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Will transparency in drug pricing force down costs?
 Pharmaceutical companies selling prescription drugs to Californians will now have to submit information about price increases to the state. The new transparency provisions are part of a new groundbreaking law Gov. Jerry Brown signed Monday morning.

SB 17 requires drug manufacturers to submit their reasoning for price hikes of more than 16 percent over two years. Lawmakers say the new law takes aim at ever increasing health costs.

During a press conference that ended with the governor signing the measure, the bill’s sponsor, Senator Ed Hernandez (D-West Covina) called it one of the most comprehensive bills in the country. The chair of the senate health committee ended his remarks by challenging Washington lawmakers.

"I want to challenge our federal officials to do the same thing at a national level," said Hernandez. "So, that we can make sure that every single person in this country, not only has access to health care, but that they can afford their health care."

The provision in the new law to give 60-days’ notice before raising their price goes into effect at the beginning of 2018. Starting in 2019 the state’s insurance regulators will keep an annual list of the 25 mostly costly drugs, the 25 most commonly prescribed drugs, and which 25 drugs’ prices went up the most.

Hernandez told KPCC Monday the measure is one step forward to help control the continued rise in health care costs. He calls on federal lawmakers to strengthen the federal requirement to require everyone purchase health insurance and other measure to help stabilize the market.

"We have to look at how do we bring more competition," the state senator said.

UCLA health policy professor Stewart Schweitzer believes to the extent SB 17 creates more competition in the drug market, it could work.

“Insurers—for example—can certainly go out and look more aggressively knowing that the price of a particular product is about to go up sharply,” he said.

Schweitzer worries the part of the new law that will require the pharmaceutical industry to justify raising the costs of their drugs could be misleading.

"I think it’s not a reasonable step to ask people, 'why are you pricing that so high?'" he said.

The UCLA health economist explains there are too many factors that go into a price to completely answer the question.

"Prices go up because the market is willing to pay that price and that’s true in every single market," said Schweitzer.

For the health insurance industry, the concern is whether they have certainty in their market. Charles Bacchi, president and CEO of the California Association of Health Plans, said while the price of health insurance is set annually, drug costs can change at any time and that creates uncertainty.

"While this bill isn’t perfect, giving us advanced notice certainly allows us to plan for it much better," said Bacchi.

"This could be the first step in seeing the pharmaceutical industry join with others in the health care system who are starting to see that affordability is a critical concern," said Tony Barrueta, senior vice president of Government Relations for Kaiser Permanente.

He applauds the governor and the legislature what he calls a "critical response" to the rising costs of medications.

"Prescription drugs are running at a much faster rate of inflation than everything else in health care," said Barrueta.

Barrueta said the next legislative steps after this new law goes into effect will depend greatly on how pharmaceutical manufacturers respond.

"If the drug industry responds to this legislation by simply denying the appropriateness of having a little bit more information about what their pricing practices are, either by bringing lawsuits to challenge it or seeking to avoid providing this information, I think we will be looking at potentially more onerous types of public policy proposals," he said.

The pharmaceutical industry has long opposed the measure. Industry leaders say it will hurt innovation and do little to lower consumer costs.

"SB 17 ignores the reality that spending on prescription medicines remains a much smaller portion of overall health care spending. It also fails to recognize the value that medicines bring to patients and the health care system, as well as the enormous economic contributions that the research-based biopharmaceutical industry brings to the state of California," said PhARMA deputy vice president of public affairs Priscilla VanderVeer in a statement.

Output: As the state legislature returned to work in Sacramento Monday, lawmakers were considering a number of bills intended to restrain the rise of healthcare prices, including one that would require drug makers to notify the public before raising the price of certain medications.


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Instinet signs second liquidity streaming deal with Sun Trading
 Instinet has made its second bilateral liquidity streaming agreement with Sun Trading ahead of MiFID II’s systematic internaliser regime.

The agreement ensures Instinet’s clients gain access to bilateral liquidity from market makers through the firm’s existing connectivity.

It means users will see additional liquidity to fill the gap between lit venues and large-in-scale blocks, for better pricing and larger-size fills to minimise the footprint in the market.

Instinet added changes to liquidity provision under MiFID II will see the industry shift towards bilateral trading relationships and the registrations of systematic internalisers.

Ben Stephens, head of business development for Instinet Europe, explained the addition of Sun Trading as a liquidity provider is a ‘milestone’ for Instinet’s MiFID II strategy.

“By managing our clients’ interaction with many sources of liquidity in an anonymous manner, we can essentially personalise their access to the right counterparties in the most efficient way possible,” he said.

Sun Trading’s agreement coincides with the launch of the firm’s SI platform which will form the basis of its bilateral trading and quote provision in Europe.

In June, Instinet made the same liquidity agreement with Virtu Financial. Christiaan Scholtes, head of EMEA markets at Virtu, said at the time changes to the liquidity landscape in Europe led to the firm looking for ways to adapt.

“We see this relationship as an opportunity to transparently and efficiently provide our risk liquidity to a broader set of participants through Instinet’s high quality, neutral agency platform.”

Output: Clients of broker and equities trader Instinet will gain access to bilateral liquidity from market makers after the company announced a bilateral liquidity streaming agreement with Sun Trading, its second such deal. The arrangement, which comes ahead of the new systematic internaliser (SI) regime under January's updated Mifid II regulations, coincides with the launch by Sun Trading of its SI platform, which will form the basis of its bilateral trading and quote provision services in Europe. Instinet made the same liquidity agreement with Virtu Financial in June.


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Warner Bros hires Andrew Hotz from Google for digital campaigns
 Former Google marketing executive Andrew Hotz has been named executive vice president of worldwide digital marketing for Warner Bros. Pictures.

JP Richards, the studio’s exec VP of worldwide marketing and chief data strategist, made the announcement on Monday. Hotz will oversee the division’s domestic and international digital teams, working with the broader marketing team on the design and deployment of digital campaigns to support releases from Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema. Hotz will report directly to Richards.

“Digital marketing provides us new opportunities to reach audiences in sophisticated ways at scale,” Richards sad. “With our strategic partnerships, technology and data, Warner Bros. can reach and interact with entertainment consumers like never before. Andrew has an incredible background in digital marketing, and we’ll look to him to help us refine and further our digital campaigns, realizing the full potential of our marketing organization as well as the world-class films we market.”

Hotz served as head of industry at Google, managing the relationship between Google/YouTube and NBC Universal, and consulting with the studio and networks on digital marketing efforts. He also worked on Google’s TV ads business and managed its relationship with Procter & Gamble. Hotz began his career in production at DreamWorks Animation.

Output: Warner Bros has appointed Andrew Hotz as executive vice president of worldwide digital marketing. The former Google marketing executive will oversee the division's domestic and global digital teams and work with the wider marketing team on digital campaigns to support Warner Bros and New Line Cinema releases. Hotz served as head of industry at Google, in charge of the relationship between Google/YouTube and NBC Universal.


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California's environmental policies defy expectations on profits
 To anyone who believes environmental regulation is poison for profits, California must be infuriating. The state’s pollution policies rarely wilt its perennially blooming economy. For the past nine years, a Golden State-centric think tank Next 10 has been releasing its California Green Innovation Index. The results this year show a continuing trend: For two and a half decades, California’s GDP and population have continued to rise, while per capita carbon dioxide emissions have stayed flat.

But California isn't done yet. It has two major upcoming goals: reducing emission to to 1990 levels by 2020, and 40 percent below that a decade later. So while California has continued to grow during phase one of its environmental overhaul, it's still a question whether its long-term green ambitions will turn its economy as chilly as a San Francisco summer.

California has a long been on the leading edge of environmental policy. It all started because Los Angeles had such filthy air that, in 1947, after a lot of public outcry, the city formed its Air Pollution District—the first air quality agency in the US. (The US Clean Air Act didn’t pass for another 15 years!) Over the next several decades, California rolled out green building codes, efficient appliance standards, and cap and trade policies—all aimed at curbing pollution. All the while, the state made it easier for entrepreneurs to do business. This included actions like decoupling electricity sales from revenues, which forced more efficiency into the system. California also has healthy net metering caps, which allow rooftop solar panel owners sell more of their overstock electricity back into the grid.

The result of all this legislative tinkering: “California is the most energy efficient economy in the world, and least carbon intensive,” says Adam Fowler, a research manager at Beacon Economics, the firm that produced the Green Innovation Index at Next 10’s behest. And it pays. Fowler says that every $10,000 spent in California results in 55 percent less carbon dioxide than it would in the rest of the US. “We have a very clear time series showing that the decoupling of fossil fuel use from GDP is possible,” he says.

But is this just a case of California exceptionalism? After all, not every state's economy is buoyed by abundant natural resources, coastal access to trans-Pacific trade, and the global meccas for both entertainment and technology. Forcing fossil fuels out of a less robust economy might cause a catastrophic recession. In fact, even some Californians aren’t so sure this state can stay on track towards its goal of cutting emissions more than 40 percent by 2030.

One big concern is whether electric vehicle output can keep pace. If regulations put undue pressure on oil and gas providers, fuel prices could spike, putting California’s green ambitions at odds with its automotive infatuation. And in fact, a rise in vehicle emissions—2.7 percent between 2014 and 2015—is probably the report’s biggest surprise.

