Drivers spend hours holding the steering wheel without giving much thought to what lies behind it. Remove the trim, switches and wiring, and the basic arrangement appears simple. A shaft carries th
Look at an American car from 1971, then find the same model from 1974. The earlier car may have a slim chrome blade tucked neatly against its body. Three years later, the bumper appears to have lef
One tire wanders across the painted line and the previously quiet cabin erupts with a harsh mechanical growl. The steering wheel trembles, the seat vibrates and, for half a second, it feels as if some
Long before a crash-test dummy sat behind the wheel of a family sedan, one was strapped into an aircraft ejection seat. Its assignment involved rocket sleds, aviation helmets and the violent forc
A third brake light is remarkably easy to ignore. It sits in the rear window or above the tailgate, performs one job and receives considerably less attention than the lamps surrounding it. That ano
A car can leave a collision with a crushed bumper, broken lights and a hood folded into an expensive-looking shape, yet every airbag remains neatly hidden. From outside, that makes little sense. Th
Watch the back of two cars at the same intersection and you might notice something odd. The first car hits the brakes, then one of its red brake lights starts flashing. The second car does the
A self-driving car getting confused in a parking lot is annoying. A self-driving car getting confused near a fire truck, police cruiser, or ambulance is something else entirely. That is
Anyone who has ever hit that wall on a long drive knows the feeling. The music stops helping. Coffee stops helping. Rolling the window down stops helping. At some point, the smartest move is no
For a long time, self-driving cars felt like one of those technologies that was always five years away. There was a lot of demo footage, a lot of press releases, a lot of "the future is here"