Month: September 2020

Keolis, in partnership with Urban ICT Arena, Telia, Ericsson, Intel and T-engineering, has launched a new autonomous self-driving, electric minibus trial in Stockholm, Sweden. It is using 5G technology to remotely control and monitor the vehicle.

This trial aims to explore the safe introduction of self-driving autonomous electric vehicles in complex urban areas with a view to optimising route planning and traffic.

The trial will be conducted in Royal Djurgarden, one of the country’s most popular tourist destinations, from September 24^th to October 8^th, 2020. The autonomous minibus, which will drive along a 1.6 kilometer route, will serve the National Museum of Science and Technology, the Maritime Museum, the Nordic Museum and Vasa Museum.

To mark the launch, an inauguration ceremony took place in Djurgården, attended by Prince Daniel, Duke of Vastergotland, Anders Ygeman, the Swedish Minister for Energy and Digital Development, Kristoffer Tamsons, Regional Minister for Transport of the Stockholm Region and Chairman of Stockholm Public Transport, Daniel Helldén, Deputy Mayor of the Traffic Division in Stockholm, and Bernard Tabary, CEO International at Keolis Group.

“Since the launch of the world’s driverless metro in Lille (France) in 1983, Keolis has been drawing on its expertise as a pioneer in autonomous mobility to make shared mobility smarter, more connected and more sustainable. This ground-breaking trial in collaboration with our key partners constitutes another important step forward,” says Bernard Tabary, CEO International at Keolis. “We’re pleased to be conducting this trial in Sweden, where we already have a strong presence through our subsidiary Keolis Sverige and carry 730,000 passengers per day.”

This trial illustrates Keolis’ leadership in the operation of autonomous vehicles. In 2016, the Keolis Group launched a trial of the first autonomous vehicles in Lyon, France. Since then, it has operated autonomous vehicles in Australia, Belgium, Canada, the USA and the UK, carrying 200,000 passengers and covering over 100,000 km.

Preparing for full autonomy

The pilot project at Djurgården explores how a system with 5G-connected vehicles, which are monitored by a control tower remotely, can facilitate the safe introduction of self-driving electric buses in more complex and demanding urban areas. Benefits of such a system include improved route planning and traffic flows, reduced operational costs and pollution and a more reliable, accessible form of public transport for passengers.

The unique technical features of the 5G network, including extremely high data speeds combined with low latency, mean that the connected buses can respond in real time to commands from the centralised control tower. This is a prerequisite for the safe remote control of vehicles and an important step in moving the driver from the bus into the control tower.

Keolis and Ericsson, which provides the technology for the connected control tower, initiated the project following demonstrations of remote control 5G vehicles in 2019 at the UITP exhibition in Stockholm and at the RNTP exhibition in Nantes.

Telia is providing 5G connectivity in collaboration with Ericsson. Intel is delivering processing power to both the IT system in the vehicles and the control tower, as well as the mobile network.

The vehicle, which is equipped with self-driving technology, is provided by the Swedish technology firm T-engineering. It features seven seats and will drive at a maximum speed of 18km/h.

Commercial services run from Monday to Friday, between 8.00 and 10 am and 2.00 to 4.00 pm, and feature a safety driver present in the vehicle at all times.

The trial ends on October 8^th and will be continued in Kista Science City. The aim of this trail will be to pilot the vehicle from a control tower without an operator on board. In parallel with the Swedish trial, Keolis is testing fully autonomous vehicles at a site closed to traffic in Châteauroux in France.

Keolis in Sweden

Keolis Sverige has been present in Sweden since 2003 and today operates 1,650 fossil-free buses which cover 84 million km every year in five Swedish regions. With over 6,000 employees, it is the second-largest player in the Swedish bus market.

A pioneer in autonomous vehicles, Keolis Sverige partnered with Volvo in developing anddemonstrating a 12-metre long electric which was parked, washed and recharged autonomously at the Keolis depot in Gothenburg in November 2019.

