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Leader Live
21 hours ago
- Automotive
- Leader Live
Bersham Wheels event returning to Wrexham this summer
Bersham Wheels is returning for its fifth year on Saturday, June 21, promising a day of motoring and music at the Bersham Road site. The free festival will showcase sports and classic cars, motorcycles, and military vehicles, with a Ferrari Modena and Porsches among the highlights. Motorcycles will be on view (Image: Coleg Cambria) Karl Jackson, site lead and assistant principal for the £10 million Institute of Technology at Bersham Road, said: "I can't believe this is the fifth Bersham Wheels. "Time flies but it has been amazing to see the event go from strength to strength, with people of all ages visiting and enjoying the cars and bikes, the music and everything else we have going on. "While the focus is on the engineering and motoring aspect there is something for everyone and this summer is no different with some of the area's best bands and singers appearing, a selection of food and drink, and local businesses selling everything from craft items and jewellery to local produce and more. "Have your fingers crossed for sunshine. "We look forward to seeing you all June 21." READ MORE: Farmers Union of Wales reacts to the UK Government's latest EU deal The event will also feature guided tours of the site, live music, games, trade stands, and a wide selection of food and drink. On-site parking is free, and to book a stall, email or call 01978 267809. For free tickets and more details, visit Bersham Road Wheels Event Tickets on Eventbrite.
Business Insider
3 days ago
- Automotive
- Business Insider
My Tesla FSD diary: 5 months of curiosity, amazement, shock, and embarrassment
When I picked up my new Tesla Model 3 Performance in December, it came with a free trial of the company's Full Self-Driving (FSD) software. I originally made the purchase to enjoy driving a fast sports car. But I've also been fascinated by the promise of autonomous vehicles ever since I experienced Google's early driverless technology as a reporter at The Wall Street Journal over a decade ago. So, for the past five months, I've been using FSD (in "Chill" mode only) to see what it can and can't do. I still drive the car. Legally, functionally, and by necessity. Tesla calls this software Full Self-Driving, but it's really an advanced driver-assistance system. Every moment it's engaged, I am still the driver, and Tesla makes that very clear when you're in the car in FSD mode. The company is planning to launch a robotaxi service in Austin in June. That will come with fully autonomous software that requires no supervision. However, the reason for this diary is to give you a sense of what Tesla's latest and greatest published driving software is capable of right now. Here are my observations, feelings, and takeaways from driving more than 1,000 miles in FSD around Silicon Valley and beyond. I also shared this diary with Bryant Walker Smith, a lawyer who focuses on mobility, driver-assistance, and autonomous-vehicle technology. I've included some of his context and thoughts throughout. I also shared my diary with Tesla's press office and CEO Elon Musk via email on Wednesday. They didn't respond. More relaxing, especially in traffic Let's get this out of the way first: This is one of the best cars I've ever driven. On and off for over 20 years, I have test-driven cars from Hummers to Porsches to Alfa Romeos. The Model 3 Performance has incredible steering, high build quality, and incredible speed, for a lot less money than a BMW M4. It's a great deal and I love it. In early January, switching on FSD was a surprise at first. It handled way more situations than I expected — basically everything on most trips. Driving in traffic, with a destination punched into Tesla's onboard screen, is less stressful than handling stop-and-go congestion yourself and trying to decide which turn to take next. It's a new, slightly more relaxing experience. I get to my destination in a better mood. Tesla FSD always comes to a full stop at stop signs. Obviously, I do too. But maybe I don't? This was annoying at first, but now I don't notice, and it's safer. I thought I would lose time, but really, there's no difference. What started as an irritation became a reminder of how easily humans normalize cutting corners when driving themselves. The FSD is a more efficient driver. It uses less battery power than I do driving the car. I know this because I look at the onboard map, which predicts the battery level upon arrival. Once I switch to FSD, that prediction drops and stays lower once I arrive. Potholes and disengagements Pothole avoidance, please! My Tesla in FSD drives straight over most potholes on the road. I try to (carefully!) avoid them while driving myself. Is this why some Tesla owners say they have to replace their tires so often? I disengaged FSD in San Francisco a few months ago. There was a car parked on the side of a thin side road. I knew I could squeeze around it, but Tesla FSD just sat there. So I took over, drove around, and then restarted