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"The meeting next week with China will be a very difficult one in that we can no longer have massive trade deficits and job losses. American companies must be prepared to look at other alternatives." U.S. President Donald Trump / March 30, 2017

Reuters / March 30, 2017 President Donald Trump's former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, has told the FBI and House and Senate intelligence committees investigating the Trump campaign's potential ties to Russia that he is willing to be interviewed in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Flynn was fired in February for failing to disclose talks with Russia's ambassador before Trump took office about U.S. sanctions on Moscow.

Driverless vehicles and the end of the trucker Leslie Hook, Financial Times Weekend Magazine / March 30, 2017 New self-driving technology threatens an American way of life Ramona Saucedo has been on the road for nearly two months, and she’s ready to get back home. Standing in front of a dusty white truck in the parking lot of a Flying J truck stop, she fingers her iPhone as she waits for a call from her business partner, who is checking on her progress. If she stays on schedule, driving 10 or 11 hours a day, she’ll be back home in Tucson next week. “I miss cooking my own meals, believe it or not,” she says with a chuckle. At 52, Saucedo has been driving long-haul for nearly a decade, and has the heavy-set build that comes from long hours on the road. It’s a job that runs in the family: her father, brother and son were all truck drivers, and Saucedo says she started driving mainly for the pay. At her old job as an office worker she could barely make ends meet, and had to scrape and scrounge if one of her two children needed a little cash. Now, she drives thousands of miles a week and travels all over the country, sleeping each night inside the truck. Money is no longer a problem. At the truck stop, Saucedo is surrounded by hundreds of drivers who have made similar trade-offs. The United States has more than three million truck drivers, many of whom drive long-haul, or “over the road” as it’s known in the business. As one of the highest paying jobs available that does not require a college degree, trucking can be an economic lifeline. But its future is increasingly uncertain. As the sun sets, the parking lot starts to fill up with drivers stopping for the night. Sleeping in the truck is an integral part of the job. “I call this my ‘tiny house’,” grins Patrick Spicer, 67, a long-haul driver from Reno, as he shows off the inside of his new 2017 Kenworth T680. He gestures to the bunk beds, his guitar, and a box of vanilla-flavoured protein drinks sitting on the floor. There’s a cupboard for clothes, a refrigerator for food and even a pink stuffed unicorn perched on the dash. Spicer, who has stopped to make sure his 60-tonne cargo of wine is properly balanced, is a 20-year veteran of the industry. “If you are smart and don’t waste your money, you can make a good living,” he says. Last year, the median income for a driver with three years’ experience was $57,000, according to the National Transportation Institute. Experienced drivers like Spicer can earn more than $75,000. But he’s not optimistic about what’s ahead. “There is no future in trucking,” he says. He gestures to the parking lot full of 18-wheelers: “In 10 or 15 years, these will all be autonomous trucks. There is no way to stop it.” In an industrial neighbourhood of San Francisco, Stefan Seltz-Axmacher, 27, is one of the people trying to take the humans out of the truck. Sitting in the driver’s seat of a Daimler Freightliner that he has modified, he leans forward and adjusts a pair of robotic feet that rest over the brake and accelerator pedals. Underneath the steering wheel is a small motor that can steer the vehicle. These devices, along with radar and cameras mounted on the exterior, allow the truck to be driven remotely by a human when it is in congested city areas. Once it is on the open highway, the truck can drive itself. “Our intention is for trucks to move from A to B without a human in the vehicle,” Seltz-Axmacher explains. He is the co-founder of Starsky Robotics, a small, two-year-old start-up working on self-driving trucks. As he sees it, this is solving the “core problem” of North American logistics. “It is really hard to get people to live in a truck,” he explains. “Those long-haul drivers are the most sought-after people in logistics.” With a US trucking industry that moves more than 10 billion tonnes of freight a year, his market is already made, he believes. “We would lease the robots to the trucking companies,” he explains. “We are able to go to people who are already looking for drivers, and be their driver.” All over Silicon Valley, one start-up after another is making a similar bet. Not all of them are trying to take human drivers out of the truck completely, as Starsky is, but everyone agrees this will be the outcome of their technologies in the long run. Investors are pouring in. One of these is Jim Scheinman, a venture capitalist at Maven Ventures who has backed start-ups in both autonomous trucks and cars. Self-driving trucks will arrive “significantly before” self-driving cars, he says. “It’s probably going to happen so much faster than city driving, just because [highway driving] is so much easier,” he explains. Highways are much less complex than urban areas, with fewer intersections and clearer road markings. The economic opportunity is tantalising: in the US, trucks carry more than 70 per cent of domestic freight tonnage. Trucking industry revenues were $726bn in 2015, more than the sales of Google, Amazon and Walmart combined. “With trucks we can actually build a billion-dollar company,” Scheinman says — meaning a start-up that is valued at more than $1bn, also known in the Valley as a “unicorn”. Not every self-driving start-up will become a unicorn, of course. Failure is common in the rough-and-tumble world of Silicon Valley, particularly when a sector becomes so hot that even bad ideas can get funding. For trucking start-ups, a turning point came last August, when Uber announced it was buying a six-month-old start-up, Otto, for a price tag of more than $600m in equity. After that, other trucking start-ups found it much easier to raise money. Scheinman, 50, sketches out how he sees the future of transportation. “In my vision of this world of autonomous vehicles, every single vehicle is autonomous, everywhere in the world,” he says, sitting on a terrace at the Battery, a private club in San Francisco frequented by venture capitalists. “It won’t be ‘cars’ or ‘trucks’, it will just be robots. Then you have a much more perfect system, because you don’t have humans making mistakes.” This kind of thinking is setting Silicon Valley up for a clash with the rest of the country, where those “humans making mistakes” represent millions of jobs under threat from automation. In Washington, President Donald Trump has made American jobs a cornerstone of his economic agenda, and has shown a fondness for truckers in particular. “No one knows America like truckers know America,” he said in an Oval Office address in late March, flanked by representatives of the trucking industry. “You see it every day and you see every hill, every valley, every pothole . . . every town, every forest from border to border and ocean to ocean.” The president even climbed into a big rig parked in front of the White House, smiling, waving and honking the horn. Partly this is pandering to his supporters: truck driving is a much more common occupation in states that voted heavily for Trump than it is in states that voted for Hillary Clinton last November. Truck drivers are often choosing between jobs in construction, oil fields or trucking, none of which requires a degree. With current oil prices low, trucking can attract people living in more depressed areas that lack local construction opportunities. Although “over the road” driving is not an easy job, it has long been seen as a way out, and a way up, for those with few other options. The loneliness of life on the road is a frequent complaint, and some truck drivers travel with dogs, or