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Electric vehicles
Current Events
Automotive News’ report on EV startups has revealing gaps
Last week Automotive News acknowledged that “there has never been a better time for EV startups.” Even so, the trade journal couldn’t bring itself to fully explain why it has been “at least a century […]
Quotes
H. Donald Capps: Auto history can help us better navigate the future
“As historians, we tend to be really good at explaining the events of the past, but our track record for ‘predicting’ the future often leaves a great deal to be desired. We are scarcely into […]
Quotes
Should Tesla add more variants instead of the Cybertruck?
“Cybertruck seems like a mistake. It’s requiring a whole new production process. The whole exoskeleton structure may turn out to work in the end but Tesla really should be looking at taking advantage of the platforms […]
Design Notes
Yes, but WHY do today’s automobiles look so similar?
(EXPANDED FROM 10/2/2020) Auto Extremist has reposted a Peter DeLorenzo (2021) column which argues that the auto industry has “reached the nadir of design. And it isn’t pretty.” The big reason why: Cars look so […]
Media Analysis
Auto media are still not taking climate change seriously enough
Ezra Klein (2021) recently commented that “it seems odd that we would just let the world burn.” As a case in point, after summarizing climate change’s escalating predations, he argued that even President Biden’s plan […]
Current Events
Why are Automotive News’ comment threads so terrible?
A recent Automotive News (2021a) comment thread adds to the impression that the publication is not very concerned that it is fueling fact-challenged polarization. Why wouldn’t “the nation’s pre-eminent newspaper covering the automotive industry” possess […]
Drive-By Musings
Flying car entrepreneurs sound a lot like early auto pioneers
A recent New York Times story on the flying car industry didn’t explicitly compare it to the early automobile pioneers, but it’s not hard to see the parallels. Flying car entrepreneurs speak in lofty terms, […]
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Current Events
A few thoughts on skepticism about an EV transition led by Tesla
Yesterday I came across a debate on a left-of-center political blog that sounded surprisingly similar to what I’ve seen in auto industry media. A number of commentators were quite skeptical about a rapid transition to […]