"The Relay" Online Newsletter
September 2024 Issue

This is the monthly online newsletter for the car club council. All car hobbyist events are listed on this site under "Calendar." Just click on the link above to view the list of car shows and other activities.

President's Message

I wish to invite you to our car club council appreciation day at Pamplin Park. If you are a member of the council or a member of a club that is a member of the council you get free admission to everything at the Park on Saturday September 14th. Pamplin Historical Park & The National Museum of the Civil War Soldier is a 424-acre historical campus that features world-class museums, antebellum homes, a National Historic Landmark Civil War battlefield, a slave life exhibit, educational programs, and special events. It has been called “the new crown jewel of Civil War sites in America” by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian James M. McPherson of Princeton University. It's big and there are a lot of things to see.

When the show committee picked September 14 back in June there were only a couple of events listed in the calendar and both of them were in the evening. Now there are several events but even if you want to attend another event stop by Pamplin in the morning where we will have a cruise-in from 9 to 11. The cruise-in will feature a DJ playing music, free coffee and free sweets. The park is open until 5 PM that day so you can come later. Just park in the museum parking lot (address 6125 Boydton Plank Rd, Petersburg, VA 23803) and go inside the museum and tell the person there which council club you are a member. We've put some time and planning into this and I hope we have a lot of people take part. Hopefully I will see you there.

Some people were having trouble accessing the website because we did not have a secure server. I have gotten a secure server certificate for the website so other than an occasional down time for upgrades you should not have any trouble getting on the site. I got the certificate for no cost most likely because I have had accounts with this company for over 20 years. Google a few years ago decided every website should have a certificate and some were charging a couple hundred bucks a year for one. Google - which thinks it runs/owns the Internet - just decided to do this.

The newsletter below has some interesting stories about the lack of privacy in many 2015 and newer vehicles. I've read stories that said your car is spying on you and telling people about what you are doing. GM actually sold that information to insurance companies leading to the Texas attorney general suing GM. You may have heard about some insurance companies offering discounts if you put their app on your cell which will monitor your driving. If your phone rings while driving and someone with you answers it the app thinks you answered it while driving - so much for that promised discount. GM was doing the same thing - selling black box information on drivers. Do you occasionally hit 90 while driving? Your new car knows it, saves it and the car maker can access it very easily if the car has WiFi.

Ford is going one better - see the article on Ford trying to patent: “Ford, one of the world’s largest U.S.-based automakers, is trying to patent an invention that could allow cars to monitor the speed of other vehicles and share traffic violation reports with and between police cars—a technology that could revolutionize speed surveillance on the road.” This would be okay on a police car but having your own car do it is a violation of privacy. The new technology would let a car recognize that another vehicle is speeding and using outboard cameras take a photo of the license plate and send it to the police. Seems like all that stuff I read about in the book 1984 is coming true.

EVs continue to have sales problems. There is an article below about Ford and GM pushing back on EV production because the things just aren't selling. Ford says it is losing $44,000 on every EV the company sells and is looking at a loss of $5 billion on them this year. And the Biden administration is moving money that is meant for Medicare to EV tax incentives for both new (up to $7500) and used (up to $4000). The used market is going to need an incentive as used EVs are selling slower than the new ones. One big problem is that inflation has pushed the cost of the average new car in America to $49,500 according to the iseecars.com website where they do research on vehicles.

There is another story on how states are looking for how to fund road/bridge building and repairs. The gas tax - now over 40 cents a gallon in Virginia with a federal tax of 18.4 cents is not cutting it. States are looking for new ways and some of them also have privacy concerns. The feds did this by mandating better and better gas mileage from vehicles. Better gas mileage means less gas has to be purchased hence lower tax revenues. In Virginia EVs and some vehicles that get high gas mileage have to pay an annual highway user fee that has a formula. The state also has a mileage choice program that requires you to install a device in your vehicle to monitor the miles driven. I don't need a government device in a vehicle. I think the government is already monitoring us enough. One of the most if not the most important functions of a legislative body is to set a budget. But they can't get that right - the feds are facing another budget crisis the end of September because that is the end of fiscal year.

Hope to see you at the Park on the 14th. The calendar is full, this is the last month of summer and several big events are going to take place in the next couple of months. Enjoy while the weather is nice.

Back when cars were simple

Next Meeting

The next meeting will be Monday, October 28th at a location that will be listed in the October newsletter.

Car Club Council of Central Virginia Appreciation Day and Cruise-In at Pamplin Park

September 14 is the Car Club Council of Central Virginia Appreciation Day and Cruise-In at Pamplin Park from 9-11AM (park will be open until 5PM). Cruise into Pamplin Park from Route 1 to the parking lot by the museum (address 6125 Boydton Plank Rd, Petersburg, VA 23803). We will have free coffee and donuts/sweets and DJ Danny will spin the tunes. You will get free admission to the museum and park all day(council member clubs only). Bring your family to tour the museum and grounds. Directions at this link pamplinpark.org/plan-your-visit/for-daily-visitors/directions Questions Fred Fann: contact@carclubcouncil.com

Tri-City Vettes 2024 Community Car Show August 10 - See all the photos at Album - opens to a new window

Car Hobbyist News

National Report

Okay, we've got a new person running for president in VP Harris. Where does she stand on the things important to car hobbyists? I went to her official campaign website to get answers - there were none. There isn't much there except ways to donate and volunteer. Hopefully her policies will be added to the site soon. So I went to the next best place to find out - the CNN website. Here is what CNN says: "Harris is a “tremendous champion” on climate and environmental justice, said Tiernan Sittenfeld, senior vice president of government affairs for the League of Conservation Voters Action Fund.

Climate action has run through Harris’s career for decades. As California’s attorney general, Harris sued big oil companies like BP and ConocoPhillips, and investigated Exxon Mobil for its role in climate change disinformation. While in the Senate, she sponsored the Green New Deal resolution. And as vice president, Harris made the crucial tie-breaking vote to pass Democrats’ historic climate bill." And it continues: "Advocates say Harris’s record on climate couldn’t be more different from her Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump – a man who has vowed to pull the US out of its climate commitments and to “drill, baby, drill.”" (Source)

I guess that tells us all we need to know about her energy policy and how she stands on the push to EVs. Let's check out what the current administration just did: "The Biden administration took an unprecedented step of rolling its climate agenda into a health care concern with the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). According to critics, it makes climate change a priority. Medicare provisions within the IRA are siphoning funds into green energy policies, Isabelle Morales, federal affairs manager for Americans For Tax Reform, told Just The News. The IRA, Morales explained, grants the Secretary of Health and Human Services the ability to negotiate the price of prescription drugs on behalf of Medicare." And continues: "Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Mark Merritt, president of Proactive Strategies Group, said that only about 15% of the $280 billion in savings from the program goes into Medicare. The bulk of the savings, Merritt explained, are going to support the $7,500 electric-vehicle tax credit. Morales said the siphoned funds are also supporting the $4,000 used electric-vehicle tax credit, and tax credits for energy efficiency items, such as doors. The tax credits on these vehicles, Merritt said, are items that wealthier Americans purchase. In 2019, half of those enrolled in Medicare earn less than $30,000 per year, whereas the typical Tesla buyer earns around $150,000 per year." (Source)

And yes you read that correctly - The bulk of $280 billion in savings from the IRA's prescription drug provisions has been redirected to fund $7,500 tax credits on new electric vehicles and $4,000 tax credits on used electric vehicles, as well as other energy efficiency programs. Instead of going to "health care" money has been redirected to pay for EV tax credits.