bring their kids along during school holidays, to break the solitude. For couples, a popular option is team driving, which yields extra bonuses because they can drive twice as far in a day. “Some people don’t have houses, they just live in their trucks,” Spicer says approvingly. “If you are a young couple, that is the way to go. I know people that have done that, and saved up for a down payment on a house.” President Trump has routinely lambasted companies that he accuses of moving jobs overseas. It can only be a matter of time, some fear, before he turns his attention to the threat posed to American jobs by robots — and, in particular, self-driving vehicles — precisely at the moment when these technologies are on the verge of maturing. So far his administration has not made its position on self-driving trucks clear. However, in a recent meeting with state governors, transportation secretary Elaine Chao suggested she was worried about how autonomous vehicles might impact truck drivers. “I am very, very concerned about that and very cognisant of those challenges. So we do have to transition people and we need to keep that in mind,” she said. How soon those “transitions” might need to occur is a matter of great debate. Self-driving start-ups can be broadly split into two camps: those working on interim solutions in which a human driver is assisted by self-driving technologies; and those that, like Starsky, are focused on removing the human from the vehicle as soon as possible. The technologies that will hit the road first are firmly in the former camp, which means there will be a period of several years in which the human driver is working side-by-side with the self-driving systems before full autonomy can occur. Daimler, the German carmaker that accounts for 40 per cent of the US truck market, has invested heavily in self-driving technologies. But its top self-driving engineer Derek Rotz says he doesn’t expect fully autonomous trucks — the kind with no driver at all — within his lifetime. “That’s quite frankly something that we are not looking at,” he says. Rotz should know, because he is the engineer who helped develop the first self-driving truck to receive a testing licence in the US, in 2015. That concept vehicle, Daimler’s Freightliner Inspiration, is able to drive itself under certain conditions but also needs a human at the wheel (which is known as level-three autonomy). Rotz explains that many of the systems developed for the Inspiration are now incorporated on current Freightliner trucks, such as predictive cruise control, which uses maps and elevation data to keep the truck at a safe speed going down hills. Drivers will still be needed for a long time to come, he adds. One of the first steps in the journey towards autonomous trucks will be a technique known as platooning, in which trucks follow each other at close distances to save fuel. Each driver in the platoon keeps his or her hands on the wheel, but the engine and the brakes on the rear truck are linked to the front truck, allowing the two vehicles to slow down and speed up perfectly in sync. Peloton, a start-up based in Mountain View, expects to see its platooning systems in use in commercial fleets later this year. Daimler, Volvo and Scania have also demonstrated platooning systems. While platooning is not technically considered self-driving, it is a key test of how willing the industry will be to adopt new forms of automation. Josh Switkes, the chief executive of Peloton, says the start-up is already working on more advanced forms of platooning, including having the rear vehicle steer itself. But he thinks it will be at least a decade before drivers’ jobs start to be really impacted by automation. “Truck drivers today are not going to lose their jobs,” he says. “We see a process where, at least for the foreseeable future, drivers become more important and more highly skilled.” That view is not quite shared by other trucking start-ups in Silicon Valley, particularly those that aim to take the humans out of the vehicle entirely. However, the technical obstacles of realising their vision are significant. Trucks have some unique challenges when it comes to self-driving technology. Their weight, which is at least 12 times greater than a standard passenger car, makes them harder to control, and the vehicle dynamics change considerably depending on their load. A commercial truck must also drive much further than a passenger car, with a typical lifespan of more than a million miles, creating much more wear on delicate self-driving sensors. On top of that, trucks already come with a patchwork of built-in computers: new trucks today will typically have a processor for the brakes, one for the engine, one for the transmission and one for each camera or radar. A safe autonomous system must be able to communicate smoothly across components from different manufacturers. The greatest challenge, however, is that there is simply no room for error. Humans may get distracted and fall asleep, but the general public will hold robots to a higher standard (as was demonstrated last year with the outcry over the first death from Tesla’s Autopilot). The safety advantage of autonomous vehicles is touted by their proponents as one of their key selling points. But what engineers see as a perfect future, the general public can see as terrifying — particularly if that means an 80-tonne truck flying down the freeway with no one in the driver’s seat. If robots are at the wheel, they have to be perfect. To achieve that, autonomous driving systems must be able to recognise and quickly react to everything that crosses their path. “Safety is really not about the 99 per cent use case, it is about the .00001 per cent of the time something crazy happens,” explains Josh Hartung, founder of PolySync, a start-up that makes software for self-driving cars. The hardest scenarios for autonomous vehicles to deal with are unlikely, one-off events, called “edge cases”, such as a child on a scooter or an unexpected stop in a construction zone. The artificial intelligence controlling the vehicle is trained with real-world experiences, so if the AI hasn’t encountered one of those situations before, it won’t know what to do. Edge-case scenarios are one of the main things that have been occupying Alex Rodrigues, the co-founder of Embark, a start-up that is working on autonomous trucks. Rodrigues has been building robots since he was 13, and began with self-driving golf carts before deciding that trucks might hold more commercial opportunities. At 21, he is barely old enough to have a commercial trucking licence (he has a learner’s permit) but that hasn’t stopped him dreaming big. “We are looking to essentially reset how the industry operates, with self-driving as a first-class citizen,” he tells me. Embark’s idea is that its trucks will drive autonomously on highways between set staging areas, and then a human driver will fetch the truck when it exits the highway and drive it to its final destination. “We want to have hand-offs, so there is no human in the vehicle when it is on the highway,” Rodrigues explains. (Scheinman is an investor in Embark.) As each start-up vies for success, the cut-throat competition of the sector has led to a fair share of intrigue. Uber’s purchase of Otto, which was its largest acquisition, has come under particular scrutiny. All of Otto’s co-founders had previously worked at Alphabet, the parent company of Google, which has been developing its own self-driving technology. In February, Uber was served with a lawsuit from Alphabet’s self-driving subsidiary, Waymo, which alleged one of the co-founders of Otto had stolen trade secrets and infringed on patents for a special kind of rotating radar. Uber says the lawsuit is baseless. At the time that the Otto purchase was made, Uber’s chief executive Travis Kalanick waxed eloquent about the potential of the trucking business. In October the company released a slick promotional video that showed an Otto truck on a highway, towing a cargo of Budweiser beer while the truck’s driver sat in the back of the cabin, reading a magazine. But more recently it is Uber’s trucking ambitions that have taken a back seat. Self-driving taxis are Uber’s top