AD #2111 – Volvo Creates Autonomous Garbage Truck, EU Accuses Italy of Diesel Deception, Ford Explains Job Cuts
May 17th, 2017 at 11:51am
Runtime: 6:36
To watch this episode on YouTube click here.
- Ford Explains Job Cuts
- EU Accuses Italy of Diesel Deception
- Volvo Ready to Give Up on Diesels
- Amazing Progress in Automotive Safety
- 1st Car to Ever Get a Speeding Ticket
- Volvo Develops Autonomous Garbage Truck
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On today’s show…Volvo Trucks develops an autonomous garbage truck…Volvo Cars says it may give up on diesel engines…and the first car that was ever stopped for speeding. All that and more coming right up on Autoline Daily.
This is Autoline Daily the show that’s researched, written and produced for enthusiasts of the automotive industry.
FORD EXPLAINS JOB CUTS
Ford officially commented on news reports that it is going to reduce salary headcount in North America and Asia. It expects 1,400 managers to take early retirement and special separation packages by the end of September. But it will not cut jobs in Product Development, plant manufacturing, IT, Global Data and Analytics, or at its captive finance company, Ford Credit. It also says it will transform underperforming units in its core business. Some new reports suggest it could abandon the market in India and cut back on developing passenger cars as the global market migrates to CUVs. Ford says the full details of its cost cutting plans will be announced in early June.
EU ACCUSES ITALY OF DIESEL DECEPTION
Regulators in Europe have been on red alert ever since Volkswagen admitted it rigged its diesel cars with emission cheating software. Now the EU is starting legal action against Italy for not taking proper action over allegations of emissions cheating by FCA. It all started when Germany accused FCA of using defeat devices in the Fiat 500X, Fiat Doblo and the Jeep Renegade. And now the EU says Italy didn’t do enough to prove that the devices were justified. However, Italy’s Transport Minister claims the approval process was done correctly and didn’t find any evidence of illegal devices. Italy has two months to respond to the EU and could end up in court if the EU isn’t happy with its response.
VOLVO READY TO GIVE UP ON DIESELS
All this diesel controversy is making Volvo wonder if the engine is still worth the trouble. The company’s CEO, Hakan Samuelsson says that the new generation of its diesel engines could be its last. He says production of its diesels will likely continue until 2023 but since future regulations will add more cost to the engines, the company will instead focus on electrified powertrains.
Automakers have made amazing progress in making cars safer and we’ll show you a great example of that, right after this.
AMAZING PROGRESS IN AUTOMOTIVE SAFETY
The average age of a vehicle in the U.S. is over 11 years old and they just don’t hold up to today’s crop of new cars, safety wise. In New Zealand more than half of the fatal accidents are in vehicles built before the year 2000. To highlight just how far we’ve come, the country’s New Car Assessment Program or NCAP crashed a 1998 Toyota Corolla into a 2015 Corolla and the results are rather shocking. The old one folds up like an accordion. The engine compartment and front wheel are pushed all the way back and up into the passenger cabin. The roof even crumples up and the driver gets compressed between the seat and dashboard. Just to drive the point home, there’s a total of 16 possible points to earn in the crash test. The ‘98 Corolla earned .4 points while the 2015 was just shy of 13 out of 16.
1ST CAR TO EVER GET A SPEEDING TICKET
Speaking of automotive safety, WardsAuto reports the very first car to get a speeding ticket will be at this year’s U.K. Concours of Elegance. The driver of this 1896 Benz, Walter Arnold was going a mere 13 km/h or 8 mph when he was chased down by a policeman on a bicycle. In those days the speed limit was 2 mph and you had to have someone walking in front of the car waving a red flag. Arnold was found guilty of speeding and had to pay the equivalent of about $7 for his transgressions.
Coming up next, take out the papers and the trash! That garbage truck coming down the street could be autonomous.
Did you see last week’s Autoline After Hours with Floyd Wyczalek? He’s the 92 year old engineer who developed the world’s first fuel cell car, the GM Electrovan. Floyd shared amazing insights as to how they had to go about developing it. That show represents the unique kind of programming Autoline After Hours offers. So join us this Thursday when our special guest will be Steve Kosowski, who heads up Strategic & Business Intelligence for Kia Motors America. He’ll take us on a deep dive of the new Kia Niro, the first purpose built hybrid from Kia, which is quite different from the other hybrids out there. We’ll go live with that show at 3 pm Eastern time.
VOLVO DEVELOPS AUTONOMOUS GARBAGE TRUCK
Volvo Trucks has teamed up with Swedish waste management company Renova to test an autonomous garbage truck. Its route is pre-programmed but it’s able to stop automatically if it detects an object in its path and it can maneuver around cars parked on the road automatically. And since the truck can drive itself, the trash collector can walk alongside of the vehicle, so he or she doesn’t have to keep jumping in and out of the truck at each stop. The two companies will continue to test the truck until the end of the year.
And that brings us to the end of today’s show. Thanks for watching and please join us again tomorrow.
