Scottish Water unveils first electric HGV in Glasgow
The vehicle, a waste water tanker, marks a major step in the utility's transition towards net zero and joins a fleet that already includes 187 vans and 500 fully electric cars.
Mark Hunter, development services general manager at Scottish Water, said: "We did a pilot several months ago working with all the teams involved in operating the tanker, to make sure that this vehicle would be fit for purpose.
Scottish Water's new fully electric HGV is now providing waste water services in Glasgow (Image: Supplied) "It is vital that as well as helping Scottish Water reach its net zero targets, that it is a functional vehicle for the teams that use it and can deliver what they need – which I'm very pleased to say it does."
The HGV, said to be the first of its kind in the UK to be delivered by Scania, can charge at 240kW per hour and be fully powered in under three hours.
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It will operate during the day and recharge overnight.
Elaine Pringle, fleet manager at Scottish Water, said: "The addition of our first fully electric HGV to our fleet is a key milestone in our transition journey, helping us to make the leap from decarbonising the smaller vehicles used across Scottish Water to focusing on the next steps that we need to take in order to reach net zero.
"There was a lot of work done to ensure that we ended up with a vehicle that the waste water team could have confidence in using on a daily basis and I'm delighted to see the tanker now in operation and helping to deliver vital services to our customers in Glasgow."
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BreakingNews.ie
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"I think the best we we can do is become more AI literate which goes beyond just teaching people how to design the right prompts for these generative AI systems and to help people to kind of understand what these systems are doing, how they're built and some of the ethical issues arising in their use, and in the way that they're now moving towards the mainstream. "I think that's that's absolutely critical. We have to go beyond simply giving people instructions and guidelines about how to use this technology. People need to understand where this technology has come from, what's going on in the background. "I think we need to understand this is just a kind of a statistical echo, if you like, of what humans do and it might have the same structure or texture of the kind of responses and products of a human mind." Advertisement Dr Ó Súilleabháin said the attitude to AI among university educators is mixed. While some would think students would be more positive about AI, he said they share many of the same concerns. "How can we prepare our students for a world in which these tools are available and maybe even a world of work where these tools are an important part of how work is conducted and organised? I think a lot of higher education institutes and the sector of education in general are maybe kind of balancing caution and curiosity at the moment. "It's a mixture. I mean the whole thing reminds me somewhat of when the World Wide Web came about. It was was originally developed in the 1990s and a lot of people initially overestimated its short term impact, but perhaps underestimated its long term impact. "I think that's probably the case with generative AI at the moment. I think a lot of the fears and and optimism perhaps around how it's going to change things overestimates how quickly those changes are going to to happen. Advertisement "But I do think over time there's going to be some significant changes to the way in which we live and work and play and communicate. We're going to have to work towards some kind of future where we begin to do more and more things in tandem with this new technology. "I think the academic response is maybe spread along that that continuum if you like." Students' fears He added: "I think they're more mixed than people might realise [students]. They're concerned about this new technology and what it means for their role as students and for our role as as educaters. I think they're very concerned about what it means for the future in cases of jobs that are going to disappear or at least certain job roles that are going to be changed dramatically. "I guess one of the big questions parents have is 'what courses should my son or daughter do that are going to prepare them for this world of AI'? Advertisement "What are the old jobs that are going to be challenged? "It's hard to say what jobs aren't going to be challenged by it. In many ways, we're maybe witnessing the same kind of change that automation brought to blue collar work many decades ago. "We may be seeing a similar automation of so-called white collar work or certain professions now." Detecting the misuse of AI is one area that is a hot topic in education across the board, particularly at third level. Advertisement 'Arms race' Dr Ó Súilleabháin said: "It's more difficult to detect and I think it is going to be something of an arms race. Even the tools I would be familiar with have both false positives and false negatives. "False positives is very problematic in terms of knowing what to do with the results of such a such a tool that you don't end up accusing somebody unfairly. "But I think in many cases it might be a bit of a misdiagnosis. We we need to think about is how we assess students and how learning is evidenced and just what it is that we're trying to