The Georgia Institute of Technology's Department of Parking and Transportation has announced recent upgrades made over the winter break, including new buses and trolleys and an improved ride request system for the university's late night cross-campus Stingerette shuttle.

The new vehicles are tied to a 10-year contract with Groome Transportation after a contract with First Student ran out, according to an article in The Technique. Georgia Tech representatives helped select and design new vehicles. Tech Trolleys now feature a cow pusher in the front; and Stinger buses now have monogrammed seats, rearview cameras, LED screens showing bus driver and route names, and a new exterior design.

In addition, campus transportation is switching to a B20 biodiesel mix, with the biofuel made with cooking oil from campus dining services.

Georgia Tech's popular Stingerette shuttle service is implementing an automated dispatch software service called RideCell, co-founded by a professor emeritus at Tech and an alumnus, as The Techniquereports. The service will be able to handle the high volume of calls, eliminating problems with operator availability. RideCell will tell students the estimated wait time and will remember the most frequently requested routes by any caller.

In the long-term, the Parking and Trasportation Department hopes to install GPS devices on Stingerette vehicles to dispatch a ride request to a vehicle that is the best match for the request and give real-time notifications on arrivals for customers.