They are going to need a bunch of money for those EV tax credits. Check out what Ford did recently: "The Dearborn, Mich., automaker said it is scrapping plans for an electric three-row SUV, citing tough pricing pressure as automakers resort to aggressive discounts to move their EVs. This spring, Ford had said it would delay plans for that model by two years, to a 2027 release date.

Ford instead will offer hybrid gas-electric versions of future large, three-row SUVs, a popular vehicle category that includes the brand’s Explorer and Expedition nameplates.

The company’s moves are the latest example of automakers unwinding EV-investment plans they made years ago, when it looked like there was big untapped consumer demand for battery-powered models. There has been more hesitancy among car shoppers than auto executives initially expected, with surveys showing concerns about high prices and finding places to charge."

But wait there's more: "General Motors last month pushed back the timeline on the opening of a suburban Detroit factory that is being renovated to build electric pickups and delayed the release of a Buick EV.

Ford also pushed back the launch of a new electric pickup truck by one year, until 2027, the second time it has pushed back the timeline. In addition, Ford said it would trim its capital spending on fully electric vehicles to about 30% of its budget, from 40%. Ford has said its EV business is on pace to lose about $5 billion this year. In the three-month period ended in June, the automaker lost about $44,000 on every electric vehicle that it sold." (Source)

Looks like selling EVs is going to be tough even with those tax credits pulled from Medicare funding. Car prices have gotten out of reach for a lot of people. Here is Karl Brauer, an executive analyst at car search engine and price aggregation service iSeeCars.com: "For most Americans, affording a car is far more difficult now than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic, and it’s not getting much easier. The U.S. automotive market is returning to normalcy after years of supply chain issues, depressed demand for new cars, and low vehicle inventories. However, a new or used car is often too expensive for Americans who are already battling inflation. “Cars are not nearly as affordable today as they were five years ago,” says Karl Brauer. In 2019, a consumer with a budget of $20,000 could afford about 50 percent of the used cars on the lot in the United States, Brauer said. In 2023, only 13 percent of used cars fell within that price range. Things are harder for new car buyers, especially when high interest rates are added to already elevated car prices. In June, according to Cars Commerce, the average list price of a new car was $49,500. The most desired new car, the Ford F-150, averages about $58,000."

Things are so tough that GM had to sell data: "Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing General Motors because he says the automaker has been illegally collecting and selling drivers’ data. General Motors used technology installed in most 2015 model year or newer GM vehicles to collect, record, analyze, and transmit highly detailed driving data about each time a driver used their vehicle,” the statement continued. “General Motors sold this information to several other companies, including to at least two companies for the purpose of generating ‘Driving Scores’ about GM’s customers and selling these scores to insurance companies.”" (Source)

Where are we going to find the electricity for all these electric devices and vehicles? Over 20 Republican state attorneys general asked the Supreme Court to temporarily block the Environmental Protection Agency from enforcing new rules that aim to curb planet-warming emissions from power plants by closing down power plants. The EPA rules state that existing coal and new natural gas power plants have to either cut or capture 90% of their climate pollution by 2032. Instead of building more power plants that are needed even without EVs our government wants to shut down plants. This has led to an interest in nuclear energy: "As the United States continues its rush to shutter the nation’s remaining coal plants, energy analysts are debating what should fill the gap to meet the growing need for electricity. Increasingly, many are pointing to nuclear energy as the solution. According to the Department of Energy (DOE), nearly one-third of existing U.S. coal plants are scheduled to be shut down by 2035. This is happening as demand from data centers, electric vehicles, electric home heating, and other products are pushing ever more consumption onto the grid."

Who is running this country? Surely not anyone who is planning for the future. If VP Harris manages to get elected what will happen? There is more on power plants in the state report.

State Report

From Steve Haner of the Jefferson Policy Journal: "The Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA), with its demand to eliminate hydrocarbon fuels for electricity in Virginia, will soon take a deeper bite out of bank accounts for many Virginia families and businesses.

As of September 1, Dominion Energy Virginia residential bills will rise 11%. Adding to that, next summer the cost of back-up generation from outside that utility’s network jumps 1400%. A previous article warned Virginia might run out of “other people’s power” to meet customer demand, and this sudden jump in the price of “other people’s power” proves the point.

The Dominion tariff will become more than $143 per 1,000 kilowatt hours for a residential customer. Before VCEA took effect in 2020, that was about $116, so the overall jump in four years exceeds 23%. All those new energy costs were vetted and approved by the State Corporation Commission, but many would not be imposed but for VCEA. Commercial and industrial rates will rise as well.

The largest increases are for the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind facility, now under construction but not due to produce electricity until 2026 (an extra $3.89 per 1,000 kwh), and for a separate charge collected for complying with VCEA’s renewable portfolio standard (an extra $3.48 per 1,000 kwh)."

Looks like there are a lot of people in politics that don't know what they are doing (and don't care about anything but their own wealth). We need more energy, we need more electricity especially in a state like Virginia that produces less than half the electricity the state consumes. Yet, our political leadership insists on producing electricity in the most expensive ways - windmills and solar panels. Our governor wanted to go with nuclear but that didn't make it out of the GA. We could also dam up a couple of rivers to make hydropower. But no, we are going to make our energy in the most expensive way because one unwritten rule of government is to take as much money as possible from the tax payers to help keep them under control.

CARbs & Coffee Winterpock August 11 - See all the photos at Album - opens to a new window

Barn Find Hunter Tom Cotter to Speak at The Richmond Triumph Register’s Annual Holiday Party

Tickets Now Available Online – Buy Your Tickets Today!
4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, December 7th
Keystone Truck and Tractor Museum in Colonial Heights
All Classic Car Enthusiasts and Clubs Are Invited

The Richmond Triumph Register (RTR) is excited that Tom Cotter, renowned Barn Find Hunter author and host of Hagerty’s Barn Find Hunter YouTube series, will be the keynote speaker at RTR’s annual holiday party, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, December 7th at the Keystone Truck and Tractor Museum in Colonial Heights. All classic car enthusiasts and clubs are invited to attend.

A well-respected author, historian, and automotive enthusiast, Tom has written numerous classic car and racing books, including ten in the bestselling Barn Find Hunter series. He has hosted more than 100 episodes of his Barn Find Hunter videos, now available on YouTube and the Hagerty website. Attendees can look forward to fascinating insights and anecdotes from Tom’s illustrious career in racing and discovering hidden classics in barns, backyards, and scrapyards. While Tom will speak about classic cars in general, his experience with British classics runs deep. He has owned, and sometimes raced, MGs, Austin Headleys, Morris Minors, among others classic marques.

In addition to a buffet barbeque dinner, drinks and Tom’s presentation, admission includes exclusive access to the Keystone Truck and Tractor Museum’s amazing collection of automobiles, trucks, tractors, and transportation memorabilia. Tickets are $40 per person and can now be purchased at the RTR website: .

richmondtriumphregister.com/holiday-party-tickets Mark your calendars! We hope you can join us on December 7th. For more information, contact RTR at richmondtriumphregister@gmail.com.

Canada Imposes A 100% Tariff On Imports Of Chinese-made Electric Vehicles, Matching The US

From AP News
Canada announced Monday it is launching a 100% tariff on imports of Chinese-made electric vehicles, matching U.S. tariffs imposed over what Western governments say are China’s subsidies that give its industry an unfair advantage.

The announcement came after encouragement by U.S. national security advisor Jake Sullivan during a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Cabinet ministers Sunday. Sullivan is making his first visit to Beijing on Tuesday.

