Dutch insurance company inks first self-driving car policy

DutchNews, October 11, 2017

Artist’s impression: Amber One

Centraal Beheer, the car insurance unit of financial services group Achmea, has become the first company in the Netherlands to cover shared self-driving cars, the company said on Wednesday. 

Achmea’s subsidiaries Centraal Beheer and Interpolis insure 2.3 million vehicles between them, making the group the country’s largest car insurer. 

The arrival of self-driving cars has turned the car insurance market around, management board member Robert Otto said in a statement. What is clear is that the days of setting insurance premiums by accident history are over, he said. 

Achmea reached agreement on Tuesday afternoon to insure the Amber One, a completely electric self-driving vehicle which is to come into production in 2021. Amber is a start-up company based at Eindhoven university’s High Tech Campus. 

The Amber One is seen as an ideal shared car because it will be equipped with software which determines where and when demand for the car is highest. But this bring problems in particular with determining whether the driver, the developer of the software or the manufacturer are liable. 

Under terms of Achmea’s agreement with Amber, self-driving car insurance will be developed alongside the car itself. 

Damages are certain to be higher due to electronics and software used in the car, Otto said. A simple collision with a lamp post will far more expensive with a self-driving car than with a traditional car, he said. ‘We already have that experience with electric cars.’ The Amber One will be fully electric but the parts will be readily interchangeable.

Elon Musk: tech dreamer reaching for sun, moon and stars

Yahoo – AFP, Glenn Chapman, March 5, 2017

Entrepreneur Elon Musk has an estimated current net worth of $13.4 billion from
interests in transport, payments and space technology (AFP Photo/Karim SAHIB)

San Francisco (AFP) - Sending tourists for a trip around the moon is the latest big idea launched by Elon Musk, a Silicon Valley star known for turning his passions into visionary enterprises.

Musk has become one of the United States' best-known innovators. He was a founder of payments company PayPal, electric carmaker Tesla Motors and SpaceX, maker and launcher of rockets and spacecraft.

SpaceX recently announced that two private citizens have paid money to be sent around the Moon in what would mark the farthest humans have ever traveled to deep space since the 1970s.

In a sector where entrepreneurs often speak of "moonshots," Musk is one of the biggest dreamers.

The 45-year-old South Africa-born entrepreneur has channeled a dot-com fortune into a series of ambitious ventures.

Besides being the head of SpaceX and Tesla, Musk is the chairman of SolarCity, a solar panel installer recently bought by Tesla.

He also operates his own foundation focusing on education, clean energy and child health.

And he drafted a paper detailing the feasibility of an ultra-fast "Hyperloop" rail transport system that would transport people at near supersonic speeds, then made it freely available to enterprises willing to pursue the project.

The SpaceX plan to fly tourists around the Moon in 2018 (AFP Photo/AFP)

'Doesn't sit around'

"He is a visionary who has some key passions which he pursues with vigor," Jackdaw Research chief analyst Jan Dawson said of Musk.

"He doesn't sit around and wait for people to do something about them; he goes out and does it himself."

Musk's penchant for rocketing after his passions may appear to spread him thin, but he has built a record of success.

Musk appears strong on painting big ideas in broad strokes and then enlisting people skilled at tending to the nuts-and-bolts work needed to follow through, say observers.

"He doesn't seem to be able to focus," analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group said.

"He just likes coming up with the ideas and is good at picking other people who can deal with the plumbing -- that is why he is able to do a lot of stuff."

And while some may wonder whether hubris or realism reigns in Musk's moves, his businesses have gained value, with the jury still out on the wisdom of the Tesla acquisition of SolarCity.

"He can certainly sell his ideas," Enderle said.

"The fact his businesses have held together so long indicates he is not a con man."

Visionary or mad scientist? Elon Musk's Tesla aims to conquer the car market
in the oil-rich Middle East with electric vehicles (AFP Photo/Karim SAHIB)

Fighting against evil

Musk more than a year ago took part in creating a nonprofit research company devoted to developing artificial intelligence that will help people and not hurt them.

Musk found himself in the middle of a technology world controversy by holding firm that AI could turn on humanity and be its ruin instead of a salvation.

Technology giants including Google, Apple and Microsoft have been investing in making machines smarter, contending the goal is to improve lives.

"If we create some digital super-intelligence that exceeds us in every way by a lot, it is very important that it be benign," Musk said at a conference in California.

He reasoned that even a benign situation with ultra-intelligent AI would put people so far beneath the machine they would be "like a house cat."

"I don't love the idea of being a house cat," Musk said, envisioning the creation of neural lacing that magnifies people's brain power by linking them directly to computing capabilities.

Elon Musk's SpaceX venture carries cargo to the International Space Station and  has
 plans to send two private passengers on a trip around the Moon (AFP Photo/
BRUCE WEAVER)

Living in a game

Some of his ideas have prompted questions about whether Musk is a visionary or mad scientist. He has raised eyebrows with a theory that the world as it is known may be a computer simulation.

