Mobiliteit in de toekomst

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Op zaterdag 18 februari 2023 20:02 schreef Candymannetje het volgende:
Gaat het een soort supertesla worden die razendsnel oplaad door de zon en dus ongelimiteerd bereik heeft?
Of wordt het een grote bende en zullen we een Hummer H1, een amfibievoertuig of desnoods een paard en wagen nodig hebben?

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Op zaterdag 18 februari 2023 22:21 schreef Candymannetje het volgende:

[..]
Of geen bezit meer, appje op je telefoon waarmee je autonoom voertuig kan bestellen die je naar je plek van bestemming brengt.

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Op zaterdag 18 februari 2023 22:21 schreef Candymannetje het volgende:

[..]
Of geen bezit meer, appje op je telefoon waarmee je autonoom voertuig kan bestellen die je naar je plek van bestemming brengt.

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Op zondag 19 februari 2023 16:06 schreef Candymannetje het volgende:

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Ik kan het niet bewijzen maar ik denk dat Tesla met z'n OTA updates ook het voertuig wel uit kan schakelen.

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Bullet proof glass and body armor
Underside explosive protection
Smoke Screen
Military Runflat Tires
Thermal Night Vision System
Reinforced suspension
Electromagnetic Pulse Protection
Ram Bumpers
Optional explosive device detection
Optional continuous video recording
Electrified Door Handles
Siren and Horn Options
Strobe Lights
Blinding Lights
Intercom System
Magnetic Dead Bolts
Gas masks
First Aid kit
Hypothermia kit
Pepper Spray Dispenser

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15-minute cities: how to separate the reality from the conspiracy theory
Published: February 17, 2023 5.19pm CET

Conspiracy theories aren’t a new thing, and for as long as they’ve been around they’ve ranged from the benign to the absurd. From the six moon landings being faked to the Earth being flat, or our ruling class being lizards, we’ve all probably come across them in one form or another.

Yet, in a surprise twist, the hottest conspiracy theory of 2023 comes from an unlikely corner: town planning. This relates to the idea of “the 15-minute city” and has even gone so far as to be mentioned in UK parliament by an MP who called the idea “an international socialist concept” that will “cost us our personal freedom”.

As town planning academics who have published research on 15-minute cities, we know this is nonsense. But what actually is the 15-minute city? And what’s the fuss about?

The 15-minute city itself is a simple idea. If you live in one, it means that everything you need to go about your daily life – school, doctors, shops and so on – is located no more than a 15-minute walk from your house.
Designed for people not cars

The concept, which originated from the French-Colombian urbanist Carlos Moreno, is the current zeitgeist in planning, and calls for city design that is centred on people and their needs rather than being designed for cars. It gained international attention when the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, announced her intention to make Paris a 15-minute city following her reelection in 2020, with the plan to enhance neighbourhoods across Paris while ensuring connections between them. The idea flourished in the wake of COVID, when lockdowns and working from home had more of us ditching the car and recognising the need for well-served local neighbourhoods.

Yet this connection to how our towns and cities are changing in the wake of COVID is also probably the reason that 15-minute cities are now a hot-topic in the conspiracy world. Among other things, the charge sheet against 15-minute cities is that they are a “socialist”, or even “Stalinist”, attempt to control the population by actively preventing citizens from straying more than 15 minutes from their homes.

However, the reality is that the 15-minute city does not seek to exclude people or to prevent them from leaving. Instead, the idea is about providing high-quality neighbourhoods so that you don’t have to travel further to get the service. Crucially, this doesn’t mean you’re trapped where you live.

Yes, if travelling by car, the 15-minute city might make the journey to leave the neighbourhood longer as the urban realm and roads shifts from car dominance to a more equal distribution of space for active travel. But this might also mean that other ways of getting about town (walking, wheelchair, cycling, bus or train) might make sense for most journeys, with the car used only when necessary.

It’s fairly easy to see how Moreno’s idea has been perverted here. Within this, it’s also equally easy to trace a line between this and the prevalence of conspiracy theories surrounding COVID and the role of government. In this world, encouraging us to use cars less is seen as a limitation of our freedom rather than an opportunity to live in more vibrant and less polluted neighbourhoods.

The thing is, like so many other conspiracy theories, it gets into trouble when it comes into contact with reality. In many British cities, the reality is that having most services within a 15-minute walk of your house is already closer than you might think – what matters more is the quality and equity of those services.
Most people want things nearby

What’s more, these ideas are popular. Not only have organisations like Sustrans consistently shown that more than two-thirds of people are in favour of these sorts of interventions, they are also endorsed at the ballot box. For example, when some candidates attempted to turn local council elections into a referendum on active travel interventions, they largely failed to get this opposition off the launchpad.

