Overdrive

Welcome to Overdrive, a program where we never let facts get in the way of a good argument about motoring and transport.

I’m David Brown

And in this program, we look at news stories with including:

1. Toyota puts brakes on self-driving car development, for now

2. Police chief: Uber self-driving car may not be at fault in fatal Arizona crash

3. Mercedes-Benz launches Flexperience car subscription service in Germany

4. Bentley's upcoming electric car may be a four-door coupe

We reflect on a few other issues about at the moment including:

1. Classic Mini Electric: first drive of one-off EV

2. New look Infiniti qx80 designed to entice

3. World premiere for 590 bhp Maserati Levante Trofeo at the 2018 new york international auto SHOW

4. Electrifying escapism: genesis reveals Essentia concept at new york international auto show

5. Reimagined 2019 Kia k900 makes global debut at New York auto show

6. Fresh-faced 2019 Sedona (carnival) makes appearance at the New York international auto show

7. 2019 Corvette ZR1 specs confirmed, including 0-60 mph time of 2.85 seconds

And in our panel discussion with we take a look at some quirky news stories that can briefly divert us away from the negative stories in the main stream press.

1. I Have Seen the Future of Urbanism and It's a Scooter

2. Brabham teases BT62 with high-speed video

3. Woman who said she had ‘safe personality’ charged with road rage gun attack

Have a question or comment? Send it to [email protected]

You can listen to longer segments by going to our web site at drivenmedia.com.au or podcast the whole program on iTunes or your favourite podcast service.

Welcome to Overdrive, a program that pontificates on the issues of motoring and transport

I’m David Brown

And in this program, we look at news stories with including:

1. Toyota puts brakes on self-driving car development, for now

2. Police chief: Uber self-driving car may not be at fault in fatal Arizona crash

3. Mercedes-Benz launches Flexperience car subscription service in Germany

4. Bentley's upcoming electric car may be a four-door coupe

Brian Smith and Errol smith join us for the whole program to discuss a couple of serious issues:

• Predicting the future and what it means for managing transport options and fleet departments;

• Uber’s autonomous car has been involved in a fatality – how will it change our progression to fully autonomous vehicles

And in our panel discussion with we take a look in good spirits at some quirky news stories.

• This Cool Trick From The Car Industry Could Make Bacon Less Carcinogenic

• Car thief calls owner for help driving it

• Fast farming: The Stig set a Guinness World Record for fastest tractor

Have a question or comment? Send it to [email protected]

In a previous item we noted how Hino trucks had released new vehicles with a strong focus on road safety. Scania has now launched a new generation of trucks across its whole range. At the launch we had a chat with a range of their international executives that covered their strong push into sustainability in all its forms and the design of trucks that have to serve the drivers and operators but also the community in which they work.

We began with a conversation with Alexander Mastrovito, their Head of Sustainability for Asia and Oceania.

DB: A trucking company having a sustainability manager. Is this a term that wouldn't have existed 10 years ago?

AM: Absolutely and I see this as one of the first tell-tale signs that this is something that is becoming more and more integrated into our industry. It doesn't only exist as a headquarters’ position but also out in all the different markets where we operate. Sustainable means different things to different people.

DB: There is both the environmental issue and there's also the business sustainability. Is that a balance you have to work to?

AM: Absolutely. And it's not only those two where we talk about sustainability. We have to take into account the economic side of it; the environmental side of it; and also the societal side of it so that's the kind of three pronged theory that we usually work from.

DB: And what you learn can be benefits that you can share with your customers, big companies, in terms of recycling and things.

AM: Yes, for sure. When we look at our customers as well. If we seem to be doing something then we're doing it as a drive or a shift as a collective. So it's not just lip service.

DB: Because you're getting such telematics data it's no longer that you sell a truck and then you might see the customer in month’s time for a service. This has changed the relationship with customers.

AM: The traditional way of doing this business, you could go for months, even years without meeting your customer. Once they bought the truck you would not have contact with them for a long time. They might even disappear completely forever. But now with connected vehicles we have a constant interaction with them. If you add on top of that, driver training with coaching then you might see yourself talking to each and every customer on a monthly basis. So it's completely different. It's much easier. And of course that's beneficial to us but I think it's beneficial to the customers as well that they know that they will be taken care of throughout the life cycle of the vehicle.

We then spoke to Martin Toomey, the Director of sales in Australia. He made a number of very pertinent points.

