Alastair Shephard

Content Writer

Alastair Shephard | Author

Seen the second Dune film and desperately looking for your next spice fix? Well, look no further, using AI technology so futuristic even the Harkonnen would be impressed, we’ve transported our cars, streets, towns and cities to a far-off galaxy and joined in the fight for Arrakis. 

And if you’ve not yet had the pleasure of watching Timothée Chalamet run around in the sand for 3 hours we might have just saved you some time and about £15.

Believe it or not, this lovely photo started out as a picture of Westminster Bridge. AI has really transformed this iconic London spot. Although, there’s always been a few sand snakes in there. 

We can definitely see Paul Atreides driving one of these. 

There’s even traffic on Arrakis, typical. 

Objects in the rear-view mirror may appear sandier than they are. 

We heard the Fremen were incredibly sad about the prospect of the London Eye moving to Scotland. 

Is it a car? Is it a worm? We don’t even think the Reverand Mother knows the answer to that one. 

Feyd-Rautha would definitely cut you up in this traffic. Serious road rage that one. 

Maybe somewhere for Paul and Chani to settle down? If they ever sort things out, that is.

You might not have thought it, but this was originally a shot of Manchester. Odd that we can’t see any Man-Dunians though. 

What would our cars and streets look like in Dune II?

For many people, Christmas time means one thing - food. And lots of it. That’s why, in celebration of this delicious holiday season, we’ve asked our AI friends to tingle your tinsel tastebuds and turn popular cars into Christmas biscuits.

So, without further ado, let’s take a trip to a biscuity winter wonderland.

Cruise control and chocolate chips in this biscuity BMW M3.

From the biscuit tin to the tailpipe with the VW Touareg.

Cruisin through the snow in a one-horsepower open sleigh.

Take a road trip to flavour town in this Mazda.

Sleigh bells ring, are you listenin'? Turbochargers whir, presents glisten.

Revving up the oven for this flavoursome Fiesta.

Accelerate your taste buds in this delectable Hybrid.

Brake-ing news: Santa's ride just got a festive tune-up.

I’m driving home for Christmas, Oh I can’t wait to eat those Fox’s.

Using AI to Turn Your Cars into Christmas Biscuits

We’ve always been told the end is nigh. But how will it happen? Cataclysmic asteroid? A wandering black hole? Killer robots sent from the future to destroy the Earth?

Obviously not! It’ll be a zombie apocalypse of course.

But what will our streets, towns and cars look like when the time finally comes? Using AI, we’ve been able to answer just that. Here’s the world you’ll be left with when the flesh-eaters finally take over.

As the virus sweeps across the country, many will flee towns and cities leaving them completely abandoned.

It may seem like a good idea to flee via motorways but with traffic beginning to get worse in the panic, many vehicles will be ditched as the horde approaches.

That’s if you can even get your car out. Why would they park like that in the first place? Flippin’ heck.

As you can see here, UK town centres will become dark and depressing places. Much like they were before the apocalypse.

Houses will be left empty, with fleeing families having hardly any time to gather their worldly possessions.

London will be filled with mindless zombies roaming the streets; scarcely interacting with each other. A lot like your morning commute is today.

As public transport completely shuts down and the streets become quiet you begin to ask yourself, what’s the point in survival if you’re not truly living? Still, at least it means no more tram journeys in the armpit of a stranger.

Many will take to the countryside in search of safety. 

Diesel and petrol will become a scarce commodity. Plus, pay at the pump will probably be down so you’ll need to go in and actually interact with the staff at the garage. Creepy stuff. 

Your new life is a far cry from your old one. Constantly on the run; driving from town to town to escape the undead. You pray daily your car will make it as far as the next stop necessary for survival. Maybe they were right. Maybe you did need that extended warranty after all. 

What would our streets, towns and cars look like after a zombie apocalypse?