Trudeau said Canada also will impose a 25% tariff on Chinese steel and aluminum. “Actors like China have chosen to give themselves an unfair advantage in the global marketplace,” he said.

One of the Chinese-made EVs imported into Canada is from Tesla, made at the company’s Shanghai factory, though the U.S. company could avoid the tariff by switching to supplying Canada from factories in the U.S. or Germany.

Chinese brands are not yet a player in Canada. However, Chinese EV giant BYD established a Canadian corporate entity last spring and has indicated it intends to try and enter the Canadian market as early as next year.

Chinese officials are likely to raise concerns about the American tariffs with Sullivan as Beijing continues to repair its economy after the COVID-19 pandemic. U.S. President Joe Biden in May slapped major new tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, advanced batteries, solar cells, steel, aluminum and medical equipment.

“The U.S. does believe that a united front, a coordinated approach on these issues benefits all of us,” Sullivan told reporters on Sunday.

Biden has said Chinese government subsidies for EVs and other consumer goods ensure that Chinese companies don’t have to turn a profit, giving them an unfair advantage in global trade.

Chinese firms can sell EVs for as little as $12,000. China’s solar cell plants and steel and aluminum mills have enough capacity to meet much of the world’s demand. Chinese officials argue their production keeps prices low and would aid a transition to the green economy.

“We’re doing it in alignment, in parallel, with other economies around the world that recognize that this is a challenge that we are all facing,” Trudeau said of the new tariffs. “Unless we all want to get to a race to the bottom, we have to stand up.”

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Canada also will launch a 30-day consultation about possible tariffs on Chinese batteries, battery parts, semiconductors, critical minerals, metals and solar panels.

“China has an intentional state-directed policy of overcapacity and oversupply designed to cripple our own industry,” Freeland said. “We simply will not allow that to happen to our EV sector, which has shown such promise.”

The Chinese Embassy said Ottawa disregarded Beijing’s repeated objections and said the move will damage trade and economic cooperation.

“This move is typical trade protectionism and politically-motivated decision, which violates the World Trade Organization(WTO) rules and goes against Canada’s traditional image as a global champion for free trade and climate change mitigation,” the embassy said in an emailed statement. “China will take all necessary measures to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises.”

Canada “had to go with the U.S. position, when you think about the economic integration that we have with the U.S. More than 75% of our exports go to the U.S.,” said a former Canadian ambassador to China, Guy Saint-Jacques.

Saint-Jacques said Canada can expect retaliation from China in other industries, adding that barley and pork are candidates because the Chinese can get it from other countries.

“China will want to send a message,” he said.

15th Annual McKenney Cruisers Shine 'Em and Show Em' Car Show August 17
See all the photos at Album - opens to a new window

Odd Automotive Words

Harmonic Balancer: Are we reaching for Harmony?

King Pin: Are we bowling or a Mobster?

Exhaust Donut: Can I get them at Dunkins?

Dog House: Your wife can’t put you in this one.

Escutcheon: A radio cover plate if you can say it.

Banjo Fitting: Boy you got a pretty fitting. Twang!

Propeller shaft: For when you really are flying.

Pumpkin if that is what you call your rear end.

Turn Stalk: If you are watching someone.

Dashpot: Not found on the dash.

Opera Window: Not going to sing out of that one.

Continental Kit: Even if you don’t own a Lincoln.

Wing Window: And it will not fly.

Curb Feeler: Sounds so creepy.

Zerk Fitting: Make up your own comment here.

Magneto and that is not a cool customer wheel.

Fender Skirt: where you find the Curb Feeler.

Pitman Arm: Not really an appendage.

For the Brits They have many of their own odd terms for Americans.

Choke Tube – British term for Venturi (carb barrel)

Crown Wheel: Ring Gear

Dynamo: Generator

Nave Plate: Hubcap

Boot: Trunk

Bonnet: Hood

Grudgeon Pin: Wrist Pin

As Gas Tax Revenues Slow, States Urged to Open Throttle on New Ways to Pay for Roads

From The Epoch Times
Possibilities include a road use charge, e-commerce delivery fee, and toll lanes to replace or supplant motor fuel tax levied by all 50 states.

State motor fuels tax (MFT) revenues are flat and even declining in some states because automobiles are increasingly more fuel-efficient, ensuring that the trend will continue even without electric vehicles (EV) dominating roadways, transportation funding analysts warn.

“Until we start using flying cars,” new ways to pay for roads are needed, Andrew McLean, transportation policy specialist at CDM Smith, told state lawmakers, legislative staffers, and lobbyists on Aug. 5, the first day of the three-day National Conference of State Legislators’ annual Legislative Summit at the Kentucky International Convention Center in Louisville.

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics, vehicle miles traveled increased by 2.7 percent in 2022, although gasoline usage increased by only one-tenth of 1 percent and was 4.4 percent lower than the 2019 level of gas gallons consumed.

“The biggest problem is your Toyota Camry that gets 5 more miles per gallon than a few years ago,” said Baruch Feigenbaum, senior managing director of transportation policy at the Reason Foundation.

While the average car got 15 miles a gallon in 1980, it now gets 25 miles a gallon, he said. Although Feigenbaum is “less optimistic” than he was several years ago that EVs will be a significant presence in the United States anytime soon, he said they still contribute to transportation revenue shortfalls because they don’t pay the MFT.

EV numbers “are going up,” Feigenbaum said.

“Are they going up exponentially tomorrow? No. But they are going up,” he said.

Feigenbaum provided three scenarios in which 50 percent, 30 percent, and 10 percent of vehicles are EVs by 2050.

“All [of the scenarios] show drop-offs” in revenues, he said.

Feigenbaum said that in Utah, “with an extremely quickly growing population,” MFT revenues are flat. Despite “a lot more miles driven,” gas consumption is “only inching up over the decade,” he said.

Virginia’s MFT revenue in 2023 was “not even close to what it was in 2018 and 2019,” he said, and in California, the “number of gasoline gallons sold is declining.”

Many states aren’t reacting quickly to trends, Feigenbaum said.

“That’s a problem—a big problem,” because the era when the MFT is the largest source of road funding is done, he said.

“The fuel tax is like a rock star on a farewell tour,” Feigenbaum said.

All 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the federal government levy MFTs. State MFTs generated $53 billion in 2021, according to the Tax Policy Center, which is only about $6 billion more than in 2014, despite significantly more miles traveled and cars on the road in 2021. MFTs collectively constituted 38.4 percent of road funding in 2021, down nearly 3 percentage points from 2018, according to the nonpartisan think tank. California has the highest state gas tax in the country at 69.8 cents per gallon (cpg) followed by Illinois at 67.1 cpg, Indiana at 56.1 cpg, and Pennsylvania at 62.2 cpg. Alaska’s 9 cpg is the nation’s lowest MFT, with Missouri’s 17.5 cpg and Mississippi’s 18.4 cpg the next-lowest. The federal government’s 18.4 cpg hasn’t been raised in 31 years.

Most MFTs are structured as a fixed cent-per-gallon rate. But 24 states and the District of Columbia impose a variable-rate gas tax that adjusts or “indexes” for inflation.

‘Cafeteria Plan Solutions’
Numerous proposals are being implemented or pondered in state capitals. Panel moderator Kansas state Rep. Shannon Francis, a Republican, said there “may not be one solution,” with lawmakers looking at “cafeteria plan solutions.” On the menu are a road usage charge (RUC), retail delivery fees (RDF), managed toll lane programs, and kilowatt charging fees and high registration fees imposed on EVs.

