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Archive for August, 2016

The Driverless Audi At The Racetrack

Driverless AudiWell, I guess we saw this one coming as soon as the driverless car concept started becoming more than being reserved for use by science fiction authors.  Audi has been doing some tinkering to find out if a driverless car can get faster lap times than a conventionally driver car.

For most of the designers and other boffins playing around with driverless cars (i.e. Google, Volvo and Toyota), safety is the main idea.  Human error is the main cause of car accidents, so by getting technology to do it, the human error is thus eliminated (although I’m reminded of the saying that came out in the 1980s: To err is human but if you really want to stuff things up, use a computer).  However, when Audi started modifying an Audi RS7 to make it into a driverless car, the idea was to see if a fully computerised driverless car could do it faster than a real person.

The first thing that Audi did was to put loads and loads of sensors all around the body of the car – an absolute must for any driverless car or, indeed, just about any production car worth its salt these days. (Those of you who have read Anne McCaffrey’s “The Ship Who” sci-fi novels may wonder if we really are heading towards a world where humans can mesh completely with a machine and its sensors. OK, no more speculative sidetracks…).  These ultrasound sensors on the Audi RS7 check how close the vehicle is to the side of the track and other objects, and the front camera can read road signs as well. Just for fun, they threw in an infrared camera to give the car night vision.  These sensors are designed to work in with a super-precise GPS navigation system.  Most of the navigation systems you’ll find on good cars are pretty precise and can pinpoint your location to within about 15 m – enough to get you home or to help you find the nearest public loo or café.  However, the one on the driverless RS7 is much more precise, tracking and pinpointing locations within 10 cm or 1 cm (one of the videos shown below says 1 cm; the .  Add in a mapping programme showing the road ahead that can work at really high speeds (up to 240 km/h) and the car’s ready to roll.  All this information gets fed to the central computer that controls the steering, the brakes and the throttle. And here’s the result, as demonstrated at the Hockenheim track:

This wasn’t the only public outing for the driverless Audi RS7. They also got it out to race against a human at the Ascari circuit in Spain, with the result that the driverless car beat the human:

One of the big secrets behind why this driverless car gets such good lap times is that the tracks are pre-programmed into its system. We all know that the one thing that computers do a lot better and quicker than humans is to carry out complex mathematical operations. This means that a driverless car doing laps can calculate the perfect lap line, probably with a bunch of quadratic equations (see, they are useful in real life rather than a torture inflicted on you during high school mathematics). It can also calculate the perfect time and level of braking and acceleration to get around the curves perfectly. What’s more, the car probably doesn’t have to worry about driver discomfort and the amount of G-force involved, meaning that if it needs to brake hard or swing around a corner hard, it can, even though this would feel ghastly for the human body.  And the car can adapt itself to the conditions.

It’s pretty amazing; there’s no doubt about that.  Part of me loves the idea that the effect of any momentary distractions and bad habits can be eliminated just like that.  However, there’s another part of me that’s just a little bit technophobic and doesn’t like the idea at all.  I mean, we’ve all seen how computers and other electronic equipment can throw wobblies and do what you didn’t intend them to do at awkward moments.  Take my electronic keyboard (of the musical type), for instance.  After being in storage for a month, it developed the habit of suddenly making a loud “WOP” noise at random and resetting every single tone to plain piano (including the preprogrammed drumbeats), which means that we can’t take the out to perform in public because it’s got faulty electronics that cost a bomb to fix.  Imagine if the circuitry in a driverless car failed at a critical moment – it would be a lot worse than merely embarrassing. And we all know how spell checkers, autocorrect and speech recognition software can get things badly wrong.  One clanger I’ll never forget that happened to me were when Microsoft Word decided that the British slang for gumboots, “wellies”, should really have been “willies”.  The other was when my phone decided that instead of texting my brother “Dropping off hay bales at your place,” it should have been “Dropping off gay baker at your place.”  Check out the website http://www.damnyouautocorrect.com/ for worse examples.  Again, if simple things that think for themselves can get it so badly wrong, then can you imagine what would go wrong with a fully driverless car?

The other objection I have to a driverless car is that it takes all the fun out of car ownership and driving.  Remember the day when you first got your car licence and could actually be in charge rather than merely sitting in the passenger seat being driven?  Driverless cars seem to be a bit of a step backwards.  If they become really common, why bother learning to drive at all?  For that matter, if all you want on your commute is to sit back and check out your social media feed, read a book or just daydream, then why not just take public transport?

