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Aug 2, 2012

REPORT: PILFERED TECHNOLOGY * China

* ...  A troubling report about 


Detroit,MICH,USA -The Detroit News, by Christine Tierney -July 31, 2012: -- The latest automaker to report that its technology has been pilfered by its Chinese partner is none other than Volkswagen AG, one of the first global car companies to set up joint production ventures in China in the 1980s... Those were China’s terms: foreign automakers could have a crack at its big — now huge — market, but in turn, they’d have to produce cars in China with local partners who would see and learn how it’s done. These partnerships were inherently awkward because while everyone benefits in the short- and medium-term, what happens in the long-term isn’t clear...  VW’s first partner, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. formed another partnership years later with General Motors, a rival of VW. Even more worrisome, reports of intellectual property theft from Japanese, U.S. and European manufacturers were common, and carmakers found little relief from Chinese courts. Lately, though, some auto executives have been saying that, as China’s industry matures and its carmakers develop their own technology, they’re starting to view patent and trademark protection and other intellectual property rights in a different light...  So the report in the German newspaper Handelsblatt that VW’s Northern Chinese partner, FAW, allegedly copied an engine design was very disturbing. FAW isn’t some fly-by-night provincial upstart. It’s an old, established, state-owned carmaker; FAW stands for First Automotive Works...   Handelsblatt’s unidentified sources described “systematic and planned” industrial espionage since 2010 by FAW, which plans to sell a model equipped with the engines in Russia, in direct competition with VW and Skoda models...

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Jul 2, 2010

Uncontrolled Tech-Devices * USA - Nav Systems Blamed for Car Crashes

GPS-assisted crashes regularly reported in news coverage

New York,NY,USA -Automotive Digest/Slate - June 9, 2010: -- Turns into commuter train tracks, wrong side of highway, routes not rated for trucks. Frequency exists somewhere between statistical outlier and burgeoning trend... Drivers must remain in control when navigation systems error. Detecting unexpected events hindered by focus on navigation system display and blind obedience to voice commands... Legal questions evolving about who bears responsibility when crashes occur. No court decisions have yet been rendered.. Devices assume responsibility and blame for driving directions... Product liability claims would not apply if navigation is a service...

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Jun 7, 2010

Safety Challenges * USA - Smart Phones Create New Telematics

This idea that people are going to be separated from their devices is not going to happen,” Chris Preuss, president of General Motors Co.’s

Dearborn,MI,USA -Wards Auto, by Tom Murphy -May 21, 2010: -- Blackberries, smart phones and other hand-held devices have made the Internet portable, but they also create serious hazards on roadways... 21% of 1.6 million injury accidents involve distracted driving. The problem won’t be getting better soon, experts say... “This will be one of the major social imperatives of the next decade,” Preuss says... OnStar’s model is to continue offering hands-free technologies that promote safe driving, such as real-time navigation services that take into account traffic patterns, based on the 5.5 million subscribers using OnStar... Technology can solve the problem of distracted driving, rather than exacerbate it, says fellow panelist Bob Schumacher, general director-advanced product development and business strategy, Delphi Corp. The Troy, MI, supplier is part of the Genivi consortium of auto makers, suppliers and software providers dedicated to using an automotive grade Linux operating system, enabling portable devices to connect more readily with vehicle computers, Schumacher says. At that point, hands-free operation of devices would be simple... (Photo from farm4.static.flickr)

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Oct 1, 2009

Computers & Cell Phones * USA - Truckers' Nav Systems as Bad as Driving While Texting

Dulles,VA ,USA -Switched, by Caleb Johnson -Sep 30, 2009: -- People continue to text message and use other portable devices while driving, despite knowing what a dangerous habit it can be... A recent study by Virginia Tech's Transportation Institute found that truckers who used onboard computers while driving were ten times as likely to wreck. For their part, truckers argue that a dash-mounted computer monitor with a keyboard in the lap is safer to use than an iPhone or similar device because it requires "less concentration"... Many of the devices feature a warning to pull over before using, but many truckers simply ignore it due to time constraints. Sure, the argument may make financial sense, but it's not a particularly comforting thought when you're cruising down the highway next to an 18-wheeler... (Photo from cache.gawker)


* ATA takes NY Times to task

Arlington,VA,USA -Fleet Owner -Sep 30, 2009: ... An article in The New York Times for Monday, September 28, was swiftly rebuked by the American Trucking Assns. (ATA) as being erroneous regarding truck drivers’ use of in-cab electronic technologies. As a result, the newspaper published a correction in today’s edition that retracted several factual errors in the piece...

The correction, as it appeared on The New York Times web site on Wednesday is as follows:

“An article on Monday about the trucking industry’s concerns over proposals to ban texting while driving referred incorrectly to statistics regarding large trucks and fatal crashes. The statistics, from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, cover trucks that were involved in fatal crashes; they do not specify the number of crashes “caused” by the trucks. The article also misstated the change in numbers of fatal crashes involving large trucks from 1997 to 2007. According to N.H.T.S.A., that number declined to 4,808 in 2007, from 5,416 in 1997; it did not increase to 4,808 in 2007, from 4,777 in 1997. (In 1997, N.H.T.S.A. data differentiated between medium-weight and heavy trucks; in the 2007 data, they were counted together as large trucks.)”

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Sep 30, 2009

Computers & Cell Phones * USA - Truckers Worried About Government Involvement in Communication Rules

Computers and cell phones have usurped CB, or citizens band radio, creating efficiencies in the trucking industry that save time and money

Lakeland,FL,USA -THE LEDGER, by Eric Pera -September 29: ... The new technology has come under assault by critics who argue that truckers are no different from the rest of the motoring public when it comes to distractions from cell phones and other portable communication devices... Parties on both sides of the debate will convene in Washington today to address the need for federal legislation that would distinguish devices that are safe from those that should be banned... A focus of the talks, hosted by the Transportation Department, is the use of computers and satellite systems that have been adapted for use in the cabs of tractor-trailer rigs... Marion Hampton, an owner/operator parked Tuesday morning at a roadside truck stop near Auburndale, said more laws aren't the answer; common sense should rule... Hampton, a burly cross-country trucker who keeps a laptop computer in his cab for e-mails and instruction from his primary employer, a frozen seafood supplier, said the wireless technology is much safer than hand-held phones... (Photo by PIERRE DUCHARME - THE LEDGER - Marion Hampton, Hampton Transport Services in Austell, Georgia, at a truck stop off of I-4 in Auburndale, Florida, on September 29, 2009)

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