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Aston Martin is building an SUV. That statement would likely confuse and upset past owners of the 108-year-old British company. Utility is anathema to an Aston Martin, they’d scoff. They’d wax poetic about beauty, grace, passion, and performance, then casually slip in that the company has a Royal Warrant of Appointment from His Royal Highness Prince Charles Philip Arthur George, Prince of Wales, Knight of the Garter … Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, Order of Merit … Earl of Chester, Duke of Cornwall, Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles, and Prince and Great Steward of Scotland. Far less impressive than that title is the storied brand’s seven bankruptcies. Keeping the HMS Aston away from an eighth iceberg is why the…

A few years ago, I made a $1000 reservation for a Tesla Model 3. I eventually canceled it, because I wanted the most basic, $35,000 iteration of the car and Tesla took so long getting around to making those that I gave up. But I like Tesla’s products. The Model X is goofy futuristic, the Model 3 is great fun, and the Model S can still smoke exotics in a drag race. I’ve never driven the Model Y, because that one came out after Tesla launched its PR department into orbit on a SpaceX rocket, but I bet it’s good too. So don’t take this the wrong way, Tesla super-fans, when I say that there could be trouble ahead for your favorite company. Tesla enjoyed more than a few years with…

We were so busy playing with all the tech in the new S-class that we ignored the navigation system’s commands and missed the exit for the Jersey Turnpike. The car’s revised route took us past multimillion-dollar estates with lawns that must take weeks to mow. Act like you belong, the adage goes. Mercedes’s latest version of its flagship sedan makes us look and feel as if we do. If this is the kind of place you call home, the S-class’s $110,850 base price may seem entirely reasonable. Hell, you might even spring for the Maybach, which opens at $185,950. At launch, U.S. shoppers can pick between the S500’s 429-hp turbo and supercharged 3.0-liter inline-six and the S580’s 496-hp twin-turbo V-8. Every model comes with all-wheel drive and a 48-volt motor that…

The Subaru Solterra doesn’t have 500 horsepower or 300 miles of range. It can’t recharge in 15 minutes or power your house. Nor will its design bowl you over. We’d consider it a homework assignment turned in late were it not for its off-road acumen, an unusual attribute among mainstream EVs. It’s only a matter of time before we see a Solterra with a two-inch lift and a set of BFGoodrich KO2s. Like the BRZ coupe, this Subaru was jointly developed with Toyota. Its counterpart is the bZ4X, a name that just rolls off the tongue. But these EVs diverge more than the BRZ/GR86 twins, mostly because all Solterras are all-wheel drive, while the bZ4X has a front-drive variant. With 8.3 inches of ground clearance, decent approach and departure angles, and…

Windows 11 is here. As with every previous mega-update to the desktop operating system of record over the years, the new interface has been met with dissent. It’s no surprise that Twitter is full of outrage over the redesign—and, it must be admitted, some praise, too. The record will show that I’ve never been a hater of new Windows features. I even found things to like in the disastrous Windows 8 release. I was an avid Cortana user, at least while she could still do useful things, such as shut down the PC or control music. But a significant difference is that, at least with Windows 8, Microsoft was creating something original and new. I know that software and all other forms of art borrow from others’ recent work, but the…

IF you want to broadcast your forward-thinking ways with a luxuriously aspirational electric vehicle in today’s preferred SUV body style, the options are scarce. Neither Rolls-Royce nor Bentley makes one, and the Mercedes EQS SUV isn’t on sale just yet. Everything else, including the Genesis GV60, the Cadillac Lyriq, and the Audi e-tron, falls well short of the pricing and performance bar set by the BMW iX and Rivian R1S, the two vehicles we’ve gathered here. Our requirement for conventionally hinged doors meant the aging Tesla Model X got left out. Shucks. At $109,895, the top M60 version of BMW’s futuristic iX features an upgraded rear motor with a 0.8-inch-longer rotor and a stator stuffed with more copper windings. A second inverter feeds sufficient current to increase peak output from 335…

