Neutral: Trump jawboning is perfectly fine. A renegotiation/update of nafta (which both canada and Mexico have now expressed interest in) is long overdue.

The EU has all kinds of issues that doom it. But simply put an overarching unelected bureaucratic elite cannot rule a group of sovereign countries. Brexit is just the first step in what will hopefully be a peaceful dissolution of the EU and end of the Euro.

How far is your commute? Do you ski or tow anything? Do you have kids in child seats?

I think that car ownership will still be quite high. First they will become extensions of ones office and home with lots of stuff staying on board.

Once full autonomy has been reached car shows will look more like Home shows - how long before we start decoupaging the interior walls of our pods?

Sort of like owning an Iphone and a record player...

Your radar cruise too? And your front and rear backup sensors? What kind of vehicle do you have?

I think the guilia should definitely be on this list. It’s 18 month delay (and counting) makes it highly controversial in that it puts FCA’s and marcciones future in doubt.

This means that even with all the subsidies the manufacturers and leasing companies are taking a bath on evs. New car leases going forward are going to get far more expensive with such poor residual values.

Some decent ones via dealers are about 5-6000 over budget. Probably able to talk one down to the budget or very close.

Might be a bit too stiff a ride on potholed northern roads, but certainly not completely undrivable in winter.

I will assume that James lives in a place where snow is rare to non-existent and that the roads are smooth.

Not bad.

A wiper and heater (and presumably a washer jet) to clear every sensor? There are probably going to be a dozen or more located around the vehicle.

That isn’t going to keep snow and ice drifting around and covering the rear of a vehicle or the sensors mounted on the roof. You must live on the lower mainland if you haven’t seen that.

In northern climes it is just part of the deal. Winter roads are far more treacherous and dangerous to travel on. That means more accidents. But unless you want to abandon those areas in winter it’s a risk/reality that has to accepted. And if autonomous cars can’t cope then they will not be an option for those…

1. We have wipers, defrosters etc to maintain visibility. Autonomous cars will have several sensors to keep clean to an operable level. If even just one gets blocked presumably the system has to stop. That’s a lot of stopping in conditions like we have here. And sometimes stopping is the least safe thing you can do.

Using my trip yesterday as an example - and it isn’t uncommon this time of year - I and thousands of others got to our destination - an autonomous car would not have.

It’s not just the sensors - it’s the road conditions - glare ice one minute, three inches of snow then bare pavement. Humans can anticipate the upcoming changes and also cope with wheel slip. And still get to the destination. I don’t think an autonomous car will be able to. At least not anytime soon.

The sensors might be able to see through snow and fog, but exposed as they are in the photo above they will be covered in ice and snow and kick in a matter of minutes in the conditions we have been dealing with in much of western Canada the past few weeks.