Green Tomato teamed up with Toyota in 2015 for London’s first hydrogen-fuelled private hire vehicle.

A project to test the capabilities of hydrogen-powered fleets across three European capitals gets underway in London this week.

ZEFER (Zero Emission Fleet vehicles for European Roll-out) will see a total of 180 fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) in service, divided equally across London, Paris and Brussels. The €26m project is designed to explore how hydrogen fleets perform in the real world, and the cars will be deployed as taxis and private hire vehicles (170) as well as police cars (10), driving long distances each day and requiring rapid refuelling.

Led by Cambridge-based consultancy Element Energy, the ZEFER consortium also includes hydrogen suppliers (Air Liquide and ITM Power Trading), vehicle end users (Green Tomato Cars, HYPE and the London Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime), observer partners (BMW and Linde) and partners supporting the analysis and policy conclusions (Cenex and the Mairie de Paris). The trial begins this week in London, with Green Tomato deploying 25 Toyota Mirais as private hire vehicles.

“This is a truly unique project where investors in hydrogen technology, manufacturers of hydrogen cars and Green Tomato Cars as the end users, have come together with a commitment to make hydrogen transport work for the good of the people and the environment,” said Jonny Goldstone, managing director of Green Tomato Cars.

As well as testing the cars under high-mileage operation, the project aims to bolster the hydrogen infrastructure in each of the cities. With the vehicles in daily use, each will create hydrogen demand roughly four times that of a regular privately-owned car. According to the consortium, the goal is to gather data and disseminate results to demonstrate the business case for future FCEV adoption.

“We are delighted to be leading this major project which will demonstrate commercially viable use cases for hydrogen fuelled vehicles in high mileage urban fleets,” said Ben Madden, director at Element Energy.

“The increasingly widespread hydrogen infrastructure network in leading European cities as well as new FCEV models from manufacturers are beginning to drive real market adoption. We are excited to see first large-scale users starting to take up the technology in large fleets to do the day to day work of vehicles which operate in urban centres.”

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Cambridge Analytica has announced today that it will be shutting down.

Since the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica scandal erupted seven weeks ago, Mark Zuckerberg’s social network has been the epitome of contrition. The same cannot be said of the British election consultancy, which last night announced it was shutting down.

Cambridge Analytica, which worked for Donald Trump's election campaign, blamed a “siege of media coverage” for the legal claims and lost clients that mean the company could no longer continue.

But if this is the end of Cambridge Analytica, it is far from the end of the story. 

Britain’s data watchdog said its investigation into the company will continue; meanwhile, executives appear to have already moved to create a new firm.

'NO LONGER VIABLE'

Cambridge Analytica has faced a series of damaging allegations in recent weeks, of which the claim that it obtained the private information of up to 87m Facebook users was only one.

It said an independent report from the lawyer Julian Malins had found that recent allegations were “not borne out by the facts”, but that news reports meant it had lost clients. The company had been banned from advertising on Facebook and Twitter in recent weeks, blocking a lot of its potential work.

THE SAGA CONTINUES

Despite shutting down, Cambridge Analytica may well live on in some form. Company filings show that several executives have created a new firm called Emerdata, a potential rehousing of the company under a new name.

Meanwhile, investigations into the company will continue. 

Damian Collins, the MP in charge of the committee investigating Cambridge Analytica among others, last night said the company should not be allowed to delete its data.

The Information Commissioner’s Office says its investigation will continue to pursue “individuals and directors”. Cambridge Analytica is down, but its story seems far from finished

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Let's Remind Ourselves What The Prime Minister Said To The BBC About Uber In September!

Uber ruling puts jobs at risk, says Theresa May 

The decision to stop Uber operating in London was "disproportionate" and has put thousands of jobs at risk, the prime minister has told the BBC.

The taxi-hailing company has been told it will lose its private hire licence, after Transport for London cited public safety and security concerns.

Uber is appealing against the decision but has apologised for its "mistakes".

Mrs May said Uber had questions to answer but the decision to stop it operating had "damaged lives".

Uber: Mayor backs talks after firm's apology

In one of a series of interviews ahead of the Conservative Party conference in Manchester next week, Mrs May told BBC London political editor Tim Donovan she blamed London Mayor Sadiq Khan - who is also the chairman of TfL.

"At a stroke of a pen, what the mayor has done is risked 40,000 jobs and of course... damaged the lives of those 3.5 million Uber users.

"Yes there are safety concerns and issues for Uber to address, but what I want to see is a level playing field between the private firms and our wonderful London taxis, our black cabs, our great national institution.

"I want to see a level playing field. I think a blanket ban is disproportionate."

'Must change'

She said: "What I think people want to see is choice."

People use the Uber app to book taxis with their smart phones.

London's transport authority, TfL, took the decision last Friday not to renew Uber's licence to operate in the capital beyond the end of September, saying the company was not fit and proper to hold a London private hire operator licence.

