Drive Dynamics – Top tips for staying out of trouble when driving abroad: Switch off camera alerts in France – and take spare glasses in Spain.

Driving abroad can be fraught with unexpected hazards – but nearly a quarter of Brits heading off on a driving holiday do no research on the rules of the road for the country they are visiting, findings suggest.

Worse still, more than one in five also admit to not having insurance for driving abroad, according to an Aviva survey.

An array of curious driving laws apply across the world ready to catch unprepared Brits off guard. It pays to know what these rules are to avoid having your licence confiscated, vehicle impounded, an unwelcome fine – and, every holiday goers worse nightmare, a stint in an overseas jail.

In top holiday hot-spot France it is illegal to use satnav devices capable of detecting speed cameras. The speed camera detection function needs to be switched off before you hit the roads.

If French police catch you with the speed camera alert device switched on, they could confiscate your licence and impound your vehicle.

Meanwhile, in Spain if you generally wear glasses or contact lenses to drive, then you will need to take a spare pair with you. Drivers caught without a spare pair could be fined, but it’s unclear how robustly this rule is actually enforced.

In Germany, the autobahn has lengthy sections with a 130 km-per-hour speed recommendation. This is still just a recommendation and Brits heading off to feel the wind in their hair should note that it is illegal to stop on the legendary highway, even if you run out of petrol.

Drive Dynamics – The easy way to beat your parking ticket : Student creates free website for drivers to appeal fast after he got 30 in nine months

Thousands of drivers in Britain are hit with parking fines every year

An entrepreneurial student has set up a free-to-use parking ticket appeal website which allows drivers to automatically fight fines within seconds.
Joshua Browder, 18, of North London, became fed up after being hit with numerous parking fines since passing his driving test in January.
He created donotpay.co.uk which allows motorists to pick one of 12 reasons of defence, then enter the relevant details and send a custom generated appeal created by the website’s algorithm to the council in question.

Joshua, who is starting a degree in economics and computer science at Stanford University, California, said he received 30 parking tickets when leaving his car in and around the busy streets of Camden, where his school is located.
He said: ‘I was given the parking tickets for trivial reasons. I have had to spend around one hundred hours of valuable study time writing appeals to these tickets, many of which have been successful.
‘I have come to realise that councils issue tickets first and ask questions later. Unfortunately, many recipients of these tickets don’t have the time, legal knowledge or energy to appeal.’

Drive Dynamics – Search is on for ‘most efficient fleet driver’ at 2015 MPG Marathon

There will be ten places up for grabs on a first-come, first-served basis for drivers and co-drivers. The lucky contestants will all participate in five identical BMW 320d ED Sport models and attempt to complete the 300-mile course under normal driving conditions using as little fuel as possible.

Those company car drivers keen to show off their skills and take up the challenge of becoming the UK’s ‘most efficient fleet driver’ should contact the organisers, Fleet World, at info@mpgmarathon.co.uk or by phoning 01727 739160 as soon as possible.

“We thought the idea of a competition within a competition to find the country’s most efficient fleet driver would resonate with company car drivers, and give them every chance to demonstrate their lean driving skills,” said organiser Jerry Ramsdale, publishing director of Fleet World.

This year’s event, which, in its 15th year, is being sponsored for the first time by Barclaycard Fuel+ in association with TMC, takes place on Tuesday, September 29 and Wednesday, September 30.

It will set off from the stunning Heythrop Park Hotel and the Heythrop Park Resort near Enstone in Oxfordshire over a two-day, 300-mile plus route and includes a number of alternative and conventionally powered vehicles.

Entries are coming in at a steady rate, and Ford, Peugeot, Renault, Citroen, Honda, Mazda, Kia and Jaguar are amongst manufacturers who have confirmed they will be entering their very latest models.

Drivers who have already entered include Ben Wilson, this year’s ‘Patrol of the Year’ from sponsor, RAC, who has entered in the new Mercedes Vito van that he uses every day in the course of his patrol duties, complete with a full load of 500 parts and tools.

Wilson, 37, fought off nearly 1,500 colleagues from all over the UK to win the coveted title, after coming second last year, and will be taking part in the new Vito 116 Long which bears the personalised registration plate, P1 RAC.

He will be supported by colleagues from the RAC refuelling patrol team who will be on-hand around the course to ensure participants keep on the move and are operating within the rules of the challenge.

This year’s MPG Marathon, which is also being co-sponsored by ALD Automotive and TRACKER, allows competitors to find the most efficient route between set checkpoints, reprising the approach that was first introduced two years ago.

