Thieves steel £230,000 Ferrari in raid caught on CCTV

Police launch witness appeal one week after thieves strike in 'well organised' raid on car showroom

POLICE have launched an appeal for information after a limited edition Ferrari worth £230,000 was stolen from a car showroom in Surrey in a movie-style caper caught on CCTV. The 458 Italia, the only car of its kind in the UK, was stolen from the Maranello showroom in Egham last Wednesday, the BBC reports. Police describe the raid as "planned" and "well organised". Two men drove up in a Transit van and spent 20 minutes cutting through security bars before loading the car onto a flatbed truck and driving off with it covered by a sheet. The vehicle is black with the Italian flag racing strip running the length of the car, down the centre, with Italian flags sewn into the seats, police say. Detective Constable Chris Ewan of Staines CID appealed for witnesses, saying: "This was clearly a planned and well organised theft. I am appealing for anyone who was in the area on Wednesday night and may have seen either the van or the flatbed vehicle to come forward. "The stolen Ferrari is a distinctive car so I am keen to hear from anyone who may have seen it, perhaps on the back of another vehicle, either in the local area or elsewhere." Distinctive and powerful. Auto Express reporter Tom Phillips told The Week the Ferrari 458 features technology inspired by Formula One and is "one of the most impressive to drive". Source: The Week UK

Read More........ → February 08, 2013

Driverless cars get UK green light,but would you trust them?

Soon driverless cars arrive on British roads, introducing a range of technical, legal and moral quandaries

The age of driverless cars is a step closer after the UK government announced that testing could begin on public roads as early as January next year. Ministers invited British cities to bid for the right to host one of three trials of driverless vehicles, each of which would run for 18 to 36 months. The move puts Britain at the forefront of autonomous vehicle testing, which, according to Business Secretary Vince Cable, will provide a raft of new economic opportunities for British businesses. What are driverless cars? Driverless cars are classed as vehicles that take on the tasks of steering, accelerating and braking between two points with a minimum of input from a human operator. A variety of autonomous technologies, such as parking assistance, cruise-control and anti-lane drift already exist, but new research from automotive and technological companies around the world is driving the development of cars that can take on more of the tasks of everyday driving. How do they work? Driverless cars use a range of different technologies, including Lidar (light detection and ranging), which helps a vehicle position itself in relation to other objects by bouncing lasers off reflective surfaces; "computer vision", which, according to the BBC helps "make sense of 360-degree images"; and global-positioning system (GPS) data from satellites. Together, the technologies allow driverless cars to avoid inanimate objects, evade other vehicles and pedestrians, obey road rules, and respond correctly to road features such as traffic lights and roundabouts. Which other countries are testing driverless cars? The US has approved testing of driverless cars in California, Nevada and Florida. Japan ran tests of its own last year on a public highway. In Europe, Gothenburg has been given approval to begin tests in 2017. Which companies are working on autonomous vehicles? Currently, Google is working on driverless cars in the United States. Up until recently the tech company was putting its self-driving technology into other manufacturers' vehicles, such as BMW and Audi, but in May, Google announced that it would begin producing cars of its own. According to the BBC, Chinese search firm, Baidu, also recently announced that it had a driverless car in the "early stage of development". How will UK laws need to be adapted? Laws and regulations will need to be changed to allow for driverless vehicles, including the United Nations Convention on Road Traffic, which in 1968 stated: "Every driver shall at all times be able to control his vehicle or to guide his animals." An amendment in May stated that driverless cars would be allowed so long as they "can be overridden or switched off by the driver", the Daily Mail reports. The convention is applied in countries across Europe, plus Mexico, Chile, Brazil and Russia. The UK department for transport has been given until the end of the year to update road laws to govern autonomous vehicles. The rules will be adapted to cover both how road rules apply when a driver can override automatic controls and those where there is no driver at all, the BBC reports. Earlier this month, the FBI warned that autonomous vehicles could potentially be used as weapons, predicting that they "will have a high impact on transforming what both law enforcement and its adversaries can operationally do with a car". For further concise, balanced comment and analysis on the week's news, try The Week magazine. Subscribe today and get 6 issues completely free.  Source: The Week UK

Read More........ → August 01, 2014

US concerned by China's new hypersonic missile

China’s recent test of a new ultra-high speed strike vehicle highlights growing concerns that Chinese military advances will overtake those of the United States in as few as five years, a senior Pentagon official told Congress Tuesday. Frank Kendall, the Pentagon's chief weapons buyer, told lawmakers that when it comes to "technological superiority, the Department of Defence is being challenged in ways that I have not seen for decades, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region."

