Sun revs up traffic management division

Sun Microsystems has opened a Traffic Systems Division in the UK, aiming to develop road traffic management systems to combat congestion.

The company plans to use technologies such as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Sensor Networks and Java Cards to build digital systems that react in real time and cope with ever increasing amounts of road traffic.

Leslie Stretch, vice president and managing director at Sun UK and Ireland, said in a statement: "The threat of economic and social paralysis through increasingly congested road traffic is a mathematical inevitability.

"We need to apply the brains of our best technologists to this class of problem.

"These new internet-based technologies will soon connect anything with a digital heartbeat to the network and will dramatically alter the business and socio-economic landscape."

According to Stretch, the London Congestion Charge infrastructure already makes use of Sun technology, and forthcoming management systems will be even more network-centric and intelligent.

"By architecting these systems in a different way they can allow citizens and companies to track their vehicles, find the closest petrol station or bank, pay for car parking, and receive traffic alerts," he said.

The Traffic Systems Division, which will be launched in April, will be closely aligned to Sun's recently established RFID and Mobility Centre in Linlithgow, Scotland and will sit within the firm's existing public sector group.