TU talks to Ellis Lindsay, director of solution incubation at Alcatel-Lucent, about making the connected car a reality

In this week’s Brief: Telogis, SingTel, Telmap, SkyBitz, QinetiQ, Smart fortwo, Navman Wireless, Trakm8, u-blox, DigiCore, and Minorplanet

Andrew Tolve reports on how the eCall in-vehicle emergency system could accelerate demand for telematics applications

This week's news will also cover Volvo's release of its S60 infotainment system, the iPad launch, EVs at the New York International Auto Show and more....

Tele Atlas unveiled an updated map database that boasts comprehensive location and navigation content for 95 countries and territories, increasing Tele Atlas’s coverage to more than 20 million miles of roads. The new database, MultiNet 2010.03, puts the likes of Uruguay, Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Mali, and Mauritania on the electric grid for the first time.

Andrew Tolve reports on the challenges and opportunities of building a ‘pay-how-you-drive’ car insurance model.

We’ve all experienced the frustration before: An auto insurer asks for some basic information—age, sex, credit score, and driving record—plugs that information into an equation, and voila! Out pops a premium that only vaguely represents how you as a driver really drive.

Ruptela is a GPS monitoring solution developer whose products are used for fleet, asset and personal tracking. The firm helps companies effectively manage resources with a suite of communications technologies, electronics and software systems. Ruptela offers Trust Track, a ready-to-go solution that includes the necessary hardware, user-friendly Web-based software, connections and detailed maps.

Europe’s largest auto exhibition, the International Motor Show, is celebrating its 80th anniversary in Geneva. The global recession and the auto industry’s dreary 2009 caused the show’s organizers to fear the 80th anniversary might not come to pass. But more than 75 automakers and design boutiques arrived in Geneva with glitzy rides and revolutionary concepts in tow.

David Levine, director of next-generation services for ITIS Holdings, is responsible for leading business development across strategic automotive accounts for MILE Traffic and Travel GmbH. As part of MILE’s recent successful bid to deliver traffic and travel services across Europe for BMW AG, Levine led the creation of a new high-quality traffic service for Germany.

The European Space Agency (ESA) announced that construction is set to begin on the operational infrastructure of Galileo, the EU’s global navigation satellite alternative to GPS.