Peer-To-Peer Car Sharing Community Launched In SF

Published June 28, 2012

A new type of car sharing experience, named SideCar, launched today after successful beta testing in San Francisco.

SideCar has been operating in beta since mid-February, and has already facilitated 10,000 rides across the city of San Francisco. The company considers itself the first on-demand rideshare community.

SideCar is a new peer-to-peer transportation community that provides members a new option for personal transportation. The SideCar app connects everyday drivers who have a car with others in the community looking for transportation options beyond hired cars, taxis or mass transit.

The mobile application is available free for download for passengers via the App Store for iPhone and GooglePlay for Android users.

Drivers can apply to be part of the community at www.side.cr/drive .

The community is growing quickly and SideCar is on the lookout for more drivers to share rides with people in the city. Drivers can cover the cost of vehicle ownership, maintenance and gas, all while meeting new people in their local area.

How it Works:

Riders place a request to rideshare by setting a pick-up and drop off location via the app. Once the request is confirmed, riders can view the driver approaching in real-time and see the driver's estimated time of arrival. If they choose, riders have the option to share their ETA with family and friends and rate their experience following the rideshare. Riders may also use app to make a monetary contribution to the driver. The application aggregates the current community average donations to offer passengers an easy way to decide how much to donate for their ride. No cash or other form of payment outside of the app is accepted and it is up to riders' discretion whether they make a contribution to their driver for the ride.

Drivers log in to the app when they are available to offer a ride and then receive an alert when a rider submits a rideshare request. Drivers can accept the rider's request via the app and call them to let them know they are on their way. Drivers also have the opportunity to rate their experience with the rider at the conclusion of the ride. Drivers are frequently able to cover the cost of the maintenance and operation of their vehicle as a result of their participation in the SideCar community.

To enhance safety for drivers and passengers and foster trust within the community, SideCar screens all community members who are interested in driving. Screening includes a background check, driver's license verification, proof of insurance and an interview. Additionally, the opportunity for both drivers and riders to rate their experiences helps to establish community safety and trust. Drivers or riders who receive negative ratings are flagged to SideCar and an investigation is conducted to ensure that any potential issue is addressed with minimal impact to the community.

via HybridCars.com 

Interbrand Names Toyota Best Global Green Brand For Second Year Running

Published June 27, 2012

Toyota retains the number one position in the second annual Best Global Green Brands report, published by international brand consultancy Interbrand this week.

The report gauges the gap between public perception of a brand’s environmental performance – its “green image” – and its actual environmental practices, using publicly available data and information.

Interbrand credits Toyota’s achievement to the fact it continues to make environmental sustainability a core priority, and it cites the expansion of the world’s first mass-produced full hybrid vehicle, the Toyota Prius, into a full family of models as a further success story for the company.

Worldwide sales of Toyota’s full hybrid vehicles passed four million at the end of April this year. In the UK Toyota has sold more than 95,000 Toyota and Lexus hybrids since 2000.

This is a landmark year in the development of Prius with the introduction of the Prius c, Prius v and Prius Plug-in alongside the established, third generation Prius hatchback. This extension of the range to create a family of models makes the environmental benefits of Prius’s hybrid technology available to a wider range of customers, with different motoring needs.

Toyota has also brought its full hybrid technology to the supermini market for the first time, with the recent introduction of the European-built Yaris Hybrid. On the large sedan side of the equation, Toyota offers the Camry Hybrid and will be introducing for 2013 the Avalon Hybrid .

Toyota is also aiming to reduce carbon emissions throughout the complete manufacturing and sales processes.

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BMW Stops Talking to GM about Fuel Cells, May Begin With Toyota

Published June 27, 2012

BMW Hydrogen 7

As recently as December, BMW had said it and and General Motors were cooperating on fuel cell vehicle research, but now word has it that their agreement is no more.

"We are still talking to GM, but no longer on the topic of fuel cells," said BMW AG spokesman Alexander Bilgeriman to Automotive News today.

