Student in final for digital idea to stop car mileage adjustment
"Ford Mondeo MK3 ST220 - Speedometer (light)" by Brian Snelson - Speedometer. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Commons.
Fri, 06 Nov 2015 11:50:00 GMT
Student Rhuban Ahmed makes the final of the Autocar Next Generation Award for his idea to use the ‘Internet of Things’ to prevent illegal vehicle mileage adjustment
A HUDDERSFIELD student has made the final six, from thousands of entries, in the Autocar Next Generation Award, with his concept to stop illegal mileage adjustment, which could have a massive impact on the automotive industry.
Ruhban Ahmed, 21-years-old and from Deeplish in Rochdale, has thought of using the Internet of Things (IoT) in a way that imposes the car to upload the number of miles travelled at the end of each journey to a database.
According to vehicle history expert Hire Purchase Investigation (HPI), nearly half-a-million cars on the road have false mileage, causing unknown dangers from worn cars and the change from analogue to digital odometers has only just made the practice easier, explains Ruhban.
“The problems with ‘clocking’ mileage is rising again, after years of reported decline,” said Ruhban. “One of the reasons behind the digital changeover was to prevent clocking, but the change to digital has allowed mileage correction companies to start up, which offer services to alter a car’s mileage all by simply plugging in the right kind of software, with virtually no manual work involved,” he said.
Now, in the second year of his BA (Hons) in Product Design, Ruhban believes the recession has had a big impact on the rise of illegal mileage correction. “The way people purchase cars has changed as many people lease their cars now,” he said.
“When leasing a car, in the contract you are often only allowed to do a certain number of miles, if you exceed the mileage you then have to pay extra – this can be seen as the main reason behind the problem,” he added.
Ruhban originally submitted his idea through a 500-word submission in August 2015 and will now be presenting his proposal through a two-round judging process that will be carried out by senior industry officials on the 10 November. He will find out if he has won at the annual The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) dinner in London on 24 November.
Previously only open to students, the competition was broadened this year to allow for any UK resident aged between 17-25 to submit an idea, so the competition has had more participants than ever.
The winner of this year’s competition will receive a £9,000 cash prize, along with six month’s work experience shared between award sponsors Jaguar, Land Rover, McLaren, Automotive, Peugeot, Skoda, Toyota and Honda.
Previous winners from the competition have gone on to work for leading companies such as McLaren and Aston Martin.
