MP Fiona Onasanya accused of lying about speeding

Labour MP Fiona Onasanya has been charged with perverting the course of justice over allegedly lying about who was behind the wheel of a speeding vehicle.

The MP of Peterborough Fiona Onasanya appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court on 12 July charged with the offence. She faces two counts of perverting the course of justice. Her brother Festus Onasanya faces three counts of the same offence.

Mr Onasanya, of Cambridge, is jointly charged with his sister on the two counts she faces relating to incidents on 24 July 2017 and 23 August 2017. Both are due to appear at the Old Bailey on 13 August

The charges allege they intended to pervert the course of justice by driving a vehicle in excess of the speed limit, falsely informing the investigating authorities that a third party had been the driver and enabling them, as a consequence, to avoid such prosecution and punishment.

During the July incident, Ms Onasanya is alleged to have been driving - and during the August incident, her brother is alleged to have been driving.

The single count that Mr Onasanya faces relates to an incident on 17 June 2017.

The BBC contacted the office of Ms Onasanya and A Labour Party spokesman said: "It would not be appropriate to comment on an ongoing case."

Ms Onasanya, who was a solicitor before being elected to Parliament, is a Labour whip, meaning she is responsible for party discipline.

 Source BBC

EU to introduce eCall alert device for car crashes

The European Parliament has voted for an EU-wide emergency alert system dubbed eCall to help ambulance crews get to road accidents faster, potentially saving lives and reducing the severity of injuries.

In the event of an accident (where the airbag sensors are set off) the eCall device will alert rescue services automatically, using the existing 112 emergency number. It is thought that response times could be halved, especially in rural areas.

The information that will be provided to the emergency crews will be:

• type of vehicle
• fuel used
• time of accident
• location

From 31 March 2018 new cars and light vans will have the system as standard. The technology was first proposed in 2012, but legislation was delayed amid privacy concerns.

You can already have this technology in your car by purchasing a Road Angel Gem  which has it as an inbuilt feature (eAssist)

The European Commission says installation of the device is likely to add about €100 (£72; $109) to the cost of a new car.

A standard accident alert system is needed in Europe, because "when you cross a border you have a language problem and often do not even really know where you are", said Czech Social Democrat MEP Olga Sehnalova, the parliament's lead negotiator on the issue.

But Jan Philipp Albrecht from the Greens said the technology should not be mandatory.

"The consequence of being connected all the time means that we are also subject to more possibilities to track us," he told the BBC.

"We reduced the data being processed to a very minimum, but nonetheless it is technically possible for companies, or for an authority, to track your position and to even surveil you. So I don't think this should be obliged to everybody. Everybody should have the chance to opt out."

The UK government objects to the plans. UK Transport Minister Claire Perry said "the benefit of making eCall mandatory in all new cars does not justify the cost of implementing it.

"We do not support the measure, because it is not cost-effective for us."

Now motorists face £20 fine if they leave their engine idling!

Twenty Pounds

Motorists face £20 fines if they leave their engines idling in what has been branded ‘another stealth tax’ on drivers.

A hit squad of ‘traffic marshals’ will target stationary cars as part of the crackdown aimed at cutting pollution to meet strict European environmental targets.

Motoring organisations accused Westminster council of ‘picking on car owners’ when the real problem is emissions coming from large vehicles.

There will be 85 traffic marshals at any one time scouring its streets when it introduces the scheme on May 1.

Islington Council, in North London, which introduced a similar clampdown last August, has 24 such marshals prowling roads and known hotspots with powers to hand out the £20 on-the-spot fines.

The fines, which rise to £40 if not paid within 28 days, are intended to be a ‘last resort’ if drivers refuse to turn off their vehicles.

Motorists outside school gates, on shopping runs or waiting to pick people up at stations are likely to be hit by the ‘draconian’ clampdown, which is aimed at those who leave their engines idling after pulling over rather than motorists stuck in traffic or at red lights.

Other councils around the country are also likely to start enforcing the ‘stationary idling offence’, which was quietly introduced by the Government in 2002.

Several councils, including Corby in Northamptonshire, Torfaen in Wales and Havering and Wandsworth in London already warn motorists that they face a £20 fine if they leave car engines idling when stationary.

Havering Council also warns parents dropping off children at school not to leave engines running because youngsters with asthma are particularly at risk from car pollutants – and urges people to contact the council if they know areas where cars are regularly left idling.

West Sussex County Council have introduced signs urging motorist to turn off their engines in Shoreham-by-Sea. 

The crackdown comes despite most modern cars being fitted with stop-start technology whereby the engine automatically cuts when it is stationary for a few moments.

The move angered motoring groups, who said it would do little to help cut pollution but would enrage already hard-pressed car owners and was simply a way of extracting more cash from drivers.

An AA spokesman Luke Bosdet said: ‘The real test will be how heavily they enforce this. If you get people nabbing motorists first thing on winter mornings as they are trying to clear frozen windscreens so they can drive safely to work then it really will be worrying.’

