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One of the things I find most surprising about discussions concerning the advent of automated vehicles is that, besides predictable worries about the disappearance of jobs that currently require human drivers, there is a serious, and boring, lack of imagination. Most people seem to think the world will be the same as it is now, except that our cars will be driving us around. In this scenario, the main difference between now and then is that we’ll have more spare time to look at screens, since we’ll just be sitting there, instead of focusing on the road and giving the finger to people who slow-turn left when there’s only a short time to catch the green arrow.

The truth is quite the opposite  — and a hard truth it is — for those invested deeply in the status quo. For one, it will mean an end to personal car ownership, except in rare circumstances. From the user’s end of things, this means you will just summon a car with your phone, and it will take you where you’re going. Since you won’t own the car, you won’t care what it looks like or what’s under the hood, which means that cars will become a lot more uniform in design, as well as cheaper, safer and far cleaner and more efficient. There will be no more corner gas stations and no more main street mechanics’ shops or oil change outfits, since everything will be managed, as it were, at a bulk rather than an individual level of service delivery.

From the owner’s end of things, fleets of cars will be owned by companies. This doesn’t just mean automated Uber. To pick just one example, companies like Walmart will almost certainly let their robot cars drive you to and from their stores for free, as will their competitors. Assuming huge efficiency gains are met, it’s even possible that municipalities will get in the game, and cars will eventually be a part of public transportation. And that’s just the start.

But here’s the thing no one seems to be talking about: When cars and trucks are all automated and talking to each other to coordinate their movements, it will open up the possibility for many new types of moving robots and services to emerge, including “vehicles” that have no space for humans whatsoever. In the following sections I’ll set out just a few of the possibilities.

Mobile retail

In the automated vehicle future, “mobile retail” won’t mean buying things from your phone: it will mean buying things from stores on wheels. Just to pick a familiar starting point, imagine that vending machines could zoom around on the roads on their own. An entire industry will emerge based on roving algorithms that let vending machines for specific products be in the right place at the right time to make a sale.

Heading to the park on an especially hot day? There will be robots there roving around selling cold drinks. Is it unexpectedly cold? While you’re waiting at the (driverless) bus stop, there will be a hot chocolate vehicle right there ready for you. Ice cream trucks will be back, too, of course, roving the neighborhoods, with nothing but treats inside.

Robot mail carriers and other local services

Post offices may not have much of a future, at least as services distinct from the general industry of getting of things from A to B, but again it’s easier to explain a major change when you start from something familiar, so here goes.

Once cars are driverless, there will be robot vehicles delivering your mail and other packages right to your door when you summon them. Packages (and even letters, until governments finally figure out how to go paperless) will be distributed to local warehouses and loaded up onto trucks that will roam or rest in your neighborhood until you call them to say you’re ready for delivery. Then, the vehicle will just roll up to your door, ping you to let you know it’s there, and have your package ready for you. They might even deposit them on your doorstep in some kind of generic local shipping container.

Garbage and recycling vehicles (again, with no humans inside) will also roam around, coming when you need them, which means no more (or far less) garbage sitting in bags or bins on the streets. Sorry, raccoons.

Presumably, especially where crowds are gathered, there will also be health care robots whizzing about, ready with their cameras, first aid kits, advice, and direct lines to emergency services if anything unfortunate happens.

There will be robots selling tickets to concerts and sports games competing right outside the venue with scalpers  —  there may even be robot scalpers there, too. Since vehicles might get a lot wider as parking on the street completely disappears, we might even see the design of robot gyms or yoga studios that drive right up to your door and let you go inside and work out, while the gym roams around picking other members up and dropping them off when they’re done. (Okay, this example is both a little out there, and involves putting people inside the vehicles, but the point is that not all vehicles will exist for the purpose of transporting people around, but rather providing another type of service.)

This basic theme will extend to all sorts of other services. Even traffic cones and street signs might end up being able to move around, controlled centrally or even following algorithms of their own.