FSD. I disengaged another time on Highway 80, going from Silicon Valley to Lake Tahoe with my wife. We were in FSD (Chill mode) in the slow lane. Traffic built up ahead, and the faster lanes started backing up. Another car darted into our lane, right in front of us. We screamed, and I grabbed the wheel. Maybe FSD would have handled it, but I wasn't willing to find out. Speaking of lanes: In Chill mode, FSD stays in the slow lane, and it's slow to move across when a highway intersection is approaching. This gets me stuck behind cars merging onto the highway. When I drive myself, I get over into the outside lanes before this stuff happens. I know a few blocks in advance that something is going to get snarled, so I adjust early. Tesla FSD doesn't do that in Chill mode. So, we have to slow down and get into complex merge situations. I suspect being in other FSD modes, such as "Hurry" mode, would mean my Tesla drives in the faster, outer lanes of the highway. A test and a change of heart I was impressed during the first two to three months of using FSD. When my free trial ended in June, I thought I would probably start paying $99 a month for this technology. And I don't even drive that much. I bought this car to drive a fast sports car. Now, I barely drive it. That paragraph above was the thrust of the story I planned to write earlier this year. Then, my colleague Lloyd Lee and I tested Tesla FSD against Waymo in San Francisco on May 1. You can read all about that here. TLDR: We ran a red light while in my Tesla's FSD mode. Waymo refused to go that specific route, suggesting that Waymo's software system can't handle that specific intersection either. However, I was shocked by the experience. Walker Smith says there's "a huge difference between running a red light at an intersection and proactively avoiding the intersection." An uncomfortable U-turn About two weeks after that aforementioned test, I was driving in FSD mode with a friend on Highway 280 north toward San Francisco on a sunny and clear day. Traffic built up ahead, so my Tesla pulled off on an exit lane. The onboard map showed that the car planned to wait by a traffic light and then go straight ahead — basically getting back on the highway to try to overtake a few other cars stuck in traffic. Similar to what the Waze app sometimes has drivers do. Once the light turned green, my Tesla turned left under the highway instead, even though the Tesla map showed that we should have gone straight. Then it did a U-turn at a slightly uncomfortable speed (a little too fast, I felt). The worst part was that it did this U-turn from the outside lane on a multi-lane road rather than the designated left-turn lane. And it did this maneuver in front of several traffic police who were attending to a minor incident about 70 feet away. Luckily, there were no cars in the left lane, which was the correct lane from which to do a U-turn or to just turn left. If there had been a car trying to turn left at that moment, we might have crashed into it. I'm not 100% sure of this, but that's my feeling. There was a risk of this happening. After doing the U-turn, the FSD system was going to try to turn left again, taking us, finally, back on Highway 280 north. But again, it was trying to turn from the center lane, not the left turn lane. I disengaged at this point and took over the driving. My friend turned to me in shock. I blushed, which was a strange experience. It was as if I were embarrassed by my car. "Your U-turn examples are new to me," Walker Smith said. "They are wild!" "It's possible that, if another vehicle had been in the left-most lane, then your Tesla would not have attempted a turn," he added. "But it's also possible that it would have." To FSD or not to FSD More recently, about 2 weeks ago, I was in FSD "Chill" mode in San Francisco, driving toward Ocean Beach. The car was on a two-lane road, and the Tesla map showed that it was supposed to pull into a left turn lane in the center of this road. The idea being that we would wait for oncoming traffic to clear and then turn left across the two lanes going the other way. The car put the left indicator on, but didn't go into the left turn lane. I disengaged and pulled gently into the correct lane myself. I still switch FSD on a lot, in "Chill" mode. On Tuesday, for instance, I drove on Highway 101 north to work from one of our WeWork office locations. This trip, and the return journey home, were uneventful and less stressful than driving myself in highway traffic. My FSD free trial ends in June. I'm now less likely to pay $99 a month for this technology. However, when I'm expecting to drive a lot during a particular period, I might pay for it occasionally. The key difference The final words should go to Walker Smith. Having read my diary, he made a crucial point. "Your (and every) version of so-called 'FSD' is merely a driver-assistance system," he told me. "Accordingly, it only works unless and until it doesn't. That's why you have to supervise — indeed, why you are still the driver who is driving." This may seem like quibbling over slight language tweaks. But there's a