Latest news with #PeterWilson
TechCrunch
29-05-2025
- Automotive
- TechCrunch
Volteras wants to connect to more EVs than anyone else
For years, people have been worried — both rightly and otherwise — that electric vehicles could strain the grid to the breaking point. But as they spread, and as EV technology advances, some think these rolling battery packs could become a lifeline for the United States' aging electrical system. 'In the future, the electric vehicle will be the center of the entire energy grid,' Peter Wilson, co-founder and CEO of Volteras, told TechCrunch. The potential is there: Last year, the U.S. installed 37.1 gigawatt-hours of grid-scale energy storage. The country could increase that amount by nearly 10 times if every EV on the road today was hooked up to a charger that can feed electricity back into the grid. There are a few hurdles, of course. Many new EVs today don't support vehicle-to-grid connections, though that's changing, and there's a lack of affordable bidirectional chargers. But Volteras has been making headway on the software side. Recently, the London-based startup closed a $11.1 million Series A led by Union Square Ventures, with participation from Edenred, Exor, Long Journey Ventures and Wex, Volteras exclusively told TechCrunch. Volteras is building virtual connective tissue that will allow plugged-in EVs to offer their batteries to support the grid. When massed together, they can serve as virtual power plants, giving utilities quickly dispatchable power that's distributed across the grid. Along with control over the car's battery, Volteras also gets access to a host of other connected-car features, like remote unlocking and telematics. The company integrates with automakers' own APIs and offers those functions to other companies interested in using them. In the case of a virtual power plant, a utility can pay EV owners to sell some of the car's stored electricity back to the grid. Car rental services might subscribe, too, so they can remotely unlock vehicles for stranded motorists. Volteras charges those companies a monthly fee per connected car and passes on some of that revenue to automakers. Techcrunch event Save now through June 4 for TechCrunch Sessions: AI Save $300 on your ticket to TC Sessions: AI—and get 50% off a second. Hear from leaders at OpenAI, Anthropic, Khosla Ventures, and more during a full day of expert insights, hands-on workshops, and high-impact networking. These low-rate deals disappear when the doors open on June 5. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you've built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | REGISTER NOW Several companies are working on similar solutions to smooth the connection of EV batteries to the grid — Texture, and Greenely, to name a few — but Wilson argues that Volteras has a head start because his company is currently working with more than 30 automakers which include Ford, BMW, Tesla, Stellantis and Volvo. 'We're going to cover like 90% of the automotive market worldwide by the end of the year,' he said. Automakers have been salivating over the financial prospects of connected cars, though progress has been spotty. GM, for example, in 2021 set a bold target for its subscription services: $25 billion in revenue by the end of the decade. But in its most recent annual report, the automaker didn't offer an update. (Usually when things are going well, companies tell the world about it.) Wilson still sees potential in connected services, starting with the battery. In addition to virtual power plants, Volteras is courting fleet managers, EV routing apps, and insurers interested in offering usage-based plans. 'This kind of hidden data layer that you don't see — that'll be the crux of how companies offer services to you, give you discounts, and make it more affordable to own an electric vehicle,' Wilson said.
BBC News
17-05-2025
- Health
- BBC News
'I don't blame my wife for ending her life'
In her final note to her husband, Beverly Sand said she needed to release him from "this nightmare".Peter Wilson said his wife, who had terminal oesophageal cancer, took her own life in November 2022, aged 76. He remembers: "She was very conscious of the fact that she would gradually lose the ability to eat - it can be a horrendous death."Mr Wilson, 75, who has homes in London and Nottingham, supports the idea of assisted dying and says the proposed changes in law would have given his wife a more "dignified" death. A bill which would allow terminally ill adults in England and Wales, expected to die within six months, to seek help to end their own life is currently being considered by legislation passed its first stage in the House of Commons last November – but since then the details have been pored over and dozens of amendments added by both Friday, MPs debated further potential changes, which also included preventing medical staff from raising the option of assisted dying with a patient MPs ran out of time to vote on more changes, so further debate and voting will take place on 13 June. Mr Wilson believes his wife died to protect him from seeing her health decline."[Her death] was part of her rationale to protect me from that experience," he described how his wife began a period of chemotherapy, and it was "very debilitating"."She was fatigued, constantly tired. She couldn't really do anything."My guess is that the potential benefits [of] a few months of extra life wasn't worth going through the debilitating and fatigued existence she led at the time of her death."His wife was diagnosed with terminal cancer in August 2022 and was a month into treatment when, he says, she took her own life in November that year."I see [her suicide] as a very conscious choice to prioritise the quality of her life over the length of her life, and I think would be very typical of Beverly," said Mr said he had gone away for a few days to a friend's birthday in Nottingham when she died."I'm still agonised by the fact she chose that time because I was away," he said."Had I not gone away, then maybe her life could have, would have been longer. "I still wonder if my absence actually shortened her life."I don't blame myself, it was Beverly's choice. She did everything she possibly could to protect me from any hint that I might be involved in her decision to take her life."I don't blame her; in fact, I am absolutely in awe of her courage to carry through [her treatment]." UK law currently prevents people from asking for medical help to Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, external, was introduced by Labour MP Kim Wilson says he supports the bill, although he acknowledges his wife probably would not be covered by it as it stands. "I think no two doctors would have agreed she had less than six months to live, she probably had a little over that," he said."An assisted death would have extended her life, prevented her dying alone, and would have prevented me from being excluded from her decision and the process of her actually taking her life."She died a very undignified death. "She died alone, and she died without any support or involvement from me. We should have been able to go through this together."The pair supported the assisted dying campaign through the group Dignity in Dying. Paralympian and House of Lords crossbencher Baroness Grey-Thompson is a vocal is worried that disabled and other vulnerable people could be put under pressure to end their lives - and that doctors may struggle to make accurate six-month and disability-rights activist Liz Carr, who made the BBC One documentary Better Off Dead?, also opposes the legislation."Some of us have very real fears based on our lived experience and based on what has happened in other countries where it's legal," she wrote on Gordon Macdonald, from campaign group Care Not Killing, said the bill ignores the wider "deep-seated problems in the UK's broken and patchy palliative care system".Labour MSP Pam Duncan-Glancy, the first permanent wheelchair user to be elected to Holyrood, said it could become "easier to access help to die than help to live".The British Medical Association, external, which represents doctors, and the Royal College of Nursing, external, are neutral on the than 1,000 GPs responded to a BBC questionnaire on attitudes to changing the law, with about 500 saying they were opposed, and about 400 in favour. If you've been affected by issues in this article, help and support is available via the BBC Action Line.
