Vauxhall is looking a pretty nervous franchise at the moment as rumours, and they are just that, circulate that they are about to shut a third of their netwrok. Or about 100 dealers. Which is quite a dent in a franchise that is struggling to keep it's head above water in registration terms. YTD their market share is just 7.16% (and February was barely over 6%). Quite a fall when you consider that back at the start of the Millennium they were tracking at around 13.4%, quite some adjustment is needed. Which is why the anonymous reports in AM this week have not exactly provoked a shock.
The recent case in America regarding an Uber self driving car highlights the legal issues raised in last week's BBC broadcast, a link to which we forwarded in the newsletter. Footage has appeared showing the accident that caused the very sad death of a homeless woman in the US. Obviously this is a tragedy for the victim and her family, and has served as a wake-up call to the developers at Uber, who have suspended all self driving operations at present. Other developers like Toyota have followed suit.
That there has been an accident at all will come as no surprise to many of us. With humans and machines inter-reacting, it is impossible to imagine a world where something completely unpredictable cannot happen. Some will argue, and have already done so, that a human would not have avoided the incident. Others argue that it was entirely preventable, and the systems should have picked up on this lady's emergence into the path of the vehicle.
Whatever the rights and wrongs, and the eventual culpability, it does prove that "human oversight" of automated systems are problematic. A backup driver sits in the car for, say, five weeks without a single incident, and then something happens in a split second. How can you ever be expected to react? Even more so if, as it has been claimed here, the human in question was not paying attention at the time of the accident.
Finally a couple of bits that you may have missed from the past week. BMW offices were raided in Munich on Wednesday by German prosecutors, as part of an investigation into the suspected use of emissions cheating software. Elon Musk's bank manager must have relaxed a bit over the past couple of days, as he has won approval for a new pay deal. And in reality it might be quite attractive, with a potential $55.8bn bonus. Admittedly there are quite a few strings attached, but it will probably be worth putting the extra hours in. And finally, talking about earnings, China's leading car maker, Geely, has enjoyed soaring profits over the past year. These have almost doubled, largely thanks to the success of their SUV range. The Chinese are coming, and they are doing rather well.
Have a great weekend, I am not sure the cricket is worth watching, however.
