Bonus points if you parked that damn car up a hill, pointed downhill, to let gravity do the work until you could afford a new alternator, or new battery
Thursday, May 14, 2026
What happens when an autonomous truck breaks down on the highway at 2 AM, or when cross winds blow hard enough to push over semi trailers, or a tornado kicks up and heads toward the interstate, or there is black ice on the road?
Aurora Innovation is running driverless Class 8 trucks commercially between Dallas and Houston. Kodiak Robotics is operating driverless trucks in the Permian Basin. Both companies have logged real commercial miles, reported real safety data, and announced scaling plans that extend to hundreds of trucks by the end of 2026 and thousands beyond that.
An experienced driver hears the tire that is losing pressure before the monitoring system registers it. They feel the brake pulling to one side before the alignment is measurably off on any sensor. They smell an electrical component beginning to fail before it generates a fault code. They notice the shimmy at 65 miles per hour that the ECM has not translated into a diagnostic event. They see the passenger car drifting in the next lane and recognize — before any algorithm has processed the trajectory — that the driver is asleep.
Who places the reflective triangles 100 feet, 200 feet, and 300 feet behind the disabled vehicle as FMCSA regulations require?
the long-haul segment of trucking has a problem, and it's not a driver shortage that has been publicized by the people that want to change the laws and let 18 yr olds and people from other countries be truckers in the USA, it's a persistent, chronic turnover problem.
The average annualized turnover rate from Q3 1996 through Q1 2023 was 92.7% for large truckload carriers earning $30 million or more a year. Smaller fleets under $30 million reported a 77.6% turnover rate.
Carriers report having to reject 90% of applicants out of hand, because the applicants fail to meet at least one of the prerequisites to drive in interstate commerce.
A father and son in 1970 drove an Autobianchi A 111 a full 7,000 kilometers on African roads, along paths among dangerous animals to take photographs, the Autobianchi's quality was demonstrated by the fact that of those 7,000 kilometers, they covered more than half on unpaved roads and about 10% off-road.
The bodywork was dressed up with adhesive zebra stripes copied from an enlarged image of a zebra, a solution that allowed them to get about ten meters closer to African fauna than any other design or color.
They Nairobi in that Autobianchi A 111 on a photographic safari, and traveled a full seven thousand kilometres in forty- three days, and only had one mechanical problem, a broken shock absorber and some very poor quality petrol related problems
this is likely to raise your blood pressure. Ok, you've been warned. A committee (the Medical Review Committee) of medical professionals, city representatives, and community members decided that helicopter landings at a children's hospital had to have EACH landing (only 3 a week on average) reviewed for NECESSITY
flight crews sometimes had to decide whether to land directly at the hospital or about a mile away at the University of Washington and transfer patients by ambulance due to neighborhood noise concerns.
Whoa! LuckyPunchy brought up an IMPORTANT question... what will the car be in the Rockford File reboot?
lukypunchy wrote:
So, what will the new Jim Rockford be driving? Please let it be some car that is almost cool but just barely misses the mark and has to be a able to do the famous "Rockford Turn". I can't think of any current vehicle that checks those boxes and would fit a struggling ex-con private investigator. This started off as a rhetorical question but now I'm actually curious.
My response
I want you to know, you just made me stand and start applauding! No one else online that's reported on the reboot, has brought up that KEY FACTOR! What's he going to drive?!?! Will he do the Rockford Turn?
No way that character can afford a new Navigator, Cadillac, Corvette, Mustang etc... so, it's got to be a used car, and not the flash kind!
Dang it, now I'm all in on wanting to know what the hell the car will be!
Wednesday, May 13, 2026
a $50 ticket from a New York traffic camera came to the Volo Museum in Illinois, accusing the museum's KITT of speeding in a school zone in New York City
The only problem is, the real 1982 Firebird Trans Am has been on display at the Illinois museum for years.
in 2004 analysts at the Oklahoma FBI branch noticed a pattern of murdered women’s bodies being dumped along Interstate 40, and compiled a roster of more than 850 murders believed to be connected to long-haul truck drivers.
Approximately 450 potential suspects have been identified, in the FBI’s Highway Serial Killings Initiative, many of them active or former commercial drivers.