Steve McNamara, general secretary of the Licensed Taxi Drivers’ Association, told the BBC: ‘One of the real problems is cars stuck in traffic; research has shown pollution is up by 30 per cent in areas of heavy traffic. Do something to help get the traffic moving.’

The fines enforce Rule 123 of the Highway Code, which says: ‘If the vehicle is stationary and likely to remain so for more than a couple of minutes, you should switch off the engine to reduce emissions and oil pollution.’

Westminster councillor Heather Acton said: ‘We want to raise motorist awareness of the impact engine idling can have on the environment, with air and noise pollution affecting overall health, as well as it being an unnecessary use of fuel.’ 

How the 2015 budget affects UK motorists

• Petrol duty frozen for fifth year 
• 0.5p-a-litre Sept increase scrapped 
• Little change in company car tax 
• Severn toll crossing reduced
• 5p cheaper fuel in rural areas
• Tax-exempt classic cars from 1976 
• £100m fund for autonomous cars

The Chancellor George Osborne announced the abolition of planned fuel duty increases in the 2015 Budget, claiming the accumulated tax freezes would save Britain's 30 million motorists £10 every time they filled up at the pumps.

It's a typically oblique political claim; cutting a planned 0.5p-a-litre increase will not save a tenner for any motorist filling a typical fuel tank of, say, 50 to 60 litres. Rather, he's referring to the planned five-year freeze on the fuel duty escalator, in real terms. But then this was very much a Budget of posturing and smoke and mirrors, as the May elections loom large.

Drivers living in rural areas may benefit from 5p-a-litre cuts, as a new countryside tax relief kicks in on 1 April 2015, the Budget also revealed today.

And Osborne announced further investment into autonomous cars and revealed Government plans to reduce the Severn road crossing toll from 2018, when it passes into public ownership.

Read on for a full analysis with carmagazine.co.uk

Salt-Water Powered Car Approved In Europe

The Quant made its debut at the 2014 Geneva Motor Show (pictured) in March, the saltwater technology has now been certified for use on European roads.

The main highlights of this salt water powered vehicle are as follows:

• The car uses a saltwater flow cell system to power four electric motors
•  Quant e-Sport limousine's top speed is 217mph - equal to a McLaren P1
• Two 200-litre water tanks can provide a range of 373 miles (600km)
• The four-seater is 5.25 meters (0.4ft) long and 2.2 meters wide (7.2ft)
• Price and sale date yet to be confirmed, but may cost more than £1m

Nanoflowcell AG is the company behind the design, and they are currently preparing the technology for mass production. They say that they have got major plans, and not just within the automobile industry. The potential of the NanoFlowcell is much greater, especially in terms of domestic energy supplies as well as in maritime, rail and aviation technology.

Google's Driverless Cars Designed to Exceed Speed Limit

Google's self-driving cars are programmed to exceed speed limits by up to 10mph (16km/h), according to the project's lead software engineer.

Google has tested its technology in modified cars

Dmitri Dolgov told Reuters that when surrounding vehicles were breaking the speed limit that going more slowly could actually present a danger and therefore the Google car would accelerate to keep up with thte flow.

Google first announced its driverless car division back in 2010, and has been testing its technology in modified cars built by other manufacturers.These cars have travelled on more than 300,000 miles of open road, (mostly in California).

The UK will be allowing driverless cars on public roads from 2015. Ministers ordered a review of the UK's road regulations to provide appropriate guidelines, these will include the need for self-drive vehicles to comply with safety and traffic laws, and involve changes to the Highway Code.

In May, the US tech firm said it would start building its own self-driving cars.Their electric bubble-shaped vehicles will seat two people, and to begin with they will be limited to 25mph (40km/h) to help ensure safety.

In a separate development on Monday, the White House said it wanted all cars and light trucks to be equipped with technology that could prevent collisions using radio signals which would allow the vehicles to "talk" to each other, and alert drivers to potential accidents

The label "driverless vehicle" actually covers a large range of different concepts. Features such as cruise control, automatic braking, anti-lane drift and self-parking functions already built into many vehicles offer a certain degree of autonomy. However term is generally used to refer to vehicles that take charge of steering, accelerating, indicating and braking during most if not all of a journey between two points, much in the same way aeroplanes can be set to autopilot.

Roads however are much more crowded than the skies, and a range of technologies is being developed to tackle the problem. One of the leading innovations is Lidar (light detection and ranging), a system that measures how lasers bounce off reflective surfaces to capture information about millions of small points surrounding the vehicle every second.

Another complementary technique is "computer vision" - the use of software to make sense of 360-degree images captured by cameras attached to the vehicle, which can warn of pedestrians, cyclists, roadworks and other objects that might be in the vehicle's path.

Autonomous vehicles can also make use of global-positioning system (GPS) location data from satellites, radar, ultrasonic sensors to detect objects close to the car and further sensors to accurately measure the vehicle's orientation and the rotation of its wheels, to help it understand its exact location.

The debate now is whether to allow cars, like the prototype unveiled by Google in May, to abandon controls including a steering wheel and pedals and rely on the vehicle's computer.

Or whether, instead, to allow the machine to drive, but insist a passenger be ready to wrest back control at a moment's notice.