Everyone knows Michelin Tyres - the company with the jolly man made of tyres as its mascot. You’ve also most likely heard of Michelin stars – stars awarded to high-quality restaurants around the globe. But did you know they’re both the same company? This is how a tyre company started giving out the world’s most prestigious restaurant awards. 

Back in the 1880s in France, when there were very few cars on the roads, brothers Andre and Edourard Michelin needed a way to increase their tyre sales. To get drivers out on the streets and using more tyres they had the bright idea to create a guidebook. 

The guide initially focused on essential travel information like maps, instructions on how to change tyres, and places to refuel. At first the guides were given out for free in the hopes this would encourage more drivers to use them, until one of the brothers entered a workshop to see a stack of their guides being used to prop up a workbench. 

Under the assumption that nobody cared about the books because they hadn’t spent their hard-earned money on them, the brothers reworked their guide and began selling them for seven francs each (92p in today’s money). 

Included in this new version was a list of hotels and restaurants. They also removed any paid advertising. Noticing how much influence the guide had on diners’ choice of restaurants the brothers started to send ‘mystery diners’ to write reviews. 

In 1926 their famous star system was introduced. Initially, only one star was used, but five years later they began a one, two and three-star rating system, where one star was worth a stop, two stars were worth a detour and three stars were worth a special journey. 

Today the star system is still in use and has become a symbol of a great quality restaurant and top-notch dining across the globe. 

The Michelin brother’s famous guidebook wasn’t their only stroke of marketing genius. Around the same time as the guide was introduced, the brothers began to use a mascot. 

Almost exclusively known as the ‘Michelin Man’ this mascot made entirely of tyres’ real name is Bibendum. The name comes from ‘Nunc est Bibendum’ which is Latin for ‘it’s time to drink’, as early adverts showed the character drinking a glass of nails to show how strong Michelin’s tyres were.

Other early adverts depicted Bibendum as a womanizing, cigar-smoking, beer drinker. But luckily, he soon cleared up his act and in the 1920s he was often shown participating in sports like cycling and running or helping families change their tyres. 

It’s safe to say the tyre-shaped mascot has been a work-in-progress for the company, which has now become a refined and instantly recognisable character for everyone. Just make sure you don’t type ‘vintage Michelin man’ into Google or you’ll be in for a bit of a fright! 

How a tyre company started giving out the world’s most prestigious restaurant awards 

 from the south coast to the North of England in an electric car to visit what has been found to be the most EV-friendly tourist destination - Beamish, the Living Museum of the North. 

The entire trip was more than 600 miles over three days with a lot of charging along the way. We weren’t new to long-distance electric vehicle driving, but it’s fair to say that a lot had changed since the last time. 

Here’s how you can prepare for an EV road trip from what we learnt along the way… 

Planning ahead is essential for any road trip but it can make a huge difference when you’re driving an EV. Start by getting an idea of the mileage simply by putting your route into Google Maps. 

If you know the range of your vehicle - that’s how many miles it’ll do on a full charge - then you can calculate how many times you’ll need to stop and where the best places are. 

There’s so much information online now, even when it comes to charging stations. Many motorway services are now also equipped with charging points, and in a lot of cases, these are high enough power to get you on your way fast. 

Not all electric cars can use the same type of charging connector though, so check what your car can do. You can then use Google Maps or Zap-Map to find chargers that are right for you. Zap-Map is a smartphone app and users can add important information about the charging points, so check on there to see if they were working recently. 

If you’re going to be charging when it’s dark then you might also want to check where the charger is located. Because owners have had to put them where there is space, they’re not always the easiest to find and can feel a bit scary if they’re around the back of a building. 

The good news is that most chargers are marked exactly where they are on Google Maps, so you can navigate straight to them but also see what the services are like around them. 

If you’re driving a Tesla, you’ll know you can easily see how many chargers are in use at the nearest Supercharger (or the one the car has calculated you should use). However, on many other cars, this isn’t always the case. 

