Autonomous vehicles – the weakest link

The nut holding the steering wheel

Anyone who is truly interested in cars has been told that the weakest part is the nut holding the steering wheel. Ha ha – everyone laughs at that one. But how many actually think it applies to them?

I’m not a confident driver. Sure, I’ve driven for 30+ years, so far avoiding any serious accident or collision. Sure, I’ve driven many different makes and types of car – from a Van Diemen Formula Ford to a Ford Cosworth Scorpio. But I find driving stressful.

According to almost every article that I’ve read on the subject, I should be the ideal prospect for an autonomous car. But I’m not, for three reasons.

1911 Argyll – winner of the 2007 Gordon Bennett Rally – definitely NOT an autonomous car

The challenge

The little boy in me finds something exciting about driving, and I think it’s overcoming the challenge.

If you analyse it, driving is a pretty cerebral activity. You have to think about where you are going and how to get there.  You have to comply with many rules and regulations; Wikipedia says there are 307 numbered rules and 9 annexes in the 2004 edition of the UK’s Highway Code. And you have to control your vehicle on wet and dry, straight and curved, flat and cambered surfaces. On top of that you might find yourself arguing with Radio 4, singing along to Bohemian Rhapsody or explaining to your 10-year-old son that no, we still aren’t nearly there yet.

Who would be responsible if this driver’s car rear-ends the one in front?

But while I worry about driving, I most definitely feel I’ve achieved something if I arrive safely without mishap.

My concern is that autonomous cars provide an opportunity for over-confident, lazy, non-compliant drivers to drive even more dreadfully. After all, just like the dog they own that’s bitten your toddler, the car has a mind of its own. It’s not the owner’s fault.

The terrain

Every time I read an article on autonomous cars through social media, I feel compelled to comment. This is usually in the form of a challenge, specifically; I will be a convert if an autonomous car can get me safely from home to Marks Tey railway station and back again in the evening. So far, Tesla, Volvo, Uber, Amazon and VW have all ignored my challenge.

Every video I’ve seen demonstrating an autonomous car seems to involve a long, straight highway with multiple lanes. I therefore think the reason for refusing the Marks Tey challenge is simple – they can’t do it. Why can’t they?  It’s simply too difficult.

How well do autonomous cars deal with compliance when someone else doesn’t?

Where’s the edge of the road?

One of the things that worries me is how do automomous cars cope with a mis-match between data and reality?

I’m pretty sure that most of the route [to Marks Tey] doesn’t comply with current highway construction regulations. There are crumbled edges to road surfaces where there are no kerbs and ‘odd’ shaped mini-roundabouts. There are missing sign-posts and road markings. And there are more wiggy bits than straight ones.

My sat-nav says this doesn’t exist. Could you trust the data used by an autonomous car?

Oh, and my sat-nav still thinks that I drive across fields on my way to Harrogate as the A1 passes through Ferry Bridge.

That last one is a real biggy for me. Think about it., My sat-nav doesn’t know about a huge road construction and realignment programme that took place at the junction of the A1 and M62 about 10 years ago.

So if it were left in charge of my car, how could I be sure the sat-nav wouldn’t simply drive across the fields between here and Marks Tey? Or stop on the M62 an try to turn sharp left down some single-track lane?

And if the answer were that I would have to drive those sections, what on Earth would be the point? Those are the bits I find difficult and that I want some help with!

Oh Lord won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz

Well he has. Or more accurately, I have. And I like it. It’s a lovely place to be, which isn’t overly spoiled by all the things that make me a nervous driver. By the way, the usual reason I drive is that I’m an even more nervous passenger.

Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz

My Mercedes Benz isn’t new – but it’s much newer than the BMW it replaced, though much older than my wife’s Ford Fiesta. You see, I would rather spend my money on maintenance than depreciation. My cars tend to do high mileages, where as my wife’s cars don’t. That means she can lease hers new. But that would be prohibitively expensive for me – plus we’d end up with two small cars instead of a small car and a big car.

While not everyone would follow exactly the same path to car selection, I KNOW huge numbers of people own older cars outright and have absolutely no plans to change them. This is a model that’s actually embedded in the motor industry and will take years to change.

Depreciation and residual values

Think about this. Read any ‘What Car?’ comparison review [other titles are available] and I guarantee you that they will talk about depreciation and PCP prices. These two things are inexorably linked.