THE CHAOS OF UPHEAVAL CAN CREATE OPPORTUNITY. Take the dawning EV revolution, which has already seen a startup car company rocket past century-old competitors to become the most valuable automaker on earth. In the latest upset, a Korean brand best known for low prices, long warranties, and liberal financing has created a machine with performance that rivals the most revered Germans. In nomenclature, the difference between the Kia EV6 GT and the lesser EV6 GT-Line models is slight. That Kia denotes the top-performing version of its mid-size EV by reducing rather than adding to the nameplate is something of an undersell, but the GT’s hardware shows the intensity of this effort. The headline achievement is the powertrain. Other dual-motor, all-wheel-drive EV6 models serve up 320 total horsepower; the GT, presumably after downing a…

DUNK TANK Perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that you found electrical gremlins in the Land Rover Defender [“Defending the Brand,” November 2020]. The power-steering system gave a false alert, the camera system died, the stop-start system failed to restart at a stoplight, and the satellite radio expired. It’s clear that Joseph Lucas, Prince of Darkness, is alive and well in Britain. Wasn’t it Lucas who was the patent holder for the short circuit? —Allan Robertson Halifax, NS Sounds like the Land Rover would be a fun, if expensive, adventure rig until the electric gremlins creep in. I think I’d rather buy a Jeep Rubicon for weekend woods thrashing plus a Toyota Supra. Loved “the roof rack produces more wind noise than a gas-station burrito” and “the truck shakes passengers like bricks in a…

In 1982, PC Magazine was born at a crucial time in the history of computing: right as microprocessors were expanding from 8-bit to 16-bit architecture, and computers were changing from consumer novelties to business essentials. So to commemorate our 40th anniversary, we couldn’t resist looking back at the PCs that had the greatest impact—and to be honest, narrowing the list down to a mere 20 was no small feat. Yes, we know: The first entry in this list is a cheat, as the IBM PC (released in August 1981) predates our first issue (February-March 1982). We also know the IBM PC was no more the first personal computer than ours was the first computer magazine—the MITS Altair 8800 kit reached hobbyists in 1975, with the Apple II narrowly beating the Radio…

An expert look at the newest and most important vehicles this month. 2021 ALFA ROMEO GIULIA QUADRIFOGLIO VS. 2021 BMW M3 COMPETITION Everyone knows a couple who probably shouldn’t be together. They fight in public and drag friends into their quarrels, yet at the end of the night, perhaps after disappearing for an hour or two, they’re all smiles. They remind us a little of our complicated relationships with the BMW M3 and the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio. You see, the M3 and C/D, we go way back. Our love affair started in 1995 and burned hot for decades. But then, sometime in 2014, the passion fizzled. We called it quits, not necessarily because the M3 was a bad car, but because we felt it had become dull and cold to the touch.…

IN 1955, AT AGE 12, I BECAME obsessed with the idea of recording an album for our parents for Christmas. My sister, aged nine, brother, ten, and myself would sing our favourite songs from the era – an unusual undertaking for a child in those days. My sister and I used to take our time washing the dishes so we could sing our hearts out to the latest songs by Doris Day, Pat Boone, Rosemary Clooney and Vera Lynn. There were also a few child stars at the time, like Shirley Temple and Judy Garland, who gave us inspiration. We all loved the movie Hans Christian Andersen starring Danny Kaye, with songs The Inch Worm, The Ugly Duckling and The King’s New Clothes. I remember feeling the romance and sadness of Hans…

If the Mazda MX-5 Miata and the Toyota GR86 were on the show Finding Your Roots, both would trace their ancestry back to wispy midcentury European roadsters. Over the decades, many of those Old World sports cars died out or evolved into bigger and more complex things, leaving only Mazda and Toyota (and Subaru, maker of the GR86’s twin, the BRZ) building basic, pared-down, inexpensive sports cars that deliver old-school fun. If that’s what you’re after, your search starts and ends here. The GR86—substitute the BRZ if you prefer Subarus—and the Miata are the only remaining descendants on the affordable branch of the rear-wheel-drive sports-car family tree. Each is a hoot to drive, but which one is the better starter sports car? To find out, we corralled the most aggressive and exciting…

