Pollution, traffic congestion, stress - they're the not-so-nice side effects of modern-day road transportation. NXP is a leader in technologies that help, making the trip safer, more enjoyable, and best of all, better for the environment.

Automatic fare collection

In public transportation, NXP's family of contactless technologies, called MIFARE, is the number-one solution for automatic fare collection. Cities around the world - accounting for more than 70% of the transportation infrastructure - have implemented MIFARE systems to streamline ticketing, reduce waiting lines, and improve security. The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority (LA Metro), which supports about 480 million boardings a year, is the world's first transit company to upgrade from NXP MIFARE Classic to the new MIFARE Plus format. Full privacy protection was an important requirement in the development of MIFARE Plus, with the result that it gives passengers the touch-and-go convenience they've come to expect as well as best-in-class security features for tracking payments and protecting against identity theft.

In-vehicle networking

In the automotive sector, NXP supplies technologies that make cars lighter, more fuel-efficient, and smarter. We've led the way with CAN, LIN, and FlexRay transceivers for in-vehicle networking, making it possible to replace a car's thick wiring harness with just a few, lightweight copper wires. The wires connect together the car's numerous electronic devices, including controllers, electro motors, sensors, and regulators. In a high-end car, the savings in weight can amount to as much as 50 kg (110 pounds), which translates into savings on fuel consumption, too. In-vehicle networking also enables Driveby- Wire, a method that uses electronics, instead of heavy metal parts, to relay signals from the steering wheel to the wheels for greater precision with less weight.

Road pricing

To manage congestion and improve urban environments, several city and national governments are investing in a new, smarter system, called road pricing, that will tax drivers based on usage. The concept involves using electronics to track a vehicle's movements, logging when the trip takes place, the distance traveled, and the type of road used. Drivers are then charged based on information gathered from the car itself. Trips made during heavy commute hours will cost more, but trips made during off-peak hours and on alternative routes will cost less. Similarly, cars that create more pollution will be more expensive to drive than clean cars. Road pricing will encourage drivers to change their habits, giving them a new reason to drive a more efficient car, choose a different time for their trip, use a different route, or simply leave the car at home more often.

NXP is already in test trials with a road pricing system, demonstrating its automatic telematics on-board platform (ATOP) solution. The ATOP unit, secured to the car's windshield, uses GPS to track movement and GSM to transmit data to a remote location for back-end processing. In the prototype system, drivers can log onto a secure website to view their data and evaluate trip costs.

Creating the infrastructure to support road pricing is a sizable task, involving extensive cooperation between public and private enterprises. In Europe, a complete pricing system for commercial trucking is expected by 2011, with a system for private cars following thereafter.