Volvo delivers intelligent transport system to Norway

Volvo Mobility Systems, a telematics unit within the Volvo Group, has
together with Norwegian system integrator Mobitech a/s delivered the
first Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) and Real-time Passenger
Information (RTPI) system in Norway. The customer, Tromso City, uses the
system to provide travel information in real time to its passengers, and
to monitor and control its city bus operations.

The city of Tromso operates a bus fleet of around 100 buses. The project
includes the integration of 17 buses to the AVL/RTPI system delivered by
Volvo, and using the commercially available public GPRS network for data
communication. Eventually, the whole fleet of city buses will be linked
to the system.

With this delivery, Tromso has acquired one of the most modern AVL/RTPI
systems on the market. Major functionalities include automatic vehicle
location, punctuality monitoring, two-way text messaging, automatic next-
stop announcement, destination sign control. Real-time passenger
information, such as departure forecasts, is shown to passengers at bus
stop displays. Traffic controllers can monitor the actual status of the
traffic on user-friendly Windows-based applications at the control
center.

Volvo Mobility Systems' next-generation telematics system for public
transport, ITS4mobility, is at the core of the system in Tromso. It is
an event driven system based on GPS positioning in combination with dead
reckoning and the capturing of door openings.

The Linux-based on-board computer of ITS4mobility is a major step
forward when it comes to on-board electronics in buses. It integrates a
full-color 5,5" TFT screen which displays ergonomically adapted
information to the driver in ways that have not been possible until now.
The driver interface has been developed together with HMI specialists
and with active input from bus drivers. The Volvo on-board unit can be
installed on any bus brand as a retrofit solution. When provided factory-
installed in new Volvo buses, it gives further quality, cost-efficiency
and functionality advantages as it is smoothly linked to the Volvo
buses' own multiplex system.

The use of GPRS for data communication makes it possible to remotely log
vehicles' status and download new timetables and software upgrades into
specific vehicles from e.g. the supplier's home base, and thus lowering
maintenance costs of such systems.

The central unit of ITS4mobility is already today tracking some 450
buses and trams in the city of Gothenburg, providing real-time passenger
information to traffic controllers, information officers, and to
passengers at more than 140 at-stop displays, but also via the Internet
and wap. ITS4mobility can use any radio communications protocol, and can
be installed for any size of fleet. It is based on a decade's experience
from developing and maintaining real-time passenger information systems.
Within short, the on-board unit of ITS4mobility will be installed in
ferries operating in the public transport system of Gothenburg.

Tromso is a Norwegian city of some 75 000 inhabitants, located around
1600 km north of Oslo at a latitude of 70 North, one of the northern-
most cities in the world. It has an annual average temperature of 2,5 C;
with midnight sun from 21st May to 23rd July and complete darkness from
25th November to 21st January. It is affectionately known as "Paris of
the North".

July 3, 2003

For further information, please contact Goran Varosy at +46 31 771 47 45