Cars

"Late last year, Formula E officials announced the specs for the third generation of all-electric race cars that will debut on the motorway in 2022. The new Formula E cars will be the first to use extremely fast charging stations that pack enough power to fully charge a Tesla Model S battery in about 10 minutes. Although the racers will only use the charging stations for brief pit stops, they’ll provide a glimpse of the future beyond the racetrack: EV batteries that charge in the same amount of time it takes to fill a gas tank. To be sure, fast EV chargers already exist. Tesla and Porsche have both recently deployed 250-kilowatt public charging stations, which can bring some EV battery packs close to full charge in around 40 minutes."

"With interest in and sales of pedal-assisted electric bikes surging during the pandemic, those questions share a growing urgency. Two timely and soothing new studies of e-bike riders’ exertions and injuries suggest that the answer to both questions can be a qualified yes, though anyone riding an e-bike needs to remain aware that the experience is certainly cycling with a kick to it. As most of us are likely aware, cycling has become extremely popular and aspirational this year, since so many of us are otherwise housebound. Cycling gets us outside, active and heading somewhere — anywhere — else. But it also involves distance, hills, wind and sometimes leaden legs, which can be daunting. Enter e-bikes. Short for electric bikes, these are road or mountain bikes with an added battery-powered motor that gooses our pedaling power... You’ll just feel as if you have superhero legs."

"Research from a recent study shows the important role that e-bikes can play in reducing carbon emissions in cities... the study says that carbon emissions could be reduced by 12 percent if just 15 percent of urban transportation miles traveled were instead made by e-bike... The researchers chose to focus specifically on e-bikes instead of regular bikes because “e-bikes encourage users to cycle farther and more often than conventional bicycles.” Any carbon emissions related to e-bikes themselves, like the electricity that’s required to charge them, were accounted for in this recent study. It’s also noted that emission differences in how that electricity is produced is pretty negligible."

"I spot two bad-ass girls in a Tercel, they said what's up? And I said what's up? "We're going to Houston", and I said giddy up! U-turn!"

"She's sweat, wet. Got it goin' like a turbo 'Vette."

"I could go very, very berserk at this point. But - two things are stopping me. One, the noise. It's driving me mad. And secondly, it was on this very road that the drummer with a band called Def Leppard crashed his muscle car, a Corvette, and as a result of that he now has to drive with a knob on his steering wheel."

"I do things my way. Vipe or Vette; I tear up the highway."

"Success is not only one thing. It's not only having a nice house in Beverly Hills and driving a nice Mercedes."

"[S]omeone driving a Geo Metro in this day and age isn't rich."

"Whipping That Benz Like A Rental"

"When I pull up out front, you see the Benz on dubs."

"Roll in the Benz with me, we could watch TV from the backseat of my V."

"I'm in the Benz on Monday; the BM on Tuesday. Range on Wednesday; Thursday I'm in the hooptie."

"I'm in a big white Benz on a hot sunny day; I call it the milk truck and shit."

"Early in the morning, hop into the Benz: I've got 44 ways of getting paid."

"Slim Shady! Hotter then a set of twin babies in a Mercedes-Benz with the windows up, when the temp goes up to the mid-80s."

"To many visitors, Germany in the 1920s was the United States of Europe: big, industrial, ultra-modern. It was home to some of Europe's biggest and best corporations: the electrical engineering giant Siemens, the financial titan Deutsche Bank, the automobile maker Mercedes-Benz, the chemical conglomerate IG-Farben."

"When I was sixteen, I bought my first Mercedes-Benz."

"So, ladies! Ladies, if you want to role in my Mercedes? Then turn around; stick it out. Even white boys got to shout!"

"Sending out the message to all of my friends; we'll be looking flashy in my Mercedes-Benz."

"Ain’t No Hotter Flow As Me, All Gas On Free 580 Benz Just So I Can Spin."

"Tú te montas ‘en mi carro y Parece’ Un Mercedes-Benz."

"Can You Spin For Me, Baby? Talkin’ ’bout One Eighty, But I Own The Judge, ’cause Ain’t No Peace In That Mercedes."

"The plug-in hybrid is the most notable technological advancement of the past 50 years", "G.M.'s challenge is making them profitable and continuing to invent a broad range of advanced vehicles. Demand for Plug-in Hybrid Car Rises, motowag.com"

"The Chevrolet Volt has joined baseball and apple pie as an unassailable, non-partisan symbol of American can-do and know-how. General Motors won't start selling the plug-in hybrid for another 18 months (at least), but that hasn't kept it from becoming the most important political accessory since the flag lapel pin.""

"While the ability for Obama, if elected, to deliver on his energy-related campaign promises remains to be seen, Tuesday night's presentations helped establish the plug-in hybrid as a mainstream American household term perhaps as a synonym for 100-mpg vehicle."

"The buzz-phrase now is plug-in hybrid,"

"It's not a car for everyone, but it's the first step toward a new kind of car for everyone."

"Volt is the GM's "most important model in decades -- and possibly the key to its survival."

"Possibly the most sought-after technological innovation since Captain Kirk first flipped open his communicator is the plug-in hybrid."