However, if they manage to iron out any electronic kinks that are the equivalents of autocorrect fails and other gremlins, then it is kind of exciting to think of a world where drunk drivers, idiots who can’t keep their eyes off their mobile phone and other distracted drivers won’t be a problem.  I know I’ve got a few bad driving habits myself that an autonomous car would probably correct.  I guess that people felt jumpy about automatic gears when they first came out; they certainly thought that the internal combustion engine was black magic when Herr Benz first developed it.

So what do other people think of the driverless car?  A great idea or a bit of a party pooper?  Would you ride in a driverless car?  Own one?  Or would you rather stay firmly in charge of things? http://credit-n.ru/offers-zaim/vashi-dengi-zaim.html

Is A Hybrid Vehicle Right For You?

hybridEver since Toyota came out with the landmark Prius, the first hybrid car to really capture public attention, more and more manufacturers have been coming out with hybrid engines. Everybody’s doing it, from Mercedes-Benz to Nissan (well, not quite everybody, but you know what I mean).  You might be running your eyes through the reviews we have here at Private Fleet and wondering if a hybrid will be right for you. Surely, you ask yourself, a hybrid will be cheaper to run and better for the planet.  Why shouldn’t I buy a hybrid car?

The answer to this question is yes and no.  It really depends on you and your situation, just like it does for any other vehicle.  To help you find out whether you should consider a hybrid, ask yourself the following handful of questions:

Do you live in the city or in the country?

Hybrid cars do best if they are driven around town. The stop–start style of driving and the low speeds are the moments when the electrical motors in the hybrids are designed to kick in. If you do a lot of round-the-town driving, then a hybrid engine will improve your fuel economy figures.  However, if you live out in the back blocks and/or do a lot of open road driving, the electric part doesn’t quite get the same chance to do its thing and you may get similar fuel economy figures with a regular petrol or diesel engine (of course, this depends on how you drive but that’s another story).

Are you a petrolhead?

By a petrolhead, I mean someone who likes to hear the roar of the engine and chooses vehicles based on their performance.  As hybrids tend to be quiet (electric motors are whisper-quiet) and tend to not quite have the performance flair of their petrol and diesel equivalents – although the designers are working on this one – they might not press your buttons.

How big is your family?

On the whole, hybrids tend to be smaller vehicles rather than larger ones that fit in the kids, their friends, the sports gear and the dog.  Again, this will probably change in the future, but it can be very hard to find a hybrid vehicle that has seven seats. But not impossible: you do have a choice between a Nissan Pathfinder Hybrid and a Prius V . It may be tricky finding a second-hand version if you can’t afford to buy new, especially as the Pathfinder hybrid has only recently been released.  If you’re like my sister-in-law and have six kids plus a dog, then you may need to postpone getting a hybrid.  On the other hand, if you’ve only got a couple of kids or if you can afford to buy new, then you can probably find a suitable hybrid.

Do you need to tow trailers, caravans or horse floats?

If you do a lot of towing, then the extra demand made on the engine by getting that load on the back up to speed will mean that you won’t get the main benefits of having a hybrid engine. What’s more, as mentioned above, hybrids tend to be on the smaller side and small vehicles don’t quite have the towing ability of bigger brutes (not to mention making you look a bit silly if you are a contractor or tradie).

If you are thinking about a plug-in hybrid, do you know where your nearest charging station is?

For some reason, Northern Territory doesn’t seem to be too well supplied with charging points, at least according to myeleectriccar.com.au . However, most other main centres in Australia and a lot of minor centres have charging stations for plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles.  However, if your nearest charging station is miles out of your way, then don’t get a plug-in hybrid. If you can’t recharge it properly, you aren’t going to get the benefits of going plug-in.  Either stick to an ordinary hybrid or go for fossil fuels – or put up with the higher power bills of at-home charging (you thought your mobile phone was bad…). http://credit-n.ru/offers-zaim/vivus-potrebitelskie-zaymy-online.html

Holden Racing Team Lose Out As Holden Drinks Red Bull.

Holden has confirmed its commitment to Supercars and motorsport in Australia, announcing a new three-year deal with Triple Eight Race Engineering to form the Red Bull Holden Racing Team from 2017.

