Mark Harping on.

According to this Auto Express story, A new law is set to bring self-driving cars to UK roads in two years and puts responsibility in the hands of manufacturers if there is an accident.

No it won't.

The article goes on to clarify...

The vehicles must “achieve a level of safety at least as high as careful and competent human drivers”.

That's not going to happen in two years.

Plus "the government says the legal culpability will be placed firmly on the manufacturer, as well as the insurance company that covers the car, with the driver not deemed a driver per se, but a user-in-charge"

So even if they could find a manufacturer happy to risk some prosecutions for causing death by dangerous driving - the insurance companies will refuse to insure such usage.  Which is a shame because this law would be the get-out clause allowing me to drive to a party or pub, get somewhat inebriated, and be driven home by my own car.

The landlords of country pubs will like this law.

Mark Harper, who is our current Transport Secretary apparently, jumped on the bandwagon stating, "Britain stands at the threshold of an automotive revolution, and this new law is a milestone moment for our self-driving industry which has the potential to change the way we travel forever.”

No it doesn't.

He also turned up polluting one of my favourite Youtube channels the other being "interviewed" by Steph from idriveaclassic  - I don't know if she is a bit Tory but she gave him an easy time and let him make snide comments about Labour and the London ULEZ zone without pointing out that it was Boris Johnson who introduced it and it is the government that is forcing the metropolitan councils to hit stricter air pollution target levels - not that that is a bad thing.

I was quite amused though that he and several of the anti-electric brigade commenting on the video seemed completely oblivious that he was stood next to a Rolls-Royce Phantom II that had been converted over to run on...

...ELECTRICITY!

Here's some info on it.

Anyway, back to his comment about Britain being at the threshold of an automotive revolution.

It isn't.

We now have to compete with Europe as well as Korea and Japan and the like but the Chinese are miles ahead - especially when it comes to electric vehicles.  They are even after a share of our London buses.  Autocar have finally decided that I don't have an ad-blocker after all so I can share this story now.

If Autocar thinks that you have an ad-blocker you won't be able to read this so I'll give you the gist.

This is the BYD BD11...

The Chinese hope that this EV will be the replacement for the hybrid Wrightbus New Routemaster - which I was surprised to learn was only built from 2011 to 2017.  A thousand were built - in the UK - before the company went into administration.

Charging is possible at up to 500kW via a pantograph connection which sounds fun, trolleybus anyone? - but you can plug it into the mains too.  A usable range of more than 400 miles is being suggested.

BYD UK's commercial vehicle managing director Frank Thorpe said he "hopes" it can replace Wrightbus's New Routemaster as the default London bus.

Seems legit.

Trussed Up

I'm getting fed up of Autocar's car news.

It seems to just now be "business insights" that you have to register for or repeats of slideshows.

So I decided to go back to my old favourite - Auto Express car news.

There they had a couple of stories from earlier in the week about how our new feeble-minded, Thatcher-Wannabe Prime Minister was trying to woo the 180000 old white men who got to choose the replacement for the bumbling lecherous Churchill-Wannabe liar.

I'm talking, of course, about Liz Truss:

Hang on, that might be the wrong picture.

Yes, this one is Liz Truss:

You can tell by the spurious union flags.

Anyway, there is one story I actually find myself agreeing with the woman on - she is not a fan of Smart Motorways and suggests the evidence she's seen indicates the concept has failed.

Too bloody right it has - people have died!

The story is here.  Every time I drive to Manchester on the M56 I get slowed down by the roadworks behind the conversion of a stretch of it into Smart Motorway - I dread the day it is opened so that doubles the torture.

Just because you call something "smart" it doesn't mean it actually is - look at Liz Truss for example.

In the other story, she suggests that she is “prepared” to look into scrapping mandatory speed limits on motorways as prime minister.  Now using words like "suggest" and "prepared to look into" means that this is as likely to happen as the 40 new hospitals Boris promised us.

And is she saying she wants to make us more like Germany!?

We could have stayed in the EU for that.

