Road Trip ’95
Almost everyone enjoys a good road trip, but not many road trips are like the one I made in two hours and 23 minutes back in the late summer of 1995 in a brand-new Mustang Cobra R. The trip from the DC suburbs to downtown Manhattan normally takes about four hours, but I was in […]
Who Gets The Ticket?
What happens when the driver isn’t “speeding,” but the car is? Who gets the ticket? It’s a question bound to come up soon in traffic court given the fact that some new cars—like Sammy Hagar back in the day—can’t drive 55. Or rather, a driverless car can be tricked into driving 85 when the speed limit is […]
Don’t Need to Worry, Usually
When your car starts making a strange new noise or emits a strange new smell, it’s not necessarily something major. The first thing to do is calm down and not assume the worst. The second thing to do, if you’re not mechanically inclined, is to find someone you trust to have a listen. Or sniff. […]
Slow Going
If speed kills, why are people always in such a hurry to get to the hospital? It seems to be the only time they’re in a hurry. American drivers are marinated in the doctrine that any motorized movement, not just acceleration, that doesn’t emulate the movements of a Galapagos tortoise is necessarily dangerous. This is based on […]
Could be Bad, But Maybe Not! Auto Maintenance Critical!
A good friend of mine called me a couple of weeks ago, worried about her ’92 Toyota truck. The transmission was acting up. She couldn’t shift it into or out of gear. But only after she’d been driving it for awhile. I had a good feeling about what was probably wrong with her truck’s transmission because my […]
Minding Your Mood and your Eyeballs
Memory seats are nice. But how about mood minders? In-car sensors that assess your state of mind via eye movements, facial expressions, gestures — even your rising (or falling) heartbeat — and adjust the car accordingly? Some of this is already here. Some new cars come standard with “drowsy driver” monitoring systems. Cameras embedded in the dash […]
Virginia Tax Relief—Right!
Car dealers are amateurs when it comes to the bait-and-switch. The true masters of this art are politicians such as Virginia Governor Ralph Northam. He tantalizes empty-pocketed taxpayers whose pockets are empty, with lower taxes in exchange for higher ones. Of course, he doesn’t quite put it that way, much less explain what he’s up to, […]
The Panopticon Expands: Distracted Driving Cams+
Precedent always becomes practice. Having established as legitimate the use of cameras to robotically ticket people for “speeding” and “running” red lights — timed to go red quickly, to ensnare as many drivers as possible — it was only a matter of time before the principle to include automatically ticketing people for using their cell […]
Drivers Who Aren’t, But Who Gets the Bill?
Another auto-piloted Tesla has crashed into another car—two cars, actually—last month. The Tesla’s “driver” (in quotes to ironize the obvious) was reportedly “checking on his dog” in the back seat when his car rammed into a Connecticut State Police cruiser and then ping-ponged into another car that was parked on the shoulder of the road. Several interesting questions come […]
If You Can’t Beat ‘Em . . . Sue ‘Em!
When you can’t beat ‘em in the showroom, go after ‘em in the courtroom. General Motors says the lawsuit it filed against FiatChrysler is all about FCA supposedly graft-giving union bosses under-the-table cashola to gain some kind of competitive advantage on labor costs. The allegation is that FCA’s former head, Sergio Marchionne funneled payments to United Auto Workers […]