Citing China's major investments in anti-ship missiles, stealth fighter jets, hypersonic vehicles and other hi-tech weaponry, Kendall said the United States could lose its dominant position if it failed to respond to the altered strategic landscape. The Pentagon is investing some resources in two forms of hypersonic arms: a ballistic missile boost glide vehicle and a jet powered, atmospheric cruise missile, he said. Kendall said the threat of such hypersonic vehicles to the United States is that they are difficult for missile defenses to counter. The vehicles travel and maneuver while flying at speeds of up to Mach 10 or 7,680 miles an hour. “The high speed of these systems makes it much more difficult for air defenses to engage,” he said. "Their budget is far smaller than ours, but their personnel costs are also far smaller than ours," said Kendall, undersecretary of defence for acquisition, technology and logistics. "Our budgets are going in the opposite direction. So just by that metric alone, it's not positive." “A boost glide missile theoretically would be intended to counter existing mid-course missile defenses,” Mark Stokes, a former US Air Force officer said. “The beauty of the HGV is that it can perform hypersonic precision strikes while maintaining a relatively low altitude and flat trajectory, making it far less vulnerable to missile defenses,” Rick Fisher, an analyst at the International Assessment and Strategy Center, told the Washington Free Beacon. The Chinese are “actively seeking global military power to challenge the United States, and it is not yet in any mood to talk, or engage in arms control, about it,” Fisher said. US officials said that, while the glide vehicle test was not an intelligence surprise, it showed China is moving much more rapidly than in the past in efforts to research, develop, and test advanced weaponry. Adm. Samuel Locklear, commander of the US Pacific Command, noted that the hypersonic test demonstrated China’s ability to move quicker than the United States in developing some advanced arms. Voice of Russia, RT, freebeacon.com, channelnewsasia.com. Source: Article

Read More........ → February 04, 2014

Google car: no steering wheel, no brakes

Google has revealed a prototype of its latest car - and this one doesn't even have a steering wheel or pedals, CNN reports. The car will only have a stop and go button. For the past four years, Google has been working on self-driving cars with a mechanism to return control of the steering wheel to the driver in case of emergency. But Google’s brightest minds now say they can’t make that handoff work anytime soon.

Their answer? Take the driver completely out of the driving. The vehicle looks a bit like the ultracompact Fiat 500 or the Mercedes-Benz Smart car if you take out the steering wheel, gas pedal, brake and gear shift. Unlike Google's previous self-driving vehicles, which have been based on conventional cars adapted to navigate around without a driver, this model has been designed from scratch. "They won't have a steering wheel, accelerator pedal, or brake pedal... because they don't need them," Google said in a statement. The car can carry two passengers and has a maximum speed of 25 miles per hour. Google says the car's most important feature is its safety. The driver has a button he or she can push to stop the car in case of emergency. "They have sensors that remove blind spots, and they can detect objects out to a distance of more than two football fields in all directions, which is especially helpful on busy streets with lots of intersections," the company said. With its front designed to look like a friendly smiley face, the Google autonomous car is not just efficient and futuristic, but also cute to look at. Google said it planned to build around 100 prototypes, which it will start testing in a few months. The company started developing its self-driving cars in 2005, and is testing previous models across the US They are expected to be available to buy
by 2020. Google co-founder Sergey Brin  said in an interview on Tuesday night the cars are part of Google's effort to reengineer transportation. "What I'm excited about is how we could change transportation today," Brin said. "If you look at people who are too old, too young, or disabled, and can't get around, that's a big challenge for them." "We took a look from the ground up of what a self-driving car would look like," Brin said at the Code conference. It's unclear if Google plans to manufacture the cars or if it will decide instead to supply the technology to carmakers. But Brin said he's hopeful regulators will agree that cars can operate safely without a driver. So far the cars have operated without incident, Brin said.  The car would also be summoned with a smartphone application. It would pick up a passenger and automatically drive to a destination selected on a smartphone app without any human intervention.  The vehicles will also have electronic sensors that can see about 600 feet in all directions. Despite that, they will have rearview mirrors because they are required by California’s vehicle code. The front of the car will be made from a foamlike material in case the computer fails and it hits a pedestrian. The new Google strategy for autonomous cars is a break from many competing vehicle projects, experts say. Mercedes, BMW and Volvo have introduced cars that have the ability to travel without driver intervention in limited circumstances — though none completely eliminate the driver. In the interview, Mr. Brin acknowledged those advances, but said they were incremental. "That stuff seems not entirely in keeping with our mission of being transformative," he said. The cars are intended for driving in urban and suburban settings, not on highways. The low speed will probably keep the cars out of more restrictive regulatory categories for vehicles, giving them more design flexibility. Google is having 100 cars built by a manufacturer in the Detroit area, which it declined to name. Nor would it say how much the prototype vehicles cost. They will have a range of about 100 miles, powered by an electric motor that is roughly equivalent to the one used by Fiat’s 500e. The current plan is to conduct pilot tests in California, starting with Google employees between buildings around its sprawling corporate campus there. Laws permit autonomous vehicles in California, Nevada and Florida. Brin said the change in Google’s car strategy did not mean that the company was giving up on its ultimate goal of transforming modern transportation. "Obviously it will take time, a long time, but I think it has a lot of potential," he said. "Self-driving cars have the potential to drive in trains much closer together and, in theory, in the future at much higher speeds. "There is nothing to say that once you demonstrate the safety, why can’t you go 100 miles per hour?" Olga Yazhgunovich, Source: Voice Of Russia

