDs) by interstate trucking fleets for monitoring driver hours of service.
While the largest GPS fleet management companies are becoming increasingly dominant, this has not discouraged new players from entering the market, some with considerable success. Overseas suppliers also continue to be drawn to the U.S. market due to its size and rate of growth.
The 323-page market study provides in-depth information on each major MRM market segment, including the markets for vehicle-installed GPS fleet management solutions for local service and delivery fleets and long haul trucking fleets. The market for driver behavior management systems is also examined, along with the emerging market for managing mobile workers with GPS-equipped smartphones and tablets. In addition, the study covers the markets for monitoring mobile assets, such as fleet trailers and heavy equipment.
The study assesses the current market penetration of MRM systems and services and projects annual subscriber and revenue growth through 2019. Detailed profiles are provided on more than 140 suppliers of MRM systems and services, including target markets, key features, installed base and pricing.
Because of nonstop government regulation, which can help and hinder the trucking industry, the mobile resource management market will continue to be one of the strongest location segments. In other news this month, while it doesn’t get much bigger a deal in the location industry than a $2.5 billion purchase, as in the case of Qualcomm buying CSR, one smaller deal that should not be overlooked is ST Telecom’s acquisition of Shopkick, a growing indoor location provider.
SAN DIEGO — The global trucking market for fleet management products has always been strong — and one of the first location segments to have prospered over the last 15 years. This market growth will continue because of new technology and government requirements, say attendees at the American Trucking Association annual management conference here.
An American Transport Research Institute report offered at ATA, “Critical Issues in the Trucking Industry – 2014,” outlines 10 issues, mainly driven by government regulation, that concern fleet owners.
One of the big issues is hours of service (HOS). Rules adopted by the feds require 11 hours of driving — and a 34-hour break before restart. This includes a 30-minute break before driving again after eight hours. ATRI believes these rules cost carriers $1.6 billion to $3.9 billion annually in driver pay impacts.
An electronic device (ELD) mandate requires all drivers to keep records of duty status via a logging device. A mandate could come in 2016 that outlines hardware specs.
Another big issue is truck parking — and could be an opportunity for mapping and location companies. Because HOS regulations require drivers to take many breaks, shortage of parking is a big and dangerous concern because drivers are operating beyond allowable rules to find areas to park. ATRI wants closed public rest areas to reopen. They want real-time truck parking information availability and trucking parking reservation systems.
Driver distraction in the form of texting and driving is a growing concern. ATRI wants the feds to ban hand-held cell-phone use/texting for all motorists, encourage harsher penalties and more aggressive enforcement, and to continue to research to understand the size of the distracted-driving problem.
Other issues include driver shortage, health and retention; compliance, safety, Accountability (CSA); and congestion funding.
“My takeaway from [ATA’s] luncheon panel was that the trucking sector is in pretty good shape overall, except for the driver shortage. In regard to mobile resource management (MRM), I would estimate overall growth in in-cab and trailer monitoring at less than 10 percent per year,” said Clem Driscoll, president, CJ Driscoll Associates. “The Truckload sector is heavily penetrated with in-cab solutions. Most large carriers have a system. CSA is motivating some sales to mid-size fleets, but many small fleets are waiting for the ELD regulations. So, the delays with ELD regulations have probably been slowing market growth.”
Such companies as AT&T are trying to address the growing trucking requirements with new and existing products. For example, Saia LTL Freight, a trucking and logistics company, is managing its fleet of trucks with several AT&T products. Saia drivers are using handheld computers to connect with dispatch managers and monitor fuel consumption, safety, and location using AT&T’s wireless network.
“[SAIA] is a trucking company that is using all our capabilities. We partnered with them from an early stage, starting with the [Electronic Device Mandate] requirements,” said John Moscatelli, AT&T advance resource management solutions director. “Then we helped them with rugged handhelds and voice where necessary.”
