Driverless cars could soon be seen on a street near you, with the announcement that the government has injected £20 Million into eight separate research and development programmes.
This doesn’t mean that it’s likely you’ll look out of the window and see a bunch of cars without drivers in the coming weeks. The initial priority is to ensure safety in a “restricted testing phase.” Limited tests are in fact already underway in cities including Milton Keynes and Bristol.
One of the biggest test projects will take place in the Coventry area, where over 40 miles of roads are being set up with the infrastructure to facilitate the autonomous technology. The cars will use “vehicle to vehicle” communication.
Driverless Cars at Heathrow and Greenwich
If you’ve used Terminal 5 at London’s Heathrow Airport, you may have actually already been in a driverless car. The futuristic pod vehicles that transport passengers to the business car parking areas are using the core technology of driverless cars, even though they currently run on dedicated tracks. Take a look at the video below!
It’s these pods that will break free from their tracks later this year, when they are planned to take to the pavements of Greenwich. The plan is for the vehicles to be in operation as soon as July.
According to a This is Money report, the public is rather split on whether they trust driverless cars. A recent survey found that nearly half the respondents wouldn’t be willing to travel in an autonomous vehicle. This result was no doubt influenced by reports of accidents during Google’s driverless car tests in America.
Despite this, the government are clearly keen to blaze the trail in the use of this technology, with the £20 Million recently allocated only representing a fifth of the budget that’s been promised. The autonomous vehicle market is predicted to be worth £900 Billion within a decade, which seems to suggest that these developments will quickly gather pace.
Whether you use supermarket fuel, branded unleaded petrol, diesel, or one of the “super” fuels, the chances are you’ve sometimes wondered about the quality of the liquid you’re feeding into your vehicle.
Our recent survey, conducted towards the end of last year, certainly raised many queries from members regarding fuel quality, especially in reference to the differences between supermarket and “name brand” petrol and diesel. Many of you were also very curious about the real-life benefits of paying extra for “Super” fuels instead of sticking to the cheaper standard options.
In response to the hundreds of queries we received, we decided to help out and find you some answers, based on in-depth research and expert opinion. While we suspect that some of our findings may prove controversial, we hope we’ve managed to distil the current “conventional wisdom” on these issues – so read on to find out more.
How we approached our study?
When we sat down to discuss this study, one of the PetrolPrices.com team pointed out that he had a friendly scientist in his extended family – a specialist in biochemistry. Speaking to him seemed a good place to start.
He told us that fuel science is essentially centuries old and very well researched, and was able to point us to some good sources of information. He also provided us with his own view on the controversial topic of supermarket fuel – so let’s start there.
Supermarket Fuel vs. Branded Fuel
Our friendly scientist was very clear on his view regarding supermarket fuel. He said the following:
In the UK, all pump gasolines and diesels are governed by various national and international standards – notably European and CEN Standards. These require vehicle fuels to conform to minimum world-agreed quality and performance standards… so in Europe, supermarket fuel is as good as any.
We can already hear the sharp intake of breath from some readers, because this is a fiercely debated topic. Just look at any article or forum thread on the subject and you’ll hear people passionately arguing that supermarket fuel is inferior.
We were curious about just how common this view was amongst UK drivers, so before completing this article we carried out a quick Facebook survey asking whether people think supermarket petrol is inferior. The results of our survey suggest that around 40% of drivers really do suspect that there is something “less good” about supermarket fuel.
However, our friendly scientist is far from alone in his opposite opinion. A recent study in The Telegraph on the same subject cited spokesmen from both The RAC and The AA saying much the same, with the AA representative stating that “petrol and diesel fuel quality is governed by the same European standard, whether it is sold at a supermarket in Manchester (or) an independent outside Mevagissey.”
This seems pretty conclusive, and is backed up yet further by plenty of anecdotal reports online from consumers who have witnessed supermarket and name-brand tankers both stocking up at the same places.
