Bear Stimulus - 16 March 2021

FOLLOW UP: BATH CLEAN AIR ZONE GOES LIVEBathe has implemented a Clean Air Zone, which remains free for passenger cars and motorcycles to enter, but could cost up to £100 per day for older lorries and buses. Find out more here. FOLLOW UP: CONSULTATION ON ENDING THE SALE OF NEW ICE/HEV CARS AND VANSThe Uk government has concluded its consultation on the sale of new petrol, diesel and hybrid cars and vans. You can read the official response here.NEW ENGINE DEAL FOR DAGENHAMFord has announced that Dagenham will build the engines for the next generation of Transit Custom. The engines will be exported to Turkey, where the van is to be built alongside its Volkswagen sibling. Read more on this story here.ASTON JOB LOSSES AT ST. ATHANAston Martin has announced job losses at its St. Athan factory. The DBX production line is being “downsized” to help a return to profitability. 95 employees are to lose their jobs alon with around 100 contractors. You can read more here from Autocar and here from the BBC.CONCERNS OF EV CHARGER ACCESSIBILITYA report by the Research Institute for Disabled Consumers (RIDC) shows that two thirds of disabled people fear that they would find EV charging “either difficult of very difficult” in its current form despite wishing to own an EV. You can read more here.GRIDSERVE PARTNERS WITH ECOTRICITYThere’s hope for motorway charging with Gridserve taking a 25% stake in Ecotricity’s Electric Highway. This investment will be used to upgrade chargers and customer services provision. You can read the press release here.OXFORD PLANS TO INTRODUCE ZERO EMISSION ZONEOxford County and City Councils are due to vote on a proposal to introduce a Zero Emissions Zone. The small area of the city centre will be free for zero-emission vehicles to enter but will charge between £2 and £10 for other vehicles. You can read more here.LEGENDARY F1 COMMENTATOR DIES AT 97We, along with so many of us around the world, were saddened to hear fo the death of the man who introduced the vast majority of us to motorsport, Murray Walker. There are so many great tributes and obituaries and the Autocar one is here.LUNCHTIME READ: DRIVERS NEW TO AUTOMATED ASSISTANCE SYSTEMS MISS GIANT TEDDY BEARSStef Schrader has written an interesting for The Drive about how people new to automated assistance systems were exposed to a “teddy bear stimulus” multiple times while driving a vehicle with SAE Level 2 ADAS systems engaged and their responses to whether they noticed anything unusual on an hour-long drive. You can read the full article here.LIST OF THE WEEK: THE TOP 10 FRONT-WHEEL DRIVE RALLY CARS Following a ruling that will remove the front-wheel drive category from WRC, DirtFish compiled their favourite 10 Super 1600 and Kit Cars from the modern-ish era. To run through this fab list of ace looking rally cars, click the link here. Do not forget to tweet the chaps about which you’d pick, if you had to have one! AND FINALLY: KEITH IS A CAR ENTHUSIASTKeith WR Jones has written an excellent short piece on the challenges of being a car enthusiast in modern society. You can read it here.