An RUC program is based on miles driven rather than gallons consumed. Drivers would pay with the transponders or electronic passes now used to pay for the use of toll roads; these would track mileage but not location, and wouldn’t use odometer readings for mileage calculation.

Four states have enacted voluntary pilot RUC programs for EVs, and several states, including California, Washington state, and Michigan, are studying the system for all vehicles.

Oregon, which adopted the world’s first gas tax in 1919, implemented the nation’s inaugural RUC program in 2015. Utah’s program was established in 2020 but didn’t begin until January 2023, and Virginia enacted its program in July 2022.

Hawaii’s RUC program begins in July 2025 and will be mandatory for EVs in 2028.

McLean, a former Maine legislator, said RUC programs will require higher administrative costs than the MFT, “one of the most efficiently collected taxes in the country,” and have fostered privacy concerns because they require data collection from private vehicles.

‘Doorstep Tax’ And ‘Lexus Lanes’
Many states are studying RDF programs—which impose a “Doorstep Tax” assessed on packages delivered by Amazon, UPS, FedEx, and other commercial shippers and e-commerce retailers—with Colorado and Minnesota enacting them and Washington state considering doing so, McLean said. Colorado charges 28 cents on every delivery, regardless of value. Adopted in 2022, the fee generated $75.9 million in its first year, he said. Businesses with $500,000 or less in sales are exempt, McLean said.

Minnesota lawmakers enacted an RDF in 2023, and it went into effect this July. Levying 50 cents on deliveries of $100 or more, it is projected to generate $59 million. Businesses with $1 million or less in annual sales are exempt.

In January 2023, the Washington State Transportation Commission projected a $600 million MFT decline by 2050. A 30-cent RDF could generate from $45 million to $112 million in 2026, and as much as $160 million by 2030.

The prospective RDF is opposed by the National Federation of Independent Business, Association of Washington Business, Washington Retail Association, Washington Hospitality Association, and Washington Trucking Associations, among others.

McLean, who led the RDF study for CDM Smith that Washington lawmakers are reviewing, said that as with RUCs and other revenue generators, no one program will replace the MFT.

“It’s one leg of a multi-legged stool,” he said.

Deloitte Consulting Managing Director Chris Tomlinson, citing the consultancy’s Transportation Trends report, offered managed toll lanes as another option to prop up transportation funding.

Fifteen states have adopted pilot programs testing managed toll lanes as a way to relieve congestion and avoid building toll roads, he said.

“A funny thing happened on the way to the toll road,” Tomlinson said, noting that 70 managed toll lanes—including 14 in California and 11 in Florida—collectively generated $4.2 billion in revenues in 2022.

The managed lanes are new, not redesigned “general purpose” lanes.

“You are not reducing existing choices but adding more,” he said.

Critics call managed toll lanes “Lexus Lanes,” but Tomlinson said they’re more like “Honda Lanes” because studies show that middle- and low-income drivers use the lanes most frequently because time is money.

Paying a toll to avoid being stuck in traffic could mean “not paying $1 a minute” if late picking up children from child care, for example, he said.

Some managed toll programs have static pricing, while in others, the “price goes up during rush hour,” Tomlinson said, noting that it’s cheaper to build toll lanes than toll roads.

It’s part of a matrix of possible revenue generators, he said, agreeing with fellow summit panelists that states “cannot solve urban congestion with any one thing.”

Feigenbaum said that one thing is sure: The federal 18.4 cpg hasn’t increased since 1993, and “there is no hope” that Congress will raise it anytime in the foreseeable future.

Jewels Found On Ebay

Here are a couple of hot finds from Ebay Motors.

eBay item number: 395577282434
$4,700
eBay description: 1966 Porsche 911 “Horrible 1966 912. Needs a complete restoration or Christian Burial”
1966 Porsche 912 coupe, Mustard yellow/Black,
Clear PA Title with Mileage marked "exempt".
No Engine, No Trans, No Interior seats or trim, Missing Gauges.
This is a rolling shell. 15" Fuchs alloy wheels.
You need a good imagination and a Visa card.

This just may be one of the worse vehicles I've seen on eBay. You've got to love "Needs a complete restoration or Christian Burial"

Next up is another "project".

eBay item number: 355941203684
$1,500 starting bid
eBay description: 1967 Cadillac el dorado, don’t have a tittle but can give bill of sale. I bought it with no tittle just haven’t gotten around to bond it. Low miles, all parts intact.

No title - all you need to know to avoid this vehicle. Love "all parts intact" - whatever that means. The hood doesn't exactly look intact, looks like it needs to be replaced. The front end is on jack stands and the rear tires are on wheel rollers and I'm not sure why.

eBay item number: 226293690593
$2,690 or offer
eBay description: 1968 Chevrolet Camaro
250, 6 Cyl., 3 Speed on The Floor
Just Recently Rescued From the Forrest!
No VIN # or Title - Bill of Sale Only - Cowl Tag Intact
71,9040 Miles
Local Pickup Only

No VIN number? No title? More rust than metal? Just Recently Rescued From the Forrest? Someone should have left it there to become one with the earth.

7th Annual Raise the Hood 4 Women Car Show August 24 - See all the photos at Album - opens to a new window.

Ford Patent Application Seeks to Give Its Cars Surveillance Capability

From Hagerty
The story arguably broke on Newsweek.com last week with this provocative statement: “Ford, one of the world’s largest U.S.-based automakers, is trying to patent an invention that could allow cars to monitor the speed of other vehicles and share traffic violation reports with and between police cars—a technology that could revolutionize speed surveillance on the road.”

That’s right: Ford’s “Systems and Methods for Detecting Speeding Violations” patent request could lead to drivers of its products tattling on each other for exceeding the speed limit. In it, Ford explores the option to use the tech in its cars to monitor other driver’s speeds. If the speeding vehicle is close enough, the car could use onboard cameras to photograph it, including photos of the driver, the license plate, and other identifying characteristics. Those photos, plus details on the speeding violation, could then be forwarded to a nearby police car or a roadside data terminal.

Ford has responded to inquiries by saying that only professional law enforcement vehicles would get the equipment, but the possibility exists that if granted, it could make its way to consumer and fleet vehicles.

To wit, while the patent application says it certainly prefers that it is used by law enforcement officers, “In other scenarios, the [radar-equipped] vehicle can be driven by various other types of individuals, such as, for example, an emergency services responder or a private security officer.”

And, while speeding is the violation that has grabbed headlines, evidently Ford’s tech is capable of identifying quite a bit more: “It must be further understood that the description herein refers to detecting speeding violations, which is merely one example of a traffic violation,” the application says. “Accordingly, the systems and methods described herein are equally applicable to any of various other types of traffic violations including for example, improper lane changes, rash driving, driving with an expired license, driving with no registration, driving under the influence, etc.

“Thus, in an example scenario, a speeding violation responder system may capture an image in accordance with the disclosure upon detecting a vehicle that is weaving haphazardly (even if traveling below a speed limit). The motion of the vehicle may be indicative of the vehicle being driven by a driver who is under the influence of alcohol.”

There’s also this: “In another example scenario, the [surveillance-equipped] vehicle is an autonomous vehicle, and the vehicle controller performs some or all of various operations that may replicate those performed by the law-enforcement officer.” In other words, this technology may be employed on autonomous vehicles to report a violation to law enforcement.

