1 China launches aircraft engine firm (BBC) China
has launched its first aircraft-engine manufacturer in an attempt to wean
itself off Western suppliers. The state-owned Aero-Engine Group of China was
created by combining a group of existing aircraft-engine companies, according
to local media reports.
It has about 50bn yuan ($7.5bn) in registered
capital and will develop both military and commercial engines. China already
makes its own planes, but has struggled for decades to develop engines that
meet global requirements.
China currently buys its commercial aircraft engines
from General Electric and United Technologies' Pratt & Whitney. China's
military jets use Russian-made engines.
The Chinese government, as well as the Aviation
Industry Corp of China (AVIC) and Commercial Aircraft Corp of China (Comac) are
investors in the new firm. AVIC makes military jets and helicopters while Comac
produces China's biggest domestically-produced passenger plane, the C919.
2 Brexit vote as the new millennium bug (Stephen
Boyle in The Guardian) Do you remember Y2K? The millennium bug? For the benefit
of younger readers, fears grew during the 1990s that, because of how we
programmed computers, the dawn of 2000 would lead to catastrophes of all sorts.
Planes would fall from the sky and power stations would switch themselves off. Yet
precisely nothing happened as we waved goodbye to 1999 and said hello to 2000.
When the UK voted to leave the EU, sterling fell
sharply and is now 10% below its value in the first three weeks of June. That
makes us worse off: it costs more to buy stuff from abroad. There have also
been declines in commercial real estate prices and some property funds erected
barriers to people wishing to withdraw money. But no economic planes have
fallen from the sky and no economic power stations have turned themselves off.
On the contrary, while surveys said consumer
confidence had collapsed, Britain appears to have spent July at the shops. And
we were not browsing: retail sales volumes were 1.4% higher than in June,
strong growth by any standard. Surveys also said that hiring had ground to a
halt. Yet the number of people claiming unemployment-related benefits fell in
July.
So will Brexit turn out to have been a latter-day
Y2K? Some of the claims of the immediate economic consequences of voting leave
have been unfounded, but it is too early to declare peace.
The vote to leave was partly a rebellion against the
adverse effects of trade and open borders: we are better off on average but
many people lose. Exiting the EU might slow migration and, thus, the rate of
growth of demand for public services and housing. However, migration will not
turn negative or the population stop rising.
3 nuTonomy eyes driverless taxis in 10 cities
(Khaleej Times) A US software firm which chose Singapore for the world's first
public trial of driverless taxis hopes to be operating in 10 Asian and US
cities by 2020, an executive said.
Doug Parker, nuTonomy's chief operating officer,
said the firm is eyeing tests by early next year in three other Asian countries.
The company last week kicked off the world's first driverless taxi service in a
limited trial for invited people in a Singapore research campus.
Parker, 41, said nuTonomy was also considering
trials in the Middle East, the US and Britain. More than a dozen people in
Singapore have already experienced a ride in the "robo-taxi" within
the confines of one-north, an enclave of technology and science research
institutes outside the central business district.
Data from the experiment will feed into the rollout
of driverless taxis across Singapore in 2018, said Parker, adding that by 2020
"we would like to be in 10 cities in Asia, the US and maybe Europe". He
also said a number of real-estate developers from Asia and the United States
have contacted the company "about how they can use autonomous cars in their
eco-friendly communities".
Parker said nuTonomy chose Singapore for the public
tests rather than Silicon Valley because of the presence of a "loyal
technical talent" - including people with doctorates in robotics - whom it
does not have to share with other companies like Ford and Apple. The company
also has the full support of the Singapore government and the city-state's flat
terrain, well-marked roads and disciplined drivers make it well suited for
driverless cars, Parker said.
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