Read More........ → May 30, 2014

The 10 Most Stolen Cars in United States of America

10. 2009 Toyota Corolla: Trade-In Value*: $11,100, Original Price in 2009: $15,910, New Car Value (2011): $17,400, The Toyota Corolla is one of the “best loved cars in America” according to Kelley Blue Book . It rates high on maintenance and resale value — and it gets decent gas mileage. The 2011 had just “minor cosmetic changes,” which means parts from prior year models can be used in the newer models, which makes the car very attractive to car thieves Roughly 800,000 to one million cars are stolen in America every single year. Many of the same models are on the list every year but it’s not just because they’re the most popular vehicles. It’s primarily because they have parts that don’t change much from year to year – and most cars are stolen for the parts, not to drive around, explained Geoff Keah, a special investigator for assurance . So, thieves who steal a 1994 model, for example, could sell the parts to use in models for 1995, 1996, etc.

09. 2002 Ford Explorer, Trade-In Value*: $4,350, Original Price in 2002: $27,775, New Car Value (2011): $30,000, The Ford Explorer is one of the most popular SUVs on the market. People love the vehicle because it has the functionality of an SUV but also has style and comfort. Because they’re so popular, Ford hasn’t made too many changes in subsequent models, except for improvements to safety and roominess. You know what that means — thieves love them for the parts!

08. 1994 Acura Integra, Trade-In Value*: $625, Original Price in 1994: $16,695, New Car Value (2011): N/A, The Integra makes the stolen list because it was a popular vehicle that Honda made from 1985 to 2007 that people liked to buy and soup up “Fast and Furious” style with everything from engine modification to enhanced suspension and blinged-up wheels, Keah explains.

07. 1994 Chevrolet Pickup Trade-In Value*: $1,200, Original Price in 1994: $16,322, New Car Value (2011): $20,800, Pickup trucks like the 1994 Chevy Silverado are extremely popular, particularly in Texas and the south. In Texas, for example, they’re often stolen and then driven across the border into Mexico where they’re harder to recover.

06. 2000 Dodge Caravan, Trade-In Value*: $1,450, Original Price in 2000: $21,905, New Car Value (2011): $24,800, The Dodge Caravan is a popular minivan that is a big hit among soccer moms in places like Michigan and, as a result, thieves, who steal them for their parts. Thieves love the older models because they lack anti-theft devices and they have valuable parts like airbags and catalytic converters. The Caravan is so popular in Michigan, that five of the top 10 most stolen vehicles in Michigan are Caravans (the 2000, the 1999, the 1998, the 1997 and the 1996).

05. 2004 Dodge Ram Pickup, Trade-In Value*: $5,050, Original Price in 2004: $22,295, New Car Value (2011): $20,100, Pickup trucks like the Ram are stolen for valuable parts such as the wheels and tailgates, Keah said. Tailgates can often get mangled in an accident and the new ones are expensive to replace since they often have cameras for backing up in them. (A tailgate with a camera can set you back $1,000 to $1,500.) Plus, the older ones are easy to steal, he said.

04. 1997 Ford F-150 Pickup, Trade-In Value*: $1,200, Original Price in 1997: $17,480, New Car Value (2011): $22,600, Ford has been making its best-selling F-series pickup trucks since 1948 and for most of that time the F-150 has not only been the best-selling truck in America but the best-selling vehicle in America. That means there will always be a market for parts — and for thieves, who love those older models. 1997, incidentally, marked Ford’s first redesign of the F-150 since 1980. It was also the model where Ford introduced the rounded nose, a risky move given the F-150?s popularity.

03. 1991 Toyota Camry, Trade-In Value*: $700, Original Price in 1991: $14,513, New Car Value (2011): $19,900, The top three cars are all popular sedans, including the 1991 Toyota Camry. What makes them attractive to thieves is that these makes and models are easy to steal and the parts don’t change much from year to year. The Camry is known for its quality and reliability and great resale value. As a result, it’s a popular target for thieves all across America, from Delaware to Florida, Kansas, California and Hawaii.

02. 1995 Honda Civic, Trade-In Value*: $1,100, Original Price in 1995: $11,970, New Car Value (2011): $17,400, The Civic gets great reviews and is one of the best-selling compact cars. People love them for their great fuel efficiency, reliability, repair history and resale value, according to Kelley Blue Book. It’s also pretty roomy inside, despite being a compact. Thieves love them for their parts. Cars like the Camry and Civic make the most-stolen list just about every year though the model year generally goes up one.

01. 1994 Honda Accord, Trade-In Value*: $975, Original Price in 1994: $15,430, New Car Value (2011): $20,200, The Accord is loved by both drivers and thieves and is universally stolen all over America. Drivers love it for its quality and refinement. It handles well, rates high on safety and maintenance and has a roomy interior. Thieves, of course, love them for their parts, which don’t change much from year to year, and for their lack of anti-theft technology. Source: Article

Read More........ → December 30, 2013