"I've had so many simulation discussions it's crazy," Musk said while fielding a question on the topic at the conference.

He maintained that "the odds that we are in base reality is one in billions."

Musk lives in Los Angeles and holds US, Canadian and South African citizenship.

He moved to Canada in his late teens and then to the United States, earning bachelor's degrees in physics and business from the University of Pennsylvania.

After graduating, Musk abandoned plans to pursue further studies at Stanford University and started Zip2, a company that made online publishing software for the media industry.

He banked his first millions before the age of 30 when he sold Zip2 to US computer maker Compaq for more than $300 million in 1999.

Musk's next company, X.com, eventually merged with PayPal, the online payments firm bought by Internet auction giant eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002.

Forbes estimates Musk's current net worth at $13.4 billion.

Elon Musk has become one of America's best-known innovators - turning his passions into visionary enterprises https://t.co/4gVkOp0sTp pic.twitter.com/WLx2kuE2U0

— AFP news agency (@AFP) March 5, 2017

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Dutch ports at centre of dirty diesel trade, Swiss report claims

DutchNews, September 19, 2016

A lorry near Accra. Photo: Carl De Keyzer – Magnum 

Swiss commodity trading firms are exploiting lax regulatory standards to sell toxic fuel to Africa and much of the dirty diesel is stored in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, according to a report by Swiss NGO Public Eye. 

Rotterdam oil firm Vitol and Dutch Swiss Trafigura, have major refining and storage interests in the Netherlands and in Antwerp where crude oil is mixed with other substances to keep prices low, Public Eye claims.

‘The 160-page report also shows that the trading companies not only ship dirty diesel and dirty gasoline — and in some areas even sell it at their own pumps — but also produce both fuels themselves,’ Public Eye said.

‘On land or at sea, they mix up a petrochemical cocktail from refinery products and other components known in the industry as “African Quality”. These toxic fuels are mainly mixed in the ARA-Zone (Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp) where Swiss trading firms have their own refineries and storage facilities,’ the report said. 

Banned substances

Many West African countries that export high grade crude oil to Europe receive toxic low quality fuel in return. 

Public Eye researchers drew fuel at local pumps in eight countries and found diesel samples contained up to 378 times more sulfur than is permitted in Europe. Other toxic substances, such as benzene and poly-cyclical aromatic hydrocarbons, were also found in concentrations that are banned in Europe. 

Unacceptable

‘It is unacceptable that we continue to supply developing countries with sub-standard fuels and vehicles, which result in major health impacts by increasing air pollution,’ said Eric Solheim, executive director of the UN’s environment programme.

‘In our globalized economy, there are good reasons to universallyapply clean fuel and vehicle standards in every country. Dumping old and dirty substances and technologies needs to stop now.’ 

According to Trouw, both Vitol and Trafigura say they support measures to reduce pollution and will reduce the level of sulfur permitted in fuel if the countries concerned change the regulations.

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Insurers ask who should pay for a self-driving car crash?

DutchNews, November 23, 2015

The arrival of self-driving cars means everyone will have to have all risk insurance, according to the Dutch insurers association VVV. 

Both drivers and technology will be responsible for ensuring safe driving, giving rise to complex claims and responsibilities, the organisation says. 

Currently, drivers who are deemed to be responsible for traffic accidents have to pay the victims but this will become more complicated when software and technology has a role, said VVV spokesman Rudi Buis.

‘Determining who is responsible will take time and will be longer before payouts are made,’ he told BNR radio. 

Bastiaan Krosse, who heads the automated driving programme at research institute TNO said decisions out insurance need to be taken now, before the self-driving car becomes a reality.

‘If nothing has been sorted out and there is continued uncertainty over responsibility, then there is a major problem,’ he said.

Beijing pitches US$5.2bn toward Russia's first high-speed railway

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-04-01

Two high-speed locomotives in a hangar in Guiyang, Guizhou province.
(File photo/CNS)

Beijing plans to invest 300 billion Russian rubles (US$5.2 billion) to build Russia's first high-speed rail line between Moscow and Kazan, reports the Xinhua publication Reference News.

China reportedly proposed the investment to Alexander Misharin, first vice president of Russian Railways, in a meeting during the Boao Forum for Asia in Hainan. Chinese officials suggested the two countries form a joint venture for the rail line, each taking a 50% stake.

Around 50 billion rubles (US$860 million) of the investment will be equity payment made by the Chinese company responsible for the project. Chinese banks will lend the remaining 250 billion rubles (US$4.3 billion) to Russia for 20 years.

The 770km-long rail line linking five regions in Russia — Moscow, Vladimir, Nizhny Novgorod, Cheboksary and Kazan — would reduce the travel time from 11 and half hours to around three and a half. Many European and Chinese companies have shown interest in the project.