priority, and most of the former Otto employees who joined through the acquisition are now working on cars instead. As for the truckers themselves, not all of them will be sad to see their old jobs disappear. Sergei Tulei, an IT specialist and truck driver from Moldova, has sat at both sides of the table. He used to work as a test driver for Otto, an experience that has made him a big fan of what he calls, in a heavy Russian accent, “robot trucks”. Tulei remembers the thrill of sitting behind the steering wheel as the truck started to drive itself. “It’s like you are drinking something from a cup, and you don’t know what’s in it,” he explains. The driver has to be particularly alert in case the truck does something unexpected or starts to drift out of its lane. “You would have to be crazy to say it’s not scary to test in the trucks. But it is safe.” For Tulei, 30, trucking has been his ticket to a better life. He came to the US from Moldova six years ago, and bought his first truck, a 2007 Volvo, shortly after his child was born. He was undeterred by the fact that it had almost a million miles on it, since he had previously worked as a car mechanic. “It is not an easy job, but it is good for guys who are trying to grow, maybe they can make more money, more freedom,” he says. He points to friends in Europe who are doing the job for far less money. “They are dreaming to come here to be a truck driver.” But as Tulei grew his fleet, he found that it was frustrating to manage the drivers on long-haul trips. “They are people, they have their own problems,” he says. “Maybe [the driver] is sick, maybe he’s in a bad mood, maybe he doesn’t want to go to Colorado because it’s snowy there.” Driverless will solve all that, he says. “In 10 or 20 years when we have these autonomous trucks, it will be easier because we won’t have to deal with people, but with robots. If you ask them to go to Texas, they will go to Texas.” The difficulty of recruiting long-haul drivers and the unpopularity of the work are often mentioned as key reasons why greater automation could help the industry. The American Trucking Associations, which lobbies Washington on behalf of trucking companies, estimated that there was a driver shortage of 40,000 in 2014, though it believes this situation has recently improved. However, the ATA’s statements about a shortage of drivers — which support its lobbying efforts to lower the minimum age for long-haul drivers — are at odds with wage data. Over the past 15 years, the incomes of over-the-road truck drivers have not kept up with inflation. Fierce competition has kept freight prices, and driver wages, low. (More than 90 per cent of US trucking companies are small, independent fleets of fewer than six trucks.) At the larger fleets, rapid training programmes and signing bonuses mean a steady churn of new drivers, most of whom stay for less than a year. Annual turnover at big trucking groups is more than 80 per cent, as drivers jump from one company to the next in search of better pay. Start-ups such as Embark point to these numbers as evidence that nobody will really miss the jobs that are being automated away. “When you actually have the human all the way out of the vehicle [on the highway], there’s a whole bunch more of these higher-paying, much preferred local jobs,” says Rodrigues. The drivers fetching the self-driving trucks to and from staging areas, for example, could live at home. Jeff Scorsur, 39, a truck driver who used to own his own fleet, thinks this sounds like a great idea. “It’s not a real fun life,” he explains, referring to his years of long-haul driving. He now works at Embark, where he test drives their autonomous truck, and is optimistic about the human jobs that will exist alongside self-driving vehicles. “In the future there will be some job loss,” he says. “But it’s also an opportunity, to get maybe more skills, a job that can make more money.” Even though drivers’ jobs will be safe while self-driving vehicles require special handling, there are millions of jobs outside of the truck cabin that will be deeply impacted by the coming shift. The trucks support a network of towns based around truck stops, where gas stations, stores, restaurants and laundromats serve the drivers. There are more than seven million people working in trucking and trucking-related industries, according to the ATA — one in 17 working adults in the US. As trucks become self-driving, service jobs at places such as the Flying J could come under threat. It’s a problem that some in Silicon Valley are already worrying about. “What happens to the towns when the trucks don’t stop there?” asks Aaron VanDevender, chief scientist at Founders Fund, the venture capital group started by Peter Thiel. Self-driving trucks will only need maintenance at the beginning and end of their trips, he points out, whereas drivers today have to stop to eat and pee constantly. VanDevender likens this shift to the construction of the US Interstate system in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, which bypassed the smaller towns that lay along older roads such as Route 66. “A lot of those towns were just eviscerated,” he says. “This is like that kind of structural change, but an order of magnitude more intense.” Even though self-driving trucks may be better at moving goods around, they will undermine one of the key economic flows through the centre of the country. As automation has a growing impact on a wider range of industries, Silicon Valley is discussing what role tech companies and government should play in preparing for this shift. For the trucking towns, VanDevender believes that they will require some kind of economic support, otherwise they will collapse. “The sociopolitical consequence of not getting it right is very severe,” he says, referring to the transition to self-driving vehicles. “It’s like the iron law, hungry people riot.” Ideas such as a universal basic income are increasingly popular in the Valley, with some prominent entrepreneurs funding research into the concept. Washington DC is also grappling with the question of how to prepare for a shift in types of jobs. “The challenge for political leaders, for industry, is how do you incorporate the citizenry into this incredible migration to new technology,” says Michael Drobac, a tech lobbyist for Akin Gump, based in Washington DC. He notes that self-driving companies have been beefing up their lobbying teams, preparing for a debate that will profoundly shape their industry and others. “It is not specific to truckers,” he points out. “It is not just the red states, it is everywhere. The economy is changing for everyone.” Ramona Saucedo, the driver from Tucson, recently watched a video of a self-driving truck demo along with some other drivers. “It looked like they were doing a good job, but I don’t know what we’re going to do now,” she says. “The other guy that was sitting there was freaking out, he was like, ‘I’m going to be out of a job now.’” The drivers wondered how robotic vehicles would be regulated, since human drivers are limited to 11 hours’ driving a day under federal law. “It doesn’t get tired, it doesn’t sleep,” Saucedo says. “Will the rules change? That’s our curiosity . . . And who will wash out the truck, if it gets dirty?” Coming from a family of truck drivers, Saucedo feels that self-driving trucks could really impact her community. “It’s going to be devastating for a lot of people,” she says. “There are some drivers that have degrees, but a lot of drivers don’t. And this is their form of making money for their family.” As for Saucedo herself, she says that she is planning to quit in June. It wasn’t exactly the fear of automation, nor the long hours, that prompted her decision. Rather, she points to Washington DC. “There’s just too much uncertainty with the way things are going, with imports,” she says. She is worried that Donald Trump’s America First policies will result in less trade, and therefore less truck freight. Once she sells her truck, Saucedo is planning to find work as a dispatcher or a cargo inspector — a job that is still close to the industry but will remain in demand, even when robots are driving. Leslie Hook is a San Francisco correspondent for the FT .