In previous years, the MPG Marathon has attracted motoring celebrities, journalists, academics and senior figures from the automotive industry, all striving to see if they can complete the chosen route using as little fuel as possible.

It is also open to fleet managers, representatives from fleet services, contract hire and leasing and fleet management companies, and from the motor industry, plus anyone associated with it.

Last year’s overall champions were Honda engineers Fergal McGrath and James Warren, who recorded an outstanding 97.92mpg driving a Honda Civic Tourer.

Winners in the first electric vehicle class were Jerry Clist and co-driver Peter Thompson in a Nissan LEAF, whose performance equated to an astonishing 249mpg in a comparable diesel car, at a cost of just 2.6p per mile.

Electric and hybrid vehicle classes will again be included in this year’s event, and they will be joining the more familiar diesel and petrol engined cars and vans that traditionally take part in the event.

There are eight main classes of passenger cars in this year’s MPG Marathon, restricted to a maximum carbon ceiling of 190g/km, including hybrid, range-extender and fully electric vehicles, plus five main classes of vans up to 3,500kg gross vehicle weight.

For more information visit – http://fleetworld.co.uk/

Drive Dynamics – UK lags behind Europe in adopting driverless car tech

Britons lag behind their European peers when it comes to adopting semi-autonomous technology in their vehicles, despite the Government’s attempt to put the UK at the forefront of the driverless car revolution.
Just 19pc of Ford cars sold in the UK in the last year were fitted with parking assistance technology, compared to one in three cars sold across Europe, according to Ford Car Buying Trends 2015.
As many as 72pc of cars sold in Switzerland came equipped with Active Park Assist, which uses sensors to guide the vehicle’s steering system into a parking space, while six in 10 cars bought in the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Germany incorporated this feature.
Of the 22 countries featured in the report, just five were less willing than the UK to purchase vehicles with semi-autonomous driving tools.
In July, the Government launched a £20m research and development fund dedicated to testing driverless cars, as part of the £100m committed in this year’s Budget to researching “intelligent mobility”.
This followed the establishment of the world’s first code of practice in the UK, developed by the Department of Transport, allowing Britain to start testing driverless cars in Bristol, Coventry, Milton Keynes and Greenwich in south-east London.
The global autonomous vehicles industry, which has seen Google and Apple compete with traditional automakers, is expected to be worth £900bn by 2025, boosting the UK economy to the tune of £51bn by 2030.
However, the Ford report suggests that British drivers have not yet embraced technological steps towards autonomous vehicles.

While more than half of Ford cars bought in Europe in the last year were fitted with Adaptive Cruise Control, allowing cars to maintain a constant distance behind the vehicle in front even if it is travelling at a slower speed, just 42pc of British buyers opted for this feature.
Turkey was the biggest adopter of speed control, with 86pc of cars bought in the last year including this technology, followed by Finland with 84pc, Sweden with 79pc and France, the Netherland and Switzerland with 75pc.
For more information visit – http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

Drive Dynamics – Young the most likely drivers to use phones

The poll for driving safety charity Brake found 49% of 17-24 year olds had been in work calls while on the road, compared with 17% for all age groups.
About 35% of young people said they had spoken to family, and 21% with friends – compared with 23% and 15% overall.
Brake asked about hand-held and hands-free calls. They are both a distraction “risking devastating crashes”, it said.
“It is a sobering thought that a significant number of these life-threatening distractions come from drivers’ own friends and family,” said Julie Townsend from the charity.
The survey questioned 1,000 drivers from across the UK on whether they had spoken on the phone while driving, hand-held or hands-free, in the last 12 months. If so, they were asked who they were talking to.
Using a hand-held phone while driving was made illegal in 2003. Using a hands-free kit is allowed but a driver can still be stopped if police believe they are being distracted.
Brake says that making calls hands-free is still a cause of distraction and are campaigning for it be banned.
The charity is advising drivers to put their phones on silent while driving, with their phone away from them. The safest way to make a call is to stop, they say.
According to an observational study by the Department for Transport last October, motorists who use phones are more likely to be texting or using social media than making calls.
Brake has also warned about the dangers of being tired while driving, saying that it is wise to break for at least 15 minutes every two hours.
When asked how often they driven for more than two hours without a break in the last 12 months, 8% said weekly or more, 16% once a month and 29% once a year.
For more information visit – http://www.bbc.com/

Drive Dynamics – Motorists adopting “devil-may-care” attitude to driving with the fuel light on due to high petrol prices