Most of that came from passenger vehicles, and the cause was a glut in global gasoline. In 2014, prices dipped, and Californians drove an additional 2.7 billion collective miles in 2015. But Fowler says that trends in the automotive industry are changing, oil glut or no. “Hyundai is placing EVs at center of product strategy, and Volvo is phasing out conventional engines,” he says. Tesla’s Model 3 and GM’s Volt are beginning to trickle into the mass consumer market. “These advances aren’t coming from some do-gooder, long-haired hippy with a pipe dream,” says Fowler. “This is the business community, working in free markets, using innovation to step in and solve problems.”

Ah, capitalism. Here to save the world from … capitalism. After all, western civilization’s drive to grow and grow and grow is what got it into its current fossil-fueled mess. But unlike internal combustion engines, capitalism can run on any type of energy—so long as there’s a lot of it. “Civilization has shifted fuel sources throughout history, and we tend to think of only this recent snapshot of time where intense fossil fuel use was the only way to grow an economy,” says Neol Perry, founder of Next 10. If clean energy can power the economy without bankrupting the world, that would be truly exceptional.

Output: California has silenced critics of clean energy by proving that environmental regulation is not anathema to profit. For 25 years the state's GDP and population have consistently grown, while per capita carbon emissions remained largely unchanged, according to Next 10's California Green Innovation Index. The Golden State now hopes to cut emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.


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China's Grandland buys Italian cladding expert Permasteelisa
 Italian cladding specialist Permasteelisa is set to be snapped up by Chinese-based Grandland Group.

Permasteelisa’s parent company, the Toyko-based LIXIL Group Corporation, announced that it had decided to sell 100 per cent of the shares of Permasteelisa SpA to Grandland Holdings Group for €467m (£425.7m).

The specialist contractor has worked on projects including the Shard, Walkie Talkie and 125 Old Broad Street in the UK, as well as high-profile schemes such as the Sydney Opera House in Australia.

The firm reported an annual turnover of €1.4bn (£1.27bn) in its most recent accounts.

According to Permasteelisa, the firm will continue to target “high-quality projects” at the top end of the market.

In April Permasteelisa scooped a preconstruction services agreement with Greenland Group for the £800m Spire tower in Canary Wharf.

Last month the firm was fined a total of £15m over a series of “disastrous” safety failures which saw glass shards fall from the 125 Old Broad Street project onto the street below.

Ruling on the case, the High Court’s Justice Stuart-Smith found that between 2008 and 2012 there were 17 “spontaneous failures” of glass panes on the building.

Current chief executive Riccardo Mollo, who will continue in his role after the takeover is complete, said: “Combining Permasteelisa’s position as a premium leader in the market and its scale across EMEA, North and South America as well as parts of Asia, along with Grandland’s industrial integration capabilities and strength in China, will create an even a bigger player in the curtain wall segment globally.

“While Permasteelisa will maintain its operating independence, the opportunities for operating synergies with Grandland are tremendous.”

The remainder of Permasteelisa’s management team is also due to stay in place after the takeover.

The sale is subject to regulatory approval in China, the US and Russia.

Output: China's Grandland Group is to buy 100% of Italian cladding specialist Permasteelisa for €467m ($548m). Permasteelisa, whose parent company is Tokyo-based LIXIL Group, which is selling the Italian company at a loss, has worked on products such as the Shard in London and the Sydney Opera House. In July, it was fined £15m over a series of safety failures involving glass shards falling from the 125 Old Broad Street project on to the street below.


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Live programming key to MMA Fighting's success on Facebook
 Mixed martial arts has been a boon to Vox Media’s SB Nation video efforts.

In July, MMA Fighting, SB Nation’s site covering MMA, generated 19.8 million views on its YouTube channel and 37.1 million views on its Facebook page, according to Tubular Labs. Those are not necessarily eye-popping view counts, but SB Nation said the amount of time people are spending watching is significant, which speaks to the die-hard fan base of a niche sport. In July, MMA Fighting’s YouTube channel generated 127 million minutes in total watch time, and its Facebook page did 121 million minutes, according to SB Nation.

“MMA Fighting has established itself as a site of record in the sport,” said Kevin Lockland, gm of SB Nation. “Right now, MMA Fighting is certainly among the best — if not the best — performing segment of video that we have on SB Nation.”

Lockland credited MMA Fighting’s video numbers to in-depth coverage of MMA; video content that includes live, long-form shows and interviews with athletes and other big names in the sport; and a promotional and distribution strategy that splashes this content across YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other platforms.

Every Monday, MMA Fighting produces a four-hour show called “The MMA Hour,” which has news and interviews with big names in MMA. The show streams live on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Under a deal between Twitter and Vox Media, SB Nation also streams an exclusive interview on Twitter right after the main broadcast. An hourlong second show, “The MMA Beat,” features a roundtable discussion among MMA Fighting reporters and other journalists.

SB Nation and MMA Fighting clip segments from these shows after they end and distribute the clips across all of MMA Fighting’s social platforms. Some videos also get published to the flagship SB Nation social pages. Weekly coverage varies, but Lockland said during a fight week, MMA Fighting makes upward of 35 video clips, including original pieces such as fight previews, coverage of weigh-ins and interviews both before and after fights.

This focus on live and long-form programming has contributed to longer watch times on YouTube and Facebook, Lockland said. On YouTube, the average watch time for “The MMA Hour” has grown from 16 to 28 minutes per session in the last two years, SB Nation said. On Facebook, SB Nation said total monthly watch time has doubled in the past 12 months.

As publishers and advertisers focus less on view counts as the primary metric for viewership, watch time and related engagement metrics have grown in importance. SB Nation sister site Vox has also seen growth in time spent with its explainer videos and other long-form videos, which has helped the site grow audiences on YouTube in the past year.

For MMA Fighting, the shows and other videos are produced by a team that includes support from video staffers who are not exclusively dedicated to MMA Fighting. When MMA Fighting reports from the field, the site typically has a team of one to three people helping to produce content, including reporters such as Ariel Helwani on camera as hosts.

“The overarching strategy is to bring the fighters and a behind-the-scenes look straight to the fans of the sport,” Lockland said. “It’s a great sport for doing that because the people involved are very accessible — more so than other sports.”

Image via Esther Lin, MMA Fighting

Output: MMA Fighting, Vox Media's site covering mixed martial arts (MMA) under its SB Nation brand, has reported significant increases in viewing times for its videos. In July the site generated 127 million minutes of views on YouTube and 121 million on Facebook, with total monthly watch times on Facebook having doubled in the past year. The site attributes the increase to its production of in-depth coverage of the sport, including long-form live programmes featuring interviews and discussions with MMA personalities. Viewing duration has increased in importance as advertisers focus less on view counts as their primary metric for measuring audiences.


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Autonomous vessels pose new challenges for shippers
 Crewless, fully autonomous ships have yet to navigate global waters but R&D is progressing on a number of fronts, while simultaneously the debate about legal implications is moving to the forefront, says Stephen Harris, Senior Vice President of Marsh Global Marine Practice, in a new article in Brink on the development of autonomous shipping.

Rising transport volumes, growing environmental concerns, an ever-present focus on cost reduction, a looming shortage of experienced and qualified seafarers, and the rapid technological evolution that now touches every industry, are all serving to drive interest, Harris said.

The Norwegian government has designated an area for testing autonomous technology in ships, while Rolls-Royce has announced plans to have a remotely controlled, local vessel operating by 2020, with a fully autonomous ship by 2035. The ship would be controlled by a captain in an onshore command centre, with some aspects of operation and navigation automated.

Harris said that, as with any advance in technology, legal and regulatory approvals would be among the first hurdles in making autonomous shipping a reality. For example, the peril “negligence of master, officers and crew” is a covered peril under British and American marine insurance hull clauses, provided that such negligence has not resulted from a lack of due diligence by the assured, owners or managers. However, Harris noted that this meant deciding whether a “captain” sitting at a desk in Copenhagen would be legally/officially considered part of a “crew” was likely to be viewed differently by various legal jurisdictions as they apply the law to insurance claims for physical loss or damage to the ship.

Other legal questions included what status should be assigned to the programmer who designed the computer system that runs the autonomous ship.

A survey conducted by SAFETY4SEA among maritime stakeholders assessed the challenges associated with the use of autonomous ships and found that navigational risk, cybersecurity and loss of communication were considered to be the greatest challenges facing the development of fully autonomous ships.

One of the key benefits of remotely controlled ships would be reductions in cost, said Harris. The ships would require fewer personnel and less fuel to complete journeys. If a vessel were fully autonomous, it would eliminate the need for crew facilities on board. This would lead to more space for cargo carriage, which would mean increased profitability for shipping companies using these vessels.

Harris also noted that, without navigation and engineering personnel on board, these ships might also increase human safety. The ship would be largely, if not entirely, controlled from a remote location, meaning the risk to human life from accidents or the loss of the ship would be reduced. The possibility for human error might be reduced if systems are more automated.

Harris said that Marsh predicted that technology such as this was unlikely to completely replace traditional cargo ships in the foreseeable future. Instead, the technology was likely to be used on short shuttle service journeys. “The uncertainty

regarding the safety of autonomous ships compared to traditional cargo ships will be tested over time. If legal issues can be overcome and the technology is found to be viable, the support of regulators, financial institutions, and customers will be essential to the deployment of these ships in everyday commercial activities”, Harris said. http://www.brinknews.com/drone-ships-will-bring-new-risks-and-rewards/?utm_source=BRINK+Subscribers&utm_campaign=dc2d4d0100-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_08_09&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c3639d7c98-dc2d4d0100-107919225

Output: Fully autonomous ‘drone ships’ will present new risks and potential rewards, according to Stephen Harris, senior vice president of Marsh Global Marine Practice. The benefits are huge, but the legal and regulatory implications of crewless vessels will be amongst the first hurdles in making them a reality, Harris said. Navigational risk, cybersecurity and loss of communication were considered the greatest challenges to drone ships, according to a SAFETY4SEA survey. The liability of programmers who design the software that runs ships would also need to be addressed.