Even though its value is no longer pinned to great stacks of gold in Fort Knox, the US dollar is a stable and trusted currency worldwide. It’s the reserve currency for the world, supporting international transactions and all aspects of the global economy. But will it continue to hold that position? Might Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency eventually replace it? At the virtual RSA security conference (RSAC 2021) in May, Dr. Kenneth Geers, external communications analyst for Very Good Security, explored this topic, along with Very Good Security’s Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) Kathy Wang. “Is cryptocurrency going to change my life? Change the world?” asked Geers. “Will it bring the end of the nation-state?” Geers led off by pointing out Bitcoin’s amazingly meteoric rise. On May 22, 2010—a day now dubbed Bitcoin…

It is not so surprising that you end up with the best house when you work with the best architect,’ says David Clifford. He and Jenny, his wife, have served lunch for the three of us and we are chatting about their home in Gloucestershire, which a few months earlier had been named RIBA House of the Year 2021. When the couple bought the late-Georgian farmhouse over 10 years ago, the estate agent’s listing rather grandly described it as ‘a very distinguished country residence… reputed to be the highest occupied domestic property in Gloucestershire’. Once upon a time, it would have been a handsome four-bedroom house but, in more recent years, it had been vandalised by layers of render and an odd single-storey extension tacked on to its western flank. It…

For PC Magazine’s charter issue in early 1982, the newly minted editor-in-chief and publisher David Bunnell flew to Seattle to interview a fresh-faced, 26-year-old Bill Gates, the president and co-founder of a little software company called Microsoft. Bunnell’s goal with this exclusive interview was to understand the part Microsoft and its software played in the development of the groundbreaking IBM PC that was born less than a year earlier. After all, that IBM PC was the namesake of Bunnell’s new publication. In the interview, the two discuss how much fun it was for Bill and his team to contribute to the IBM project, how gratifying it was to have been part of it, and how the IBM and Microsoft teams worked together to actually get it done. They even speak of…

WHY WOULD ANYONE in their right mind leave New Zealand right now, home to Auckland, the world’s ‘most liveable’ city and run by a leader recently declared by Fortune magazine as the world’s greatest? It’s a question I’ve been asking myself since I returned to the UK at the end of June; the country where I was born is registering over 30,000 new cases of COVID-19 every day at the moment, while New Zealand, where I’d spent 2021, so far remains pretty much COVID-free. Despite being a New Zealand citizen, I’d never been to Aotearoa before I arrived there at the start of 2021. A Kiwi passport is arguably one of the most sought-after items in the world right now and I have a small house in Stratford, New Zealand, to thank for…

Pony Up! The seventh-generation Mustang isn’t a huge departure from the previous car, but would-be cowpokes will see fun new options, fresh interiors, and the menacing Dark Horse. Ford isn’t putting its gas-fed pony car out to pasture. Instead, the 2024 Mustang is galloping into its seventh generation with a mighty V-8, brawny bodywork, and an available manual gearbox. Inside, it’s a high-tech horsey, with expanded digital displays. Don’t worry that the new breed has grown tame, though. Not only will the Mustang offer hoony gimmicks like a drift stick and a remote-rev feature, but it’s also coming out of the gate with a 500-hp version, the Mustang Dark Horse. The design is more evolutionary than revolutionary. The Mustang rides on the same platform as before, with a slightly shorter 107.0-inch wheelbase. As…

Decades ago, meals looked very different. People would scarf down something called creamed chipped beef, then, without missing a beat, mix canned tuna with Jell-O to create a tuna mold. Considered creative in their time, these dishes would be made today only to test gag reflexes. Time has changed our roads, too, and cars have always been subjected to the same sort of daring experimentation and fashion (which explains the rise and fall of the AMC Pacer and the Chrysler PT Cruiser). Extolling the virtues of hotted-up economy cars fitted with manual transmissions to nonenthusiasts can feel like trying to encourage someone to taste the chipped beef. No matter how hard we try, many folks will never even consider driving these cars. Compact sports sedans are so much fun, we plead. Just…