Daily Maverick
16-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Maverick
UK names son of ex-Hong Kong governor as ambassador to China
Britain named the son of a former governor of Hong Kong as its new ambassador to China on Friday, weeks before London is due to release an audit of its relations with Beijing. Peter Wilson, a Mandarin speaker, is a senior diplomat who has held the posts of ambassador to Brazil and the Netherlands, director general for Europe at the foreign office and principal private secretary to the prime minister under Boris Johnson. Reuters first reported his selection as future ambassador to China in February. His father David Wilson was governor of Hong Kong, then a British colony, from 1987-1992. 'For my country, China has always been as much an opportunity as a threat, and I think that remains true today,' Peter Wilson told a panel at the Asia Society in 2017. Britain's Labour government aims to boost diplomatic engagement with China after years of tensions under previous Conservative governments over human rights, Hong Kong and restrictions on investment. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has also been pursuing post-Brexit trade deals to boost a stagnant economy. He struck a tariff-lowering deal with U.S. President Donald Trump last week, cast by Beijing as a move that could squeeze Chinese products out of Britain. Preparations are being made for Starmer to visit China this year, Reuters has reported, the first such visit by a British leader since 2018. An audit which Starmer's government says will be the first in-depth appraisal of Britain's relationship with China is expected to be released in early June, according to sources.
Free Malaysia Today
16-05-2025
- Business
- Free Malaysia Today
UK names son of ex-Hong Kong governor as ambassador to China
Mandarin speaker Peter Wilson is a senior diplomat who has held the posts of ambassador to Brazil and the Netherlands. (EPA Images pic) LONDON : Britain named the son of a former governor of Hong Kong as its new ambassador to China today, weeks before London is due to release an audit of its relations with Beijing. Peter Wilson, a Mandarin speaker, is a senior diplomat who has held the posts of ambassador to Brazil and the Netherlands, director-general for Europe at the foreign office and principal private secretary to the prime minister under Boris Johnson. Reuters first reported his selection as future ambassador to China in February. His father David Wilson was governor of Hong Kong, then a British colony, from 1987-1992. 'For my country, China has always been as much an opportunity as a threat, and I think that remains true today,' Peter Wilson told a panel at the Asia Society in 2017. Britain's Labour government aims to boost diplomatic engagement with China after years of tensions under previous Conservative governments over human rights, Hong Kong and restrictions on investment. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has also been pursuing post-Brexit trade deals to boost a stagnant economy. He struck a tariff-lowering deal with US President Donald Trump last week, cast by Beijing as a move that could squeeze Chinese products out of Britain. Preparations are being made for Starmer to visit China this year, Reuters has reported, the first such visit by a British leader since 2018. An audit which Starmer's government says will be the first in-depth appraisal of Britain's relationship with China is expected to be released in early June, according to sources.
Straits Times
16-05-2025
- Business
- Straits Times
UK names son of ex-Hong Kong governor as ambassador to China
Mr Peter Wilson, a Mandarin speaker, is a senior diplomat who has held the posts of ambassador to Brazil and the Netherlands. PHOTO: REUTERS UK names son of ex-Hong Kong governor as ambassador to China LONDON - Britain named the son of a former governor of Hong Kong as its new ambassador to China on May 16, weeks before London is due to release an audit of its relations with Beijing. Mr Peter Wilson, a Mandarin speaker, is a senior diplomat who has held the posts of ambassador to Brazil and the Netherlands, director-general for Europe at the foreign office and principal private secretary to the prime minister under Boris Johnson. Reuters first reported his selection as future ambassador to China in February. His father David Wilson was governor of Hong Kong, then a British colony, from 1987-1992. 'For my country, China has always been as much an opportunity as a threat, and I think that remains true today,' Mr Peter Wilson told a panel at the Asia Society in 2017. Britain's Labour government aims to boost diplomatic engagement with China after years of tensions under previous Conservative governments over human rights, Hong Kong and restrictions on investment. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has also been pursuing post-Brexit trade deals to boost a stagnant economy. He struck a tariff-lowering deal with US President Donald Trump last week, cast by Beijing as a move that could squeeze Chinese products out of Britain. Preparations are being made for Mr Starmer to visit China in 2025, Reuters has reported, the first such visit by a British leader since 2018. An audit which Mr Starmer's government says will be the first in-depth appraisal of Britain's relationship with China is expected to be released in early June, according to sources. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