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Bayern Munich credits social media gains to its New York office
 Three years ago, Germany’s Bayern Munich opened an office in New York City to try to close the gap between its Bavarian roots and global fan base. Up to 20 percent of the value that football clubs bring their sponsors comes from social media exposure, according to Nielsen Sports, and the belief was that a strong following in the U.S. will eventually translate into sponsorship and other revenue.

The team believes the digital gains it’s made since then are working. The New York-based office feeds the team’s U.S.-only Facebook and Twitter channels, while contributing to the club’s global Instagram and Snapchat accounts.

The team doubled the club’s Twitter following to about 110,000 followers in the U.S. during the 2016-17 season compared to the previous one, generating over 20 million impressions a month since the start of 2017. Rudolf Vidal, Bayern Munich’s president of the Americas, broke down the club’s digital strategy.

Offline, the club has 126 official fan clubs in 2017 in the U.S. and Canada, up from eight fan clubs in 2014, which makes it the largest network of official fan clubs of any European team in North America. Club members also serve as influencers for Bayern Munich, producing content on a weekly basis for its U.S. Facebook and Twitter accounts.

To build loyalty, the club also has jumped on real-time marketing the way other consumer brands do, which is one reason that output from its U.S. channels is greater than its English, Spanish and German ones. The team reacts to moments like the Aug. 21 total solar eclipse and responds faster to fan queries.

The New York office also plans to tap into the social popularity of James Rodriguez, who joined from Real Madrid this summer. The club saw a six-figure increase across all its social media channels the day after it signed Rodriguez.

The club’s U.S. office also looks for ways to include non-sports personalities in posts when they align with Bayern Munich’s values, as other team accounts such as Arsenal and Manchester United do, and use humor in its social media. For example, when a Manchester United fan took offense to a Bayern Munich tweet earlier this year that featured two of Bayern Munich’s players attempting the popular dab dance, Bayern Munich’s New York office replied with a funny picture of two Manchester United players attempting the same thing.

However, Bayern Munich knows humor will only fuel its commercial ambitions so far. It might be a giant in the sport, but beyond Europe, its reach is dwarfed by Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and Manchester United. Both Spanish teams surpassed 100 million Facebook fans earlier this year, while Manchester United launched an app in February that brings its MUTV channel to 165 countries. America, particularly New York City, could increase Bayern Munich’s popularity, given the city’s proximity to some of the world’s most commercially astute sporting brands.

“New York is the epicenter of the sports media industry, which is becoming especially important the more sports, media and technology are converging,” said Vidal. “There’s a lot that can be absorbed from facing and interacting with these leagues and teams directly in real time that we can both transport back to Munich, but also use to our advantage in building our brand here in the States.”

Output: German football club Bayern Munich credits its global digital gains to the opening of its New York office three years ago. Up to 20% of the value that football clubs bring their sponsors comes from social media and the club hoped that a strong following in the US would generate sponsorship and revenue. The New York office managed to double Bayern's US Twitter followers to 110,000 during the last season compared with 2015/2016. It also runs the US-only Facebook account and contributes to the club's worldwide Snapchat and Instagram accounts.


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China exceeds 2020 solar target after 10.52 GW installed in July
 According to independent solar industry advisory firm AECEA, China has already exceeded its 13th Five-Year-Plan (2016-2020) target of 105GW by installing around 10.52GW of solar in July, after record first half 2017 installations of 24.4GW.

China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) had previously stated that in the first half of 2017 a total 24.4GW of solar was grid connected. Demand growth in the second half of the year is being fuelled by an expected 5.5GW of ‘Top Runner’ project deadlines at the end of September, 2017 and a government target of 8GW of ‘Poverty Alleviation’ schemes through the year.

With 10.52GW of solar installations in July, AECEA has raised its 2017 forecast and estimates that China might be able to install between 40GW and up to 45GW by the end of the year. This could equate to a 16% year-on-year growth rate but could reach as much as a 30% increase over record installs in 2016.

Growth of solar was said to be far outstripping other energy sources in 2017. AECEA noted that 1.09GW of new nuclear energy was added in China between January and July, while hydro added 6.69GW and wind added 7.3GW.

China added a total of 18.84GW of thermal power, yet solar easily surpassed that figure at around 34.92GW in the January to July timeframe.

Output: China installed 10.5 GW of solar in July, and 24.4 GW in H1 2017, pushing it over the target in the government's thirteenth five-year-plan (2016-2020) to install 105 GW of capacity by 2020. Independent solar industry advisory firm AECEA now estimates that China could install up to 45 GW by year end rather than the 40 GW previously forecast. So far this year, growth in solar energy in China has far exceeded that of other power sources, with 7.3 GW of wind capacity added and 1.1 GW of nuclear, among other sources.


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Visit Scotland to launch interactive campaign with Channel 4
 Channel 4 has partnered with VisitScotland on an interactive TV campaign that invites viewers to take part in and direct a series of ads across a week.

Launching on E4 on Monday 11th September, the 60-second spots will be broadcast for five successive nights during matchmaking show Celebs Go Dating.

The deal was brokered by Jack Bridgewater from 4 Sales’ Manchester office. The Chase Films are producing the creative.

In the campaign, a cast of six young travellers will each day experience a range of activities across Scotland. Each ad will illustrate the past 24 hours of the travellers’ escapades before offering viewers the chance to vote via Twitter for the activity they will undertake the following day, using bespoke hashtags linked to #ScotE4.

Watch the casting ad for the campaign:

The Twitter poll will remain live for half an hour after the ad has aired, votes will be counted and the production crew will transition to the next location, ready to film the following day’s spot.

A casting ad offering viewers the chance to be one of the six cast members has just launched on E4.

The campaign supports VisitScotland’s desire to position Scotland as an inspirational destination for millennials.

Jane Hector-Jones, group partnerships manager at 4Sales, said: “We are delighted to be working with VisitScotland to deliver this exciting and innovative first. E4’s key demographic of 16-34 year olds aligns perfectly with VisitScotland’s millennial target market for this unique campaign that will showcase the charms of beautiful Scotland whilst entertaining and engaging viewers.”

Fiona Holmes, VisitScotland's assistant marketing manager, added: “Scotland is an exciting, contemporary destination, much more than haggis, tartan and Nessie, and that’s exactly what we hope to show in this exciting campaign.”

Output: Channel 4 has partnered with Visit Scotland to target millennials in an interactive TV campaign that invites viewers to take part in and direct a series of ads. Launching on E4 on Monday 11 September, the 60-second spots will be broadcast over five successive nights during popular matchmaking show Celebs Go Dating. In the campaign six young people will have various experiences around Scotland as they try different activities, with viewers voting via Twitter to choose the activity they will undertake the following day. The campaign aims to present Scotland as an attractive destination to millennials.


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Wefox's ONE start-up launches digital-only product in Europe
 ONE (part of the Wefox Group) wants to change the way the world uses and purchases insurance and apparently the company is going to launch in September. Starting in Europe, ONE, the newest Insurtech startup, says it will reinvent insurance many different ways.

The insurance sector is huge yet it has largely been left unfettered by the Fintech revolution. Yes, there are companies like Lemonade, but otherwise many of the erstwhile innovators are more of the same -just repackaged.

ONE is on a mission to completely redesign the insurance industry, according to Group CEO Julian Teicke, and their App based platform is coming to smartphone’s everywhere – soon.

In a recent posting, Teicke explained;

“Insurance is a massive market. In fact it is the largest industry in the world that has not even slightly been disrupted by technology. Banking has been disrupted, Energy has been disrupted, Services have been disrupted, Health has been disrupted, Software has been disrupted. Insurance is ready to finally be disrupted.”

And what will be disruptive about ONE?

Sure. We all know that traditional insurance companies are light on customer service (in contrast to their ubiquitous adverts). ONE wants to provide a user friendly, digital only, experience with the following attributes:

Customer centricity Very fast onboarding process

Easy tailoring – just a few questions and ONE will tailor the perfect policy for the customer’s needs.

– just a few questions and ONE will tailor the perfect policy for the customer’s needs. Very simple payment and instant coverage : No paper invoices, no hassle.

: No paper invoices, no hassle. ONE customers will be able to adjust their coverage at ANY time . No new policy or complicated process: Just turn coverage on and off in real time.

. No new policy or complicated process: Just turn coverage on and off in real time. Giving back: ONE customers will not just have to pay – they will get money back if they contribute to the community. The money can be paid on the bank account, can be used for premium reduction or can be donated to a good cause once per year.

ONE customers will not just have to pay – they will get money back if they contribute to the community. The money can be paid on the bank account, can be used for premium reduction or can be donated to a good cause once per year. Empathy – The moment of truth is designed just for the customer – no unnecessary complication. Just report the claim and get instant feedback. This is the service delivery in insurance – we will wow the customers.