Speaking of municipal services, the robot cops we first encounter will not be shaped or in any way intended to move and manipulate things like humans do. Rather, they will be more like R2D2: multipurpose, smart tools on wheels. This may strike you as a bad thing, but anyone who ever has ever been mugged will be very happy to see a little robocop come speeding around the corner, lights blaring and camera flashing. Still, we all need to get ready for a whole new privacy debate, as roving cops patrol our streets recording video, scanning for trouble, and faces, cheaply, safely, but also ubiquitously.

Automated transportation of goods

Long before Elon Musk comes to terms with the fact that the hyperloop is a good system for transporting goods, but a terrible system for transporting people, automated vehicles purpose-built for transporting goods will be trucking safely along the existing road and highway infrastructure we have already built, with no need for coffee or truck stops.

There may be big truck-like things that travel in convoys, but there will also be transportation vehicles that function essentially like interchangeable, road-based shipping containers, with no dedicated space for a person. Indeed, someone might even develop something like container “skates” that you just roll a container onto as soon as it comes off a cargo ship, or out of a factory, helping the thing zoom along roads to its programmed destination.

A whole new startup ecosystem

The driverless future will transform both the literal landscape and the startup landscape. Just like the iPhone created a whole new ecosystem for startups with the App Store, when the things on our roads can be automated, the street will represent an entirely new platform for the delivery of goods and services. Of course this change will be hard. So was the change to driving horseless carriages in the first place. But it will also bring enormous opportunities on a number of levels.

Let’s just hope this driverless future can also ameliorate some of the catastrophic damage we’ve done to ourselves as a species, and our planet more broadly, for the sake of the car  — damage so ubiquitous, we treat roads like natural features, instead of the [deliberate bitumen spills they really are.

The British are coming . . . for Mayor Bloomberg!

Conservatives across the pond are seeking to draft the billionaire anglophile to run next year in the London mayoral election, the Sunday Times of London reported.

Friends of Bloomberg, who were not named, told the paper the ex-mayor of Gotham is “considering” running as the Tory candidate. The city of 8.5 million will elect Boris Johnson’s successor in May 2016.

While the movement is likely a political pipe dream, powerful Brits publicly backed the idea — perhaps seeking mayoral bans on fizzy pop, black cabs and high-calorie bangers and mash.

Steve Hilton, a trusted adviser to British Prime Minister David Cameron, is urging Bloomberg to run, the newspaper reported.

“It would be an incredible coup for London if Mike Bloomberg could be persuaded to run for mayor here,” Hilton said. “His kind of pragmatic, problem-solving leadership is exactly what London needs.”

Hilton said he previously discussed the possibility of a Bloomberg run with Conservative Cameron and Finance Minister George Osborne back in 2008, before Johnson was nominated as the Tory pick for mayor, but abandoned the plan when Bloomberg announced he would run for a third term in New York.

Even Johnson discussed the idea with Bloomberg, the paper said, citing an unnamed Johnson pal.

“Mike is an enormous friend of London. He’s a great contributor to the city. He’s got many supporters and admirers, of which Boris is definitely one,” the source said.

The paper itself cheered the idea, with an editorial declaring: “This is one of those ideas that, at first blush, seems to be off the wall . . . On closer inspection, however, the idea has much to commend it.”

Modal Trigger

Current London Mayor Boris Johnson

Photo: Getty Images

The paper noted Bloomberg’s love of London and push for charter schools, gun control and redevelopment of rundown areas when he was mayor of New York.

The editorial even compared Bloomberg to international soccer stars who play for UK teams.

“Britain is no stranger to successful foreign imports,” it reads. “And where would the Premier League be without foreign managers and players? If it is good enough for Arsenal and Chelsea, it should be good enough for London.”

But Bloomberg aides called the whole thing bollocks.

“You can quote me on the record ruling it out,” former Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson told The Post.

“He is flattered, but he loves New York City too much to leave it — and knows how tough it will be for anyone to follow Boris.”

After his mayoralty ended in 2013, Bloomberg began spending a lot of time and money in London, building “Bloomberg Palace,” a two-tower skyscraper, on the site of Roman temple ruins. He owns a $20 million town house in the city by the Thames and sits on the board of the Serpentine Galleries.

