That might be true, but in Chicago, at least, I see a ton of crossovers with AWD, and very few of them ever get winter tires. There are very, very few times in the winter in which it’s better to have AWD with the wrong tires than 2WD with the right ones.

There’s a really stupid mythology around AWD’s benefits. The thing that kills me is, in Chicago, at least, I see a ton of AWD cars in the winter featuring “all season” tires.  At least when I was in Canada, people more frequently had the sense to get winter tires when it got cold.

Within the genre, Consumer Reports does a pretty good job of replicating what people actually care about. Though it’s a more niche site, and they may not be doing them any more, The Wirecutter also does a great job telling people what the best car is within their category. I introduced my mom to the site a few years…

You literally can’t make this crap up.

What bothers me is that, one one hand, Rowling feels like she can make absolute declarations after the books are written (“Dumbedore is gay,” which is not clear in the books), while at the same time, hiding behind the ambiguity of her words (“Hermione’s race is never specified”). If you know the sexual orientation of…

The point of the carbon tax is that right now, there are costs of carbon energy use that aren’t borne by either the buyer/seller (e.g. the power plant burning gas or the home/business using the electricity) - they’re externalities. They include, but aren’t limited to, global warming and the health issues caused by…

The problem now is the timeline.

Pro tip: For things that strike your fancy, add them to a list on your Amazon account (1-2 clicks depending on if the list you want is the default for your account). When you’re at/near the threshold, look through the list.

Pro tip: For things that strike your fancy, add them to a list on your Amazon account (1-2 clicks depending on if…

I’m pretty sure that GM’s system (currently only on a Cadillac) has eye tracking to make sure the driver’s paying attention; other systems require hand contact with the steering wheel.

I think the brake works the same way that it does in cars with cruise control (of any kind): stop the automatic system and revert to human control.  Again, not sold that the break is the best place for this in a production full-autonomous car. In a prototype, I can see an argument that it should be on the steering…

Think about airplane crashes. A great # of them end up being because of “pilot error.” That doesn’t that the investigators are just blaming the pilot to avoid blaming others - “oh, it’s the pilot’s fault, so let’s blame that guy and make no changes” - what it means is that there’s a failure between person, procedures…

Luckily, nobody was injured in the crash, and the driver was able to return the Pacifica to headquarters with damage to a wheel and the front bumper.

I was wondering when/if that’d come up. A disproportionate amount of my tiny pantry is used to store flavored waters, and although I’m also not super endowed with counter space (city condo, at least I’ve got extra bedrooms), I’ve been thinking about buying a Soda Stream if the quality is decent.

I was wondering when/if that’d come up. A disproportionate amount of my tiny pantry is used to store flavored…

It is amazing how many words some infotainment systems throw at you. Some cars with SiriusXM give you lists of station #, name, and current show/song playing to choose from, all in like, 12-point text on the screen, making it very difficult to cut through visual clutter and select the station you want, and that’s just…

but who is going to fund that research?

I’ve designed UIs for a living (though not for cars), but I will say that Tesla’s designers are going to have a lot of fights about how to add features over time because of the “muscle memory” issue:

The “economic development” argument always pissed me off: Sure, there is some additional economic activity if you have a people coming in from out of town that decide to go out for a meal before/after an event, or stay overnight in a hotel, but the vast majority of people at any given event are local (other than maybe…

You hit the nail on the head. He’s an expert at maintaining media focus on him (primarily) and his clients (secondarily). He teases, teases again, does a release, then another.

I’ve always hated position-based rules/penalties in any sport.

Well, yeah, because the marquee QBs actually have guaranteed money in their deals...