Author: Bal Bansal

That’s right! – There’s another new electric vehicle on it’s way… fully electric…. fully affordable… and will rival the new Tesla Model 3.

Bal, why you so excited by this?

Because… this is the future! We’re in an era of hybrids. I have a hybrid. Hybrid sales are on the increase. And there’s more and more folk moving to electric/PHEV (Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles).

But… what we’re seeing here is the move to fully electric!

The i4 is claimed to have a range of over 373 miles, a 0-62mph time of 4.0sec and a top speed of more than 124mph. 

Now for me, that’s not bad! Not bad at all.

Various spy shots of the vehicle have been taken whilst BMW have been out testing it in various weather conditions.

But the whole point of this is – that car manufacturers see the trend. They understand the trend and are working to provide what customers want.

We’re still a little way away from the self-driving cars – though they are coming! – but we’re definitely moving to fully electric vehicles.

And premium brands, such as BMW, Mercedes, etc… are working aggressively to bring some of their most sold models, in an electric form to the market.

Will we see more and more electric vehicles?

YES! – we definitely will. As the battery range becomes better, more local garages are able to service them and more charging points are available… then yes.

I was in Lands End the other day… and even they had electric charging points in their car park!

We’re are now fully entering the i range… started with i3 and i8… we’ll have the i4…. i everything. And other manufacturers will do the same.

Let’s be honest – when a new craze hit’s the streets, we are want to be part of it!

Recently – you would have noticed the FaceApp that makes you look older than what you are. It’s all a bit of fun – you share a photo/camera roll with the app, then choose a photo and hey presto – it’s uploaded to their servers and their ‘AI’ (Artificial Intelligence) works it’s magic and you have a photo that’s increased your age and make you look old!

All the stars and celebs are doing it.

I’m sure your friends are doing it.

The kids for sure are doing it.

And because of FOMO – Fear of Missing Out – you’ve probably downloaded it and going to play around with it.

If you haven’t or are going to – there’s concerns about the Russian based company who’s responsible for the app, and what the data might be used for.

Breaking it down – they take your photo’s and place it on their server. This means, they have access and use your photos.

How do you feel sharing your photos with them? – maybe you’re ok with that… but the concerns are, what they can do with them. They can also – find you on all social media accounts, find out all sorts of information about you – and then, well… it all depends, they could do all sorts. You’ve probably heard about ‘deepfakes’. If not – I’ll share more in another blog post but it’s when they can take an image or video, place it on something else and make a video look so realistic that you wouldn’t believe it’s not true.

So the company has come out and said they delete the images from their server – and do not keep them. Which is nice to know.

The concerns raised were that the company is in Russia and may have links with the Russian Government. However, they’ve come out saying there are no such links. And all photo’s are deleted (as mentioned).

FaceApp is run by a company called Wireless Lab OOO.