That's Dacia, pronounced Datch-ia

It isn't often a new car company launches in the UK. But when it does it either gets largely ignored, as with Chinese brand Great Wall and Nissan’s upmarket cousin Infiniti, or there’s masses of interest. The latter is likely to be true for Dacia which is owned by Renault. The cars have been on sale in mainland Europe for some years and their value-for-money ethos has gone down a storm. The rather unfortunately named Duster will be the first to hit UK showrooms, and costing from £8,995 it’s an SUV for city car money. Many people will rightly suggest that in life you get what you pay for, and in many cases that’s true. But the industry buzz around the brand is genuine, and personally I can’t wait to get behind the wheel of the Duster. It’s a decent looking beast that I think will appeal to many people, particularly those who like the idea of a new car for used car money. Watch this space.

The true Olympic spirit

Spent Friday at London’s ExCeL venue in the Docklands, meeting some of the 7,000 volunteers who will be driving cars during the Olympics and Paralympics as they went through their training. Their passengers will be everyone from medal-winning sports stars, no-hopers from far-flung corners of the globe, or any of the thousands of Games officials. They will be ferried between airports, accommodation and venues in a fleet of BMW 3 and 5-Series cars. These drivers get nothing for doing the job – no payment, event tickets or benefit of any sort – yet are happy to sacrifice up to 20 days of their summer, just to be able to say they were involved. They are generally time-rich people – the retired, business owners, etc – and most live in the south-east for obvious reasons. But many have come from further a field, including one lady from Australia. She was involved in the Sydney Olympics and apparently loved it so much she wanted to do it again in London. If anything sums up the spirit of this summer of sport, it’s these people. Good luck to them all. I hope it gives them great stories to tell.

Look... no hands. In fact...no body at all

Irrespective of what you think about them, it’s only a matter of time before driverless cars are part of our motoring landscape. My 11 June posting on ‘road trains’ is one example, but actual driverless cars will become a reality too. One of the key issues - how and where to test them – was resolved last year when the US state of Nevada ruled that autonymous vehicles can be used on its roads. The law, which has now come into force, is a very smart piece of thinking. That’s because almost all volume car makers have an engineering base in Eastern California because it’s home to Death Valley, one of the hottest and driest places on the planet, which they use for new vehicle validation work. Nevada is but a short hop over the border and the region will become the global test centre for the technology, leading to investment and jobs. The first driverless car licence has now been issued, to a modified Toyota Prius operated by Google (above). The search engine firm has been at the forefront of this technology since it joined forces with experts from Stanford University who won the DARPA Driverless Car Challenge in 2005. Now, here's the great debate... should the UK be licensing driverless cars to boost its credibility as a tech hub? I certainly think so. If you’ve never seen any of the footage of driverless cars or the DARPA event, I would urge you to take a look. There’s plenty on YouTube, with project leader Sebastian Thrun talking about the progress that’s been made since the Stanford car, Stanley, won the $2million prize. As someone who enjoys the thrill of driving, cars without humans is a weird scenario. But as a motoring journalist fascinated by new technology, I’m never going to be short of something to write about.

Driven: Subaru XV

It’s hard not to be influenced by other people, and when I mentioned to a couple of fellow motoring hacks that I was taking delivery of the Subaru XV, they weren’t exactly complimentary. But having driven the car for the last week, I really don’t think it’s as bad as they were suggesting. Yes, the 2.0-litre 145bhp diesel engine is noisy in comparison to other SUVs. Yes, the six-speed gearbox is a bit clunky and lacks the well-engineered smoothness of rivals. No, the cabin isn’t as upmarket as some in the class and the touch-screen nav system on my SE Lux Premium model is as user-friendly and intuitive as a self-service supermarket check-out. But with two-tone wheels and matching roofbars – as in the above picture, except my car is satin white – it’s a smartly-styled machine. The XV is roomy inside, there’s loads of practical storage space and while the ride gets a bit bouncy on uneven roads, it’s a Subaru so that means full-time 4WD. It’s also got a rarity value which I quite like; people don’t know what it is so stop and read the boot badge. If you’re looking for a C-segment crossover and want something other than the ubiquitous Nissan Qashqai, the XV isn’t without charm.

A welcome development

What the car industry calls Autonomous Emergency Braking Systems – or simply AEB – are still relatively rare on our roads. But this week safety organisation Euro NCAP has announced they will be part of its star-rating system from 2014, and that means we’ll start to see more and more of them. AEB can help to avoid crashes or mitigate their severity by warning the driver and supporting his braking response and/or apply the brakes independently. In short, if you don't pay attention in slow-moving traffic, AEB will stop you shunting the car in front. On the Skoda Citigo I’m driving at the moment it’s called City Safe Drive, Volvo’s AEB is branded City Safety on the XC60, and other systems are available. Real-world data suggests AEB can cut accidents by around a quarter, yet at the moment it’s unavailable on 79 per cent of the car models on sale in Europe. Two-thirds of manufacturers don’t offer AEB on any of their new car models. Thanks to Euro NCAP’s excellent decision, those numbers should start coming down very quickly.

Sit back and relax, it's just a 'road train'...

The prospect of driving a car without the need to hold the steering wheel, press the pedals or even pay attention to what’s going on ahead has come a step closer. For the first time ever, a multi-vehicle ‘road train’ automatically driving in convoy behind a lead vehicle has operated on a motorway with other traffic. The successful test – known as ‘vehicle platooning’ – took place in Spain as part of the Safe Road Trains for the Environment (SARTRE) project. And it wasn’t just a case of coming on then getting off at the next exit. The cars did 120 miles with no reported incidents, averaging more than 50mph. As you can see from the pictures they’re all Volvos because it’s the lead manufacturer in SARTRE. They use built-in cameras, radar and laser sensors to monitor the lead vehicle and then mimic it. This project has been ongoing quietly for a couple of years now, occasionally reporting some bit of success, such as this. I find the whole thing fascinating. Not entirely sure what the legal situation is – I presume law-changes would be needed for this to become part of everyday motoring – but I suspect it’s going to happen while I’m still driving a car.

Driven: Great Wall Steed

So Great Wall is the first Chinese car brand to go on sale in the UK, and its first product is the Steed pick-up. In its favour is the price and spec. For £15,998 + VAT for the flagship SE, you get pretty much everything you might need on a truck. That includes 2.0-litre diesel engine, 2WD/4WD/low ratio box, load bed liner and secure top (not pictured), electric windows, Alpine audio system, remote locking, leather seats, air-con – the list is almost endless. All good then, and from the outside it looks like a decent enough beast. But it’s only when you sit inside you realise where the money has been saved. The plastics are ugly, mismatched and brittle, the leather is very thin, the stereo is an incongruous aftermarket head unit, the seats are unsupportive – again, the list is almost endless. Add in the fact that it’s slow, noisy and dynamically pretty poor, and it’s a classic example of you get what you pay for. Yes, it’s cheaper than many other pick-ups and that means in these straightened times it will appeal to some buyers who don't care about the details. But I have to confess it's a bit of a disappointment.