BBC / March 30, 2017 The US representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Nikki Haley, said on Thursday that "we can't necessarily focus on Assad the way that the previous administration did". Under President Obama, the US said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must go and backed rebels fighting against him. But US resources shifted after the rise of the so-called Islamic state. "Our priority is no longer to sit there and focus on getting Assad out," said Haley. "Our priority is to really look at how do we get things done, who do we need to work with to really make a difference for the people in Syria," she added. (The big question is, should our employees in Washington be spending time, money and effort meddling in the internal affairs of another country on the other side of the world, at a time when we’re forced to use private funding to upgrade our national infrastructure due to a lack of money?)

The Guardian / March 30, 2017 Steve Bannon, the senior adviser to Donald Trump, will not face criminal charges in Florida for voter fraud, prosecutors have ruled, despite them finding evidence that he never lived at or intended to reside at a vacant house in Miami where he was registered to vote. The decision follows an investigation conducted by Katherine Fernandez Rundle, the Miami-Dade state attorney, following the Guardian’s disclosure last year that the former Breitbart chairman and Trump campaign chief held an active voter registration at an abandoned, rented property in the Coconut Grove area of the city. “This investigation revealed evidence that tends to indicate that the subject did not intend to or actually reside in Miami-Dade County,” Fernandez Rundle said. “However, the investigation also revealed sufficient evidence that the subject intended to legally reside in Miami-Dade County,” the document continues. “Therefore, at a minimum, there is reasonable doubt as to the subject’s guilt. Because the evidence is insufficient to prove beyond and to the exclusion of every reasonable doubt that the subject swore falsely on a voter registration application, the state attorney’s office is not pursuing charges. The matter is now closed.” According to the Miami-Dade supervisor of elections, Bannon was registered to vote in the county between 2 April 2014 and 19 August 2016, when he switched his registration to a new address in Sarasota County, a property owned by Andy Badolato, a Breitbart News contributor with whom he had previously worked on political films. The switch came in the same week as the Guardian’s initial report. In January, Sarasota’s elections chief purged Bannon’s name from the county’s roll of voters after concluding that he was simultaneously registered to vote in New York state. Voters who are registered in two places have previously drawn Trump’s ire, the president tweeting on the same day as Bannon’s Sarasota removal that “I will be asking for a major investigation into VOTER FRAUD, including those registered to vote in two states ...” Others who have fallen foul include Steve Mnuchin, Trump’s treasury secretary, and the president’s daughter Tiffany, who held an active New York registration at the same time she was registered to vote as a student in Pennsylvania. “The prosecutor’s ethical obligation persists regardless of the subject being investigated or the charge being contemplated." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "There's two sets of laws, one for the police [powers that be], and one for the ordinary citizens"

Like many elder Americans born in the 1920s and 1930s, I've long been an admirer of Herbert Hoover. So I found this live footage of him and his thoughts are great interest. I'm a deep admirer of history.

