Musk’s Europe gamble: Will others follow the Dutch and approve FSD?

​The Dutch road authority will ask other EU regulators to approve the driver assist.  Following last year’s Tesla shareholder vote, CEO Elon Musk’s near-incomprehensible wealth is now inextricably linked in part to the number of active “FSD” subscriptions his electric car company can sign up. And last month, the…

F1 in Miami: That’s what it looks like when an upgrade works

​2026’s Formula 1 championship now looks far from a foregone thing.  After an unanticipated five-week break in the season, Formula One resumed action this past weekend in Miami. Held at a temporary circuit around Hard Rock Stadium, the event is emblematic of the Liberty era of F1: a turbocharged…

There’s a lot of hype about Chinese EVs—is any of it true?

​In addition to being full of screens, China now wants its cars to be packed with AI.  The Beijing Auto Show is currently taking place in China, offering those of us behind the Trump tariff curtain a peek at what’s increasingly being dubbed the world’s most advanced car market.…

In motorsport, there’s nowhere to hide as AI becomes new CFD tool

​AI finds value in motorsport, multiplying limited computational fluid dynamics resources.  Since the introduction of wings to racing cars halfway through the 1960s, airflow has been everything in racing. Until that point, the focus was on making a car as slippery as possible; less drag meant more top speed…

As electric aspirations fade, Porsche sells its stake in Bugatti

​Porsche’s stake in Bugatti and Rimac Group have been sold to private equity.  A new chapter in the Bugatti story begins today. Twenty-eight years after bringing the storied luxury brand back from the dead, Volkswagen Group no longer counts Bugatti among its stable of brands. Porsche, which became the…

BMW bumps the 7 Series for 2027, adds all-new battery

​The 2027 7 Series is available as an EV, with an inline-six, or an inline-six PHEV.  In 1968, having achieved a modicum of stability through the introduction of its seminal Neue Klasse (or “new class”) models, BMW scaled up its styling and used the company’s M10 four-cylinder engine as…