Comment on this article below or via Twitter: @IoTNow_OR @jcIoTnow

The post Keolis launches a new 5G autonomous electric vehicle trial in Stockholm appeared first on IoT Now Transport.

Sponsored News:

In the time of social distancing and pandemic restrictions, technology has become more important than ever to maintain our working productivity and social bonds. In a virtual first, the annual AI+IoT Business Conference (ABC) hosted by the AI+IoT Intelligent Business Alliance will focus on the impact of IoT for the Southeast Asian region.

The first virtual Southeast Asia ABC kicked off today for a whole month, which brings together key major industry organizations including Tuya Smart, a leading global AIoT platform, and other leading partners such as the Singapore Manufacturing Federation, Singapore Industrial Automation Association, Asia Pacific Assistive Robotics Association, Asia IoT, GSMA, and famous brands in Southeast Asia to share cutting-edge insights on all things IoT-specific in Southeast Asia.

Themed on “Revive in Growth – Inspired by Intelligence”, the inaugural virtual AIBC aims to harness AIoT for transforming businesses in Southeast Asia, after the pandemic. The event consists of a series of fireside chats and TED-style talks by esteemed companies and innovators.

“This (pandemic) will be the start when young people begin to learn more about the smart home,” Mr. Ryan, CEO from Indonesian brand Bardi Smart Home commented. “And we can see the smart home market is growing rapidly here right now, which is a good sign.”

Mr. Vincent Chew, Group Managing Director of Pensonic, one of the leading electrical household appliances brand in Malaysia, said, “Along the way with wider coverage of internet and lower cost of devices, more homes will be connected where devices shall work around our movement and environment.”

Due to travel restrictions and home isolation because of the pandemic, the demand for various entertainment and interaction on the Internet has increased in Thailand, where Internet products have become quite popular. Xie Chongtong, President of Thailand’s home security and CCTV brand Watashi said, “IoT innovation is driven by increasing demands of connection scenarios, which will become more and more automated and intelligent.”

Hosted by AI+IoT Intelligent Business Alliance, the AI+IoT Business Conference has garnered over 200 leading companies, 400 opinion leaders, 100 renowned investors and 30,000 pioneers of intelligent business exchange knowledge and ideas. The 2020 AI+IoT Business Conference Online – Southeast Asia is the first of the regional event instead of global, and the first ever with focus in the SEA region. Slated to grow by 12% annually, the regional IoT market will be worth over 151 billion dollars by 2024 (Marketsandmarkets).

Jeff Immelt, Former Chairman and CEO of GE, Venture Partner of NEA, Chairman of Tuya US said, “the event is a major initiative that involves important key industry players, who will move forward the development of IoT, and shift the entire smart home landscape in Southeast Asia and give great momentum to its growth”.

The post Tuya Smart kicks off inaugural AI+IoT Virtual Business Conference bringing together key industry leaders in the SEA IoT scene appeared first on IoT Now Transport.

Ericsson is partnering with Swedish and international companies to test a 5G-enabled self-driving electric minibus in the heart of Stockholm.

From September 24, the 5G Ride initiative minibus operate along a short route on the island of Djurgarden, home to many of Stockholm’s best-known attractions and sites for approximately two weeks.

Members of the public are allowed to ride in the minibus in accordance with strict COVID-19-related regulations, including social distancing measures.

As part of their ongoing strategic 5G partnership to boost digitalisation across multiple industries and uses cases in the Nordics, Ericsson and Nordic Communications Service Provider Telia Company (Telia) have deployed 5G sites along the trial route.

The network is powered by commercial Ericsson Radio System products and solutions. Ericsson is also providing the technical solution for the related control tower. Telia also launched an Ericsson-powered 5G in central Stockholm on 700Mhz band earlier this year.

The high-speed data transfer, low latency and reliability of 5G enables the connected minibus to respond in real time to commands from the control tower. The initial tests are expected to be followed by further trials in 2021. The aim is to pave the way towards making 5G-enabled electric driverless public transport services a reality.