This story wouldn't have chimed with the old men voting for the PM so maybe that is why the final voting went a lot closer than most people - me included - thought it would.

Never mind.

At least Priti Patel is gone.

Automatic Fail

 Here's a nice picture of a 2006 Ford GT:

You will notice that it has a Barrett Jackson watermark on it.

That is because I have taken it from one of their auction listings from Palm Beach last month.

It sold for $704,000.

Here is a more recent photo of it:

If that had a watermark on it, it would point at the Facebook page of some chap called John Peddle.

He photographed it after an "off" in Boca Raton in Florida.

The driver wasn't used to driving a manual.  Car+Driver have the story here.

He also wasn't insured to drive it.

And the car wasn't registered.

And his licence had been suspended.

Now call me cynical - but if the guy named as the driver is the guy in the middle here, and I can't be 100% sure that he is, but the name and age and location seem right - 

then it looks like he is another Donald Trump/Boris Johnson type of individual who was born into a very rich family surrounded by servants and sycophants who has been allowed to get away with serial lying and thinks that rules don't apply to him.

And an innocent Ford GT is the victim here.

Or maybe he's just another Florida Man.

Getaway Cars

I found an interesting little section on the Hagerty UK site today called "The One That Got Away."

And yesterday, while I was watching "Salvage Hunters Classic Cars", they added the moneyed star of that show, Drew Pritchard:

He must be bloody young in that picture - and check out the hair on the bloke we know as completely bald!

The "The One That Got Away" stories are of the cars that people wished they hadn't got rid of and would quite like to buy back.

Despite the caption they put on that Beach Buggy in the article, it was the badly-painted orange VW Bus that he swapped to get that Beach Buggy that he wants back.

Drew reckons he's owned about 250 cars but has stopped selling the ones he really likes now.  I've owned five cars and I'm pretty sure three of them are in scrapyards.  If you are ever in a scrapyard and spot a vomit yellow Triumph Dolomite NRE 915W, let me know.

So, that's last night's telly covered, tonight it is the return of Bangers and Cash on Yesterday while Fifth Gear Recharged continues on Quest.

Last month, the star of Bangers and Cash and also of my post last Saturday, Sarah Crabtree told Hagerty of her (also orange) Mini:

Not sure when that would have been taken but satellite telly had been invented.  Again it is fun to see her so young.

And back in October, star of Fifth Gear Recharged, Vicki Butler-Henderson told of her not orange BMW M3 CSL.

Tomorrow night, Jason Manford is on Would I Lie To You (cue Boris Johnson joke).  I found this picture of a younger Manford in a car:

and it looks like it is still on the road:

Powerless

The BBC have had a go at Boris Johnson today.

Unusually.

Political reporter Jennifer Scott was much harsher than Laura Kuenssberg would have been.

Good.

Basically, Johnson made a speech which was supposed to promote electric motoring and green business to the CBI.  But he lost his place and waffled on about Peppa Pig World for a bit making a few lame jokes.

Embarrassing.

An earlier version of the Jennifer Scott story had lots of motoring references about him taking the wrong turn and other such also lame jokes.  That version seems to have disappeared.

Probably for the best.

Now, talking about electric cars and the BBC and embarrassing, did you see Top Gear this weekend?

After a promising series opener last week with a very moving tribute to Eddie Kidd, this week they went caravanning using luxury electric cars as their tow-cars. It included a puerile and pointless attempt to lap their cars around the top of a mountain while eating stronger and stronger chillies culminating in Paddy McGuinness spitting out a mouthful of milk over Freddie Flintoff and the interior of a Mercedes EQC.

They then had to drive to Barnard Castle (which brings us back to Johnson embarrassment) without recharging - and they ran out of charge.  Actually, Chris Harris did get there but only by ditching his caravan so the whole exercise was a waste of time.

There is only one solution to both of these situations.

Another Rolls-Royce I Can't Afford.

"Asking Boris Johnson to sack Dominic Cummings is like asking Emu to sack Rod Hull."

