SELF-DRIVING TECHNICALITY, MORALITY, AND REGULATION
WHAT WITH my muted enthusiasm for self-driving vehicles, I confess to a bit of cherry-picking by gleaning highlights from the article “Self-Driving Policy Vacuum?” by Eric Kulisch in Automotive News, … Continue reading
CLEVER ENGINE MOUNTS, PART 1
READING THAT Mercedes-AMG will feature second-generation magneto-rheological engine mounts brings back memories of a college summer job and later of deliberately pausing a tad in certain shifts with Ferrari’s traditionally … Continue reading
HCCI TO HIT THE STREETS WITH MAZDA SKYACTIV-X IN 2019
MAZDA HAS announced a production breakthrough coming in 2019 with its Skyactiv-X, hitherto a research goal known as Homogenous Charge Compression Ignition that combines the advantages of gasoline and diesel … Continue reading
GOODBYE, INTERNAL COMBUSTION? PART 2
PLENTY OF countries around the world are questioning fossil-fuel mobility. Yesterday, we looked at proposed gasoline and diesel bans, of one sort or another, in the Netherlands, Norway, Germany, and … Continue reading
GOODBYE, INTERNAL COMBUSTION? PART 1
THESE DAYS, there’s a lot of governmental talk around the world about banning gasoline and diesel vehicles in favor of electric ones. Some of this thinking is laudatory. Some of … Continue reading
WHO WANTS DRIVERLESS CARS?
BOTH KEITH CRAIN, editor-in-chief of Automotive News, and I are gray-tops—and car enthusiasts. No doubt this colors our shared opinion of driverless cars. His editorial in the March 20, 2017, … Continue reading
CLEARING THE (AUTOMOTIVE) AIR, PART 2
LET’S EXAMINE automotive emissions and fuel economy following our look at Washington, D.C., shenanigans concerning 2025’s 54.5 mpg. Back in the 1960s, three automotive emissions were identified: HC, unburned hydrocarbons; … Continue reading
CLEARING THE (AUTOMOTIVE) AIR, PART 1
WHAT WITH the Trump administration’s gutting, some would say streamlining, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, let’s examine some environmental and economic aspects of automobile regulations in the United States. This … Continue reading
54.5 OR WHAT?
PITY THE HARD-WORKING automotive engineer. Or, should we decry the shortsightedness of people buying new vehicles? Or what about blaming government regulation for the current and approaching conundrums? Since 2012, … Continue reading
AUTONOMOUS BLUES
SORRY FOR THIS recurring fixation on autonomous cars. I’ve already questioned several practical aspects in ”Autonomous Vehicle Worries” and ethical ones in ”Autonomous Kills. These are put in perspective by … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 