Queen Elizabeth II bestowed him with an honorary knighthood in 2014 for his entrepreneurial and philanthropic work in the UK.

“I am deeply honored to receive this recognition, which is especially meaningful to me because of my close . . . ties to London and Britain,” he said at the time.

Modal TriggerBloomberg added Britain is “a place I have long considered my second home.’’

However, he is not a citizen of the UK or the European Union, a prerequisite for running for mayor.

Then again, he has never been dissuaded by pesky election laws, famously campaigning to extend mayoral term limits so he could run for a third term in 2009.

Rich foreigners can fast-track their applications for British residency by investing $15 million in the UK, but that still takes two years. Tory politicians could speed up the process because Bloomberg has invested at least $745 million in the UK, sources told the Sunday Times.

“We don’t think it would be a problem,” insisted a source familiar with the discussions.

Both Bloomberg’s daughters, Emma, 36, and Georgina, 32, are British citizens, as is his ex-wife, Susan Brown, born in the UK.

Johnson, born in New York in 1964, joked in 2013 that he and then-Mayor Bloomberg could “swap” jobs.

- Says:"The Board of Inquiry has found shocking details of corruption running into billions of dollars, manipulations of service contracting, recruitment of unqualified staff and major security breaches at Sri Lankan Airlines under the former government."

Cover Story: A look at four managers who took over major funds and either turned them around or continued to steer them on a successful course (Jeff Feingold of Fidelity Magellan, Scott Mather of Pimco Total Return, Taymour Tarmaddon of T. Rowe Price Health Sciences, and Dan Kozlowski of Janus Contrarian).Tech 

Trader: With the cloud computing sector maturing, tech giants such as AMZN, GOOG, MSFT, and CRM must adapt or risk falling by the wayside as new companies such as TXTR and VEEV gain ground; The tech sector has flipped, says Leonard Kleinrock of UCLA--now apps, instead of catching up with technology, are racing ahead of it.

Trader: Lack of storage for burgeoning supplies of crude oil could significantly depress U.S. prices, says Christopher Zook of Houston-based CAZ Investments; Positive on MON: Company has strong earnings visibility because of a strong pipeline, its valuation is the cheapest in the past five years, and for long-term investors it looks like a keeper; During the current six-month bull market, spin-offs are outperforming the market significantly, but could flag in a downturn.

Tougher approach seen largely as response to increased regulatory scrutiny

Merrill Lynch is shaking up the ranks of its 14,000 brokers with what appears to be a zero-tolerance message about breaking key company rules.

Merrill Lynch is shaking up the ranks of its 14,000 brokers with what appears to be a zero-tolerance message about breaking key company rules. The new, tougher approach is seen largely as a response to increased scrutiny from regulators and heightened oversight by the brokerage itself.

The message was delivered in dramatic fashion: In September and again last month, the Bank of America Corp.-owned brokerage fired longtime financial advisers handling very large and lucrative accounts. According to the firm, they had violated its policies for dealing with clients and handling transactions. In both cases, Merrill surprised the advisers—and many of their colleagues—by opting for immediate termination over a less severe sanction that would have allowed them to remain on the job.

In the more recent case, Tom Buck, an Indiana-based adviser who oversaw $1.3 billion in assets, lost his job in early March. A 33-year veteran of the firm, Mr. Buck was considered a model for success at Merrill by people who had worked with him, other advisers have said.

But when the 61-year-old adviser showed up to work March 4 to attend what he thought would be a routine meeting with his managers, he was instead fired and escorted from the building before the day’s end, Mr. Buck said in an interview.

His daughter, Ann Buck, a cheerleader for the Indianapolis Colts as well as an adviser who worked alongside her father, voluntarily resigned, according to Mr. Buck’s attorney, Brian Hamburger.

In a termination notice posted on Mr. Buck’s so-called U5 filing and viewed by The Wall Street Journal, Merrill said it dismissed him for “conduct including failing to discuss service level and pricing alternatives with a customer, providing inaccurate information to firm management during account reviews regarding this issue, mismarking bond cross-trade order tickets as unsolicited and providing information to a client during an active account review that did not correspond to the firm’s records.” A U5 typically explains a broker’s departure or dismissal.