"It represents nothing less than the first step in the reinvention of the automobile."

"The drumbeat of the electrical transportation is accelerating like nothing I've ever seen in my life."

"Felix Kramer, who has made plug-in electric cars not only his passion but an imminent American reality, was always ready to take a query from me."

"Remember, there might be a bigger idiot than you in that other car. (from the Be Caruso of a Steering Wheel)"

"In the old days, a car traveling at 25 km/h caused everyone to be amazed. And it still does. (from the I Was Mercedes Tire)"

"A car is a vehicle that moves due to the explosive combustion of gasoline in the engine and stops for some unknown reason. (Rojek's Auto Dictionary)"

"When a man opens a car door for his wife, it's either a new car or a new wife."

"Here in my car, I feel safest of all. I can lock all my doors. It's the only way to live, in cars."

"[J]umped out of bed and put on my best suit, got in my car and raced like a jet all the way to you."

"Averroës, Kant, Socrates, Newton, Voltaire, could any of them have believed it possible that in the twentieth century the scourge of cities, the poisoner of lungs, the mass murderer and idol of millions would be a metal receptacle on wheels, and that people would actually prefer being crushed to death inside it during frantic weekend exoduses instead of staying, safe and sound, at home?"

"Contemporary man has tried to substitute the car for the cow pony, but it simply doesn't work. True, in a car he is mobile, and once behind the wheel he can feel the excitement of command, but nevertheless the car is bound to the road, inhibited by traffic, and frustrated by regulations essential to his safety but which he often feels rob him of the true freedom he wants."

"Not a single pedestrian has run over a car yet, but for some reason motorists are still unhappy."

"Driving enthusiasts rejoice. Volkswagen will ditch its screen-happy control interfaces in favor of old-fashioned physical controls beginning with its next generation of electric cars, company design chief Andreas Mindt told Autocar. Why? Well, as popular and versatile as touchscreen interfaces are, they ignore one important fact: It’s not an iPhone. “We will never, ever make this mistake any more. On the steering wheel, we will have physical buttons. No guessing any more. There’s feedback, it’s real, and people love this,” Mindt told the publication. “Honestly, it’s a car. It’s not a phone: it’s a car.” I really couldn’t have put it better myself. And while VW’s touchscreens won’t be going anywhere, they will be joined by tactile controls for the audio volume, heating and cooling, and the hazard light, said Mindt. “They will be in every car that we make from now on. We understood this,” he added, citing both critical and customer feedback. Cars will need to leave real estate for screens to accommodate nav systems and mandatory reverse cameras, but no longer at the expense of having dedicated knobs and buttons for these critical functions."

"Nine-tenths of our crimes an' calamities are made possible by th' automobile. It has unleashed all th' pent-up criminal tendencies o' th' ages. It's th' central figure in murders, hold-ups, burglaries, accidents, elopements, failures an' abscondments. It has well nigh jimmed th' American home.... No girl is missin' that wuzn' last seen steppin' in a strange automobile.... An' ther hain't a day rolls by that somebuddy hain't sellin' ther sewin' machine, or ther home, or somethin' t' pay on an automobile.... Maybe th' jails an' workhouses are empty, but that's not because th' world is gittin' better. It's because all th' criminals escape in automobiles."

"Automobiles are like people: the cheap ones are noisy."

"... America aims at having a car for every citizen. I do not. I want freedom for full expression of my personality."

"But Cayce sees that there is a Michelin Man within her field of vision, its white, bloated, maggot−like form perched on the edge of a dealer's counter, about thirty feet away. It is about two feet tall, and is probably meant to be illuminated from within. The Michelin Man was the first trademark to which she exhibited a phobic reaction. She had been six."

"The longstanding perception that bigger cars are safer is bolstered by vehicle safety ratings which look at the safety of the drivers and passengers, but don’t take into account the dangers any given vehicle poses to pedestrians, something European regulators consider. And these larger, heavier cars are harder on roads, which we all pay to maintain."

"Trucks and SUVs today are also significantly heavier than they used to be, with the average truck ballooning 34% in weight since 1990. That’s especially bad news for any pedestrians, motorcyclists or cyclists they hit. They’re also vastly more popular, accounting at multiple points in recent years for 80% of new car sales in the US, according to JD Power data cited in a comprehensive look at ever-larger vehicles in Slate."

"Tall trucks and SUVs with blunt hoods are particularly dangerous — 45% more likely to kill pedestrians compared to smaller vehicles with sloped front ends, according to research from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Some of these trucks and SUVs are so tall that the top of the hood aims squarely at the upper torso and neck of the average American woman. The risks become fairly obvious when you think it through: If you’re an average-sized adult hit by a sedan, you’re likely going to be hit in the legs or perhaps the pelvis. If you’re hit by a large truck or SUV, though, you’re hit in the torso, or even head and neck. And the driver may not even be able to see what they’ve hit. Small children become invisible to the driver when they stand in front of these extra-large vehicles. Hundreds of American children have been killed off of public roadways by forward-moving vehicles, most of them trucks or SUVs — in other words, often run over by a driver who simply couldn’t see them beyond the hood."