I don’t watch a lot of baseball, but this game kept my attention. Congratulations Seattle. #RepDetroit

NEW: Inside the factory building Waymo’s robotaxi future An exclusive look inside the facility turning Jaguar EVs into robotaxis with Waymo’s custom computing system, cameras, lidar and radar. Soon, tens of thousands of robotaxis will roll off the line annually. www.forbes.com/sites/alanoh...

Profound impacts of Trump’s tariffs are causing significant harm, even in places he may not have anticipated. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/04/u...

Tesla Q1 net income of $409M < $595M in sales of emissions credits. So they’re back to losing money on vehicle sales excluding these credits. And as sales drop, the credits they will be earning to sell will also be reduced.

Also from the story: NHTSA has lost the ability to even try to regulate AV tech. "A small government team regulating the sort of autonomous cars that Elon Musk says represent the future of Tesla, his car company, is getting cut nearly in half." A win for Musk. A grave danger for the rest of us.

DOGE has eliminated 10% of NHTSA staff. “If the question is, will this affect the federal government’s ability to understand the safety case behind Tesla’s vehicles, then yes, it will. [The # of fed workers] who are able to understand this adequately is very small. Now it’s almost nonexistent.”

While we await an official merger agreement of Honda, Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors, I propose referring to the alliance as “H ‘n M”

Finally found the one current Jaguar owner who likes the new brand campaign.

Interesting stuff I saw and learned today @laautoshow.bsky.social: 1/ The head of VW product marketing said that the Microbus relaunch study that led to the ID.BUZZ was done 23 years ago, in 2001. A crazy gestation period. They also showed the just-previewed Tiguan, and recently redone Taos.

For those who won’t be able to see the total eclipse today, here’s a totaled Eclipse

Ford demonstrates that Mach E is not a Mustang: “competitive cash” for Camaro/Charger/Challenger only applies to traditional Mustang. www.thedrive.com/news/ford-is...

VinFast VF8. Does “VF” stand for Vietnamese Fisker?

Post a random weird car pic that’s already on your phone.

Recite 80% of a movie and you get 500K. What movie are you picking? “No.” (That’s 100%)

If the 49ers win there is going to be so much drinking and self-driving tonight.

What year is RFK Jr. running in?

Given Musk’s track record for hitting deadlines, we’re talking 2028 at the earliest.

Penultium?

How a poorly executed state program is harming adoption of plug-in vehicles. www.latimes.com/environment/...

Pahty poopahs! www.nytimes.com/2024/01/18/u...

Saddened to hear the news that race car driver Gil de Ferran died today. He won the Indy 500 in a Toyota-engined car, and I had the pleasure of working with him at a meeting for Toyota dealers. Ran into him a few months later at a racetrack, and he couldn’t have been more gracious. #RIP

Mitch Hedburg: "I drive rental cars. Sometimes I'll drive for ten miles with the emergency brake on. That doesn't say a lot for me, but it doesn't say a lot for the *emergency brake.* It's not really an emergency brake, it's an emergency make-the-car-smell-funny lever."

What are the odds? On the day that Cruise had its California self-driving permit suspended, I came across one of their cars in Santa Monica. First time ever spotting one of these in the LA area.

Took my first ride in a self-driving Waymo. All things considered, pretty normal. AFAIK, there’s a “drone pilot” that can take over remotely if the car needs help. They’ve been running around mapping Santa Monica for two years...I took this picture in 2021.

Taskrabbit

Oddity at the Orange County Auto Show. To me, this weird woody Nissan Ariya by Tommy Pike Customs is trying too hard. Do you like it?

Nice to catch up on the latest Simpsons news. www.wsj.com/arts-culture...

Would be cooler on the touchscreen of a Reatta.

This thread is now more legible in substack form: open.substack.com/pub/davekarp...

The Isaacson book confirms that Elon's underlings improved Autopilot's performance on the boss's commute by paying to repaint lane lines on the 405. Absolute clown shit.

Musk must have given up on a Full Self-Driving car. He just wants the driver control to change from limbs to Bluetooth.

Official song lyrics of Burning Man.