DUSTY HILL’s epic 52-year tenure with ZZ Top ended only shortly before he died. Having missed a July 23 show in New Lenox, Illinois due to a hip complaint, he would pass just four days later in his sleep, aged 72. “We will miss your steadfast presence, your good nature and enduring commitment to providing that monumental bottom to the ‘Top’,” his bandmates Billy Gibbons and Frank Beard said in tribute. With his deceptively simple-sounding, mostly roots and fifths bass, Hill was ZZ Top’s finger-style superglue, an able back-up singer, and lead vocalist on Tush, the classic 1975 blues shuffle they wrote in 10 minutes. For all ZZ’s carefully cultivated mystique, Hill was unmistakable too. The beards, the sunglasses; the elaborately patterned Nudie suits and furry guitars spinning like clowns’ bow…

I have long wondered why Antares (Alpha [α] Scorpii) gets to be the Rival of Mars — Ares is the Greek name for the Roman god Mars, so Antares (“Anti-Ares”) is essentially named “Anti-Mars.” But the Red Planet also battles Betelgeuse (Alpha Orionis) and Aldebaran (Alpha Tauri) — both are of similar brightness and color. This month, you can see the fight for yourself as Mars marches off to war against these two titans at nightfall. The three scarlet sentinels all shine around 1st magnitude and are within about 35° of one another. When March opens, they form a line to the southeast. By midmonth, eastward-moving Mars will have bent that line into a shield. Then, by month’s end, the three will morph into a spearhead, with Betelgeuse at the tip. A…

IT’S BEEN MORE THAN A DECADE SINCE THE FIRST MODERN mass-market electric vehicle went on sale. EVs have come a long way, but they make up less than 2 percent of the U.S. vehicle market. That could change with the F-150 Lightning, the EV version of Ford’s half-ton pickup. If even 1 percent of F-150 buyers went electric, sales would surpass 2020 numbers for the Audi e-tron, Kia Niro EV, and Porsche Taycan, among others. In the United States, F-series models have topped the bestselling-vehicle list for 39 consecutive years, raking in mountains of cash for Ford and filling parking lots with blue ovals. If Ford were to spin off the F-series, the resulting brand would pull in $42 billion annually—more revenue than Nike, Coca-Cola, and Netflix. This is the third time…

The Hyundai Ioniq 6 attracts a swarm of new fans, page 74. The World’s Heaviest Minivan (Also, Its Fanciest) Highs: Eats interstate miles like a Greyhound, luxury appointments of the new king’s polo closet, will carry two caskets simultaneously. Lows: Gas mileage that’s difficult to countenance, cockpit electronics require a seven-day tutorial in Dallas, roughly as Jeepish as a Bentley. To suggest that Jeep’s seven-or eight-passenger Wagoneer L/Grand Wagoneer L twins are elephantine is to libel pachyderms. Both vehicles boast seven newfound inches of wheelbase and 12.0 bonus inches overall, compared with what we now quite inadvisably call their short-wheelbase kinsfolk. We are here to make you smile. Ladies and gentlemen, behold an SUV that, in latest limo guise, requires a 19-foot parking space. Somewhere beneath the Grand L’s 6428-pound heft, you can hear the…

Like Mad Men’s fictional merger of clumsily surnamed ad agencies, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Peugeot S.A. (PSA Group) have united their agglomeration of brands to produce a new corporation: Stellantis. That name would have Don Draper reaching for his Canadian Club; it’s more redolent of erectile-dysfunction ads than of anything automotive. But in a world with a hard-on for mergers and shareholders, the new company—valued at $52 billion when formed—brings the same old problems. First, what to do about stragglers such as Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Lancia, Opel, DS, and Vauxhall. Some of these legacy brands, defenseless against nimbler rivals and electric disrupters, cannot survive. In a press conference on January 19, Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares—a former rally driver and PSA chief executive—insisted that no job or brand cuts…

In the little midway between the entrance to the garages at the Miami Grand Prix in May, a Formula 1 fan who identified himself as Drunk Dave and said he works in a Chicago insurance office was trolling for a driver. Within minutes, Dave hooked one. The driver stood quietly for handshakes and smiled for selfies before making his escape. “That’s my new favorite driver!” Dave proclaimed. “Who is that little guy?” Zhou Guanyu, he is told, is China’s first F1 driver. He is a rookie for Alfa Romeo. “A rookie?” Dave replied. “That means he hasn’t been on the Net-flix show yet? That’s why I don’t know who he is.” Ah, the Netflix show. It’s impossible to say how many fans among the sellout crowd in Miami, or at the F1 race at Circuit…

