Latest news with #STM
CBC
13 hours ago
- Business
- CBC
Montrealers closer to tapping phones to pay for transit, but more testing still ahead
Montrealers closer to tapping phones to pay for transit, but more testing still ahead News Duration 2:08 Unlike in many other cities around the world, including Laval, Que., you can't pay for public transit directly with your cellphone or credit card in the city. But Montreal's regional transit authority is piloting a project to change that.
Vancouver Sun
5 days ago
- Business
- Vancouver Sun
South of Fraser boom in ridership fuels growth in TransLink passenger count
Booming transit use south of the Fraser River has propelled TransLink's overall ridership in 2024 to near pre-pandemic levels and, on a per capita basis, surpassed Toronto's TTC and remained second only to Montreal's STM. TransLink's R6 Scott Road-Newton Exchange route in Surrey was brand new in 2024, but quickly became the transit agency's sixth busiest route with 5.16 million boardings, which is emblematic of the system's overall growth, according to the agency's 2024 service performance review. TransLink said in its 2024 service performance review that passengers took 240.9 million trips on buses, SkyTrain, the Canada Line and SeaBus, which was 7.7 million more than in 2023. The rate outpaced the increase in drivers on Metro Vancouver roads over the same period. Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. Most of those new trips were due to an 11.4 increase in ridership on routes in Surrey, North Delta, White Rock and Langley. And while TransLink had ridership increase by three per cent, trips by car rose only one per cent — something that transit advocate Denis Agar said squelches the myth that no one wants to take transit, even in car-dominant suburbs such as Surrey. '(Surrey) has transit ridership that rivals major American cities, even in their urban cores,' said Agar, executive director of the advocacy group Movement: Metro Vancouver Transit Riders. Agar noted that the biggest increases in ridership were on routes where TransLink made big improvements, such as with the expanding existing service into the R6 Scott Road route, increasing frequency on the 321 Surrey Central Station to White Rock route, and on the 323 Surrey Central Station to Newton route. 'Really, the story to me is that frequency attracts riders and we basically have this 'easy button' to press to decongest our streets and to give people more access to jobs and housing and education,' Agar said. 'And that's to just run more buses.' However, Agar said Movement's analysis of TransLink's data shows the opposite is also true that 'reduced service drives people away from transit.' Agar mentioned the 8 Fraser bus in Vancouver, which had frequency cut to service every 15 minutes from the level of service every six minutes that was in place in 2019, and ridership following COVID 19 restrictions has only recovered to 47 per cent of prior levels. 'TransLink should definitely keep advocating for more funding,' Agar said. 'We have an increase in funding of five per cent between now and 2027, which is not enough and they know that.' The transit authority had to make hard choices to reduce services in Vancouver, Burnaby and New Westminster in order to reallocate buses to high-growth Surrey and Langley, said TransLink spokesperson Dan Mountain However, Mountain said the interim funding deal TransLink struck with the province in its 2025 investment plan will allow it to reverse some of those cuts. 'The good news is that now, with the funding acquired through the 2025 investment plan, we will be able to expand service across the board without having to reallocate service,' Mountain said. '(But) we acknowledge that those three years really did have an impact on some of those slower-to-recover routes.' Decisions on increasing frequency will be driven by data on where demand for service and where routes are overcrowded, Mountain said. 