Motoring
FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 2017
B3
Future’s bright for driver-less cars E
VANGELISTS for driverless cars see a bright future coming down the road: thousands of lives saved, countless driving hours freed up, cityscapes transformed with traffic jams vanquished. But the new technology also threatens millions of jobs and raises a slew of ethical dilemmas -- prospects that were on the minds of business chiefs and politicians meeting at the World Economic Forum this week. “Companies are going to have to start thinking about it, governments are going to have to start thinking about it,” said Missy Cummings, the director of the Humans and Autonomy Lab at Duke University in North Carolina. “The reality is we can’t just keep our head in the sand like an ostrich,” she told AFP in Davos,
singling out the coming impact on employment. In the United States alone, an estimated four million people work as truckers, taxi drivers and in other jobs that are under threat when the driverless vehicles come into widespread use -- a matter of years, experts predict. In October, delivery drivers got an uncomfortable glimpse of the future when a self-driving truck built by Uber’s Otto unit successfully delivered a beer shipment. - New game, new players Cars with some autonomous
functions -- such as the ability to adjust the speed -- are already on our roads, and more than a dozen automakers including BMW, Kia, Volkswagen and General Motors are racing to get fully self-driving cars to market by 2020. Champions of the technology point to its potential to reduce the 1.3 million road deaths worldwide each year -- too many of them at the hands of a tired or distracted driver, or one who simply did not react fast enough. The auto industry is already changing fast thanks to the advent of services like Uber and electric vehicles, and carmakers are eyeing both the threats and opportunities. Renault-Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn summed up the transformations as a “reshuffling of the cards” for the industry. “There is a new game, let’s
see who is going to be able to prevail,” he told an audience in Davos. The dash for driverless technology is bringing new players into the car business, notably Google, Apple and BlackBerry. The disruption will create jobs too -- engineering posts and roles in any number of new services. There is talk of mobile doctors’ surgeries and moving nail salons. But the transition will be painful, not least because most cabbies and truck drivers are not qualified to slide seamlessly into new engineering roles. “We don’t have, at this point, really well designed (plans) for re-education,” said EU transport commissioner Violeta Bulc at a panel in Davos. “All this massive change that has not been experienced before, because digitalisation is really
making dramatic shifts.” - Offices on the move How to regulate the new vehicles is already giving a headache to authorities around the world. Inga Beale, CEO of the Lloyd’s of London insurance market, said in Davos that insurers were having to grapple with the question of liability in case of an accident The US government unveiled a regulatory framework in September, but the carmakers are having to deal with ethical and legal dilemmas too. At the extreme end, if an intelligent car is faced with the terrible choice of killing one person to swerve around a crowd of five, what should it do? There was some relief for the industry when the US government this week found no safetyrelated defect in a fatal crash involving a Tesla car on autopilot
last May. In public, auto bosses are focusing on the ways that going driverless is going to change our lives for the better. Ghosn painted a picture of a world where we are liberated not only to check our emails or watch TV while in the driver’s seat, but also run an entire office on the move.“You can be in the car and do everything you’re doing in the house or in the office -- except that it’s mobile,” he enthused. Eventually, automated transport systems and innovations such as shared car ownership could free up our congested cities and clean up our air, promoters say. For now, the approach is safety-first: the beer-delivering Uber truck had a human watching from the cabin, and a police car in tow. AFP
The SUV: How long will it reign? THE past year saw record car sales on both sides of the Atlantic and a huge jump in demand for crossovers and SUVs in particular, to the point where they account for over 40% of US car sales and 25% of European sales. But even with unprecedented levels of demand, not all consumers are sold on the idea of owning an SUV. Of the 17.5 million vehicles sold in America over the last 12 months, 6.7 million were crossovers or SUVs and 2.7 million pickups. And as sales of 4x4s increases, all other vehicle types have started sliding in popularity. Sales of large cars have plummeted 44.7% in the US over the course of 2016 while sales of large SUVs have jumped 21.6%. Honda has sold 357,335 CR-V crossovers, Nissan 329,904 Rouges, and Toyota 352,139 RAV4 models. To put those figures into perspective, America’s most popular car, the Toyota Camry, managed 388,616 sales, and while it’s still ahead of the chasing crossover pack, it has seen sales fall 9% over the past 12 months, while Nissan has seen a 14.9% spike in demand for the Rogue. According to J.D. Power, it’s taken five years for the SUV and crossover to move from a 34% to a 42% market share. “Low fuel prices, favorable lease deals and the availability of low-interest loans are attracting buyers to SUVs,” said Dave Sargent, vice president of global automotive at J.D. Power. And the crossover craze is now sweeping through Europe too. For the first time, high-sided vehicles accounted for one in every four cars sold on the continent in 2016. JATO Dynamics says that registrations of these types of cars grew by 21.4% over 2016 -- a year where car sales were at their highest across all sectors for nearly a decade. “[It] was a great year for the