So can ONE actually provide all of this? And do it at the right price? Geez, it is hard to imagine. I cannot stand my insurance provider(s). Don’t get me started. They are in a heated competition with one of my [traditional] banks for Champion of customer disservice. But I guess we will find out in a couple of weeks if ONE will match their claims. I, for one, hope they live up to their mission. I am probably not alone.

Output: Insurance technology group Wefox has claimed its new digital start-up, ONE, will disrupt the insurance industry. Insurance, in contrast to banking, energy and services, has "not even slightly been disrupted by technology", said Wefox CEO Julian Teicke. The smartphone-based ONE platform, launching in September, aims to provide a more customer-driven approach to insurance, including a simple payment system, flexibility of cover in real time, instant feedback on claims and rewards for customers.


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Onshore wind power 25% cheaper in second German auction
 Germany announced the results of its second onshore wind auction this week in which it was revealed a total of 1 gigawatt was awarded at an average cost 25% less than the average price recorded in the first onshore wind auction just a few months ago.

Germany’s Federal Network Agency, the Bundesnetzagentur (BnetzA) published the results of its second onshore wind auction which was completed on August 1, revealing a total of 1,013 MW (megawatts) spread across 67 bids awarded. The auction was significantly oversubscribed, with a total of 281 bids totaling 2,927 MW being submitted overall.

The average price for the successful bids was 4.28 Euro-cents per kilowatt hour (ct/kWh), and the highest bid accepted was 4.29 ct/kWh, while the lowest price accepted was 3.5 ct/kWh. The average price recorded in this second auction was 25% lower than the average price recorded in Germany’s first onshore wind auction, held earlier this year in May, which recorded an average price of 5.71 ct/kWh.

The full list of successful bids can be found here.

“The second auction for onshore wind energy was also marked by a high level of competition,” said Jochen Homann, Bundesnetzagentur President. “The average price of the bids accepted is more than one cent per kilowatt hour lower than in the first auction. The results confirm the positive experiences from our previous competitive auctions for offshore wind energy and photovoltaic systems.”

Citizen energy companies accounted for 84% of the bids submitted and accounted for 90% of the successful bids, and 95% of the total volume of awarded bids accepted.

A third onshore wind auction round is expected to take place later this year and bring this year’s awarded capacity up to the 2,500 MW expansion rate targeted by the German government — 1,820 MW has already been awarded.

Sign up for Have a tip for CleanTechnica, want to advertise, or want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Former Tesla Battery Expert Leading Lyten Into New Lithium-Sulfur Battery Era — Podcast: I don't like paywalls. You don't like paywalls. Who likes paywalls? Here at CleanTechnica, we implemented a limited paywall for a while, but it always felt wrong — and it was always tough to decide what we should put behind there. In theory, your most exclusive and best content goes behind a paywall. But then fewer people read it! We just don't like paywalls, and so we've decided to ditch ours. Unfortunately, the media business is still a tough, cut-throat business with tiny margins. It's a never-ending Olympic challenge to stay above water or even perhaps — gasp — grow. So ... Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News Have a tip for CleanTechnica, want to advertise, or want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here I don't like paywalls. You don't like paywalls. Who likes paywalls? Here at CleanTechnica, we implemented a limited paywall for a while, but it always felt wrong — and it was always tough to decide what we should put behind there. In theory, your most exclusive and best content goes behind a paywall. But then fewer people read it! We just don't like paywalls, and so we've decided to ditch ours. Unfortunately, the media business is still a tough, cut-throat business with tiny margins. It's a never-ending Olympic challenge to stay above water or even perhaps —— grow. So ...

Output: Germany’s Federal Network Agency, the Bundesnetzagentur has announced that its second onshore wind auction has led to a total of 1 GW being awarded at an average cost of 25% less than its first onshore windfarm auction earlier in the year. The average price for the successful bids was 4.28 euro-cents per kilowatt hour.


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Emmanuel André appointed as Publicis chief talent officer
 Publicis Groupe said it has appointed Emmanuel André to the new position of chief talent officer.

Emmanuel Andre is joining Publicis as chief talent offier. / http://tbwa.com/pirates/emmanuel-andre

André, who was most recently international president of TBWA\Worldwide, will handle talent management and recruitment at Publicis, working directly with the chief executives and chief technology officers in its Solutions business. He will also be in charge of all Publicis learning, development programs and group culture. Based in New York, he will join the management committee and report directly to chief executive Arthur Sadoun. André will assume the role on September 18.

Output: Emmanuel André has been appointed to the new role of chief talent officer at Publicis Groupe. André will work directly with CEOs and CTOs at its Solutions business, as well as being in charge of all learning and development schemes at Publicis, as well as its group culture. He will start work in the New York-based role on 18 September, reporting directly to CEO Arthur Sadoun.


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Redrow Katherine Ball announced as land manager for Lancashire division
 A MAJOR part of her job is to secure land for housebuilder Redrow, but the latest asset Katherine Ball has secured is a job promotion for herself.

Katherine, 24, from Wilmslow, has been confirmed as land manager for Redrow’s Lancashire division, after 18 months’ preparation for the role as trainee land manager and, before that, a place on the company’s rotational graduate training programme.

Katherine, part of the Redrow Homes (Lancashire) land team based at Buckshaw Village, Chorley, is delighted with both her promotion and the support she has received from Redrow throughout.

“You have to work hard and maintain a positive attitude,” says Katherine. “But with that you get the rewards; and I am lucky to have done that and to have a good team of people around me with whom I really enjoy working.

“I am lucky too in terms of the training I have been given to support me in my role and the encouragement I have had to get the qualifications which will enable me to progress and further my career.”

Katherine originally joined Redrow’s highly regarded graduate training programme after securing a BA in Human Geography from Leeds Metropolitan University. Working across various disciplines she soon found a natural affinity with land and planning, but also enjoyed the interaction with other parts of the business that’s required to successfully pursue a land purchase.

Now, as land manager, she will control a range of land bids for the housebuilder, going through the process of identifying possible sites, negotiating with land owners, acquiring sites and taking them through the planning process.

Says Katherine: “It involves building good relationships with agents, land owners and consultants; and having a good understanding of Redrow’s portfolio and the sorts of development it wishes to pursue.

Katherine has recently taken a more major role in a number of land acquisitions which are still ‘under wraps’ but, working with land director Karl Longworth, she was also involved in the purchase of over 20 acres for 245 new homes on land at Garrett Hall, near Mosley Common, in Greater Manchester, where Redrow has begun building homes as part of its Bridgewater View development.

“I love the challenge of my job,” says Katherine, who now lives in Manchester city centre. “I also love the sense of pride when you see homes being built on sites with which you’ve been involved. There is a great sense of achievement in working on a development opportunity which then becomes someone’s home.”

Karl Longworth, land director for Redrow Homes (Lancashire), says: “Katherine very quickly became a valued member of the team. She is eager to learn, hardworking and tenacious in her efforts to help secure the land sites which will become our future developments. Building excellent relationships around her, both inside and outside the company, she personifies Redrow’s reputation for quality and professionalism.”

Encouraged and supported by Redrow, Katherine is now in the final semester of a master’s degree in Real Estate & Property Management, which will enable her to work towards her APC (assessment of professional competence) and the opportunity to become a member of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

Nurturing young talent in this way and encouraging the professional development of its staff has helped Redrow be the first housebuilder to earn the British Institute for Learning and Development (BiLD) ‘Quality Mark’, recognising the calibre of its approach to training and professional development programmes. For more on working for Redrow visit www.redrowcareers.co.uk.

Output: Katharine Ball has been appointed as land manager at Redrow's Lancashire division. In her new role, Ball will control a range of land bids, identify possible sites for acquisition and help landowners go through the planning process. Ball first joined the housebuilder on its graduate training programme, before becoming a trainee land manager at the Redrow Homes land team in Buckshaw Village, Chorley.


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Vacant Chinese-owned homes raise hackles abroad
 A quarter of Chinese buying property overseas leave their apartments vacant and the majority pay for their purchase with cash, a survey of mainland Chinese customers by investment bank UBS shows.

Another 25 per cent of overseas property owners use their home on a temporary basis, suggesting about half of the overseas properties owned by mainland Chinese were not fully utilised, the bi-annual survey suggests.

Overseas investment in Australia's housing market has stirred political sensitivities amid concerns offshore buyers are helping fuel Australia's property boom and are leaving homes empty during a housing affordability crisis.

House prices in the nation's capital cities have surged almost 44 per cent since 2012, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Output: Around 25% of Chinese people buying property overseas are leaving the premises vacant, while another 25% use the homes only temporarily, according to a UBS survey. A majority of Chinese buyers pay for their properties with cash, and 63% of Chinese consumers are holding onto the properties for investment, according to the report. This is increasingly stirring political sensitivities in countries such as Australia, where the surge in Chinese investment is causing both a property boom and a housing affordability crisis.


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CNN follows NBC in launching its own daily Snapchat news show
 CNN has decided to launch its own daily news show on Snapchat, following the success of fellow news outlet NBC News’ own show.

NBC’s ‘Stay Tuned’ has reached over 29m unique viewers in less than a month since its launch. More than 60 per cent of this audience is under 25 years old, and more than 40 per cent of daily viewers watch at least three days a week. It also managed to amass 1m subscribers in the first two and a half weeks after launching.

“We had several goals heading into this project, including understanding a platform that will help to define mobile television, and reaching a younger audience that we would likely not reach on our more traditional digital and TV outlets. Stay Tuned has checked both of those of boxes,” said Nick Ascheim, SVP of NBC News Digital.