MANY ASTRONOMY enthusiasts live under the veil of light pollution, either from local sources like poorly aimed lights on neighboring houses or the enormous light domes enveloping large cities. It can be quite discouraging at first. But it doesn’t mean you can’t be an active observer. Anyone can enjoy wonderful views every clear evening without venturing far from home. You just need to know what telescope is best for you and your location. When it comes to buying a telescope, most people immediately consider their budget. No one wants to spend beyond their means. But for those who live in a city, there are a few other matters to ponder, as well. The most important considerations are ease of use and storage. Unless a telescope is convenient to use, it will quickly…

What’s a “demonstrator” locomotive? Q I’m doing research on the Wisconsin Central, Wisconsin & Southern, and the Soo Line. Some photos I’ve found refer to the locomotives as “demonstrators.” What exactly is a demonstrator locomotive? Bob Vysinka, LaValle, Wis. A When a locomotive manufacturer like Electro-Motive Diesel or General Electric comes out with a new model, it will build a few “demonstrator” models. It will then send these locomotives to railroads for them to try out, in hopes the railroad’s managers will see the advantages of the new model and order some for their roster. Since the demonstrator locomotives don’t belong to the railroads, they’re painted in promotional schemes featuring the manufacturer’s name and logo instead of the railroad’s. The demonstrators usually make their tour of several railroads before being sold and repainted…

The first time I heard an MP3 file was back in 1995. It was some protodrum-and-bass track that I had downloaded to my PC from an FTP site, back when the web was just beginning to go mainstream. I don’t remember the name of the song or the artist. But I do remember I was stunned at how clear it sounded. It was a full four-minute digital audio track that, at just a couple of megabytes, was also small enough to download in a few minutes over a dial-up connection. Today, with the exception of a growing band of vinyl enthusiasts, everyone listens to digital music. The single biggest reason for that is the iconic Apple iPod. Almost overnight, the iPod was everywhere in the aughts, with giant billboard ads, TV…

Production of the second-generation Acura NSX is ending. The reason is simple: In five years, only 2548 sold globally, which must be at least mildly disappointing to the folks at Acura. The NSX is arguably one of the most underappreciated performance cars on the market—but that statement is not without a few caveats. The NSX has struggled to find its way. To close its run, the final 350 cars built will be the new 600-hp Type S edition, which retains everything that was very good about the mid-engine hybrid sports car and adds elements that worked from the GT3 program. Thanks to the race car’s turbochargers pumping up to 16.1 psi of boost (up 0.9 over the standard car), new injectors, and 15 percent more efficient intercoolers, the double-overhead-cam V-6 benefits…

In late March last year, just a month after Pakistan’s first reported case of COVID-19, I returned to my village, Shujghal. The village sits at the highest peak of the Hindu Kush mountain range in the eastern valley of Tirich Mir. It is comprised of just 16 houses, and each one belongs to members of my family. As is the case during the winter months, when resources are more scarce in the villages, most of us head to cities such as Islamabad, Peshawar and Lahore. I teach English at a private school in Peshawar but the COVID-19 lockdown meant I had to return to Shujghal. On the upside, the lockdown reunited my cousins and I for the first time in years. To pass the time, most nights after dinner we would play…

LOSER: CADILLAC Off to the Great Unknown Cadillac won everything with its new Blackwing sedans, including two 10Best spots [see page 27]. We even petitioned the Hockey Hall of Fame to engrave their names on the Stanley Cup (we haven’t heard back). But Cadillac is still a loser this year because it’s throwing in the towel. Just when its mainstream cousin Chevrolet spent Cadillac money on a new double-overhead-cam V-8 for the Corvette Z06, Caddy says “No more internal-combustion V cars.” Quitting when you’re on top of your game is admirable for an athlete. This is a squandered opportunity. But anyone who has worked at General Motors will tell you that “squandered opportunity” is the unofficial slogan of the executive suites. WINNER: FORD MUSTANG MACH-E What’s in a Name? The giant test of EVs detailed…

