I’m sorry that my jovial fun-poking was lost on you.  As a former owner of two Miatas, I’m hardly one to take this trope seriously.

I thought BMW had already cornered the hairdresser/trophy wife market.

Significantly more pedals.

Not true. BMW offers the 4 cylinder Z4 with a manual outside the US, so there’s no figuring for Toyota to do--just reach back into the BMW parts bin. As with every other aspect of this car, BMW has done the heavy lifting.

Let me take a slightly different tack, since the battery argument can be grey. This was a clear exhibition of nascent violent and threatening behavior, and likely mental instability. It’s no different than yelling and screaming or posturing in a threatening manner, and had the propensity to increase to violence on a…

As a career aviation professional, I can say that this is a clear exhibition of nascent violent and threatening behavior, and likely mental instability. It’s no different than yelling and screaming or posturing in a threatening manner, and could likely increase to violence on a greater scale (thankfully it didn’t).…

As a career aviation professional, I can say that this was a clear exhibition of nascent violent and threatening behavior, and likely mental instability. It’s no different than yelling and screaming or posturing in a threatening manner, and could likely have increased to violence on a greater scale (thankfully it…

“How the fuck do you know that they aren’t testing in bad conditions? “

Um...because I can read. This has been widely reported for years. The AV companies are quite public about their testing locations because they’re required to be, by law. They freely admit that they don’t currently have the ability to operate under…

How many of those miles were driven in Burlington blizzards, on swampy Louisiana back roads in early morning pea-soup fog, south Florida 5 inch per hour downpours, Antelope Valley spring haboobs, multi-mile Manhattan construction zones with no coherent lane markers or driver discipline and bikes and pedestrians…

This is the correct take—there should be no levels 3 and 4 ever available for public consumption. Adaptive cruise control should be the most autonomy anyone gets until Level 5 is proven, verified, and certified. And the government should regulate shit out of what qualifies as certification. This is one very rare…

Exactly! Nothing like having blazing LEDs flashing frenetically on the windshield, vibrators shaking the entire chassis, and claxons screaming as you brake mildly aggressively when coming upon a slower or stopped vehicle. I’ve never owned a vehicle with these dreadful systems, but have nearly wrecked one (rental) due…

A couple things...
It either “pipes” real engine noise into the cabin (some automakers do this), or the audio system “plays” synthesized engine noises over the speakers. Two very different scenarios in the eyes of most enthusiasts. Which tack has Honda taken?

Love alcantara or hate it (I hate it), the last place you…

ChargePoint had better revisit their pricing structure first, before they think they’re going to corner the long distance EV charging market. I live in SoCal, where electric rates are some of the highest in the nation, and it would cost me nearly 300% of my “worst” time-of-usage residential rate to charge my Volt at a…

I think most folks are ok with ketchup on burgers, even if it’s not a requirement for them.  It seems to me that the more contentious question to ask is whether mayonnaise belongs on a burger.

Ya got circles???

GM is putting backup camera display in the rearview mirror, demonstrating that there is no need to have a TV in/on your dash in order to be compliant (even though GM still has one on their rearview cam vehicles).

This^^^!
Resurrect tactile, mechanical switchgear for HVAC and audio. Do away with the screen in/on the dash altogether. Migrate navigation into the DIC, a la Audi, and backup camera display into the rearview mirror, a la GM. Vehicle settings and nav input can be accomplished with well-wrought steering wheel controls…

The US has been on a car-buying binge for the last 5-7 years, especially with SUV Craze the Sequel: Attack of the Crossover, and cars last a long time these days. I think the simplest answer is that increased reliability has made this market more cyclical than ever—probably ~ 7-10 year cycle. And we’ve reached the…

Only a few states tint their police cruisers’ windows. FL does, and likely some of the desert southwest states, due to the heat. But I’m not aware of any that do so beyond their local legal limits. A possible exception might be K-9 units, since the dog is in a frequently parked car all day.

This is the correct analysis. It is long-settled law that no one has a legal expectation of privacy in a public place at any given moment. But it is the continued collection and aggregation of location data, nearly down to a man, and the resultant long term personal travel profile available from that data that is…