The Swedish motor-vehicle inspection has worked very well and was monopolized in 1965. After the monopolization, the company AB Svensk Bilprovning was formed and had a monopoly until 2010 when the bourgeois government deregulated the monopoly for the motor-vehicle inspection services. It had been discussed earlier around the 1990s but the planned deregulation of the service did not occur. The main reason for the deregulation was for the service to act on a competitive market which would improve it in several aspects. One of the main aspects were the availability. The deregulation in 2010 had positive effects and mainly the availability increased throughout Sweden. In year 2014 the social-democratic party were not satisfied before or after deregulation even though it improved the service. The bourgeois on the other hand were very satisfied of the results.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T18:15:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Andre Souza Santos.pdf: 3149722 bytes, checksum: 58f05c92fcbf5101af18370744baf4b0 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-10-06 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This thesis of Master's Degree studies the air pollution in São Paulo as a result of automotive vehicles's predominance, taking as an example its influence on urban climate, comprising a period that started on the 1980s and is still in force. This analysis has as background the urbanization and the introduction of the automotive industry fomenting the use of collective and individual road s transports. Concerns about air quality and climate have turned the vehicles, once synonymous of economic progress and connected to a socio-economic identity,a worry for the urban environment and, as a solution, mechanisms to promote a road control were created. In the 1980s the guidelines were created for the control of automotive pollutants, in the 1990s, it was introduced Municipal rotation which has not produced the expected results in reducing emissions in the atmosphere,, then, only in 2008 was added the mandatory vehicle inspection in the city of São Paulo as a result of agreement between the countries that have ratified the Kyoto Protocol in1997 whose intention was to reduce between 2008 and 2012 greenhouse gas emissions in at least 5.2% compared to 1990s levels. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) human action is the main responsible for the changes in air quality and climate and, if the countries achieve their goals, the pollution and global temperature could be reduced in between 1.4°C and 5.8°C until 2100.The study revealed that according to the urban development of St. Paulo in the field of displacements was prioritized road transport, this way, vehicular emissions of particulate materials in the atmosphere are connected to changes in the city climate and several health disorders,especially in winter when the polluted air disperses with difficulty although it is hard to quantify and qualify the real damage. As a result, there is the need to rethink the means of establishing shifts priorities for urban and environmental planning. In this case, the inspection car proved to be inefficient because, although the road contro it's hard, many vehicles without mechanical conditions remain in circulation mainlyin the suburbs directly influencing the data on air quality / Esta dissertação de mestrado estuda a poluição atmosférica no município de São Paulo como consequência da predominância dos veículos automotores nos meios de deslocamentos tal como sua influência no clima urbano compreendendo um período atual a partir da década de 1980. Esta análise tem como fundo a urbanização e a introdução da indústria automotiva fomentando o uso do transporte rodoviário coletivo e individual. A preocupação com a qualidade do ar e do clima, fizeram dos veículos outrora sinônimo de progresso econômico e característica de uma identidade socioeconômica uma preocupação ao ambiente urbano, razão pela qual foram criados mecanismos de promover um controle viário. Na década de 1980 foram criadas as diretrizes para o controle de poluentes autmotivos, na década de 1990, foi introduzido o Rodízio Municipal o qual não apresentou os resultados esperados na redução das emissões na atmosfera, então, somente em 2008 foi introduzida a inspeção veicular obrigatória na cidade de São Paulo como consequência do compromisso firmado entre os países que ratificaram o Protocolo de Kyoto em 1997, cuja intenção era reduzir entre 2008 e 2012 as emissões de gases em pelo menos 5,2% em relação aos níveis da década de 1990. De acordo com o Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) a ação humana é a principal responsável pelas alterações da qualidade do ar e do clima e caso os países alcancem as metas propostas, será possível reduzir a temperatura global entre 1,4°C e 5,8°C até 2100. Para alcançar o objetivo da pesquisa foram analisadas séries temporais, estudos das tendências globais, os principais tratados e protocolos sobre as questões ambientais e emissões antrópicas. Ficou evidenciado que de acordo com a evolução urbana de São Paulo na esfera dos deslocamentos foi priorizado o transporte rodoviário, desse modo, as emissões veiculares de materiais particulados na atmosfera estão vinculadas às alterações do clima citadino e diversos problemas de saúde, sobretudo no inverno quando o ar poluído se dispersa com mais dificuldades, embora seja difícil quantificar e qualificar os reais danos. Em razão disso, há a necessidade de repensar os meios de deslocamentos estabelecendo prioridades para planejamento urbano e ambiental. Nesse caso, a inspeção veicular mostrouse ineficiente pois o controle viário embora seja rígido, muitos veículos sem condições mecânicas continuam em circulação principalmente nos bairros periféricos influenciando diretamente nos dados sobre a qualidade do ar