All of that, Merrill said in the filing, resulted in “management’s loss of confidence.” The firm began its review of Mr. Buck a day before the dismissal, according to the filing.

Mr. Buck, a perennial on the closely followed Barron’s Top Adviser rankings, taking the No. 1 spot in his home state of Indiana every year since 2010, said he doesn’t plan on disputing the language. He said in the interview that he wants “to go forward and take care of his clients” now.

He described the firing as a “kick in the gut,” and said the issues raised by Merrill weren’t brought to his attention before the day he was fired. He says he is now evaluating a couple of options and plans to resume his practice “soon.”

Merrill had no comment on Mr. Buck’s firing.

In the past, brokerages leaned toward giving second chances to their so-called top producers, perhaps putting a letter of reprimand in their file, ordering that they submit to closer supervision or a suspension, depending on the alleged offense. The new, tougher approach is seen largely as a response to closer regulatory scrutiny of brokerages.

“Gone are the old days where someone who was a big producer or a significant force could act with impunity,” said Robert Plaze, a former deputy director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Investment Management who is now an attorney at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP. “If an adviser is breaking policies, even if it doesn’t violate the law, it opens up the adviser to an enforcement action.”

But it also gives the firms a big advantage in terms of winning over the fired advisers’ clients, industry recruiters point out.

“Merrill Lynch has been in contact with my clients, reassigning them to other advisers and using this past month to their best advantage,” said Mr. Buck.

In September, Merrill terminated advisers Stephen Brown and James Goetz, based in Rochester, N.Y., who had 40 years of combined service at the brokerage and $2.5 billion in client assets under management. They were dismissed for what the firm says was “conduct related to not disclosing private securities transactions, including transactions alongside clients,” according to their BrokerCheck, Finra’s database on brokers and financial advisers.

Messrs. Brown and Goetz dispute the termination and Merrill’s reasoning for it, according to their attorney, Thomas Lewis. His clients are in arbitration with the firm, which wants Mr. Brown to repay a portion of a retention bonus he received. The circumstances of the firing are being aired in those closed hearings, Mr. Lewis said.

Mr. Lewis said Merrill “rushed to judgment” after questions arose around Mr. Brown’s investments in local private companies. Several of his clients, who are ultrawealthy and were close friends of Mr. Brown, were also investors in some of these companies.

“The penalty did not fit the allegations,” said Mr. Lewis, adding that both his clients claim the behavior was approved by Merrill.

Merrill also had no comment on Messrs. Brown and Goetz’s firings.

Like Mr. Buck, Merrill reassigned their clients, while the two fired advisers were unable to find work until the brokerage formally posted its reasons for the termination, Mr. Lewis said.

It isn’t clear why Merrill opted for the harsher penalties in either instance. A spokesman for the firm declined to comment for this article.

However, current and former Merrill employees say the company effectively sent a message to its employees: Shape up or else.

A Merrill branch manager based on the East Coast said there is a “zero tolerance” atmosphere for any type of risk at the firm right now and that other, less notable firings have taken place the last couple of years that may have been dealt with less harshly several years earlier. It has caused him and others to look over their shoulders more to avoid any run-ins with compliance personnel, the manager said.

Securities attorneys said that attitude is taking a greater hold in the industry. Even small violations, such as poor record keeping or email retention, are drawing stricter penalties, attorneys say.

“A firm might’ve addressed a relatively minor infraction with an internal review or a censure maybe,” said Rob Skinner, an attorney with Ropes & Gray, while speaking broadly about the industry. “With regulators bearing down increasingly on relatively minor sanctions, it’s an incentive for brokerages to do some shortsighted things because the negative impact of an enforcement preceding is potentially huge.”

Tougher approach seen largely as response to increased regulatory scrutiny

Merrill Lynch is shaking up the ranks of its 14,000 brokers with what appears to be a zero-tolerance message about breaking key company rules.