The amount of information coming from the truck has changed the way that drivers and managers interact. It is no longer just opinion but there are specific numbers that say how well the truck is being driven. This has removed some of the adversarial interaction between managers and drivers.

The nature of the driving task is changing. No longer are you sending a driver out and not hearing from him or her for 10 hours. In the past the driver had to handle situations as they arose but now the manufacturer and the operator are getting information about the truck in real time. Drivers are now being less of the lonely maverick and more of having to interact with changing schedules and other operational issues.

There is also a concern that I raised at the IPWEA conference of swamping the truck driver with too much information so that they no longer listen closely to what is being communicated.

Recently Tesla showed the world its new electric truck. It looks different on the outside, and inside the driver sits in the middle. It was a classic Tesla launch that seem to say this is a whole new future. And in a number of ways it is. But traditional truck companies have been continually developing their designs in the multifaceted nature of serving customers, looking after drivers and interacting with the community. At the recent launch of Scania’s new range of vehicles, I spoke to Kristofer Hansén ,Scania’s Head of Styling and Industrial Design who came to Australia for the launch. Here is an edited transcript from the conversation.

DB: You said in your launch that the first thing you looked at was the driver. Is that a major component of this generational change for Scania trucks?

KH: Yes you can see the driver or the human. I mean there's a lot of parts involved in the truck business. You have the driver of course, but you have the customers that could be the owner of the fleet and then you have the people on the street who see this beast and they also make some sort of summation of it. But the most important for now it's absolutely the driver of course.

DB: I'll come back to the word "beast" in a moment but I think you've increased the space for the driver both in driving and sleeping in, if it is that sort of truck.

KH: Yes we did. We moved the driver seat forward as far as possible and we made the instrument panel much, much thinner. So the steering wheel goes forward and then of course we get more space in the back.

DB: But also you're talking about visibility for the driver.

KH: Yeah when we lowered the IP [instrument panel] we moved the "A" pillar backwards to where you sit in the front seat.

One interesting thing here is that a lot of concept trucks put the driver in the middle and say that is the best because it's a cool sketch, but to sit in the middle you have long distance to the A pillars and to the corners. You don't really know exactly where they are. So what we saw about this research was really what is a big job to do that, a lot of that, the more closely you put the driver to, (in our case in Europe and Sweden the left corner, in Australia the right corner), the better control he or she can have of the vehicles. So it's the opposite in the middle, it is the worst. So if you sit close to one of the corners you know exactly what the other corner is. You can feel the road below.

DB: You mentioned the word “beast”. There's now the environmentally sustainable issue. There’s an image there as well that you don't want to see the truck as a place for the cowboy driver. Do you want to see it as pleasant for potential customers but also for the public?

KH: Yet but it's funny since I started at Scania I got this question: "The next truck you will do. Will you make it very soft and look nice?" But it's a little bit strange, if you're standing on the roadside and there's a vehicle coming and it looks like a friendly, then you want to pass [cross] the road because you think that's cool and then come 60 or in Australia 200 tonnes they can't stop. So it’s better, I think, that you understand when you look at it “okay, be a little bit careful this is big, it's heavy” but it shouldn't look aggressive. It shouldn't look mean. It's like a 'good' beast but you have to know it's a beast, extremely heavy. So it's just a little bit the same with the car design and electric cars that some years ago everyone who designed electric cars made them very soft and a little bit funny.

DB: Evelyn Waugh wrote a book where he talked of a lady who dressed in fairly severe tones and said "she dressed to inform not to attract".

KH: It could be yeah yeah.

That was Kristofer Hansén Scania’s Head of Styling and Industrial Design and Martin Toomey Director of Sales in Australia.

News including the no-steering-wheel GM Cruise AV, talking traffic lights, Uber buttering up the Brits, Mapping apps and EU's free train travel trial.

We talk Kristofer Hansén, Scania’s Head of Styling and Industrial Design.

We reflect on the Lamborghini SUV - the Urus.

And a quirky discussion of odd cars from the Geneva motor show.

Originally broadcast 24th March 2018.

For past programs and extended versions of segments like the road tests, feature interviews and quirky news, visit drivenmedia.com.au

Welcome to Overdrive, a program that probes the issues of motoring and transport

I’m David Brown

And in this program, we look at news stories with including:

1. Greens push for electric only cars on Australian roads by 2030

2. Mercedes overtakes Toyota as most valuable car brand in influential study

3. Uber already using self-driving trucks

4. Australia hosts the first ever Maserati global gathering

5. Ford Mustang to get dragstrip mode

6. Brabham BT62 name and engine note revealed in new clip from Brabham automotive

We have a range of fascinating comments about the trucking industry rom the revealing of the new range of Scania trucks. Road freight has come a long way from the cowboy image and is embracing many community issues

And in our panel discussion with Alan Zurvas we take a witty look at some quirky cars that were shown at the Geneva motor show.