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/cvsa-roadcheck-and-enforcement-is-crucial-to-national-security
The Lockheed 749 Constellation in the Science and Innovation Museum at Wroughton (UK) flew for KLM after 1947, but after it was converted for cargo and livestock transport, it was used to haul the 1973 Rolling Stones Far East Tour sound and lighting equipment across Australia and New Zealand,
that was the last time a Constellation flew in the skies of Australia and New Zealand.
Thousands of Waymo's have been recalled... after a flood on Apr 20th, an empty Waymo vehicle entered a flooded road in San Antonio and was swept into a creek
Waymo is recalling thousands of its self-driving cars in the US over a software issue that could allow vehicles to drive into flooded roads.
the voluntary recall affects nearly 3,800 robotaxis that use the company's fifth and sixth-generation automated driving systems.
the voluntary recall affects nearly 3,800 robotaxis that use the company's fifth and sixth-generation automated driving systems.
Waymo is owned by Google's parent company Alphabet
Waymo says it now provides more than 500,000 trips per week across multiple US cities including San Francisco, Austin and Miami.
in April, a mass Apollo Go robotaxi outage in the Chinese city of Wuhan caused at least a hundred self-driving cars to stop mid-traffic.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy2011dl4xo
I haven't heard if they have yet made a software patch to keep the cars from driving past a stopped school bus with the wig wags going https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2025/12/waymo-announced-voluntary-recall-after.html
not so long ago, we walked the earth with legends, left to right are Eldon Titus, Joe Bailon, Bill Hines, Dave Shuten, George Barris, Jerry Titus and Darryl Starbird.
it would be amazing to find a photo of Starbird, Gene Winfield, Roth, Grabowski, Coddington, Winfield, Jeffries, Larry Watson etc, with a car they made famous.
Last day for the New Red Rose Diner in Towanda, PA
Tuesday, May 12, 2026
he sure as hell looks the part... David Boreanaz, as Jim Rockford photos released yesterday. The show has been given a release window of Jan 2027
The new version, which is expected to appear on NBC’s primetime schedule midseason, follows James Rockford after he is released from prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Returning to Los Angeles, Rockford resumes life as a private investigator, using his instincts, charm and street smarts to solve cases while navigating pressure from both law enforcement and organized crime.
the first fully humanless, over-the-road commercial truckload in the U.S. left Houston, Texas, in the middle of the night with nobody inside. By morning, it had completed a 230-mile delivery near Dallas right on schedule.
There was no driver, no backup operator and no one stepping in remotely.
A multi-agency commercial vehicle enforcement operation was held in Virginia this week in response to a “rise in truck complaints” from local residents... and they were right. 62% of the inspected trucks couldn't pass a simple inspection
the task force inspected 45 commercial vehicles
Officers uncovered a total of 228 violations, with 63 of those violations causing the out-of-service determinations.
Additionally, six drivers were placed out-of-service for no commercial driver’s license
13 trucks were weighed. Seven of the 13 were determined to be overweight
we get these complaints everyday for speeding, aggressive driving, overweight, unsecured loads, uncovered loads. Most of which are coming from other truck companies that spend the money to do it right.
https://cdllife.com/2026/citizen-complaints-trigger-commercial-vehicle-blitz-in-virginia-with-62-of-inspected-trucks-out-of-service/
Officers uncovered a total of 228 violations, with 63 of those violations causing the out-of-service determinations.
Additionally, six drivers were placed out-of-service for no commercial driver’s license
13 trucks were weighed. Seven of the 13 were determined to be overweight
we get these complaints everyday for speeding, aggressive driving, overweight, unsecured loads, uncovered loads. Most of which are coming from other truck companies that spend the money to do it right.
https://cdllife.com/2026/citizen-complaints-trigger-commercial-vehicle-blitz-in-virginia-with-62-of-inspected-trucks-out-of-service/
Monday, May 11, 2026
the GM “Baby Fishbowl” thirty-footer had an optional 351 gas V6. Only 10 % got the gas engine, the other 90% were obviously diesel. The '75 Flxible “Shorty” New Look 31 footer were often bought by transit agencies that needed a small bus with more power for routes with steep hills
Baby Fishbowl above, Flxible below
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/bus-stop-classic/draft-some-of-the-many-old-buses-of-the-seashore-trolley-museum/
I just found out that the parking garage in the grand palace theater in Detroit, wasn't the only parking garage in an old palace theater
State theatre, West Orange, New Jersey. It's been renovated back into a theater now.
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