'The 2025 investment plan will increase service on 50 of the most overcrowded bus routes throughout the region,' Mountain said. '(That) includes many routes in Vancouver and UBC and in the downtown core.' Mountain said the 2024 performance review demonstrated that there is growing demand for service, that increasing service encourages people to get out of their cars and is 'a testament to a reliable system.' Its RapidBus service, for instance, consists of just six routes on the North Shore, in Vancouver, Surrey and the Tri Cities to Maple Ridge, but they averaged 20,600 boardings in 2024 — 15 per cent of the total. Ridership on SkyTrain's Expo and Millennium Lines were up six per cent to 348,907 boardings on the average week day, on the Canada Line it was four per cent to 132,307 boardings. The SeaBus' ridership was lower at 16,633 per average week day, but that represented a five per cent increase. But ridership on most of TransLink's Top 10 busiest bus routes declined. The 99 B-Line from Commercial Drive SkyTrain Station to UBC, for instance, was down six per cent to 10.6 million boardings in all of 2024 from 11.3 million in 2023. On the R5 Hastings, which runs from Burrard Street to Simon Fraser University, was also down seven per cent to 4.4 million from 4.6 million in 2023. The reasons behind that, however, are difficult to parse out because some of the significant increases in service on routes across the region took effect last September, Mountain said. Mountain said numbers from the 2024 service performance review also reinforce the growth trend TransLink started seeing south of the Fraser in the fast-growing suburbs of Surrey, Langley and Delta. TransLink is adding or upgrading seven bus routes through industrial areas or office parks, such as South Newton, Campbell Heights and 88th Avenue in Surrey Mountain said. And 25 of the 50 routes due for increased service are south of the Fraser. 'The 2025 investment plan was absolutely made with south of the Fraser in mind,' Mountain said. 'It's been booming not just last year but for, I'd say, really every year since the pandemic.' depenner@
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Turkey's STM targets Southeast Asian market with new ship design
ISTANBUL — Turkish defense firm STM unveiled its new Multi-Role Support Ship design at this year's Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace Exhibition in Malaysia (LIMA 2025), underscoring Ankara's efforts to expand its naval footprint and defense partnerships in Southeast Asia. The MRSS is designed to perform a wide array of missions including amphibious operations, maritime logistics, humanitarian assistance, and search and rescue. The vessel is also equipped to operate as a hospital ship – reflecting Turkey's emphasis on developing platforms with broad utility across both combat and non-combat missions. The unveiling comes as STM deepens its involvement in the region. In 2023, the company began construction of three Ada-class corvettes for the Royal Malaysian Navy under the LMS Batch-2 program, with work taking place at Turkish shipyards. 'This is our first time showcasing the MRSS at LIMA,' STM General Manager Özgür Güleryüz said at the event. 'The platform is specifically designed to meet the operational requirements of the Royal Malaysian Navy. It offers versatile solutions for modern naval operations.' The 153-meter-long vessel has a beam of 24 meters and displaces approximately 9,700 tons. It is engineered for extended missions, with an endurance of 30 days and a cruising range exceeding 8,000 nautical miles at 14 knots. It can reach speeds above 18 knots. The MRSS can accommodate a core crew of 150 personnel along with up to 500 embarked troops. Its 800-square-meter tank deck allows for the transport of up to 14 main battle tanks and nine amphibious assault vehicles. The vessel can also operate two 15-ton helicopters from its flight deck and hangar, and deploy two 10-meter rigid-hulled inflatable boats (RHIBs) using A-type davits. It carries 630 tons of fuel and 215 tons of freshwater, ensuring logistical autonomy during long deployments. Armaments include a 76mm main gun, four 12.7mm remote-controlled stabilized weapon stations, and two chaff and infrared decoy launchers. The pitch aligns with Turkey's growing focus on Asian defense markets. In 2023, sales to Asian countries — excluding those in the Commonwealth of Independent States — accounted for 16% of Turkey's total defense and aerospace exports, valued at nearly $1 billion, according to government figures. The Turkish navy dispatched the Ada-class corvette TCG Büyükada to the exhibition. The vessel departed Foça Naval Base on April 19 and is scheduled to remain on deployment through mid-July, visiting multiple regional ports en route. According to a statement from the Turkish Ministry of National Defense, the mission aims to bolster defense ties with regional partners, enhance the Turkish Navy's international visibility, and promote the country's defense industry abroad.