Instead, BMW will reportedly build on electrified vehicle research commitments with Toyota, as mentioned a couple days ago , and in March when the two automakers were said to be working on a next generation battery .

BMW CEO Norbert Reithofer and Toyota President Akio Toyoda have scheduled a press conference for Friday, so we shall see whether further disclosure on the potential alliance is offered.

In any case, as fuel cells are believed to be years away from mainstream viability, and automakers are continually being driven by regulatory pressures to pool resources to co-develop advanced technology, what the latest snippet of news will mean remains to be seen.

Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are essentially a form of electrified transportation but with severe cost hurdles, and lacking infrastructure, they present a “chicken and egg” barrier seen by some as more daunting than introducing battery powered vehicles to a world built on petroleum power.

No reasons for the cessation of hydrogen fuel cell talks with GM were given by BMW, and GM declined to comment as to why the relationship was curtailed.

What is known is Toyota is well along in its fuel cell development path, intends to launch its first fuel cell vehicle in 2015 , but GM also has years of fuel cell research behind it.

GM has shown running fuel cell prototypes, and presently is researching the technology in cooperation with the U.S. Pacific Command in Hawaii, among other projects.

Perhaps we’ll learn more on Friday after the BMW-Toyota press conference.

By Jeff CobbAutomotive News

EuroFOT Project Confirms Usefulness Of Driver Assist Systems

Published June 27, 2012

The final report from the EuroFOT research project, which has brought together 28 European companies and organizations, confirms that systems to help drivers avoid incidents and collisions deliver significant benefits.

According to the study, a car with adaptive cruise control and collision warning, for instance, cuts the risk of colliding with the vehicle in front on a motorway by up to 42 percent.

The large-scale European Field Operational Test on Active Safety SystemsEuroFOT is a research project supported by European funds. It involves 28 organizations, including Swedish participants Volvo Car Corporation, Volvo Trucks and Chalmers University of Technology. Other automotive manufacturers involved were Audi Volkswagen AG, BMW, Daimler AG and Ford.

The project, which began in June 2008, was led by Aria Etemad from Ford’s European Research Centre in Aachen, Germany.

One hundred Volvo V70 and XC70 models with a total of 263 drivers participated in EuroFOT. All cars were fitted with cameras and sensors that registered every second of every journey for 18 months, which meant that every little incident and situation could be studied and evaluated.

These cars supplied Volvo Car Corporation's safety experts with 30 terrabytes of data from 3 million kilometers (1,864,113 miles) of driving. The final report from EuroFOT also includes material from other vehicle manufacturers.

The final report from EuroFOT clearly shows that adaptive cruise control and forward collision warning enhance traffic safety. The benefits are greatest on the motorway, where the risk of driving into the vehicle in front is cut by up to 42 percent.

Adaptive Cruise Control is used on the motorway for more than 51 percent of the total distance covered - which confirms that the system is appreciated by drivers. 80 percent of them feel that progress on the road is more comfortable and convenient, and a massive 94 percent feel safer with the system activated.

When it comes to collision warning, 70 percent of the drivers feel that it improves the level of safety.

“Thanks to the warning system, a couple of times I managed to avoid being involved in an accident when the vehicles in front suddenly slammed on their brakes,” said one participant in the study echoing a sentiment heard by others.

As regards the other warning systems, which focus on tired drivers, lane keeping and vehicles in the blind spot, the trend is also positive. However, there is not yet enough data to provide statistically significant forecasts of the accident risk reduction.

The EuroFOT participants also confirmed that the Driver Alert Control actually works.

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Another Award For GM’s Ampera

Published June 27, 2012

Chevrolet Volt’s twin, the Vauxhall Ampera, has added Auto Express magazine’s Green Award 2012 to its growing collection of top honors.

The UK’s best-selling weekly car magazine made the announcement at its prestigious New Car Awards held last night in London.

The Ampera, which has only just been launched in the UK, adds this latest accolade to an impressive haul of over 40 awards including the 2012 European Car of the Year, What Car? magazine’s Green Car of the Year and Top Gear magazine’s Green Car of the Year.

