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Showing posts from January, 2018

A shady side to driverless cars?

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It’s been said that in just two years’ time, by 2020, driverless cars could become the norm. Picture this - families hitting the motorway in the back of their driverless car, all facing each other and chatting as they read, play computer games and do whatever it is they want to do for entertainment. Basically, anything but drive. Sounds ideal until you remember that bout of motion sickness you had when you last read a book on a long bus journey - imagine an entire family feeling queasy in the back of a car! The theory is that motion sickness is caused by a confusion in your body’s sensory inputs. While you’re driving, you’re watching the road and can see that you’re moving, but when you’re sat in the back of a car looking at the seat in-front, or reading a book, motion sickness can strike. This could all spell a bit of a disaster for driverless cars. To combat this risk, researchers at the University of Michigan have been looking into eyewear that could reduce the risk of sickness. The

Meet Beth - Employee of the Year

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When Beth joined Low Cost Vans in a data inputting role six years ago, she admits that she didn’t know the first thing about vans. But as the company has grown, so have Beth’s skills and experience - she is now the company’s Client Relations Manager and Complaints Officer. And she’s just been shortlisted as Employee for the Year for the Business Growth Awards, South Wales. [caption id="attachment_8773" align="alignnone" width="300"] Low Cost Vans supports its staff to excel.[/caption] As well as managing a team of seven people, Beth is responsible for ensuring that any complaints that come LCV’s way are dealt with as well as possible. Whether it’s a scratch on a new car that happened when a dealership was delivering it to a customer; or a query over a detail on a contract, Beth speaks to the person with the complaint and tries to come to a solution that works for both the individual and LCV. If the issue isn’t resolved, the complaint will go to the financ

‘Driving’ into 2018?

As we go into 2018, it’s clear that the way we get about is going to change in a big way. At the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, headline news was that two huge firms – Uber and Volkswagen – have teamed up with technology giant, Nvidia. Nvidia if you’ve not heard of it before, it’s a company which grew off the back of making computer graphic chips. Now however, it is making a name for itself around autonomous cars. And its two new friends reflect how wide ranging this technology will become in our lives. For those of us in the UK, there is currently a question mark hanging over the future of Uber as last September, TfL didn’t give the firm the right to hold a London private hire operator licence. This was on the grounds of ‘public safety and security implications’, with concerns being over Uber’s approach to doing background checks on its drivers. Despite this, Uber is continuing to operate whilst waiting for a hearing on whether it can continue in the capital – that hea

How to stay one step ahead of vehicle thieves

There are several ways to welcome a new year in, but getting your car or van stolen isn’t one of them. So it’s wise to be aware of the fact that vehicle theft is on the rise – last year 85,688 cars were stolen, up 30% in comparison to four years previously. With car alarms being one of the most ignored sounds on the planet – can you remember the last time you got out of bed to investigate whose car was being stolen out on the street – is this increase all that surprising? Well it’s actually thought that those alarms can still be effective, with the AA saying that they can act as a deterrent in the same way that floodlights in a garden might. However, it seems that the real culprit when it comes to an increase in vehicle theft, is the fact that thieves have expanded their repertoire and started using what are known as ‘locking jammers’. These devices block the signal sent to a vehicle by its key when the owner is trying to lock their car. Thieves also have a device called a ‘relay box’