Thanks to our partner for embedding Autoline Daily on its website: WardsAuto.com
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Comments (17)
May 17th, 2017 at 12:05 pm
Now,feel free to correct me if I’m wrong,but isn’t the reason for so many diesel cars in the eu due to diesel fuel’s much cheaper price?
If that’s the case,why don’t they just license our clean diesel tech,and do what we did? I don’t know the price difference between diesel and gas in the eu,but it must have been pretty substantial.
May 17th, 2017 at 12:26 pm
@1) a cursory look leads me to believe that diesel and no lead prices are very close in per liter price. My only guess is that the MPG efficiency is what gives diesel the nod for most buyers.
While I like diesels, I can not get past the maintenance cost to keep them running.
May 17th, 2017 at 1:06 pm
If the car companies get away from diesels, will we loose out on development of bio-diesels. We will loose a renewable energy source.
May 17th, 2017 at 2:19 pm
Most,if not all of our pickup truck diesels are factory certified to run B20. That’s a good start.
Maint costs: Sure a diesel holds more oil,but that isn’t a big deal.Filters: as I posted yesterday,most can be bought from cat,branded as cat,and meet or exceed factory specs,and costs much less.
Def: That’s no big deal either as far as costs go.
The biggest thing would be the emissions equipment to repair/replace.But with routine maint and care,those should last a long time too.
May 17th, 2017 at 2:34 pm
1. 2 At one time, European countries actively encouraged diesel use, with lower tax on diesel fuel. As David said, the pump price of regular gas and diesel are now similar, or they were the last time I was over there about 8 years ago.
Now, the appeal of diesels is the 20-30% better fuel economy,but the stuff needed to clean up diesels makes it hardly worth it, for passenger cars.
May 17th, 2017 at 2:49 pm
Unless tbe supply of biodiesel increases a lot, there should be enough demand from trucks and boats to use the available supply.
From my experience, hybrids are the best alternative to diesels for cars, if you want fuel economy. I had a 1.9 tdi Jetta wagon for a couple years, and averaged about 41 mpg overall for mixed driving. My 2010 Prius averaged about 47 mpg for similar driving, on fuel with less energy per gallon. I suspect the Jetta would get better city mpg, and only slightly worse highway mpg with the Prius powertrain, and would accelerate better with the Prius powertrain, than with the 1.9 tdi.
May 17th, 2017 at 3:58 pm
As it were, I am at Disney presently; just saw that their bus fleet runs R50 (50%) fuel, which claims a renewable diesel made from non-consumable food waste. This seems slightly germane to the argument that diesel can be clean and renewable. After all, it seems that a multi-faceted approach to our energy problems is the current correct approach. The EU claim against Italy seems retrospect and witch hunting at best; they need to move forward to correcting past indiscretions, and if not criminal, put forth effort for a better tomorrow (and leave sleeping dogs lie). JMO
May 17th, 2017 at 4:12 pm
#7, Chuck, is the “non-consumable food waste” fryer oil, or something else? Maybe they didn’t say.
May 17th, 2017 at 4:42 pm
#8 Kit
They didn’t say; I saw it in one of there advertisements. I did assume fryer oil though. I was impressed with the 50% part though.
May 17th, 2017 at 5:40 pm
I knew a restaurant owner who used 100% fryer oil in an ’80′s Benz diesel in Florida. He mechanically filtered it, and nothing else. The only problem was that it would coagulate if it got too cold, low 40′s if I remember correctly.
I suspect today’s diesels are much pickier about fuel than that ’80′s car.
May 17th, 2017 at 8:57 pm
@ Kit: You can buy the equipment to make your own bio-diesel,if one wanted to spend the money on it.There is a lot more to using fryer oil then just filtering.And,today’s clean diesels are only certified to run a max of B20.
And yes,they are picky.Even the injectors are ultra precise and don’t pass much garbage into the cyl before clogging up.I do know that if you read the owners manual of the new diesels,they recommend more frequent oil and filter changes.Not sure why though.
May 17th, 2017 at 8:58 pm
I meant to say if you run B20,oil and filter changes are more frequent,per the manuals…
May 17th, 2017 at 9:13 pm
Here’s a good article on the use of biodiesel.The article is dated,but it explains it pretty good.
http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1044927_why-cant-flex-fuel-clean-diesels-run-entirely-on-biodiesel
May 18th, 2017 at 3:36 am
I assume that the 2mph speed limit in Germany only applied to motor vehicles. I don’t know about you, but I’d probably fall off my bike at that low a speed.
May 18th, 2017 at 8:06 am
13 Thanks for the link. It sounds like the people I knew who used straight fryer oil in the 80′s Mercedes were very lucky, but I was only around them, and the car, for about a year. I don’t know what happened after that. They added regular diesel fuel to the tank when it got colder than normal so the fuel wouldn’t solidify, a problem mentioned in the article.
May 18th, 2017 at 10:34 am
RE: Early automotive laws, I’ve heard of lots of crazy old laws concerning early automobiles. The link on my name has a few. I heard some places had a law that said the automobilist could not operate his contraption without a fake horse head on the front.
May 24th, 2017 at 2:24 pm
“The show that’s researched, written and produced for enthusiasts of the automotive industry.” – THAT sounds impressive…and it just happens to be true….