The website Therecord.media requested a statement from Ford, and received this response via email: “The patent explicitly states this idea for a system is specific for application in law enforcement vehicles, such as the Ford Police Interceptor, as it would automate a capability that law enforcement already have in use today, except this could utilize the built-in systems and sensors in law enforcement vehicles in the future,” a Ford spokesperson said.

There’s no argument that having Big Brother look over our shoulders constantly could reduce speeding, and taking that at face value, maybe it’s a good idea. But there’s still something profoundly creepy about it.

It remains to be seen if Ford’s patent will be granted. Similar tech has been sought before, although in an era when the tech was profoundly less capable. With language that is very similar to that used in Ford’s “Systems and Methods for Detecting Speeding Violations” patent request, this patent application, “System and Method for Detecting and Identifying Traffic Law Violators and Issuing Citations,” was applied for in 2001 and granted in 2004.

Inventor William E. Zierden came right out and said that a civilian automobile could be fitted with his device, the SPDcam: “In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the SPDCam device is mounted to a source vehicle, normally a motor vehicle, such as a police car or private automobile, which can be either mobile or stationary.” Zierden let his patent expire in 2021.

VP Hopeful Tim Walz - Car Guy

From Motor 1
Minnesota governor and Kamala Harris' running mate for her presidential bid Tim Walz is something of a car enthusiast. After Walz was announced as the pick for VP, fans of Walz posted videos on social media of the governor, including an older get-out-the-vote video where he ribs Ford for using low-quality parts on the 2014 Edge, and offers a low-cost solution.

"This right here is the headlight harness on a 2014 Ford Edge," he says to a handheld camera. "Ford, this is unacceptable. It burned out hot on the connector."

Rather than replacing the entire headlight, however, Walz suggests Ford Edge owners buy a new connector at an auto-parts store and splice that with the headlight using a bit of shrink wrapping. "It's about a five-minute fix, and you're back on the road safe and sound."

Walz owns a 1979 International Scout, and has a dog named Scout as well. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that Governor Walz "tinkers" with the Scout and that its license plate, ONE MN, is a reference to a campaign slogan.

Walz wouldn't be the first American Vice President who's a car enthusiast if the Harris campaign is successful. President Biden, who obviously served as Barack Obama's VP, is well-known for his love of cars. He still owns a 1967 Chevrolet Corvette convertible that was given to him as a wedding gift.

His Scout wouldn't even be the only oddball 4x4 owned by an American politician. Ronald Reagan kept a Subaru BRAT on his California ranch. Proof that car enthusiasm is bipartisan.

The Briefs

Wienermobile Down!
a terrible turn of events befell one of Oscar Mayer’s mobile tubesteaks. In the late morning of July 22, a cocktail-sized Wienermobile (relative to usual promotional size) crashed into a Hyundai sedan on a Chicago-area highway, the Illinois State Police told NBC Chicago. It was subsequently towed away on a semi-truck flatbed. Based on available images, this model appears to be based on an early-BMW-era Mini Cooper. Reports indicate that the professional sausage pilot, after impact, overcorrected in an attempt to regain control. “That center of meat is way high up, which makes it hard to handle,” says Hagerty Chassis and Natural Casing Engineer Frank Furter. “At that speed, we can only assume nitrates were involved.”

Tesla is recalling more than 1.8 million vehicles because of a hood issue that could increase the risk of a crash. Billionaire Elon Musk’s Tesla is recalling some 2021-2024 Model 3, Model S, Model X, and 2020-2024 Model Y vehicles because the hood latch assembly may fail to detect an unlatched hood after it has been opened. The unlatched hood can fully open when the vehicle is in motion, potentially obstructing the driver’s view and increasing the likelihood of a crash. The company is unaware of any crashes, injuries or deaths related to the issue.

A hit-and-run incident turned into a deadly confrontation that ended the lives of both Johnathan McConnell, 38, from Corona, and Aaron Harris, 37, from Highland, in a bar parking lot. McConnell was swerving through traffic on a motorcycle when he collided with Harris’ car on Saturday night. Instead of stopping, McConnell continued driving, prompting Harris to follow him into the parking lot of Joy’s Bar and Lounge. Harris’ two children, aged two and five, were in the backseat during the car chase. Harris then entered the lot and began yelling at McConnell, escalating into a confrontational exchange. Both men were armed, and the altercation resulted in their deaths. Officers arriving at the scene attempted to save them, but both were later pronounced dead at the hospital. “It could have been so simple. Unfortunately, two lives were lost,” San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department spokesperson Mara Rodriguez acknowledged to ABC7. Harris’ children were unharmed, but another man at the scene sustained a hand injury from the shooting.

A New York City police officer, Hieu Tran, 27, faces attempted murder charges after allegedly shooting a man in a suspected road rage incident in New Jersey. Tran has been charged with first-degree attempted murder, second-degree aggravated assault, and second-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose. Police responded to a multi-car crash on the night of May 17, and discovered one of the drivers, a 30-year-old man, with a gunshot wound. Investigators used surveillance footage, cellphone records, and ballistics evidence that linked to his NYPD-issued firearm to identify Tran as the shooter. Tran is being held in New York pending extradition to New Jersey, and has been suspended from his job.

On July 16, Talanye Carter, 41, returned to a St. Louis Jack in the Box restaurant she had visited three days earlier to complain that she'd been shorted one chicken strip, Yahoo! News reported. The store manager replaced the chicken strip, but that didn't satisfy Carter; she spit in the manager's face over the lack of adequate ranch dressing. When Carter went to her vehicle, the manager took photos of her license plate, and Carter noticed. She put the car in reverse and ran into the woman, knocking her to the ground and injuring her foot and ankle, then left the scene. She was charged the next day with second-degree and fourth-degree assault.

When Alicia Mastroianni left for work in Brighton, Massachusetts, on July 15, she found her car covered in scratches and a note, she told WBZ-TV. The note was from a neighbor, who wrote, "I just watched and recorded a massive turkey attack your car for over 15 minutes. Sorry you were the target of this turkey rage." "All sides of my car were messed up," Mastroianni said. The Massachusetts Environmental Police said turkey attacks aren't rare anymore in the area. One reason for the assaults is that the birds see their own reflection in the car's surface and attack. They recommend covering your car or yelling to scare turkeys away.

On July 22, when officers noticed a white van on the I-5 near Weed, California, that kept swerving out of its lane, they engaged their lights and sirens -- and it still took almost 3 miles for the van to pull over, KOBI-TV reported. Inside the van, they found 1,021 rooted marijuana plants, which, according to driver Yung Fai Sze, 53, were on their way to Oregon. However, Sze did not have the proper documentation from the California Department of Cannabis Control, so he was arrested and charged with illegal transportation and possession of marijuana.

Jason Arsenault, 41, pleaded guilty in Portland, Maine, on July 29 to an unconventional bank robbery attempt, HNGN reported. Back in January, Arsenault, wearing a black hat, a mask and sunglasses on his face, pulled into the drive-thru lane of a Key Bank location and sent a note to the teller through the pneumatic tube: "CAR BOMB No Cops Alarms or WE ALL DIE $50,000 in 20s." The teller sent the money back through the tube, and Arsenault drove away. Surveillance video allowed law enforcement to track Arsenault's movements until they could spot him without his disguise; six days later, he was arrested. He directed police to a backpack with the money, hidden in the woods. He faces up to 20 years in prison.