West Australian
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- West Australian
Fleur McDonald: Esperance farmer, turned bestselling rural fiction author, turns to crime in The Prospect
About an hour out of Esperance, there is a slice of country that has curled its roots deep in Fleur McDonald's soul. Unlike the sandy plains that surround it, the 950ha property is steeped in the heavy clay of the Thomas River. It grows stands of clover ankle deep, where McDonald, still a farmer at heart, loves to watch her lambs graze. There's mallee bushland, giving way to granite outcrops where wild orchids grow. When she looks up from her work in the shearing shed, she can see Cape Arid. It is in this place that McDonald took the first small, tentative steps towards becoming what she is today: a bestselling author. It's the place where she started farming in WA more than 20 years ago, with her now ex-husband, in a hut with no water or electricity for seven years. It's the place she raised two children. It's the place to which she returns when, despite her new career, she needs a fix of her first love — farming. Writing has been McDonald's full-time job for more than 15 years, ever since she signed with Allen & Unwin after submitting to its open pitch Friday; her first book, Red Dust, became the highest seller by a debut author in 2009. Since then, she's sold more than 850,000 copies of 24 titles under her very successful brand of rural fiction, mixing suspense, romance and strong female characters. But then last year, McDonald decided to roll the dice, potentially risking everything she'd built. She signed with a new publisher, HarperCollins, and wrote her first straight crime novel, The Prospect, set in Kalgoorlie. 'I was very aware that this change could actually end my career and I was prepared for that,' McDonald says. 'I turned 50 last year and I just thought, there's not as much time left as there was, you know? I really wanted to have a go. It is a risk, though; people might not think that I've got what it takes in the crime genre but I'm hoping that they do.' When she speaks to STM, McDonald is two days into a five-day local book tour, before she heads to Queensland and South Australia. So far, the feedback had been positive but she admits to waiting with bated breath for early sales figures. It turns out she needn't have worried; The Prospect, which follows reporter Zara Ellison and her partner, policeman Jack Higgins, as they investigate a mysterious accident, sold more than 12,000 copies in the first month and spent three weeks at number one in Australian fiction. And despite her trepidation, McDonald was never tempted to just continue writing what she knew would work; namely, the popular Detective Dave Burrows character, who features in 22 of her books. 'The thing about having a character around for as long as I had Detective Burrows around for, is that I could write him in my sleep,' she says. 'I think that tends to make you a little lazy and I wanted to still create really great reads for people.' Besides, McDonald is not one to shy away from a challenge. The girl from Orroroo in South Australia's arid Flinders Ranges moved to the Great Southern in WA aged just 19 to work as a farmhand; she remembers being completely taken aback by the rain ('I think my first purchase with my pay was a pair of rubber boots'). After she and her former husband moved to that first farm, with its donga-like hut, her daughter, Rochelle, and son, Hayden, were born 13 months apart. Rochelle, now 25, has dyspraxia which affected her speech, and Hayden was diagnosed with autism; McDonald used Makaton sign language to communicate with them. It was in trying to help Hayden, now 24 and a trailblazing pilot who has just moved interstate for work, that McDonald rediscovered her childhood love of writing. She'd put it aside with the busyness of life, but when Hayden was struggling with concentration, McDonald decided to start writing kids' books to help keep his attention. 'I wrote about things that he knew; the working dogs, the sheep yards, the sheep, the pet lambs and and so forth, which was really helpful for him,' she remembers. 'Then I read Rachael Treasure's book Jillaroo and I thought, 'Oh, there's obviously a market for this' and I thought I was in pretty good position to write something.' Her first attempt at pitching Red Dust to Allen & Unwin elicited a rejection; her writing was strong and commercial, they said, but not what they were looking for. Undeterred, McDonald waited three months and tried again. About two weeks later, she had a two-book contract. Red Dust 'sold a whole heap more than we ever expected … and now here we are 25 books later,' she laughs. If that makes it sound easy, it wasn't. McDonald's then-husband did not support her writing, she was working on the farm and looking after two children with disabilities, plus taking care of her mother-in-law, who was terminally ill. She worked on her books in secret, right up until the end of her marriage in 2014. 