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The UK votes for Brexit and it will impact automakers

It's the first morning after the United Kingdom voted for what's become known as Brexit – that is, to leave the European Union and its tariff-free internal market. Now begins a two-year process in which the UK will have to negotiate with the rest of the EU trading bloc, which is its largest export market, about many things. One of them may be tariffs, and that could severely impact any automaker that builds cars in the UK. This doesn't just mean companies that you think of as British, like Mini and Jaguar. Both of those automakers are owned by foreign companies, incidentally. Mini and Rolls-Royce are owned by BMW, Jaguar and Land Rover by Tata Motors of India, and Bentley by the VW Group. Many other automakers produce cars in the UK for sale within that country and also export to the EU. Tariffs could damage the profits of each of these companies, and perhaps cause them to shift manufacturing out of the UK, significantly damaging the country's resurgent manufacturing industry. Autonews Europe dug up some interesting numbers on that last point. Nissan, the country's second-largest auto producer, builds 475k or so cars in the UK but the vast majority are sent abroad. Toyota built 190k cars last year in Britain, of which 75 percent went to the EU and just 10 percent were sold in the country. Investors are skittish at the news. The value of the pound sterling has plummeted by 8 percent as of this writing, at one point yesterday reaching levels not seen since 1985. Shares at Tata Motors, which counts Jaguar and Land Rover as bright jewels in its portfolio, were off by nearly 12 percent according to Autonews Europe. So what happens next? No one's terribly sure, although the feeling seems to be that the jilted EU will impost tariffs of up to 10 percent on UK exports. It's likely that the UK will reciprocate, and thus it'll be more expensive to buy a European-made car in the UK. Both situations will likely negatively affect the country, as both production of new cars and sales to UK consumers will both fall. Evercore Automotive Research figures the combined damage will be roughly $9b in lost profits to automakers, and an as-of-yet unquantified impact on auto production jobs. Perhaps the EU's leaders in Brussels will be in a better mood in two years, and the process won't devolve into a trade war. In the immediate wake of the Brexit vote, though, the mood is grim, the EU leadership is angry, and investors are spooked.

Jaguar Land Rover planning to allow owners to earn cryptocurrency

Jaguar Land Rover, Britain's largest auto manufacturer, said on Monday it is testing software that will allow drivers of its cars to earn the IOTA cryptocurrency as a reward for sharing data. The company is developing what it calls "smart wallet" technology to be installed in its automobiles. This would reward Jaguar car drivers with IOTA coins for actions such as enabling their vehicles to automatically report useful data, such as traffic congestion or potholes to navigation providers or local authorities. Drivers could also earn rewards if the car participates in a ride-sharing program, Jaguar said. The tokens earned could be used to pay for tolls, parking and charging for electric cars. The overall goal was to "achieve zero emissions, zero accidents, and zero congestion," the company said. Global car companies are exploring blockchain applications, figuring out different ways in which they can leverage the technology to suit their different needs. Blockchain, the system powering cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, is a shared database that is maintained by a network of computers connected to the internet. The British car company is testing the technology at the new Jaguar Land Rover software engineering base in Shannon, Ireland, where engineers have already equipped several vehicles, including the Jaguar F-PACE and Range Rover Velar, with "smart wallet" features, the company said. It does not yet have a timetable for when it will be commercially available, said Jaguar, a subsidiary of Tata Motors. The IOTA token is based on a distributed ledger technology that enables people and machines to transfer money and data without any transaction fees. IOTA trades on digital asset exchanges and was last at 27 U.S. cents per token. "The smart wallet technology ... can be easily adapted into all new vehicles," Dominik Schiener, IOTA co-founder and co-chairman of its board, told Reuters on Friday. "IOTA wants to enable interoperability with all these different players. So there is no Jaguar coin, no BMW coin, but one universal token for this machine economy," he added.

With a new Jaguar and the Shell app, your car can pay for its own gas

Contactless payments are making their way into the car. Jaguar and Shell have the first major rollout, allowing you to pay for fuel through the car's touchscreen. Of course you'll still have to get out of the car to actually pump the fuel into the car, but hey, progress, right? Apple Pay and PayPal will be available payment methods from the start, and Android Pay will be added later. For this all to work, you'll need a new Jaguar (or Land Rover) with the InControl infotainment system, a connected phone with the InControl app and Shell app, some space in your tank, and some electronic money. When you pull up to a Shell station and launch the Shell app through the touchscreen, the car will use geolocation to figure out which station you're at and then prompt you to enter the pump number you're next to (don't want to pay for someone else's fuel now do you?). Once that's done, you tell the system how much fuel you want (it's not clear if you can just fill the tank like most normal people do) and then the screen in the car shows you a receipt; one is also sent to you via email. While this might just seem like trading one screen for another and entering info through your car instead of at the pump, contactless payments also have an added level of security over pulling out a credit card. (Credit card skimmers, which steal card data when you go to swipe at a kiosk or ATM, have been popular at gas stations.) It will also be welcome in the winter months, when you can limit your exposure time. Plus you'll never again have to respond to this incomplete sentence, which greets us at Shell stations everywhere: "Is this debit card?" InControl is available on every Jaguar and Land Rover model. And if you get this Shell app working on an F-Pace with the Jaguar Activity Key, you'll have the latest in minimal-touch technology. The system will roll out to people in the UK first and should arrive in the US later this year. Related Video: Jaguar Land Rover Technology Smartphone Luxury shell paypal