Every now and then, I see an argument against road diets and the like that goes something like this: “Disabled people need cars to get where they’re going, so removing car lanes and street parking to make room for bike lanes and sidewalks is being ableist!” While I am able-bodied, I feel like I’m able to debunk this argument adequately, and as I see it often enough, I felt it worth making a blog post, covering this from a few different angles.
Continue reading “A thought on disability and transportation infrastructure”Ideas to make electrification work in endurance racing
With the impending climate crisis, it’s more important than ever that we develop and deploy transportation technologies that minimize the impact of our daily transportation, including electric cars. Automakers have traditionally used motorsport as a venue for marketing their cars and their new technologies, and endurance racing has been one of the most road-relevant venues in the past. Electric cars, however, present a problem with that.
Continue reading “Ideas to make electrification work in endurance racing”Smol wheels, big fun
A few months ago, I got a Xiaomi M365 electric scooter, but hadn’t gotten much of a chance to ride it. Now that spring’s come, though, I’ve actually gotten some miles on it, and have enough experience with this thing to have informed opinions on it. Continue reading “Smol wheels, big fun”
More evidence towards the hypothesis that the sedan is alive and well… it’s just called a pickup truck
This post was originally written for Oppositelock, but with the impending death of Kinja user blogs, I’m reposting it here.
Last week, I saw a comment over on Jalopnik that I think really captured the nature of the American automotive market.
Continue reading “More evidence towards the hypothesis that the sedan is alive and well… it’s just called a pickup truck”Is Tesla actually a car company?
It might seem crazy to ask whether Tesla’s a car company – they certainly make cars, and on paper, cars are about 82% of their YTD revenue as of the third quarter of FY2017. However, I’m going to argue that they might not be a car company, but rather an energy company that makes cars, and there’s a few things that make me believe that. Continue reading “Is Tesla actually a car company?”
The case for both simplifying LMP1-H, and making it more complex
I feel like there’s room for a follow up to my previous piece on the Le Mans Prototype 1-Hybrid subclass, now that there’s been additional news, including the news that Porsche is terminating their LMP1 program after this season is over. Continue reading “The case for both simplifying LMP1-H, and making it more complex”
My thoughts on the future of LMP1-H, after the 2017 24 Hours of Le Mans
It’s been a day since the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and I’ve finally put my thoughts together on it. It was something else, nothing like I’ve ever seen before.
Before the 24 Hours of Le Mans, predictions were that Toyota would walk away with the race on both pace and reliability. Predictions were that the all-new and huge LMP2 field would have failures en masse, having shown mediocre reliability in the lead-up to Le Mans. And, fears were that the GTE-Pro field would have poor balance of performance, allowing someone to run away with it. Continue reading “My thoughts on the future of LMP1-H, after the 2017 24 Hours of Le Mans”
Today in Bullshift: 2018 Camry Hybrid
This post was originally written for Oppositelock, but with the impending death of Kinja user blogs, I’m reposting it here.
Last time in Bullshift, we discussed the Lexus LC 500h, and its 4-speed e-CVT that pretends to be a 10-speed automatic at all times. Today’s offender is also an e-CVT from Toyota, the 2018 Camry Hybrid.
Continue reading “Today in Bullshift: 2018 Camry Hybrid”This is a bunch of bullshift. 10 “speeds” of bullshift.
This post was originally written for Oppositelock, but with the impending death of Kinja user blogs, I’m reposting it here.
So, last time I posted here, I said I’d think about doing a piece on the Toyota/Lexus Multi-Stage THS-II. This is that piece, but I thought I was basically going to do a technical overview, not a rant.
Continue reading “This is a bunch of bullshift. 10 “speeds” of bullshift.”Holy shit, 41% thermal efficiency out of a gasoline engine
This post was originally written for Oppositelock, but with the impending death of Kinja user blogs, I’m reposting it here.
Last week, Toyota detailed their next-generation powertrains for vehicles on their new architecture. In addition to several new transmissions, they announced a new modular engine family supporting varying cylinder displacements (much like Mazda’s SkyActiv-G family) and cylinder count, and detailed the first variant of that, the 2.5 liter Dynamic Force (what an awful marketing name) engine, which is almost certainly destined for the new Camry.
Continue reading “Holy shit, 41% thermal efficiency out of a gasoline engine”