Sales results are confirming the popularity of the Ampera. The Volt twin isEurope’s best-selling electric passenger vehicle with a continent-wide market share of over 20 percent.

“The Ampera is a superb car that debuts technology that will play a huge part in our motoring future,” said Steve Fowler, Auto Express Editor-in-Chief. “As always, the simple ideas are the best, but putting them into a car and making it work so well, then getting it on sale, is altogether much harder.”

“We are delighted that the Ampera has received recognition from Auto Express magazine,” said Duncan Aldred, Vauxhall’s Chairman and Managing Director. “The Ampera is truly a pioneering vehicle not just for Vauxhall but for the automotive industry as a whole. Its revolutionary E-REV technology makes it the first vehicle on the market providing uncompromised electric driving."

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Opel Ampera Europe's Number One Selling EV in May

Opel Ampera Europe's Number One Selling EV in May

This week Opel announced that the Ampera – its sibling to the Chevy Volt – was Europe’s best-selling electric passenger vehicle with a continent-wide market share of over 20 percent.

The results are a combined total of UK-based Vaxhall-badged Amperas, and the Opel variety, according to Opel’s Christopher Rux, coordinator, product and brand communications Europe.

The Ampera is actually sold in most European countries, Rux said. In the first quarter of 2012, it went on sale in Germany, Benelux, France, Switzerland and the Netherlands. Italy, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Austria, Denmark, Finland, and Greece. Norway will follow shortly.

In April, right-hand drive versions for the UK were introduced and this month, sales begin in Poland, Hungary, Turkey, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Romania and Slovakia.

Opel noted particular examples of regional market dominance, especially in the Netherlands where public sentiment – and government incentives – favor this class of car so much so that Rux said the Ampera even dominated hybrid sales.

“In the Netherlands, we were able to sell not only more Amperas than every other EV, but also more than every hybrid competitor,” he said.

In all, the Ampera took more than 77 percent of the passenger EV market share in May. In a statement, Opel noted this made the Ampera “the undisputed leader of its segment by a wide margin with all the other competitors only managing single figure percentages.”

Further, Opel noted, the average year to date market share for the Ampera in the Netherlands was more than 50 percent, “underscoring its continuing popularity there.”

“We are proud that we are the number one in Europe. Our sales data and customer feedback confirms that we are definitely on the right track with the Ampera”, said Enno Fuchs, Opel’s e-mobility launch director in the statement. “Especially in markets with governmental incentives like the Netherlands we have performed very well.”

Then again, you can interpret Netherlands dominance for what it’s worth, as the Netherlands has apparently stacked the deck in a way American EV advocates could only wish for. The Netherlands also happens to stringently tax gas guzzling luxury cars to such a sales-numbing degree, that American start-up Fisker’s extended-range electric – thus guzzler tax exempt – Karma was the Netherlands' second-highest selling luxury sedan in May. Due to the pro-EV economic climate there, it was able to beat established offerings including the BMW 7-Series, Mercedes S-Class, Audi R8, and only being topped by the Porsche Panamera.

But the Netherlands was not the only place the Opel Ampera did well on a percentage basis. It was also the best-selling EV in Germany with a share of more than 33 percent in May, and in Switzerland it took 44 percent.

The sales are the result of Opel/Vauxhall opening up the pre-ordering process all the way back in July 2011. The car could exceed its 10,000 unit allocation this year, thus possibly besting the U.S.-based Volt in its first year of sales, although Rux said more benignly that “we expect sales to land between 7,000-10,000 units in 2012.”

In any case, its achievements will actually be made in less than a full selling year. Customer deliveries did not start until the end of February, and as mentioned, the Ampera was only just launched in some markets more recently.

“From January (the majority of deliveries and registrations began end of February) to May 2012, around 2,300 Opel/Vauxhall Amperas have been registered in total Europe,” said Rux, “which makes us the clear #1 selling electric passenger car in Europe and the numbers are continuously increasing, as there were in Jan-Mar 982, in April 499 and in May 803 registered Amperas.”