On the back of its NBC’s feat, CNN has launched ‘The Update’ to provide a daily rundown of the biggest news. The show will run at 6pm ET daily, as well as producing breaking news segments.

Each daily show will feature five or more stories from around the world, with reporting from CNN’s news anchors, correspondents and reporters.

“In today’s news environment, people are hungry for news and they want a quick update of where things are at within one tap of their phone,” said Samantha Barry, executive producer for social and emerging networks at CNN. “So, we're serving that up, speaking their language and delivering it in beautiful, vertical, mobile friendly video.”

Output: CNN is launching a daily news show on Snapchat in competition with NBC. NBC's Stay Tuned has reached more than 29 million unique viewers in under a month, with over 60% of the audience being under 25 years old. A million subscribers signed up in the first two and a half weeks after Stay Tuned's launch and over 40% of daily viewers watch at least three days a week. CNN's offering, The Update, will offer a daily rundown of the news, including five or more stories from around the globe provided by CNN's journalists. It will also produce breaking news videos.


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China's Alipay teams with local start-up to expand in Singapore
 SINGAPORE - China's cashless payment service provider Alipay plans to expand its 20,000 acceptance points in Singapore, and will soon open up the platform to Singapore banking users.

On Tuesday (Aug 22), it inked a deal with a local start-up to further this ambition.

Singapore start-up CC Financial Services, which promotes its CCPay brand of mobile payments, is the local partner for acquiring merchants to get on the Alipay platform. The primary goal is to better serve the 2.8 million tourists from China yearly.

Said Mr Melvin Ooi, Alipay's country manager for Singapore, Sri Lanka and Maldives: "With Alipay, Chinese visitors will find it very convenient to do their shopping, dine and other activities in Singapore... This collaboration with CCPay will provide a platform for merchants to facilitate safe, fast and cashless payments for the Chinese tourists in Singapore."

But it will "soon" open up the payment platform to Singapore banking users, said Mr Ooi, declining to provide a timeline. Currently, Alipay users must either have a China banking account for debiting transactions or a China bank-issued credit card.

The number of acceptance points jumped after Alipay tied up with ComfortDelgro to accept the payment scheme in its 17,000 taxis last month (July). Prime Taxis has accepted Alipay since March.

The rest of the acceptance points are in Chinatown, Sentosa and Orchard Road. The company wants to expand these to Bugis, Geylang and the heartland, such as in Clementi.

Since its founding in March this year, CC Financial Services has acquired more than 600 merchants contributing to the 20,000 Alipay acceptance points.

The plan is to grow the number of merchants to 6,000.

Said Mr Jed Huang, CC Financial Services founder and director: "The use of the Alipay cashless payment platform will help to revitalise these old shopping centres and, at the same time, attract more locals and tourists to shop here."

Output: China’s Alipay has signed a deal with Singaporean start-up CC Financial Services in a bid to grow its number of acceptance points in Singapore. While improving service for Chinese tourists is a key goal, Alipay also planning to roll out the service to Singapore bank account holders. CC Financial acquires merchants for the Alipay platform; it has bought on 600 since it was founded in March and aims to increase that to 6,000. Alipay currently has 20,000 acceptance points in the country, boosted by the addition of 17,000 taxis in a tie up with ComfortDelgro in July.


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Swiss start-up Adaptricity simulates smart power grids
 Issues with grid stability, and the high cost of grid expansion are one of the biggest challenges presented by the energy transition. For renewable energy sources to make up a higher portion of a country’s energy mix, power grids will need to become more intelligent and incorporate different technologies to manage the intermittencies inherent to renewable generation.

Swiss startup Adaptricity looked to address this issue by developing a software solution that can simulate electricity grids, and help operators better understand and plan their networks. This way, says ETH Zurich, grid investments can be made more cost effective.

The software relies on data collected from smart meters, and can calculate network loads based on this, and simulate how a new energy asset, a PV plant for example, would affect the regional grid.

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Adaptricity has previously acted as a consultancy with grid operators in Switzerland and Germany, but will now focus on the sale of licenses for its software to grid operators in Switzerland and abroad, which it expects to fully launch in autumn 2017.

ETH Zurich also points out that, while the software could prove an essential tool for grid operators, its success is highly dependent on the development of smart grids, and on national energy policy decisions both in its native Switzerland and in other potential markets. “Ultimately, politics will decide how much money is put into renewable energy, and thus into intelligent power grids,” states an ETH press release. “The more politicians push the issue, the better for the smart grid analysts.”

Output: Zurich based start-up Adaptricity, a spin-off from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology plans to launch a software system that can simulate and analyse electrical grids, helping operators and investors deploy renewable energy and storage assets more intelligently. The software can calculate network loads based on data collected from smart meters, helping to predict how a new energy asset would affect the grid.


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Mizuho first major bank to invest in Japan's student housing
 Spurred by growing demand, Mizuho has said it will put forward 15% of the equity for the fund, which, along with an additional ¥10bn in debt, it will use to construct university dormitories.

The remainder of the equity will come from both domestic and international private investors, including trading company Marubeni Corp and real estate firm Tokyo Tatemono Co.

“Almost all universities are telling us they don’t have enough accommodation for international students”

The bank has approached 50 universities about providing accommodation for their international students in the last five months, and has “specific discussions” underway with around 10, according to Shu Takata, deputy general manager of Mizuho’s real estate finance department.

The bank aims to invest in three projects by the end of March 2018, rising to 10 over the following two years. The developments could include entirely new properties or renovations of existing ones, and each is expected to house around 300 students.

“Almost all universities are telling us they don’t have enough accommodation for international students,” Takata told Bloomberg.

The number of international students in Japan hit 239,287 last year and is continuing to grow, driven by government-backed initiatives such as the Top Global Universities project, as the country strives to reach its target of hosting 300,000 international students by 2020.

But in May 2016, less than a quarter of international students enrolled in Japanese higher education – 22.9% – lived in student residences provided by their universities or the public sector, according to figures from the Japan Student Services Organisation.

A shortage of accommodation is “one of the major obstacles to the increase of international students in Japan”, according to Hiroshi Ota, director of the Global Education program at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo and an advisor on international students for Hiroshima prefecture.

Though the majority of international students rent private apartments, as the number continues to rise, renting in the private housing sector is “not a realistic solution for this problem”, Ota told The PIE News.

“Renting in the private housing sector is not a realistic solution for this problem”

It is not illegal in Japan for landlords to reject foreign tenants, and a Ministry of Justice survey carried out earlier this year showed that of more than 2,000 foreign residents who had looked for housing in the last five years, 40% had at some point been refused because they were non-Japanese.

Insufficient purpose-built student accommodation, combined with barriers to the private rental market, have therefore created a gap in the market for new providers.

This includes premium pricing options, and student tenants in Mizuho’s developments are expected to pay between ¥30,000 and ¥80,000 ($275-$735) per month in rent, Takata said. The average rent paid by international students was around ¥31,000 in 2016, according to the JASSO statistics.

The properties will be managed by an external company, which may provide additional facilities for international students. When it first announced its intention to invest in the fund in March, Mizuho said it aimed to also provide services such as assistance with immigration and aeroplane tickets.

Once construction is completed, the fund will lease its properties to universities for around five years, before selling on its holdings as real estate investment trusts, the group said.

Output: Japanese bank Mizuho Financial Group has raised a $91.8m fund to enter the student housing market, as growing numbers of overseas students enrol in Japanese higher education. The number of international students in Japan hit 239,287 last year. Mizuho has said it will put forward 15% of the equity for the fund, with a range of investors providing the rest. Much of the accommodation will be in the form of dormitories. Mizuho is the first major Japanese bank to invest in the sector; it is said to have approached about 50 universities and to be in "specific discussions" with around 10.


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Barclays uses sensors to monitor desk use
 Barclays staff are being monitored to see how long they are at their desks in what the bank described as an exercise to assess office space usage.

According to Bloomberg, OccupEye devices – described as wireless workplace utilisation sensors – are being used to monitor desk use by employees. The bank said this is to better understand how long people are at their desks, rather than a Big Brother-like measure of staff productivity.

The wireless heat and motion sensors collect data and report in real-time, with the data being sent to a cloud-based analytics platform. Barclays said that staff and union Unite were notified before the devices, which are placed on the underside of desks, were rolled out.

However, according to Bloomberg, Barclays employees said they don’t remember being informed about the boxes. It added that the bank said there have been no official human-resources complaints.

Barclays told Bloomberg: “The sensors aren’t monitoring people or their productivity – they are assessing office space usage. This sort of analysis helps us to reduce costs, for example, managing energy consumption, or identifying opportunities to further adopt flexible work environments.”

Unite national officer Dominic Hook said in a statement: “We were given assurances that the boxes did not monitor individuals or their performance.”

The union said it “will keep a close eye on the situation to make sure that the sensors are never used to spy on staff or as a means to measure productivity”.

Sensors and data analytics technology for people tracking are also enabling businesses such as retailers and transport hubs to make decisions on the location of facilities and the layout of premises to maximise the use of space.

With the cost of real estate high in cities such as London, banks will monitor office usage to find opportunities to save money. .... ... .... .... .... ...

Output: Barclays has installed sensors to monitor desk use by staff in London. The bank claims that the OccupEye “wireless workplace utilisation sensors” are being used to assess the use of office space rather than staff productivity, and that the information they provide could be used to increase flexible working and to reduce energy consumption. The sensors, which detect heat and motion, collect and report data in real-time and then send it to a cloud-based platform. Similar devices are used by Lloyds, but were removed from Daily Telegraph offices following complaints by staff.