If anything, the 15-minute city envisages even the most urban parts of the country as something quintessentially British: a small market town. Indeed, if harking back to the past is your thing, then the past 50 years of transport planning has done more to damage this British ideal than make it a reality.

In fact, you would imagine that the Conservative MP who raised this conspiracy theory in the House of Commons might regularly get correspondence from the public bemoaning the lack of high-quality services in their neighbourhoods.

After decades of car-dominated culture there is a “gear change” happening in which pedestrian and cyclist experiences do increasingly matter in city planning. There is still a long way to go to make our streets and neighbourhoods places for all, and movements fuelled by conspiracy theory risk slowing these transitions and spreading unjustified fears.

While the 15-minute city has nothing to do with creating ghettos where people will be locked in, fake news like this circulates broadly and quickly, making it crucial for policymakers to convey clear messages about what’s at stake.

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Op zondag 19 februari 2023 15:55 schreef Resistor het volgende:
https://eu.usatoday.com/s(...)driving/11066287002/

Nu zeggen ze nog dat de 'kill switch' die voertuigen op afstand uit kan schakelen 'fake news' is, maar dat kan in de toekomst veranderen.

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Future Fords Could Repossess Themselves and Drive Away if You Miss Payments

Alternatively, the car could drive itself to a junkyard if it costs too much to repossess it. Yes, really.
byPeter Holderith| PUBLISHED Feb 27, 2023 3:00 PM

verage car payments have been rising for a while. Although auto loan delinquency rates have been down since the height of the pandemic, Ford applied for a patent to make the repossession process go smoother. For the bank, that is.

The patent document was submitted to the United States Patent Office in August 2021 but it was formally published Feb. 23. It's titled "Systems and Methods to Repossess a Vehicle." It describes several ways to make the life of somebody who has missed several car payments harder.

It explicitly says the system, which could be installed on any future vehicle in the automaker's lineup with a data connection would be capable of "[disabling] a functionality of one or more components of the vehicle." Everything from the engine to the air conditioning. For vehicles with autonomous or semi-autonomous driving capability, the system could "move the vehicle from a first spot to a second spot that is more convenient for a tow truck to tow the vehicle... move the vehicle from the premises of the owner to a location such as, for example, the premises of the repossession agency," or, if the lending institution considers the "financial viability of executing a repossession procedure" to be unjustifiable, the vehicle could drive itself to the junkyard.

No other automakers have recently attempted to patent a similar system, and indeed the Ford patent doesn't reference any other legal document for the sake of clarifying its idea. All of this being said, patent documents, especially applications like this one, do not necessarily represent an automaker's intent to introduce the described feature, process, or technology to its vehicles. Ford might just be attempting to protect this idea for the sake of doing so. The document does go into a lot of detail as to how such a system might work, though.

The first thing to know is that if your vehicle is connected to the internet in any way, this system could theoretically work on it. The application likewise describes a "repossession computer" that could be installed on future cars to make this system function smoothly, but it also states no extra hardware necessarily needs to be installed on the vehicle for it to function. "In some embodiments, the vehicle computer may be configured to perform some, or all, functions of the repossession system computer." Basically, if your car has an infotainment system already set up to receive something like over-the-air updates, this could probably work without physical modifications.

There would be several warnings from the vehicle before the system initiated a formal repossession. If these warnings were ignored, the car could begin to lose functionality ahead of a repo. The first lost functions would be minor inconveniences like "cruise control, automated window controls, automated seat controls, and some components of the infotainment system (radio, global positioning system (GPS), MP3 player, etc.)" The next level is more serious, and includes the loss of things like "the air conditioning system, a remote key fob, and an automated door lock/unlock system." Likewise, an "incessant and unpleasant sound" may be turned on "every time the owner is present in the vehicle."

If all of that is endured by the car's owner and payment still has not been received, they could get locked out of their car. The patent application states that "the repossession system computer may disable the door lock mechanism, thereby placing the vehicle in a lockout condition and preventing a person from entering a cabin of the vehicle." There are several caveats to go with this, such as locking out the owner only on weekends or allowing for vehicle use in emergency situations. Indeed, the patent explicitly notes that if somebody is suffering from something like a heart attack—it uses the heart attack situation several times in the document—then the car could be unlocked. It says the vehicle's onboard camera could be used alongside a "neural network" to determine if the emergency situation is legitimate.

