The Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) has highlighted the stark challenges facing the sector in the face of both Brexit and Budget 2020. SIMI director general Brian Cooke said that increased taxes in the budget will lead to a further reduction in new car sales and a potential increase in used imports, which could be exacerbated by a further devaluation of the Sterling in the increasing likely event of a no-deal.

Jim Power, economist consultant to SIMI said, “The motor industry is currently in its most vulnerable place since 2008, with any VRT increases in conjunction with Brexit likely to undermine new car sales and place as many as 10,000 jobs at risk. Car sales have been reducing for the last three years and used imports have been on the rise, much of which is down to Brexit and the collapse of Sterling. VRT increases now will only further reduce new car sales.”

New Jaguar Land Rover technology to reduce driving stress

Jaguar Land Rover is researching new artificial intelligence (AI) technology to understand a person’s state of mind while driving in order to automatically adjust cabin settings to improve driver wellbeing.

The technology uses a driver-facing camera in the car, coupled with biometric sensing to monitor and evaluate the driver’s mood. It then automatically adapts a host of features, including the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system, media and ambient lighting.

The settings will be altered in response to the driver’s facial expressions to help tackle stress. This research follows on from reports that suggest that 74 % of us admit to feeling stressed or overwhelmed every day.

Mood-detection software is the next phase of Jaguar Land Rover’s existing driver-tracking technology. The Driver Condition Monitor, which is capable of detecting if a driver is starting to feel drowsy and gives an early warning to take a break, is available on all Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles.

Ford joins autonomous driving investment

Volkswagen will join Ford in investing in Argo AI, the autonomous vehicle platform company, in order to independently integrate Argo AI’s self-driving system into their vehicles. Ford plans to use Volkswagen’s electric vehicle architecture and Modular Electric Toolkit (MEB) to design and build at least one high-volume, fully electric vehicle in Europe for European customers starting in 2023.

Ford and VW are also on track to develop commercial vans and medium pickups for each brand in select global markets, starting in 2022. They claim that sharing the development costs will generate significant synergies and cost savings.