Overall, Moscatelli sees a few fleet trends emerging. “There have been a lot of mergers and acquisitions in this industry. I also see that trucking companies are very aware of forced hours of service regulations for every company [mandated by the government],” he said. “It will not necessarily be the first adopter of technology that will be needing units. We have looked at the demographics, and even small and medium fleets are going to need affordable connected systems. The other trend is the growth of government sales — local, state and federal — very strong.”
Targeting a large worldwide market, Trimble has acquired several companies in the fleet space in recent years. One of them is Minneapolis-based PeopleNet, which is gearing up for the ELD mandate with an “Internet of Transportation Things” strategy that includes multiple devices talking to each other, said Randy Boyles, company senior vice president, tailored solutions.
The company rolled out its Wi-Fi-enabled in-cab scanning feature at ATA that allows drivers to scan and transmit transportation documents.
PeopleNet, along with ALK, GEOTrac, Vusion and TMW Sysems, are part of Trimble’s Transportation and Logistics division. Trimble has allowed their purchased companies to operate autonomously.
“About 95 percent of our management team is still intact. TMW still works with Omnitracs and others, but you will see a convergence with [other Trimble companies],” said Boyles, who believes that oil and gas pipeline monitoring/mapping is a growing niche.
The fleet and enterprise market is a growing space for Magellan, said Mark Perini, company associate vice president. The company has been offering its Magellan RoadMate 9496T-LMB Android unit for the fleet market.
“The unit enables bulk updates using our smart GPS technology. The Android operating system has been a growing technology for fleets,” Perini said. “The HOS regulations require reporting of how many hours truckers are off duty. With our management system, operators can implement a full set of protocols [to achieve HOS compliance]. It’s on a server, so the driver can’t change anything.”
Telogis Partners with Ford
Telogis has grown from a small company to a major player in the fleet market. The company recently announced it will be the “technology provider” for the Ford Crew Chief in North America, which is an expansion of its European partnership with the automaker.
In Europe, Ford’s telematics products will be offered to customers as a dealer-installed option and will feature vehicle location, diagnostics and performance.
The company has also been a major player in the U.S. market, integrating into Volvo Link, said Kevin Moore, Telogis vice president of OEM sales at ATA.
“While the trucking business is huge, the aftermarket is also growing,” he said. “While location information is central to what we do, we are constantly growing the platform. We are looking to be the only product that provides crowdsourcing for the commercial market.”
Even though the U.S. fleet market is growing, other world markets are growing by double digits each year. Driscoll, in his China Commercial Telematics Market Study, says the Chinese markets are growing at 20 percent, or more, each year. “China is manufacturing over 600,000 commercial trucks per year for internal use, so the addressable market is growing at a very fast rate,” he said. “China has a very inefficient logistics system and spends far more on logistics than the U.S. or Europe as a percentage of GDP. The government is very aware of the problem and is mandating the use of satellite tracking solutions in a number of sectors. Systems being sold in China today typically support both GPS and BeiDou (Compass).”
In other ATA news:
Orbcomm rolled out its GT 1100 chassis tracking solution to allow trucking companies to monitor where their rigs are located. It also allows operators to see if a trailer is mounted.
10-4 Systems is offering real-time data products NonStop, NonStop Mobile and NonStop premium. The company has a track/trace asset management capability for operators.
Qualcomm to Buy CSR for $2.5 Billion
The recent announcement by Qualcomm saying it would buy United Kingdom-based CSR for $2.5 billion signals continued inroads into the connected car and Internet of Things markets for the San Diego company.
In 2009, CSR, which stands for Cambridge Silicon Radio, purchased SiRF Technology, a GPS pioneer that was making huge strides in indoor location technologies. CSR, mainly known for its wireless Bluetooth technology, has chips in such products as audio speakers and Apple-owned Beats headphones.
The connected car market will be a big one for Qualcomm in the future. The connect car market, a dominant topic at most wireless trade shows, is expected to grow to $20 billion by 2018, according to Juniper Research. Another research company, SBD, has even higher expectations for the technology, saying the connected car market will grow to $54 billion by 2018.
Macy’s plans to add Shopkick indoor location beacons in preparation for holiday shopping. (Photo by Nicholas Eckhart is licensed under CC BY 2.0.)
