EuroWire September 2017

Transatlantic Cable

Elsewhere in automotive . . . † General Motors on 16 th June announced plans to open a ‘supplier park’ to support future vehicle production at its Arlington assembly plant in Texas. Expected to be operational in 2018, the addition will consist of two industrial manufacturing and warehouse buildings covering more than 1.2m ft 2 . GM estimates that nearly 600 of the 850-plus new manufacturing and other jobs created for these facilities will replace work previously done outside the USA. Steve Kiefer, senior vice president of GM’s global purchasing and supply chain, told the Detroit Free Press that the supplier park concept aims at “improved logistics e ciency and coordination.”

Automotive

A peculiarly American mystery: the invisibility of electric vehicle charging stations “Research shows car buyers have absolutely zero knowledge of electric vehicle infrastructure.” Sean Szymkowski of Green Car Reports was referring to American car buyers and speci cally addressing their hyperopia as to electric vehicle charging stations. The US Department of Energy estimates there are 15,993 public charging stations in the United States – over 3,000 of them in the state of California alone. But 60 per cent of respondents to a recent J D Power survey stated they never see a charging station in their area. In fairness it should be noted that many of these facilities hide in plain sight at Dunkin’ Donuts, Wal-Mart, McDonalds and similar sites across the country. A quick search by Mr Szymkowski disclosed many such Level 2 and DC fast charging stations, and apps like Plugshare stand ready to pull up a convenient location. It would seem that a driver/charger interface might be as routine as other connections in the cellphone era. But no – the J D Power survey cited in Green Car Reports found the availability of charging stations to be the biggest concern of 37 per cent of shoppers considering an electric car. This is, in fact, the biggest deterrent to the purchase of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles. (“Car Buyers Have No Idea Electric-Car Charging Stations Even Exist,” 7 th June) The hesitancy of prospective electric car buyers is more understandable in the matter of range anxiety. They know where their comfort zone lies: within 300 miles. And the most a ordable electric vehicle on the USA market – the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV – manages an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-estimated 238 miles per charge. † But that gap will narrow. The thrust of the Green Car Reports article is that the resources available now to motorists for locating convenient electric charging stations clearly are not being utilised to their full potential. If automakers are serious about pushing electric cars at more a ordable prices, Mr Szymkowski observed, consumers must be made aware that the infrastructure is no longer in its infancy. Until then, he wrote: “Electric vehicles will likely remain a niche.”

Image: www.bigstockphoto.com Photographer Zsolt Ercsel

Rogue ‘co-bots’

Going well beyond safety concerns, threats from hacked industrial robots now include sabotage and blackmail

“Give us the bitcoin we’re asking for and we’ll let you know which lot numbers have the faulty brake components.” Senior editor David Schneider of IEEE Spectrum , the journal of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, had drafted an email message that no factory operator wants ever to receive. The particulars will di er, but the sense will always be the same: Pay up – or su er the consequences. Mr Schneider referenced the report “Rogue Robots: Testing the Limits of an Industrial Robot’s Security” from the computer security rm Trend Micro (Irving, Texas) and researchers at Polytechnic University of Milan. The joint e ort explored how malevolent hackers might compromise various kinds of industrial robots, whose number is expected to reach 2.6 million units worldwide by 2019. “The dangers of industrial robots to factory workers have long been well appreciated, which is why most of these machines operate in cages designed to keep people out of harm’s way,” wrote Mr Schneider. As industrial robots are increasingly being designed to work alongside human workers, these collaborative robots (“co-bots”) could present unique safety issues should their software be compromised. (“New Report Highlights Dangers of Hacked Factory Robots,” 16 th May)

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September 2017