Does anyone come to Jalopnik for the posts about the homunculus theory of Cars?

There was a previous incarnation of this that failed. It wasn’t lyft, but some independent company that tried to operate private buses in San Francisco and the surrounding area. Part of the appeal was supposed to be functional wifi, a snack bar, and nice interiors where you could do your work or whatever while you…

“For a brand new car that by all accounts should be a hot seller, Alfa Romeo has now resorted to leaning heavily on incentives and rebates to convince customers to give it a chance.”

This idea is exceptionally dumb. I used to like Automobile since they weren’t as focused on stats and numbers as C&D is. It was a different read. For a long time (it’s entire run, I’m not sure?), it was edited by a woman, Jean Lindamood.

We’re saying the same thing and reaching different conclusions. Here’s my basic point: Does Uber need to develop self-driving cars in order to make money offering self-driving ride services? I think the answer is no. They could wait for Google, GM, Apple, and Tesla or others to develop that technology, and then…

As another person pointed out, Uber is a house of cards, and we’re all just waiting for it to collapse. He’s burning through cash, because he’s wasting money on shit he doesn’t need to do, like self-driving cars. Let me be clear: his business plan is crap. He runs a cab hailing company. That’s it. They don’t…

The unions are fucked either way. Michigan—MICHIGAN WHERE DETROIT IS—is now a “right to work” state. The unions couldn’t stop that from happening.

I don’t understand how you got to the $40k number. That should only be the case without the federal tax credit. A volt is only $2k cheaper. Don’t get me wrong—$2,000 is $2,000—but if you use the tax credit on either car, you shouldn’t be in the $40,000 range.

Maybe, but if Bosch was part of a conspiracy to avoid US regulations, then they really could be liable here. There is a difference between building something that you honestly think will work and building something that you know is designed to cheat, especially if you are working with another person who is trying to…

Exactly. The idea of needing a V12 over all else is ridiculous.

Sedan with more storage space and slightly worse gas mileage. That’s a pretty good compromise.

You’re sort of missing the point of what Tesla is doing. Before going further, I want to state clearly that I am not a member of the Cult of Elon. I don’t really give a shit about him in any way and I don’t find him to be excessively brilliant or important. Ok, that out of the way, his theory was that he could make…

Okaaayy. You realize we only get to a second generation if there is a first generation, right? This is what I’m saying: In order for the technology to develop, companies have to build these cars and sell them. It seems to be working so far. I do think that Tesla’s projections are a little ridiculous, but they’re…

There is demand, though. See the other article today about how Tesla won’t reveal the number of preorders. It’s apparently grown from the 373,000 they initially reported.

Technology only gets better because people actually improve it. Without having electric cars on the road, they likely won’t get much better in 10 years or 50 years or a hundred years. It is clearly a functional technology with the Modes S, X, and the Chevy Bolt. What we need now is more investment and development,…

This is largely because people are stupid, though. People—both car buyers and investors—are interested in Tesla because it’s a “tech” company run by a “tech” guy in California. They’re not interested in the Bolt, because it’s a car built by GM. It’s likely that the Bolt will be the better car, because, you know, GM…

Very true. This does not require legislation.

I think you’re missing his point. How many of those crashes involved multiple pedestrians who could have been saved by sacrificing the life of the driver? This isn’t a real moral question since it almost never arises in normal life. And we’re not going to ask more from computers than we ask from ourselves. If your…

Fuck the trolley problem. I have said this before, but people are getting way, way ahead of themselves with this shit. The ethics of driving a car a pretty simple. If the car goes out of control, you apply the breaks and try to bring it to a stop, avoiding objects if possible. Somehow we’re imagining that a…

Yeah, if the British had the Chieftain in WW2, they would have been basically unstoppable.