By Marco Annoni, CEO VEM Solutions
European research project ‘STEVE’ (Smart-Tailored L-category Electric Vehicle demonstration in hEtherogeneous urban use-cases) was born and developed with the aim of supporting the development of electrical vehicles as a sustainable mean to minimize urban traffic. Over half of the world’s population lives in the cities and this trend is set to increase. Traffic volume, congestions and parking difficulty have a significant environmental impact. Creating sustainable transportation is one of the main challenges of our times and public awareness of the value of such an initiative is increasing daily. The project will be carried out for 3 years: 21 partners from 7 different countries will study and analyze the use of light electric vehicles in medium-sized cities. Villach (Austria), Turin and Venaria (Italy) and Calvià (Spain) have been identified as “Testing Regions”. The increasing use of electric vehicles should be supported by specific services, implemented and made available to European citizens. Many of the initiatives of STEVE project will focus on communication between vehicles, drivers and environment and telematic providers should be involved into this process. The objective of Vem Solutions – the only TSP involved in this project and responsible for the development of communication architecture between vehicles and control centre – is to develop and test innovative telematic and IoT solutions to be used and sold in the upcoming years. Vem Solutions was born last year from the merger of Elem S.p.A. and Vem Solutions S.r.l., both owned by holding company Viasat Group. It is a global player and top competitor in the field of hardware, firmware and software development and design. Its innovative technological solutions in the field of electric systems and satellite telematics place the company in a strategic positioning in the IoT market.