Rux also clarified which vehicles it measured the Ampera against in determining its measure of success.

“We compared our Opel Ampera with the entire European electric passenger vehicle segment,” he said. “The major competitors of the Ampera within this entire segment are Nissan Leaf, Bollore Bluecar, Renault Fluence, Peugeot iOn, Mitsubishi i-MiEV, Citroen C-Zero, MIA electric, smart fortwo ed, Chevy Volt and Tesla Roadster.”

With the exception of the anomaly in the Netherlands, Opel/Vauxhall did not compare to hybrids commercial electric vehicles.

General Motor’s sibling to the Volt has also racked up more than 50 national and international awards and overall, this latest news is all just reinforcement for what we’ve been hearing since last fall as GM was preparing for this year’s European launch of Amperas and Volts.

We don’t know if GM will supply more Amperas if demand proves it warranted, but it appears likely, based on Rux’s response to a question of whether they will get more Amperas if they sell through the first year supply of 10,000?

“Why certainly! But we always said hat 10,000 is our goal,” he said.

Also noteworthy is the Ampera has seemingly escaped the greater brunt of antagonism faced by its American counterpart. Here, the Volt has had to bypass a public relations gauntlet in the form of politicized arguments against its subsidization or very existence, not to mention a partisan and over-blown federal battery investigationand occasional unique spinning of other facts besides.

As is the case for the 2013 American-market Volt, Opel/Vauxhall expects to have 2013 model year Amperas generally available for customer order by August, with some countries not receiving the updated model until October.

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Ford wants cars to drive themselves

Published June 26, 2012

Ford Motor Company is researching and developing intelligent, next-generation driving technologies designed to help address traffic jams and other future mobility challenges that come with rapid urbanization and population growth around the world.

Ford’s early prototypes of two such technologies – Traffic Jam Assist and an advanced version of active park assist – are designed to interact with a vehicle’s surroundings, reduce driver stress and help reduce traffic gridlock.

Traffic Jam Assist

Traffic Jam Assist is an intelligent driving technology that Ford is developing for the mid-term. It uses radar and camera technology to help a vehicle keep pace with other vehicles in traffic and provide automated steering control to stay in the current lane, reducing driver stress and potentially improving vehicle flow.

Individual simulation studies have found that where 25 percent of vehicles on a stretch of road are equipped to automatically follow the traffic ahead, journey times can be reduced by 37.5 percent and delays reduced by 20 percent – saving millions of gallons of fuel each year.

Traffic Jam Assist has the potential to follow the traffic ahead while maintaining lane position in environments where there are no pedestrians, cyclists or animals, and where lanes are clearly marked.

Many of the sensing technologies required to deliver Traffic Jam Assist already are available on current Ford models including the Focus, Escape and Fusion.

The developing technology would be able to respond to changing traffic situations ahead and communicate any developments to the driver. Traffic Jam Assist would also incorporate features to help ensure the driver remains alert and in contact with the vehicle controls, even when the system is active. It could also be overridden at any time.

Perpendicular parking

In the near term, Ford plans to further develop its active park assist technology, a popular feature that allows drivers to parallel park without touching the wheel. Ford is adding perpendicular parking to the parallel parking maneuvers already possible.

The enhanced system would harness the technologies introduced with active park assist. It uses ultrasonic sensors to identify suitable parking spaces, for width rather than length, and then steers the vehicle into them using electric power-assisted steering (EPAS).

Active park assist is activated by pressing a center console button. When a suitable space is detected, the system will advise the driver to stop with an audible and visual warning. The driver will then be told to put the vehicle into reverse gear and operate brakes and clutch, if needed, while the car controls the steering wheel.

Perpendicular parking functionality would use the vehicle’s rear parking distance control sensors to monitor for obstructions not seen by the driver when backing into the space.

Where there is insufficient space to complete the maneuver in one attempt, the system might ask the driver to shift the vehicle into forward and reverse as necessary. Once the vehicle is perfectly parked, the driver gets a finish signal.

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