 

That is one of my favourite quotes to come out of the recent debacle.

 

Here is emu trying to get in to a toy car:

OK, I put the eye on there - here is the real picture:

Still looks weird doesn't it? Until you realise that is a model car.  Car+Driver have this story.  It's a very realistic model car because it is made by Rolls-Royce using Rolls-Royce materials.  It is a 1:18 scale Cullinan.

 

If the price was 1:18 scale, it would cost £15000.

 

Double it to get the actual price.

 

To quote C+D,

 

"That's around the price of the average new car in the U.S., but if you're worried about being average, Rolls-Royce is probably not your thing anyway."

Dagnabit, Muskie!

Is Elon Musk a tit?   He is undoubtedly a very brilliant man - his achievements show that.

But he also seems to be a flawed human being.

 

It is the Donald Trump-esque toddlerish petulance that is the problem.

Trump was born into privilege.  His father was a very successful businessman so Donnie was brought up surrounded by sycophants, afraid of losing their jobs, who gave him whatever he desired.  They let him get away with whatever he did including serial lies which have served him so well throughout his career.

 

Donnie inherited his wealth and is a simple-minded individual who throws tantrums when he doesn't get his own way.

 

Elon made his own wealth and is an intelligent individual who throws tantrums when he doesn't get his own way.

That makes him better than Donald Trump.

 

But, unfortunately, that is not a ringing endorsement.

 

Boris Johnson is better than Donald Trump and he is a lying buffoon.

 

So, what has Elon done now?  He has promised to move his Tesla headquarters from California to Texas because he was ordered to keep the plant closed for the protection of his workforce.  He is also threatening to shut down the California site altogether.

 

He is basically telling the workers there to risk their lives and those of their families or lose their jobs.

 

Nice.

 

And he has called his child X Æ A-12.

 

So the answer to my initial question is "Yes".

Homework

I am a non-believer.  Have been since I think I worked it out in an RE Lesson when I was in the Sixth Form.

But this Coronavirus has had me questioning my lack of faith.

Only a bit though.

The World is in a mess.  We have morons in charge of the US and Brazil.  We have evil people in charge of China and Russia.  We have a habitual liar in charge of the UK.  We have pollution.  We have plastics in the food chain.  We have climate change - ice-caps melting.  We have chaos in The Middle East.  The Amazon Rainforest is being destroyed - that's the lungs of the Earth! 

Nobody in power has taken any notice of Greta.

Even the supposedly good guys like Justin Trudeau have disappointed us:

So what would God do?

 

Invent something to shut down industry and get people to stop using their cars.  Invent something that Trump and Bolsonaro will badly mishandle in a vain attempt to protect their economies.

Invent something to kill off the Gammons?

 

Coronavirus is having an effect - I alluded to it last month.

 

Here is what my exit from the motorway on my way home looks a bit like now: 

Except there are more traffic cones and less Hillman Avengers today than in that 1977 photo I found on Google Images.  Thanks to whoever added that credit to it - I feel slightly less guilty about using it when there are credits.  Is that a motorbike in the exit lane? - I guess it must be but it's very hard to work out.

Anyway, I've digressed.  This whole Blog-Post is inspired by this BBC story about how the AA say "Coronavirus will transform UK work and travel."

They predict "a permanent reduction in the demand for travel because people have learned during the crisis to use home-working technology."

Don't forget videoconferencing.  I would travel to the local hospital for a specific meeting once a month.  For me, it was a 10 to 15 minute drive which isn't a biggie - other attendees had to come in from all over the county - but the parking was a nightmare and as our employers would recompense us for fuel - that recompense would come from NHS budgets.  We used Zoom this time - the only disadvantage was no chocolate hobnobs - we'll probably continue doing it this way.

"The chancellor currently plans to spend £27bn to curb congestion on roads and £100bn on HS2 – but if demand falls, that may not be needed."

Indeed, especially as his magic money trees will have other priorities.  AA President Edmund King agrees, "anecdotal evidence from people lucky enough to be working during the coronavirus-enforced lockdown suggests that infrastructure funds might be better spent on broadband to support home working."