However, there is a little more to this. As explained in a report in The Express, all petrol and diesel is made up of a base fuel and an additive mix. The additives the supermarkets and the various other brands choose to use will not necessarily be the same. The differences shouldn’t be significant enough to effect fuel economy or the “quality” of the driving experience, but this factor could have some part to play in the fact that some individuals are utterly convinced that supermarket fuels are in some way “different.”
This aside, we have to conclude that there is absolutely no scientific basis on which to assume that supermarket fuel is “bad” or unsafe. Around half the fuel powering the cars on Britain’s roads, right now, came from supermarket pumps – so if there was something wrong with it, we’d know by now. Even so, we’re ready for the inevitable debate!
Super Fuels vs. Premium / Standard Fuels
The other big question our members asked when we conducted the survey was what the real difference is between standard fuels and the “super” versions we see on forecourts for more money. At the time of writing, these come in at around 10 to 12 pence per litre more – so choosing to use them instead of their standard equivalents is a fairly pricey decision.
The first matter to clear up is any confusion between “premium” and “super” fuels. Standard 95-octane unleaded petrol is sometimes called “premium unleaded,” so we mustn’t confuse this with the more expensive “super” fuels, which are 97, 98 or even 99-octane.
Some examples: BP offer “Ultimate” unleaded, Esso call theirs “Synergy Supreme Plus,” and even Tesco have a “super” petrol of their own called “Momentum 99.”
So, do these fuels make any difference to how your car runs?
It seems that in many cases, the answer to this question is indeed “yes.”
We had a look in the instruction manual for one of the PetrolPrices.com team’s car – a 2.0FSi Seat Leon. The manual actually specifically recommended using “Super” unleaded, at 98-octane. It turns out that many car manufacturers make the same recommendation, especially when it comes to performance cars.
Let’s look at the science: The octane rating of petrol (or the cetane rating, in the case of diesel) describes how efficiently a fuel burns when used in a combustion engine. The higher the octane figure, the higher the efficiency. As per this report, a higher number can mean better performance and / or better fuel economy – though whether you’ll notice it on your daily commute will depend much on your driving style, your vehicle, and your attention to small details!
The octane or cetane ratings are not the end of the story. “Super” fuels also usually come with a more “luxurious” additive mix to deliver better performance or economy. For example, Esso’s Synergy Supreme Plus contains “double the detergent additive” compared to Esso’s standard fuel. Shell’s V-Power Nitro+ Unleaded apparently forms “a protective film on metal (to help) prevent corrosion.”
Once we get down to these additives, it’s all a little like comparing shampoos and toothpastes. There are probably some motoring enthusiasts who swear by a particular brand for a particular reason. However, the octane or cetane rating of a fuel is a more scientifically relevant way of comparing “standard” to “super.”
So should you use “super” fuel in your vehicle? Well, we’d suggest looking in the manual for your car to begin with, just like we did. If your manufacturer points you in the direction of high-octane fuel, you may want to stick with their advice.
However, unless you have a performance car or a “hot hatch,” you’re probably fine to stick to the standard stuff. This is a view supported by Matthew Minter, the Editorial Director for Hayne’s Maintenance Manuals, who says that “99% of cars will work perfectly well on 95-octane standard unleaded fuel.”
If you choose to defy the advice of your manufacturer, it has to be your own decision. For what it’s worth, that Seat Leon we mentioned above has worked just fine with standard 95 petrol, but our inclination is to go with the manufacturer’s advice – particularly as there is science to back up the use of higher octane fuel.
What About Fuel Additives?
Another option open to you is to use a third-party fuel additive such as Redex. These often claim to improve both performance and miles per gallon, and are an inexpensive “treat” for your car.
Essentially, these products perform the same kind of function as the additives in “Super” fuels – primarily keeping engines clean and lubricated.
However, as far back as 2009, Auto Express reported on a Which? study that described such additives as “a waste of money.”