The current pilot initiative is part of a partnership between Urban ICT Arena, Keolis, Telia, Ericsson and Intel, focusing on how 5G and related control towers can enable more sustainable and efficient public transport systems. The initiative is backed by Vinnova and Drive Sweden, while the minibus is provided by technology company, T-Engineering.

The launch was attended by Prince Daniel of the Swedish Royal Family, and Allison Kirkby, president and CEO, Telia Company. Jenny Lindqvist, head of customer unit Northern and Central Europe, Ericsson, also attended.

Lindqvist says, “We are proud to be part of this exciting journey, quite literally. From the passengers’ experience to road safety and environmental impact, the potential 5G offers to society is ever-growing. Ericsson’s control tower solution, with the efficiency and reliability of 5G, manages self-driving buses in a smart way, transforming transport as we know it. In partnership with Telia, we are enabling 5G as the fundamental platform for innovation, making sustainable transport a reality in Stockholm.”

Anders Olsson, CEO, Telia Sweden, says, “This project is a great example of how 5G can benefit society. Self-driving technology combined with electrification and 5G can help transform public transport, making it more efficient to operate and more accessible to the people who need it, while reducing its environmental footprint. Key components in building smarter cities.”

For further details, Click here.

Comment on this article below or via Twitter: @IoTNow_OR @jcIoTnow

The post Ericsson, Telia and partners test driverless 5G-enabled electric minibus in Stockholm appeared first on IoT Now Transport.

Digital infrastructure company, Equinix, Inc., has been selected as a strategic supplier for Nokia’s Worldwide IoT Network Grid (WING) managed service, in a collaboration to bring next-generation edge architectures and services to market. WING allows operators without an Internet of Things (IoT) footprint to gain fast entry to the IoT market or to help operators expand an existing IoT business.

Nokia is leveraging Equinix IBX data centres to deploy both core and edge nodes to support mobile, IoT and cloud connectivity at global scale. With Platform Equinix, Nokia WING is able to support markets across the globe in areas such as IoT data traffic and device density, as well as local regulatory environments (such as GDPR).

Nokia is leveraging Equinix’s global data centre footprint to enable the efficient collection from, and distribution across, multiple networks and clouds. Additionally, Nokia and Equinix are exploring edge architectures and deployment models that can improve the performance of use cases relating to cloud computing, artificial intelligence, machine learning and IoT.

The globally anticipated proliferation of data will increase demand for localised data collection and analysis across cities and countries. Faster, lower latency infrastructures — like that brought to market by Equinix and Nokia — provide the required gigabit speed and the ability to connect and collect data from billions of IoT devices. With this solution, Nokia is helping mobile network operators extract valuable insights to evolve their business performance. Nokia is working with Equinix to roll out WING deployments quickly and efficiently for its customers across regions.

Ankur Bhan, head of WING, Nokia says: “Nokia WING offers a superior IoT service experience for operators through global network presence, unified orchestration and consistent service level agreements. This deal will support our efforts to manage IoT-related data analysis on a global basis.”

Jim Poole, VP, Equinix comments: “Nokia needed access to multiple markets and ecosystems to connect to NSPs and enterprises who want a play in the IoT space. By directly connecting to Nokia WING, mobile network operators can capture business value across IoT, AI and security, with a connectivity strategy to support business transformation.”

Platform Equinix provides access to nearly 10,000 businesses around the world in rich vertical ecosystems, including more than 1,800 networks, 2,900 cloud and IT service providers and 3,000 enterprises. This supports Nokia WING’s focus on providing access to nine vertical markets (connected car, healthcare, logistics and transport, smart cities, utilities, connected agriculture, connected retail, smart home and building, connected industry).

Today, Equinix operates more than 210 IBX data centres in 55+ markets, providing customers with even more ways to connect with other businesses around the world on Platform Equinix.

Comment on this article below or via Twitter: @IoTNow_OR @jcIoTnow

The post Equinix data centres to connect Nokia to mobile, IoT and cloud ecosystems appeared first on IoT Now Transport.