Empire’s Chris Hewitt on how Spider-Man: No Way Home’s ambitious storytelling marks a new era in the MCU ! SPOILER WARNING SPIDER-MAN, SPIDER-Man, does whatever a spider can, apparently. That’s a fairly long list, as it happens — it includes spinning webs (anytime), catching thieves (just like flies), and the most recent addition: saving cinema. Look out: here comes the four-quadrant event movie extravaganza-man. At the time of writing, Spider-Man: No Way Home has pulled in almost $1.4 billion at the worldwide box office in a little under three weeks, making it the 12th biggest movie of all time. By the time you read this, it will almost certainly be in the top ten. All of which would be fairly noteworthy in normal times. These are not normal times. Since the pandemic began in…

Having lived my whole life in the city, the countryside takes some getting used to. A couple of years ago, my husband and I traded a city duplex for a 19th-century farmhouse, and soon discovered what happens when you run out of milk for your coffee. Either you borrow your neighbour’s cows, literally, or you drive 15 kilometres to the ‘corner store’ over gravelly, pot-holed roads. Also, it requires sufficient fuel. In the city we mostly walked or took public transport. If we had to drive, we would fill up at the petrol station at the end of our block. But here, the nearest station is – according to Google Maps – precisely 30.2 kilometres in the opposite direction from the corner store. Either you make a habit of keeping the tank…

The public beta of macOS Monterey, released by Apple in early July, doesn’t look surprisingly new. Exceptions include Safari, which gets a dynamically resizing tab bar and other conveniences, and FaceTime, which gets a background-blurring portrait mode and screen-sharing features. As you get more familiar with Monterey, however, you’ll find improvements and conveniences everywhere and may wonder how you managed without them. This is because Apple’s annual updates to the Mac operating system tend to have a regular rhythm. Massive updates arrive on even-numbered years: Big Sur, for example, the 2020 update to macOS that was also the first version that ran on Apple Silicon hardware. Updates in odd-numbered years, such as Monterey, look more or less like the previous version but come with under-the-hood improvements that may do more for…

FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS NOVEMBER, three spacecraft were bearing down on Mars in a frantic race to become the first mission to orbit it. They were the survivors of a fleet of five. Of that group, two were NASA efforts: Mariner 8 and Mariner 9, jointly known as the Mariner Mars 71 Project. The other three were Soviet: M71-S (S for “Sputnik”), Mars 2, and Mars 3. All five spacecraft were designed to orbit the Red Planet, and Mars 2 and Mars 3 were also designed to deploy landers that would attempt the first robotic surface explorations of that world. After having lost the race to put a man on the Moon two years earlier, the Soviets were determined to beat the U.S. to the surface of Mars, even if only with…

WIDE, WEDGY, AND OUTRA-GEOUS, the Countach wasn’t the first Lamborghini, but Marcello Gandini’s jaw-dropping design created the archetype the company has followed ever since. No new Countach could ever match the original in terms of the awestruck reaction that greeted the vehicle, named for a Piedmontese expletive uttered at the concept car. Which is why Lamborghini’s decision to produce a new Countach, the LPI 800-4, seemed dangerously close to heresy. The question is: Can the LPI 800-4 compare as an experience? To answer it, we drove the LPI 800-4 alongside a historic Countach from Lamborghini’s own collection. This 1990 25th Anniversary Edition is the final original Countach built, and it’s normally exhibited in the factory museum. With just 6000 miles, it’s practically box fresh. As the last version of the first…

Highs: Quickest car we’ve ever tested, probing its lofty limits is easy, 16 cylinders (16!). Lows: The letters we’ll get complaining about the price, an era coming to a close. Money can’t buy more time on earth, but it will buy a $3,825,000 Bugatti Chiron Super Sport. And while 1578 horsepower won’t extend your expiration date, accelerating hard in a Super Sport crams a hell of a lot of living into a short amount of time. You see, the Super Sport’s four new turbochargers compress not only air, but also time. Take, for example, the amount the Chiron Super Sport takes to get to 200 mph. Those 14.8 seconds squeeze in a month’s worth of terror, joy, and comedy. Your life does flash in front of you the first time you floor the…