'I didn't think I had any transferable skills; when you leave a relationship like that, it doesn't matter what success you've had, your self-confidence is absolutely shattered,' McDonald says. But slowly, she built herself back up, devoting more time to writing and, when the kids finished school, going on tour to promote her books. McDonald spends a lot of time on the road, including driving between Esperance and a second farm she's bought in recent years north of Perth, but also on the lookout for settings for future books. Ideas for narratives can come from anywhere — a segment on the radio, a newspaper headline, a conversation — but evoking an authentic sense of place is all-important. For The Prospect, McDonald spent time in the Goldfields, 'wandering around and looking and observing and absorbing'. 'I thought Kalgoorlie was a great place to set a book; there's so much history and so much secrecy,' she says. 'Not only does it have mining but it has the east-west trucks, coming across the Nullarbor, there's farming, there's station country, there's Crown land. It's a very rich environment to be able to set stories in. 'I've never written about a place I haven't been because I always want to be able to write authentically … I think that helps with the tension on the page.' When it occurred to her that there is a more efficient way to cover all those kilometres, she decided to learn how to fly a plane; her father used to fly to reach customers of the family's fuel distribution company, which covered about a quarter of the country. 'I'd never given too much thought to becoming a pilot myself but then I realised, I spent 10 years telling women that they could really do anything they wanted to, just as long as they worked at it,' McDonald says. 'I suddenly thought, 'well, you should probably take a little bit of your own advice'.' But when she is home, she can balance her two lives — farming and writing. She co-farms the Esperance property, so she can simply dip in and out when needed for seeding or harvest, or when she feels a need to reconnect with that part of herself. She's been known to edit chapters while driving a chaser bin and work on rewrites while following the dogs around as they shift sheep. 'Farming was my first love but I do believe writing is what I am supposed to do, because if I go a couple of days and I haven't written my fingers get really itchy and I get a bit jittery,' she says, 'so it's a bit of a mix for both.' With a book tour, plus edits on her next novel, out in November and another draft due on June 1 for publication in April, McDonald says her life is 'all a bit mixed up and chaotic, but I really like my world like that'. 'There's no time for writer's block or any of that,' she says. 'And if anyone wants a tiny piece of advice, if you keep writing, even when you've got nothing to say, you come out the other side very quickly.' McDonald generally gets up at 4am for emails and social media — 'anything I can do that doesn't take up a whole heap of brain power' — and then spends a bit of time on the back verandah drinking coffee and watching the clouds roll past the gumtrees. 'My friends say it's procrastinating but I like to think of it as percolating,' she chuckles. 'We writers, we might not look very busy on the outside sometimes, but our brains are going 100 miles an hour.' Her morning routine also now includes a walk with her dog, Shadow. Because while some writers might relish total quiet, McDonald isn't one of them. 'I'm an empty-nester now so I've only got my border collie at home, and she's quite new to me,' McDonald says. 'She's a rescue dog so she came to me in October, and I'm so very happy that she is there, making noise in my house.' The Prospect by Fleur McDonald, published by HarperCollins, is out now
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
STMicroelectronics combines activity tracking and high-impact sensing in miniature AI-enabled sensor for personal electronics and IoT
P4693D -- May 13 2025 -- LSM6DSV320X high-impact IMU_PR IMAGE STMicroelectronics combines activity tracking and high-impact sensingin miniature AI-enabled sensor for personal electronics and IoT Industry-first inertial measurement unit (IMU) with dual MEMS accelerometerand embedded AI measures accurately up to 320g full-scale range Geneva, Switzerland, May 13, 2025 -- STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM), a global semiconductor leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications, has revealed an inertial measurement unit that combines sensors tuned for activity tracking and high-g impact measurement in a single, space-saving package. Devices equipped with this module can allow applications to fully reconstruct any event with high accuracy and so provide more features and superior user experiences. Now that it's here, markets can expect powerful new capabilities to emerge in mobiles, wearables, and consumer medical products, as well as equipment for smart homes, smart industry, and smart driving. The new LSM6DSV320X sensor is an industry first in a regular-sized module (3mm x 2.5mm) with embedded AI processing and continuous registration of movements and impacts. Leveraging ST's sustained investment in micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) design, the innovative dual-accelerometer device ensures high accuracy for activity tracking up to 16g and impact detection up to 320g. 'We continue to unleash more and more of the potential in our cutting-edge AI MEMS sensors to enhance the performance and energy efficiency of today's leading smart applications,' said Simone Ferri, APMS Group VP, MEMS Sub-Group General Manager at STMicroelectronics. 