There are sure to be some drivers and mechanics who use and trust these products, but the science doesn’t seem to agree. One thing Auto Express seemed very clear on is that they certainly don’t offer any kind of octane boost to rival that of a “Super” fuel.
Supermarket Fuel and “Super Fuel” – Our Conclusions
Our research into these fuel quality questions has produced some fairly clear answers. However, we suspect, based on the voracity of some of the motoring enthusiasts who frequent the forums, that plenty of people will still debate our findings.
In brief, our research throws up the following conclusions:
There’s no scientific evidence to suggest that supermarket fuel is inferior to its brand-name equivalent.
There are some proven benefits to using more expensive “super” fuels, but these benefits are only really pronounced in sporty vehicles.
Third-party fuel additives don’t seem to stand up to their bold claims when tested. However, some people state additives work well for them. You could try them for yourself to see if they make a difference, as they cost just £5 a bottle so may be worth trying – if only once!
Driving apps for smartphones are becoming increasingly popular nowadays, and are a great way to see how your driving standards measure up. They can save you some serious money too, as you’ll find out if you read on.
How do driving apps work?
The technical term for the technology behind these apps is telematics. Essentially, all of these safe driving apps use your phone’s GPS to assess your driving, usually in a number of different ways, such as judging the smoothness of your breaking and your adherence to speed limits.
Over a period of several weeks, my wife and I took at good look at all the main telematics apps on the UK market, and road-tested three of them in detail. I used an iPhone 6 and the latest iPhone 6s for our tests, but there are plenty of Android driving apps out there too – just see below for details.
What can driving apps do for you?
Telematics driving apps are often linked to specific insurance companies. As use of the apps allows the companies to track your driving style, they can offer discounts to those who exercise consistently safe driving habits.
Let’s use Aviva as an example: If you use the Aviva Drive app, you are given a driving score after you’ve covered 200 monitored miles. Depending on your score, you can save up to 20% on a car insurance policy. Aviva state, at the time of writing, that people using the app save an average of £112.
Are there any privacy concerns?
In order to track your driving, the driving apps obviously have to track where you are. This kind of thing is increasingly part of modern life, but if you’re uncomfortable with sharing this kind of information, perhaps telematics apps aren’t for you.
One thing that bothered me slightly to begin with is that all of the apps I road tested required me to have my location available to the app, even when not using it.
After some time spent with the apps, it became clear why they work like this; If I’d been required to manually start the app at the beginning of every car journey, I would have forgotten half the time. The fact that location services are permanently available to the apps means your journeys get tracked automatically, without any effort on your part beyond confirming whether or not you were driving when you next go into the app.
These apps wouldn’t really be that useful if they didn’t work in this way, but if you decide to use them, you have to accept that the company behind the app knows where you are all the time – and that will obviously be off-putting to some. My wife and I were inclined to think that as Facebook and Google know where we are most of the time, telling a couple of insurance companies wasn’t going to do that much harm!
With that out the way, let’s proceed to the road tests.
Our Top Choice: Mi Universe
AVAILABLE FOR: iOS, Android
Mi Universe differs from most of the UK telematics apps in that it’s not linked (at the time of writing) to any particular UK car insurance company. Instead, you “unlock” discounts as you progress and cover more miles using the app. We won’t tell you exactly that these discounts are but they’re undoubtedly useful and valuable to you as a motorist.
Mi Universe is definitely one of the most enjoyable telematics apps to use. Most importantly, it accurately auto-tracks your journeys, so you can forget about it and leave it to do its thing.
There’s no shortage of information returned by Mi Universe, and this is definitely the driving app we’d recommend to the real motoring enthusiasts out there. You can even see the fuel cost and carbon emissions for each journey taken. Another pleasing feature is the ability to upload documents like driving licences and insurance cover notes. This functionality all links with your smartphone camera, so you can easily build a library of all this info without dusting off your old document scanner.