A man drove three hours from Atlanta, Georgia to South Carolina, where he allegedly tried to remove a gigantic Confederate flag that flies on a property adjacent to Interstate 85, police charge. Cops responded Saturday night to a 911 call about a trespasser climbing a fence near the towering Spartanburg County flagpole, which looms over the busy nearby roadway and was erected by a local chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Police say they encountered James Daniel Blitch, 23, who was found carrying a Dremel and tool bits when he was arrested. Blitch reportedly told cops that he “did not agree with the confederate flag and wanted to lower it.” Asked about a reported vandalism the prior night near the flagpole, Blitch, who was described as "upfront and cooperative," denied involvement. Charged with two trespassing counts, Blitch spent a night in jail before being released from custody Sunday afternoon after posting $465 cash bond.

Tesla burns after driver in Mexico plugs it directly into a power line. A driver in the Mexican border city of Tijuana apparently had the bright idea of connecting his Tesla to an illegal electricity hookup connected directly to a powerline. Not only did the Tesla eventually burst into flames, the blaze was so hot it set a neighboring house on fire. Rafael Carrillo, Tijuana's fire chief, said Tuesday that electric car fires are a problem for the city's firefighters. He said the partially charred hulk of the Tesla might take a couple of days to burn out completely and probably couldn't be moved until then. He said firefighters built dirt berms around the car to keep it covered in water.

A colorful parade of 100 amphibious cars glided through Amsterdam's canals on Thursday, but it was the last time the event will be held in the city, at least until EV batteries become lighter. Starting in 2025, access to the city's waterways will be restricted to emission-free vessels and vehicles, a standard too high for amphibious cars due to the weight of electric batteries. "This year is the last time because Amsterdam will (introduce) some new rules," said Dutchman Roy Bolks, organizer of the annual amphibious cars parade that moves countries every year. The multi-day event started on Monday in Amsterdam and took the amphibious cars to the cities of Monnickendam and Utrecht before finishing in Amsterdam on Thursday.

Tesla car culture is full of hacks and shortcuts, some more effective than others. One, known as the “wet towel” trick, required the Tesla Charging department — or whatever remains of it — to publicly tell customers to knock it off. The “wet towel” trick involves wrapping a damp, cool cloth around a Supercharger cable handle as a way to presumably speed up the charging time. The Supercharger has temperature monitors that keep it from overheating as it charges Tesla vehicles. Some Tesla owners believe that cooling down the charging handle will trick the temperature monitor into topping off their vehicles faster. Here's the problem, at least in Tesla's telling: If the sensor in the charging handle believes that the temperature is lower than it actually is while it’s charging, the towel-wrapped charger can create a "risk of overheating or damage" according to the company. This may sound like the biggest “duh” statement in tech news history, but it’s taken more than two months for Tesla to warn its customers not to do the “wet towel” trick on their cars, even after it became a well known “hack” on other auto news websites and Reddit forums.

A Texas man is facing charges for allegedly placing explosives under toilet seats at two car washes and injuring unsuspecting victims. Paul Moses Alden, 46, is accused of setting off small commercial fireworks designed to explode under pressure in three different bathrooms in the San Antonio area. He then allegedly waited nearby to witness the explosions before fleeing the scene. The first incident occurred on July 20 at a Wash Tub car wash in the next town over from San Antonio. Surveillance footage reportedly captured Alden entering and exiting a unisex bathroom. Soon after, a woman using the restroom was blasted by a small explosion. The woman sustained minor injuries but left the scene before police could take her statement.“The female customer was reportedly very upset and left the location before a report was made,” according to the affidavit. “The Helotes Police Department responded to the location to take the report and document the scene.” Investigators found “small, readily available commercial fireworks that are designed to explode when pressure is applied,” as KENS 5 reported. Texas man blows up bathroom again Two more victims were injured at another Wash Tub location in San Antonio six days after the first blast. A female employee was injured by an explosion as she used the toilet, and a young girl suffered a similar fate in a separate bathroom minutes apart. Investigators found remnants of the small fireworks in both bathrooms when they canvassed the scene. In both incidents, security cameras captured Alden going into and exiting the bathrooms before sitting in the lobby and watching for his victims to use the rigged restrooms. After the explosions, he hastily fled the scene. Employees at the car wash were able to identify Alden as a regular customer with a membership card. They also provided video footage of his car and license plate. “We are very pleased with the quick action of SAPD and the Arson investigator working this case,” a Wash Tub spokesperson commented. “We will continue to fully cooperate with SAPD and the District Attorney’s office.” Alden faces charges of arson causing reckless damage or bodily injury. His bond was set at $50,000, and he was released on the same day of his arrest.

A viral video showed a naked man running through Des Moines, Iowa, stealing a car, and then running over the vehicle’s owner. The naked man was witnessed running around downtown Des Moines in the middle of the night Tuesday. In the video, he runs down the sidewalk past some parked cars, then approaches a black car that had the driver’s side door open while the owner was inside of the vehicle. The nude man jumps into the car and climbs over the owner and into the passenger seat. The owner exits and the naked man hops into the driver’s seat. The nudist tries to close the door and the owner seems to land a punch on him, before the naked lunatic-turned-carjacker slams the car into the reverse and runs the owner over. The victim’s unwittingly becomes near naked himself, as he is towed by the vehicle and his pants are yanked down. That’s when naked man speeds off with in the car. The carjacking victim suffered minor injuries, according to police spokesperson Sgt. Paul Parizek. Cops eventually found the naked carjacker after he crashed the stolen vehicle into a tree. He was charged with driving with a suspended license and second-degree theft.

Repair Mistakes & Blunders

From Rock Auto
My 2014 F150 started leaking coolant and I determined it was the water pump. This being my first time to swap out a water pump, I watched YouTube videos, reviewed the Haynes manual, and read online forums.

When the parts arrived from RockAuto, I got to work gaining access to the water pump and proceeded to remove the 4 mounting bolts. Next, I grabbed the pump and tried to pull it out. It barely budged, so I sprayed penetrating oil on the seal thinking that was causing it to stick and it finally started to come out at the top end. The bottom end remained stuck, which was very frustrating. So I grabbed a hammer and proceeded to beat the neck of the pump but it still wouldn’t come out.

At one point, my wife asked if I removed all the bolts. I hastily pointed out that all four bolts had been removed and went back to swinging the hammer.

After taking a much needed break, I came back to the truck and happened to look again at the bottom right side of the pump from a slightly different angle. I could see the head of a bolt! I removed that bolt and the pump came out easily. I soon realized there are two identical looking bolts located side by side. I had mistakenly removed the wrong bolt in the beginning.

Lesson learned is to verify all mounting bolts are truly removed before hitting anything with a hammer. More importantly, it’s okay for your significant other to ask questions. It can save you hours of stress and frustration.

Adam in Texas

California's DMV Is Using The Blockchain To Prevent Fraud

From Quartz
Residents will soon be able to access their vehicle titles through an app, according to the department

California’s Department of Motor Vehicles is taking a new step to prevent fraud — simply uploading 42 million car titles to the blockchain.

The DMV partnered with tech company Oxhead Alpha to put the titles on Ava Labs’s Avalanche blockchain, which the collaborators say will allow more than 39 million Californians to claim and access their vehicle titles through a mobile app, a first in the U.S. It’s expected to be available in early 2025.

They say that Avalanche’s “smart contracts” will allow consumers to track and manage their titles digitally, cutting down on traffic to the DMV and the post office. It may also provide an early-warning system for fraud, according to the DMV and its tech partners.

“As consumers continue to demand more automation and expect the ability to transact life online, widespread adoption of secure systems is possible with blockchain infrastructure,” Oxhead Alpha president Andrew Smith said in a statement. “These systems have historically been accessible by large financial institutions but have done little for regular citizens.”

