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June 15, 2022 – According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), catalytic converter theft has spiked dramatically due to three precious metals found inside them: palladium, rhodium, and platinum. At the time of this writing, an ounce of rhodium costs about $15,000. For comparison, an ounce of gold costs a measly $1800.
The Toyota Prius, particularly the second-gen model produced from 2004 to 2009, is especially attractive when it comes to catalytic converter theft. Because a hybrid puts less wear on its catalytic converter, these vehicles’ cats remain especially valuable even after years of use.
via Car and Driver
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June 16, 2022 – To gain a better understanding of how available and upcoming crash avoidance features might help, IIHS researchers used federal crash data from 2016-19 to compare the types of crashes that are most common for older drivers and their middle-aged counterparts.
“Left turn assist and other, upcoming intersection-assistance technologies could deliver big safety benefits for drivers in their 70s and 80s,” says the paper’s author, IIHS Research Associate Aimee Cox.
Another planned feature called intersection movement assist would allow vehicles to warn drivers of possible collisions with others approaching a crossroads from multiple directions at various speeds and with different intentions.
via IIHS
via IIHS
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June 15, 2022 – The massive amount of data software-defined vehicles collect about us is bound to be a headache for consumers, an ethical dilemma for automakers and third-party companies, and a target for bad actors.
If a car scanning your face and fingerprint seems alarming, it pales in comparison to the privacy risks autonomous vehicles bring to the table. A robust autonomous vehicle suite likely includes radar, lidar, cameras, precise GPS data, and a high-speed internet connection. Less scrupulous actors can use this info to figure out a driver’s home and work addresses, habits, demographics, and more.
Even as automakers and suppliers take privacy seriously, some third parties don’t appear to. Automotive data monetization could be a $750 billion business by 2030, and a slew of companies have popped up since then in an attempt to grab a slice of that pie.
via MotorTrend
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June 17, 2022 – While prices of vehicles have been on the rise for much of the past two years, the check a buyer writes for an EV is substantially larger than the one they cut for an average ICE vehicle. The average mass market vehicle costs a little more than $43,000 while the average EV’s price exceeds $60,000.
While gas-powered vehicles are seeing prices increase as well, they’ve been pretty small on average in recent months, coming in at 1% or 2%, but EV price increases have been double digit hits. The reason is pretty straightforward.
“The costs of the components and materials that go into building our vehicles have risen considerably. Everything from semiconductors to sheet metal to seats has become more expensive,” said Rivian founder and CEO R.J. Scaringe in a statement at the time of his company’s price increase.
via The Detroit Bureau
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By Tod Trousdell, Contributor
A full two months after it wrapped perhaps its most successful expo in a decade, the afterglow of this year’s NAFA I & E is still shining brightly as exhibitors and participants continue to buzz about their positive experiences at this year’s conference.
For many, the 2022 I & E was the first trade show they’d attended since Covid restrictions kicked in over two years ago. Excitement was palpable as masks were few and hugs were plenty in what seemed to be a jam-packed two days on the show floor.
As it did at this year’s NTEA Work Truck Show in March, EV’s and all things electric took center stage with a plethora of new exhibitors supremely focused on electrification. This included everything from vehicle manufacturers to charging providers to a veritable smorgasbord of allied service providers peddling everything.
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By Ed Pierce, Contributing Editor
Fleet Management Weekly had the opportunity to speak with LeasePlan’s Greg Buckland, Chief Information Officer (CIO), to learn more about how LeasePlan is applying technology to enhance its services and to gain his perspective on what fleet managers can expect from future AI applications.
Buckland says, “Traditionally, when you consider a change in technology, you do it to make something more secure, faster, automate a process or eliminate obsolete technology. Our changes are being made through the eye of the customer and their experience. Any technological change is intended to provide what the client needs in a frictionless way with the greatest level of scalability and efficiency.
We not only look at how we deliver services, but which services our clients really need and ask ourselves if a completely different product or model can better solve the problem. This requires not only a technology change, but also a mindset change.”
READ MORE
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June 15, 2022 – When choosing a car or truck, the buyer often considers the vehicle’s color. It’s only natural. But the color a consumer chooses will affect its resale value, according to an extensive analysis by iSeeCars.com.
The results were surprising. White, black, and silver may be the most common colors on the lot but they may not be the most desirable. In the depreciation analysis, vehicles painted black lost 16.1% of their value. White cars depreciated by 15.5%. Silver wasn’t much better, shedding 14.8% of its value. On the other hand, a yellow car lost only 4.5% of its value.
Yellow is among the least popular car colors with the lowest vehicle share, but because yellow cars are so rare, some people are willing to pay a premium when they find one. After yellow, orange ranks second as the color that holds its value best, for much the same reason – there aren’t that many of them.
via Consumer Affairs
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