Shopkicking It at Macy’s
In another big industry acquisition, SK Planet, part of South Korean mobile carrier SK Telecom, bought indoor location provider Shopkick for $200 million. The sale indicates how valuable the worldwide indoor location market is becoming.
Macy’s announced it was installing 4,000 Shopkick beacons prior to the holiday shopping season, according to published reports. The company has nearly 8 million active users and relationships with 20 retailers
In other location news:
General Motors OnStar is arguing for less restrictive open Internet rules for wireless carriers, according to published reports. OnStar argues that future connected services (Wi-Fi hotspots, wireless collision avoidance systems, streaming video and audio) that are going into cars make the net neutrality issue vital for the auto industry. The auto giant, which works with such carriers as AT&T Mobility, is siding with the wireless carriers in their battle with the FCC over net neutrality.
A number of location companies, and companies using the technology, are seeing major investments. Most notably, INRIX received a $55 million investment from Porsche. XAd, which develops mobile advertising products, received $50 million in funding from a number of partners. Geofeedia, an LBS social media monitoring company, raised $3.5 million. The company gathers social data from such sources as Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Flickr, Facebook and others.
Nokia’s HERE mapping platform is now available on Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones. The HERE app, available in Samsung’s Galaxy App Store, will run on devices operating Android 4.1. Currently, Google Maps is the default mapping service on Android phones. However, the HERE platform gives consumers another Android option.
TomTom said it has “extended [its] location-based services product portfolio with an online turn-by-turn navigation service” with support from deCarta. While TomTom has many customers, including Apple, it has never offered an off-board, server-based navigation service. Industry sources say that this announcement will allow TomTom to better compete in the Internet of Things/connected car market.
As the tragedy of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 riveted our attention, many sprang into action. More than two million volunteers scoured online satellite images for signs of the plane via Tomnod, a crowdsourcing project of DigitalGlobe.
Volunteers like Robert Wilkinson are asked to view satellite photos and tag any signs of wreckage, rafts, oil spills and other objects that may be of interest. “It took me the first hour to understand that I was looking at waves or tidal pools rather than debris or anything useful to the search,” said Wilkinson. “After that, I might have seen one or two things that I couldn’t explain, but I tagged them appropriately.”
All images that are tagged are reviewed by special algorithms before being viewed by experts. Tomnod reported that more than 650,000 objects had been tagged, and the maps had been viewed more than 98 million times.
Calls on Flight 370. This month, the Internet was full of questions about mobile communications and the missing Malaysia airplane. People didn’t understand why passengers on board the flight hadn’t made mobile emergency calls. On September 11, 2001, it was widely recalled, some passengers were able to make phone calls from the hijacked planes. Flight 370 was likely too high or going too fast to enable phones to register with cell towers. Experts say that planes flying above 5-10,000 feet would have difficulty making connections. Radar analysis estimated that the plane may have been flying as low as 12,000 feet or as high as 45,000 feet. On 9/11, passengers made calls when the plane was low or used satellite air phones available in business class.
GPS and Football. Security at places where large crowds congregate is always a concern. At last month’s Super Bowl, GPS devices tracked and monitored the team vehicles. To protect the GPS, a product from Exelis was used to detect and locate GPS interference sources to protect critical GPS signal-dependent infrastructure. Eight sensors were positioned in an array pattern to detect and locate any jamming sources.
Lost in Space. Google’s Project Tango is showcasing a prototype phone brimming with software and sensors that creates a 3D map of the environment. A select group of developers has been given the device and are expected to create innovative applications, including navigation by sight. We do know that one of these devices will be heading to the International Space Station and will be part of a project to enable robots to explore the inside and outside of the craft. The terrestrial uses of the device will include being able to map the interior of a house (the sofa goes where?), navigate through complicated buildings, provide accessibility for those with impaired vision, and emergency response. Project Tango may find interesting uses with 3D printing, which is riding a wave of interest.
