Taiwan is among a select list of leaders that are set to join the Vehicle Infrastructure Transportation Affiliates Laboratory (VITAL), a worldwide organization led by the University of California, Berkeley, to dedicate resources to research and development for intelligent transportation systems (ITS) used in automobiles.
A memorandum of understanding was signed between the Taiwan Telematics Industry Alliance (TTIA, 台灣車載資通訊產業聯盟) and VITAL in Taipei yesterday, paving the way for local tech firms to play a role in the emerging ITS technology.
ITS, or telematics, refers to an integrated application combining IT, communications and auto electronics that can make cars “smarter, greener and safer” by talking to each other on the roads.
“We hope VITAL will open opportunities for Taiwan’s telematics industry in the European, US and Japanese markets and help establish the presence of our telematics technologies and products on the global market,” said Wu Ming-ji (吳明機), director-general of the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ department of industrial technology.
The TTIA is an alliance representing some 100 tech companies including Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), Advantech Co (研華科技) and Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信). VITAL is a consortium created by the transportation research institute at UC Berkeley.
Senior executives from Ford Motor Co and Nissan Motor Co, who attended the signing ceremony, are visiting Taipei to attend the Telematics Industry International Exchange Forum and meet key Taiwanese players in the field.
Masao Fukushima, engineering director at Nissan’s ITS department, told the Taipei Times the company could sign up for VITAL membership.
Nissan, which has been working with the Yulon Group (裕隆集團)-led Hua-chuang Automobile Information Technical Center Co (華創車電), didn’t rule out working with more Taiwanese partners if the opportunities arise.
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves fell below the US$600 billion mark at the end of last month, with the central bank reporting a total of US$596.89 billion — a decline of US$8.6 billion from February — ending a three-month streak of increases. The central bank attributed the drop to a combination of factors such as outflows by foreign institutional investors, currency fluctuations and its own market interventions. “The large-scale outflows disrupted the balance of supply and demand in the foreign exchange market, prompting the central bank to intervene repeatedly by selling US dollars to stabilize the local currency,” Department of Foreign
Intel Corp is joining Elon Musk’s long-shot effort to develop semiconductors for Tesla Inc, Space Exploration Technologies Corp and xAI, marking a surprising twist in the chipmaker’s comeback bid. Intel would help the Terafab project “refactor” the technology in a chip factory, the company said on Tuesday in a post on X, Musk’s social media platform. That is a stage in the development process that typically helps make chips more powerful or reliable. The chipmaker’s shares jumped 4.2 percent to US$52.91 in New York trading on Tuesday. The Terafab project is a grand plan by Musk to eventually manufacture his own chips for
Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) yesterday said it plans to resume operations at two coal-fired power generators for three months to boost security of electricity supply as liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply risks are running high due to the Middle East conflict. The two coal-fired power generators are at Mailiao Power Plant in Yunlin County’s Mailiao Township (麥寮). The plant, operated by Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), supplied electricity to Taipower’s power grid until the end of last year. Taipower’s decision came about one month after Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) on March 10 said that the nation had no imminent
Some robotaxi passengers were left stranded in the middle of fast-moving traffic in a major Chinese city after their driverless vehicles stopped running, according to police and media reports on Wednesday. A preliminary investigation indicates more than 100 robotaxis came to a halt because of a “system malfunction,” police in the city of Wuhan said in a statement, without elaborating. No injuries were reported. One passenger told Chinese media that their robotaxi stopped after turning a corner. An instruction on a screen read: “Driving system malfunction. Staff are expected to arrive in 5 minutes.” After no one showed up, the passenger pushed
RSS