Drew Dowdell

Back in 2017, the NHTSA released a report on the safety of Tesla's Autopilot system after the fatal crash of a Tesla owner in 2016. That report claimed that the use of Autopilot, or more precisely the lane-keeping function called Autosteer, reduced crash rates by 40%. In that original crash, the owner repeatedly ignored warnings to resume manual control of the vehicle. Critics questioned whether Autopilot was encouraging drivers to pay less attention to the road. The NHTSA report appeared to put those concerns to rest. Later, when a second driver died in an Autopilot related accident, Tesla CEO Elon Musk pointed to the NHTSA study and the 40% increase in safety claim. Now, 2 years after the original report. According to a report by Arstechnica, a third party has analyzed the data and found the 40% claim to be bogus. Originally the NHTSA data on Autopilot crashes was not publically available when Quality Control Systems, a research and consulting firm, requested it under a Freedom of Information Act request. The NHTSA claimed the data from Tesla was confidential and would cause the company harm if released. QCS sued the NHTSA and in September of last year, a federal judge granted the FOI request. What QCS found was that missing data and poor math caused the NHTSA report to be grossly inaccurate. The period in question covered vehicle both before and after Autopilot was installed, however, a significant number of the vehicles in the data set provided by Telsa have large gaps between the last recorded mileage before Autopilot was installed and the first recorded mileage after installation. The result is a gray area where it is unknown if Autopilot was active or not. In spite of this deficiency, the NHTSA used the data anyway. In the data provided only 5,714 vehicles have no gap between the pre and post Autopilot mileage readings. When QCS ran calculations again, they found that crashes per mile actually increased 59% after Autopilot was installed. Does that mean that a Tesla using Autopilot makes a crash 59% more likely? The answer to that is no for a number of reasons. First is that the sample size QCS had to work with is a very small percentage of Tesla’s total sales. Secondly, the data is only representative of vehicles with version 1 of Tesla’s Autopilot, a version that Tesla hasn’t sold since 2016. Tesla stopped quoting the NHTSA report around May of 2018, possibly realizing something was fishy with the data. They have since taken to their own report stating that cars with Autopilot engaged have fewer accidents per mile than cars without it engaged. This has some statistical fishiness to it as well. Autopilot is only meant to be engaged on the highway and due to the higher rate of speed all vehicles have a lower rate of accidents per mile. We may just have to wait until more data is available to find out if Tesla Autopilot and systems similar to it make crashed that much less likely. View full article

But no one makes 6 trips to the grocery store in a single day, and if they do, they have other problems to worry about besides money. It's the people who live closer to the city or public transit who are the likely candidates for what @daves87rs is talking about. I say that because 27 miles round trip to the grocery store is not typical for anyone outside of very rural areas. I have 2 grocery stores within a mile of my house and another 4 within 5 miles.

The move to a CVT was more about fuel economy and overall lower cost to GM to build the car. CVTs are cheap to build compared to a 6/8/9/10 speed automatic. At least the 2.0T still has a regular automatic, right?

Great project for a kid of any age. Hook them young and they won't have any money for drugs.

Has anyone tried Opera browser recently? I have been for a few days after some frustrations with Chrome and I'm really liking it. One thing I notice is that it uses a lot fewer computer resources than either Chrome or Firefox because my computer's cooling fan no longer kicks on when I have 6+ tabs open.

Mercedes sells the A-Class, B-Class, and SMART. They certainly do play in "Chevy" markets even if they're priced outrageously for the content. And don't try to tell me the A-Class is "worth it" either.

And how many did GM sell? Mercedes as a whole is not analogous to just a single GM brand.

beach bod

Cadillac should get into the Taxi market? If not, why not?

All things being equal, you are correct... but things aren't equal. Like it or not, Buick has baggage with the general population that takes a lot of "We're not just for old people" type advertising to overcome. GMC doesn't have any of that... it's a lot easier to convince someone to buy a Denali than it is to convince someone to buy a Buick. Rappers rap about Denali. There is supposed to be a GMC version of the Encore coming next time the platform gets redesign (soon). The Enclave is on the same platform, though different wheelbase, as the Acadia. Envision is on the same platform as the Terrain. Simply put, without the cars, there isn't much reason for Buick to continue to exist.

All of the costs associated with advertising and maintaining a brand. Separate badging, different designs. Doing what I propose gets cheaper when they don't have to paint the airwaves with "That's not a Buick!" commercials just to convince people that Buicks aren't for old people. GMC doesn't have that kind of baggage. I would be shocked if Barra isn't considering closing Buick already.

A 3-liter I6 is probably too long to be used in transverse applications, thus the reliance on the 3.6. However, the 2.7 liter 4-cylinder would probably fit in that same space as the V6.

Verano is gone already. I can totally see Buick becoming a China only brand. GMC can pick up the Encore sales with an equivalent Granite. Slap an Envoy badge on the back of an Enclave and that is solved too. Envision just goes away.

It'll be a lease vehicle I'm betting. I still don't understand its placement against the Acadia. I know it is a bit smaller than Acadia, but it doesn't seem to drive any different.

I came away pretty unimpressed with the Stinger when I drove it. There are a bunch of new and used alternatives that would suit me better even if they didn't have the straight line performance of the V6 Turbo Stinger.

What I don't get is this statement: They're already designing and building these for Europe. The money is already spent. If they're going to be built anyway, why not sell them to as wide an audience as possible?

Yes. With that base 4-cylinder and no AWD in that model, it should be $4k cheaper if only to close the gap down to Equinox.

You can't just compare MSRPs... the two simply aren't going to be cross shopped. If we're comparing MSRP, then the Avalon is a competitor too. The Explorer may outsell the Blazer... but the Traverse and Acadia will too, so it doesn't really matter. No, the Edge is the direct competition to the Blazer, they both start at $29,995, but the Edge has the upper hand on power train and standard features right out of the gate.

Not even the same class. It's the Edge that will trample all over it. On interior, I give the edge to the Blazer, but everything else goes to the Edge. The Blazer is too small. It feels like the old Equinox size inside.

No, SMK has it right. This new 3.0 will share components and machining with the 2.0 that JLR already produces. Their 4-cylinder isn't known for any unusual issues that I've heard of.

The problem started back in the late 70s / early 80s when every single division decided they had to be a full line auto retailer and that meant that (at GM anyway) they needed every vehicle from a J-Body up to a full B-Body plus a few extras in between. Ford did the same thing... Mercury got a cohort to every Ford car except Festiva (Tracer/Lynx, Topaz, Sable, Marquis, Zephyr, Grand Marquis, Cougar, Capri (Fox body)). Chrysler just made everything a K-Car or M-Body for all their brands. And it's all being repeated today with crossovers. Aside: I went to the Pittsburgh Auto Show today with friends. As much as I don't really care for the interior of the Regal Tour X, the exterior of that car is very striking in todays world. It looks very European. It'll be a sad day when that one goes too.

Eh... 16 years in this house. Maybe it's time to move anyway.

Or... like airbags and structural rigidity.

So... I need to buy a new house. My driveway is so sharp that a CT6 will high center at the top. No. It was a Toyota Matrix that GM fitted Pontiac badges on.

That '14 Regal GS weighs more than my '81 Oldsmobile!