PG Carz World

Lars Janssen says self-driving vehicles would be a boon for him as he has an eye condition and can’t drive, in response to an article by Adrian Chiles. Plus letters from Richard Connell and Michael Fuller Adrian Chiles ( Driverless cars are taking us on a road to nowhere, 10 September ) wants to know who asked for driverless cars. I did. I have an eye condition called nystagmus and will never be able to drive unless a “tech-bro willy-waver”, or anyone else, finds a cure. Fortunately, not every driver is as reckless as the ones Chiles despairs of, and the most careful of all may not even be human. Waymo, Google’s sister company, says its cars have far fewer crashes causing injuries than human drivers. In July, the US Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that its cars had 68% fewer crashes per mile than human drivers. Continue reading...

Latest attempt to secure future of Britain’s biggest car factory may be subject to UK weakening EV sales mandate Nissan has said it will invest £170m to build a new SUV at its factory in Sunderland – but said the move was subject to the UK weakening its electric vehicle sales mandate . The new hybrid model, the Kicks, is Nissan’s latest attempt to secure the future of the plant, which employs 6,000 people in Tyne and Wear and is Britain’s biggest car factory. Continue reading...

Modern cars are fitted with features like autonomous emergency braking and fatigue monitoring. But do they support motorists or drive them to distraction? This new car I’m test-driving boasts all the latest bells and whistles – or, rather, beeps and bings. Peer sideways for too long checking traffic and the car emits an irritating sound. Should I take a hand off the wheel to scratch an ear, I’m admonished with a strident beep. When the car determines it’s too near a white line, it tugs the wheel against my hands and brakes as a car slows ahead. Its haptic “buttons” feel like fingers pressing back – as if an invisible presence has its hands and feet on the controls: a ghost in the machine I’m inside. Continue reading...

Report says widespread autonomous vehicle adoption would put hundreds of thousands of private hire jobs at risk Taxes on self-driving cars should be introduced now in the UK to offset the rise in congestion and threats to jobs they pose, a thinktank has urged. The first robotaxis on London’s streets only started this month , but government projections are that up to 40% of cars sold could have self-driving capability by the middle of the next decade. Continue reading...

Some inventions, like the dishwasher, improve our lives. But driverless cars will lobotomise us I’ve found a hill to die on. Driverless cars . Why? Really, why? If driverless cars are the answer, then what is the question? Who asked for them? Oh yes, they’re fine for the novelty value, for the lols, for the clicks. We probably know someone who’s been to California or China and sent home a video of their driverless journey. Fine fun for feeble minds, if you ask me. And feeble-minded is how we’re all going to end up if this madness takes hold. It’s been a slippery slope since the invention of automatic transmission, rendering our left legs and arms redundant and sparing us the trouble of feeling our way up and down through the gears. Then there was the coming of satnav, before which time we needed a sense of where we were in the world and which direction we were facing. Now that’s gone, we can find our way anywhere without really knowing where it is. Not good. Continue reading...

Police seize supercar in Southend after reports of it being driven at up to twice speed limit Police have seized a Lamborghini potentially worth more than £200,000 under tightened laws introduced to crack down on dangerous driving. Essex police confiscated the Lamborghini Huracan on Saturday afternoon after receiving reports of the supercar being driven dangerously in Southend. The car was travelling at speeds suspected to be more than twice the limit, police said. Continue reading...