The Dacia Sandero – approx. £8,000 new
Audi A1 – approximately £14,000 new

For proof, check out these values for a Dacia Sandero (approximately £8,000 new) and an Audi A1 (approximately £14,000 new). The PCP cost of the Audi is only around £30 per month more than the Dacia even though it costs almost twice the price new. The reason – the Audi’s far higher retained value. That value is entirely dependent on desirability – people want a 2nd-hand Audi, but probably not a Dacia.

So while Tesla can charge forward with their electric autonomous cars, I fail to see how Audi, BMW and Mereceds Benz will follow. For them to get on-board with ideas about ‘driverless cars on demand’ proposed by the likes of Uber and Apple seems impossible. They have a HUGE investment in aspiration for their brand. That includes massive investment in their used car programme. They simply couldn’t afford to right that off. It has taken over 130-years to build the Mercedes brand.  through careful product evolution. Who is going to buy a 2nd-hand Mercedes if it is nothing like the latest products.

I think it’s more likely that manufacturers of cheap cars with poor residual values (like Dacia) are more likely to succeed – if they can make them cheaply. But honestly, can you see how that would work?

A little bit of the hippie in me …

At this point I will leave you to ponder Janice Joplin’s fabulous little protest song from the driver’s seat of your Tesla. I’m sure you can order-up a download through that amazing and huge central screen. If you’re a bit more ‘old school’, there’s a copy of the lyrics for your delectation at the bottom of this post.

 

Mercedes Benz

Janis Joplin

Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz?
My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends.
Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends,
So Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz?

Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a color TV?
Dialing For Dollars is trying to find me.
I wait for delivery each day until three,
So oh Lord, won’t you buy me a color TV?

Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a night on the town?
I’m counting on you, Lord, please don’t let me down.
Prove that you love me and buy the next round,
Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a night on the town?

Everybody!
Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz?
My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends,
Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends,
So oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz?

That’s it!

Written by Bob Neuwirth, Janis Joplin, Michael Mcclure • Copyright © Universal Music Publishing Group

A request to dumb-ass link builders

Dear dumb-ass link builder:

Please treat our website with respect.

Black-hat link building is just braying at the wind

I screen comments; so sending spammy posts full of links to crazy, unconnected websites just annoys me and gets your comment marked as SPAM.

To anyone who hires a dumb-ass spammy link-builder, I would respectfully suggest that you go look up how search engines work. Here’s a good starting point : https://www.google.com/search/howsearchworks/algorithms/ – because you are being very badly served by these charlatans.

Dear genuine link builders

If you genuinely consider that having a link from my website to yours (or your client’s) would be a good idea, then please send us an email with your ideas on why we should and how we could do that. Normally, we’ll ask (sometimes beg) people to write or contribute to our blogs and articles, so we usually view offers of ‘free content’ with deep suspicion, therefore do your best to reassure us of your best intentions. And don’t just promise to send us a PDF of YOUR terms and conditions – we have our own, and frankly IT’S OUR WEBSITE.

Why are we ranting?

We’re fed-up to the eight-teeth (sorry – had to have a dental reference) with seeing spam comment after spam comment. We, like many owners of websites, receive machine-generated emails seeking opportunities to post cheaply written, badly researched, spammy crap on our site, almost always relating to subjects neither related to clients/partners, nor of interest to us or that we have expertise in. Why would we want that on our site?

I spent a year or so working for a very large SEO agency shortly before I moved away from Yorkshire. It may not have been long enough for me to become a genuine SEO expert, but I know enough to understand that content only truly contributes to SEO if it is genuinely useful and original. I think it’s important that anyone who considers investing in SEO to deliver their marketing objectives should take the trouble to understand it, to some extent at least.

It’s hard work, but it’s not ‘Magic’. You don’t need mystic powers – just experience, clear thought processes and consistency. You have to write copy in a structured way, sort out fiddly meta data and do some technical design work. The one thing you don’t need is to have some dumb-ass link builder sticking multiple copies of automated, spammy comments on completely unrelated websites. Believe it or not, both Google and Bing are wise to such dodgy behaviour to the point where they will punish guilty sites.

SEO is not a commodity

So, if you want to improve the number of leads seen on your website, talk to a genuine expert. SEO is not a commodity – it’s a marketing discipline, just like advertising, direct mail or attending trade shows. You wouldn’t look to book adverts just because they media is cheap; you’d surely book something that addresses your target market. The same applies to SEO.