Going back to our friend Google Maps, that can now tell you how many chargers are available at each station but that’s not very easy to check while you’re driving. 

That’s why we’d recommend having more stops planned than you’ll need to use. If you get stuck in traffic or can’t charge as fast as you planned, it’s better to have other options. 

This also helps if you drive into a charging station to find all of the other chargers are taken. You can make a judgement call as to whether to wait it out or drive on to the next one. 

You can now charge with a contactless car at a lot of charging points but that’s not always the case. Before you leave it’s worth checking if you need an account or card to use any of the networks you plan to stop at. 

In some cases, you may need to preload your account with money too. Equally, it can become expensive when you’re using your contactless car and the charging points will pre-authorise £40 to even £99 depending on the network. 

5. Aim to recharge with more than a quarter

Again, this is something that we’d recommend whatever you’re driving! But if you turn up at a charging station and can’t charge because they’re either occupied or broken, you’ll have enough left to not stress about driving to the next charger. 

6. You don’t need to stop charging at 80%

This is advice that EV drivers used to be given because the resistance in the battery when you have less than 20% or more than 80% means your charging power will reduce drastically. 

However, with some cars now able to charge at 150 to 350kW, you’ll find that even the reduced rate of charging is still pretty fast! That said, if there are lots of people waiting it’s usually more polite to get on your way. 

If you’re doing a long drive that’s mainly on motorways or A-roads, you’ll find that the car learns your driving style and gives you a more realistic range over time. 

For those who normally drive around town, you might find that your battery lasts longer or the miles start slipping away faster depending on how aggressively or smoothly you drive. 

Either way, don’t expect to get your normal range and give the car a chance to adapt its prediction. 

One of the problems we ran into on our long drive was finding that the physical charging cable wasn’t connecting to the car properly. 

This wasn’t obvious at first so it’s something to watch out for. We plugged in as normal but when we hit start the charger kept telling us there was an issue with the car. The pin that needs to lock the cable in place wasn’t lining up correctly, but this was rectified by holding the cable in as we started the charge. 

As I mentioned, there are some super fast chargers these days claiming that they can do 350kW. Firstly, you’ll only be able to charge at this rate if your car is capable of it but you’ll also need a lot of other things to fall into place. 

Our car and the chargers we used were both able to charge at 350kW but the best we were getting was 150kW on most charges. At one station every charger was taken and we were only getting 40kW. 

Unlike fueling your car with petrol or diesel, car chargers are set at a rate based on the network you’re charging with so they won’t vary depending on where you are in the country. That said, it’s also not obvious what the price is as you arrive. 

We used some chargers at around 69p per kW, which is a lot more expensive than charging at home! 

Rebecca Chaplin is a motoring journalist and owner of Road Trip Club. She’s written about cars and the best places to drive them for nearly 10 years.

Exploring EV-Friendly Attractions in Britain

Top tips for an EV road trip that we learnt on a 600-mile journey around England

Ever fancied taking a totally plastic, totally fantastic shopping-spree in your very own Barbie Dream Car? Well, now you finally can. Thanks to the power of AI, we’ve given your favourite cars the hottest, pinkest make over possible. 

An Audi that’s always dressed to impress. 

The Ford Fiesta, where fashion meets the fast lane. 

Steering towards fashion with Barbie’s MINI Hatch. 

Accelerate your style with the Kia Picanto. 

Definitely not new from Mattel, the Toyota IQ. 

Strutting up the runway with an all-plastic VW Up. 

Using AI To Turn Popular Cars into Barbie Dream Cars

As many of us plan to head off on our staycations this summer, we’ll all be planning journeys, writing lists of essentials to pack and perhaps also feeling a little daunted about how to pass the time in the car. 

The excitement has been building in the office as a lot of the team head off for our own holidays this summer. So, we took the opportunity to ask the Bumper team to tell us their top tips for how to get through long car journeys and

 needless to say, they’ve had some great suggestions! 