Motor vehicle inspection and maintenance (I/M) programs are designed to identify high-emitting vehicles and mitigate their impacts on air quality and climate. I/M programs have been traditionally ranked superior among various vehicle emission control measures by the results of cost-benefit analysis, based on the assumption that these programs will achieve the targeted emission reduction outcomes. However, the actual effects of I/M programs may be greatly uncertain and when this uncertainty is taken into account, these programs may become suboptimal. This study develops a new a cost-benefit analysis framework that links various program design consideration, such as program participation rate, identification rate and effective repair rate, to the public health benefits as well as costs of the programs. This framework helps decision makers to investigate minimum implementation requirements that at least ensure the benefits are greater than the costs of implementing the programs in order to improve the overall effectiveness of the I/M programs. To illustrate the applications of the framework, it was applied to a particulate matter oriented I/M program targeting all diesel-fueled vehicles in the city of Bangkok, Thailand, a large metropolitan area that has been suffering from severe ambient PM pollution mainly attributable to its wide use of diesel-fueled vehicles and motorcycles. It was found that the health benefits achieved from the program are sensitive to several key program design elements, including participation rate and problem vehicle identification rate, fraction of effective repairs and illegal operation rate. Other variables, such as the testing cut-points and vehicle population growth rate, only have modest effects on the overall emission reduction and consequent health benefits. Overall, the performance of multiple variables associated with I/M program design needs to be improved simultaneous in order to achieve the targeted benefits of the program.

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The Swedish market for vehicle inspection is re-regulated since June 2010. More than four years after the re-regulation there are eight companies in the market. Two of these companies are a result of the former monopolist's owners divided the business among themselves. The remaining six companies have entered the market through acquisitions or by building up their business from scratch, these are known as new entrants in the study. The competition has developed slowly and the former monopolist still has the highest market share. Industry conditions are to say the least special because the companies and technicians have to have individual licenses in the form of accreditation and certification, which causes high establishment barriers. The study has the aim of contributing to the knowledge of new entrants on the re-regulated vehicle inspection market. In particular, the new entrant’s establishment and their strategic choices are studied to find out how they act to market conditions in order to create competitive advantages. The study is based on four questions: Main Question: How do new entrants create competitive advantages in the vehicle inspection market? Sub query 1: How’s the new entrants view on the competitive situation? Sub query 2: How do the new entrants establish their station-/s? Sub query 3: What strategies do the new entrants use to strengthen its position against competitors? The essay is based on an empirical survey and is designed as a case study with four units of analysis that represent four new inspection companies in the market for vehicle inspection. Data were collected through interviews with people in key positions of the four companies, as well with a person of the authority whose task is to monitor market developments, namely the Transport Agency. Furthermore, also documents issued by the authorities and new entrants were reviewed. The conclusions that the study has come up with is that the new entrants create competitive advantages through a favorable placement of stations, a bit outside the city center. The strict regulation doesn’t allow the new entrants to create competitive advantages through new or modified inspection services. Based on these regulations the new entrants are trying to attract customers through enhanced service and additional services to the inspection. They try to create a total offering to the customer where the obligatory inspection service is included.