Motorists have adopted a dangerous, “devil-may-care” attitude to driving with the fuel light on, a report has claimed after finding the number of breakdowns caused by empty tanks has soared over the past four years.
More than 800,000 drivers broke down last year after running out of fuel, according to LV=, the insurance company. It said the number had trebled since 2011, with its claims data showing callouts rising in each of the four years.
John O’Roarke, Managing Director of LV= Road Rescue, said drivers had developed “bad habits” and had started to “gamble” on driving on a low tank when petrol prices started rising in 2010.
The warnings come as supermarkets reignite a fuel price war in response to the falling cost of oil.
In a boost ahead of the Bank Holiday weekend, Morrisons will today take 2p off a litre of petrol and 1p off diesel, with rival pump operators expected to follow.
Petrol prices could now drop below £1 a litre, the RAC Foundation predicts, bringing welcome respite to those who had risked breakdown to avoid over-paying.
• Osborne pockets 70pc of your petrol bill as oil price continues to fall
Price rose from 114p a litre in March 2010 to 133p a year later. They breached 144p a litre in 2012 and only last December dropped back to the same level as 2010.
In its survey of 1,500 motorists, LV= asked those who admitted to driving on a very low tank why they took the risk.
More than half said they had purposefully driven past a petrol station “in the hope of finding cheaper fuel elsewhere”.
Mr O’Roarke said: “Our research suggests more than two million motorists drive with their warning light on nearly constantly,”
“Most say they are more concerned with traffic jams, heavy rain or getting lost.
“Having to buy expensive motorway fuel can be frustrating, but if it saves you the stress of running out of petrol and potentially causing damage to your engine then it’s worth the cost.”
It also appears that a proportion of people overestimate how far they can go once the light comes on, LV= said.
For the 10 most common cars driven in Britain, the fuel light comes on with an average of 38 miles of left in the tank, its research found. For some vehicles such as the Vauxhall Astra, the distance is just 26 miles. Larger cars that consume more fuel per mile tend to warn earlier. For example, the Mercendes Benz C-Class alerts the driver when there 46 miles remain in the tank.

• Petrol at 99p a litre? Fuel price dream could still come true – here’s how
One in four motorists said they thought it was safe to drive 40 miles after the light has illuminated.
In a further word of caution, Mr O’Roarke said: “Apart from the obvious inconvenience for the motorist and other road users in the event of a breakdown, the driver can also be issued a fixed penalty notice in some locations, such as tunnels or bridges, if the incident was foreseeable.”
Unleaded petrol is now 18p per litre cheaper than is was at last year’s August Bank Holiday. Diesel will be 23 pence-a-litre cheaper than the same time in 2014.
Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation, said: “The cost of oil isn’t the only driver of what we pay at the pumps, but with crude now trading at its lowest level since March 2009, it is no surprise that the price of petrol and diesel is on the slide.
“This raises further the tantalising prospect that at least some of the nation’s 37 million motorists might soon be getting change from a quid when they buy a litre of fuel.
For more information visit – http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

Drive Dynamics – Is this Britain’s craziest driver? Barefoot man stops MOTORWAY TRAFFIC to fix tyre

The drama happened on the Almondsbury interchange – one of Britain’s busiest intersections – on the M4 outside Bristol on Saturday afternoon.

It was captured on video by amateur photographer Gordon Young who was on a footbridge over the motorway filming a documentary.

He said: “As I was filming I heard this little ‘pop’. I looked down and saw an SUV with a little trailer and it had a burst tyre.

“I was expecting cars to start piling up as it was just stopped in the outside lane.”

Mr Young, from Bristol, then saw the shoeless man signalling other cars to stop.
He said: “The guy was so cool as he did this. He was clearly in barefoot and the woman who was driving looked to just be wearing a bikini.

“The van driver is a bit of a hero, as he shielded them the whole way across. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.”

The bizarre stunt could now have the lucky driver in hot water as it is an offence for vehicles with drivers to use the fast lane.
Supt Tony Godwin, head of specialist operations at Avon and Somerset police, said the actions could have had “tragic consequences”.