As the saying goes, fail to prepare then you must prepare to fail. A bit extreme, but as many of our team members have said, preparation ahead of the journey is key! Get yourself a satnav, maps on a smartphone or a good old-fashioned map book and plan your route. 

Planning your stops is also important. Matt from our Growth team has suggested

 “Plan interesting places to stop off on the route; lunches at service stations are functional but don't really add to the fun of the trip and it's sometimes hard to find healthy food there. A 20-minute detour might allow you to explore somewhere new instead and will really break up the journey.” 

Claudia our Spanish Operations Manager has sighted that as long as you are well rested, you could travel at night. “As obvious as it may seem, travelling during the night you will avoid most of the traffic jams! Driving on an empty road will be easy to go through! In sunny areas such as Spain, you would appreciate avoiding the heat during the day. Start your trip at night and plan a break during the peak hours of sun. Not to forget, this would be the perfect chance to quickly visit a new place before reaching your destination!” 

Whether you are travelling with a car full of small children, or maybe just yourself and your partner, entertainment is required for passing the time on long car journeys. Ines from the Operations team isn't the driver but usually the passenger and often swaps seats with her 8-year-old son to mix up the view! 

She also agrees that “Travelling with children can be quite challenging, especially, when going on long car trips. As such, I like to make sure that there will be enough snacks packed up and a good and fun playlist set up where we can all sing along to try and make it fun for everyone. Something else that we do is play games, such as "I spy with my little eye", or "Who knows who better!” 

The top tip from most of the team members has to be games, games and more games! Kayleigh and Islay from Business Development both agree on this. Kayleigh plays ‘red car’ with her son where they have to see who spots a red car the quickest, while Islay plays alphabet games such as 'I packed my bag for London and in it I put...' and 'My Granny doesn't like tea but she likes...' 

Everyone agrees that audiobooks and playlists are essential. If you’re not travelling with children, a good crime or comedy podcast is a good listen for the car, or perhaps you could try Lawrence’s suggestion: “Choose a random car buddy who is doing a similar speed and race along with them. They won't know but gives you something to focus on.” But make sure you keep it legal! 

Niki from the People team is a dab hand at conquering long car journeys with children and says

 “We do lots of long (5+ hour) journeys for staycations in the UK, and with 2 kids in the back we had to find a way to keep them occupied. We bought an old in-car DVD player with two screens on eBay and have collected tonnes of old DVDs from charity shops. Couldn't recommend it more for keeping them entertained - and quiet!” 

Another suggestion from the Growth team’s Lawrence is, “If you're a passenger, buy an iPad and play football manager - you'll be there in less than a season and it'll be loads of fun getting Leeds promoted to the prem again!” 

And then, it’s all about the snacks. Beef jerky was also suggested by someone but that’s an acquired taste! 

Hannah from the Growth team is in charge of the snacks during family trips and has a lunch bag in the front full of snacks to throw into the back for the children when they start grumbling! She also makes a good point that “don’t forget with all of those snacks comes rubbish. So have a carrier bag handy to put all those banana skins, crisps packets and apple cores in before they get squished into the seats! Oh, and wet wipes. Whether you’re a child or not, wet wipes are incredibly handy for clearing up when you spill your tea or when the chocolate melts!” 

Bumper's top tips for getting through long journeys 

As my family and I geared up for the Great British staycation, I decided to embark on an epic 

in an electric vehicle (EV) to see just how convenient it really is. 

As we entered the summer holidays, families all over the country were hitting the road, and this year, more than ever, they were doing it with battery power. According to a survey of 1,000 Brits by charging network 

, a whopping 57 percent were planning a staycation, covering distances of 100 to 200 miles. 

To make life easier for fellow EV drivers, Gridserve, the electric charging network, commissioned a study and created the EV Holiday Hotspot Index. This nifty guide reveals just how convenient it is to charge your EV near popular tourist attractions. With their analysis of top attractions based on proximity to charging stations, availability of charging points at accommodations, and more, I was armed with all the information I needed. 