AND - IT ALL HELPS TO SLOW DOWN ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE!

"Other experts are calling for the roads programme and HS2 rail project to be put on hold for a decade so ministers can be sure they’re not wasting money.

They say if commuters spend just one day a week working from home after the crisis - or commuting later - the roads will be as empty as they are in the school holidays."

Now, I know Michael Gove believes we have had enough of experts, but our government does seem to have started quoting them so maybe that's another effect of the virus.

As for HS2, this Jonathan Pie video is an excellent argument for cancelling it - maybe a postponement for a decade would be a step in the right direction - don't watch it if you're easily offended by sweary language:

So, what is going to happen?  God knows.

Gear Change - Two to One

The Guardian's Stuart Heritage has two items of Paddy McGuinness news for us this week.

I haven't worked him out yet - Heritage not McGuinness - I do know he's better than Keith Watson of "The Metro" - but that's not difficult.  I think for one thing, he does actually know about the show he is talking about.

Always useful in a media journalist that.

In the story that Top Gear is to be moved from BBC2 to BBC1, he makes some very valid points including that the move has been designed to “attract younger viewers and safeguard the future of the licence fee” but younger viewers (and myself) tend to watch shows on catch-up so won't associate it with a particular channel anyway.

But, in the story that ITV are scrapping "Take Me Out" he says, "...you would have to be a monster not to be a little sad about its death."

Guess I must be a monster then.

I still don't approve of the current TG line-up but have to agree with Stuart that this series is very successful - possibly because it is now no longer a "mouldy old car show".

His words not mine - I like car shows and want more of them so would never stick the adjective "mouldy" in front of one - unless they were really crap - like the last two series of Driven or like "I Want That Car"

But Top Gear isn't crap.

It's just lost its way as a car show.  The bungee last week could have been done sitting in a bathtub (although I did enjoy the deceit that leaving the handbrake on would stop him).

The rear axle coming off the Firebird was very funny - please tell me that wasn't faked.

But having just the one motoring expert is restricting.  Don't tell Michael Gove,

 

...but we need more experts.  Otherwise, dumb stuff that is popular comes to the forefront:

Is Boris a Girl?

I saw this picture on facebook ages ago:

It amused me.

 

And dare I say that there is an element of truth in it?

 

Yes I know there will be plenty of exceptions but, speaking as a bloke, I think that cars are better than bedrooms.

 

Anyway, serial adulterer, liar and our next Prime Minister Boris Johnson obviously hasn't got the memo:

I wasn't even aware of this story until they showed a photo on Mock the Week last night.

 

Worse still, it appears that he drives an aging Toyota Previa.

 

And I dread to think what the inside of his bus must have looked like:

Rolls Royce Brexit

Last week, I decided that there could have been a Ford Brexit.

Then, the World (or Europe at least) fell apart.  We have reports of an acrimonious split and headline-hitting resignations.

Yes, apparently, Matt LeBlanc will quit Top Gear if Chris Evans isn't sacked.  It was reported by The Sun after speaking to "a source".  Now, The Sun does have quite a bit of form for publishing lies but Evans & LeBlanc do seem to be harder to find at the moment than Boris Johnson & Nigel Farage.  Evans didn't do his scheduled Radio 2 show this morning.

While we're discussing form, Top Gear has form for controversial number plates.

And last night, we saw Evans' Rolls Royce Corniche driving about part of the EU with a Brexit Number Plate:

That's  BRX 522 T  which is near enough.

5 is the number of the Top Gear episode that came straight after the Brexit vote.
2 is the number of Top Gear Presenters that include Evans and LeBlanc.
and 2 is thember of guests that we now have every week on the Top Gear sofa.

Wow.  Spooky Huh?

Who is the More Stupid?

 

So asks some journo I've never heard of in The Mirror.  He calls himself Fleet Streetfox although the silhouette looks more like a woman but then it would be "She calls herself Fleet Streetvixen".