provide for students... and the future that we're trying to prepare them for. "So for sure it's a concern and in some cases there are assessments where we shouldn't allow any AI and others where we should allow a certain amount of AI. In others perhaps there are assessments where we should give people free rein. "We need to work out ways of figuring out what that looks like. I guess in in a way that's fair and equitable and and makes for a better educational experience. "And it goes back to an earlier point about preparing students for a world in which these tools are widely used and are going to be increasingly sophisticated and increasingly integrated. "The way we do everything increasingly won't be a choice whether to use generative AI or not, it will be embedded in our office, in our operating systems in our smart devices." In an interview with , Dr Ó Súilleabháin said AI learning should go beyond the basics to help students get a more complete understanding. Despite the challenges, he feels there are a number of big opportunities when it comes to AI and education. These include tailoring learning for students with different needs, removing some of the mundane aspects of the role for educators to give them more time with students, and preparing students for how AI will change work. "I think it's very important with any technology to be proactive... to look at its applications and to see how that aligns with our strategic priorities, at institutional level and nationally as well. "I would like so see us moving towards thinking about how we can use generative AI as a partner, how we can work with it in tandem. "I suppose the ideal, that may be overly optimistic, is that generative AI takes away some of the drudge work, the routine work and frees us up to do the more creative things, the more human things. "In the the the world of education, it's a people business. It's about relationships. It's about trust. So concentrating on that stuff, providing mentoring and support and encouragement to students. All of that will still fall to those of us who who teach and support learners. "Working out how that new hybrid relationship can best be supported and and scaffolded, I think that's essential work to be done." AI is opening up new possibilities for personalised learning for students. He added: "In education, I think we need to prepare our users. We need to prepare learners for a world in which humans and machines are working, that the potential here is for is for AI to to augment what humans can do. "To augment human intelligence in education, that means AI allowing teachers and technology to work closely together, not in competition. "This will give us a situation where we can support certain yet to be determined routine tasks while freeing up educators and others to focus on what they do best in terms of the mentoring and motivating, and guiding of students. "AI is opening up new possibilities for personalised learning for students, there are a lot of opportunities I think in terms of greater accessibility. "So you take students who have particular needs, the ability of the generative AI perhaps to take something and and provide it in different formats and in different modalities to boost their confidence and understaning. "I think the key is balance that AI is seen as a tool, not as a teacher, not as something to replace teaching or as something to replace learning. "It's something that that should be there to support human judgement rather than rather than replace it." Some AI sceptics have argued it should be banned outright in education, but Dr Ó Súilleabháin argued this would be a negative step. "Banning it would not be technically or operationally feasible, and driving its use underground would not be a positive development because things would then be happening out of sight in a way where we can't provide any guidance or direction. "Certainly it's a concern that some other countries perhaps are engaging in certain industries more thoughtfully and in a more proactive way with the technology. "OK, you wouldn't want to see existing inequities, let's say being exacerbated in the way that that things develop, so whatever the benefits are they need to be fairly and and widely distributed.. "Human judgement is always needed. I mean, for me, we'll always need to be on either side of the technology. If you like to put it in simple terms, we're the ones creating the inputs, the prompts. We're the ones applying human judgement." Assessment Assessment is another area where there is debate on the use of AI. Dr Ó Súilleabháin said it could be useful in ongoing assessment and projects, but added there would always be human judgement necessary. "I think already with digital learning, we're seeing a blurring of the line between the learning process and the assessment process more and more. "The students are producing learning evidence, so I think we're moving away from that paradigm where student get ushered into sports halls every summer, and they have to kind of pour their hearts out and get this one shot at showing that they've achieved with learning outcomes. "I think there's various points at which the the AI can assist with the assessment process from the start. It could be used for formative assessment purposes, so that's where the feedback is more about feeding into the learning process. I think for the higher stakes assessment, you're still going to want the the human in the pilot seat there as it were. But I mean in the analogy maybe the AI is there as a co-pilot."