So, which attractions made it to the top of the EV-friendly list? 

The top 10 EV-friendly tourist attractions in Britain 

This was the perfect opportunity for me to put the EV travel experience and Gridserve’s new Super Hubs to the test. I’d be driving from my home on the south coast in Gosport to the top attraction on the list — Beamish, the Living Museum of the North, in County Durham. 

Now, the real adventure began as I set off on this nearly 700-mile trip in a new all-electric Genesis GV60 and to make things even more interesting, I brought along my partner and 10-month-old son. Talk about going the extra mile. 

With high hopes and a full charge, we hit the road. I knew we'd have to make more frequent stops than the claimed range of the GV60, which could cover around 321 miles according to the Worldwide harmonized Light vehicles Test Procedure (WLTP) estimate. 

Our journey was spread over three days and on day one we headed for Ripon in Yorkshire. Our strategy was to make regular stops and always ensure we had a comfortable charge. 

Our first top-up came at Cherwell Valley Services, just 100 miles into the trip. This Gridserve Super Hub boasted multiple chargers, rated up to a whopping 350kW. Charging technology has certainly come a long way since my last long-distance EV drive. By the time we took a lunch break, we were back up to 80 per cent charge and ready to hit the road again. 

We still had another 200 miles to go until our hotel for the night, which meant we'd need to make another stop regardless of whether we charged or not. We made a quick stop for a nappy change and a five-minute charge, but we decided to push on so we could unwind and relax for the evening. 

By the time we arrived at our hotel, we had just 30 miles left in the Genesis GV60’s batteries but I was feeling reasonably confident, we knew the next charger was just 10 miles away. 

It meant a bit of an earlier start the next morning as we prepared to drive to Beamish. We stopped in at Gridserve’s Beadale Super Hub with just a few miles left and had the moment any EV driver dreads when the chargers kept saying ‘no’. We tried multiple points before realising this was an issue with how the charger was connecting to the car. We tried one more time and breathed a sigh of relief as the car began charging at 150kW. 

From there, our journey continued northward, bringing us to the bustling Beamish in Stanley — a living museum that transported us back in time. The icing on the cake was the nearby Gridserve charging station in Washington, equipped with Super Hubs on both sides of the A1, just 10 minutes away from Beamish.

Despite the station being busy, we managed to find a spot easily and charged up at a speedy 150kW. With our batteries replenished, we finished our lunch break in no time. 

Once we were all charged up, this would be our turning point as we began the long journey south, aiming for our cosy B&B in the Peak District. A stop at Woolley Edge services allowed us to charge up to 100 per cent in a flash and we were soon winding our way through the Dales. 

With almost 500 miles already covered in the GV60, we felt far more confident in its accuracy. Even when we reached Warwick services on the M40, where all charging spots were occupied, we decided to press on, fueled by our confidence. This meant from our last charge at Woolley Edge services, we drove a total of five hours home without another charge - and we still had 39 miles left! 

All in all, I was pleasantly surprised by the ease of charging throughout our trip. Despite the negative press surrounding the state of the UK's charging network, we never found ourselves stranded. I think it’s fair to say that we felt lucky though. While we might have charged easily at every Super Hub, by the time we left there were no free spaces each time we stopped. 

We exclusively charged at Gridserve stations too, which worked for us but I always had the backup in my head that there were a number of other charging stations available nearby. In fact, we could have even charged overnight at our first hotel for free, eliminating the need for an additional charge before reaching Beamish. 

As these charging networks continue to grow, I can't help but imagine how different the future of electric car road trips will look in just a few short years. With more charging options and faster charging speeds, the outlook for EV road trips is incredibly promising - as long as the number of chargers keeps growing with electric car adoption! 

Rebecca Chaplin is a motoring journalist and owner of 

. She’s written about cars and the best places to drive them for nearly 10 years.

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