Whoever it is, they really have got it in for Chris Evans and, to a very, very slightly lesser extent, for Jeremy Clarkson too.

Maybe he/she/it is jealous of the success & wealth of the duo. He/she/it does comment upon the £5 Million Evans is getting for taking over TopGear.  Like the many people who complain of the millions of pounds the Top Gear stars get from licence-payers funds, they don't mention the considerably more pounds that come in to the BBC coffers as a result of the show.

The event that has caused Fleet's vitreol is filming around The Cenotaph in London including Ken Block doing doughnuts around there.  An error of judgement that I learned about this morning listening to Chris Evans apologising for on his radio show.

Quentin Willson has helpfully come out to say how it wouldn't have happened under Jeremy's watch.  Not sure why he is telling us this but it is on the BBC's own youth-oriented Newsbeat so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume they asked him for his opinion.

Jeremy, meanwhile, has been showing his softer, more liberal side...

I've not looked at the ins and outs of staying in or out of the European Union yet.  But I have been noticing the sort of people giving us their views.  The outies include Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Ian Duncan Smith and, of course, Nigel Farage.

This makes me want to stay in.

The innies include Professor Stephen Hawking (good start there), David Cameron (Oh dear), Jeremy Corbyn (Jury's out and don't mention The Cenotaph again) and now - Jeremy Clarkson!

Surprised me that one.  But he's never actually said he hates Europe - just all the people who live there.

the Independent report his Sunday Times column, (which I'm not linking to because it costs) in which Jeremy claims to want to be part of a properly functioning EU - “Isn’t it better to stay in and try to make the damn thing work properly? To create a United States of Europe that functions as well as the United States of America? With one army and one currency and one unifying set of values?"

The article continues,

Warning of a world order which saw Trump set against Putin, Clarkson emphasised the need “to make the continent work the way the Continent should – as a liberal, kind, balanced fulcrum in a mad world”.

At that point I wondered if he was taking the mickey.

But I don't think he is.

Reading his stuff from the '80s and '90s shows a very right-wing Clarkson but I did notice when the Star in a Reasonably Priced car was Alistair Campbell and again for John Prescott we had a much more even-handed, almost sympathetic Clarkson.

And I know I'm worried by Putin & Trump.

So it looks like Jeremy is siding with his mate the Prime Minister and not his boss Rupert Murdoch who's views on the EU have been reported by the Evening Standard's Anthony Hilton:

“When I go into Downing Street they do what I say; when I go to Brussels they take no notice.”

Some Say... ...He Doesn't Like Clarkson

Quite a clever headline in this week's Radio Times.  The subtitle is "The Stig gives his verdict on Clarkson"

Actually, The current Stig maintains his usual silence.  The original Stig admires Clarkson's style and thinks the show could not continue without him while making a reference to Last of The Summer Wine - which is a comparison I have myself considered on more than one occasion.  The second Stig clearly isn't a Jeremy fan but reckons that the show could continue without him.

In case you're wondering what I'm wittering on about, surely you must have heard the news by now about the rest of the current series of Top Gear being cancelled/postponed after Jeremy hit a producer on the show?

This story is worldwide!

Here is some of Australia's coverage.

And here is someone I feel very sorry for:

This is Oisin Tymon, the producer that Jeremy allegedly (or dare I say "actually"?) hit.  This guy has done nothing wrong.  It looks like he encountered a tired and emotional (usually a euphemism for "drunk") Jeremy who was knackered after a days filming and wanted some food - food that the hotel did not provide at that late hour.  So Jeremy took it out on this producer.  This producer is now getting all sorts of threats because the show is off the air possibly never to return.

This isn't Oisin's fault, it is Jeremy's!

Maybe Jeremy is now struggling to keep the show fresh after 13 years and it is getting to him.  It was Jeremy that reported the incident to the BBC hierarchy and Jeremy, in his newspaper column last week, who made a speech about dinosaurs having had their time.  That's a shame because I want the show to continue - and I want it to continue with Jeremy.  I did consider signing the Keep Jeremy petition that must be apporaching the million signatures mark by now but when I visited the site I decided that Guido Fawkes and his readers don't seem to be very nice people so I opted against being a co-signee.

