Month: January 2023

Q: What is the enforcement protocol for aftermarket lights installed on cars and trucks? Where I live there are numerous vehicles that have swapped out stock headlights with bulbs that are blazingly blinding to oncoming traffic. In European countries, these cars would never last a day on the roads as they take vehicle safety more seriously.

A: Many of us in America have a deep-rooted urge to use our cars as a form of self-expression. I recall watching an episode of a British car enthusiast show, where the host (and this guy is car-obsessed) was genuinely confused about the American predisposition for over-the-top car modifications. I’ve been guilty of it myself. Eighteen-year-old me drove a 1963 Chevy Nova SS with a borderline ridiculous paint job and extra-wide fender flares in back to fit the beefy tires on my custom-painted Cragar five-spoke wheels. Why would you paint your Cragars? I thought it was cool, and I regret selling that car.

Continue reading “Making Headlights Too Bright”

Q: When I drive with a certain person in the passenger seat, they’re always telling me to watch out for brake lights, check my speed, back off from the car in front of me, and so on. I think I’m a good driver and they’re overreacting, but I don’t want to start a fight. How should I deal with a backseat driver (or passenger seat driver)?

A: Do you know who the worst backseat drivers are? Fifteen-year-olds. They’re at the age where they think they might be smart enough to challenge a grown-up, and their driver’s ed classes are fresh in their minds. What makes them the worst isn’t how they correct you, or that you’re used to being the one in charge. It’s that they’re right.

Continue reading “What to do About Backseat Drivers”

Q: Here’s the situation: I’m parallel parking on a two-lane road with a double centerline, so no passing, right? Is it legal for a car to pass me as I’m parallel parking, or do they have to wait until I’m out of the lane?

A: Let’s start with what we know. Two yellow lines down the center of the roadway are, in the words of the law “appropriate signs or markings” letting us know we’re in a no-passing zone. Even though we call it a no-passing zone, a more accurate term would be, “no driving on the left side of the pavement stripe zone.” That’s because violating the law doesn’t require you to actually pass another vehicle. If you cross over to the left side of the stripe, you broke the law.

Continue reading “Passing Parking Cars”

Q: Wasn’t it like ten years ago that Elon Musk promised we’d have fully autonomous cars in five years? When am I going to get a car that can drive me around?

A: It’s easy to poke fun at Elon Musk, since he’s the loudest person to be wrong about autonomous cars, but he’s not alone. Along with Tesla, carmakers including Mercedes, Volvo, Nissan, Toyota, GM, Honda, Hyundai, and Google all predicted that we’d have full self-driving cars by 2020. In 2016 Anthony Foxx, US Transportation Secretary at the time, predicted that by 2021 we’d no longer need a driver license because we’d just summon an automated car service. Musk went bigger (of course), saying in 2019 that “It’s financially insane to buy anything other than a Tesla,” and following up by saying that “next year for sure” there would be over a million fully self-driving Teslas on the road.

Continue reading “Where’s My Robot Car?”