via BBC

Today the British government has announced that testing of automated cars will be allowed on public roads from January next year. The tests are then intended to run for between 18 to 36 months. What more innovative is the approach they have taken to doing this.  The government has invited cities to compete to host one of three trials, which would start at the same time.  Cities interested in hosting the trials have until early October to declare their interest and the Department for Transport has created a £10m fund to cover their costs (BBC says the sum to be divided between the three winners but not sure what the criteria would be for this split). Quite novel! Good to see the British government pushing the envelope on its road safety agenda using the driverless cars. Hope this nudges other EU countries (and the rest of the world) to get their act together and pave way for the automated vehicles.

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A pit stop at the Autrodomo Nazionale of Monza (Italy), during the 2004 Italian Grand Prix, September 12, 2004. The team’s pit crew is refuelling the car and changing tires.

So, how long does it take you/your mechanic at the tire shop to change the tires? Can you get it done in 2.31 secs? I hear you laughing but that’s exactly what it took for a Formula1 team to change all its tires. BBC offers a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes in preparation towards achieving such stellar times. For the record, McLaren is the team that recorded the world’s fastest Formula 1 pit stop during the German Grand Prix in July this year, with a stationary time of 2.31 seconds, while they changed Jenson Button‘s tyres. That’s as much as it takes for me to turn my head at times.

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 (Source:  BBC & NYTIMES)

Toyota, the world’s biggest carmaker, has made its worst annual loss as the global economic downturn has hit demand for its vehicles.  The Japanese company said it made a net loss of 436.94bn yen ($4.4bn; £2.9bn) in the year to 31 March, compared with a record profit the year before.

Toyota said expected to make a bigger loss in the current financial year.  Like many of its rivals, Toyota has cut production, including at its UK plants, as sales have declined. Toyota also blamed the loss on high raw materials prices and a strong yen, which makes its cars more expensive overseas.   “Both revenues and profits declined severely during this period,” said Toyota president Katsuaki Watanabe. He said the loss “was a consequence of the significant deterioration in vehicle sales, particularly in the US and Europe”.

Toyota said it expected to make a net loss of 550bn yen ($5.5bn; £3.7bn) in the financial year ending in March 2010.

Analysts say Toyota has strong cash reserves, and is far from the bankruptcy that has claimed the American carmaker Chrysler and that threatens General Motors. Despite a $15.4 billion infusion in U.S. government loans, General Motors burned through about $10 billion in the first quarter, driving its cash reserves down to a bare minimum and putting it on the brink of collapse.

Still, Standard & Poor’s, the ratings agency, on Friday lowered its long-term credit rating on Toyota a notch to AA, the third-highest rating, and gave a “negative” outlook for the company.

“Toyota maintains a minimal financial risk profile, characterized by a strong capital structure with massive liquidity,” Standard & Poor’s said in a statement. But with auto demand forecast to remain sluggish into 2010, Toyota will likely struggle before it can stage a recovery, Standard & Poor’s said.

Toyota’s latest forecast paints a grim picture for the year ahead. Toyota has been hit hard in its biggest market, the United States, where sales have plunged and show few signs of recovering.

In April, Toyota sold 126,540 cars in the United States — a 42 percent drop from a year earlier — slipping behind Ford Motor, which sold almost 130,000 cars.

Toyota has also suffered double-digit percentage drops in Japan as well as in China, where it is losing out to rivals with a wider lineup of smaller cars that have surged in popularity.

Toyota sold 7.56 million vehicles in fiscal 2008, down from 8.91 million units in its blockbuster 2007.

The company has so far held off from laying off permanent workers, who enjoy lifetime employment guarantees. Toyota says that guarantee is a key part of its “kaizen” management principle, in which workers are required to constantly suggest ways to be more productive. But some analysts question how long Toyota can hold off from deeper cuts.

Toyota is counting on its third-generation Prius hybrid, which will be unveiled later this month in Japan, to buoy sales. But the automaker faces stiff competition from its Japanese rival, Honda Motor, whose low-cost Insight hybrid is expected to eat into Toyota’s market share.

In a filing with the Japanese Finance Ministry, it indicated it may sell as many as ¥700 billion in bonds in the next two years, Bloomberg news reported.

The automaker is also rallying around its iconic founding family, tapping Akio Toyoda, the company founder’s grandson, to replace Mr. Watanabe next month. Mr. Toyoda has said he will focus on “green” technology like hybrids and plug-in electric vehicles to bring about a long-term recovery.

The automaker could also benefit from Japanese government stimulus efforts.