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Holden also announced that the next-generation Commodore will be on the Supercar grid from 2018. The new factory-backed Red Bull Holden Racing Team will develop, build, race and win with the next-generation Commodore Supercar from 2018.

This announcement also confirms that as part of Holden’s ongoing brand and business evolution, it will move to a single factory-backed race team from 2017 onwards.

Holden Chairman and Managing Director, Mark Bernhard, said he was thrilled to be confirming that Holden is committed to Australian motorsport and Supercars for the next three years, and is proud to be partnering with Red Bull and Triple Eight Race Engineering.

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“Motorsport has played a significant role in Holden’s heritage and we’re proud to be carrying on that tradition with the new Red Bull Holden Racing Team, while reshaping our brand and presence in the market and in motorsport. We’re taking our company forward.

“I’d also like to thank and pay homage to Walkinshaw Racing with whom we have shared a proud history over many years,” said Mr Bernhard.

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“We’ll also continue to help Walkinshaw wherever we can. We support every Holden team in pit lane through various avenues such as marketing support, technical support, sponsorship acquisition, even down to helping design certain race liveries. We’ll continue that with Walkinshaw and I wish them all the best. Our relationship with Walkinshaw remains strong and we are working closely on future road vehicle initiatives as part of our ongoing partnership with HSV.

“Fans around the country will see the new Red Bull Holden Racing Team on the grid from next year but I’m especially excited about our next-generation Commodore hitting the racetrack in 2018. Australia can rest assured that our next-gen Commodore will live up to the iconic nameplate, on and off the track.

“Triple Eight is the most successful team of the modern era, they are simply the best at what they do. We’re very proud to continue our partnership with them,” said Mr Bernhard.Red+Bull+Racing+Australia+V8+Supercar+Launch+nWL0v7aaGxhl

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What's Driving the Push for Ethanol Fuel?

Despite years failing to gain traction at the bowser, the NSW government recently paved the way for changes that will renew its efforts to increase the availability and uptake of E10 petrol across the state. For those unfamiliar, in 2007 the NSW government set a mandate for 6% of all fuel sold across the state to be E10.

To date however, uptake has been limited to well below 3%, as motorists shun the product in favour of premium fuels. Through laws, which are expected to come into effect from September, businesses which were previously exempt from selling ethanol-blended fuel will now be required to sell the product. It has also been announced that in 2017, $4.5m will be spent on advertising to clarify the “myths” surrounding E10.

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While larger fuel businesses have long been stocking ethanol-blended fuel, small and mid-tier retailers are those who will be most affected. The Sydney Morning Herald was one of many to draw attention to the seeming inequality of the proposal, arguing smaller retailers “will be forced to spend an average of $140,000 a site to upgrade their storage tanks”, while the annual profits of such sites are only in the vicinity of $60,000.

With the product failing to make inroads within the market, why then is the government persisting and spending more to promote it? It’s hard to know the exact reasons, but reports have confirmed ethanol producer Manildra has made sizeable contributions to the Coalition party. At one stage, its representatives even met the NSW government 20 times in the space of just over a year.

Behind these dealings, the government claims the action will shore up employment within the biofuels industry. The problem however, is the lack of consideration for smaller businesses who may be required to close – up to 542 of them according to the Australian Convenience and Petroleum Marketers Association. And if that happens, you can bet the oil majors will be eyeing those sites, flush with the cashflow their smaller peers are ill afforded. The result? Job losses, less competition, and higher petrol prices for motorists.

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Smaller businesses have made it clear, as they did the last time the government tried to phase out unleaded petrol, they won’t take the changes lying down. It has already been claimed, in the absence of any redress from the government, smaller retailers will be forced to increase petrol prices up to 8c per litre. Allowing bigger companies room to increase their own prices, consumers appear set to lose out. With this in mind, one has to question the legitimacy and true rationale behind this latest push.

Given the last effort to change these laws in NSW failed dismally, as well as the shift in consumer preferences since then towards premium grades of fuel, it’s hard to conceive how such measures will help increase sales for a fuel demonstrating minimal evidence of environmental gains, as well as no certainty it is the most fuel efficient option or guaranteed to be the cheapest once you refuel. Government initiatives should be about finding win-win solutions – this however, has the hallmarks of a lose-lose solution, save for a select few. http://credit-n.ru/offers-zaim/zaymer-online-zaymi.html