Aug 17, 2016
Are you one of those people who puts your foot down as you approach the traffic lights in an attempt to screech through just before amber turns to red? Or are you one of the cautious ones who begins to slow down in anticipation of “go” turning to “stop?”
Audi drivers in the USA will soon have some extra information to draw on. A news report has emerged revealing that Audi is working on some new car tech that will allow vehicles to directly communicate with traffic lights.
If this all sounds rather “sci-fi,” it’s worth remembering that self-driving cars are already being trialled. Therefore, this is actually a relatively simple thing to implement in technical terms.
The technology involved is known as “V to I” (Vehicle to Infrastructure). According to the report, the technology could soon work hand in hand with the “V to V” (Vehicle to Vehicle) communication that will one day allow self-driving cars to communicate with one another.
How will cars talk to traffic lights?
So what exactly will this technology do? There are two key functions, both based on a count-down display on the car’s dashboard. One will show a countdown to the light going green, disappearing just before to allow the driver to refocus on the road. The second countdown will appear on approaching a light, notifying a driver how long it will be until the light changes to red.
Obviously, the idea is that this latter countdown will warn drivers when there’s not enough time to get through the light before it changes. However, there’s no accounting for human nature. As such, one has to wonder how many drivers will simply try to “beat the countdown!”
It seems this has occurred to Audi too. The manufacturer has made clear that this feature is for “comfort and convenience” and not for safety.
Audi A4s and Q7s are expected to appear next year with this feature on board. To begin with, it will only function in a handful of (as yet unrevealed) US cities. There’s not yet any indication of any UK roll-out.
What do you think of this new piece of car tech? Pointless? Useful? Dangerous? Let us know in the comments!
Aug 10, 2016
If we’d talked about car WiFi a decade ago, it would have sounded like the stuff of science fiction. However, it helps to keep in mind the fact that ten years ago nobody had yet laid eyes on an iPhone or iPad!
The world is very different now; These devices are ubiquitous. For many, they’ve changed road travel in all kinds of ways. Consider the following:
- Many people now use their smartphone as their key satellite navigation device.
- Many individuals also store music on their phones, or use Internet streaming services such as Apple Music or Spotify as their main source of music. The “iPod input” of 2006 is now more than likely to be used as an input for a smartphone.
- Families often use Internet-connected devices to provide entertainment during long journeys. An iPad with access to streaming movies or a Kindle book can make such road trips far less stressful, as many parents will surely attest.
With all this in mind, it actually makes complete sense to have WiFi in the car when traveling. While a smartphone with data connectivity is useful to a point, it’s not much use to a family, who may all want their own connectivity for different devices. Furthermore, unlimited WiFi on smartphone tariffs is increasingly rare, and will soon add up if multiple people are all using data at once.
How to get Car WiFi
New cars are starting to appear with onboard Internet hotspots, but it’s just as easy to add one to an existing vehicle.
Essentially, all you need is a router for mobile broadband. These connect to the Internet using the same cellular network as your mobile phone, but also create a mobile hotspot that multiple passengers can connect to. For example, your passenger can stream music to the car stereo while your kids watch YouTube videos on their tablets in the back.
While any 4G router will serve the purpose to a point, devices have started to appear that are specifically designed for car WiFi use. One example is the Buzzard 2 device from EE (pictured). As you can see, this is designed to plug directly into a cigarette lighter socket in order to stay powered. Passengers just connect to it like any other WiFi hotspot.
Taking Things Further
Something like the Buzzard device is great for UK travel, but can get rather expensive if you travel further afield. Some of the tariffs available at the time of writing include some EU roaming data, but only 100MB’s worth.
This may sound like a lot but it’s really not – it actually amounts to about 10 mins of YouTube playback! It’s therefore not an awful lot of use if you’re planning a road trip through Europe (or elsewhere) unless you’re prepared to pay a lot of extra charges.
Another option is to take a look at a company called MIOWIFI. This firm does things rather differently, offering a service they describe as “portable WiFi for travellers.”
Essentially, MIOWIFI uses mobile broadband routers just like traditional providers. This is basically the same technology we’ve already talked about above. However, they’ve geared their service specifically to travellers to over 110 countries, who wish to avoid those roaming charges everyone dreads. The other most significant difference is that MIOWIFI rent out their devices as well as selling them.
The idea of this is that you can borrow a device for the duration of a holiday or business trip. When you arrive you switch on, connect to a local cellular provider, and have unlimited data to share with up to ten people.
