EW September 2016

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Transatlantic cable
September 2016 38
Review, Mr Anderson shared that Tesla tries out new software
by testing it covertly, so that it can tell what the software would
have done if it had been turned on.
“We will often install an ‘inert’ feature on all our vehicles
worldwide,” he said. “That allows us to watch over tens of
millions of miles how a feature performs.”
Days earlier, writing from San Francisco in the MIT Technology
Review, Tom Simonite reported that Tesla began bundling a
suite of new sensors into its vehicles in 2014, saying it was
for a new emergency braking feature. But the 12 ultrasonic
sensors positioned around the car sense nearby objects, and
the forward-facing cameras and radar units “were intended for
bigger things.” Tesla engineers began using data streaming from
cars with those sensors to start testing autonomous driving
features. (“Tesla Tests Self-Driving Functions with Secret Updates
to Its Customers’ Cars.” 24 th May)
Mr Ross of IEEE noted Tesla’s claim of having logged some
780 million miles of data, 100 million miles with Autopilot in
at least partial control. The company’s crowdsourcing of its
70,000-odd customers thus has allowed it to amass far more
passenger-miles than Google’s small eet of professionally
driven cars.
† Tesla logs about a million miles a day. Google has logged
some 1.4 million miles since it started testing autonomous
cars in 2009. But Mr Ross observed that Tesla’s voluminous
data not quite comparable to Google’s. Autopilot takes
charge on highways. Google’s cars mainly drive around in
cities, making for shorter and much more challenging trips.
Further, Mr Ross wrote: “Google’s true master trove of
data comes from the ne-grained maps it lays down in
every city it tackles. That, and massive simulation tests the
company does in silico [ie by means of computer modelling
or computer simulation] may well put Google in the driver’s
seat.”
Under attack in Europe, diesel suddenly
is a worry for carmakers in the world’s
biggest diesel market – Germany
“One diesel car tested by the German government emitted more
than 12 times as much poisonous nitrogen oxide as allowed.
Another was ve times over the limit, and yet another six times
over.”
Writing from Berlin, Jack Ewing of the New York Times noted
that these cars were not produced by Volkswagen, the German
company found to have illegally manipulated emissions test
results. The results cited were from a Jeep, a General Motors
sedan, and a Mercedes-Benz. (“Volkswagen Not Alone in
Flouting Pollution Limits,” 9th June)
Other recent government and private studies con rm that
Volkswagen is hardly the only company to out emissions limits.
According to Mr Ewing, makers of polluting vehicles are taking
advantage of a loophole that allows them to throttle down
emissions controls whenever there is risk of engine damage;
which in some cases, he said, “is nearly all the time.”
The Times article is more than an exercise in comparative
culpability. It pointed out that the emerging information has
awakened Europeans to the real environmental cost of diesel,
with far-reaching reputational and nancial consequences for
the auto industry. Carmakers are now on the defensive in their
core diesel market.
“It’s just a question of who’s cheating legally and who’s cheating
illegally,” Ferdinand Dudenhö er, a professor at the University of
Duisburg-Essen who follows the auto industry, told the Times .
“They’re all bad.”
If the time of reckoning is indeed here, the consequences could
be especially severe in Germany, the world’s largest market for
diesel cars.
There already were tentative signs that some Europeans are
turning against diesel, and according to gures compiled by
Mr Dudenhö er the share of diesel-powered cars sold in
Germany by BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen (including
its Porsche and Audi units) fell three per cent in the rst four
months of 2016 compared with the same period of 2015.
† In an attempt at damage control, in early June the German
government submitted a proposal to European Union
transport ministers that would partially contract the
loophole that allows deactivation of emissions equipment
to protect the engine. Carmakers would be allowed to
take advantage of the exception only if they had already
deployed the best emissions control technology available.
† Diesel vehicles produce far more nitrogen oxides than
gasoline cars and require more emissions treatment
equipment. Tighter limits on tailpipe emissions and more
rigorous testing – either on the books or being debated
in Brussels – will raise the cost of cars with diesel motors.
Price-conscious buyers of small cars, in particular, may
decide it is no longer worth paying the premium for diesel.
If they do, companies like Fiat Chrysler, Renault and
Volkswagen would su er most. As Mr Ewing observed,
“Pro ts on small cars already are slim.”
Putting its rst hydrogen fuel cell car to
the test, a “green”Welsh carmaker pushes
for more hydrogen refuelling stations
One of the reasons advanced for the slow adoption of
hydrogen-powered cars is the scarcity of refuelling stations. In
partnership with Monmouthshire County Council in southeast
Wales, the Welsh carmaker Riversimple has set itself to remedy
that. An upcoming trial of its hydrogen-powered Rasa city car,
previewed at the London Motor Show in May, will have a second
aim: to promote the development of hydrogen infrastructure
across the UK.
The 12-month trial, to commence early in 2017, will deploy
brand-new autos driven by 60 to 80 Monmouthshire residents
under three- or six-month contracts. The carmaker chose
Monmouthshire for the short distances between its towns,
favourable for testing a car designed for local non-motorway use
and restricted to 300 miles per three-minute refuelling.
As reported in Gizmag by the Liverpool-based tech writer
Stu Robarts, a self-service mobile refuelling point is planned
by Riversimple for either Abergavenny or Monmouth. The
rm, which says it will cover the running costs of the test
cars during the trial, will also erect a temporary ‘experience
centre’ – presumably to receive and record the responses of
happy participants. The idea is that the Rasa trial will help raise
public awareness of hydrogen-powered autos and set o a
groundswell of demand for refuelling stations. (“Hydrogen Cars
Set to Take to the Streets in Wales,” 16th June)
Mr Robarts said on that Riversimple’s marketing
methods are no less innovative than the Rasa.