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Volvo chief issues warning on self-driving car safety

The chief executive of Volvo has warned that the premature launch of self-driving cars could erode trust among the public and regulators and effectively kill off the technology. Tom Braithwaite spoke to Peter Campbell, motor industry correspondent about Volvo’s warning. Contributors: Katie Martin, capital markets editor, Tom Braithwaite, Companies editor, and Peter Campbell, motor industry correspondent.… Continue reading Volvo chief issues warning on self-driving car safety

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Volvo to put cameras and sensors in its cars to tackle drunk driving

Volvo Car Group

Volvo Cars is set to install in-car cameras and sensors to monitor drivers for signs of intoxication and distraction.

The firm said the technology will be used to monitor drivers and, when needed, enable the car “to intervene if a clearly intoxicated or distracted driver does not respond to warning signals and is risking an accident involving serious injury or death.”

Actions the car could take include limiting speed to slowing down and then parking the car in a safe place. Installation of the technology will start in the early 2020s.
Wednesday's announcement represents the latest attempt by the company to boost the safety of its vehicles. At the beginning of March, it announced it would introduce a 180 kilometers per hour (112 miles per hour) speed limit on all its cars from 2020.

“When it comes to safety, our aim is to avoid accidents altogether rather than limit the impact when an accident is imminent and unavoidable,” Henrik Green, Volvo Cars' senior vice president, research and development, said in a statement Wednesday.
“In this case, cameras will monitor for behavior that may lead to serious injury or death,” Green added.
The system, Volvo Cars said, will be on the lookout for a range of potentially dangerous behaviors. These include drivers who display a “complete lack of steering input for extended periods of time” or have their eyes closed or off the road for long periods. Technology will also monitor “excessively slow reaction times” and “extreme weaving across lanes.”
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), nearly 30 people in the U.S. die each day because of drunk driving crashes. There were 10,874 deaths in the U.S. from drunk driving crashes in 2017, the NHTSA adds.
“There are many accidents that occur as a result of intoxicated drivers,” Trent Victor, professor of Driver Behaviour at Volvo Cars, said. “Some people still believe that they can drive after having had a drink, and that this will not affect their capabilities. We want to ensure that people are not put in danger as a result of intoxication.”

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China Geely Auto’s full-year profit jumps 18 percent, shares climb

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s Geely Automobile Holdings posted an 18 percent jump in annual net profit, driven by higher sales of its sedans and sports utility vehicles (SUVs), but forecast flat sales growth in 2019 due to uncertainty about domestic demand. FILE PHOTO: The Geely Automobile Holdings logo is pictured at the Auto China 2016… Continue reading China Geely Auto’s full-year profit jumps 18 percent, shares climb

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FILE PHOTO: The Geely Automobile Holdings logo is pictured at the Auto China 2016 auto show in Beijing, China April 25, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd said on Thursday higher sales drove its 2018 net profit up 18 percent, even as growing political uncertainty affected overall domestic demand.… Continue reading China’s Geely says 2018 net profit climbs 18 pct on higher revenue

TMS Motor Group pumps £1.7m into Coventry Volvo dealership

TMS Volvo, the family-owned Volvo retailer, has completed a £1.7m refurbishment of its Volvo dealership in Coventry. The new showroom includes a greater display of Approved Used Volvo Selekt models on the forecourt. The Volvo Retail Experience places a focus on improving the space and design of the dealership. TMS Volvo Coventry is also in… Continue reading TMS Motor Group pumps £1.7m into Coventry Volvo dealership

Audi Sales, Mercedes Sales, Toyota Sales, Infiniti Sales, Acura Car Sales, BMW Car Sales, Honda Car Sales, & Lexus Car Sales Down In February In USA

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Published on March 19th, 2019 |

by Zachary Shahan

Audi Sales, Mercedes Sales, Toyota Sales, Infiniti Sales, Acura Car Sales, BMW Car Sales, Honda Car Sales, & Lexus Car Sales Down In February In USA

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March 19th, 2019 by Zachary Shahan

Here on CleanTechnica, we keep a close eye on electric vehicle news and sales. However, it’s important to watch competing areas of the market to get a sense of the full dynamic. As part of that, I track the monthly US sales of all the automakers that publish monthly figures. The story lately has been a downtrend in sales at major automakers other than Tesla, and especially those automakers’ car sales.