Merrill Lynch is shaking up the ranks of its 14,000 brokers with what appears to be a zero-tolerance message about breaking key company rules. The new, tougher approach is seen largely as a response to increased scrutiny from regulators and heightened oversight by the brokerage itself.

The message was delivered in dramatic fashion: In September and again last month, the Bank of America Corp.-owned brokerage fired longtime financial advisers handling very large and lucrative accounts. According to the firm, they had violated its policies for dealing with clients and handling transactions. In both cases, Merrill surprised the advisers—and many of their colleagues—by opting for immediate termination over a less severe sanction that would have allowed them to remain on the job.

In the more recent case, Tom Buck, an Indiana-based adviser who oversaw $1.3 billion in assets, lost his job in early March. A 33-year veteran of the firm, Mr. Buck was considered a model for success at Merrill by people who had worked with him, other advisers have said.

But when the 61-year-old adviser showed up to work March 4 to attend what he thought would be a routine meeting with his managers, he was instead fired and escorted from the building before the day’s end, Mr. Buck said in an interview.

His daughter, Ann Buck, a cheerleader for the Indianapolis Colts as well as an adviser who worked alongside her father, voluntarily resigned, according to Mr. Buck’s attorney, Brian Hamburger.

In a termination notice posted on Mr. Buck’s so-called U5 filing and viewed by The Wall Street Journal, Merrill said it dismissed him for “conduct including failing to discuss service level and pricing alternatives with a customer, providing inaccurate information to firm management during account reviews regarding this issue, mismarking bond cross-trade order tickets as unsolicited and providing information to a client during an active account review that did not correspond to the firm’s records.” A U5 typically explains a broker’s departure or dismissal.

All of that, Merrill said in the filing, resulted in “management’s loss of confidence.” The firm began its review of Mr. Buck a day before the dismissal, according to the filing.

Mr. Buck, a perennial on the closely followed Barron’s Top Adviser rankings, taking the No. 1 spot in his home state of Indiana every year since 2010, said he doesn’t plan on disputing the language. He said in the interview that he wants “to go forward and take care of his clients” now.

He described the firing as a “kick in the gut,” and said the issues raised by Merrill weren’t brought to his attention before the day he was fired. He says he is now evaluating a couple of options and plans to resume his practice “soon.”

Merrill had no comment on Mr. Buck’s firing.

In the past, brokerages leaned toward giving second chances to their so-called top producers, perhaps putting a letter of reprimand in their file, ordering that they submit to closer supervision or a suspension, depending on the alleged offense. The new, tougher approach is seen largely as a response to closer regulatory scrutiny of brokerages.

“Gone are the old days where someone who was a big producer or a significant force could act with impunity,” said Robert Plaze, a former deputy director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Investment Management who is now an attorney at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP. “If an adviser is breaking policies, even if it doesn’t violate the law, it opens up the adviser to an enforcement action.”

But it also gives the firms a big advantage in terms of winning over the fired advisers’ clients, industry recruiters point out.

“Merrill Lynch has been in contact with my clients, reassigning them to other advisers and using this past month to their best advantage,” said Mr. Buck.

In September, Merrill terminated advisers Stephen Brown and James Goetz, based in Rochester, N.Y., who had 40 years of combined service at the brokerage and $2.5 billion in client assets under management. They were dismissed for what the firm says was “conduct related to not disclosing private securities transactions, including transactions alongside clients,” according to their BrokerCheck, Finra’s database on brokers and financial advisers.

Messrs. Brown and Goetz dispute the termination and Merrill’s reasoning for it, according to their attorney, Thomas Lewis. His clients are in arbitration with the firm, which wants Mr. Brown to repay a portion of a retention bonus he received. The circumstances of the firing are being aired in those closed hearings, Mr. Lewis said.

Mr. Lewis said Merrill “rushed to judgment” after questions arose around Mr. Brown’s investments in local private companies. Several of his clients, who are ultrawealthy and were close friends of Mr. Brown, were also investors in some of these companies.

“The penalty did not fit the allegations,” said Mr. Lewis, adding that both his clients claim the behavior was approved by Merrill.

Merrill also had no comment on Messrs. Brown and Goetz’s firings.