Paul Lymer – Digital Marketer and SEO geek

That is why we work in association with Paul Lymer at Improve Marketing. Paul’s tenure as the CMO at an incredibly successful entertainment / experiential brand is only one part of his career. He’s now applying that career full of learning to the needs of a wide range of clients. Paul devises innovative digital and SEO strategies that are firmly based in reality. His work is imaginative yet closely linked to client business goals and the messaging and stories we help craft.

So if you’re interested in making your website work harder for you, call us and not a dumb-ass.

ps: Since posting this blog I’ve received yet more spammy comments. I’ve marked them as spam, and here’s why;

  1. I don’t WANT to monetise my site, so don’t try posting spammy, link-filled comments on my site telling me how to do it. Personally, I think it would be unprofessional and rude to monetise a site that is there essentially to help me win business.
  2. You clearly haven’t read my website or any of my blog posts so how can you add a valid comment anyway? Off-topic = off my site.
  3. I don’t speak Russian (or any other East European language) and I don’t understand the Cyrillic Alphabet, so WHY would I allow you to post something I can’t read? I have friends who can read Russian, Romanian and Lithuanian and will ask them to help me write material in those languages if I need to because I trust them but I don’t know you from Ivan (or Adam).

Dental lab work and patient care

The Lab Man cometh

The arrival of the courier bringing the day’s lab work causes mild excitement in every dental practice. In many practices, the appointment book is organised to take advantage of this; we usually take impressions before his/her arrival, and carry out fittings afterwards.

Lab work – it can make a dental nurse jump with joy or swear like a trooper

For the patient, this looks like so much admin. For the dentist, this is (often) just delivery of materials. For the nurse it is STRESS!

The reason is simple – nurses are the interface between the ‘lab man’, the patient and the dentist. Lab work not dispatched or didn’t arrive? Blame the nurse. If the lab work doesn’t fit or is some other way defective it’s the nurses fault. If it means an extra appointment it’s the nurses fault. If it hasn’t been labelled and packed correctly it’s the nurse’s fault; actually, in that case it really is the nurse’s fault.

Much ado about huffing (and puffing)

So what? You might well ask, but actually I think this is important. Lab work not fit for purpose (or that arrives late) seriously impacts both patient care and dental practice working (and profitability). The same thing applies to internal systems that don’t accurately track the whereabouts of lab work – but that’s a different story.

I would argue that management of lab work is critical to running a successful dental practice. I would also argue that reducing reliance on external laboratories would boost practice efficiency and improve patient care. So how should we do this?

CEREC to the rescue

Last summer I moved to a new practice that uses a CEREC system. I am thoroughly impressed by its capabilities. Even though we use it for only some types of ‘lab work’ I can see the benefits. We have greater control over when we produce the work and more importantly, when we fit it. It makes it easier for patients to book a convenient appointment and reduces our expenditure on lab work.

Ceramic blocks – used in CEREC milling systems

Most importantly, it also improves the quality control over the appliances we manufacture. We can track exactly where, why and how faults have occurred – there’s no need for finger pointing, just constant improvement. Reduced cycle times are within our control, so we can also correct or rework defects, usually without any impact on the patient.

For me as a nurse, this gives a huge benefit. I nurse because I’m interested in oral health and because I like being helpful to my patients. If I wanted to spend my time apologising and re-booking appointments I would work in a customer service centre. Reducing the amount of work we send to laboratories benefits me by reducing the amount of time I spend placating patients and increasing the amount of time I spend making them happy.

I see a future – in digital lab work

As digital imaging and on-site manufacturing spread (both milling and 3D-printing/additive), I believe that the quality of patient care will increase. Although the capital investment in such systems is still quite high it is easy to see how they provide a financial return.

The NHS is currently introducing changes to patient care. These will probably increase the demand for appointments, and dental practices will need to respond by improving their efficiency if they are to be successful. I believe that introduction and expansion of on-site CEREC manufacturing systems will provide significant efficiency improvements. Working for a practice already using this amazing technology is a great experience.

If you are interested in digital dentistry and patient care you may like to read an article by Dr Iulian Popescu. If you would like advice on marketing dental practice management or CEREC systems, please call us.