If Jeremy cannot be persuaded to stay (I don't envisage a sacking) then I agree with Stig II that the show could go on without him.  Obviously speculation has begun with the not-too-serious suggestions of Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson, my favourite Vladimir Putin and Jeremy's nemesis Piers Morgan.

A more serious suggestion would be Jodie Kidd - she still seems a bit stilted on The Classic Car Show but she would bring a fresh new dynamic to the show stood alongside James & Richard.

Failing that, I'll do it.

The Mayor of St.Edmundsbury is a Buffoon

Maybe it's a hacked self-driving car.

After my comment at the weekend about self-driving cars ending up in Sainsburys, we now have a car in Tescos.  It was driven there by the local mayor.  Nobody was injured.

I found this story today in The Sudbury Mercury - everyone's favourite Suffolk-newspaper-named-after-an-American-car.

So, does this Mayor's buffoonery match that of the mayors of London and Paris I have previously highlighted?

I don't know.  The story tells of a trip to hospital so it could have been a medical condition caused this.

But I suspect not.

Lots of Mercurys and other American cars end up in buildings due to clumsy or forgetful drivers forgetting how Automatics work:

Pictures like these regularly turn up on news websites.

All nations are affected but most ot these seem to be American due to the high car-ownership over there and the high proportion of those that have Auto-boxes.

I particularly like the third picture.  Claim, anyone?


Now, the mayor from our story, Terry Buckle,  may have just been unlucky.  The story says that "It is believed the car had lurched forward from a parking bay directly in front of the shop, with Mr Buckle at the wheel."

Pesky cars, eh?

Maybe it was a medical condition though - he was stopped in a disabled bay after all.

I put his registration number into mycarcheck.com and, surprise, surprise! - it's an Automatic.

So, it does look like buffoonery - or an excuse to get a mayoral car that's a bit posher than an S-Reg Vectra.



Post Script - Terry is blaming his brakes! Ha!

Olympic Mindgames

Found this picture and the associated story in Friday's Mail Online.

The sign is quite funny but actually refers to a road called "Ha-Ha Road" - it isn't taking the mickey out of Londoners inconvenienced at preparations for the London Olympic Games.

It should, however, always be read in the voice of Nelson Muntz from The Simpsons.

The story then goes on to describe how the council are ripping up speed bumps to make a smoother ride for the Olympic dignitaries - this does appear well out of order given that councils always claim that speed bumps are there for residents' safety. Being a Mail story, I have to be a bit sceptical when they say it will cost at least £50000 - at the expense of the local tax-payer - but, even so, whatever it costs, and whoever is paying - it is very wrong. The Mail also seems obsessed with the fact that BMW are providing the vehicles for The Olympics - they mention it for no apparent reason and include a picture of one driving over a patch of fresh tarmac where a speed bump used to be.

Never mind, I'm sure the Mayor is on the case...No, not Quimby, the other guy.

The Mayor of London is a Buffoon

But a very likeable one.

Again, I can't agree with his politics but the people of London seem to appreciate them - unless they have just fallen for his personality - but that's their business.

He was always very funny on Have I Got News For You? and suitably amusing as the celebrity guest on Top Gear and he is always good value for money when interviewed by Jeremy Paxman - but then Jeremy Paxman loves to interview an idiot.

The reason I am discussing Boris today, after discussing his old school-chum yesterday, is this story about him using glue to catch pollution on the streets of London. It seems a bit expensive and far-fetched to me but they claim it is producing results. I'm not scientifically qualified to comment (not that that usually stops me) so read the article and draw your own conclusions.

I suppose that I'm only really mentioning it at all because it is a good excuse to print a picture of Boris. That can be a bit of a problem choosing because there is never a picture of Boris that doesn't make you smile - check these out.

Sometimes you just see a picture and want to publish it...which relates to this story. Check out the video on that too - it is brilliant!