Like Mr. Buck, Merrill reassigned their clients, while the two fired advisers were unable to find work until the brokerage formally posted its reasons for the termination, Mr. Lewis said.

It isn’t clear why Merrill opted for the harsher penalties in either instance. A spokesman for the firm declined to comment for this article.

However, current and former Merrill employees say the company effectively sent a message to its employees: Shape up or else.

A Merrill branch manager based on the East Coast said there is a “zero tolerance” atmosphere for any type of risk at the firm right now and that other, less notable firings have taken place the last couple of years that may have been dealt with less harshly several years earlier. It has caused him and others to look over their shoulders more to avoid any run-ins with compliance personnel, the manager said.

Securities attorneys said that attitude is taking a greater hold in the industry. Even small violations, such as poor record keeping or email retention, are drawing stricter penalties, attorneys say.

“A firm might’ve addressed a relatively minor infraction with an internal review or a censure maybe,” said Rob Skinner, an attorney with Ropes & Gray, while speaking broadly about the industry. “With regulators bearing down increasingly on relatively minor sanctions, it’s an incentive for brokerages to do some shortsighted things because the negative impact of an enforcement preceding is potentially huge.”

Connected cars: Tyred and wired

As the automobile becomes smarter, makers face a future where profits lie in technology more than metal

When Louise Chandler, a 31-year-old nurse from Surrey, hit a kerb in her Renault Clio in July 2013, it broke the rear axle, sending her spinning across the road and setting off the airbag. Moments later, she received a phone call. It was her insurer.

“It was surreal,” she says. “I was all shaken up, had just been hit in the face and could not understand how on earth my insurer knew what was going on.”

The answer lay in a small black box located beneath the dashboard. This Sim card-enabled device instantly sent Ms Chandler’s location and the force of impact to her insurance company, which then phoned for an ambulance.

The connected car is already saving lives. Now big business is wondering what else it can do. Insurers, telecommunications companies and advertisers are all racing to tap the commercial potential presented by vehicles that can reveal their location, speed and more.

Some possibilities are fun: a music streaming service could suggest tracks based on the picturesque stretch of country lane the car is navigating. Advertisers, for years confined to radio jingles and roadside billboards when marketing to motorists, are salivating at the prospect of beaming tailor-made adverts to the car’s captive audience.

But drivers and carmakers may be wary of such intrusions. And how will carmakers keep so much personal data safe, avoid driver distraction and even prevent a cyber attack?

“I don’t want a hacker turning the wheel 90-degrees when I’m driving at 60mph,” says a former industry CEO.

More than 104m cars are expected to have some form of connectivity by 2025, according to the consultancy EY — more than the 87m light vehicles sold worldwide last year. Already, as much as a quarter of the cost of building a car today is related to software.

The market for telematics hardware, mobile car data plans and critical services such as vehicle-to-infrastructure communication could be worth $23bn by the end of the decade, according to Exane BNP Paribas. Connected car media, such as navigation and music streaming, could be worth the same amount on top, says GSMA, the telecoms industry body.

And that is before the autonomous car pulls up. Self-driving vehicles — expected to debut before the end of the decade — would give media companies and advertisers potentially unlimited access to the time spent behind the wheel. “Once you have the driverless car, the user is almost killing time,” says Phil Harrold of PwC. “Then the connected car comes into its own.”

Tech companies want in, particularly Google, which is working on a self-driving car, and Apple, which has started an automotive project. This has sparked a flurry of activity in the car industry, which critics say only innovates when pushed by new entrants or regulators.

The manufacturers are wary of handing too much power — and profitability — to Silicon Valley. “The customer, when he’s sitting in the car, is our customer,” says Rupert Stadler, chief executive of Audi. “And we have a lot of ideas how to entertain him, how to serve him, how to create added value for him.”

Car companies are keen to avoid the fate of PC makers, who were squeezed as value shifted to cloud-based services. They fear that the future value of the car will be in technology and services, not the metal they have been engineering for decades. “We want this pipeline into the car so that we can come up with new services,” says Karl-Thomas Neumann, head of General Motors’ European arm. “[I]t will create an intimacy with our customer we never had before.”

