That's an Autocar story. Autocar also tell us what the top 10 selling new cars for 2020 so far are. I don't know if it is good news or bad news that there are two SUVs in there. I'd have thought there would be more but it is still two too many. I also think that they chose the wrong sub-heading for that article - "We run through the latest new car registration data to see which models are flying off forecourts"
The thing that attracted me to this Car+Driver story is that it means I don't have to mention Coronavirus.
Because it's got absolutely nothing to do with Coronavirus.
It starts back in early February - this was before the West got too concerned about Coronavirus.
Oh Bugger.
Anyway, Car+Driver tried out Hyundai's "Smart Park" self-parking system as demonstrated by an advert in the middle of The Super Bowl. That story is here. Here is their still from that ad:
The bloke without the coffee is impressing the bloke who looks like him but does have coffee by allowing his Hyundai Sonata to park itself into a narrow gap.
Now, being me, I was more interested in the very badly parked car to the right of it. Now it had obviously been very badly parked by somebody connected to the advert in order to demonstrate the parking feature of the Sonata.
But, in the real World, you wouldn't want to use that feature in this case because the moron who can't park is almost certain to damage your car by:
a) trying to get in to his own car and
b) trying to reverse out into the road
But, back to that car itself. I spent ages trying to work out what the hell it actually is. It sort of looks vaguely familiar in an old Jeep Cherokee or perhaps Nissanish sort of way - but it has a strange R logo on it so it's either a make that we don't have in Britain that Americans would identify straight off or it's an old Hyundai (or Kia) that the ad people have disguised so as not to distract viewers from the Sonata.
Well that didn't work.
And, judging by the article that led me to write this, the Smart Park can't be trusted either.
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.
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:
Radio 2 have stopped giving out travel news at the moment since the only people on the road network now should be making essential journeys only.
My commute home is getting quicker and quicker every time.
This is good news for those of us who think that there are too many idiots on the road sometimes.
Like the complete and utter tit who the Police stopped yesterday on The M6 as reported by The BBC.
During the current Coronavirus lockdown, he drove from Coventry to Salford to collect some windows he had bought on e-Bay. This left no room in the car for his wife so she had to travel in the boot.
I have to assume it wasn't a saloon car but it doesn't say.
Thing is, if he had bought one of these:
He could have towed it home carrying the windows without attracting so much suspicion.
And the effect that Coronavirus and the associated lockdowns are having on it.
For instance, average speeds in Los Angeles are 48 percent higher because there's so much less traffic on the roads while up in Seattle,
"on the key I-5 corridor, heading north-south into and out of downtown, traffic on March 18 was moving at speeds 100 percent faster than typical during the morning and afternoon commutes."
I've noticed a small but significant decrease in traffic on my commute. On the key M53 corridor, heading north-south into and out of Chester, traffic on March 24 was moving at speeds 1 percent faster than typical during the morning and afternoon commutes.
The C+D piece also comments on air travel and subway travel. Apparently,
"New York City, which features the nation’s lowest incidence of car ownership and the current highest number of COVID-19 cases, has (as of March 12) seen subway, commuter train, and bus ridership decline massively, with double-digit drops."
The two things I take from that are:
I feel sorry for New-Yorkers for two reasons in the first sentence.
Drive-Through Coronavirus Testing Added to New York Elon Musk Downplays COVID-19 Danger in Email to Space-X Employees Hyundai, Genesis Offering Payment Aid during Coronavirus Pandemic Ford, GM, FCA, UAW Have Created a Coronavirus Task Force Ford Rolls Out Payment Assistance as Part of Coronavirus Response Uber, Lyft Are Suspending Pool and Shared Ride Services Tesla’s Fremont Factory Stays Open while Bay Area in Quarantine
The helpful 10 Automotive YouTube Channels to Watch While You're at Home
...and the unhelpful Retired NBA All-Star Dirk Nowitzki Got His Mercedes Metris Van Stuck
I also touched on the dreaded virus last month with
But only by a day. It's happening tomorrow now due to today being Leap Year Day.
It gives me an extra 24 hours to find a daffodil.
It is also a chance for certain people who look 80 to celebrate their 20th birthdays. The only famous person I can find (who is still alive) who is celebrating a birthday today is the 13 year old ex-Coronation Street actress Wendi Peters:
She'll be able to apply for a driving licence in 16 years time.
This is only the second time I've posted on February 29th - the other one was this one in 2016.
It's not like St.David's Day was ever going to be cancelled - unlike lots of other things right now - like today's Tranmere Rovers v Fleetwood Town - waterlogged pitch.
Also cancelled this year is the Geneva Motor Show. This has nothing to do with calendar anomalies or with the current freak weather events but is as a direct result of Coronavirus. Or more precisely, Covid-19 which just beat Diseasy McDiseaseface in the public vote to name this particular strain of Coronavirus - that being a generic brand that has been around for half a century. I tackled Coronavirus last weekend.
Autocar are showing us, in true Jim Bowen Bullseye style what we could have won seen. The article is here.
A lot of Chinese manufacturers were hoping to show off their goods and a lot of non-Chinese people were worried about meeting them.
One such manufacturer has the confusing name of AIways which, apart from being bad usage of English capitalisation, in a lot of fonts looks like the word "Always" - in fact, I had to change the font of it to make this sentence readable in Blogger.
The car itself is yet another SUV - and of course electric:
We really, REALLY, don't need another one - especially one that people will read as a female sanitary product.
Let's just cancel SUVs - it might just cut down the number of events cancelled due to freaky weather events.
The story is about Jaguar Land-Rover flying in car parts in suitcases as they prepare to run out of Chinese-manufactured parts produced in factories that have been temporarily shut down due to Coronavirus.
That pink one has a couple of alternators in it. Hope they don't get an excess charge.
All of the BBC and Mail Gammons are saying that we should be manufacturing the car parts in the UK and adding that this is proof that it will be OK after Brexit because we aren't getting our car parts from Europe after all.
OK, except buying British parts would currently make the cars more expensive and therefore uncompetitive. A reason the Chinese parts are cheap (ignoring the crap wages and conditions) is that they come in at EU tariff rates - this differential (that's in the yellow suitcase) may well come down after the Brexit Transition period but we'll still be producing uncompetitively priced cars.
Oh, and if you think the term "Gammon" is racist, remember Boris is in charge now SO WE CAN ALL BE AS RACIST AS WE LIKE - SUCK IT UP SNOWFLAKE!