The move comes as part of California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plans to capitalize on and encourage the development of cryptocurrency and web3 companies, while creating a layout for regulatory and consumer protections. Newsom in May 2022 issued an executive order directing his agencies to explore ways to use blockchain technology to improve public services and address gaps in programs.

Dee Dee Myers, senior advisor to Newsom and director of the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development, told CNBC in 2022 that the “opportunities are almost endless.” Myers explained that California could use the technology to remove middlemen from real estate deals or car sales, protect peoples’ identities, and provide benefits through government services.

Deloitte, one of the big four accounting firms, in 2021 teamed up with Ava Labs to create a new disaster recovery platform based on the Avalanche blockchain. Its purpose was to help state and local governments simplify and streamline their disaster reimbursement applications to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Both J.P. Morgan and Citibank have also explored using the Avalanche network.

What is a blockchain? A blockchain is a distributed ledger with growing lists of records that are securely linked together via cryptographic hashes. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a timestamp, and transaction data. Since each block contains information about the previous block, they effectively form a chain, with each additional block linking to the ones before it.

The Media is Lying to You About Electric Cars, Here’s the Truth

Shocking New Details on Electric Cars (The Media is Lying to You) by DIY and car reviewer Scotty Kilmer: Buying a new electric car, Buying a used electric car, Should I buy an electric car, Why electric cars are hard to work on, Why not to buy a electric car, The truth about owning an electric car, Car advice. Video by Scotty Kilmer, an auto mechanic for the last 56 years.

Conrad Black: Coercing Customers to Buy EVs Goes Against the Realities of the Market

From The Epoch Times
As the colossal fear-mongering operation that has accompanied the obsessive pre-occupation with climate change is abandoned by former adherents—an operation that strains credulity with the uneventful passage of time—Canada’s commitment to electric vehicles appears more and more absurd. But we seem at least to have spared ourselves the billions committed in the United States to set up new charging stations for road vehicles, which has so far resulted in only a handful being opened.

Meanwhile, many automakers are scaling back their electric vehicle manufacturing plans.

Canada’s initial plan was to force and incentivize the entire country into electrically fuelled vehicles with inadequate thought to who would provide the nickel for the batteries, how the batteries would be rendered safe in the event of fires or flooding, how the entire country would be adequately served by the huge numbers of charging stations that would be required, who would be manufacturing these vehicles, and what would happen to the many thousands of auto workers whom it was proposed simply to disemploy as a result of this headlong lunge into a substantially untested form of mass transport.

There is no doubt that electric cars have their allure. Their silence, and the absence of gasoline generally—a messy and extremely flammable liquid—are assets, and the progress of these vehicles, from being highly experimental and of indifferent performance, to their present standards of reliability has been remarkable. Former Canadian Elon Musk deserves great credit and the immense wealth he has accumulated because of his pioneering and championship of this new method of transport. He has rightly seen it as a step towards unmanned taxis and other revolutionary developments in how people will get around, and how goods of all kinds will be transported.

But the fact remains that the coordination between the scientific empirical analysis of safety and supply complexity as generated by a swift and physically coercive move into electric vehicles, and the source of supply for such vehicles and of its chief components, has not been completed. Our government, like those of a number of European countries and the United States, have prematurely plunged into this field, claiming the force majeure of “existential” necessity is because of the imminent threat of radical climate change that will require a draconian reduction in carbon emissions to prevent unassimilable dehumanization of much of the world.

Nor have remotely adequate steps been taken to ensure that these vehicles can be produced in sufficient numbers, in a way that responds to popular taste, which clings to a love of the internal combustion engine. Our automobile industry is shrinking radically, and many thousands of skilled auto workers are losing their jobs as a result, and the once mighty workers of Bob White’s Canadian Auto Workers union are now clinging desperately to the forestry workers in a polyglot union that speaks in a variety of commercial tongues.

Of course, the long-standing consensus that was assembled in favour of the Climate Fear Project is disintegrating, as the countless predictions of imminent disaster have steadily failed to occur. It has been decades since some leaders told us we had 10 years to avoid calamity, and that by now the glaciers would long have melted, the country of Tuvalu would be under water entirely, the polar bear would be extinct, and every river in the world from the Yangtze to the Zambezi to the Nile and the Seine, the Thames and the Tiber, the St. Lawrence, Hudson, and the Mississippi, would be overflowing their banks by 20 feet (6 metres) or more.

Of course, the non-sensical failure of these dire predictions to come true does not permit us for an instant to be complacent about the changes that are occurring to the climate, and above we must continue to try to reduce pollution of the world’s air and water as much as we practically can without inflicting unjustifiable economic hardship for the population of the world. The climate has evolved but is well within established cycles as they have been measured over the last more than 500 years. It has never been clear from the vast amount of evidence that has been assembled what, if at all, is the anthropogenic or man-made element of these changes. There was no discernible effect on the climate or the world’s temperature despite the horrible assault upon the environment every day for six years caused by World War II, concluding with the only two military detonations of atomic bombs in history.

No sane person urges that we do anything other than act with caution and intensify research until there is a genuine consensus—not a fabricated and false one—about what should be done. Fortunately, the tedious refrain that 98 percent of scientists are united behind the pursuit of a goal of zero carbon emissions has been exposed as a complete fraud. There is no such consensus on any aspect of this subject other than vigilance and the desirability of as little pollution as is practically possible.

This entire subject is gradually returning to the political framework in which it was founded. As I have had occasion to mention here and elsewhere many times before, the climate change fear suddenly emerged after the decisive defeat of the international left in the Cold War in the early 1990s. With astonishing agility and an unsuspected talent for improvisation, the international left crowded aboard the environmentalist bandwagon, which had heretofore been occupied by authentic conservationists and enthusiastic naturalists. They seized control of the movement and transformed it into a battering ram from which to attack capitalism from a new perspective, while claiming to be defending life itself and the security and future of the planet.

As long as this claptrap could be represented as the informed collective opinion of the scientific community, and as long as they weren’t especially costly, it was relatively easy to maintain a consensus for these goals. Now that the voting populations of the West—the only part of the world that embraced this theory—are face-to-face with insufferable gasoline and home fuel costs, the fashionable nature of the environment has been jettisoned and the politicians who enjoy maintaining their incumbency are revisiting the issue.

There can be little doubt that the sensible thing our federal government should do, be it the current one or a future one, is to cancel what is left of the compulsory transition to electric vehicles. History will view this era as resembling the tulip madness of the 17th century, or the South Sea Bubble of the 18th century. At least here, it has been championed by a formidable political movement, which demonstrated a remarkable capacity for self-reinvention, even if it had no just claim on the imperatives of science.

Electric car sales will continue to flag, and the Chinese will not be taking over our automobile market any time soon.

Conrad Black has been one of Canada’s most prominent financiers for 40 years and was one of the leading newspaper publishers in the world. He’s the author of authoritative biographies of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Richard Nixon, and, most recently, “Donald J. Trump: A President Like No Other,” which has been republished in updated form.

Danger, Will Robinson! Latest New-Car-Smell-Is-Bad Study Says It’s Worse in the Summer

From Hagerty. Save yourself, family and friends from new-car-smell - don't buy a new one
Remember when a “new car smell” was a good thing?

Yes, that’s been a while. That smell, we’ve learned, is a combination of about 50 volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from upholstery, paint, cleaning products, glue, carpet, and a bunch of other sources. In a pioneering study by the Scientific Instrument Services that was completed in 1999, we were told that, “Potential health risks exist due to the toxic nature of many of these components.”