BBC News
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Ireland's Alex Dunne finished second in the Formula 2 feature race in Austria but slipped to second in the standings behind race winner Richard development driver Dunne had started in seventh place but worked his way through the order after an early pit stop for soft 19-year-old put pressure on Verschoor in the closing laps but the Dutch driver held a margin of 1.1 seconds at the chequered flag and took the championship lead by six points.A strong recovery drive brings to a close a weekend to remember for Dunne, who impressed on his Formula 1 debut by setting the fourth fastest time in opening practice for the Austrian Grand Prix. In driving for McLaren in that session, Dunne became the first Irish driver to compete on a Formula 1 weekend in 22 is back in action in Formula 2 at the British Grand Prix from 4-6 July. Dunne's weekend started with his impressive Formula 1 debut, which he described as "definitely the best day of my life".Just an hour after his Formula 1 commitments, the Offaly driver jumped back into his Rodin F2 car and set the seventh fastest time in qualifying.A grid penalty for a rival promoted Dunne to third on the grid for Saturday's sprint race but a poor start saw him drop down to eighth and, to add insult to injury, he was handed a five-second penalty for a false had dropped to tenth but a last-lap crash took out four cars ahead, which promoted Dunne to sixth and allowed him to keep his championship lead by one point. Dunne rebounded with better pace in the feature race on Sunday and carved his way through the order after an early pit he could not overhaul Verschoor, who is in his fifth season of F2, and the 24-year-old won to take a six-point advantage into sitter Leonardo Fornaroli was third ahead of GB's Luke Browning, while Red Bull Junior driver Arvid Lindblad ended the race out of the points after a late penalty. Formula 2 standings After round 7/141. Richard Verschoor (NED) 1142. Alex Dunne (IRL) 1083. Jack Crawford (USA) 854. Leonardo Fornaroli (ITA) 835. Luke Browning (GBR) 81 6. Arvid Lindblad (GBR) 79
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How the drive-thru took over Britain
Britain has received many things from America that we have little reason to be grateful for: Black Lives Matter, Instagram, the word 'gotten' – and the brief and unlovely period that Meghan Markle was a resident of this country. Yet one of the most enduring American imports is something that we no longer much notice: the drive-through – or 'drive-thru' – restaurant. The all-American tradition of stuffing yourself with burgers and fries while sitting in the comfort of your car is here to stay. Thanks, America There are now over 2,600 drive-thrus in Britain. A good number, of course, are McDonald's – 1080, to be exact – but such is the growing allure of the drive-thru that others are getting in on the act – not least my beloved Greggs, which has 50 such outlets. As a result, the rent for a drive-thru has soared to almost double that of a fast food outlet in some shopping centres or retail parks. In just a few decades, the drive-thru has taken over Britain. The first drive-thru establishment in our country – a McDonald's, naturally – opened in Fallowfield, Manchester in 1986. As someone who grew up with the Golden Arches representing an exciting, perpetually tempting opportunity, I remember pestering my parents to let me visit one as soon as it opened in Bristol, which it duly did in the early Nineties. I have a vague recollection that the excitement of eating a Quarter Pounder and fries and drink a milkshake in the back of the family car was offset by the slightly stale lingering smell of the deep-fat fryer and the depressing sensation, a week or two later, of finding a stray chip somewhere beneath the driver's seat. On balance, I preferred 'eating in', but the novelty has persisted. It seems that I am not alone. There is, admittedly, something rather wonderful about giving your order to an anonymous server via a speakerphone, driving the car to the next checkpoint and then having your meal handed to you, removing virtually all need for human contact. That appeal has grown, rather than diminished, over the past three decades. It isn't hard to see why, especially for families. There is something quintessentially British about a car's driver, traditionally 'dad', being harassed and pestered by their hungry family and eventually seeking solace in finding the swiftest and most time-efficient means of feeding them. The drive-thru today is fast food at its most sophisticated, not least because the old methods of shouting your order into a metal box have long been superseded by app tracking and GPS location details. Theoretically, you could begin to feel hungry five miles away from your nearest drive-thru and have your order paid for and waiting for you to collect by the time you arrive. Just as Deliveroo has taken away the difficulty and inconvenience of shopping and cooking in favour of swift home delivery, so the sophistication of the twenty-first century drive-thru is a wonder to behold. But I wonder if the rise of the drive-thru is really something to celebrate. Covid dealt a near-existential threat to the service industry, and it has barely recovered outside the big cities and tourist centres. One of its least desirable byproducts is the rise in dehumanised, no-contact interactions with those who serve us our meals, which, to this day, are often simply dumped in a bag or box outside our homes. The continued popularity of the drive-thru is only really a motorised version of this dehumanisation. Few of us would seriously believe that a visit to McDonald's – especially these days – is an opportunity to exchange witticisms with a friendly staff member, not least because the whole process is largely technology-based in store anyway. But visiting a physical establishment still offers the remnant of the personal touch, to say nothing of being able to eat off a table and sit on a chair. But a growing number of Brits seem to prefer sitting in their cars instead. Doing so is undeniably convenient. But is it truly desirable for society? I'm not convinced. The all-American tradition of stuffing yourself with burgers and fries while sitting in the comfort of your car is here to stay. Thanks, America.