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SunPower starts back-contact technology manufacturing pilot
 SunPower has built its business on making the highest efficiency solar products commercially available for the rooftop market, based on its Maxeon back-contact technology. But after years of persistent losses, SunPower is shifting gears, not only in terms of its business approach but its technology.

In late 2015 SunPower unveiled a new module designs based on overlapping cells made from strips of silicon wafers, as a radical departure from its trademark modules based on interdigitated back contact (IBC) cells. However, the company has not stopped working on back-contact technology, and on recent results calls has been describing work on a new IBC cell and module product.

Yesterday SunPower provided more information on the factory which will provide this product, which is based in San Jose, California and has already begun making cells. In a press release long on hype and short of details, SunPower stated that this pilot line in its research facility runs from silicon to panel, utilizing a “revolutionary manufacturing approach” – but does not say what that means.

Less is known about the new technology. SunPower says that the cells “extend on” its X-Series technology, but again has provided almost nothing in the way of details. The most we have is SunPower CEO Tom Werner statement on the company’s recent quarterly results call that SunPower believes the technology “will significantly reduce cost while maintaining industry-leading performance”.

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If it can achieve a higher efficiency, this will be impressive, as X-Series cell have already reached more than 25% efficiency in mass production, the highest level for any mass-produced silicon PV cell.

SunPower will not be rolling out significant volumes from this research facility, as the line only has the capacity to produce 5 MW per year when fully ramped, which SunPower expects in 2018. However, the first customers, including schools, will begin receiving product from the line later this year.

Output: SunPower Systems has begun producing solar panels based on a new interdigitated back contact (IBC) technology at a research factory in Silicon Valley. SunPower had traditionally used IBC technology until it unveiled new module designs in 2015 based on overlapping cells made from strips of silicon wafers. However, as trailed on recent results calls, it has returned to IBC technology, this time using an undisclosed "revolutionary manufacturing approach". The panels “extend on” its X-Series technology, it said, without giving further details.


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Frogtech Geoscience 'solves' heat flow reservoir-modelling issue
 Australian geoscience company Frogtech Geoscience announces the release of TERRAFLUX, an innovative multi-client heat flow product, providing a unique new approach to assess regional heat flow variability for petroleum system modelling.

TERRAFLUX provides a present-day model for basement heat flow derived from Frogtech Geoscience’s well-known, trademark SEEBASE® studies.

Unlike a traditional interpolated grid, TERRAFLUX is derived from the integration and interpretation of spatially-continuous geological datasets such as basement composition, basement terranes, crustal thickness, including Frogtech Geoscience’s SEEBASE depth-to-basement map.

TERRAFLUX fills the gaps between scattered conventional heat flow data points geologically, resulting in a laterally variable grid that accounts for the effects of contrasting thermal sources, scales, depths and types. TERRAFLUX expands the basin modelling toolbox and constrains 1D, 2D and 3D modelling in underexplored basins.

TERRAFLUX reduces risk for basin and thermal modelling by constraining modelling assumptions to the specific components that contribute to heat flow, i.e., radiogenic heat contribution from basement, mantle input and local igneous activity, assessing and documenting them independently.

Exploration teams, basin modellers and geothermal assessment specialists will strongly benefit from TERRAFLUX’s cost-effective, ready-to-use basement heat flow grid that fast-tracks modelling tasks. Built and calibrated using Frogtech Geoscience’s workflow, tools and databases of basement lithology, heat production and global heat flow, all assessed for quality and reliability, TERRAFLUX is the essential independent and innovative heat flow calibration and benchmarking tool.

TERRAFLUX products are now available for the Gulf of Mexico, South China Sea, North Atlantic and North Sea, Greater Caspian, Black Sea, Onshore North Africa, with additional large undiscovered conventional oil and gas areas, including Guyana-Suriname basin, to be released later in 2017.

Output: Frogtech Geoscience has released its Terraflux tool, which it says solves regional heat flow variability in petroleum system modelling. Terraflux's calibration and benchmarking tool helps users model basins more quickly by constraining modelling assumptions to the specific components relating to heat flow, such as mantle input, and assessing them independently.


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India Energy Exchange gains SEBI approval for initial public offering
 PE-backed India Energy Exchange receives SEBI nod for IPO

Private equity-backed Indian Energy Exchange Ltd, the country’s first exchange for trading of electricity and renewable energy certificates, has received Securities and Exchange Board of India’s approval to float its initial public offering.

In June, the New Delhi-based company had filed its draft red herring prospectus, which said that the IPO will comprise sale of a 20.83% stake held by existing shareholders.

Citing a person aware of the development, VCCircle had earlier reported that the total issue size will be at Rs 600-650 crore ($93-100 million).

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The Renuka Ramnath-led Multiples Alternate Asset Management – the private equity arm of Kumar Mangalam Birla-led Aditya Birla Group – and Madison India Capital, will partially exit their investments.

According to the draft prospectus, Multiples had proposed to sell a 9.37% stake in the company, or 2.72 million shares out of the 3.87 million shares it currently holds, while Tata Power Company Ltd will completely exit its 10-year investment by selling 1.25 million shares.

The public issue will also see non-banking financial companies AF Holdings LLC and Kiran Vyapar Ltd sell their shares, besides former Indian Energy Exchange managing director and CEO Jayant Narhar Deo shedding a small portion of his holdings.

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The company will join a clutch of exchanges and financial market infrastructure companies that have either gone public or are planning to do so.

Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd had become India’s first exchange to go public, after it listed its shares over five years ago. BSE Ltd was the next to go public in February this year, while rival National Stock Exchange of India is working on its IPO.

Past exits

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Indian Energy Exchange’s valuation of Rs 3,000 crore during the IPO will be better than its March valuation of Rs 2,600 crore, when PTC India Financial Services had sold a 5% stake in the company for Rs 132.54 crore.

In December 2016, Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Infrastructure had sold its entire stake to an undisclosed buyer to earn multi-fold returns. Reliance Infra had sold a 4.122% stake for Rs 103 crore, nine years after investing Rs 1.25 crore in the energy exchange. The deal valued the company at Rs 2,500 crore.

In 2015, global multi-stage investment firm Bessemer Venture Partners had partially exited the company by selling its 4% stake to TVS Capital for Rs 80-90 crore. Subsequently, in May 2016, it had completely exited the company through the sale of its remaining 6% stake to Dalmia Group for Rs 130-150 crore, according to VCCircle estimates.

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In March 2016, Jindal Steel & Power Ltd had sold a 4.12% stake in the energy exchange to Motilal Oswal PE.

For more details on the proposed IPO of India Energy Exchange, click here.

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Output: India's private-equity backed Indian Energy Exchange has received approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India to go public with an initial public offering involving the sale of a 20.83% stake held by existing investors. A number of private equity firms and power companies will sell some of their shares, as will Indian Energy Exchange's former CEO Jayant Narhar Deo. The flotation will see the company join a number of Indian exchanges that have gone public, with Multi Commodity Exchange of India having been the first to do so over five years ago.


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Growth in electric vehicle sales will hurt many sectors: JPMorgan
 Adoption of electric vehicles is set to accelerate, and that's going to run over a lot of losers, including within the auto industry itself, JPMorgan Cazenove said in a note on Monday.

The shift toward electric vehicles is set to be a multi-year process, but once there's a tipping point, likely on a shift in costs, the transition could take off, JPMorgan analysts said.

They noted the price difference between traditional internal combustion vehicles (ICVs) and electric vehicles (EVs) was already narrowing as battery prices fall, but prices might not need to fall much for consumers to make the leap.

"Concerns about scrap values of ICVs may drive consumers towards EVs even before the price differential between the two classes of vehicles closes," JPMorgan said.

It estimated electric cars would take 35 percent of the global market by 2025 and 48 percent by 2030.

That's going to create some clear losers in an industry that's been spreading its tendrils for more than a century.

For one, adoption of electric vehicles means much lower maintenance costs for consumers, the analysts said.

"EVs have 20 moving parts compared to as many as 2,000 in an ICV, dramatically reducing service costs and increasing the longevity of the vehicle," the analysts said, adding that it estimated running costs for an electric vehicle can be around 10 percent of an internal combustion one.

"We see this as a meaningful risk for car dealers who rely on after-sales service for a large chunk of their profitability," the note said. "This should over time reduce the number of vehicles sold as well, in addition to other potential trends, such as automated driving and greater car utilization rates."

Output: The electric vehicle (EV) revolution will create a lot of losers, according to JPMorgan Cazenove, which are likely to include dealer networks, maintenance businesses, lenders and oil companies. Although the shift towards EVs is likely to be gradual, once their price comes down to that of internal combustion-engined cars, sales could start to grow rapidly. JP Morgan analysts noted the price difference between traditional vehicles and EVs was already narrowing as battery prices fall. It is estimated that EVs could take 35% of the global market by 2025.


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You may soon be able to choose the colour of your solar panels
 LEFT: The nanopatterned module appears green, independent of the angle. RIGHT: Schematic of silicon nanoscatterer arrays on top of a sapphire cover slide, integrated into a commonly used solar panel design.

By stamping dense arrays of crystalline silicon nanocylinders onto solar modules, researchers in the Netherlands have managed to give green energy a green color.