Ford will record $295 million Q1 hit from two North American recalls Automotive News / March 29, 2017 Ford Motor Co. said it will take a $295 million hit to its first-quarter earnings from two recalls in North America announced Wednesday, one involving engines that could catch fire and the other involving a persistent door latch problem. Ford CFO Bob Shanks last week alluded to a higher-than-expected warranty cost that will impact Ford’s first quarter earnings. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Ford said the $295 million charge would be absorbed mainly by its North America and Europe business units and would be included in first-quarter results. Ford is calling back 230,000 2014 model year Escapes, 2014-15 Fiesta STs, 2013-14 Fusions and 2013-15 Transit Connects equipped with 1.6-liter GTDI engines. Ford said a lack of coolant circulation can cause the engines to overheat, cracking the cylinder head. That could result in an oil leak that could ignite a fire. Ford said it’s aware of 29 reports of fires in the U.S. and Canada; no injuries have been reported. Ford currently doesn’t have service kits available and told customers to continue to drive their vehicles. The company advised customers to seek a dealer if their vehicle leaks coolant. It will mail customers instructions on how to check and refill coolant. About 208,584 of the affected vehicles are in the U.S. and federalized territories, 21,854 are in Canada and 318 are in Mexico. The affected vehicles: • 2014 Escapes built at Louisville [U.S.] Assembly from Feb. 12, 2013 to Sept. 2, 2014 • 2014-15 Fiesta ST built at Cuautitlan [Mexico] Assembly from Jan. 22, 2013 to May 27, 2014 • 2013-14 Fusion built at Hermosillo [Mexico] Assembly from Feb. 15, 2012 to June 6, 2014 • 2013-15 Transit Connects built at Valencia [Spain] Assembly from June 13, 2013 to Dec. 14, 2014 Ford on Wednesday also expanded a door latch recall to nearly 211,000 vehicles including 2014 Fiestas, 2013-14 Fusions and 2013-14 Lincoln MKZs. Last September, Ford recalled an additional 1.5 million vehicles for the same issue. Since 2014, the total number of vehicles Ford has recalled for various door-latch problems has topped 4 million. Separately, the automaker Wednesday issued two other recalls covering another 659 vehicles. Ford is recalling 548 2017 model year F-450 and F-550 trucks with faulty driveshafts. Ford said continued operation of those vehicles could result in fractured tranmissions or driveline components, which could cause power loss while driving or unintended moving while parked. Finally, Ford is recalling 111 2017 model year Edges for missing windshield header welds. Ford isn’t aware of any accidents or injuries in the three other recalls.

Volkswagen cleared by EPA to sell repaired 2015 diesels Bloomberg / March 29, 2017 Volkswagen AG will soon do what's been impossible since its emissions crisis began: sell diesel-powered cars in the U.S. The company received approval from the EPA for dealers to sell 2015 model year diesels after updating the vehicles' emissions software, VW Group of America spokeswoman Jeannine Ginivan said. The software update is part of a required emissions repair approved by the EPA and California Air Resources Board. The repair will also include changes to diesel engine hardware, but dealers do not have to wait until the repair parts become available early next year, Ginivan said. "We are still finalizing the details of this program and will provide more information on its implementation at the appropriate time," Ginivan said in a statement. Volkswagen admitted in 2015 to rigging nearly 500,000 diesel cars to pass U.S. emissions tests. The company froze sales of new and certified used diesels in the U.S. while it worked with regulators on an approved fix. The company has set aside $24 billion (22.6 billion euros) to cover costs and fines related to the scandal. Significant milestone Reviving diesel sales marks a significant milestone in VW's efforts to recover from the scandal and rebuild its relationship with environmental regulators. It also returns a key product to dealer showrooms that attracted a cult-like customer base and accounted for about 20 percent of the VW brand's pre-scandal sales. Yet it's a mostly symbolic step. The sales approval only applies to about 67,000 diesels from the 2015 model, about 12,000 of which are currently in dealer inventory, Ginivan said. An EPA spokeswoman didn't immediately return messages seeking comment. Volkswagen has also said no new diesel models will be offered in the U.S. at least through model year 2018. The company is moving aggressively toward electric vehicles, signaling a diminishing role for diesel engines in the company's portfolio, especially in the U.S. The program will also eventually include used 2015 diesels the company has repurchased from owners through the 2016 settlement with U.S. regulators and owners, she said. Some customers have elected to keep their cars and receive restitution and an emissions repair under the terms of its $10 billion buyback.

Evidence of how convoluted and hopeless things have become. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seattle sues Trump administration over threat to 'sanctuary' cities Reuters / March 29, 2017 The city of Seattle sued U.S. President Donald Trump's administration on Wednesday over its executive order seeking to withhold federal funds from "sanctuary cities," arguing it amounted to unconstitutional federal coercion. Seattle Mayor Ed Murray says the Constitution forbade the federal government from pressuring cities, “yet that is exactly what the president’s order does. Once again, this new administration has decided to bully.” “Things like grants helping us with child sex trafficking are not connected to immigration,” Murray said, adding: "It is time for cities to stand up and ask the courts to put an end to the anxiety in our cities and the chaos in our system." U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions threatened on Monday to strip Justice Department grants from cities and other local governments that choose to shield illegal immigrants from deportation efforts. Trump, who made tougher immigration enforcement a cornerstone of his campaign, directed the government in his Jan. 25 executive order to cut off funding to sanctuary jurisdictions. That order has yet to be put into effect, but Sessions' announcement seemed to be the first step in doing so. Trump administration officials say the immigration crackdown is focused on illegal immigrants convicted of serious crimes. Responding to the Seattle lawsuit, a U.S. Justice Department representative said in a statement: "Failure to deport [illegal] aliens who are convicted of criminal offenses makes our nation less safe by putting dangerous criminals back on our streets." Seattle’s action was the latest legal salvo over the Trump immigration order from local governments across the country, including the city of San Francisco and California’s Santa Clara County. Police agencies in dozens of "sanctuary" cities, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, have barred their officers from routinely checking on immigration status when making arrests or traffic stops. They have also refused to detain people longer than otherwise warranted at the request of federal agents seeking to deport them. Supporters of the policy argue that enlisting police cooperation in rounding up immigrants for removal undermines communities' trust in local police, particularly among Latinos. Murray said the goal of Seattle's lawsuit was to have the courts declare that federal authorities “cannot force our local police officials to be involved in federal immigration activities.”

