T04 05072017

Tr 4
5 July 2017
THE NAMIBIAN
Ron Dennis Officially
Severs McLaren Ties
The Race is On
to Turn Flying
Cars Into Reality
Aeronautics giants are treating the idea of a flying
car with caution, as such a project raises
more questions than it answers. Experts say it‘s
a child’s dream, a millionaire’s toy; but is it really the
next big thing in transport?
At the 2017 Paris Air Show, you had to search hard
to find an aircraft that looked anything like a car, but
one such model, the AeroMobil, was tucked away under
the old Concordes at the Air and Space Museum,
just outside the capital.
This strange-looking hybrid, with its bulbous nose
and retractable wings, designed by a Slovakian company,
is scheduled to go into series production by 2020.
AeroMobil deputy head of engineering Simon Bendrey
said: “After you’ve landed at an airport, you transform
the plane into a car and take the road to wherever
you want“.
And they’ve already received a number of orders, he
added, despite an asking price of €1,2 to €1,5 million
(N$18 to N$22 million).
Gyrocopter
While flying cars have starred in films including
‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’ and the ‘Fifth Element’, the
race to turn such dreams into a reality is being run by
dozens of small creative start-ups such as Aeromobil.
Among those nearest to take-off is the Dutch outfit
Pal-V, which is offering a two-seater gyrocopter that’s
scheduled to be available by 2018 – a steal at €300 000
(N$4,5 million). Czech company Nirvana Systems
says it has had dozens of orders for its mini-helicopter,
which can also travel on roads, albeit at rather sluggish
ground speeds.
Silicon Valley-based company Kitty Hawk says its
Flyer will be on sale by the end of 2018, and recently
France’s Pegase, a cross between a ultra-light plane and
a mini-car, crossed the Channel between England and
France. Bruno Sainjon, head of the French aerospace
lab Onera, said on the sidelines of the Paris Air Show
that, until recently, flying cars “were a cross between a
bad car and a bad plane”.
But there has recently been a quantum leap in design,
thanks to vast improvements in the power of electric
propulsion, linked largely to the rapid advances in
drone technology.
Xavier Dutertre, director of the Techoplane project
based in Normandy said such engines could now lift 80
to 100 kilograms.
“And we’re not far from having the capacity to transport
one or two people for about 20 minutes,” he added.
“In five to 10 years, that will have become commonplace.”
While driving-flying hybrids may initially be the latest
must-have gadgets for the ultra-rich, experts believe
that such vehicles could actually be rapidly overtaken,
as the industry sets its sights on fly-only solutions further
down the line.
‘New Era For Aviation’
The real future, said Onera’s Sainjon “is a system of
on-demand air transport, which would clearly be the
start of a new era for aviation - a flying taxi service, in
other words”.
Pascal Pincemin, an aerospace specialist with Deloitte,
said flying cars would not be something that just
anyone can drive, “because it’s too risky”.
He envisaged digital platforms to manage the new
form of traffic, and that appears to be what Uber, the
App-based ride-hailing service, has in mind with its
‘Elevate’ project. The idea appears to be to develop
a network of electric, vertical-takeoff aircraft and it’s
aiming to make the first demonstrations in 2020.
Dubai could be the first off the starting blocks with
a new kind of small autonomous electric helicopter
scheduled to come into operation later this year.
Pop Up
According to Jean Brice Dumont, head of engineering
at Airbus Helicopters, there is “a real appetite, a real
interest”, in this kind of transport in some of the more
traffic-congested cities. At the previous Geneva motor
show, the company presented its own prototype flying
car, Pop Up, developed in cooperation with a subsidiary
of Volkswagen, but Dumont said it was expecting
the technology to mature and develop further.
Boeing, so far, has not shown its hand and Deloitte’s
Pincemin does not see flying taxis becoming a common
mode of transport before 2050. First, he said, the
vehicles would have to prove their reliability. ,Patrick
Cipriani, director of security at France‘s DGAC civil
aviation directorate said air transport has a death rate of
0,2 per million flights.
“Will we be prepared to accept levels like those of
light aircraft, which are 100 times less safe?” he asked.
– Nampa-AFP
Man Imitates Machine To
Form Honda’s ‘Human Car’
Honda is brought a sense
of fun to this year’s
Goodwood Festival of
Speed, with a piece of performance
art, entitled ‘The Human
Car’.
Twelve talented players bent
and entwined their bodies to
form the shapes of a Civic Type
R and a Fireblade superbike –
which Ministry of Fun director
Kevin Doody admitted was an
‘interesting’ challenge to choreograph.