He added: “A motorway is an extremely dangerous place for pedestrians and you should never attempt to cross live fast-moving lanes of the motorway.
For more information visit – http://www.express.co.uk/

Drive Dynamics – UK testing motorways that charge electric cars as they drive

Charging an electric car in the United Kingdom may soon be as convenient as charging a phone.
The British government is testing later this year a motorway that enables electric cars to charge as they drive, using magnetic induction technology.
Feasibility study for this so-called electric motorway began some two years ago. It will be completed next month, followed by an 18-month test run off public roads.
If the trial is a success, the wireless power technology will be rolled out in real roads.
During the course of the trial, electric cars will be fitted with wireless charging technology that can convert electromagnetic fields from the surface of the motorway into electric power. The charging lane will have a communication system that allows it to detect an approaching car.
Currently, charging stations are installed along highways to power cars. There are also plug-in chargers for home use as well as wireless power charging pods. But all of them require the vehicle to stop.
With these electric motorways, car owners can travel longer distances without having to worry about running out of battery, as they can keep on charging while driving.
Highways England, a government-owned company managing England’s core road network, has already spent £200,000 to determine the feasibility of installing charging lanes.
Over the next five years, the UK government is committing £500 million to make this technology available to the public.
“Vehicle technologies are advancing at an ever increasing pace and we’re committed to supporting the growth of ultra-low emissions vehicles on England’s motorways,” said Mike Wilson, government’s chief highways engineer.
But there are some who don’t believe installing charging roads is practical.
Dr. Paul Nieuwenhuis, the director of Cardiff Business School’s Electric Vehicle Centre of Excellence, said battery technology is improving, and electric motorways might be unnecessary. “It sounds very ambitious to me. Cost will be the biggest issue and I’m not totally convinced it’s worth it,” Nieuwenhuis told the BBC.
This is not the first time that such technology has been tried. In South Korea, power cables have been installed underneath a 7.5-mile stretch of road, allowing shuttle buses to charge as they drive.

For more information visit – http://www.vcpost.com/

Drive Dynamics – Driver throws away parking fine and is prompty fined for littering

A driver who threw a £60 parking ticket out of his window was promptly fined another £75 for littering.
The motorist was issued with a penalty charge notice for contravening parking regulations in Ammanford, South Wales, and when a witness saw him fling the ticket into the car park, he was reported to the council.He has now been issued with a fixed penalty notice for £75 for the litter offence as well.
Executive Board Member for Environmental and Public Protection Cllr Jim Jones said: “I hope this sends out the message that people cannot get away with breaking the law in this way.

 “The man thought he could get away with avoiding a fine for the parking offence by throwing the ticket away; but now he has incurred a further ticket for dropping litter.
“This type of behaviour will not be tolerated and action will be taken against offenders.”
This is the second time in the last three months someone has been fined for littering after throwing away a Penalty Charge Notice.
For more information visit – http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

Drive Dynamics – Thousands of cars vulnerable to keyless theft, according to researchers.

Thousands of cars – including high-end marques such as Porsches and Maseratis – are at risk of electronic hacking, according to computer scientists whose research was suppressed for two years by a court injunction for fear it would help thieves steal vehicles to order.
It highlights a weakness in the Megamos Crypto system, a piece of technology used by big manufacturers such as Audi, Fiat, Honda, Volvo and Volkswagen.
It is supposed to prevent a car engine being started without the presence of a keyfob containing the correct radio frequency identification chip.
However, researchers at Birmingham University and Radbound University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, were able to intercept signals sent between the chip and the car.
Listening in twice allowed them to use a process of reverse engineering – using a commercially available computer programmer – to identify the secret codes used to start the car.
“This is a serious flaw and it’s not very easy to quickly correct,” Tim Watson, Director of Cyber Security at the University of Warwick, told Bloomberg. “It isn’t a theoretical weakness, it’s an actual one and it doesn’t cost theoretical dollars to fix, it costs actual dollars.”
Makes and models of cars using the vulnerable system. Cars in bold are the ones studied by the researchers
The researchers identified the flaw in 2012. However, Volkswagen won a High Court injunction preventing its publication a year later.
The motoring giant said the work of Flavio Garcia, at Birmingham University, and his two Dutch colleagues could “allow someone, especially a sophisticated criminal gang with the right tools, to break the security and steal a car”.

In response, the researchers argued a publication ban denied the public crucial information about the security of their vehicles. They were finally able to reveal their results at the Usenix Security Symposium at the weekend in Washington – with a single sentence redacted.
Their paper, “Dismantling Megamos Crypto: Wirelessly Lockpicking a Vehicle Immobiliser”, describes how they began their research when police said they were baffled by rising numbers of “keyless car theft”.
The Metropolitan Police says some 6000 vehicles were stolen without keys last year – almost half of all thefts.

For more information visit –http://www.telegraph.co.uk/