Welcome to Must Read, where we single out the best stories from around the automotive universe and beyond. Today we've got reports from The Wall Street Journal, Evo, Hemmings, and Wired.
The Feds Have No Clue How To Legislate Autonomous Cars — Wired
Autonomous cars are coming. That's a fact. But how will the government regulate them? Well, we have no clue, and it doesn't seem like they know either. This can only end well.
With everyone from Audi to Google to Volvo developing autonomous vehicles, the federal government is cautiously getting behind the wheel to regulate how self-driving cars should be operated and legislated. But its recommendations are far from clear-cut, underscoring just how far behind the times Washington is with regard to emerging technology.
Greatest Mitsubishi Evos Tested — Evo
There are ten flavors of Evo that have come over the years, but which is the best. As always, Evo does a simply superb job with the test. Check it out.
Snow lies piled at the edges of the road and, occasionally, a big pool of slush flows right across. But the car hardly seems to notice. There are chirrups and whooshes. Gravel loosened by a winter of heavy frosts is being ripped up by the tyres and flung at the underbody, while great head-snapping waves of turbo boost fling the car across the ground at an astonishing rate. This is the classic Mitsubishi Evo experience that I knew today would bring. But I didn’t expect to find it in this car. This is where it all started, the original Evo, and with it now being 21 years of age I’d just assumed it would feel relatively soft, warm-hatch quick and rather dull. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The speed, agility and control it exhibits are quite extraordinary.
Audi S8: You Won't Hear It, But You'll Sure Feel It — The Wall Street Journal
We don't usually pimp any car reviews other than our own, but Dan Neil and his masterful prose over at The Wall Street Journal always deserves a read. Just read below and you'll see what I mean.
Automobiles are complicated machines with dozens of systems that independently affect owner satisfaction, any one of which can absolutely disqualify a car. Take navigation systems. I recently walked away from the spectacular, $300,000 Ferrari FF in a sour mood, all because of the car's dated, fiddly navi system, sourced from Harman and ignominiously shared with the rest of the Fiat-Chrysler empire.
Never mind the 651-horsepower V12 and all-wheel drive. Never mind the FF's enslaving looks and wilding cackle. I couldn't find the nearest sushi restaurant. Damn you, first-world problems.
The Sixties — Hemmings
The '60s were a complex time for the car companies with lots of changes coming to form the car as we know it. Let Hemmings break those changes down for you.
The 1950s were the last time that the volume car companies (other than Ford and Chevrolet, who had specialty cars in the Thunderbird and Corvette) were able to really get away with versions of a single passenger car in their lineup. In the '50s, your Plymouth could be a Cranbrook or a Concord or a Cambridge or a Plaza or a Belvedere or a Fury; the trim and running gear might exchange between them, but it was all the same basic body and chassis beneath.