TIDBITS FROM AUTOMOTIVE NEWS
THE FOLLOWING AUTOMOTIVE tidbits aren’t indicative of important trends, compelling gossip, or breakthrough technology. They’re just things I found interesting in recent issues of Automotive News, the weekly journal of … Continue reading
A YEAR IN REVIEW
I THANK YOU ALL for your readership. Here’s an overview of this year’s SimanaitisSays categories and frequencies of their appearance: And Furthermore (120 items); Science & Technology (59); I Usta … Continue reading
TESLA MODEL 3 TIDBITS
TESLA MODEL S sedans and Model X SUVs are no big surprise here in the Southern California vehicle mix. Come to think of it, nor are Ferraris, Maseratis, and the … Continue reading
WHAT IF ROBOTS UNIONIZE? PART 1
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE is making robotic devices smarter every day. The societal implications of this are profound in the near, as well as long, term. Here are two days of my … Continue reading
MAKE LITHUANIA GREAT (YET AGAIN)
WALL STREET’S love affair with Tesla has baffled me, though a news item from Vilnius, Lithuania, may help my reasoning. Based on the number of Tesla shares and their stock … Continue reading
RIFFS FROM BECK AND LUTZ
JEFF BECK, rock guitarist of Yardbirds fame, and Bob Lutz, auto executive extraordinaire, have more in common than I might have thought. Both are elder statesmen: Beck, 72; Lutz, 84. … Continue reading
DRIVING THROUGH A BRUSSELS LOOPHOLE
THE SOOT CONTINUES to accumulate around diesel cars finagled to run clean in official testing, though not necessarily otherwise. “VW’s Diesel Scam” made news last year when the International Council … Continue reading
AUTOS BY THE NUMBERS
TWO STATISTICAL STUDIES described in Automotive News, July 4, 2016, caught my eye. One has to do with new car quality; the other, with a car’s country of origin. This … Continue reading
THE DEMISE OF AUTOMOTIVE ENGINEERING
STUDENTS ENTERING traditional automotive engineering programs today may be the last generation of this noble profession. If predictions about future automobiles are correct, the only discipline surviving will be body … Continue reading
“POINTLESS” CARS?
BACK IN the 1980s when most cars still had traditional breaker-point ignitions, one carmaker’s innovative state-of-the-art electronic system was heralded with a wonderful press release: “New Rapidfire has a pointless … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 