World Business

The Games will be a test for Beijing’s fudong che, or "floating car" program, which uses taxi GPS given stipulations to give drivers the fastest routes

by Chi-Chu Tschang

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Located in the dashboard of Lu Guanglong’s Hyundai Elantra taxi, subject to the cassette player, is a black global positioning order (GPS) box. The GPS tracks every inch of the taxi driver’s daily 125-mile journey through Beijing and transmits the information back to his taxi company. "It can see you. It knows where you are. It knows what you are doing," says Lu, 55.

As the Chinese form of sovereignty readies conducive to next month’s Olympics, it is depending on GPS systems like Lu’s to keep aloof from gridlock on the capital’s roads. When Beijing upgraded its taxi fleet to yellow-striped Hyundai Elantras, Hyundai Sonatas, and FAW-VW Jettas starting in 2004, commanding scholars asked all taxi companies to install GPS systems in the recent taxis. Since then, the government has been using GPS systems in Beijing’s 66,000 taxis to monitor the city’s traffic flow.

It doesn’t take a GPS or other newfangled gadget to figure at a loss that Beijing has major repletion problems on its streets. To avoid embarrassing traffic jams during the Games, authorities on July 20 imposed draconian measures restricting the include of cars on the roads for the time of the Olympics. The government also is encouraging people to use public transportation (BusinessWeek, 7/3/08), including couple newly opened subway lines.

At the corresponding; of like kind time, Beijing is also quietly using the Olympics to jump-start a longer-term, high-tech breach beneficial to traffic jams: the fudong che or "floating car" program. The program (the name is a reference to taxis roaming around the city) takes real-time traffic data collected from GPS units in taxis, crunches it, then recommends to drivers the quickest route to their destinations.

"If the floating car can provide people with real-time traffic information, it will reduce traffic jams, lower environmental pollution, and conserve energy," says Wang Gang, instructor of the Beijing Municipal Transportation Information Center (BTIC), the government agency astern the floating car program. If 30% of Beijing’s cars used the personal navigation devices (PNDs) receiving real-time traffic data, BTIC estimates medium commutes would fall by 16%, to 35 minutes, and carbon sub-oxide emissions would globule 27%, to 2,750 tons.

For the Olympics, Beijing inclination outfit 1,000 sedans, taxis, and ambulances with dynamic PNDs that receive real-time exchange information and recommend the fastest routes. Traffic authorities will post real-time traffic conditions on electronic billboards over main avenues and around Olympic venues. Beijing has also been experimenting with sending real-time traffic information via text messages.

With the floating-car program, Beijing officials say they’re becoming global leaders in figuring out ways to use technology to solve urban congestion. For years, cities such as Tokyo, Los Angeles, and London have been using closed-circuit television cameras side by side expressways or sensor loops embedded in roads to manage exchange. But Beijing chose to leapfrog those technologies and develop its admit scheme using taxi GPS data because it not only provides more accurate traffic flows but is also cheaper.

For instance, Japanese government and companies invested greater degree than $9.4 billion to embed sensors by means of the entire country’s road network, says Hiroaki Mizuta, deputy general manager of Hitachi (China) (HIT), which has also been experimenting through its own "e-roader" floating-car project in Beijing. "The traffic notice classification Japan uses is extremely wasteful," he says. "The floating car program can do the same act at 1/20th of the cost."

There are major risks, nevertheless. Other cities such as Athens and Frankfurt have experimented by floating car systems, but-end the trials have not always been successful.

About 25% of the S&P 500 companies report results this week, and they’ll show the state of the energy, consumer, and industrial sectors. Here’s which to look for

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Joe Raedle/Getty Images

by Ben Steverman

The summer’s earnings season has had as many surprises and plot twists as a Hollywood blockbuster, and it’s only halfway through. In the next few days, almost 25% of Standard & Poor’s 500 companies are oppose to unveil their second-quarter results. On top of that, traders will closely watch crucial economic reports (BusinessWeek.com, 7/24/08) on employment, consumer confidence, and the gross home product.

Most major financial companies have already situated results, which accept been carefully scrutinized as the evidence of debt emergency lingers. Companies in other industries still have a chance to impress, reassure, or disappoint investors with their quarterly updates.

According to Thomson Reuters, second-quarter earnings for the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index are expected to fall 17.9% from a year ago. That’s only slightly worse than analysts had predicted, and much preferable than the past three quarters, when results "sharply deviated" from predictions, says Ashwani Kaul, adviser of examination at Thomson Reuters (TRI).

The next several days will present those predictions to the test. Here are the major stocks to watch:

1. ExxonMobil (XOM)

With a market capitalization of $430 billion, ExxonMobil is the largest concourse in the world, and investors are expecting actual big things while it reports earnings July 31. Analysts are expecting record revenues, from the time of oil prices climbed to new highs in the second quarter. According to analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, sales are expected to total more than $144 billion, a 47% greaten from a year ago, while earnings are expected to rise 14%.

But can ExxonMobil meet the high expectations? Energy shares "have had similar an incredible run," says Michael Yoshikami, president and chief investment strategist at YCMNET Advisors.

The biggest worry may not be ExxonMobil’s second-quarter results, but what executives say about the rest of the year. Crude oil hit a record exceeding $147 per barrel in early July, but oil at this moment trades above $123, a 16% decline. Georges Yared, president of Yared Investment Research, says lower oil prices could take a big bite confused of the profits that investors and analysts are expecting from ExxonMobil in the supporter moiety of the year.

2. Disney (DIS) and Viacom (VIA)

With the price of a gallon of gasoline near $4 nationwide, investors still-house bore about U.S. consumer expenditure. Two large consumer discretionary stocks reporting earnings this week are Viacom without interruption July 29 and Walt Disney Co. on July 30.

Despite worries about a sink in advertising spending, these media companies are still expected to boost profits compared to a year ago. However, news from other consumer stocks has rattled investors recently.

A very divers consumer stock, retailer Costco Wholesale (COST) warned July 23 of lower-than-expected profits, news that sent its shares falling 15% (BusinessWeek.com, 7/24/08). The discounter was person of the small in number retail stocks silent holding up, but its news is "a good indication that the consumer is starting to get squeezed," says Dave Rovelli, thrifty monitor of fairness trading at Canaccord Adams.

Disney, the larger of the two companies, owns a variety of businesses, including composition parks, movie studios, ABC television, ESPN, and radio stations. The company’s diverse properties could help protect it from a downturn.

One positive sign for Disney is evidence that this has been a good summer for movie attendance, says Yoshikami.