It cited concerns about Uber's treatment of criminal offences, medical certificates, and drivers' background checks.

London's mayor asked TfL to meet Uber's chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi, after he said in an open letter that Uber would appeal against the city's decision but accepted the company "must change".

On Thursday, the mayor's spokesman said: "Sadiq has every sympathy with customers and drivers of Uber, but is clear that any anger must be directed at Uber itself.

"Regulation is there for a reason and it would have been wrong for TfL to have renewed Uber's licence if they had concerns about Uber being a fit and proper operator."

Mrs May was also asked about the Grenfell Tower disaster.

She said there was a need to "get to the bottom of the truth of what happened" but also make sure that, in future, when tenants complained about safety, they were listened to.

"That's why the housing minister is going around the country, listening to social housing tenants. We want to listen to them, we want to ensure that in future, when they raise their voice, their voice is heard," she said.

Sixty six people who died in the fire have now been formally identified - the total number of estimated deaths is 80, although police have said it may be lower.

In other BBC interviews, Mrs May addressed an issue referred to by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in his own conference speech - the UK's housing crisis, particularly for young people.

'Not quitter'

The prime minister told the BBC's South East Today's Helen Catt: "We need to show how we are addressing the issues that we know are of concern to people, like housing for young people.

"You'll be hearing from the government, in due course, obviously, how we are going to address those issues.

"We need to ensure that young people are able to build a better future for themselves and don't fear that they are going to have a worse future than their parents."

In his closing speech at this week's Labour conference, Mr Corbyn pledged to curb rents in the private sector and said any redevelopment of a housing estate under a Labour government would have to be backed by a council ballot of residents.

Conservative Party members will gather in Manchester next week for the party's annual conference, against the backdrop of Mrs May having lost her parliamentary majority in a snap election and continued questions about cabinet unity over Brexit.

Asked about her future, Mrs May said: "I've been very clear. I've said I'm not a quitter - but there's a job for this Conservative Party in government to be doing and that's what we're getting on with.

"At this Conservative Party conference, we'll be setting out very clearly how, as Conservatives in government, we will build the road for a better future for people."

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Remember Who Sold Out Your Trade When You Vote Today : Uber Trying To Pull The Wool Over The Media Again.

If you intend to vote today, remember this 

These people protected a billion dollar company, which doesn't pay its full taxes or VAT, and given them your livelihood. They leaned on TfL and Boris Johnson to go easy on Uber.

David Cameron, George Osbourne, Sajid Javid and Theresa May

All turned over the London licence Taxi trade.

All Tories....just remember this when you go to the poles later today....

Uber pulling the wool over the eyes of the media!

Well here we go again, Uber the company that professes it's easier to seek forgiveness than it is to seek permission, has been telling TfLTPH that it has tightened up its in house every day operations, making it safer for its passenger users and drivers. But again, as we've seen many times before, this company just can't play with its cards on the table.

Virtual everything it says and does, is designed solely to exploit and deceive the regulating agency and the National press with its the normal rhetorical drivel. 

Latest statement from the rape app shouts out loud, "We are safe as now the driver only works 10 Hrs". 

But what they're not saying,...when they consider their drivers are actually working !!!

Taking into consideration the screen shot from their own website, Uber are saying their drivers are not actually working in the true sense of the word, until the driver has accepted the job - has the passenger on board - clears the job.

It would appear that the driver could be driving round town with hours I between job acceptances but still concise red as not actually working !!!

This is a multi billion dolla corporate pulling the wool over the eyes of the regulators and the press.

This must be pointed out out ever licensing appeal hearing !

TAXI LEAKS EXTRA BIT: by Lenny Etheridge

Uber's work model is illegal - they've admitted this in court three times.

Clifford Chance said Uber were illegal.

Deloitte said Uber were illegal.

Yet TfL didn't care that Uber were illegal - they licensed them anyway.

More Taxi Leaks Extra Bit:  Licenses in London 

Licenses issued last week 

Information about the number and type of licence issued will be updated regularly. The following figures cover the week ending Sunday 29 April 2018:

Private hire driver licences - 113,212: a decrease of 130 on the previous week, 146 licences are new.

Private hire vehicle licences - 87,818: a decrease of 14 on the previous week, 366 licences are new.

Private hire operator licences - 2,356: an increase of 5 on the previous week, 10 licences are new.

Taxi driver licences - 23,795: an increase of 5 on the previous week, 24 licences are new. Of those taxi drivers, as of 29 April, 20,789 hold All London licences, and 3,006 hold Suburban licences.

Taxi vehicle licences - 20,948: a decrease of 18 on the previous week, 22 are new.

Knowledge

The number of candidates studying the Knowledge of London is currently 1,414 at Stage 3 (down 9 from last week), 459 at Stage 4 (up 1 from last week) and 276 at Stage 5 (down 9 from last week). In addition, as of March 2018, there were 4,294 candidates that had not yet reached Stage 3 (this figure may include inactive candidates).

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