A new study published this week in Applied Physics Letters demonstrates photovoltaic modules with a bright green color, based on silicon heterojunction solar cells integrated with arrays of light scattering dielectric nanoscatterers. The panels show only around a 10% power reduction due to the loss of absorbed green light, paving the way to designing efficient colorful or white building-integrated photovoltaics.

“Some people say ‘why would you make solar cells less efficient?’ But we can make solar cells beautiful without losing too much efficiency,” said Verena Neder, a researcher at AMOLF and lead author of the paper. “The new method to change the color of the panels is not only easy to apply but also attractive as an architectural design element and has the potential to widen their use.”

Unlike existing colored solar panels, the nanopatterns give a consistent appearance from different angles, so the panels appear green even from a wide angle.

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Next, the researchers are designing imprints to create red and blue solar cells. Once they master these three colors, the primary colors of light, they can create any color, potentially even white.

“You have to combine different nanoparticles, and if they get very close to each other they can interact and that will affect the color,” said Albert Polman, a scientific group leader at AMOLF and senior author on the paper. “Going to white is a really big step.”

While most research to date has focused on increasing efficiency and reducing cost, the latest invention combines efficiency with aesthetics. Among other notable achievements in the field of aesthetic photovoltaic solutions are full-black solar modules and panels with integrated high-definition images.

Output: By imprinting solar panels with silicon nanopatterns that scatter green light back towards the observer, researchers at the Netherlands’ AMOLF Institute have moved closer to being able to produce solar modules in any colour. The panels have about 10% less power because of the loss of absorbed green light. “The new method is attractive as an architectural design element and has the potential to widen their use", said Verena Neder, a researcher at AMOLF. Once imprints are created for red and blue solar cells, the institute will have the primary colours and so will be able to produce any colours.


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Solar could meet 25% of India's energy demand: IRENA
 India can raise its renewable energy use to meet a quarter of the country's total final energy demand by 2030, shows a report by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), outlining areas that can unlock India’s vast renewable energy potential.

According to Renewable energy prospects for India, the latest study from IRENA’s REmap program, solar could play a vital role representing the second largest source of renewable energy with 16%, followed by wind at 14%, and hydropower at 7 % of the country’s total final renewable energy consumption by 2030. The list is topped by biofuels, which could be used across the end demand spectrum, such as for transport, electricity generation and heating, accounting for 62 %.

Furthermore, the renewable energy technologies identified in the report would lower demand for coal and oil products between 17 % and 23 % by 2030. Reduced reliance on fossil fuels is showing itself as the only viable option, taking into account India’s limited sources of fossil fuels, which are prompting the country to turn increasingly to imports, thus adding to concerns about security of the energy supply, the actual prices – as record low Indian solar tariff bids accepted in 2017 (INR 2.44 ($ 0.037)/kWh) mean that solar is now cheaper than coal, and the country’s pledges under the Paris Climate Agreement.

“With one of the world's largest and most ambitious renewable energy programs, India is taking a leading role in the energy transformation both regionally and globally,” said IRENA Director-General Adnan Z. Amin. “India possesses a wealth of renewable resources, particularly for solar and bioenergy development, which can help to meet growing energy demand, power economic growth and improve energy access, as well as boost overall energy security.”

Challenges in sight

India’s population and economic growth is expected to increase the number of people living in cities and towns from approximately 435 million in 2015 to 600 million by 2030. Consequently, the country’s total energy demand will more than double by 2030, while electricity demand will almost triple, IRENA notes.

Despite rapid strides in adding power capacity, India continues to be plagued by widespread energy poverty, as reaching rural and remote areas with the necessary transmission and distribution network remains a major challenge. Estimates suggest that 80 million households — roughly 300 million people — still have limited or no access to electricity.

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In economic terms, the health impact of outdoor air pollution costs about 3% of India’s annual gross domestic product, and indoor air pollution adds significantly to this total. Therefore, the shift to renewables would not only be economically beneficial with regard to creating jobs, but also reducing carbon dioxide emissions, and ensuring cleaner air and water, with savings on health-related costs.

Road to follow

Meeting India’s electricity demand, which has grown by 10 % a year over the past decade, and attaining the country's economic growth targets will require significant investment in power-generation capacity and related infrastructure, as well as in transport, buildings and industry sectors, creating important opportunities for renewable energy deployment.

IRENA’s report shows that to make the most of its vast sustainable energy potential, investments in India’s renewable energy capacity have to more than double. The country must mobilize affordable financing and adopt new business models; develop a skilled and knowledgeable workforce; and introduce modern renewables-based technologies into people’s daily cooking, cooling and transportation routines. Achieving this will require annual renewable energy investments worth $42 billion over the period to 2030.

India will also need to accelerate the transformation of its power system to integrate higher shares of renewables by strengthening transmission grids, reducing grid losses, and in general improving the resilience of the power system by investing in a more flexible system that values demand-response, interconnectors and storage, as well as greater transport and power-sector synergies.

A recent study developed under the U.S.-India bilateral program Greening the Grid showed that India’s bold target of 175 GW of installed renewable capacity by 2022, which includes 100 GW of solar, is attainable because the nation’s power grid can be balanced and adapted to the intermittent nature of renewable energy sources.

Output: A quarter of India's entire electricity requirements can be supplied by solar power alone, and would be second only to biofuels as the country's main source of renewable energy, according to a report by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). As part of its roadmap to 2030, the demand for coal and oil would fall by 17% and 23% respectively, while reduced levels of pollution would improve the country's environment and the health of its population. The report also highlights the need to double investments into India's renewable energy capacity to $42bn in the period up to 2030.


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Microplastics discovered in deep sea species for first time
 Credit: Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS)

Around half of marine creatures living at depths of more than 2,000 metres in the North Atlantic could be eating microplastic material, marine scientists have discovered.

Researchers at the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) in Oban, Scotland sampled deep-sea starfish and sea snails from the Rockall Trough and found microscopic traces of plastic in 48 per cent of those sampled. The levels of plastic ingestion were comparable to those found in species living in shallower coastal waters.

Microplastics are small pieces of plastic less than 5 millimetres in size and, when ingested by sea creatures, may be passed up the food chain.

Although scientists have previously found traces of microplastics in the deep sea, this research, published in the journal Environmental Pollution, is the first time microplastic ingestion in deep-sea invertebrates has been quantified.

A range of plastics were identified; the paper shows how even naturally buoyant substances, such as polyethylene used to make plastic shopping bags, could be found inside brittle stars, sea stars and sea snails.

Polyester was the most abundant plastic identified, mainly in the form of microscopic fibres, and while it is not possible to definitively know its origin, this substance is used widely in clothing and can reach the sea in waste water from washing machines.

Credit: Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS)

Lead author on the paper 'Microplastic pollution identified in deep-sea water and ingested by benthic invertebrates in the Rockall Trough, North Atlantic Ocean' is Winnie Courtene-Jones, a University of the Highlands and Islands PhD researcher based at SAMS.

She said: "Microplastics are widespread in the natural environment and present numerous ecological threats, such as reducing reproductive success, blocking digestive tracts and transferring organic pollutants to organisms which eat them. More than 660 marine species worldwide are documented to be affected by plastics.

"There is much evidence of microplastics around coastal waters but little is known about the extent of plastic pollution in the deeper ocean.

"The deep sea is the largest, but also the least explored part of the planet and may be the final sink for plastics. More work is needed on the wider ocean environment to understand the long term fate of marine plastics."

The study found the quantity of ingested microplastics differed between species but did not relate to the size or feeding habits of the species.

Credit: Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS)

Winnie's supervisor, SAMS deep sea ecologist Dr Bhavani Narayanaswamy, said: "No longer 'out of sight, out of mind', research into microplastics is rapidly increasing in importance. We are attempting to establish not only how widespread they are, but also how and where they accumulate in animals, and ultimately the impact that they may have on the health of humans.

"SAMS is increasing its research into microplastics, with two new PhD students joining the team in October; one to look at microplastics in the Scottish marine environment, comparing urban and rural locations, whilst the second student will be attempting to develop airborne sensors that will detect microplastics."

The sampling was done in June 2016 during the annual Extended Ellett Line research cruise on board the RRS Discovery.

More information: Winnie Courtene-Jones et al. Microplastic pollution identified in deep-sea water and ingested by benthic invertebrates in the Rockall Trough, North Atlantic Ocean, Environmental Pollution (2017). DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2017.08.026

Provided by Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS)

Output: Approximately half of marine creatures living in the North Atlantic at depths of over 2,000 metres could be consuming microplastics, according to the first study of ingestion by deep-sea invertebrates. Researchers at the Scottish Association for Marine Science found plastic in 48% of creatures sampled in the Rockall Trough, similar to the levels of ingestion found in species in shallower coastal waters. Polyester was the most commonly identified plastic and is likely to have entered the ocean via washing machine waste water.


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Innowatts raises $6m in series A funding
 HOUSTON, Aug. 22, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Innowatts, an innovative leader in advanced energy analytics and digital transformation of the utility industry, today announced that the company has raised $6 million in Series A funding from a consortium of three global investors with deep ties to the energy sector and emerging technology. The consortia consists of:

Shell Technology Ventures ("STV"), is the venture capital arm of Royal Dutch Shell plc ("Shell"). With major offices in Europe and the USA .

plc ("Shell"). With major offices in and the . Iberdrola Ventures - PERSEO, the corporate venture capital program (CVC) of Iberdrola, the world leader in renewable energy and smart grids, serving over 30 million energy customers globally.