This thesis deals with an elaboration vehicle inspection methodology of used by a loss adjuster and especially with an application of the inspection results in a forensic engineering. A theoretical part attends to an insurance with focus on problematics of valuing of insurance events in the field of motor vehicles and categorization of a motor vehicles itself. This thesis contents an analysis of working methods used by the loss adjusters in both theoretical and practical ways. A methodology was elaborated based on an analysis and requierements on forensic expert work.

This thesis presents an approach for configuring and calibrating a network of RGB-D sensors used to guide a robotic arm to interact with objects that get rapidly modeled in 3D. The system is based on Microsoft Kinect sensors for 3D data acquisition. The work presented here also details an analysis and experimental study of the Kinect’s depth sensor capabilities and performance. The study comprises examination of the resolution, quantization error, and random distribution of depth data. In addition, the effects of color and reflectance characteristics of an object are also analyzed. The study examines two versions of Kinect sensors, one dedicated to operate with the Xbox 360 video game console and the more recent Microsoft Kinect for Windows version. The study of the Kinect sensor is extended to the design of a rapid acquisition system dedicated to large workspaces by the linkage of multiple Kinect units to collect 3D data over a large object, such as an automotive vehicle. A customized calibration method for this large workspace is proposed which takes advantage of the rapid 3D measurement technology embedded in the Kinect sensor and provides registration accuracy between local sections of point clouds that is within the range of the depth measurements accuracy permitted by the Kinect technology. The method is developed to calibrate all Kinect units with respect to a reference Kinect. The internal calibration of the sensor in between the color and depth measurements is also performed to optimize the alignment between the modalities. The calibration of the 3D vision system is also extended to formally estimate its configuration with respect to the base of a manipulator robot, therefore allowing for seamless integration between the proposed vision platform and the kinematic control of the robot. The resulting vision-robotic system defines the comprehensive calibration of reference Kinect with the robot. The latter can then be used to interact under visual guidance with large objects, such as vehicles, that are positioned within a significantly enlarged field of view created by the network of RGB-D sensors. The proposed design and calibration method is validated in a real world scenario where five Kinect sensors operate collaboratively to rapidly and accurately reconstruct a 180 degrees coverage of the surface shape of various types of vehicles from a set of individual acquisitions performed in a semi-controlled environment, that is an underground parking garage. The vehicle geometrical properties generated from the acquired 3D data are compared with the original dimensions of the vehicle.

This thesis presents an approach for configuring and calibrating a network of RGB-D sensors used to guide a robotic arm to interact with objects that get rapidly modeled in 3D. The system is based on Microsoft Kinect sensors for 3D data acquisition. The work presented here also details an analysis and experimental study of the Kinect’s depth sensor capabilities and performance. The study comprises examination of the resolution, quantization error, and random distribution of depth data. In addition, the effects of color and reflectance characteristics of an object are also analyzed. The study examines two versions of Kinect sensors, one dedicated to operate with the Xbox 360 video game console and the more recent Microsoft Kinect for Windows version. The study of the Kinect sensor is extended to the design of a rapid acquisition system dedicated to large workspaces by the linkage of multiple Kinect units to collect 3D data over a large object, such as an automotive vehicle. A customized calibration method for this large workspace is proposed which takes advantage of the rapid 3D measurement technology embedded in the Kinect sensor and provides registration accuracy between local sections of point clouds that is within the range of the depth measurements accuracy permitted by the Kinect technology. The method is developed to calibrate all Kinect units with respect to a reference Kinect. The internal calibration of the sensor in between the color and depth measurements is also performed to optimize the alignment between the modalities. The calibration of the 3D vision system is also extended to formally estimate its configuration with respect to the base of a manipulator robot, therefore allowing for seamless integration between the proposed vision platform and the kinematic control of the robot. The resulting vision-robotic system defines the comprehensive calibration of reference Kinect with the robot. The latter can then be used to interact under visual guidance with large objects, such as vehicles, that are positioned within a significantly enlarged field of view created by the network of RGB-D sensors. The proposed design and calibration method is validated in a real world scenario where five Kinect sensors operate collaboratively to rapidly and accurately reconstruct a 180 degrees coverage of the surface shape of various types of vehicles from a set of individual acquisitions performed in a semi-controlled environment, that is an underground parking garage. The vehicle geometrical properties generated from the acquired 3D data are compared with the original dimensions of the vehicle.