India's jet-set tycoons crash to earth

Yahoo – AFP, Aditya Phatak, 21 Sep 2014

Force India-Mercedes Team Principal Vijay Mallya watches the big screen during a

 practice session of Formula One's Indian Grand Prix, at the Buddh International circuit

in Greater Noida, on October 28, 2011 (AFP Photo/Prakash Singh)

They were famed for their jet-set lifestyles and the names of their companies were emblazoned on airplanes, Formula One cars and the shirtfronts of cricket teams.

But now the debt-laden empires of three of India's best-known tycoons -- Vijay Mallya, Subrata Roy and T. Venkattram Reddy -- are crumbling before their eyes, downfalls that observers say stem from a climate of weak regulation and deference to conspicuous wealth.

"All too often, the banks are dazzled by the halo of personal fortunes," said Vishwas Utagi, a veteran campaigner for banking regulation.

India's Sahara group's chairman Subrata Roy (C),

 surrounded by bodyguards, leaves the Securities

 and Exchange Board of India head office in

 Mumbai, on April 10, 2013 (AFP Photo/

Punit Paranjpe)

Some of India's most successful businesses, such as the family-run Tata and Reliance conglomerates, have been led for years by men with little appetite for publicity and who prefer to operate in the shadows.

But Kingfisher boss Mallya and Sahara supremo Roy came to epitomise a new breed of tycoon, unafraid of trumpeting their achievements when they started making a name for themselves in the early 2000s.

Mallya -- the self-styled "King of Good Times" -- became something of an icon as he turned the United Breweries Group which he inherited from his father into one of the world's largest spirit makers.

As his core business flourished, Mallya branched out by launching the Kingfisher airline, named after his company's best-known beer. His profile rose further when he acquired a stake in the Force India F1 team and ownership of the Royal Challengers Bangalore cricket team.

Selling hotels for bail

But as the Indian economy began to slow sharply at the turn of the decade, with the aviation industry becoming one of the sectors to be worst hit, Mallya's fortunes nosedived too.

After selling the liquor business to Diageo in a bid to shore up his airline, Mallya looked on helplessly as Kingfisher continued to haemorrhagecash. The airline never took to the skies again after a pilots' strike over unpaid wages in 2012.

Having run out of patience over Mallya's failure to clear debts said to be in excess of $60 million, the United Bank of India this month declared him a "wilful defaulter", making it nigh impossible to access fresh loans.

While Mallya is fighting to keep his properties from creditors, Roy is trying to sell his portfolio of luxury hotels -- including New York's Plaza Hotel and the Grosvenor House in London -- to raise the $1.6 billion he needs to secure bail from Delhi's Tihar Prison.

While he has several media interests, including a Hindi TV channel and newspaper, Roy's profile was heightened by his co-ownership with Mallya of Force India and involvement in cricket.

T. Venkattram Reddy, seen during Farnborough

 Air Show, in England, on July 19, 2006 (AFP

Photo/Leon Neal)

As well as sponsoring the national side, Sahara set up a Pune-based franchise to enter the glitzy Indian Premier League (IPL).

The team's expulsion from the IPL at the end of last year's tournament in a dispute over finances hinted that all was not well.

Things dramatically worsened in March when Roy was detained after failing to meet a demand by regulators to pay back millions of small savers the $3.2 billion that Sahara raised via an illegal bond scheme.

Palatial splendour

While Roy owns homes modelled on the White House and Buckingham Palace, Reddy's penchant is for luxury cars with a fleet which reportedly included a Rolls Royce Phantom.

He also couldn't resist the glamour of the IPL, buying the Deccan Chargers franchise before it went bust in 2012.

While Roy's fortune was self-made, Reddy and his brother T. Vinayak Ravi Reddy inherited the ownership of the Deccan Chronicle from their father.

The Hyderabad newspaper's prestige enabled them to draw loans for riskier ventures including a chain of bookstores and a chartered jet company.

Even if the cricket team is no longer sucking money, the Reddys are struggling to keep the wolf from the door and lenders have already seized several of their properties.

Tamal Bandyopadhyay, author of a book on Sahara, said a weak regulatory framework enabled tycoons to build up debts that should never have been allowed.

The back of the Grosvenor House hotel in London, pictured on September 30,

2003 (AFP Photo/Joshua Roberts)

"Mallya is a case of over-stretching and over-leveraging, while Roy is the case of exploiting regulatory arbitrage or the loopholes in regulation," Bandyopadhyay told AFP.

Utagi, a retired bank worker who is vice president of the All India Bank Employees' Association, said there were too many "pliable people" in the industry who face little comeback if money they lend is not repaid.

"When it comes to credit appraisals for corporates, the rules are more often honoured in the breach than the observance," he said.

Bandyopadhyay said the ambitions of Indian tycoons were rarely held in check as they were "surrounded by sycophants".

"That makes it very difficult for them to stay in touch with reality," he added.

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