industry, with the second highest volume of registrations since 2007. European car registrations have shown good momentum, with 27 out of 29 markets in Europe recording positive growth last year,” said Felipe Munoz, JATO’s Global Automotive Analyst. Over the next 12 months, car companies will be betting even more on the persuasive powers of the SUV with new models coming from Audi, BMW, Chevrolet, Mercedes-Benz Nissan, and Volkswagen among others. However, J.D. Power notes that the majority of US car shoppers are actively trying to resist the lure of SUVs. Just 24% of the 27,500 car owners who took part in its most recent Auto Avoider Study said that they went out to buy a new SUV rather than any other type of car. “Since consumers, on average, pay a 9% premium for an SUV compared with a comparably equipped sedan, many consumers still are not considering an SUV,” said Sargent. What’s more, in US car-buying circles, SUVs struggle to build the same levels of loyalty that other vehicle types achieve -- 38% of SUV owners are new to the vehicle’s maker. AFP
BMW sets 2017 in motion with an exclusive trip to Munich For years, Asian Carmakers Corporation, the official importer and distributor of BMW in the Philippines, has paved the way in pushing the boundaries of premium mobility in the Philippines. In 2016, the brand continued its 14-year streak as the leader of the luxury car segment. To mark this milestone,
BMW is providing its valued clientele with an exclusive opportunity to visit its hometown, Munich, Germany. From January 19 to February 28, 2017, buyers of any brandnew BMW vehicle will be flown to visit the birthplace of sheer driving pleasure to join an exciting tour of the BMW Welt and
Museum, and explore the rest of Germany’s best in culture, food, and architecture. The Munich Travel Experience reinforces BMW’s dedication to redefining customer experience by helping its customers form a deeper appreciation and understanding of the brand’s fervent spirit, its
remarkable heritage steeped in storied roots, and the bright future it has ahead. To learn more about this special program, log on to the BMW Philippines website (www.bmw. com.ph) or the follow BMW Philippines’ official Facebook page (BMW.Philippines).
NLEX lights more tollway portion THE Manila North Tollways Corporation has lighted more portions of the tollway with the view of enhancing road safety in the northbound and soutbound sections. MNTC has extended the lighted portion of the NLEX by putting up lampposts and installing lights at the Balagtas section and at the widened areas of the expressway from Sta. Rita in Bulacan to San Fernando in Pampanga. This adds 33 kilometers of lighted area to the previous lighted 15 kilometers of the NLEX from Balintawak to Bocaue. Close to 800 LED lights are being installed at the mainline and bridges of the said segment of the NLEX in a bid to keep the expressway safe for motorists, particularly for those driving at night. “Adequate roadway lighting makes the NLEX safer as lights enhance the visual acuity of drivers especially at night,” said MNTC president and chief executive officer Rodrigo Franco, adding that “this project forms part of the overall upgrade of our expressways to further improve customer service to our motorists.” The roadway lighting pro-
ject will also help NLEX traffic monitoring teams and patrol officers in observing traffic conditions, and spotting and responding to road incidents since the lights will make the road highly visible at nighttime. In another move to step up its road safety campaign, MNTC is replacing over 100 road signs in both northbound and southbound directions to remain highly visible through those signs, motorists immediately know applicable road regulations and directions. Old road signs suffer from reduced retro-reflectivity over time.
MNTC recognizes the importance of precise and appropriate road signs for safe and efficient expressway travel thus ensure that signs installed along the NLEX, as well as at the SCTEX, are consistent with the international standards. NLEX is the premier roadway in the country, featuring modern features that enhance traffic management and communications, aside from superior pavement and other physical structures stretched to the entire length of NLEX, Subic Tarlac Expressway and Cavite Expressway .
Can Lamborghini maintain momentum? THE past 12 months will be remembered as a record year for Italy’s most flamboyant supercar builder but what has Lamborghini got planned to keep its customers satisfied in 2017? For the first time in its 54-year history, Lamborghini has sold more than 3,400 cars in a single year. Even with China cooling as a market for the world’s most exclusive and desirable automobiles, Lamborghini managed to sell 3457 cars; that’s a 7% increase on last year’s sales and a 200%+ increase on sales as recently as 2010. “In 2016 Lamborghini has proven to be in excellent shape,”
said company CEO, Stefano Domenicali. “This new all-time high is once more confirming the substance and sustainability of our brand, product and commercial strategy.” It’s phenomenal growth but with competition at the highest echelons of the automotive market at its fiercest for decades, how will Lamborghini maintain this momentum? The first move is a complete refresh of the Aventador. After five years and 6000 unit sales, even a car with 700hp can start to seem stale. So the new Aventador S will come with 740hp, a 0-100km/h
time of 2.9 seconds and a 350km/h top speed. And for good measure, Lamborghini is also adding a new four-wheel steering system to complement its all-wheel drive. Alongside the new Aventador, the company is readying a lightweight, more aggressive, trackfocused version of its Huracán (in both hard- and soft-top form) that’s expected to make its debut in Geneva. And while these supercars will keep the company’s oldest customers very happy, Lamborghini believes that the only way to continue posting record years is to move into the burgeoning SUV market with the Urus. AFP