Agreed on 2 & 7.

V8 “enthusiasts” are some of the worst when it comes to gatekeeping.

I was in Italy last week and got an Audi Q5 as a rental. On a model with less than 30,000 km, it had:

I saw a few of them in Spain not too long ago. That sharp creased, semi-aggressive styling would probably do pretty well here. 

Although the logo does look less like an automaker logo and more like a logo for a particularly RGB LED-heavy gaming accessory maker

Can’t really say for Emerald Aisle, but for Avis, there’s two separate things.

Avis President’s Club is a status tier, which basically just gets you car class upgrades. No Avis rental location that I have been to has a “President’s Club” section of the rental lot.

It's not a "status" thing. Like a few others here, I’m top tier with two associated car rental brands. Less than 10% of the time, I’ll get a notification of the exact car that I have been given. Most of the time, I have to go to a desk to get the car assigned. And usually, I'm trying to tell that I want a sedan,…

I dunno, you'd think if the guy actually had the recording, he'd share it with the news organization that he talked to? 

“Brooklyn Concrete Magnate”

Whut? No one is allowed to board after 10 minutes prior to departure. That’s an FAA rule.

No, the article *here* says that he recorded the incident, but the original linked article on KCAL makes no mention of a recording.

I’m sorry, but if you are hoping for “cryptography” to somehow guarantee that V2x packets will be secure and honest, you’re being silly.

No. The only way for autonomous driving to be safer than human drivers is for cars to be able to communicate with all other surrounding cars.

Raise the short-term gains tax. Hold a stock for less than 12 months? The gains are taxed at a rate inversely proportional to how long you hold the stock for.

Okay, so wait... how would this work?

Jesus fucking christ, you’re right. Trump is basically Reagan for the 80's nostalgia addicts.

Washed up TV personality, obviously in mental decline, consults with quacks on policy decisions*, overtly hostile to unions while still getting lots of blue collar votes...

Huh... I thought dwarves were natural sprinters...

Nope. It’s not status thing. You just sign up, like any airline will give you a frequent flyer number. You enter your personal and drivers license into the account, as well as your coverage preferences. Since they have it on file, they don’t have to enter it at the counter.  Saves everyone time. 

Except they DIDN'T know what cars to take, as evidenced by people taking the wrong cars

Same here with Avis.  There was, however, once a 20+ person, hour+ wait at DFW in September 

Yeah, but they had reservations, NOT assignments. Basically, they thought "well, I got a midsize, this looks like a midsize" and took it.  

Some smaller airports don't have gates.  Those are usually the ones where the keys are kept behind the desk, though