That particular study used the “Scientific Instrument Services model TD-3 Short Path Thermal Desorption System accessory connected to the injection port of an HP 5890 Series II GC interfaced to an HP 5971 Mass Selective Detector.” After the samples were taken from a Lincoln Continental, they were “purged with helium at 50 ml/min for 8 minutes and then spiked with 100 ng of d-14 cymene internal standard by injecting 1 ul of a 100 ng/l of a d-14 cymene stock solution in methanol by syringe injection into the Tenax matrix.”

In other words, don’t try this at home.

Anyway, that study was one of the earlier ones that insisted that the new car smell was bad for us. Since then, we’ve been barraged by multiple studies on the subject, some of which have suggested that we should drive our new cars with the windows down.

And now comes a new one that says not only is the new car smell bad for you, it’s especially troublesome during the summer months, of which we are, of course, right in the middle. The study appears in the July issue of Oxford Academic’s PNAS Nexus, and says that, “Material surface temperature crucially influences the in-cabin VOC emission characteristics, rather than air temperature. This particularly affects new vehicles in summer hot days, explaining the strong new car smell.”

This study was done in China by the Beijing Institute of Technology and Peking University. A great deal of the new car smell research in the past 25 years or so comes from China. Why? Because the Chinese people hate new car smell, and have long sought to eliminate it. An article published in 2018 in the journal Quartz reported that in the U.S., “You can buy fragrances that emulate the new-car smell. In China, such an idea would seem utterly absurd because consumers loathe that lingering scent.” The story said that Ford realized the issue early on and hired people with “golden noses” in China, “whose job is to sniff car parts, sending them back when their scent is deemed offensive.”

According to a Newsweek story on this new Chinese summer-is-bad study, “These volatile chemicals include toluene, used in paints, glues and nail polish removers; styrene, used in rubber, insulation and carpet backing; and formaldehyde, which is used in carpets, leather and vehicle paint. Previous research has shown that inhaling these chemicals can cause a range of health problems, from nausea and headaches to memory loss, hormonal disruption and cancer.”

While it’s well established that certain VOC odors technically can be bad for you, these studies are typically short on hard evidence of human damage quantifiably caused by new car smell. In a 2007 study undertaken by Germany’s Technical University of Munich, toxicologists researched new car smell and, according to an account of the study published that year in Live Science, “New car smell does not appear to be toxic, the scientists found. Air from the new car did cause a slight aggravation of the immune response that could affect people with allergies.”

Bottom line: Enjoy your new car smell while you can (unless you’re Chinese). It will be long, long gone before you make the last payment.

Automakers Sold Driver Data to Third Parties Including Data Brokers, Senators Say

From The Epoch Times
Automakers are sharing “millions of Americans’ driving data” with data brokers without their consent, according to a letter sent by lawmakers to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that called for an investigation into the matter.

The July 26 letter from Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) pointed to an investigation conducted by Wyden’s office of three auto manufacturers—General Motors (GM), Honda, and Hyundai. The firms were found to have shared driver data such as acceleration and braking info to data broker Verisk Analytics, which has clients in sectors such as insurance. The company used to sell a product that rated drivers on their safe driving habits. Data were sourced from internet-connected cars, with automakers sharing the information with Verisk.

Verisk used these data to prepare driving behavior history reports that were sold to auto insurance firms. The company stopped selling the product after media outlets reported on the issue earlier this year.

“If the FTC determines that these companies violated the law, we urge you to hold the companies and their senior executives responsible,” the letter reads.

According to information GM provided to Wyden’s office, the company “failed to obtain informed consent from consumers before sharing their data, and used manipulative design techniques, known as dark patterns, to coerce consumers into enrolling in its Smart Driver program.”

The company did not disclose to customers that when they enroll in the Smart Driver program, “their driving data would be shared with data brokers and resold to insurance companies,” according to the letter.

Moreover, the car manufacturer shared the location data of all drivers who activated the internet in their vehicles, even when they had not enrolled in Smart Driver, the company told the senator’s office. This information was then distributed among other parties.

Meanwhile, Honda shared data from 97,000 cars with Verisk between 2020 and 2024. Honda was paid 26 cents per car, receiving $25,920. The company engaged in the practice “without obtaining informed consent from consumers.”

When customers signed up for Honda’s Driver Feedback program, they had to accept lengthy legal terms. While the company mentioned that the collected data would be sent to Verisk, this disclosure “did not appear on the first page“ and was ”not likely to be seen by many consumers,” the letter stated.

Hyundai sold the data from 1.7 million vehicles with Verisk between 2018 and 2024 for a total of $1.04 million.

When Hyundai customers wanted to enable internet connection in their cars, they had to click through a consent form. Like with other brands, Hyundai did not disclose that agreeing to the consent form and activating the internet would mean that their data would be shared with Verisk.

“The problematic practices we have uncovered and documented in this letter are likely just the tip of the iceberg,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter.

“Companies should not be selling Americans’ data without their consent, period. But it is particularly insulting for automakers that are selling cars for tens of thousands of dollars to then squeeze out a few additional pennies of profit with consumers’ private data.”

Company Responses
Responding to the letter, GM denied that it deceived customers into enrolling in the data-sharing program with Verisk. Data-sharing partnerships with Verisk and LexisNexis were canceled in March, and its data-sharing program called “Smart Driver” ended in June, GM stated. “Data was only shared with an insurer if a customer initiated a quote directly with their chosen carrier and provided a separate consent to that carrier,” the email reads.

The company said it does share “de-identified” data with partners to aid city infrastructure and make roads safer.

In a statement, Hyundai said the senators’ letter mischaracterizes its data policies and that it has safeguards to make sure customers agree to sharing driving information with insurers.

Customers, it said, had the option to connect driving scores to their insurers through Verisk for possible benefits such as good-driving discounts.

“It is important to note that Verisk was not authorized by Hyundai or the customer to share the Drive Score data with insurers until the customer affirmatively consented to this on an insurer’s website or app,” Hyundai said.

Honda also said that customers had to opt into the program with Verisk. Some customers with good driving scores were given the chance to agree to discount offers from insurers.

“Without that clear second opt-in by the customer, no identifiable consumer information was shared with any insurance company,” Honda said.

The Epoch Times reached out to the automakers for comment.

Data Compromise
A September 2023 report from the Mozilla Foundation also warned that several automakers collected personal data from consumers and sold or shared data with third parties. Most car owners were unaware about the amount of private data that was being collected and how it was used.

A growing number of companies are seeking to gain access to car data. Car manufacturers collect data that are used for maintenance and road assistance. Navigation and in-vehicle infotainment companies have access to data related to driving, music, and third-party applications. Telecom operators that offer connectivity solutions can collect telematics data from the vehicle.

Among the many pieces of information that are routinely left in car memory are phone books, call logs, passwords, biometrics, text messages, navigation history, home addresses, third-party apps, vehicle credentials, garage door codes, medical information, and financial details.

The Biden administration is probing concerns about data collection from vehicles made by China.

“We’re looking at a few components and some software, not the whole car, but it would be some of the key driver components of the vehicle that manage the software and manage the data around that car that would have to be made in an allied country,” Alan Estevez, undersecretary of Commerce for Industry and Security, said during a recent forum.

“A modern car has a lot of software in it. It’s taking lots of pictures. It has a drive system. It’s connected to your phone. It knows who you call. It knows where you go. It knows a lot about you.”

That's all for this month - and I wouldn't try this

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