giant gap between "driver-assistance" systems that still need human supervision and fully autonomous technology that does not have anyone behind the wheel. Walker Smith slapped me on the wrist for writing in my original diary that "I barely drive it." He described this as "a fundamental misunderstanding and misrepresentation of driver-assistance systems." (He also thinks BI should correct the wording of our San Francisco Waymo vs Tesla test story. I checked with my editor, who said no.) Walker Smith described the difference between driver-assistance and automated driving as "climbing a 500-foot cliff with a rope or free-soloing it." Or, the difference between hearing a pilot on a plane say "Hi folks, today we'll be using autopilot" and hearing the pilot say "Hi folks, today you'll be using autopilot because I'm getting off the plane." FSD is an incredible piece of software, until it's not. When it works, it feels like the future. When it doesn't, it reminds you we're not there yet.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Google Maps causes 'chaos' in Germany by pretending motorways closed
It was the start of a four-day weekend for many families, and roads across Germany were already set to be clogged by people heading off on a May holiday break. Then Google Maps decided to redirect drivers away from Germany's famously fast "autobahn" motorways due to dozens of unexpected closures on crucial roads. In a day of what German media called "autobahn chaos", the Ascension Day public holiday on Thursday was marred by lengthy detours for many after it turned out Google Maps was falsely reporting motorway closures across the country. The online navigation service displayed red dots on road sections around Hamburg, Berlin, Frankfurt and other major German cities. However police in Hamburg, Frankfurt, Mainz and the highly populated state of North Rhine-Westphalia could not confirm the closures to dpa. Parts of the Netherlands and Belgium also appeared to be affected by the error on Google Maps. "They can't have closed ALL the motorways," tabloid Bild quoted one Facebook user as posting. "Especially because the traffic news isn't reporting anything." Google told dpa the information was being reviewed and that it was removing closures that were incorrect. "We cannot comment on specific cases," a company spokesman said, noting that the information on Google Maps comes from a combination of third-party providers, public sources and user inputs. "In general, these sources provide a strong basis for comprehensive and up-to-date map material," he said. Google Maps also allows users to report errors being displayed. It's not the first time Google has invented a road closure in Germany, and at the beginning of May, the tech giant's service incorrectly displayed motorway tunnels in eastern Germany's Thuringia state as closed. Following a complaint from the police, the navigation instructions were corrected. Germany's motorways are normally famed for their speed, having many stretches without a speed limit where drivers can go as fast as their Audis, BMWs or Porsches can carry them. In the context of the climate crisis, lawmakers have long been debating efforts to stop drivers speeding on one of the world's few remaining motorways where you can legally - and considerably safely - reach speeds of over 300 km/h.
Express Tribune
7 days ago
- Business
- Express Tribune
Trump's EU tariff threat postponed until July 9
Listen to article US President Donald Trump backed away from his threat to impose 50% tariffs on imports from the European Union next month, restoring a July 9 deadline to allow for talks between Washington and the 27-nation bloc to produce a deal. European assets rallied on Monday. The euro hit its highest level against the dollar since April 30, while European shares surged and were poised to recoup the previous session's losses. Trump had said on Friday said he was recommending a 50% tariff effective from June 1, expressing frustration that trade negotiations with the EU were not moving quickly enough. The threat roiled global financial markets and intensified a trade war that has been punctuated by frequent changes in tariff policies toward US trading partners and allies. The US president's softened stance two days later marked another temporary reprieve in his erratic trade policy, even if the latest whipsawing in decision making reminded policymakers and investors how quickly circumstances could change. READ: EU warns of retaliation on US tariff push Trump, who has repeatedly expressed disdain for the EU and its treatment of the United States on trade, relented after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told him on Sunday that the EU needed more time to come to an agreement. She asked him during a call to delay the tariffs until July, the deadline he had originally set when he announced new tariffs in April. Trump told reporters he had granted the request. "We had a very nice call, and I agreed to move it," Trump said before returning to Washington after a weekend in New Jersey. "She said we will rapidly get together and see if we can work