PG Carz World

The time limit for free parking is two hours but I had to wait 30 minutes just to get the use of a charging point I stopped at Abington services on the M74 to charge my electric car. I had to wait over half an hour for a connector to become free, then spent an hour and a half charging. Ten days later, I received a £100 penalty charge for exceeding the two-hour free parking period. Like most people, I’ve never spent more than two hours in a motorway service station and it didn’t cross my mind to buy a ticket. Others should be warned that when charging, it’s easy to run over the limit. DW, Cupar, Fife The mandatory free parking period, which applies to service stations across the UK, belongs to a different era when two hours was ample to use the lav and buy a meal. The rationale was that without a parking limit, the public would embrace service stations as a destination for a delightful day out, rather than as a pit stop. Continue reading...

Musk’s comments, echoing other CEOs, are accompanied by plan to lay off 10% of Tesla’s salaried staff Elon Musk has warned that a US recession is “more likely than not” to come soon as the Tesla chief executive confirmed plans to cut 10% of salaried staff at the electric carmaker over the next three months. The world’s richest man said a recession in the US was inevitable but would most probably come in the short term. Continue reading...

The use of synthetic data is a cost‑effective way to teach AI about human responses. But can it help eliminate bias and make self‑driving cars safer? You’re at the wheel of your car but you’re exhausted. Your shoulders start to sag, your neck begins to droop, your eyelids slide down. As your head pitches forward, you swerve off the road and speed through a field, crashing into a tree. But what if your car’s monitoring system recognised the tell-tale signs of drowsiness and prompted you to pull off the road and park instead? The European Commission has legislated that from this year, new vehicles be fitted with systems to catch distracted and sleepy drivers to help avert accidents. Now a number of startups are training artificial intelligence systems to recognise the giveaways in our facial expressions and body language. Continue reading...

DfT says it wants to focus funding on expanding the public electric chargepoint network The UK government is ending the last remaining subsidies for electric cars, arguing it will to free up funds to expand the charging network and support other battery-powered vehicles. In a controversial move, the government has closed the £300m plug-in car grant scheme to new orders on Tuesday, the Department for Transport said . Continue reading...

Future EV designs offer drivers more space and leisure, with fewer parts making production more sustainable Take any petrol car sold today and show it to a mechanic working on a Ford Model T 100 years ago and there is a fairly good chance they would understand roughly how it works. An internal combustion engine at the front turns the wheels, carrying a driver behind a steering wheel, some passengers and luggage. The advent of electric cars changes everything. No longer will the shape of the car be defined so rigidly by bulky engines, exhaust gas handling or driveshafts. At the same time, digital technology promises to replace everything from rear-view mirrors to the human driver. Never has the car industry had to cope with so many changes all at once. Continue reading...

In this week’s newsletter: Apple’s CarPlay updates put a dizzying amount of information at a driver’s fingertips – for good or bad. Plus, Elon Musk continues to try not to buy Twitter Apple’s annual developer event, WWDC, is in full swing. “Dub Dub”, as it’s known, is about more than the company’s regular product launches, which are focused on the physical devices soon to hit store shelves – it is a chance for Tim Cook’s team to shape the conversation more broadly: focus attention where they want it, guide the eyes of the world to the next big thing, and steer developers towards working on the products and services necessary to enable the hardware still in the pipeline to flourish. In previous years, that has included a strong focus on augmented reality technology, encouraging developers to adopt the company’s tools for building AR experiences. That has had both a short-term and a long-term advantage: Apple has included increasingly advanced Lidar sensors (think radar but with light...

Supply chain issues cause unprecedented demand and wait times for used cars pushing dealers to contact private sellers directly Follow our Australia news live blog for the latest updates Get our free news app ; get our morning email briefing Australia’s used car market is in overdrive with a shortage of vehicles leaving dealers chasing former customers to offer competitive buy-backs as they scramble to fill their lots. Others are scouring online marketplace websites and social media sites to contact those wanting to sell used cars privately. Continue reading...

German carmaker says move due to a potential problem with the braking system Mercedes-Benz has announced it is immediately recalling nearly one million older vehicles worldwide due to a potential problem with the braking system. Germany’s federal transport authority (KBA) said that the recall affected cars built between 2004 and 2015 of the SUV series ML and GL, and the R-Class luxury minivan. Continue reading...

The robotic electric cabs will be restricted to less congested times and places until regulators can assess its safety California regulators on Thursday gave a robotic taxi service the green light to begin charging passengers for driverless rides in San Francisco, a first in a state where dozens of companies have been trying to train vehicles to steer themselves on increasingly congested roads. The California Public Utilities Commission unanimously granted Cruise, a company controlled by automaker General Motors, approval to launch its driverless ride-hailing service. The regulators issued the permit despite safety concerns arising from Cruise’s inability to pick up and drop off passengers at the curb in its autonomous taxis, requiring the vehicles to double park in traffic lanes. Continue reading...

US regulators investigating hundreds of reports that self-driving models 3 and Y have braked on highways More than 750 Tesla owners have complained to US safety regulators that cars operating on the automaker’s partially automated driving systems have suddenly stopped on roadways for no apparent reason. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration revealed the number in a detailed information request letter to Tesla that was posted on Friday on the agency’s website. Continue reading...

Toxic particles from tyre wear almost 2,000 times worse than from exhausts as weight of cars increases Almost 2,000 times more particle pollution is produced by tyre wear than is pumped out of the exhausts of modern cars, tests have shown. The tyre particles pollute air, water and soil and contain a wide range of toxic organic compounds, including known carcinogens, the analysts said, suggesting tyre pollution could rapidly become a major issue for regulators. Continue reading...

Analysis suggests electric operations will become rapidly more profitable than petrol and diesel arms within five years The world’s largest traditional carmakers could improve their profit margins and boost their value to investors by accelerating the transition to electric cars in the next decade, a new analysis has found. The electric carmaking operations of Toyota, Volkswagen, Stellantis, Volvo, BMW and Mercedes-Benz will rapidly become more profitable than their traditional petrol and diesel counterparts within the next three to five years as carbon emissions regulations tighten, according to modelling by Profundo, a consultancy. Continue reading...