Bosch subsidiary, ETAS Ltd, has reached an agreement with the UK Government to significantly expand the activities of the embedded software centre of excellence in York.
ETAS Ltd, the UK arm of the global software engineering company specialising in solutions to drive the development of embedded systems for the automotive industry, will make a significant investment to expand the centre of excellence. This move represents a vote of confidence in the current climate for the automotive sector.
The newly expanded centre will develop the middleware that will power future generations of advanced autonomous and highly automated driving to be delivered at scale for mass production and allow the world to realise the ambition of accident-free driving. It will also help deliver on the Government’s net zero and levelling up ambitions by securing highly skilled technology jobs in the North of England.
ETAS Ltd has doubled in size in the last five years and today’s announcement will help to further strengthen the automotive cluster in the region.
The current York location has been part of ETAS Ltd since 2003 and is currently responsible for the development of real-time operating systems and basic software for the automotive industry. To date more than 1 billion copies of the ETAS York operating system have been deployed and are driving on the roads globally.
The council has been leading the way with its Smart Transport initiatives since 2018 with the Eboracum Research Project. Traffic signal plans where automatically updated using live on-board vehicle journey times and the findings where warmly received by the transport industry.
The work continues with the Smart Transport Evolution Programme which began in September 2019 and has so far welcomed a real-time city-wide traffic model which uses many live data feeds to forecast 5-60 minutes ahead and produce alerts for traffic control operatives or drivers.
The programme will shortly be delivering Green Light Optimal Speed Advisory, a service that sends real-time and future traffic signals conditions into smart phones and cars and advice of the most efficient speed to travel safely to get through on green.
All this has been made possible by upgrades to the City’s smart infrastructure and puts York in a great place for the adoption of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles.
No further hospital deaths have been announced today
The latest ONS figures, which show how many York residents have died of COVID-19 related causes, has been updated.
It shows that, for the week ending 16th April (the most recent available), there was one death in a care home and one in a hospital.
They bring the total City death toll up to 377
Test results
Eight additional positive test results were announced today. That brings the cumulative total up to 12,253.
There has been an increase of 6 cases in the City since yesterday. The total is now 48. The last time a figure higher than that was recorded was on 30th March.
The rate per 100k population figure has risen to 22.79. Three weeks ago – before restrictions were eased – the figure had been as low as 9.02.
The infection rate is expected to stay much the same for the next 3 or 4 days at least.
The number of positive test results in the under 60 age group is now ten times more than is being seen in the over 60 age group.
There have been increases in infection rates at regional and national level. The biggest spike has been in parts of North Yorkshire where a surge in Selby has seen 101 cases recorded there. (59 are recorded in the Selby Town MSOA alone)
Neighbourhoods
Seven neighbourhoods now have 3 or more cases.
Vaccinations
Good news on vaccinations with 57% of adults in York now having received their first dose. 22% have now also had their second dose.
It has been announced that 42-45 year olds will receive a text inviting them to get their jab through the national booking service. The move to the next age group, comes two weeks after rolling out the vaccine to those aged 45 and over. The latest figures show that more than two thirds of people aged 45 to 49 had been vaccinated.
Tests
4373 PCR tests were conducted in York during the week ending 22nd April 2021.
Of these, 0.8% were positive. This represents an increase over the previous days figure of 0.7%
3132 “lateral flow” tests were also conducted on 26th April 2021.
Hospitals
There has been no change in COVID-19 patients numbers at the hospital today
Cheaper car parking and family bus fares
The Council has said that, to aid Economic Recovery and the re-opening the city centre, the following transport incentives will be rolled out.
1) Launch a promotion of the Minster parking badge at £10 to last until March 2022. The permit will be valid for 24 months after purchase starting at Step 3 of the Road map to recovery (currently the 17th of May). The badge allows drivers to park at a reduced rate in most council car parks during the day and to park for free after 5.00pm.
2) For the Council to fund a 50% discount on the All York Family Bus Ticket for a period of up to 6 months starting at Step 3 of the Road map to recovery (currently the 17th of May).
3) That the free parking for Critical Workers will end when the governments funding for parking losses in income take effect (end of June). The council will providing a month of noticing vehicles using this service to mitigate any issues with sudden changes.
“It will also need to be kept under review if car park capacity becomes an issue”.
The decisions were taken at a “behind closed doors” meeting
Business Grants
Over 1500 York businesses will receive further grants over the next fortnight as City of York Council distributes the rest of its COVID grant allocation.
The council has agreed to distribute the rest of the Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) funding as quickly as possible.
ARG is a discretionary scheme, allowing the council to direct funding to help businesses which are severely impacted by the pandemic but don’t qualify for the government’s grants.
Businesses don’t need to do anything to get the grants. There are no newly qualifying business, so the council will automatically pay those that are already receiving ARG payments.
The amount that eligible businesses will receive is dependent on size of business, whether a business has premises and where a business – or those sectors they depend on – can reopen in line with the roadmap. Qualifying businesses can check the amount they should receive at https://www.york.gov.uk/information-businesses/covid-19-business-rates-grants
Notes
Payment amounts are as follows:
For businesses which reopened at Step 2 (non-essential retail, personal care, etc):
11 days payment (1 April to 11 April) plus £200
With no fixed premises costs: £396 (including the additional £200)
With rateable value less than £15k: £724 (including the additional £200)
With rateable value £15k-£51k: £986 (including the additional £200)
With rateable value above £51k: £1379 (including the additional £200)
For businesses reopening at Step 3 (leisure, hospitality, taxis, etc):
46 days payment (1 Apr to 16 May)
With no fixed premises costs: £821
With rateable value less than £15k: £2192
With rateable value £15k-£51k: £3286
With rateable value above £51k: £4929
For businesses reopening at Step 4 (international travel, etc):
