Empowering Proposals: Bills Would Cap EV Prices, Mandate Two-Way Charging Capability
The electric vehicle market in California could see significant changes if two bills introduced by a Bay Area state senator become law.
Senate Bill 680, one of the bills from state Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, would limit sales of electric vehicles to the manufacturer’s suggested retail price, which would make California the first state to limit the price of EVs, according to a release from Skinner.
The other, Senate Bill 233, would require all electric vehicles sold in the state to incorporate bidirectional charging technology, which allows a vehicle’s charged battery to be used as an outgoing power source.
Vehicle Crashes and the Bottom Line
There are a variety of ways that vehicle crashes impact the companies’ bottom lines that fleet managers need to take into account as they do what they can to minimize the damage.
AAA: Fear of Self-Driving Cars on the Rise
The results of AAA’s annual automated vehicle survey show that while there is still a high level of interest in partially-automated vehicle technology, attitudes toward fully self-driving vehicles have become increasingly apprehensive.
This year there was a major increase in drivers who are afraid, rising to 68% as compared to 55% in 2022. This is a 13% jump from last year’s survey and the biggest increase since 2020*.
“We were not expecting such a dramatic decline in trust from previous years,” said Greg Brannon, director of automotive research for AAA. “Although with the number of high-profile crashes that have occurred from over-reliance on current vehicle technologies, this isn’t entirely surprising.”
Auto Cyberattacks Becoming More Widespread
As vehicles become smarter, more complex, and increasingly connected, they also become more prone to cyberattacks. The challenge now is to keep pace with hackers, who are continually devising new and innovative ways to attack both software and hardware in vehicles.
Recent statistics bear this out. In 2022, there was a big spike in deep/dark web activity and incidents related to application programming interfaces (API), compared with the previous year, according to Upstream’s 2023 Global Automotive Cybersecurity Report. Some 63% of incidents reported last year were attributed to black-hat actors across a wide spectrum of attack vectors. Among the targets were telematics and application servers, remote keyless entry systems, ECUs, infotainment systems, mobile applications, EV charging infrastructure, and Bluetooth.
Amazon will spend $200 Million on Safety Technology Across Its Transportation Network in 2023
Amazon-branded last mile delivery vans were outfitted with in-vehicle camera safety technology in 2020. Since rolling it out, there has been a 35 percent reduction in accident rates across the network.
This technology is a game-changer and will be in nearly 100 percent of Amazon branded vehicles by April 2023. It is just one of the safety features in the custom electric delivery vehicles (EDVs) from Rivian, which are now delivering Amazon packages in more than 100 cities nationwide. The technology includes a 360-degree camera detection system so drivers can see exactly what’s next to them as they back up and turn, emergency braking, rollaway detection, and more. Beyond these in-vehicle systems, the Fleet Edge technology has increased GPS accuracy by over 2.5 times since testing began it, which helps drivers be both safer and more efficient.