Ford said in March that it would start over-the-air updates that allow the car to download software fixes — something Tesla, the electric carmaker co-founded by Elon Musk, has pioneered. But mainstream carmakers are frightened of opening a door that could allow malware to be installed. “The key challenge for all of us . . . is to know how to make sure we can protect customer data,” says Didier Leroy, a Toyota vice-president.

Wired cars 1

The average premium car today has more than a mile of cables, between 50 and 70 control units and the computing power of 20 advanced PCs. But only the black box unit, the rooftop WiFi hotspot and the driver’s smartphone can send and receive data beyond the car itself. The black box feeds into the network of sensors and control units in the car, which handle functions such as the airbags and brakes. Carmakers insist on firewalls that segregate the critical internal mechanical parts on the network from the non-critical control units, such as infotainment systems.

Wired cars 2

Transport infrastructure

Many carmakers are exploring the potential of “intelligent transport systems” that could warn drivers of traffic jams or hazards further up the road. Brussels also wants all new cars sold in the EU to feature an eCall automatic distress signaller to alert emergency services in the event of an accident.

Other vehicles

Vehicle-to-vehicle communication would allow cars to “talk” to each other — say, to alert the trailing driver when the car in front is about to change lanes — or receive motorcycle warnings, helping to increase awareness and safety

Insurance

“Black box” telematics devices in cars are changing motoring policies, offering insurers more information about how risky their customers are behind the wheel and pushing down premiums for drivers who can prove themselves to be careful.

Manufacturer

Carmakers can wirelessly monitor the inner workings of the car by accessing onboard controllers via the telematics unit. This offers big benefits for manufacturers. Potential recall issues can be spotted early; minor software glitches can be fixed simply with an over-the-air update.

Internet

A WiFi hotspot on the roof allows the car to connect to the internet for web browsing, communication or streaming media content. General Motors’ OnStar service offers 4G LTE that allows streaming at 10 times the speed of 3G for up to seven in-car devices.

Wired cars 3

1. Engine Ford’s new S-Max people carrier comes with an intelligent speed limiter that uses a camera mounted on the windscreen to scan traffic signs and adjust the throttle

2. Headlights Valeo’s matrix beam technology employs front-mounted cameras that detect approaching vehicles and turn on and off individual luminous pixels, so the car has constant full-beam at night without dazzling other drivers

3. Chassis VW’s adaptive chassis creates a comfortable or sporty feel for drivers, using sensors in the wheels to react to road conditions and adjust the shock absorbers

4. Brakes Advanced emergency braking uses front-mounted lasers to detect stationary objects and engage the brakes. Stability technology can also engage the brakes to avoid spin-outs

5. Suspension A 2014 wireless update for Tesla owners introduced location-based air suspension, which remembers pot holes and steep driveways and automatically adjusts road clearance

6. Tyres Sensors embedded within tyres detect air pressure and temperature. The car can sense if you have a puncture and, linking in with the navigation system, summon a breakdown service or guide you to the nearest garage

7. Grille Becomes the eyes of the connected car. Ultrasonic cameras and radar systems power safety features based on the movement of other objects and vehicles, such as automatic emergency braking and adaptive cruise control

8. Seats Include sensor mats embedded in the foam that detect the weight of the passenger and tell the airbag how much force to deploy with. Cameras can also be used to create a profile of the passenger and help distinguish adults from children

9. Head-up display Many premium cars offer a feature that projects information on to the windscreen as if it is “floating” in front of the eyes of the driver. Information ranges from navigation to pedestrian detection

10. In-car camera Carmakers are working on ways of making sure the driver is paying attention at all times. Toyota and GM are both developing eye and head-tracking technology that uses a driver-facing cockpit camera. Other suppliers, including Valeo, are working on facial recognition

11. Steering wheel Sensors in the steering wheel can detect heart rate to warn of irregular rhythms, pick up signs of fatigue, anger or nervousness and even — through perspiration in the hands — measure blood-alcohol content

12. Centre-stack The hub of the vehicle for media, communication and navigation. Apple and Google have developed platforms.

