The autonomous train development project took a major step by carrying out field tests successfully in Finland.  The project is led by private rail expert company Proxion.  GoA4 level locomotive performed missions on a private track. Senior Ministerial Adviser Janne Hauta from ministry of transport and communications had the privilege to send the train to its first mission.

Fully automated and integrated supply chain between production and terminal

Project director Reijo Viinonen states that the autonomous train is intended to be a safe, sustainable, and competitive industrial transport mode. The autonomous, battery driven and shunting free transportation will be the future of industrial logistics.

New technologies from Finland

Partners in the development project were funded partly by Business Finland. Together they have been innovated and brought solutions for the autonomous train logistic on industrial rails.

VTT is one of Europe’s leading research institutions and is government owned.

-ADAS (Automated driving Assistant Systems) on market have been developed for the road transport, says Principal scientist Pertti Peussa from VTT. It is important to develop perception systems that are designed for railway environment.  Reliable and safe operations in all conditions must be ensured also on tracks.

Electric Power Finland has been responsible for development of trackside equipment such as level crossings and fitting it to the needs of autonomous train unit.

-Our electronic switch communicates with the train unit wirelessly, for example using the 5G network, and the train commands the switch to ensure a safe path for itself, says Jani Tupitsa, EPF’s R&D Manager.

The field tests were carried out on Voikkaa Business area’s railyard by modified Otso 4 locomotive. Besides the test unit, Steelwheel is responsible for concept design of the battery-driven autonomous locomotive.

-Field tests which were performed here today proved us that current rolling-stock can be fitted for autonomous driving, says Kimmo Hämäläinen, CEO of Steelwheel. Our sustainable, battery-driven locomotive will be the future of the industrial transportation.

Technical Manager Kimmo Kolehmainen from Proxion presented the Proxion Train Logistics Management System (PTLMS), a software that manages the supply chain. Mr. Kolehmainen also highlighted the importance of CCS+ software of which development Proxion is also responsible.

-Automated and integrated transportation will enhance logistic competitiveness and productivity, Viinonen summarizes.

Read the original article published on Proxion’s web page to learn, what’s expected of future regulation to support development of autonomous trains.

Picture: Proxion

Improvement of traffic services for businesses and households received a boost with the adoption of an open-source Rulebook by operators in the Finnish mobility sector. The goal is to promote service development in the industry, in both goods and passenger traffic, with means such as data sharing. The traffic sector is thus at last following the lead of the banking and telecommunications sectors, which have for a long time now had interoperable customer services in place.

The Rulebook, devised in collaboration by operators in the sector, will be adopted by all operators in the open-source traffic data ecosystem. Founding members Finnair, Fintraffic, HSL, ITS Finland Ry, LMJ, MaaS Global, Matkahuolto, Metsäteho, Valopilkku Taksi, VR, VTT and FLD Osuuskunta will sign the Rulebook first, and then every operator will be sent an invitation to join as an official members and to commit to compliance with the Rulebook. The Rulebook is based on groundwork done by Sitra to promote a fair data economy. The common Rulebook is a much expected milestone for the 140 operators who have already done good work on this matter in working groups.

Read the news published by Fintraffic to learn more about how the Rulebook and the organizations behind the initiative.

Vehicle charging is more than just vehicle charging to Kempower. From the beginning, the Finland-based company realized that just like most electric vehicles are not all the same – the needs of the end-customers will vary too depending on location, user preferences and specific needs. Now Kempower has an offer for charging stations that is easily scalable, portable, user-friendly, standardized and reliable.

Finland Finnish self-driving technology company Sensible 4 has carried out a successful autonomous driving pilot in Tampere, Finland, despite the worst and most challenging winter conditions in years.

The pilot, which started in January and lasted for 2.5 months, aimed to see how autonomous vehicles work with public transportation networks and collect feedback from users. Two self-driving Toyota Proace vehicles were used as feeder traffic for the tram trunk line in a suburb of Tampere — a city aiming to pioneer smart city development. The passenger feedback collected was mainly positive and focused on improving accessibility for people with disabilities.

“The self-driving vehicles ran smoothly and felt safe. In the future, I see these kinds of vehicles complementing the public transportation system for certain routes and amounts of passengers. We still need more testing to make sure the reliability in production use, and that the service either brings cost-saving in the areas they are being used or gives better service level to the population with the same costs”, says Mika Kulmala, Project Manager, City of Tampere.

The pilot was a part of the EU funded SHOW project, with an aim to find out how autonomous vehicles could work as a part of urban transportation in the future. The project’s national coordinator Pekka Eloranta from Sitowise is also satisfied with the results of the winter trial: “We got a good amount of passengers to try and test the service, even some regular customers. Also, we were able to collect feedback, for example, concerning accessibility. This aspect is important to take into account to be able to provide service to all user groups in the future.”

