Motorists alerted to increased risks of vehicle attacks on R300 near Cape Town

The Arrive Alive website received an alert which was sent in social media to members of an anti-truck hijacking group:

“High Risk Area report: Kindly note that – there has been an increase in vehicle attacks on the R300 highway in Cape Town.

If you have operations in the area, consider alternative routes at night. While most attacks seem to be aimed at light motor vehicles, the risk could easily extend to commercial operations. In the latest attack, last night, a huge rock was thrown through a car’;s windshield, striking the driver and dislocating his shoulder.

He initially stopped but had to grit and bear it and drive off when 3 suspects came running towards him.”

We would also like to share the photos referred to in this alert:

Also view:

Crime as a Threat to Road Safety

Truck Hijackings, Crime and Road Safety

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Motorists alerted to increased risks of vehicle attacks on R300 near Cape Town

Driverless automobiles – coming soon to a road near you!

Nowadays is an historic day for motoring in the UK.

The government has announced a modify in the law to permit firms to start off running trials of driverless automobiles – which means the 1st laptop-controlled autos will hit Britain’s highways in January subsequent year.

£10 million ignition fund

A £10 million fund has been set aside to cover the costs of trials across 3 UK cities from the commence of subsequent year that will run for among 18 and 36 months.

Vince Cable PM, Enterprise Secretary, unveiled the scheme: “Today’s announcement will see driverless automobiles take to our streets in much less than 6 months, placing us at the forefront of this transformational technologies and opening up new possibilities for our economy and society.”

Effect on insurance coverage

The move could at some point lead to a huge alter in your insurance coverage premiums.

If driverless cars can be shown to be safer, and if they are involved in fewer accidents than traditional cars, the expense of insuring them will inevitably fall.

This could be a single of the major reasons why individuals get over their reflex mistrust of driverless automobiles and commence using them.

For far more on the potential influence on the insurance coverage market, study my post Could driverless cars trigger a car insurance crash?

Keeping pace?

But is the UK really ‘at the forefront’ of this technologies although, or is it just attempting to preserve pace with other nations, notably the US, house of Google, the main driver behind computerised automobile?

The Google driverless auto in near future

While Google has enough cash to invest in making automobiles, that likelihood is remote. Far more most likely choices incorporate collaborating with key carmakers or giving away the software program, as Google did with its Android operating method.

The Google driverless auto is a project by Google that requires building technologies for autonomous automobiles. The computer software powering Google’s automobiles is known as Google Chauffeur. The project is at present becoming led by Google engineer Sebastian Thrun, former director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and co-inventor of Google Street View. Thrun’s group at Stanford developed the robotic car Stanley which won the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge and its US$ 2 million prize from the United States Department of Defense.

The group establishing the program consisted of 15 engineers operating for Google, which includes Chris Urmson, Mike Montemerlo, and Anthony Levandowski who had worked on the DARPA Grand and Urban Challenges.

Meanwhile, classic automakers are developing driverless automobiles of their own. Renault-Nissan program to provide their initial model to the public by 2020.

Google’s robotic cars have about $ 150,000 in equipment such as a $ 70,000 LIDAR (laser radar) method. The variety finder mounted on the best is a Velodyne 64-beam laser. This laser permits the automobile to generate a detailed 3D map of its environment. The automobile then takes these generated maps and combines them with high-resolution maps of the planet, producing various sorts of information models that permit it to drive itself.

Google says its automobiles have now driven about 700,000 accident-totally free miles on freeways in “autonomous mode” — with the automobile in handle, even though a security driver sits behind the wheel. That is the equivalent of about 120 San Francisco-to-Manhattan-to-San Francisco road trips.

In August 2011, a human-controlled Google driverless car was involved in a crash close to Google headquarters in Mountain View, CA. Google has stated that the auto was being driven manually at the time of the accident.A previous incident involved a Google driverless automobile becoming rear-ended although stopped at a targeted traffic light.Google says that neither of these incidents have been the fault of Google’s auto but the fault of other humans operating the auto.

With that achievement, Google has been focusing on city driving for about the previous year. Freeways are reasonably straightforward for the vehicles — no blind corners, no cyclists and no pedestrians. City streets have all that and far more, such as intersections and complex interactions with other drivers, such as who goes first at a 4-way quit sign.

About the Author: Igor Sekuloski, CPIA is a CEO & Founder of Insurox, a national on the web insurance coverage agency.

The Google driverless auto in near future