Chao says Trump to unveil $1 trillion infrastructure plan in 2017 Reuters / March 29, 2017 U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said the Trump administration would unveil a $1 trillion infrastructure plan later this year. She did not provide any details on the funding. Chao said the infrastructure initiative would include "a strategic, targeted program of investment valued at $1 trillion over 10 years. The proposal will cover more than transportation infrastructure, it will include energy, water and potentially broadband and veterans hospitals as well." Chao's comments were the most detailed timetable from the administration about its plans to unveil a plan to modernize U.S. roads, bridges, airports, electrical grid and water systems. Chao said the administration plans to offer incentives for public-private partnerships rather than simply fund improvements. It’s unknown how much new federal funding the Trump administration would propose. Chao said the plan would aim to speed the processes for government projects. Earlier this month, Trump proposed $16.2 billion for the Department of Transportation's discretionary budget for fiscal year 2018, a reduction of 13 percent. The budget would eliminate $175 million in annual funding for the Essential Air Service, a program to support commercial air service to rural airports and end subsidies for Amtrak to operate long-distance train service. The Trump budget would also eliminate the Obama administration's "TIGER" grant program, saving $499 million. That program has been used to fund a variety of transportation projects, including high-speed and intracity rail, highway construction and transit bus systems.

The 1961 film says it is hosted by Herbert Hoover (1874-1964).

HPD Demo Truck Heads to the UK Jacobs Vehicle Systems Press Release / March 29, 2017' Jacobs Vehicle Systems' High Power Density (HPD) Demo Truck will be making a stop at the Beaconsfield Service Area on April 6th. Professional truck drivers will have the opportunity to try Jacobs' latest engine braking technology on the M40 and provide feedback. If you will be in the area, join us from 9:00 to 18:00 at Extra Motorway Services in Beaconsfield, UK. If you can't make it, watch our latest videos from previous HPD demos or visit www.jacobsdrivesthefuture.com. HPD Advantages 200% Increase Double the braking power at cruise speeds - The engine brake power is significantly increased at lower engine speeds compared to conventional compression release brakes. 175 kg Increase Increased payload for the retarding performance you need - Jacobs' integrated, simple design allows for reduced package and mass resulting in increased payload by providing all the retarding performance you need. 3,500 Euro Decrease Lower total cost of ownership - While providing increased foundation brake life, truck uptime, and higher resale value, Jacobs' HPD technology comes at a fraction of comparable retarder devices that offer the same power. . .

A possibility is Metalsa is supplying the frame components and Westport is performing final assembly. Metalsa will supply completed frame assemblies, or rails and crossmembers separately. Again, here's there customer list:

Yes

Transport Engineer / March 28, 2017 Goodyear has launched a new campaign which sees the tyre manufacturer guaranteeing that it will accept 100% of casings for retreading. The Customer Own Casing (COC) scheme means all casings, with no visual defects, can undergo retreading – helping fleet operators to reduce their total cost of ownership, says Goodyear. The company says its Multiple Life Concept – which combines regrooving and retreading – reduces tyre costs by up to 10% while it increases mileage by up to 25% compared to using two sets of new tyres. In addition, there are environmental benefits through using fewer materials in the process, and lower fuel consumption and CO2 emissions thanks to the extended performance of the retreaded tyre. The benefit of the COC scheme is that the operator knows the history of the tyres being retreaded. “Accepting more casings from our customers for retreading means one less worry for the vehicle operator. The Goodyear Multiple Life Concept maximises tyre performance, lowers running costs and improves the CO2 footprint,” says Grégory Boucharlat, Goodyear Dunlop’s director of retread operations EMEA. Goodyear’s 100% COC acceptance guarantee is available now and applies to tyre sizes 295/60R22.5, 295/80R22.5, 315/60R22.5, 315/70R22.5, 315/80R22.5 385/55R22.5 385/65R22.5 and 435/50R19.5. .

Land Line (OOIDA) / March 28, 2017 A trucking company in Virginia and four of its executives were indicted in a U.S. District Court on March 16 on 126 counts including more than 50 counts each of false statements and falsifying records. The trucking company was hired by the United States Postal Service to transport mail for more than half a billion dollars over the past 10 years. Since 1999, Gerald Beam, Garland Beam, Shaun Beam and Nickolas Kozel of Beam Bros. Trucking either encouraged or required employees to violate Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration regulations, including hours-of-service regs, according to federal court documents. This was done by planning trips that could not be completed within HOS regs and encouraging drivers to falsify records of duty status. Additionally, Beam Bros. Trucking did not pay drivers for “on-duty” time as required by the Service Contract Act (SCA). SCA requires subcontractors hired by the U.S. government to pay employees for each hour or portion of an hour worked at a rate no less than minimum wage. According to SCA regulations, this includes waiting time. Only periods of time when an employee is “completely relieved of duty and long enough for him or her to effectively use that time for their own purposes” are considered “off-duty” when working under SCA. According to court documents, drivers for Beam Bros. Trucking may not have been aware of the SCA pay plan. Drivers were told they would not be paid for short rest periods, waiting for loads, etc. An indictment claims drivers were not informed of SCA pay requirements. Beam Bros. Trucking prevented drivers who were aware of SCA from sharing that information with fellow drivers and government agencies. Since the egregious cover-up of driver pay and violations of FMCSA regulations was done under a government contract, Beam Brothers was charged with Conspiracy to Commit an Offense Against the United States, among the many other charges. The indictment is seeking at least $40 million from Beam Brothers Trucking and the four named defendants.

No comment.

Iepieleaks / March 28, 2017 Scania seems to be working on a new generation of V8 engines. Well informed sources from Scandinavia inform Iepieleaks that there will be a new V8 engine with SCR only. That means that Scania is getting rid of the EGR sytem for almost the complete engine line! The new engine will have two turbo-chargers and one of them is a VGT turbo. The maximum output is said to be 760 horsepower, an increase of 30 horsepower compared with the existing model. The other engine ratings will be 520, 580 and 650. The 650 horsepower rating should be the most powerful engine that can be ordered with a manual transmission, but only in the R- cab. .

Commercial Motor TV - sponsored by DAF Trucks / March 27, 2017 .