'Our new inertial module with unique dual-sensing capability enables smarter interactions and brings greater flexibility and precision to devices and applications such as smartphones, wearables, smart tags, asset monitors, event data recorders, and larger infrastructure.' The LSM6DSV320X extends the family of sensors that contain ST's machine-learning core (MLC), the embedded AI processor that handles inference directly in the sensor to lower system power consumption and enhance application performance. It features two accelerometers, designed for coexistence and optimal performance using advanced techniques unique to ST. One of these accelerometers is optimized for best resolution in activity tracking, with maximum range of ±16g, while the other can measure up to ±320g to quantify severe shocks such as collisions or high-impact events. By covering an extremely wide sensing range with uncompromised accuracy throughout, all in one tiny device, ST's new AI MEMS sensor will let consumer and IoT devices provide even more features while retaining a stylish or wearable form factor. An activity tracker can provide performance monitoring within normal ranges, as well as measuring high impacts for safety in contact sports, adding value for consumers and professional/semi-pro athletes. Other consumer-market opportunities include gaming controllers, enhancing the user's experience by detecting rapid movements and impacts, as well as smart tags for attaching to items and recording movement, vibrations, and shocks to ensure their safety, security, and integrity. With its wide acceleration measurement range, ST's sensor will also enable new generations of smart devices for sectors such as consumer healthcare and industrial safety. Potential applications include personal protection devices for workers in hazardous environments, assessing the severity of falls or impacts. Other uses include equipment for accurately assessing the health of structures such as buildings and bridges. The sensor's high integration simplifies product design and manufacture, enabling advanced monitors to enter their target markets at competitive prices. Designers can create slim, lightweight form factors that are easy to wear or attach to equipment. Notes to editorsThe 2.5mm x 3mm LSM6DSV320X integrates three micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) sensors, comprising the ±16g and ±320g accelerometers and a MEMS gyroscope with ±4000dps range. The sensors are fully synchronized, making the modules easy to use and helping to simplify application development. In addition to the MLC, which handles energy-efficient context awareness, the LSM6DSV320X integrates a finite state machine (FSM) that helps perform motion tracking in the module. The digital circuitry also includes ST's Sensor Fusion Low-Power (SFLP) technology for spatial orientation. Like other smart MEMS sensors in ST's portfolio, the LSM6DSV320X features adaptive self-configuration (ASC) to optimize power consumption. Sensors with ASC can automatically adjust their settings in real-time upon detecting a specific motion pattern or signal from the MLC, without intervention from the host processor. To facilitate tracking high-intensity impacts and at the same time maximize the accuracy on low-g events, ST has also created and patented the Motion XLF software library which fuses data from the low-g accelerometer and high-g accelerometer. Customers' engineering teams can use the software freely in their designs using the X-CUBE-MEMS1 package. ST also provides, free of charge, graphical design tools that help evaluate, configure, and test the LSM6DSV320X sensor and embedded AI and connect the projects with STM32 applications. These include MEMS Studio, part of the ST Edge AI Suite, and ST AIoT Craft, the web-based environment with tools for developing and provisioning node-to-cloud AIoT (Artificial Intelligence of Things) projects. The LSM6DSV320X is supported in ST Edge AI Suite now and will be added to ST AIoT Craft by the end of 2025. For more information, please go to About STMicroelectronicsAt ST, we are 50,000 creators and makers of semiconductor technologies mastering the semiconductor supply chain with state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities. An integrated device manufacturer, we work with more than 200,000 customers and thousands of partners to design and build products, solutions, and ecosystems that address their challenges and opportunities, and the need to support a more sustainable world. Our technologies enable smarter mobility, more efficient power and energy management, and the wide-scale deployment of cloud-connected autonomous things. We are on track to be carbon neutral in all direct and indirect emissions (scopes 1 and 2), product transportation, business travel, and employee commuting emissions (our scope 3 focus), and to achieve our 100% renewable electricity sourcing goal by the end of 2027. Further information can be found at INVESTOR RELATIONSJérôme RamelEVP Corporate Development & Integrated External CommunicationTel: + MEDIA RELATIONSAlexis BretonCorporate External CommunicationsTel: + Attachments P4693D -- May 13 2025 -- LSM6DSV320X high-impact IMU_FINAL FOR PUBLICATION P4693D -- May 13 2025 -- LSM6DSV320X high-impact IMU_PR IMAGE P4693D -- May 13 2025 -- LSM6DSV320X high-impact IMU_SLIDESETSign in to access your portfolio