13. Locks Modern premium cars offer near-field communication, unlocking the car even if the key is in the driver’s pocket. Smartphones can start cars remotely, activate the horn or flash the headlights

14. Comfort Many of the latest cars make it possible to control in-car heating or air conditioning from inside the home. Ford is also working with Nest, the smart-home company, on ways of getting the car to talk to the home thermostat

The unexpected meeting would be "an informal discussion of Greece's reform plan", the finance ministry said in a statement. Varoufakis will meet U.S. Treasury officials on Monday, a Greek government official said.

Greece is fast running out of cash and its euro zone and International Monetary Fund lenders have frozen bailout aid until the leftist-led government reaches agreement on a package of reforms.

Talks with lenders have been have been tense and slow-moving. Greek officials suggested this week that the government would prioritize spending on wages and pensions over meeting the conditions necessary to unblock a roughly 450 million euro loan tranche to the IMF due on April 9, making markets nervous and reviving fears of a Greek default.

Athens denied that was its stance, with government spokesman Gabriel Sakellaridis saying there is "no chance that Greece will not meet its obligations to the IMF" and assuring that the reforms would be further specified.

Greece has not received bailout funds since August last year and has resorted to measures such as borrowing from state entities via repo transactions to tide it over.

After a first set of planned measures failed to impress lenders, the government sent a more detailed list to institutions representing the creditors -- the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF -- on Wednesday.

But the list arrived too late to be discussed by euro zone deputy finance ministers, who can decide whether to grant new loans to Greece, at a teleconference on Wednesday afternoon.

EU officials have said that progress had been made in talks but more work was needed for a deal to be reached.

Athens has its hopes set on another meeting of euro zone deputy finance ministers on the afternoon of April 8 and on the morning of April 9.

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Selon le PDG du cimentier Lafarge, l'accord de fusion ne bougera plus. Une annonce qui répond au scepticisme affiché de certains actionnaires.

Le patron du cimentier Lafarge Bruno Lafont assure samedi 4 avril dans Le Monde qu'il n'est pas question de modifier à nouveau le projet de fusion avec le suisse Holcim, déjà remanié sans contenter tous les actionnaires.

"Les parités financières ne bougeront pas, la gouvernance non plus", a-t-il dit, estimant que la modification du projet consentie le 20 mars était suffisante.

"Onze mois après le premier projet, les conditions de marché avaient un peu évolué, et nous l'avons donc amendé, tout en préservant le principe d'une fusion entre égaux", a expliqué Bruno Lafont, qui n'aura pas les commandes opérationnelles du futur ensemble.

A propos du futur patron, il plaide pour le choix d'un "expert du ciment connaissant déjà bien le métier et l'entreprise".

Un patron et une "nouvelle culture"

Dans le Financial Times samedi 4 avril, un dirigeant de Groupe Bruxelles Lambert, l'une des holdings du milliardaire belge Albert Frère et actionnaire principal de Lafarge, réclame lui un patron capable d'insuffler une "nouvelle culture".

"Il faudrait quelqu'un doté d'une expérience différente et d'un profil international", dit Gérard Lamarche, administrateur délégué de la société.

Lafarge et Holcim avaient trouvé le 20 mars un accord censé sauver leur projet de fusion, qui revoyait les conditions des échanges de titres, désormais 9 actions Holcim contre 10 actions Lafarge au lieu d'une parfaite parité. Et qui confiait à Bruno Lafont le rôle de coprésident du futur géant du ciment.

Des actionnaires ont prévu de voter contre

Ces aménagements n'ont toutefois pas convaincu tous les actionnaires. Selon l'agence Bloomberg, le deuxième actionnaire d'Holcim, la société russe Eurocement qui en possède 10,8%, prévoit de voter contre le mariage lors d'une assemblée générale en mai.

Selon Le Monde, le troisième actionnaire d'Holcim, Harris Associates, réserverait encore sa réponse. Bruno Lafont a cependant assuré au quotidien du soir que "la fusion n'était pas en danger".