Your car for certain has the skip shift feature from the factory. See page 9-32 in the Driving and Operating section.

It’s a very narrow range that it does that, on my car it is only active if all of the following conditions are met.
1. Coolant temperature is >169°F
2. You are accelerating from a stop and are between 15-19 mph
3. The vehicle is at 21% throttle or less.
If you literally stay in 1st for 2 more seconds or just blip the…

Nice license plate!

The skip-shift feature is a fuel economy “hack” they have been implementing for at least 25 years now. You have to be accelerating extremely slowly for it to activate. In fact, I so rarely see it that I haven’t even bothered disabling it on my car. The Hill Assist is also quite convenient once you get used to it being…

While TSA doesn’t have an outright ban on Li-ion batteries in checked luggage it is highly discouraged, and any “spare” or non-installed batteries are banned in checked luggage.

I’m not saying that they shouldn’t be striving for perfecting something like level 4 autonomy for 99% of vehicle travels, but companies should not forget that there are many one off scenarios where a car might need to be maneuvered in a way that isn’t “in the program.”

Totaling a car is also much cheaper than a million dollar medical bill. There is a reason that you can also get discounts from your insurance company for having the extra options such as automatic braking and lane keep assist. You will also see that the insurance companies run their own independent crash tests that…

Insurance companies will push for autonomy more so than the government. The government seems to follow their lead in most advances related to safety.

I completely agree. Having grown up in rural areas there are many times that I have driven “off-road” for legitimate reasons be it working on the farm, driving down unmarked gravel roads/driveways, or for recreation. Everyone seems to have this view of driving that only involves driving on a well marked/defined road…

4. The tires actually take Imperial nitrogen.

I am not surprised at all considering that it has larger mud tires, looks like it sits a bit taller, seemingly has more aggressive gearing, and has a front bumper that is more tuned for approach rather than aero.

However, the red areas have higher cancer rates and blue have lower cancer rates.

This happened to a coworker who recently transferred to Kentucky from New Orleans. He changed his address on his insurance when he moved. Later that week when he went to get his license switched over the Kentucky office said that they couldn’t switch it over because it was flagged in Louisiana. He calls Louisiana, and…

Regarding cell phone to the ear. It seems mind boggling to me when people are fumbling with their cell phones to try and hold it up and drive when they have cars with Bluetooth.

The 2JZ-GTE isn’t a V6. ;)

The libertarian in me says that there should be no seatbelt laws, BUT in the event of an accident the insurance companies are not responsible for covering your healthcare costs. The same should apply to helmet laws as well.

How is Tesla limiting his ability to use the car the way he wants? Fast charging slowly damages Li-ion batteries. If you do it enough then the damage starts to become noticeable and at some point it starts to become exponential. The charger probably checks the health of the battery in the charging program and uses…

Aerodynamics have more effect on top speed than weight. Two cars with all things being equal except the weight will theoretically have the same top speed, however the heavier one will just take longer to get there.

A la carte options will not be a thing because many packages are engineered to work together, and in fact packages do streamline options. Instead of customers checking through dozens of options boxes they only have 4-6 realistic options, trim levels and certain other add ons. As for packaging options together consider…

Water has higher specific heat along with better heat transfer properties, but you mustn’t allow it to boil inside the block. If the water is operating close to 200°F then you can pretty much guarantee that there are spots in the block where it will want to get above its boiling point. Even with boiling point…