Energy & Environment Investment Inc., the leading venture capital in Japan to focus in innovation in technology and services in the energy- and resource-related sectors with deep ties to Japan's energy sector.

The capital raised will be used to strengthen Innowatts' global foothold and drive product innovation across its energy analytics and digital e-Utility™ solution suite. "We are proud to be represented by such strong names in the global energy sector, each of whom play a strategic role in our vision of creating a smarter and leaner energy value chain. This partnership not just validates the applicability of our solution across different markets of the world but also reinforces the underlying need to translate energy intelligence into actionable and personalized products and services for energy consumers," said Siddhartha Sachdeva, Innowatts CEO.

Innowatts began commercial operations in 2014 as a provider of advanced energy analytics for energy providers and consumers, combining AMI enabled customer intelligence with its machine learning and predictive analytics to help reduce cost and personalize the energy experience. Innowatts quickly extended that capability to include a range of scalable "plug and play" solutions that have helped transform many conventional utility functions including energy procurement, pricing and rates, customer acquisition/switching, energy efficiency, grid optimization and customer engagement. Today, the Innowatts solution suite analyzes data from over 12 million consumers across both regulated and competitive energy markets, providing actionable intelligence to help energy providers and consumers transform their parts of the energy value chain.

This funding round provides the capital to extend the reach for Innowatts' core analytics platform, but will also be used to fully commercialize and broaden capabilities of its newly launched e-Utility™ retail energy platform solution. Earlier this year, Innowatts announced the launch of its e-Utility™ solution suite which brought together many of its existing capabilities and solutions into a complete and fully integrated Retail Energy Platform to help current and future energy providers transform the way they manage their business and service customers. The e-Utility™ solution is the first to deliver this kind of "utility-in-a-box" alternative to an otherwise costly service and delivery infrastructure while providing an unparalleled and highly personalized experience for its customers.

The investment round was led by Royal Dutch Shell's venture arm, Shell Technology Ventures. Operating across the full spectrum of the energy sector, Shell has become a dominant player in the procurement and supply of energy to retail providers and large consumers and is committed to furthering the technology innovation across the value chain. Carl Stjernfeldt, North American Venture Manager at Shell Technology Ventures says, "The Innowatts vision is something that we believe could change the retail energy business. Using analytics to disrupt conventional industry practices is something we've seen in other industries, and Innowatts is at the center of this in the retail energy space."

Also participating in this investment round is Iberdrola Ventures - PERSEO, the corporate venture capital program (CVC) of Iberdrola. "Iberdrola is truly excited to be a part of Innowatts' future. During the last few years, we have invested heavily in technology and innovation as pillars of our digitization strategy and Iberdrola's digital plan for 2020 is aimed at boosting the turnover thanks to an investment of €3,100M. The investment in Innowatts, through our corporate VC arm will help us leverage data analytics and machine learning to transform the way energy is bought, sold, managed and consumed," said Diego Díaz, Head of Iberdrola's CVC. Iberdrola is a global utility servicing over 30 million customers and has established itself as a clear pioneer and market leader in clean electricity and the deployment of innovative and intelligent smart grid technologies.

Energy & Environment Investment Inc., Japan's leading clean technology-focused venture capital with deep start up experience also sees Innowatts at the nexus of big data, IT and OT disruption stemming from electricity market deregulation. "Japan's recent retail energy deregulation has provided our $200 billion utility industry a unique opportunity to structurally transform its operating model, and further its digitalization in energy procurement, marketing, demand response, and energy efficiency. We believe Innowatts is uniquely positioned to be an enabler of that transformation," said Shuichiro Kawamura of EEI- Japan.

About Innowatts

Innowatts is a Houston based energy technology start-up, focused on building the world's first scalable e-Utility™. Innowatts PowerEASE™ platform analyzes energy consumption data along with other variables to enable energy providers to (a) optimize cost to the levels of up to 30% and (b) build personalized energy products and services for their end-consumers. The Innowatts solution is currently deployed across multiple energy markets, processing data from over 12 million energy meters. For more information, please visit www.innowatts.com.

About Shell Technology Ventures

Shell Technology Ventures ("STV") is the corporate venture capital arm of Royal Dutch Shell plc ("Shell"). With major offices in Europe and the USA, STV invests in technology companies to enhance the development of new technologies that have the potential to create substantial deployment value in Shell. Continuing Shell's tradition in venture capital since 1998, STV's investment focus includes oil & gas, renewable green energy technologies, clean tech and IT. STV co-invests with other corporate investors, venture capital funds and angels and will invest in both early stage and late stage (growth capital) companies. For more information, visit www.shell.com/techventures.

About Iberdrola Group

Iberdrola is a private-owned utility company with over 150 years of experience dedicated to energy generation, networks and retail. Since embarking on its growth and international expansion, Iberdrola has become one of the largest European energy utilities by market capitalization, with a workforce of around 30,000 employees and 30 million customers worldwide. The Group is committed to digitization and smart grids, and has already installed 10 MM smart meters worldwide, concentrated in its core markets of Spain, the U.K., the U.S., Mexico and Brazil. For more information, please visit www.iberdrola.com.

About Energy and Environment Investment Inc.

Venture capital in Japan with a deep focus in innovative technology and services in the energy- and resource-related sectors. Since its establishment in 2006, Energy & Environment Investment Inc. has been providing its portfolio venture companies with fast and effective bridge-building to the Japanese energy industry. It has a proven track record in initiating strategic partnerships including cross-border alliances between its portfolio companies and major Japanese energy corporations. www.ee-investment.jp/en

Media Contact: Aakriti Gupta, aakriti@innowatts.com, Strategy & Market Development

View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/innowatts-raises-6-million-in-series-a-round-300507615.html

SOURCE Innowatts

Output: Texas-based energy tech start-up Innowatts has raised $6m in series A funding from a consortium of leading energy investors. The company provides analytics for energy companies and consumers, based on data from over 12 million energy meters. The investment consortium consists of the investment arms of Shell and Iberdrola, along with specialist Japanese venture capital firm Energy & Environment Investment. The funding will be used to enable Innowatts to extend the reach of their core platform and further develop its recently-launched 'e-Utility' retail energy platform.


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Input:
Autonomous vehicle makers must be ready to fend off hackers
 It reminds me of numerous articles promoting e-mail in the early 1990s, before the newfound world of electronic communications was awash in unwanted spam. Back then, the promise of machine learning was seen as a solution to the world’s spam problems. And indeed, today the problem of spam is largely solved—but it took decades for us to get here.

There have been no reports to date of hostile hackers targeting self-driving vehicles. Ironically, though, that’s a problem. There were no malicious attackers when the dot-com startups in the 1990s developed the first e-commerce platforms, either. After the first big round of e-commerce hacks, Bill Gates wrote a memo to Microsoft demanding that the company take security seriously. The result: today Windows is one of the most secure operating systems, and Microsoft spends more than a billion dollars annually on cybersecurity. Nevertheless, hackers keep finding problems with Windows operating systems, Web browsers, and applications.

Car companies are likely to go through a similar progression. After being widely embarrassed by their failure to consider security at all—the CAN bus, designed in the 1980s, has no concept of authentication—they now appear to be paying attention. When hackers demonstrated that vehicles on the roads were vulnerable to several specific security threats, automakers responded by recalling and upgrading the firmware of millions of cars. Last July, GM CEO Mary Barra said that protecting cars from a cybersecurity incident “is a matter of public safety.”

But the efforts being made to date may be missing the next security trend. The computer vision and collision avoidance systems under development for autonomous vehicles rely on complex machine-learning algorithms that are not well understood, even by the companies that rely on them (see “The Dark Secret at the Heart of AI”).

Last year researchers at CMU demonstrated that state-of-the-art face recognition algorithms could be defeated by wearing a pair of clear glasses with a funky pattern printed on their frames. Something about the pattern tipped the algorithm in just the right way, and it thought it saw what wasn’t there. “We showed that attackers can evade state-of-the-art face recognition algorithms that are based on neural networks for the purpose of impersonating a target person, or simply getting identified incorrectly,” lead researcher Mahmood Sharif wrote in an e-mail.

Also last year, researchers at the University of South Carolina, China’s Zhejiang University, and the Chinese security firm Qihoo 360 demonstrated that they could jam various sensors on a Tesla S, making objects invisible to its navigation system.

Many recent articles about autonomous driving downplay or even ignore the idea that there might be active, adaptive, and malicious adversaries trying to make the vehicles crash. In an interview with MIT Technology Review, the chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, Christopher Hart, said he was “very optimistic” that self-driving cars would cut the number of accidents on the nation’s roads. In discussing safety issues, Hart focused on the need to program vehicles to make ethical decisions—for example, when an 80,000-pound truck suddenly blocks a car’s way.

Why anyone would want to hack a self-driving car, knowing that it could result in a death? One reason is that widespread deployment of autonomous vehicles is going to result in a lot of unemployed people, and some of them are going to be angry.

Output: Self-driving trucks and taxis may be just a few years away but manufacturers will need to solve problems far more complex than collision avoidance and navigation. Hackers may pose the real obstacle to autonomous vehicles, with some fearing that unemployed truckers armed with “adversarial machine learning” could dazzle self-driving vehicles into crashing. Sarah Abboud, a spokesperson for Uber, commented: “Our team of security experts are constantly exploring new defences for the future of autonomous vehicles, including data integrity and abuse detection. However, as autonomous technology evolves, so does the threat model.”