Shoothill Puts Hydrogen Fuel Cell Cars on the Virtual Earth Map
10th May 2009
Vehicle tracking holds green potential.
Birmingham, United Kingdom, (May 10th 2007).
A vehicle tracking system developed for an ‘intelligent city’ project in the English West Midlands could have a much wider potential as an efficient and cost-effective method of tracking vehicles in real-time while demonstrating the cost-savings and value being delivered by using ‘green’ forms of fuel, claim its developers.
Shoothill specializes in mapping and global positioning systems and has developed a system to track a series of experimental fuel-cell cars being operated in Birmingham as part of an environmentally friendly scheme to develop the UK’s first ‘intelligent city’.
The software enables anyone to track the cars online in real time and to view telemetry information such as how much fuel they have consumed, their current mileage and where the nearest hydrogen re-fuelling station is relative to their current location.
“The cars are powered by hydrogen fuel-cells, but there are not many places at which you can re-fuel the cars at the moment, so it is vital to know how much fuel you have left at all times – so that you know you’ll be able to reach your destination,” says Rod Plummer, managing director of Shoothill. “The system we have developed enables anyone – including the car driver – to see exactly how many miles they have left and the location and distance to the nearest re-fuelling station.”
Plummer claims that the system could be used by transport firms to monitor the current location and expected arrival times of vehicles, to monitor traffic flows, and to plot the quickest and most cost-effective routes for vehicles.
Shoothill’s intelligent city system was built using standard Windows-based tools and could be easily and swiftly adapted to run on most networks. “All you’d need to do is equip the vehicles with low-cost telemetry devices, which is relatively easy to do and deploy the application on a web server. It could then be made available through a standard browser such as Internet Explorer,” says Plummer.
About Shoothill
Shoothill is a highly specialised developer of Geo Spatial business applications using Microsoft Virtual Earth at its core.
We work in many arenas and sectors and our experience has shown that no matter what your business, Shoothill can develop business improvement tools that deliver commercial benefit and competitor advantage
Whether you are using a mapping system already, or wish to look into the possibilities of Geo Spatial application development, Shoothill are the perfect partner. We will provide impartial and professional advice and give guidance on what technologies are best suited for your business.
For further information please contact us at:
Shoothill Ltd
+44 (0) 845 4210390
info@shoothill.com
