By Jeff Sanford
Toronto, Ontario — September 1, 2016 — In this week’s version of Friday Fun, we analyze a rant about ICBC, look into a new version of Tesla’s AutoPilot and discuss the most Canadian car ever.
-Stephen Quinn, the host of a show on CBC Radio 1 in Vancouver published a rant in the national paper, the Globe and Mail this week. Quinn wondered why his insurance for his “modest” six-year old Honda was going up again. According to the piece, “I asked the agent why my premiums were going up again,” without an “accident or a claim of any kind….[and] without any penalty points or moving violations.” According to Quinn, the “agent looked at me and shrugged and said, ‘You know …ICBC … the government.’” Drivers in BC are furious. This week news broke that “the provincial insurance corporation is asking for a 4.9-per-cent hike in basic insurance rates, on top of the 5.5 per cent drivers were hit with last year.” Transportation Minister Todd Stone tried to explain how this was a good thing, arguing that, basically, “the rate hike would have been much higher if the government had not generously agreed to forgo its $160-million dividend this year.” That’s not what people want to hear. The minister went on to note that the province “has taken more than half a billion dollars in dividends from ICBC since 2012.” Minister Stone was quoted as saying, “The reality is that ICBC is facing immense and unprecedented cost pressures…There’s a significant increase in the frequency, complexity and severity of bodily injury claims.” The column went on to say that, “According to ICBC, the number of crashes has increased 15 per cent over the past two years alone. The cost of the resulting personal injury claims has also gone up as the number of claims jumped by 14 per cent over the past 12 months. The cost of repairs is also substantially more – in part because of the expensive new technology built into vehicles.” The president and CEO of ICBC Mark Blucher was quoted as saying that “what is behind the increase in crashes is an increase in the number of vehicles on the road, and that, because of ‘B.C.’s healthy and strong economy,’ people are driving more.” Blucher also blamed distracted driving. “One in four fatal accidents in B.C. is now caused by distracted driving,” he said. The city recently saw “three roll-over crashes in the city during one afternoon rush hour….” Drivers are still annoyed about the hike in claims by the provincial insurer however.
– Will automakers finally install a system in vehicles to help prevent “hot car deaths”? The most depressing thing you’ll read this week: The decades-long rise in “hot car deaths” can be “traced back to the introduction of passenger-side airbags in the 1990s…. The Associated Press, citing data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and San Jose State University, finds that a rise in airbag-related fatalities prompted changes in state law to require that child safety seats be placed in the back seat, where they are less noticeable by parents and caregivers.” As airbag-related fatalities decreased, hot car deaths increased. At least 775 have died of vehicular heat stroke since 1990. Statistics show that about half of the children under age 14 who die of in-vehicle heatstroke are simply forgotten. Detroit-based General Motors will became the first US car manufacturer to include backseat “reminder” technology on the 2017 Acadia SUV.
-A report in a Rapid City Iowa paper notes that a hailstorm hit a classic car show. The headline says it all, |”Hail slams classic cars in Deadwood, but older steel cars hold up well”
-Oops: A “Truckload of airbag detonation triggers exploded.” Pictures of the devastation are here.
-An artist has created a series of photos of car mechanics posed as classic Renaissance oil paintings. Click here to check them out.
-One of the worst cars at the 2016 Concours d’Lemons (taking place amidst the “pomp and circumstance of Monterey Car Week”) is an orange Bricklin SV-1. The Bricklin, of course, was a car built in New Brunswick for a couple years that featured a plastic body. It never really caught on. Check it out here.
– Freeware operating system Linux has announced a new project, Automotive Grade Linux (AGL). A coder involved in the project was quoted as saying that, “This is the first time I’ve seen Tier 1s1 and OEMs cooperating with each other.” According to the press release AGL is the only system that will “address IVI, instrument cluster, telematics, heads-up display (HUD), instrument clusters, and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS).”
– You are not truly Canadian until your SUV can do this.
– Car sales growth is most likely past its peak. Several news reports this week claim that, “New car sales have been softening in recent months…” It is assumed that sales will “slip into reverse in August.”
– US car buyers’ satisfaction is up according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). “Customer satisfaction with automobiles was up 3.8 percent to 82 on ACSI’s 100-point scale…Among 24 vehicle brands tracked by ACSI, 16 improved while five declined – three of which were premium brands. The most notable decline was for Volkswagen, which is embroiled in an emissions-cheating scandal that has angered customers, government officials, and consumer and environmental advocates. In a year dominated by improving customer satisfaction, Volkswagen dropped 3 percent to 78, tied for lowest among mass-market vehicles.” The story goes on to note that, “Driver-assist functions are coming quickly these days. The 2017 Mercedes E-class has the Drive Pilot, and Nissan has released its ProPolito system in Japan.” The systems all “promise features like tracking other cars on the road and keeping [the car] in the lane as you drive…”
– Hard to believe it took the insurance companies this long, but a “Thai bank offers Pokémon Go insurance.” According to a story from a Thai paper, “A spate of accidents prompted Asia Insurance to launch a product to protect Pokémon Go players from themselves. The PokéSurance offering includes options for mobile-phone screen insurance, personal accident insurance, car insurance and motorcycle insurance.” According to the company: “With millions of people addicted to Pokémon Go, reports of injuries sustained while playing the game have also surfaced. Huge and dangerous stampedes are caused by trainers chasing down rare Pokémons all across the world. Injuries have come from accidents during walking, driving or even on a motorcycle.”
Chinese aluminum magnate Liu Zhongtian will buy U.S. aluminum company Aleris Corp. The deal is a bet by the billionaire that “the nascent U.S. automotive aluminum sector will be the industry’s next big growth market.” Liu said in a statement that Aleris is “well-positioned to capitalize on the positive demand trends we see globally.” That is, he thinks more cars are going to be built with aluminum bodies in the years to come.
– Aftermarket company Carlex is under fire for creating an elephant skin car interior. “Polish aftermarket tuning company Carlex Design came under fire recently after it debuted a Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat it had modified with elephant skin leather seats and interior trim.;… Carlex applied elephant leather to the Hellcat’s seats, replaced the door trim with charred sculpted wood trim and installed a new engraved silver steering wheel. Online animal lovers have gone ballistic.
– A “Batpod” used in the Dark Knight is going up for sale in the UK. “The Dark Knight Rises Batpod vehicle is expected to be one of the highest selling lots in the 27 September auction with an estimated sale price of between £60-80k.