Scania Group Press Release / March 28, 2017 In 2016, Scania saw a significant uptake in business relating to sustainable transport. The increase reflects a growing demand for both products and services. The number of vehicles that Scania sold that run on alternative fuels and hybrids increased by 40 percent in 2016, a proof point of the company’s efforts to lead the shift towards a sustainable transport system. In total, close to 5,000 such vehicles were sold in 2016. “The demand for vehicles that support the shift to sustainable transport is growing and so is the demand for services that support fleet owners in reducing fuel consumption, and consequently also both carbon emissions and cost. This proves that sustainability and profitability go hand-in-hand,” says Henrik Henriksson, President and CEO of Scania. Almost 40,000 of Scania’s customers’ drivers were trained in fuel-efficient driving in 2016. This is a year-on-year increase of 30 percent. Ecolution by Scania is another area that has shown significant growth. A consultancy service that on average saves 12 percent in fuel and CO2 emissions for customers, the number of Ecolution by Scania contracts signed in 2016 increased by 37 percent from 2015, to more than 2,700. For more than 25 years, Scania has produced commercial biofuel solutions, and today the company provides the largest variety of engines for alternative fuels on the market.

Renault Trucks Press Release / March 28, 2017 Renault Trucks offers its customers vehicles enabling them to make their business grow. This film demonstrates that the new Renault Trucks vehicles are profit centers and reveals the Unique Selling Points related to the new range D (Distribution range) compared to the previous Renault Trucks range and compared to the competitors' range. .

Ford plans to invest an additional $350 million in Michigan plants Automotive News / March 28, 2017 Ford Motor Co. will add $350 million in new investments at two Michigan assembly plants on top of previously pledged spending. The automaker said Tuesday it will invest $200 million in its Flat Rock Assembly Plant for an advanced data center. It will also spend $150 million at its Michigan Assembly Plant in addition to what was pledged two years ago as part of the automaker’s contract with the UAW. The latest planned outlay at Flat Rock follows a $700 million spending plan announced by CEO Mark Fields in January. Both of this year’s announcements at Flat Rock -- which builds the Ford Mustang and Lincoln Continental -- are separate from a $400 million pledge for the factory that was part of the 2015 UAW deal. That UAW accord also included a Ford promise to invest $700 million in Michigan Assembly to re-tool the plant to build the Ranger and Bronco later this decade. On Tuesday, Ford said that changeover would require more spending. “Back in 2015, we hadn’t done a full-blown plan on how to convert the plant,” Joe Hinrichs, Ford’s president of the Americas, said in an interview. “Now that we’re in the implementation phase, it’s been a little more than we originally thought.” He called the initial $700 million for Michigan Assembly estimate “a little conservative” and said the added cost was not a surprise. The automaker also reaffirmed a $150 million investment in its Romeo Engine plant. That spending was also pledged in 2015 when Ford signed a four-year pact with the union. Ford’s investment will result in 130 created or retained jobs at Romeo Engine. Hinrichs said the number of new jobs will be “incremental.” In total, Tuesday's announcement brings spending across the three plants to $1.2 billion. Ford shares closed Tuesday up 1.7 percent to $11.65 a share. Hinrichs said Ford’s government affairs team informed the White House of its plans early today. In response, President Donald Trump tweeted at 6:36 a.m.: “Big announcement by Ford today. Major investment to be made in three Michigan plants. Car companies coming back to U.S. JOBS! JOBS! JOBS!” Hinrichs said today’s news wasn’t related to the “very, very big, very important” auto industry announcement Trump teased on his March 15 visit to the American Center for Mobility in suburban Detroit. “We had not had any discussions with the administration or given them a heads-up,” Hinrichs said. “We don’t believe this is what he was talking about.” State support In a related action, the Michigan Strategic Fund on Tuesday approved a $10 million performance-based grant and a state essential services assessment exemption worth $10.4 million over 15 years for the Flat Rock investment. The MSF said the Flat Rock investment will result in 650 qualified new jobs with the potential for 700 new jobs. The MSF also approved money for the Michigan Assembly and Romeo Engine projects, including a $2 million performance based grant; an alternative state essential services assessment exemption of $1.3 million over 15 years in Romeo; and an assessment exemption of $7.25 million over 15 years for Michigan Assembly. On Twitter, the Michigan Economic Development Corp.said all three Ford projects would generate more than $2 billion in total capital investment, create 800 new jobs and retain 3,600 jobs. ‘Good day’ Ford will begin re-tooling its Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne in May 2018. The small car plant currently makes the Focus and C-Max. Hinrichs declined to say when production of those two products would stop to make way for the Ranger and Bronco. Ford said the changeover will take four weeks. “It’s similar to Dearborn,” Hinrichs said, referencing Ford’s 2014 transformation of its Dearborn Truck Plant to install the equipment to build the redesigned aluminum-bodied F-150 pickup. The Romeo Engine investment will allow the plant to build components for several vehicles, including the Ranger and Bronco, Ford said. The facility currently builds engines for the Super Duty, E-Series, Ford Shelby GT350 Mustang and Shelby GT350R Mustang. It makes engine components for F-Series, Mustang, Explorer and Edge. “UAW-Ford is proud of the total investments in three of our Southeast Michigan assembly and engine plants, which will lead to stronger job security for our members and continued support for the surrounding communities,” UAW-Ford Vice President Jimmy Settles said in a statement. Ford says it has invested $12 billion in its U.S. plants and created nearly 28,000 U.S. jobs over the past five years. “Any time we have major investment news for Michigan and the U.S., it’s a big deal for the economy,” Hinrichs said. “It’s a good day for Romeo, Wayne and Flat Rock. We’re excited to continue investing in the U.S.” Negative reaction Trump in his Tuesday morning tweet did not take credit for Ford’s news, but nevertheless drew scorn from Democrats and others. Steven Rattner, who served as head of former President Barack Obama’s automotive task force during the industry’s meltdown in 2008-09, said the president’s tweet was misleading. “The big news ended up being only 130 jobs in MI that were announced back in 2015,” Rattner tweeted. The Michigan Democratic Party also criticized Trump’s tweet. "Donald Trump taking credit for Ford's latest investment in Michigan is like a kid telling his friends he made dinner when his dad picked up a Hot-N-Ready from Little Caesars," Brandon Dillon, chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party, said in a statement. "These investments are the result of collective bargaining between UAW and Ford in 2015, made possible by President Barack Obama's faith in America's auto workers." U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., whose 12th district includes Ford's headquarters in Dearborn, said in a statement that Ford’s announcement was a cause to celebrate U.S. manufacturing. “Today’s announcement is further proof of Ford’s commitment to producing in Michigan and the United States," she wrote. "Ford’s roots run deep in Michigan’s 12th District, and these investments bolster the company’s dedication to building its highest-tech vehicles here in the U.S. and strengthen its commitment to American workers, who are the best in the world." Ford Press Release - https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/fna/us/en/news/2017/03/28/ford-investing-one-point-two-billion-in-three-michigan-facilities.html

