Yeah it’s the cross-car beam, aka “mag beam” when they’re cast out of magnesium. It’s the frame that bolts to the firewall then the entire IP (instrument panel) attaches to it. Not a small part by any means. I wonder how many they can stuff into a 747 per trip.

I’ll try to say this succinctly and elegantly:

Merely making a car that gets its ideal mileage and emissions in the narrow band of the test parameters without actually changing how the car operates if those same parameters are encountered on the road would have been cleverly exploiting a loophole.

seriously, if the driver can’t turn away for a second or five from the task of driving lest he or she dies or commits mass homicide using his or her car, what exactly is the point of these autonomous or semi-autonomous things?

Drivers are taking their eyes off the road without concerns because they bought a system that says it drives for them.

I too have often noticed this financial phenomenon, but it is easily explained. More broadly speaking, if your personal preferences go against what is “common belief” you will suffer negative social pressure. Not just financially, but in all things. This has been true since societies began.

Coincidentally a similar map comparing booze prices would be close. Taxes.

If the issue is to be solved either men get freed from this social contract, the terms for women revert to their historical norms, or women get treated like men under it.

I just never understood why any of those drivers would be willing to put all those damn miles on their newish cars like that. Uber doesn’t help with maintenance as far as I know. That’s madness.

People who buy a house in the flight path of an existing airport have NO RIGHT to complain about the noise from said airport.

This is one of the best and most succinct explanations of why there are so many “successful” assholes (cough, trump, cough) I’ve seen. Kudos. As an anecdotal addendum, the smartest, most interesting people I’ve met have almost always been employed in lower-tier jobs.

You rise to the level of your incompetence - because ultimately people don’t want to fire personalities they like (they hired you for a reason, after all) and your incompetence can make them look good. So they go out of their way to find positions where you can do the least damage yet still be around the office. …

Fail upwards.

Being able to socially game institutions like government and corporations to reach a high salary has nothing to do with intelligence, common sense, technical ability, merit, or much of anything but understanding how to climb socially within an institutional structure.

A plate reader doesn’t know if a car is drivable though, and neither does a random person looking at it unless there’s something to tell them it isn’t - like flat tires of the whole front of the car missing. There are times when my street-parked car is drivable, and times when it isn’t, and no one but me would know…

My advice to any interaction with the cops (someone call a cab) is to lawyer up. Here is a lawyer and a cop’s take on it:

This is what they did in Tulsa when they recorded there. http://www.newson6.com/story/26001326/officials-closing-tulsa-road-for-illegal-street-racing

There’s a commonality they are overlooking. The place, outside or in house, where the vehicles are serviced or the city’s own fuel facility (provided they have one, some towns do, some don’t. Generally they buy wholesale and have an underground tank and pump).

This is true.

You’re dealing with the general public here, not a well-trained selectedcrew. I’ve witnessed people reading the newspaper, doing their make-up, texting and eating at the sametime while supposedly driving a car.