GPS and LED Lights. Philips has been demonstrating an indoor location-based shopping service based on location positioning from LED lighting infrastructure. The system works by using lighting fixtures that form a dense network that not only provides light, but also acts as a positioning grid. Each fixture is identifiable and able to communicate its position to an app on a shopper’s smart device. ByteLight is another company with LED indoor location technology. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth low-energy (BLE) beacons are more established for indoor positioning.
Truck Market on the Move. Market demand remains strong for mobile resource management (MRM) devices, particularly among local fleets, reports C.J. Driscoll & Associates. “Manufacturers of light and heavy commercial vehicles are becoming increasing involved with telematics,” says Clem Driscoll. “Heavy truck manufacturers are primarily focused on enabling remote vehicle diagnostics.” Many of the large MRM companies are establishing added offices around the world.
Awkward Timing. INRIX is launching Russia’s first comprehensive traffic information and driver services platform. Russia has many challenges including difficult traffic conditions. The service, available on Audi cars, was developed through an exclusive partnership with Russia’s navigation services provider cdcom. INRIX XD Traffic in Russia provides real-time traffic and incident information covering more than 236,000 kilometers of roadways across 55 cities.
Abaqus, Inc., developer of device-neutral, cloud-based location and messaging platform that enables high-quality, low-cost mobile workforce and asset management solutions, and 1Shop Wireless, a national business partner sales (BPS) master agent for T-Mobile USA, have teamed to provide the cloud-based myGeoTracking mobile workforce management service for T-Mobile customers.
“We’re really excited to work with Abaqus to offer their myGeoTracking MRM service to T-Mobile customers,” said Peter Giansante, director of sales for 1Shop Wireless. “It’s an ideal device-neutral location-based-solution for companies that want to equip their employees with feature phones and smartphones, and want to avoid the deployment and training issues associated with mobile apps-based MRM services.”
The Abaqus myGeoTracking platform provides a unique cloud-hosted solution that combines network-derived and phone-based GPS location information with fine-grained privacy control options, location-enhanced SMS, and a powerful rules engine to let companies quickly and easily manage their field-personnel and assets. It does not require special devices & smartphones, expensive data plans, cumbersome applications, or software.
“Abaqus’ myGeoTracking bizTeam service is a great fit for any field-force oriented T-Mobile customer that needs to deploy a mobile management solution,” said Gillian Foley, vice president of One Shop Wireless.
Unlike smartphone-based applications that require special phones and client applications, the location-enhanced, SMS-based myGeoTracking mobile workforce management solution from Abaqus can locate any phone on a cellular network using either Cell ID information, or a precise location using GPS inside the device. The platform provides fine-grained controls to the dispatcher or the employee in the field to pull or push location data using simple SMS commands. The myGeoTracking platform has a rich web API which can be used to integrate with a range of back-office Enterprise systems, Abaqus said. The service provides SMS-based messaging for team job status reports, and has a powerful rules engine that can use geo-fencing, time, device identity, workgroup and other terms to integrate into a company’s mobile workflow needs on a day-to-day basis.
The myGeoTracking bizTeam service is an MRM solution which is completely cloud-based and does not require special GPS devices, special phones or any new software.
The myGeoTracking bizTeam MRM service can use any standard feature phone to send location and event information, and complies with USPS location standards.
The myGeoTracking bizTeam MRM service provides fine-grained privacy controls which can be managed by the end-user from their mobile phones or from the web site
Location-enhanced SMS (myGeoText ™) lets your mobile workers actively send you a date, time and location stamped status message from the field and trigger additional dispatch functions.
The myGeoTracking bizTeam MRM service provides Geofencing, Geo-corridors, and a variety of other events-based rules to enable easy integration of real-world alerts into a company’s workflow
The myGeoTracking bizTeam service provides rich reporting tools which can be exported to a company’s backoffice systems
The myGeoTracking MRM bizTeam service provides an Enterprise SMS feature which lets customer’s enhance their dispatch and operations by messaging individuals, groups, or the whole company.
The myGeoTracking Platform Integrates with a range of back-office programs through a rich web API.