Welcome to Overdrive, a program where we wander through the world of motoring and transport.

I’m David Brown

And in this program, we look at news stories with including:

1. 2019 Jaguar I-Pace revealed: Brits put Tesla on alert

2. California's new rules turn self-driving cars into remotely operated, road-going drones

3. Tesla’s new ‘light-years ahead’ navigation and maps engine is ‘almost done’, says Elon Musk

4. Trump admin passes rule requiring sounds in 'quiet cars' by 2020

5. Nearly a third of Uber drivers are actually losing money, study shows

I reflect on the size of some information screens in cars and what sort of information can we get. I have just got to drive the BMW X3 SUV and the information systems and its ability to inform is a good example of how this area of vehicles is improving.

We road test the Mercedes E400 Cabriolet – Elegant motoring

And in our panel discussion with Errol Smith and Brian Smith we take a chirpy look at some quirky news stories including:

1. You can now buy James Bond's personal Aston Martin/The mini bike from "Dumb and Dumber" is up for sale/ Car on which Jeremy Clarkson dropped a piano is for sale, mid-restoration (it's a Morris Marina)

2. Will Tesla Model S be a "collector car"? Tuckers are, but Kaisers aren't: why?

3. Kris Singh's Aston Martin Valkyrie will have actual moon dust in the paint

News including the Takata 4 million+ airbag recall, China takes a bite of Daimler, speed humps on bicycle paths and facial recognition on public transport.

We discuss the Takata airbag recall in detail and the expanding Volkswagen diesel-gate court cases.

We road test iconic Nissan GT-R Nismo.

And quirky stories including the mullet fest in Kurri Kurri.

Originally broadcast 3rd March 2018.

For past programs and extended versions of segments like the road tests, feature interviews and quirky news, visit drivenmedia.com.au

Welcome to Overdrive, where we cover everything to do with motoring and transport from the sublime to the ridiculous.

I’m David Brown

And in this program, we look at news stories with including:

1. New super-sized $15 million bus fleet won't fit in bus stops

2. Cycling groups outraged at WA Road Safety videos depicting riders as 'losers'

3. German cities to trial free public transport to cut pollution

4. Express delivery: use drones not trucks to cut carbon emissions, experts say

5. New supercabs to tackle dangerous driving on England’s motorways

6. Land rover celebrates year of the dog with canine friends

We hear from a young lady who is a transport planner who travelled to Canada to research some aspects of her profession including how traffic engineering can move into modern world of technology and more professional women.

Alan Zurvas road test the Nissan 370z with the Nissan Motor Sport Nismo make over. Is it worth the effort

And in our panel discussion with Errol Smith and Brian Smith we take a happy-go-lucky look at some quirky news stories including:

• David Brown Auto bringing high-performance GT to Geneva

• Is the modern car a passion-killer?

• Chinas last steam train

Have a question or comment? Send it to [email protected]

You can listen to longer segments by going to our web site at drivenmedia.com.au or podcast the whole program on iTunes or your favourite podcast service.

Now to begin the program let’s have the news.

In this program, we look at news stories with including:

1. New Queensland CBD designed for driverless cars

2. Holden sells on line

3. Tesla reveals 2017 financial results, records near $2B loss

4. Intelligent road studs to improve road safety

5. 2018 Fiat 500 goes all-turbo, all the time

6. Modular footpath for London trial

We dedicate the remaining part of the program to a critique of the car ads that were specially developed to play during the broadcast of the 2018 American Super Bowl. Brian Smith and Errol Smith give their perceptive, witty and at times cynical comments. Ads to be reviewed include

The good where Vikings are portrayed using a Ram Pickup to tow their boat

The bad – Jeep proclaims the great impact their vehicles have had by showing excessive freeways and diving through environmentally sensitive areas

And the ugly. Using Martin Luther King’s voice and words from one of his great great speeches to flog (as in sell) pickup trucks.

Have a question or comment? Send it to [email protected]

You can listen to longer segments by going to our web site at drivenmedia.com.au or podcast the whole program on iTunes or your favourite podcast service.