something out." Von der Leyen said in a post on X that she had a "good call" with Trump and that the EU was ready to move quickly. "Europe is ready to advance talks swiftly and decisively," she said. "To reach a good deal, we would need the time until July 9." In early April, Trump set a 90-day window for trade talks between the EU and the United States, which was to end on July 9. But on Friday he upended that time frame and said he wasn't interested in a deal at all. Talks have been stuck, with Washington demanding unilateral concessions from Brussels to open up to US business while the EU seeks an agreement in which both sides could gain, according to people familiar with the talks. The EU already faces 25% US import tariffs on its steel, aluminium and cars and so-called "reciprocal" tariffs of 10% for almost all other goods, a levy that had been due to rise to 20% after Trump's 90-day pause expires in July. The levy could now increase to 50% in a no-deal scenario, which could raise consumer prices on everything from German BMWs, and Porsches to Italian olive oil and hurt demand for French luxury handbags. READ MORE: Trump fires new 50% tariff threat at EU The pan-European STOXX 600 index, rose 1% by 0710GMT as the US deadline was pushed back. The benchmark had lost 0.9% on Friday after Trump unexpectedly called for higher tariffs on EU goods. The automobiles and parts index, sensitive to tariff-related pressures, rebounded by 1.4%. Luxury stocks, highly exposed to the US market, also gained, as did banks. Oil prices edged up Major US stock indexes and European shares had dropped on Friday, and the dollar had weakened, after Trump said Washington planned to impose 50% tariffs on the EU from the beginning of June. Trump has sought to upend the world economy with his trade policies, but after his announcement in April of tariffs on multiple countries sparked financial market upheaval, he dialled down his threats in favour of talks. Since then Washington has inked a pact with Britain and has held discussions with China. But progress with the European Union has been more limited, sparking Trump's ire and adding to broader tensions between the two allies over Trump's "America first" agenda and Europe's longtime reliance on Washington for security and defence needs.
Al Etihad
7 days ago
- Business
- Al Etihad
Trump delays EU tariffs, European markets rally
26 May 2025 11:52 BRUSSELS (Reuters) US President Donald Trump backed away from his threat to impose 50% tariffs on imports from the European Union next month, restoring a July 9 deadline to allow for talks between Washington and the 27-nation bloc to produce a assets rallied on Monday. The euro hit its highest level against the dollar since April 30, while futures in Europe and Germany indicated stocks would open up more than 1.5%.Trump had said on Friday said he was recommending a 50% tariff effective from June 1, expressing frustration that trade negotiations with the EU were not moving quickly enough. The threat roiled global financial markets and intensified a trade war that has been punctuated by frequent changes in tariff policies toward US trading partners and who has repeatedly expressed disdain for the EU and its treatment of the United States on trade, relented after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told him on Sunday that the EU needed more time to come to an asked him during a call to delay the tariffs until July, the deadline he had originally set when he announced new tariffs in April. Trump told reporters he had granted the request."We had a very nice call, and I agreed to move it," Trump said before returning to Washington after a weekend in New Jersey. "She said we will rapidly get together and see if we can work something out."Von der Leyen said in a post on X that she had a "good call" with Trump and that the EU was ready to move quickly."Europe is ready to advance talks swiftly and decisively," she said. "To reach a good deal, we would need the time until July 9." AUTOMAKERS, LUXURY GROUPS RALLY In early April, Trump set a 90-day window for trade talks between the EU and the United States, which was to end on July 9. But on Friday he upended that time frame and said he wasn't interested in a deal at have been stuck, with Washington demanding unilateral concessions from Brussels to open up to US business while the EU seeks an agreement in which both sides could gain, according to people familiar with the EU already faces 25% US import tariffs on its steel, aluminium and cars and so-called "reciprocal" tariffs of 10% for almost all other goods, a levy that had been due to rise to 20% after Trump's 90-day pause expires in levy could now increase to 50% in a no-deal scenario, which could raise consumer prices on everything from German BMWs and Porsches to Italian olive oil and hurt demand for French luxury in European automakers, luxury retailers lead European stock futures higher. Major US stock indexes and European shares had dropped on Friday, and the dollar had weakened, after Trump said Washington planned to impose 50% tariffs on the EU from the beginning of June.
