https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51612880 I'm all for black box devices being fitted in cars to monitor the driving habits of new drivers to help them become better drivers. The idea being that if you demonstrate that you are a good driver, you will be rewarded with lower insurance premiums. While I do recognise that this does have an air of "Big Brother watching you", in my opinion new drivers should…
This is a very interesting article in the Guardian written by Gwyn Topham because, rather unfortunately, it flags what I've often been worried about. Namely, the decrease in private cars being offset by the increase in both Uber (drivers) and Amazon delivery vans. The article provides interesting points regarding congestion in London streets and how it hasn't improved at all since Uber first hit our streets back…
January figures for new car sales came out this past Tuesday and surprise, surprise, they’ve dropped year on year (149k vehicles sold in Jan this year, versus 160k in Jan 2019). Why isn’t this a surprise? For starters, consumer confidence here in the UK has trickled steadily lower as the uncertainty surrounding Brexit and the ramifications of a Britain not part of the EU made consumers wary…
In response to the growing demand for an all-electric SUV, Hyundai launched their compact Kona crossover in EV form in mid-2018, arriving to UK shores in the middle of last year. This is certainly a feather in the cap for the surging South Korean brand, and I’m happy to report that the vehicle is very well put together. It should come as no surprise that the Kona…
While everyone has the noblest of intentions when it comes to the environment, the reality is that here in the UK the automotive industry – both manufacturers and policy makers - have not done a good enough job to convince us to switch to pure EV cars. Even though car manufacturers will be soon flooding the market with new model EVs, the big unknown is whether consumers…
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/james-cameron-teams-mercedes-benz-avatar-inspired-vehicle-1267592 This is kinda fun... Hollywood mega-filmmaker James Cameron - an avid environmentalist to boot - has collaborated with Mercedes-Benz to create an eco-friendly concept car that dovetails into his Avatar-based worlds of production and design. The car was first seen on Monday in Las Vegas at CES under the moniker Vision AVTR, which stands for Advanced Vehicle Transformation. Mercedes-Benz is keen to highlight that this car…
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/autonomous-taxis-become-rough-ride-050027746.html As has been discussed in past Car Sleuth posts, the consistent push for self-driving vehicles, from California tech start-ups to European car manufacturers, finally appears to be abating. Timelines are being modified as car manufacturers and tech companies realise that fully autonomous self-driving vehicles won't be put on the roads in earnest until even more testing and tweaks have been done. As to when the necessary…
With new features being introduced all the time, it’s time to take stock and ask ourselves which are genuinely “can’t live without” and which are simply “overkill” and likely adds cost to the price of the car. I’ve chosen 5 of the best and 5 of the worst! Let me know in the comments if you agree… The best: 1 - Adaptive cruise control: On a long…
I was invited to see the new Polestar 2 (full) EV at a private viewing in London’s east end. Annoyingly, it was just a “physical viewing” (their words, not mine) meaning no test drive on offer… For background, Polestar is the new EV spin-off division of Volvo. Lest we forget that Volvo is now owned by Geely, one of the bigger Chinese EV manufacturers out there (anecdotally,…
With the volume of inbounds I’m getting on whether a next car purchase should be pure electric I thought it was good timing to re-visit the subject. Let’s begin by stating that the EV landscape is changing so quickly that by the time this piece hits your inbox there could be yet more changes afoot! For convenience, I’ll break this down into the three discussion areas that…