Car owners' love affair with new vehicles is stronger than ever, as evidenced by a 9-point increase in the APEAL index from last year - tied for the largest gain ever - according to the J.D. Power 2017 U.S. Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout (APEAL) Study,SM released today.
In this year's study, the industry average APEAL index increases to 810 points (on a 1,000-point scale), propelled by significantly better scores in 9 of the 10 categories measured and 19 of the 32 brands in the study making positive gains in their performance, compared with 2016.
Britain is to ban all new petrol and diesel cars and vans from 2040 amid fears that rising levels of nitrogen oxide pose a major risk to public health.
The commitment, which follows a similar pledge in France, is part of the government’s much-anticipated clean air plan, which has been at the heart of a protracted high court legal battle.
The government warned that the move, which will also take in hybrid vehicles, was needed because of the unnecessary and avoidable impact that poor air quality was having on people’s health. Ministers believe it poses the largest environmental risk to public health in the UK, costing up to £2.7bn in lost productivity in one recent year.
The concept of built-in obsolescence should be familiar to anyone that has ever bought a piece of advanced consumer electronics.
Back in the early 2000s, a brand new gaming PC would be out of date faster than its owner could notify all his or her friends of the acquisition. Over the past decade, smartphones have taken over as the devices that keep tempting us to buy new hardware with ever-escalating specs and capabilities.
And as we look forward to the next few years, it looks like self-driving car technology will be one of the fastest-moving areas of innovation.
By Art Liggio, President and CEO, Driving Dynamics
Each year Driving Dynamics trains thousands of drivers across North America through its one day, behind-the-wheel advanced safety courses.
During the group discussions our instructors normally ask trainees to ‘raise their hand if they feel they’re above average drivers. Invariably, the vast majority do raise their hands backed up by comments such as: “Well yes, I’m an excellent driver. I haven’t had a ticket since I was a teenager.” “You bet I am, I haven’t had an accident or a fender bender in over 20 years.”
These interesting anecdotes go on and on, but do most people actually believe they are above average drivers?
By Janice Sutton
We recently interviewed Kfir Lavi, Senior Vice President at ERM Advanced Telematics and asked him to give us an overview of the company and a view of the telematics solutions they are offering their fleet management service providers.
Among the topics Lavi addresses are ERM’s driver behavior monitoring, their unique tracking devices, vehicle diagnostic solutions, wireless connectivity, and at the top of many of our minds, cybersecurity.
Lavi says, “ERM is a provider of device-based telematics solutions. Over the years, we have developed an extensive portfolio of innovative solutions that support a growing range of telematics and fleet management services.
We create partnerships with fleet management service providers, who in turn, develop applications for their customers on our Starlink platform. We are based in Israel, and we have been in this business for over 30 years. Today, we have partners in more than 65 countries. Our devices have been installed in more than 1.5m vehicles worldwide.”