Also, Jussi Suomela, CBO of Sensible 4 is very satisfied: “This pilot was valuable for understanding the customer and end-user needs better, including especially the accessibility aspects. The weather was exceptionally snowy but the software and vehicles performed well and we were able to collect important test data of the extreme conditions and experience of the challenging weather.”

The pilot supported the strategic goal of the City of Tampere to be a pioneer in smart city development and was a successful example of multi-stakeholder cooperation. It also provided lessons and experience for other projects. The Smart City Test Area project aims to strengthen the competitiveness of companies and research institutes in the Tampere city region and it offers companies opportunities to test new services in a real urban environment.

“We’d like to see more activities like the autonomous vehicle experiment in Hervanta. The open living lab test area has been designed and developed according to the needs and interests of testers. Also, there’s a new three-year EU project starting next fall to develop the digital infrastructure in the area further, based on the feedback we’ve already received”, says Markku Niemi, Programme Director, Smart City Development, Business Tampere.

Read more about the pilot in extreme conditions in Sensible4’s article.

Virta opens an office in Singapore to help Southeast Asian and Australian players with fast EV charging markets entry

The year 2022 will see the Southeast Asian EV charging markets moving to the hypergrowth phase as political decisions, regulations, and incentives drive the new EV sales and charging infrastructure roll-out in the region. Australia, Singapore and Thailand are leading the growth.

Booming electric vehicle sales call for an urgent ramp-up of the charging infrastructure

“Still today, the Southeast Asian markets lag on average three years behind the European, but the gap can be closed quickly thanks to the matured availability of smart charging technologies and the wave of new EV models introduced to the markets,” says Mr Elias Pöyry, who is responsible for the new market expansions at Virta Ltd. His assessment is based on the perspective gained in his position as the chairman of EURELECTRIC’s electromobility working group representing the European energy industry in electric transportation matters.

During this decade majority of the region’s population will move to the higher consuming classes and can afford an electric vehicle. Also, on consumer purchase indicators, Southeast Asia is quickly catching up with Europe, where the plug-in vehicle share of new car registrations has already reached 40% in many countries. Currently, 30% of consumers in Thailand and 19% in Singapore prefer a fully electric or plug-in hybrid car as their next car (Deloitte 2022 Global Automotive Consumer Study, March 2022). According to even the most conservative estimates, this development will result in at least one million EVs on the road by 2025 and well over five million by 2030 in Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand alone.

This forecasted EV sales hypergrowth calls for rapid and extensive investments in public and private charging infrastructure. For example, the Australian Government’s future fuels and vehicles strategy (November 2021) aims to create an environment for 1.7 million electric vehicles on the road by 2030 and provide convenient access to fast charging for up to 81% of the population in partnership with industry. Meanwhile, in Singapore, The Land Transport Authority (LTA) will launch a tender in April to deploy 12,000 charging points across nearly 2,000 HDB carparks.

The window of opportunity is open for regional and local players to beat the multinationals

“We see that strong regional and local players in SEA and Australia have now a unique window of opportunity to establish their market shares before the multinational competition. However, time is of the essence here. Developing the same level of technological maturity from scratch as the multinationals with walled garden solutions will take so long that the early mover advantage is lost,” says Mr Dave Mommen, the Sales Director of Virta Southeast Asia and Australia.

Virta regional sales engineer Mr Roger Chang has over 14 years of experience with start-ups, scale-ups, and most recently in the EV charging point operations in the region before joining Virta. According to Mr Chang, “The Virta platform’s mature technology and multi-tenant service model developed in European markets means that capabilities to operate and monetise smart EV charging services locally and cross-border can be set up within weeks instead of months.”

Of the many technological advantages of the Virta platform, Mr Mommen and Mr Chang highlight the topical relevancy of data security and smart energy management features. The latter enables step-by-step optimisation of installation and grid-connection costs on the individual property level and makes it possible to take advantage of the local solar power resources.

On a local and national level, Virta energy management technologies ensure that the chargers are connected to the local grid, considering the grid limitations and hence securing electricity network stability. Virta patented bi-directional Vehicle-to-Grid technologies also give access to the future energy flexibility markets and new revenue streams for companies.

First partners announced in Australia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand

Virta Southeast Asia and Australia regional headquarters is located in Singapore. First published contracts include partnerships with Thailand-based EVolt Technology Co., Ltd., Malaysian VSD Automation, Tetris Energy of Australia, and Singapore’s leading taxi fleet operator with over 12 000 taxis.

Read the original article published on virta.global.

Kempower is the new EV fast charging partner for Mer Norway

Mer, one of the leading charging point operators in Europe, has chosen Kempower as one of its new electric vehicles (EV) fast charging partners in Norway. Kempower and Mer Norway have signed a frame agreement on Kempower’s DC fast charging technology deliveries to Norway. Following Mer Norway’s ambition to provide sustainable electric mobility to everyone, they will establish charging stations with Kempower technology at scale.