In the month of February, the following luxury auto companies and car divisions had the following sales drops:

Acura Cars: −12%
Audi: −12%
Audi Cars: −12%
BMW Cars: −12%
Infiniti: −17%
Infiniti Cars: −46%
Lexus Cars: −2%
Mercedes-Benz: −13%
Mercedes-Benz Cars: −4%
Volvo Cars: −77%

On the flip side, these luxury auto companies had the following sales increases:

Acura: 11%
Jaguar Land Rover: 29%
Lexus: 4%
Volvo: 6%

Overall, luxury auto sales from all of those companies were down 2,099 in February and car sales from those companies were down 10,775. No car division saw increased sales.

A few luxury brands are missing here — Buick, Cadillac, Lincoln, and Tesla — because they only report sales on a quarterly basis, and Jaguar doesn’t break out sales by model or class, so its car sales are estimated.

Regarding Tesla, our estimate is that Tesla Model 3 sales were somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 in the United States in February, which would close the gap in 2019 versus 2018 premium-class auto sales, but wouldn’t quite close the gap in premium-class car sales. As has been written many times across the auto world, consumers have been moving from cars to SUVs & crossovers, so that is surely part of the story here as well.

However, as we’ve noted many times in many ways, the Tesla Model 3 actually competes with mass-market cars like the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry in terms of 5 or 6 year total cost of ownership, while being a much better forming, better driving, safer, higher tech car. So, I’ve also been curiously looking at mass-market brands. The following are the mass-market auto companies and car divisions that saw their sales drop in February 2019 versus February 2018 (and by how much):

Honda: −1.6%
Honda Cars: −5.5%
Toyota: −6.3%
Toyota Cars: −10.6%
Nissan: −11.4%
Nissan Cars: −9.4%
Kia Cars: −2.6%
Hyundai Cars: −22.3%

Hmm, among the Big 3*, sales are crap.

(*Let’s be honest — Toyota, Honda, and Nissan are the Big 3 in the US if you’re not talking pickup trucks.)

On the flip side, other than Tesla, the following two major automakers saw their February 2019 sales rise compared to February 2018 (despite their car sales dropping):

Kia: 6.4%
Hyundai: 2%

Those two sister companies had ~3,600 more sales, combined, compared to February 2018. Nissan sales were down more than 13,000, Honda sales were down almost 2,000, and Toyota sales were down more than 9,000.

So, what does all this mean in relation to electric vehicle sales, and more specifically Tesla sales?

Who really knows? But if Tesla’s going to deliver another 40,000 or so cars in the United States this quarter, there’s a solid chance Tesla is continuing to take sales away from these other automakers. Furthermore, based on owner satisfaction surveys from Consumer Reports and others, it’s unlikely those Tesla buyers are going to go back to those older brands. And with the Tesla Model Y coming to market in a couple of years, Model 3 owners may well abandon those other automakers completely as they convert their gasoline crossovers and SUVs to Teslas.

There’s a lot of hype among certain people who want to see Tesla fail that Tesla’s days are numbered, that it’s all a house of cards that’s about to fall down. I don’t buy that narrative, but I wonder sometimes how much the other automakers are under that exact threat.

Remember that it wasn’t a 100% collapse in auto sales that caused GM and Chrysler to go bankrupt approximately a decade ago. Overall, US auto sales dropped 11.7% from 2007 to 2008.

Scroll up again and look at those drops in US sales for numerous automakers.

Stepping back another month, in January, the following automakers saw sales down as follows:

Nissan: −20%
Toyota: −7%
Mercedes-Benz: −14%
Honda: −1.5%
BMW: −5%
Lexus: −3%
Infiniti: −3%
Audi: −2%

Nissan is already doing worse than the US auto industry as a whole in 2007–2008. Mercedes-Benz is also down worse than the auto industry as a whole in 2007–2008. Toyota is more than halfway there. Honda and BMW are holding on much better but are also down. Audi and Infiniti are down dramatically. Where will all of this lead?

Of course, I’m not implying that these companies will go bankrupt just based on huge drops in US auto sales. These automakers all have strong sales in other markets — China, Europe, and Japan, for example. Nonetheless, executives at the North America divisions must be sweating bullets. The problem is — how do you compete with Tesla?

About the Author

Zachary Shahan Zach is tryin' to help society help itself (and other species). He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director and chief editor. He's also the president of Important Media and the director/founder of EV Obsession and Solar Love. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about cleantech at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, and Canada.

Zach has long-term investments in TSLA, FSLR, SPWR, SEDG, & ABB — after years of covering solar and EVs, he simply has a lot of faith in these particular companies and feels like they are good cleantech companies to invest in. But he offers no professional investment advice and would rather not be responsible for you losing money, so don't jump to conclusions.

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Volvo to install cameras in new cars to reduce road deaths

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