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My Car has a mind of its own!



My car has a mind of its own and is driving me around the bend (or not as the case may be!)


Last year I purchased an electric vehicle for several reasons, of course the principal reason was to worship at the altar of the great green agenda to tackle global warming (possibly) or it could have been for other reasons like watching energy policy in the US at the back end of 2021 create potential problems with the oil and gas market, or it could have been the business tax rates and annual expenditure of an electric vehicle, doing the research to get the best bang for buck regarding miles per KW and battery size you can save a few pounds/dollars but for whatever reason it made a lot of sense for me to switch to an electric vehicle and I must admit I am really glad I did.


I have always been known as a bit of a petrol head and complained bitterly when Formula One went from three litre ten cylinder non aspirated engines with the roar of a lion to a 6-cylinder hybrid that sounds like a Dyson hair dryer and not even at high power settings – dismal!


In 2021 I had a BMW M4 sport grand coupe and loved it! although it wasn't new I polished and cleaned it regularly and would jump in it and go for a drive just for the fun of it, later in the year I had a meeting with my accountant who had mentioned the benefits of going electric in a previous meeting, I must admit it did stimulate my thought on the subject after mentioning it again.


September 2021, I made the decision to do my research and find the best all round vehicle that I could afford at the time, I did the numbers and decided that the Kia E- Niro was the car for me.


It was a bit of a departure from the BMW and I was quite nervous about the transition if I'm completely honest and was incredibly crestfallen the weekend I said goodbye to my BMW, in fact I think I moped for about 3 days and was quite inconsolable, this is sad I know but it took me a long time to be in the position to enjoy executive cars.


One thing I have noticed in doing my research was the 0 to 60 stats and read many articles about the torque and horse power attributed to electric vehicles and even at the very basic levels it is quite impressive for instance, my Nero will do about 260 miles on a full charge it has around 300 torque and has 204 horse power… now we're not talking Tesla levels of speed and power but it's still reasonably quick (as quick as the BMW) and has a very different feel when driving and in fact now I've had it sometime I don't think I'll go back because all of the benefits far outweigh the negatives.


I've read reviews of doomsayers saying that a lot of people are switching back to petrol and diesel cars and that's their choice, if they're doing the high mileage, it makes sense right now and finding charging stations can be a pain but generally if you use the apps available and apply a little bit of common sense, I've never found it to be a problem.


Working with technology I read a great many articles about battery technologies and what is coming next, on a cynical point if we have invested as much time and effort into cleaner more sustainable battery technology instead of continually pumping it into petrochemicals, I think we would be a tad further on, but I digress.


When you see what's being manufactured now in South Korea and China I'm truly excited for the future of electric vehicles, full solar powered cars that can go seven months without a charge are already here, they are ludicrously expensive but as with everything, they've got to start somewhere, in addition to the hybrid hydrogen technologies that looks so promising as a sustainable power source if we can generate enough hydrogen for everybody. The technology is only going to grow, and I do believe that going into the next decade electric cars will be everything that we need them to be.


if you are interested in electric vehicles, I am quite sure you would have read most of this and been aware of the new advances in this technology so I will not continue to bore you with extolling the virtues of the silent wonder that is the electric car however this post is about another topic.


As we continue to move towards more sustainable methods of travel and greener ways of doing things whilst changing laws to accommodate these eco-friendlier methods of getting about, a few things that have changed recently have caused me consternation over the last few weeks, in particular the new laws around cyclists and pedestrians, and their rights regarding road use in the UK.


Sometime last month I jumped in my car on a beautiful sunnyday looking forward to a short local journey on very picturesque country roads, in my area there is some beautiful countryside in this neck of the woods when I chanced upon a group of cyclists who were riding leisurely in front of me. so after reading an article regarding a law change on how much room vehicle drivers must leave cyclists whilst overtaking, which I believe is currently 1.5 metres, not a problem I think as I prepare to overtake at around 40 miles an hour, there was nothing coming the other way so didn't think anything of it and indicated to overtake making sure that I could leave plenty of room - so far so good!


Within the standard settings of my wonderful Kia Niro is the lane assist function, which is always on at the beginning of driving, I have tried to turn it off many times and I'm sure there is a way but when you get in it for the first time for me it is generally turned on all the time. Now this isn't a problem everybody needs a little bit of help sometimes so it generally doesn't bother me HOWEVER, as I began to overtake the cyclist in front of me, this fantastically useful feature decided that it didn't want me to cross the white lines in the centre of the road and immediately started steering me back, as I wasn't expecting this it was a little bit of a shock as I started to barrel towards the rear cyclist, of course it didn't take much to correct and complete the manoeuvre but it did leave me with the foreboding thought that I may have actually been less than 1.5 metres when I finished performing the overtake, I had seen YouTube videos of motorists being captured on camera by cyclists and being fined, so I was a little bit relieved when I didn't notice any camera equipment on the cyclists – PHEW!


So this is the conundrum! although I am quite sure I stayed within the law and overtook them at a safe distance, if I had not been relying on these automated systems this could have been a bit of a problem, not just receiving a fine and penalty points on my licence but more importantly, I could have hurt somebody.


Again, I'm not entirely sure if this is meant to happen or maybe shouldn't have happened, all I can tell you is it did happen, and I wonder how many people with these driving assistant technologies are going to fall foul of things like this in the future. I'm aware that these technologies are available on all types of vehicles, but I think it will be a particular issue with the electric vehicles because of the way they function with the speed and nimbleness of these cars in general. so, if cases like this went to court what would be the play it was not me your honour it was the car! is my shiny new friend going to be locked up for potentially running someone over or creating a collision?


I am sure the answer to this question is I am going to be the one in bother and I do not think my excuse of “it wasn't me guv it was the car” probably will not work as a defence.


Of course I might be blowing this situation out of all proportion but I do think we need to think about the subject of automated systems working on behalf of us mere humans, for me this is a classic example of well-meaning solutions put in place to help, that can potentially create more problems than it seeks to solve, as somebody who has to think about the cooperation between man and machine every day, this is a constant issue that we have to consider when implementing any automated process that may involve autonomous elements.


Designing out the problems

I remember when designing my first industrial parts vending device several years ago, I spent four months researching the necessity for embedded sensors so operators fingers would not be unintentionally trapped by the mechanisms involved, it took a further three months to devise a method that was tested and fool proof to ensure operator safety and minimise the need for overengineering, this method is still in place today and as far as I know there hasn't been anybody hurt or suffered injury by any of the machines out there in the world.


This is why it is so important to get these things right, to ensure that you find the right people with the right knowledge to do the right job, I know making money is the primary goal of all business, but we need to think about safety, cost down, sustainability, viability and-so-on.


Many times I've been accused of overthinking a problem, and maybe there is some truth to this, but as with everything it only takes that one time for somebody to get hurt an all of the 1000 things it go right are brought down by that one thing that you forgot to think about or you dismissed or didn't consider when designing you'll solution.


Conclusion

In conclusion if you do buy a Kia Niro or any of the other wonderful electric vehicles currently available, think about turning your lane assist off if you are going down country lanes, and potentially overtaking things, I am not saying this would happen to you but…….


Also think about the problems and the challenges you have in your business things that you may have ignored due to financial or time constraints that could be improve by employing automated solutions by making sure you find the right people to design your solutions affectively and safely.


if you would like to know more, contact us at Tbox we are rather good at designing inventory management and supply chain solutions amongst other things, and we are happy to look at the current systems you already have and see if we can help improve them.

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