This means you can, for example, hire a device, fly to the USA, and switch it on in your hire car to give yourself and your family unlimited car WiFi abroad. Prices range from £4 to £8 per day. When you’re done you post the device back to them.
Taking the Internet with you
It’s worth noting the MIOWIFI device isn’t only intended for car WiFi. You can use it wherever you want. So, you can use it (in the UK or abroad) in the car, in hotels, in rental properties and anywhere else. If you consider what it can sometimes cost to hook up to WiFi whilst travelling (and how pitifully slow this can sometimes be), the prices are really rather low when you consider that up to ten people can connect at once.
If you think about it, MIOWIFI is actually worth consideration for a UK holiday too. The reason being that traditional mobile Internet plans often have data caps and long contracts. If you only go on one or two long road trips each year, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to pay when you’re not using the device – and pay as you go options are never unlimited.
As you can see, there are plenty of options for car WiFi, but MIOWIFI does provide an interesting and slightly different proposition, especially if you want an absolute guarantee you won’t get hit by roaming charges abroad. Parents who rely on Kindles and tablets to make long journeys tolerable could find renting one of these devices makes the road trip part of the summer holidays more enjoyable than they thought possible!
Jul 15, 2016
The VW diesel emissions scandal may not be hitting the headlines so much nowadays, but it still rumbles on, with the aftermath costing Volkswagen something in the region of £12 Billion. For those unaware of what happened, it emerged in September 2015 that VW had used “defeat software” to cheat tests and provide unrealistic data on fuel economy and emissions data, resulting in a huge scandal and a queue of millions of VW owners expecting recompense.
On the other side of the Atlantic, American owners of affected VW diesel cars are each being financially compensated, to the tune up to $10,000 (£7,400 at current exchange rates). US owners also have the option of having their vehicle repaired or having it “bought back” by VW.
Now, according to a BBC report, it’s emerged that British VW diesel owners aren’t in line for anything like the same deal. The 200,000 affected people are merely being offered a free repair job – something the report suggests around a quarter of the owners have taken VW up on so far.
Blame for this inferior deal, which MPs have described as “deeply unfair,” is being placed on government inaction. The Transport Committee feel that the government has “lacked the will to hold VW accountable for its actions.”
Will the scandal spread beyond VW diesel cars?
A question that’s arisen frequently since the scandal broke is whether it would emerge that other manufacturers were implicated in similar tactics to cheat emissions tests. This possibility is also explored in the BBC article referred to above.
A detailed report last month suggested that diesels from a host of manufacturers could be significantly more polluting in colder weather conditions, due to software configurations that allow more emissions in inclement weather. Due to “loopholes” in EU laws, it’s thought that manufacturers have found ways to get around this without breaking any rules. However, it means – just as before – that these cars are throwing out far more pollution that they were ever supposed to on paper.
Between 2017 and 2021, European regulations are going to get much tougher on emissions. The unfortunate problem here is that significant environmental damage has been (and is being) done in the interim period.
Jun 28, 2016
Now we all know that the nation has voted to leave the EU, our thoughts turn to what the implications could be for “Brexit motoring.”
As per our last news item, petrol and diesel prices are widely expected to rise, at least in the short term – something people are already beginning to see (although not yet to the level some people predicted). However, there’s far more to motoring than the cost of fuel.
Many media outlets and national newspapers have begun to discuss other implications for UK drivers, so we thought it would make sense to give some space to some of the theories and suppositions. It’s very important to remember that when it comes to Brexit motoring, even the most informed opinion can only really be described as speculation at this stage.
No formal “Brexit” negotiations have yet taken place, so our exact relationship with most of mainland Europe is yet to be determined. However, it is possible to consider some of the EU’s current impacts on motorists and get a good idea of what could change.
Brexit Motoring: Insurance
Car insurance is arguably the thing that will be most affected by our planned withdrawal from the European Union, for a couple of reasons. One headline theory is that it could actually get cheaper – at least according to some pundits.
Why IS this? Well at the moment, it’s mandatory for UK car insurance policies to provide for a minimum level of legal cover when cars are driven in EU countries. If we’re no longer part of the EU, it’s possible that insurance companies could pass on the savings in not having to provide this cover, in the form of lower premiums.
However, this will mean that those who do wish to drive on the continent will have to pay separately (as many drivers already do to ensure a comprehensive level of cover) – and if we’re not part of the EU, these extra insurance costs could be high. So, reading between the lines we have a speculative advantage for drivers who never drive outside Britain, and a potential extra cost for those who do.