Last month, officials unveiled a so-called cash-for clunkers program under which car owners who upgrade to “green” vehicles from cars that are at least 13 years old will receive government subsidies.

(Source: BBC via Autoblog; Photo: Saudi Jeans via Autoblog)

Saudi Arabia recently instated a new type of license plate that is expected to be fitted to 49 million cars in the kingdom. As opposed to the old Arabic-only plates, the new plates feature Arabic and Latin letters and numbers. Drivers can even request that the three letters on the lower right form certain 3-letter English words, like “nut.”

But according to the BBC, authorities have published a list words that definitely cannot be placed there, and heading the list of words like “SEX” and “ASS” is this one: “USA.”  It hasn’t been explained why “USA” is on the list of Saudi Arabia’s banned words, but such plates and 90,000 others like it are being recalled and replaced with something more acceptable.   Personalised plates are popular with wealthy young Saudis. One plate recently sold at auction for 6m riyals ($1.2m), the newspaper reported.

Such license plate controversies are not new in many parts of the English speaking world.  Often plates implying profane matter are restricted in the U.S. and for those who remember the recent one from Colorado touting a woman’s love for tofu got a lot of media attention.  PETAf iles blog reports that no one driving through Colorado will be seeing the personalized license plate “ILVTOFU” anytime soon, thanks to the DMV’s rejection of the message as “possibly offensive to the general public.”  Wait, what? How is loving tofu offensive? As it turns out, the license-plate approver had an entirely different interpretation of the message, as in I-LV-TO-eff-you.

While it’s a creative interpretation, it’s not exactly what the Colorado mother of three vegetarian kids had in mind. Coffman-Lee is a vegan, and as she puts it, “I’m very expressive. I’m anti-fur, anti-rodeo, anti-circus when they come to Denver, and I thought, ‘Here’s a chance to be positive and say I love something.'” She even says that a friend at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animal (PETA) liked the idea so much they were willing to pay the $60 plate fee.Hopefully, with a little explanation and maybe even a tasty sample of the jiggly white stuff, the rejection will be overturned and her car can become the vegetarian-message-on-wheels that it was meant to be.  

(Source: BBC Earth Watch)

So far, just about everyone seems to love the self-styled “world’s cheapest car”, the Tata Nano.

Writing on these pages, Indian motoring journalist Hormazd Sorabjee writes that “It thrilled me with its ‘proper car’ feel”; while for Adil Jal Darukhanawala of zigwheels.com, “The Nano has the makings of a mega winner.”

And what’s not to love? A five-seater car that does about 20 km per litre (that’s 56 MPG in old money) and costs $2,000 – come on! – and it’s not the end of the line, with Bajaj, the company that principally populates South and Southeast Asia’s roads with auto-rickshaws, planning to launch its own tiny car (the Pico?) within two years.

Just about the only people sounding a cautionary note on the tiny Nano’s giant appeal are environmental groups, notably the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).

They judge it inappropriate for Indian cities, choked by traffic, where jams mean a journey across town can already be measured in hours.

“Cars may drive growth and aspirations, but they can never meet the commuting needs of urban India. Cars choke cities, harm public health and guzzle more oil.”

CSE’s simple prescription is more investment in mass transit schemes.

Although one can see the logic of their argument, it’s hard to imagine it prevailing.

Many Indian cities already have swarming bus networks and suburban rail networks. They’re slowly being supplemented by true mass transit rail systems – up and running inCalcutta and Delhi, under construction in Mumbai and Bangalore.

(Source: BBC)

He has worked as a chauffeur for top businessmen in Pune and Mumbai – ferrying them around the country, to important meetings in big, fancy and expensive cars.

He has sat behind the wheels of dozens of cars, from an old British Morris to the Land Rover he’s driving now.  It’s been an honest, hardworking life – albeit austere.

The salary of a driver in India can only afford you so much. Mr Pandurang has worked hard to support his family – putting his children in English language schools, so that they would get opportunities he never had.

He’s never been the kind of man to want anything for himself, working night and day to feed his family instead. But throughout his life, he has had one dream: to own a car of his own.

Last January, Mr Pandurang and his family watched in awe and excitement as the unveiling of the world’s cheapest car was broadcast on television screens across India.

They were sitting in the living room of their modest flat when they first saw Ratan Tata, the boss of the Tata Group, announce on national television that the Nano would be sold for 100,000 Indian rupees – around £2,000 at the current exchange rate.

“I was shocked” says Rakhee, Mr Pandurang’s 24 year old daughter. “It was like God had answered our prayers – we could finally help to make dad’s dream come true.”