WCA November 2017

From the Americas The driver died at the scene of the crash, which occurred after a tractor-trailer rig turned left in front of him. The car, running under Autopilot control, hit the semi and passed entirely under its trailer, shearing off part of the Tesla roof. As noted in Green Car Reports (13 th September), while European tractor-trailer rigs have long had side guard-rails to prevent such effects, the trucking industry has so far defeated efforts to require them on USA trailers.  Ford Motor Co is investing $5 million in the American Center for Mobility in Ypsilanti Township, Michigan, becoming the second automaker to donate to the driverless vehicle test site. Reported by the Detroit Free Press (15 th September), the donation makes Ford a member of a government- industry team developing the autonomous vehicle testing grounds on the site of a former bomber plant. It also pushes the funding secured to date for the centre, set for a December opening, to more than $95 million and closer to the $110-million estimate. Toyota in July became the first automaker to sign on, with its $5-million donation to the 335-acre facility being developed about 30 miles southwest of downtown Detroit. Ken Washington, vice president of research and advanced engineering and chief technology officer at Ford, said, “The work done [here] will help drive mobility solutions across the globe.” The vitality of its maritime industry suggests post-Brexit growth for Britain as a global trading nation More than 84 per cent of respondents to a survey conducted by Maritime UK, the promotional body for the UK maritime sector, agree that the UK is a globally competitive place to do business; and 76 per cent concur that the UK is among the world’s leading maritime centres. Moreover 62 per cent of global industry leaders responding to the survey pronounced themselves either “very” or “somewhat” likely to consider the UK as a relocation destination. Asked the reasons for their favourable views, 82 per cent of the respondents cited the UK’s maritime heritage; 67 per cent, its legal system; 66 per cent, the English language; 46 per cent, the UK’s offer in maritime business services; and 45 per cent, the ease of doing business in the United Kingdom. Maritime UK holds that the results of the survey, published at the start of London International Shipping Week (11 th -15 th September), attest to a widely held conviction that British maritime is “in rude health.” The trade body reported that the British maritime sector experienced 12.7 per cent growth nationwide over a five-year period, with an increase in gross value added (GVA) of 3.9 per cent. Employment in the sector rose by 3.9 per cent over the same period. Shipping

The maritime sector now supports a total 957,300 jobs across the economy and contributes £37.4 billion to UK gross domestic product (GDP). Time to revisit the tonnage tax? Citing the Telegraph , the Hellenic Shipping News (11 th September) reported that industry leaders have said Brexit could provide a boost to the UK shipping industry as it would allow the government to impose a more competitive tax regime than those of its European neighbours. Chairman David Dingle of Maritime UK said that European Union rules have made member states such as Greece “less globally competitive” in the shipping sector. He said he considers it vital that London use Brexit as an opportunity to reform its tonnage tax, which allows ship owners to pay rates based on tonnage capacity rather than operating profits. “Most maritime EU member states have a tonnage tax that derives from EU state aid guidelines to shipping,” Mr Dingle told reporters at a press briefing on the eve of London International Shipping Week. New York’s ‘Silicon Alley’ has vaulting ambitions, but its West Coast counterpart is secure for now The official opening on 13 th September of Cornell Tech, a new graduate school for technology on New York’s Roosevelt Island, fulfilled a dream of former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who in 2011 invited the world’s top universities to bid to build a new campus on city property. The winner was a consortium of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel. As reported by Peter Coy and Eric Gelman of Bloomberg Businessweek , the environmentally friendly campus sits on the former site of a city hospital on the southern end of a skinny piece of land in the East River separating Manhattan from Queens. The school will offer master’s degrees and some doctorates in fields such as computer science and electrical engineering. “Backers are hoping it will be a springboard for hundreds of tech startups that will change the world and, not incidentally, generate jobs and tax revenue for New York.” wrote the Bloomberg reporters. But Messrs Coy and Gelman had a piece of advice for those who expect that New York’s technical community is about to knock California’s off its perch: Curb your enthusiasm. (“New York’s Silicon Alley Is (Still) No Match for Silicon Valley,” 12 th September) “It could happen some day,” they wrote. “But not soon.” Some points of comparison were furnished by statistics on how metro New York is faring vs a combination of metro Technology

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Wire & Cable ASIA – November/December 2017

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