(I posted here because the film relates to the "League of Nations", predecessor to the United Nations.) This is a great video. I'm sure many have never seen a film of Hoover or heard him speak. He was one of the great presidents. As Archie and Edith Bunker once sang, "we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again." Boy the way Glenn Miller played Songs that made the Hit Parade Guys like us we had it made Those were the days. And you knew who you were then Girls were girl and men were men Mister, we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again Didn't need no welfare state Everybody pulled his weight Gee our old Lasalle ran great Those were the days!

International Trucks officially returns to Australia Prime Mover Magazine / March 23, 2017 The International brand has officially returned to Australia with the launch of the new ProStar range in Melbourne last night. The much-anticipated unveiling ceremony at the Iveco Australia plant in Dandenong officially put an end to a two-year waiting period that began with an announcement by International parent company, Navistar, to bring the brand back to Australia at the 2015 Brisbane Truck Show. International-branded trucks had been manufactured and or assembled at Iveco’s heritage-listed facility from 1952 through to 2001. Iveco Australia once again secured the distribution rights for the brand in late 2016 and has since been working on adapting the ProStar range to the local Australian operating environment. According to Michael Jonson, Managing Director of Iveco Australia, the return thus marks a “homecoming” to the location where thousands of International commercial vehicles originated. “Welcome home, International,” he said in Melbourne. “The brand’s DNA still runs deep today with the current Iveco ACCO range sharing its lineage with earlier ACCOs developed under the International brand.” The ProStar, the first model to be sold under the revived International label, will be available in day cab, extended cab with a fully ADR-compliant bunk, and integrated full-size sleeper cab variants, and in a choice of five wheelbases. A key selling point of the new range, according to International Engineering Manager, Adrian Wright, is the short ‘bumper to back of cab’ (BBC) configuration, making the ProStar models suitable for a variety of combinations. “The day cab will fit in front of virtually any Australian trailer set,” he said. “The ProStar is also well suited for truck and dog work, for use as a 34-pallet B-double, 36-pallet B-double and even B-triple and two trailer road train work.” According to Jonson, initial dealer feedback on the revived brand has been exceptional: Iveco reportedly planned to start off with a batch of around 100 units, but dealer interest was so strong that more trucks will be ordered from Navistar. Versatile design One aspect that convinced Iveco dealers was the new range’s sturdy design: To ensure longevity and durability in demanding Australian conditions, Wright said the 2.1m-wide cab is constructed from high strength steel panels, zinc coated on both sides then fully dipped in e-coat primer, while the new models also benefit from a high tensile steel chassis with 9.5mm thick side members and huck-bolted cross members. All vehicles will be powered by the latest E5 Cummins X15 SCR engine, producing 550hp (410 kW) and 1850 lb. ft. (2,508 Nm) of torque. “The engine, an evolution of the X15e5, is well proven in the local market and has been extensively tested here by International in conjunction with Cummins,” Wright said. Coupled to the engine is a choice of either an Eaton 18-speed manual, which features an effort-reducing ‘air over hydraulic’ clutch, or an Eaton ‘UltraShift Plus’ 18-speed automated manual (AMT). Power to the rear Meritor tandem axles is provided via a Dana SPL driveshaft, and traction is aided by power divider lock and cross locks on both rear drive axles. Up front, the models use Meritor MFS axles with aluminium alloy hubs for reduced tare weight, while the suspension is three-leaf parabolic taper-leaf unit with 6,500 kg capacity. Rear suspension comes courtesy of a Hendrickson in the guise of the Primaax-EX Air Tandem, se -up for a 20,900kg capacity. On the safety front, the ProStar features ABS brakes with Automatic Traction Control; and trucks specified with the UltraShift Plus transmission are also equipped with Hill Start Aid. Inside the cabin, Wright said International engineers have concentrated on delivering a working environment, “that delivers high functionality and ergonomic design”. Ambitious outlook “The ProStar offers a tried and proven formula that has been missing here for several years,” Wrigth explained, adding more models and variations will follow once the initial rollout is finalised. “It’s an innovative and efficient truck in many ways, but also has very solid and proven fundamentals that will appeal to local operators. “The trucks have a proven drivetrain package and strong underpinnings to handle Australia’s tough geographic and climatic conditions. The commonality and widespread availability of the drivetrain componentry allows for easy serviceability and maintenance leading to reduced operating costs. “When combined with the latest engine technology from Cummins and class-leading aerodynamics, you get the best of both worlds.” Yesterday’s launch event was attended by a number of senior executives from Navistar in the US to underline the importance of the project for both Navistar and Iveco Australia. “The return of International to Australia has been eagerly awaited, especially given the high standing the brand enjoys here courtesy of earlier models and a very long and successful pedigree,” said Federico Palomo, Vice President for Global Export – adding the brand was finally back where it belonged. “These historical aspects aside, we also know that prospective customers in Australia are also extremely excited by the outstanding features and benefits that the new ProStar models will deliver to their operations. “There was an obvious gap in the local market for a high quality and versatile, yet affordable North American-style truck that could get the tough jobs done with a minimum of fuss. Navistar is extremely pleased to have worked closely with Iveco Australia to bring the International ProStar to market down under.”