FLEETDRIVE
CONSERVATIVE CARS BOILING BATTERIES
The Conservative party’s victory in
the UK general election means Prime
Minister Boris Johnson can now go
ahead and withdraw the country
from the European Union, impacting
automakers building and selling cars in
the country. Engineers have been funded to take part
in a project to develop EV technology
suitable for hot Indian climates. The
project will see engineers work on the
design and development of a four-
wheeled electric vehicle for research,
teaching and outreach in India.
Before Thursday’s election automakers
had urged the British government to
make a deal with the EU to safeguard
the future of an industry that has been
going through a renaissance in recent
years as foreign brands invested in
local plants. Air pollution is most effectively tackled
by electric vehicles, which produce zero
emissions in use, but they have difficulty
operating in South Asian regions
because lithium-ion batteries perform
best at 25°C ambient temperature and
degrade very rapidly when it is hotter.
Johnson’s emphatic win means car
companies can plan better for the
future and raises their hopes that there
might be a “soft” Brexit that keeps
close ties between Britain and the EU. In India, where temperatures can often
exceed 45°C, they tend to last as little
as two to three years.
“It brings certainty and that by any
measure is a great result,” a top UK
automotive executive said, declining to
be named.
On Friday, the SMMT auto association
said the British government’s priority
now must be to restore business and
economic confidence and re-establish
the UK’s reputation as a great place to
invest at a critical time for the industry.
“Developing electric vehicles for the
Indian climate is particularly challenging
as the ambient temperature is often
already above the ideal operating
temperature of the battery, which
can significantly reduce the battery’s
lifetime,” researcher Ashley Fly said.
“When our smartphones get too hot
from being left in the sun, they notify
us to move them into the shade.
This is often not an option with a
whole vehicle, so instead, we need to
engineer intelligent solutions to manage
the temperature.”
HOUSTON HEROICS
In the coming months, Walmart
customers in Houston may get their
online grocery shopping delivered by
driverless vehicles operated by Nuro.
The self-driving startup is one of the few
companies to operate fully driverless
vehicles on public roads, i.e. without
even a human ‘safety driver’ ready to
take the wheel in case of emergency.
In March, Nuro started a pilot programme
in Houston, delivering groceries with a
fleet of autonomous Toyota Prius cars.
With the expansion of that programme to
include participating Walmart customers,
Nuro will roll out its custom-made R2
prototype vehicles to share the workload.
Nuro expects its pilot to expand to the
general public by late 2020.
The lunchbox-shaped R2 is shorter
than most cars and about half as wide.
It has no room for a human driver.
Nuro’s fleet – including pilots with
safety drivers in California, Arizona and
elsewhere in Texas – currently stands at
75 vehicles, mainly Priuses.
Founded in 2016 by two former Google
engineers, Nuro has always focused
its autonomous driving efforts on
food delivery rather than transporting
people. This year it received a $1
billion investment from Japanese tech
company Softbank.
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