The NaviForum 2004 attracted more than 300 international delegates, representing 70 companies including automobile manufacturers, consumer electronics producers, map data suppliers and hardware manufacturers. In addition, 20 officials from Chinese government offices and academics from more than 10 universities and research institutes attended the event.
Joint hosts were the High and New Technology Development and Industrialisation Department of the Chinese Ministry of Science & Technology, and the Science and Technology Commission of the Shanghai Municipality. Delegates exchanged knowledge on infrastructure, technologies and products, as well as on dynamic traffic data, and policies and standards relevant to navigation.
Jacob Bangsgaard, ERTICO’s head of international cooperation.Key topics also included the requirement for sound navigation infrastructure, industry hopes and expectations for dynamic navigation, the pressing demands of relevant companies and customers for government support, and trends in diversification trend in the area of navigation infrastructure development.
Jacob Bangsgaard, ERTICO head of international cooperation, gave a keynote speech on the European satellite project Galileo and its potential contribution to dynamic navigation in China. A number of ERTICO partners – including Siemens VDO, Tele Atlas, Blaupunkt and Navteq – put forward key speakers for sessions devoted to dynamic navigation, location-based services (LBS) applications, the industrial environment for navigation, and digital mapping.
Taking heed of TMC
The subject of TMC attracted notable attention at the Forum, as Chinese navigation players showed interest in exploring its impact on urban traffic. Jacob Bangsgaard introduced the DYNASTY project, the first to demonstrate TMC for dynamic navigation in China.
DYNASTY enjoys strong participation by key stakeholders from both China and Europe. At the Chinese end, the organisations responsible for coordinating activities are the Beijing Municipal Committee of Communication, the Beijing Transportation Research Centre, the Beijing Traffic Management Bureau and the Beijing Radio Administration Bureau. Coordinated by ERTICO, the European industry group behind the introduction of TMC in China includes Volkswagen, Bosch, Siemens, TeleAtlas, Navteq, Thetis, GEWI, and PTV.
DYNASTY’s main activity involves the demonstration of dynamic navigation services using TMC messages. Its technical implementation will be completed in Summer 2005, with live demonstrations planned in November 2005 in Beijing for high-level Chinese officials and representatives from Chinese industries and universities.
Preparations for these demonstrations will be made at a 5 April 2005 workshop in Beijing. At this event, all the interested Chinese stakeholders will meet with the European TMC experts to discuss technical specifications and implementation strategies.
Further information is available from Jacob Bangsgaard, j.bangsgaard@mail.ertico.com
Published in ITS International, Jan/Feb 2005 (ERTICO)