There’s more: As explained in a This is Money report, a law changed back in 2012 following an EU ruling, preventing insurance companies from offering cheaper policies to drivers based on their gender. This saw the end of a trend that was allowing (statistically safer) female drivers to pay less for car insurance than men. If an independent UK decides not to maintain this legal provision, we could see cheaper insurance for women once again, but probably more expensive insurance for men.
Driving in Europe Post Brexit
As (contrary to the understanding of many) the UK has never been part of the borderless Schengen zone, there have always been passport controls between the UK and mainland Europe (the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland being an exception).
As such, this part of driving in and out of Europe will remain unchanged, whatever is eventually decided regarding freedom of movement. However, once we leave the EU, we will no longer be able to fill our cars with cases of wine and cheap tobacco. It will likely be possible to buy small amounts at even lower prices, but within the same strict limits that apply to true “duty-free” purchases in places like Australia and the USA.
Ensuring these limits are adhered to is likely to make crossing out of Europe rather more arduous and time-consuming than it is now, but this change could be offset by fewer people crossing these borders once the “booze cruise” days are over.
Unless other European countries leave the EU, road laws will remain consistent. However once Britain is no longer part of the EU, the country may well choose to amend some motoring laws on this side of the Channel.
Brexit and the Car Industry
The impact Brexit may have on car manufacturing, and the car industry in general, is where things become really speculative. As you will know if you watched any of the pre-Brexit debates, the car industry was used repeatedly by both campaigns as a political tool to influence voters.
It’s too early to speculate on what might happen regarding manufacturing (even though plenty of newspapers are attempting to!) Until Brexit negotiations are well underway, it’s almost impossible to accurately predict whether manufacturers might move factories or whether the EU may impose trade tariffs.
However, we can still have a think about what could happen to car prices in the short to medium term. According to the same report referred to above, The RAC believe there’s “little evidence” that buying a car will become any more pricey. This is referring to the interim period while negotiations get underway.
After Brexit is complete, things could change; If we don’t negotiate a good trade deal, car prices could go up, resulting in cars here costing more than in mainland Europe. Toyota is one manufacturer who’s been open about this.
Also, while there’s not yet been any sign that interest rates will rise (and, in fact, speculation that they could fall yet further), if they do go up it could mean that car finance deals get a little more expensive.
Brexit Motoring Conclusion
You’ll notice we’ve been very cautious to only summarise some of the most common theories relating to Brexit motoring. It’s well worth emphasising that a huge number of factors remain up in the air at the time of writing, so informed speculation is the best we (or indeed anyone else) can offer. Whatever happens, nothing’s going to change particularly quickly at this point.
Jun 24, 2016
Whether you stayed up all night to watch the results come in, or you saw the news this morning, you’ll no doubt know by now that Brexit is happening. The referendum resulted in a narrow but clear victory for the “Leave” campaign, and as a result Britain is now taking its first steps towards leaving the EU.
Back in April / May we conducted a poll of our members, which included questions on Brexit voting intentions. If you are one of our members, you may have participated. Thanks to a fantastic response, it turned out to be the biggest poll conducted during the whole referendum campaign, and the first to correctly predict a “Leave” outcome, as reported at the time by The Sun.
We now know it was also extremely representative of the real life outcome, predicting the leave / remain split correctly across all four UK nations to within a couple of percentage points. For example, our poll pointed to England voting 55% in favour of Leave, with the real-life result being 53.4% in favour of Leave.
What does Brexit mean for petrol prices?
There’s no way to sugar-coat the fact that it’s almost inevitable that petrol prices WILL rise in the coming weeks in the aftermath of the referendum result.
The key reason for this is the enormous fall in the value of Sterling – the biggest drop seen since the mid-80s. As oil is purchased in Dollars, it’s immediately become considerably more expensive for Britain to buy. As a result, both The AA and the Petrol Retailers Association are predicting increases of up to three pence per litre, taking effect as soon as next week.
Beyond these almost certain increases, it’s hard to predict what will happen next – because we really do find ourselves in uncharted political and financial territory. Two factors that could restrict further increases are a bounce-back in the value of Sterling, or a fall in the oil price. Crude oil has actually fallen in price today in the wake of the Brexit announcement, but it’s possible this could just turn out to be a temporary market shock.
Obviously we will keep you informed as things develop. In the meantime, one thing that’s certain is that disparities in fuel prices will widen as the increases set in, making it all the more important to shop around. You can find the cheapest fuel wherever you are by using our free service, or by downloading our new apps for Android and iOS:
Find the PetrolPrices.com iOS app here.
Find the PetrolPrices.com Android app here.
