FITSCO and Cognitive Pilot Form Strategic Alliance to develop Intelligent Transport Systems

One of China’s main urban rail transit signaling system providers, FITSCO, and Cognitive Pilot, an autonomous driving technology joint venture of Russia’s Sberbank and Cognitive Technologies Group, are excited to announce a Strategic Alliance in the field of high-tech solutions for Smart Cities, Intelligent Transportation and Autonomous Driving.

Both sides will collaborate in research and development of smart digital technologies for public transport, including AI-based solutions related to smart roads, smart technologies for urban public transport systems and intelligent control systems in the regions of East and Southeast Asia as well as in Russia. Together FITSCO and Cognitive Pilot will also develop solutions for reconstruction and upgrade of the existing transport infrastructures and will supply the new products with AI-based autonomous driving and computer vision technologies.

Comment of Jack Wu, CEO of FITSCO:

“China will establish a comprehensive modern transport system by 2035, according to the document jointly released by China Central Committee and the State Council which puts forward requirements for promote intelligent transport with the support of big data, artificial intelligence. The industry association has also issued the «smart urban rail development outline»，which through demonstration and guidance, is gradually promoted and applied in the whole industry to promote the construction of smart urban rail transit.

FITSCO is actively developing AI-based autonomous driving system too. It can be used in Metro, LRV, APM, maglev train and many other fields. Through the deep integration of train control system and vehicle control, the system can take over all the driving tasks, realize self-protection and self-operation, simplify the system structure and reduce the cost of development.”

Comment of Olga Uskova, CEO of Cognitive Pilot:

“New digital technologies in public transport and smart cities are among the most important and promising fields for development. This alliance will help both companies accelerate the development of the New Smart Reality, consisting of the combination of Smart Infrastructure technologies developed by FITSCO and Smart Transport technologies from Cognitive Pilot. It will also help achieve significant cost efficiencies in the development of new technologies for urban mobility and public transport automation.”

Russia already has multiple large-scale projects aimed to upgrade the country’s transport infrastructure. The biggest one is led by VEB.RF, Russia’s largest government-owned investment company and main development institute of the country. Until 2030 VEB may spend over $60 billion on the Infrastructure Program to renew urban public transport in urban agglomerations.

The length of tramlines in Russia is over 2,500 km and the length of subway lines is over 650 km. The total number of tram cabs reaches 7 700 units and 7 800 units stand for subway carriages, which makes the segment of machinery for public transport one of the most promising markets.

Four months ago FITSCO and Cognitive Pilot have started a joint project on the development of an Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) for LRVs in China, aimed at achieving fully autonomous operation. The system will integrate the video, radar and lidar sensors to monitor the LRV’s surroundings, and an onboard computer to compute the data and give handling instructions to the vehicle’s control system. The joint solution is aimed to increase the level of safety and efficiency of public transport. The new technology will reduce the number of transport accidents in the city and will minimize their dependence on the human factor.

FITSCO (Shanghai Fuxin Intelligent Transportation Solutions Co., Ltd.) – the company was founded in 2012 and is controlled by China Railway Electrification Bureau (Group) Co. Ltd. FITSCO mainly provides urban rail transit signaling and communication solutions for metros, light rail, monorails, trams, APM, commuter trains. FITSCO has successively undertaken the comprehensive signaling and communication construction for Shanghai Metro Line 8 APM project, Shanghai Pudong Airport Express Project, Qingdao Metro Line 6 Demonstration Project, Taiyuan Metro Line2, as well as many constructions on Tram signaling and communication integration projects in Shanghai, Suzhou, Huai’an, Wuhan and others.

COGNITIVE PILOT – is a joint company of Russia’s biggest bank Sberbank and Cognitive Technologies Group. The company develops autonomous driving solutions for agricultural and rail machinery and develops components for self-driving cars. Among the company’s clients there are Hyundai Mobis, FITSCO, Russian Railways, Rusagro Group, PC Transport Systems and a number of other large international manufacturers and TIER-1 companies.