Nothing’s perfect, and I do therefore have a couple of small criticisms with the app. A little more practical advice to complement the percentages would be handy, especially so I could easily work out what exactly I did, for example, to cause the braking score to suddenly drop!
Secondly, as data is all stored on Mii Universe’s servers, sometimes retrieving it is a little slower than ideal. However, the flip side of this is that when I upgraded from an iPhone 6 to a 6S, all my data was ready and waiting after I restored the backup to my new smartphone.
Finally, one last irritation is that it’s really easy to inadvertently tap the “Start New Journey” icon when playing around with the app, resulting in a bunch of invalid journeys lasting just a few seconds. The app is smart enough to not include these in the journey list, but a small tweak to the user interface could quickly eliminate this annoyance.
All in all, however, Mi Universe is a great telematics app for the driving enthusiast, especially if you’re one for facts, figures and stats. It’s free, and using it gains you rewards and offers – what’s not to like?
9/10
2. Aviva Drive App
AVAILABLE FOR: iOS, Android, Windows Phone
The Aviva Drive app is a very different beast to Mi Universe.
For a start, it’s much more simple and straightforward, and it’s also linked to Aviva car insurance. After covering 200 miles using the app, I revealed a score of 9.4 out of 10, which qualified for a 20% car insurance discount.
As far as the app itself is concerned, there’s a lot less here than in Mii Universe. It still provides a useful list of journeys, but tapping into one only provides a map, along with time, mileage and journey duration. There are no emissions figures or journey costs.
Beyond that, you can share and compare driving scores by using social media, and win some rudimentary achievement badges – although I’m not quite sure why I didn’t earn more of these given the high overall score!
Aviva Drive isn’t that exciting but it works, and is very clearly linked to cheaper car insurance. It’s well worth a look, especially if you’re already an Aviva customer.
8/10
3. More Than Drive App
AVAILABLE FOR: iOS, Android
The MoreThan Drive app is, unsurprisingly, linked to MoreThan car insurance.
It’s a great app, with functionality pitched almost exactly between the all singing, all dancing Mi Universe and the more stripped-down Aviva effort.
I particularly liked the fact this app gives out actual written advice on things like acceleration and braking rather than a distinctly more abstract percentage score.
However, there’s a problem, and one I can’t ignore. By default, the More Than app has a feature activated to “Disable Autostart on WiFi.” This means that if you set off on a journey whilst still connected to a WiFi network, it doesn’t automatically record the journey. At my home I can still pick up WiFi outside where the car is parked, as will be the case for many people.
The idea of this is to save battery life, but it means you need to manually record each journey – something easily forgotten. Worst of all, on both of my test iPhones, trying to toggle the setting off resulted in the app crashing and returning me to the home screen.
There’s so much to play with in the More Than app, including achievement badges and even social leagues – and of course the chance to get cheaper insurance. Sadly, this technical glitch meant I didn’t capture nearly as much journey information as I did with the other apps I road-tested.
6/10
Other Driving Apps in the UK
The apps I road-rested are the mere tip of the iceberg. Telematics apps are cropping up everywhere at the moment! Here are some basics on a few of the others out there right now:
Direct Line DrivePlus
AVAILABLE FOR: iOS, Android, Online desktop portal
Direct Line’s option provides cheaper car insurance for people willing to have a telematics box installed in their car to permanently monitor their driving. (More Than and other insurance firms have this option too, often known as “black box insurance.”)
It still uses an app, which looks a lot like Mi Universe. Under 26s can get a discount up-front just for having the box installed.
Admiral AppyDriver
AVAILABLE FOR: iOS, Android
Admiral’s “AppyDriver” offering is probably most like Aviva Drive, but you must cover 250 miles rather than 200 before you get a rating that will affect your car insurance premium. This app also uses Bronze / Silver / Gold ratings rather than percentages.
The colourful app features badges and achievements, and quite a good range of stats too.