The European charging company Mer has footprint in Norway, Sweden, UK, Germany and Austria. Owned by Statkraft, Europe’s largest producer of renewable energy, the company has over a decade of experience within EV charging. Established as early as 2009, Mer Norway (formerly Grønn Kontakt) has been one of the leading charging operators in Norway – also known as the pioneering country for electric mobility. Within this time, Mer Norway has established over 300 fast charging stations across Norway.

– Our mission is to make sustainable electric mobility easy and accessible to everyone, and we have an ambitious build out programme in Norway in order to keep up with the strong EV adaptation. Our customers are at the heart of everything we do and we are happy to partner up with Kempower who clearly share the same vision as Mer, says Nicholai Sheridan Jørgensen, managing director of Mer Norway.

– We are extremely happy for the cooperation with Mer Norway. Kempower has recently gained a strong foothold on the Norwegian charging market, and we are looking forward to developing the charging experience further with Mer’s customers – the Norwegian EV drivers, says Tomi Ristimäki, CEO, Kempower.

For years, Norway has been the leader in electrifying cars: in 2021, two-thirds of new cars sold in Norway were electric.

Original news published on Kempower.com.

DESTIA AND ELECTREON START COLLABORATION IN FINLAND

Destia, a leading provider of charging infrastructure services in Finland, and Electreon, an Israel-based wireless charging technology provider, will be showcasing wireless charging for electric vehicles in Vantaa, Finland. The companies will be testing the solution in preparation of potentially integrating Electreon’s technology into Destia’s electric charging solution.

The companies have signed a Memorandum of Understanding and as part of the collaboration, the companies will first test the wireless charging solution by integrating Electreon’s wireless system to a commercial electric vehicle (EV). This will give fleet operators the opportunity to experience the benefits of the wireless charging in use.

Both companies see great potential for wireless charging and wireless electric road systems, that is roads that power electric vehicles, particularly for professional transport. Electric road system deployments can also help decrease emissions from the transport sector and create conditions for electric vehicle commercialisation.

“Wireless charging and roads and depots that power the cars driving on them have great potential especially for the professional transport segment. Wireless charging can improve efficiency by allowing for example trucks and vans to charge while loading or taxis to charge on the go as they move through taxi queues waiting for passengers. Testing the technology is a first step towards its adoption. As an EV charging service provider, we are eager to see how Electreon’s wireless charging technology can complement our electric charging service,” says Jere Jokinen, Head of EV Charging at Destia.

“We intend to enter the Finnish market through a collaboration with Destia. Combining Destia’s strength in charging infrastructure and services with Electreon’s seamless technology in both static and dynamic wireless charging will be a competitive solution for many operational businesses within the transportation segment,” says Maher Kasskawo, Business Development Manager, Electreon.

Later, the companies see an opportunity to move to commercial collaboration, where Electreon’s wireless charging system and related operation and maintenance services would be provided as part of Destia’s electric charging service.

Destia offers EV charging solutions for businesses and professional transport, its customers include bus operators, logistics companies, vehicle manufacturers and taxi companies. The end-to-end service consists of the electrical infrastructure, charging devices and their remote management as well as equipment maintenance.

Read the original news article on Destia.fi.

The Finnish smart ports pioneer Awake.AI has launched a new service, Voyage Event API, that provides automated messages when vessels enter or exit user-defined areas.

The Event API service provides actual time event information and notifies about the vessel arrival times to various areas during port calls (e.g. pilot boarding places and berths). The service provides time references automatically and objectively. Thus can be used for examplein a statement of facts or records for billing.

The service enables personnel in various roles related to the port call to prepare in advance for the arrival of vessels of interest without continuous manual monitoring. Other use cases include monitoring traffic in reserved or hazardous areas. For example, areas close to a port can be temporarily or permanently reserved for dredging, sailing competitions, environmental restrictions, etc.

Read the original news on Awake.AI.

Nodeon Finland piloted new technology to analyse traffic and improve traffic safety. The technology is based on LIDAR and AI. During the pilot, a traffic census with an accuracy of over 95 per cent was achieved and developmental leaps were taken towards a C-ITS solution that improves traffic safety.

LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) is a rapidly developing type of technology. With LiDAR, the physical environment is scanned in detail through a digital 3D point cloud model. In the vehicle manufacturing industry, LiDAR sensors are used in autonomous vehicles, in particular.

In summer and autumn 2021, Nodeon Finland tested the use of a LiDAR sensor and artificial intelligence in Helsinki to monitor and count traffic flows at a junction, as well as to improve traffic safety. Partner in this pilot was Bluecity Technology.

The pilot was a part of Forum Virium Helsinki’s and City of Helsinki’s Jätkäsaari Mobility Lab project, which supports the testing of smart mobility innovations.

The Helsinki pilot was the first of its kind in an authentic street environment in Finland. Based on the results, Nodeon and its partners began productising its solution for new markets.

Read the full article published on testbed.helsinki to learn what kind of data was produced through the system and what were the pilot results.