But there’s a serious side to
it as well, said Honda UK boss
Dave Hodgetts, in that it represents
Honda’s efforts to close the
gap between man and machine
by bringing the machines closer
to the people rather than the other
way round, in line with Honda’s
stated design philosophy, ‘man
maximum, machine minimum’.
Nampa-Reuters
Photo: IOL Motoring
The Honda stand at the 2017
festival took the form of a familyfriendly
laboratory, the Challenge
Lab, aimed at giving showgoers
an insight into its people-focused
technology through a series of
mental and physical challenges,
including a rock-climbing wall,
as well as speed and cognitive
challenges.
– IOL Motoring
Formula One legend Ron Dennis‘ 37
year relationship with McLaren ended
last Friday with the announcement he
is stepping down as chairman and has sold his
25% stake in the McLaren Technology Group.
The 70-year-old’s announcement will come
as no surprise after he was placed on ‘gardening
leave’ last November as his relationship
with his fellow shareholders deteriorated beyond
repair.
Prior to the announcement, Bahrain’s
Mumtalakat investment fund owned 50% and
the remaining 25% was held by Dennis’ longtime
business partner Mansour Ojjeh, a Saudiborn
Frenchman.
Dennis – who helped guide the likes of
Lewis Hamilton and Ayrton Senna to the world
title – said he was pleased to have come to an
agreement that would allow him to focus on
his other interests.
“I am very pleased to have reached agreement
with my fellow McLaren shareholders,”
Dennis said.
“It represents a fitting end to my time at
McLaren, and will enable me to focus on my
The Big Mess Behind
the Digital Dashboard
Peer at the instrument
panel on your new car
and you may find sleek
digital gauges and multicolored
screens. But a glimpse behind the
dashboard could reveal what US
supplier Visteon found: A mess.
As automotive cockpits become
crammed with ever more
digital features such as navigation
and entertainment systems,
the electronics holding it all
together have become a rat’s nest
of components made by different
parts makers.
Now the race is on to clean
up the clutter. Visteon is among
a slew of suppliers aiming to
make dashboard innards simpler,
cheaper and lighter as the industry
accelerates toward a so-called
virtual cockpit – an all-digital
dashboard that will help usher in
the era of self-driving cars.
What’s at stake is a piece of
the $37 billion (N$480 billion)
cockpit electronics market, estimated
by research firm IHS
Market to nearly double by 2022.
Accounting firm PwC estimates
that electronics could account
for up to 20% of a car’s value in
the next two years, up from 13%
in 2015.
Meanwhile, the number of
suppliers for those components
is likely to dwindle as carmakers
look to work with fewer companies
capable of doing more,
according to Mark Boyadjis,
principal automotive analyst at
IHS Markit.
“The complexity of engineering
10 different systems from ten
different suppliers is no longer
something an automaker wants
to do,” Boyadjis said.
He estimates manufacturers
eventually will work with two to
three cockpit suppliers for each
model, down from six to 10 today.
Digital Makeover
One of Visteon‘s solutions is a
computer module dubbed ‘Smart-
Core’. This cockpit domain
controller operates a vehicle’s
other interests.
“I have always said that my 37 years at
Woking should be considered as a chapter in
the McLaren book, and I wish McLaren every
success as it takes the story forward.”
Dennis had been put out to grass last November
because his fellow shareholders were
not happy when he presented a $2 billion
takeover offer from a Chinese consortium.
Despite initially being close, Dennis and
Ojjeh fell out a while ago and that parting of
the ways came back to haunt the Englishman
as Ojjeh sided with the Bahrainis.
Dennis’ departure comes at a time when
the Formula One team’s fortunes are at an all
time low – a stark contrast to the peaks they hit
under his charge when they regularly won the
driver and constructor titles.
McLaren have failed to win a race in nearly
five years, and are last in this season’s championship
despite Fernando Alonso scoring
their first points of the campaign in Azerbaijan
recently.
– Nampa-AFP
Nampa-Reuters
instrument cluster, infotainment
system and other features, all on
the same tiny piece of silicon.
So far this year, the Detroitbased
company has landed two
big contracts for undisclosed
sums. Visteon’s makeover hints
at the coming battle between
suppliers fighting for real estate
in the digital cockpit. The trend
is already triggering acquisitions,
as companies look to boost their
offerings to carmakers.
Analysts say German carmakers
are taking the lead in
consolidating functions within
the dashboard. Audi was the first
to debut a virtual cockpit, which
combines its instrument cluster
and infotainment system.
– Nampa-Reuters
Nampa-Reuters