This thesis presents an approach for configuring and calibrating a network of RGB-D sensors used to guide a robotic arm to interact with objects that get rapidly modeled in 3D. The system is based on Microsoft Kinect sensors for 3D data acquisition. The work presented here also details an analysis and experimental study of the Kinect’s depth sensor capabilities and performance. The study comprises examination of the resolution, quantization error, and random distribution of depth data. In addition, the effects of color and reflectance characteristics of an object are also analyzed. The study examines two versions of Kinect sensors, one dedicated to operate with the Xbox 360 video game console and the more recent Microsoft Kinect for Windows version. The study of the Kinect sensor is extended to the design of a rapid acquisition system dedicated to large workspaces by the linkage of multiple Kinect units to collect 3D data over a large object, such as an automotive vehicle. A customized calibration method for this large workspace is proposed which takes advantage of the rapid 3D measurement technology embedded in the Kinect sensor and provides registration accuracy between local sections of point clouds that is within the range of the depth measurements accuracy permitted by the Kinect technology. The method is developed to calibrate all Kinect units with respect to a reference Kinect. The internal calibration of the sensor in between the color and depth measurements is also performed to optimize the alignment between the modalities. The calibration of the 3D vision system is also extended to formally estimate its configuration with respect to the base of a manipulator robot, therefore allowing for seamless integration between the proposed vision platform and the kinematic control of the robot. The resulting vision-robotic system defines the comprehensive calibration of reference Kinect with the robot. The latter can then be used to interact under visual guidance with large objects, such as vehicles, that are positioned within a significantly enlarged field of view created by the network of RGB-D sensors. The proposed design and calibration method is validated in a real world scenario where five Kinect sensors operate collaboratively to rapidly and accurately reconstruct a 180 degrees coverage of the surface shape of various types of vehicles from a set of individual acquisitions performed in a semi-controlled environment, that is an underground parking garage. The vehicle geometrical properties generated from the acquired 3D data are compared with the original dimensions of the vehicle.

The Atlanta Inspection and Maintenance program ultimately aims to reduce on-road vehicular emission, a major source of air pollution. The program enforces eligible vehicles to be inspected and repaired, if necessary, before the annual registration renewal. However, various factors can influence the program implementation with respect to the motorists, inspectors, and testing technology. This research explores some of these factors by using empirical data from the Continuous Atlanta Fleet Evaluation project, the inspection transaction records, the Atlanta Household Travel Survey, and the U.S. Census Bureau. The study discusses policy implications of findings from the three essays and offers related recommendations. The first essay examines whether the higher income of a vehicle owner decreases the odds of the vehicle failing the first inspection. Findings show that vehicles owned by low-income households are more likely to fail the first inspection of the annual test cycle. However, after controlling for the vehicle characteristics, the odds of failing the first inspection are similar across households. This suggests that the maintenance behaviors are approximately the same for high- and low-income households. The second essay explains the motorists' decisions in selecting their inspection stations using a random utility model. The study finds that motorists are likely to choose the inspection stations that are located near their houses, charge lower fees, and can serve a large number of customers. Motorists are less likely to choose the stations with a relatively high failure ratio especially in an area of low station density. Moreover, motorists do not travel an extra mile to the stations with lower failure ratio. Understanding choices of vehicle owners can shed some light on the performance of inspection stations. The third essay investigates the validity and reliability of the on-board diagnostic generation II (OBD II) test, a new testing technology required for 1966 and newer model year vehicles. The study compares the inspection results with the observed on-road emission using the remote sensing device (RSD) of the same vehicles. This research finds that the agreement between the RSD measurement and the OBD II test is lower for the relatively older or higher use vehicle fleets