Octo U
AVAILABLE FOR: iOS, Android
The Octo U telematics app is another option, like Mi Universe, which isn’t linked to any particular car insurance firm. However, the company do still highlight the potential to earn discounts with your driving score.
One part of Octo U which is currently unique is its ability to also track the weather conditions while you are driving – something that adds a whole new dimension to your collected stats. It’s rumoured that weather integration will soon become a key part of motoring telematics.
Driving Apps: Some Important Considerations
After spending some time with some of these apps, it’s easy to become convinced by their benefits, and it seems that the use of telematics will continue to increase, especially as part of insurance policies for young drivers who can save on their premiums by having their motoring behaviour monitored.
As we said above, there’s undoubtedly a privacy implication here. It’s similar to using social media really; If you’d rather not share, you don’t have to, but you miss out on the benefits – in this case discounts, offers, and access to interesting stats. Whether you choose to make that compromise is really up to you.
Last year, a report in The Daily Mail stated that telematics will be standard-issue by the end of this decade. Separate reports have revealed that data recorded by telematics apps and systems can be handed over to the authorities in the event of accidents.
On that basis it looks like driving apps using telematics are the new reality, whether you like them or not. Sure, that’s not great news if you’re a bit of a speed demon, but for everyone else, these safe driving apps should make the UK’s roads less dangerous for everyone.
Today is “Black Friday,” a retail event that started off in the US but has now well and truly spread to this side of the pond. Bargains are everywhere for those willing to brave the crowds, and we’re pleased to be able to announce that those bargains have spread to the petrol forecourt – or at least they have if you head to your local Asda.
As reported by The Sun, Asda has launched a three-day petrol promotion that lasts until midnight this Sunday. The supermarket chain is selling unleaded for 99.7 pence per litre, and diesel at 103.7 pence per litre.
This isn’t the first time this week we’ve been able to report on fuel at this price level. Morrisons launched a promotion earlier in the week too, as per a recent article, but their offer requires you to spend £40 or more in store. Asda’s equivalent comes with no such strings attached.
It’s important to remember that these are both time-limited offers; Asda’s is just for this weekend, and the Morrisons offer ends December 6th. However, we are hopeful that we will see other such promotions between now and Christmas.
In the meantime, now is undoubtedly a good time to go and fill up if you’re within reach of one of these forecourts. Enjoy it while it lasts!
We’ve certainly been here before, but talk of petrol prices dropping below one Pound per litre is once again beginning to escalate.
The chances are you have some big journeys coming up over the holiday season, and a cheaper fill-up would definitely leave a little extra cash in your pocket, so just how hopeful should you be that £1 per litre will become a reality in the coming weeks?
Well, the first thing to consider is the global oil glut, something we discussed in detail earlier this week. The subject also features heavily in a report on the prospect of cheaper fuel in The Express this week.
Put simply, there’s far more oil sitting in stockpiles around the world than the industry needs. In simpler times, OPEC nations in the Middle East could have simply reduced the supply to boost the price, but OPEC has declined to do this as it could allow other oil producing nations to more easily compete for market share. As a result, oil is cheap, and expected to remain cheap for the foreseeable future.
This situation has a knock-on effect in terms of the cost of wholesale petrol and diesel – and, in turn, what you pay at the fuel pumps.
In the report, The RAC spokesman Simon Williams states that we are “a way off” seeing average prices fall to the one Pound per litre mark. However, he feels there’s a “good chance” that some retailers will find a way to offer such prices to customers. If this does come to fruition, we’d expect the supermarkets to take the lead, as they so often do.
Nothing is certain when it comes to the price of fuel, and it’s fair to say that past history has shown The RAC to be generally more optimistic on low prices than the AA, but all the stars seem to be suitably aligned for further price drops on this occasion. The RAC expect an average fall of two pence per litre over the next fortnight, and like you, we’ll be hoping they’re right.