A repo will still eventually take place, though, and this is where it's explained that autonomous or semi-autonomous cars might make this process easier for the bank. First of all, it says the vehicle will use its onboard sensors to detect whether or not it's in a garage. If it isn't, then the car could, without the owner being aware, repossess itself or drive somewhere nearby to avoid a confrontation with the repossessor. I will quote Ford's patent document explicitly for the sake of clarity here:

"In some cases, the vehicle can be a semi-autonomous vehicle and the repossession system computer may cooperate with the vehicle computer in the semi-autonomous vehicle to autonomously move the vehicle from a first spot to a second spot that is more convenient for a tow truck to tow the vehicle. The first spot may, for example, be located inside the property line of the owner (a garage or a driveway, for example) and the second spot may be outside the property line (a public road, for example).

In some other cases, the vehicle can be an autonomous vehicle and the repossession system computer may cooperate with the vehicle computer to autonomously move the vehicle from the premises of the owner to a location such as, for example, the premises of the repossession agency, the premises of the lending institution, an impound pound, or any other pre-designated location."

Here's where the junkyard comes into play. To paraphrase, the market value of the vehicle will be identified by the lending institution based on mileage, condition, and/or certain costs associated with repossession (towing, storage, re-sale proceedings etc.). If it will cost the bank more to repo the vehicle as compared to what it could sell it for, then "the repossession system computer may cooperate with the vehicle computer to autonomously move the vehicle from the premises of the owner to a junkyard."

The fact that Ford envisions autonomous cars will one day be worth so little that driving themselves to a scrapyard makes financial sense might hint at the nature of this patent. It may not be something the automaker plans to actually develop any time soon. That being said, the fact that Ford has any level of interest in this sort of thing, whether it's just for the sake of protecting an idea or not, is concerning. The thought of your autonomous car driving away because you missed a payment isn't a pleasant one, and keep in mind Ford also mentions "semi-autonomous" cars as potentially being capable of supporting a system like this. Its current "Blue Cruise" hands-free driving system could very well be "semi-autonomous."

As previously mentioned, Ford is the only automaker to attempt to patent something like this. Making repossessions go smoother for banks is not officially at the front of other car companies' minds. Let's hope, for the sake of anybody who has ever missed a few car payments, it stays that way.

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Volkswagen slammed for refusing to hand over GPS data to track down stolen car – with baby inside

German car manufacturer Volkswagen is taking heat after it reportedly refused to help Illinois police use its car tracking service to find a missing child — unless they paid up first.

On 23 February, a 34-year-old mother had just returned to her home in Libertyville, just north of Chicago, and began to unload her children from her 2021 Volkswagen Atlas. She took one child from the car into her home, and upon returning for the second found that a white BMW had pulled into her driveway.

A man reportedly stepped out of the car's passenger seat, struck her, and knocked her to the ground. The man then drove off in her car, with her toddler still inside. The carjacker and the BMW driver drove off. One of them reportedly ran over the mother, leaving her with "serious injuries to her extremities," according to the sheriff's office. She was also six months pregnant at the time of the attack, according to NBC Chicago.

She remains in serious but stable condition at an area hospital.

Police searching for the child contacted Volkswagen Car-Net, which provides VW owners with vehicle control and location services from a mobile app, and asked the company to use its tracking tools to find the missing child.

However, some features — like location services — apparently are premium features. Volkswagen reportedly told law enforcement that the company "would not track the vehicle with the abducted child until they received payment to reactivate the tracking device in the stolen Volkswagen," the sheriff's office said in the Facebook post.

Commenters on the post were furious with the car company.

“Volkswagen you need to do better!! This is outrageous.. as a VW owner, I will NEVER buy another, asking for payment when the police are trying to locate a child that was kidnapped!,” one user wrote.

Another person wrote that “Volkswagen should be absolutely f****** ashamed of themselves. Profits before lives. Oh wait, that’s the American way,” and tagged the company’s Facebook profile in the post.

Volkswagen provided a statement to NBC News explaining its decision to withhold its assistance, noting that the company "takes the safety and security of its customers very seriously."

“Volkswagen has a procedure in place with a third-party provider for Car-Net Support Services involving emergency requests from law enforcement. They have executed this process successfully in previous incidents. Unfortunately, in this instance, there was a serious breach of the process," the company said. "We are addressing the situation with the parties involved."

The details of the "breach of process" were not provided in the statement.

The Independent has reached out for comment.

Police eventually found the child 10 miles away in Waukegan. A 911 caller witnessed the drivers of the stolen car and the BMW leave a child in a parking lot of a local business before speeding off. Police recovered the child at the lot.

The stolen Volkswagen was eventually recovered from a parking lot Waukegan. Police are still searching for the BMW.

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Op zaterdag 18 februari 2023 20:02 schreef Candymannetje het volgende:
Gaat het een soort supertesla worden die razendsnel oplaad door de zon en dus ongelimiteerd bereik heeft?
Of wordt het een grote bende en zullen we een Hummer H1, een amfibievoertuig of desnoods een paard en wagen nodig hebben?