Forget Chips and Seat Foam, Now There’s a Shortage of Rental Cars
Airports are getting busier these days as more Americans take to the sky, despite another surge of COVID-19. But travelers who don’t carefully prepare before heading out could be in for a shock, especially if they try to book a last-minute car rental.
According to some reports, renters are finding rates running as high as $500, even $700, a day in some popular vacation resorts. The situation isn’t likely to ease up anytime soon.
Even before the latest crisis, many auto manufacturers were looking to cut back on rental sales. They’re simply not very profitable. So, that sets things up for a crisis in 2021 — and it’s all the worse because carmakers are themselves facing shortages of critical components and raw materials, including not only computer chips but things like seating foam.
Read the article at The Detroit Bureau.
The Irresistible Momentum Behind Clean, Electric, Connected Mobility: Four Key Trends
Over the past year and a half, the mobility industry has significantly outperformed top-performing industries, such as semiconductors and big tech with increasing support in capital markets.
New Chinese automakers have tapped into advanced technologies to deliver a customer journey that is friendly and convenient. Your experience inside the car is in many ways just an extension of your experience outside the car - from advanced facial recognitions systems to charging and valet services.
Automakers and consumers will need to accelerate their adoption of electric vehicles if we hope to meaningfully limit climate change. The decade between 2025 and 2035 will determine whether the industry can keep cumulative CO2 emissions for passenger cars (through 2050) to under 45 gigatons, a “carbon budget” that would help hold global temperature increases to under 1.5°C
Read the article at McKinsey & Company.
Ford Introduces Hands-Free BlueCruise Following the ‘Mother of All Road Trips’
By Mike Sheldrick
Ford Motor Company has joined the ranks of automakers touting hands-free driving, with its announcement of “BlueCruise,” available later this year on the F-150.
Few are hiding their lights under a bushel these days and certainly not Ford, which said the system was released after a 500,000-mile testing program followed by the “mother of all road trips” to prove its mettle. Its hands-free mode is only possible on roughly 100,000 miles of allowed roadways.
Ford says its BlueCruise is similar to Tesla’s Autopilot, and GM’s Supercruise, but better. Autopilot requires a driver to keep his or her hands on the wheel, although this is often defeated by reckless show-offs -- mostly recently in the Woodlands, TX, a tony suburb north of Houston, where two people died last week in a fiery Tesla crash.
As for GM, which also allows hands-free driving only on certain roads, Ford says that its system of driver notification of when to take control of the wheel is superior.
Washington will be the First State to Ban Gas Cars
Washington has passed a bill banning the sale of new gas-powered cars in the state beginning in 2030.
That’s five years earlier than California and Massachusetts, meaning Washington’s ban will kick in the soonest of any state’s at the moment. It applies to the registration of any vehicle model year 2030 or newer, so importing a new gas -powered car sold in other states won’t be permitted, either.
However, Reuters says that the bill “isn’t a firm mandate,” and will depend on the state adopting a vehicle miles-traveled tax for 75 percent of its registered vehicles first.
Read the article at Jalopnik.
Selective Study Finds 87% of U.S. Drivers Have Engaged in Various Distracted Driving Behaviors Recently
Nearly nine in ten U.S. drivers (87%) have engaged in various distracted driving behaviors while operating a vehicle for personal reasons in the past 90 days, according to a new survey.
Distracted driving isn't just occurring while adults are alone in vehicles—80% of drivers who are parents of children under 18 say they do not always drive distraction-free when their children are in the car with them.
The majority of drivers who have engaged in texting, reaching for something, or talking on a mobile device (not hands-free) while driving in the past 90 days have done so even though they consider these actions to be distracted driving (68%, 66%, 59%, respectively).
Read the article at PR Newswire.