Gonna Need More Truck The R1T’s body control and steering are so good, you forget it’s a truck.—Ezra Dyer The Lightning is the anti-Hummer: low-key, traditional inside, and simple.—Rich Ceppos The Hummer is what Lambo would have made if the LM002 were electric.—K.C. Colwell Last year, at our inaugural EV of the Year event, there wasn’t a single vehicle that could tow more than 5000 pounds. There are now three such entries: the GMC Hummer EV (7500-pound towing capacity), Ford F-150 Lightning (10,000-pound max), and Rivian R1T (11,000 pounds). To evaluate this emerging electric-towing phenomenon, we hitched each to the same load, a 29-foot camper that weighs 6100 pounds, the sort of trailer a family of four might take on the quintessential summer getaway. We ran all three trucks on the same 85-degree summer day…

We asked Car and Driver readers how interested they are, on a scale of zero to 10, in owning or leasing a vehicle with various driver-assistance technologies. Here are the averages from the more than 1900 responses. Blind-Spot Monitoring 6.7 Adaptive Cruise Control 5.5 Lane-Departure Warning 4.9 Driver-Attention Monitoring 3.7 Hands-Free Highway Driving 3.2 Hands-Free City Driving 2.4 YOU DON’T HAVE TO GO DEEP DOWN AN INTERNET RABBIT HOLE TO FIND EVIDENCE THAT HUMANS WILL PUSH BOUNDARIES. The relatively recent introduction of semi-autonomous technology in cars has led to all sorts of documented bad behavior, from folks putting water bottles on their steering wheel to drivers letting Jesus take the wheel as they climb into another seat. The former can trick a car into thinking a driver’s hands are where they should be; the latter is wildly dangerous. When a Tesla Model S hit a…

If you’re going to have an adventure, you’ll want to be familiar with sunk-cost bias. It’s the idea that if you’ve spent a lot of time, money, or energy trying to accomplish a goal, you’ll be inclined to keep at it even if quitting is the wisest move. You know Green Boots, the unidentified frozen corpse that is a landmark on the northeast route to the summit of Mount Everest? That’s about the worst possible outcome when you’ve got too much invested to throw in the towel. I’ve never been on the kind of adventure that could end with my dead body getting its own Wikipedia page, but I’ve tried to absorb the message. Last year presented plenty of opportunities for well-considered bailing, including the Thanksgiving dinner my family was contemplating.…

LIKE MANY A FAMILY VACATION, everything was perfect when we started out. The sky was sapphire blue, Palm Springs was just closing out its fashionable Modernism Week, and we had scheduled several days of activities designed to challenge our convoy while highlighting how minivans have evolved from bare-bones people-hauling boxes to sophisticated and feature-laden luxury transports. The plan was to soak up the February sunshine in the desert, alight through power-sliding doors in the valet drop-off at hip farm-to-table eateries, and test the sturdiness of the many cupholders on the twisting roads surrounding the valley. Then there was a sandstorm, a windstorm, a wildfire, a power outage, a canceled hotel, and a blizzard, all within the first 36 hours. It was decidedly not luxurious, but you only really appreciate the comfort…

BY CAMILLE OKHIO THE STUDY A blue birds-and-botanicals wallcovering (designed by Finnish ceramist Birger Kaipiainen in 1957) complements the deep red vintage rug in this Upstate New York house by interior designer Fawn Galli. The creamy white ottoman tames the busyness of the blended patterns. Its tufted construction feels equal parts tailored and cozy. LIVING ROOM “I’m always looking to create a narrative, but also to create contrast,” says interior designer Fawn Galli. In the living room and throughout the house, traditional and antique furnishings (the mantel mirror and upholstered mahogany footstools) are paired with clean-lined, modern pieces (midcentury armchairs and an oversize coffee table). Known for creating rooms that don’t take themselves too seriously, Galli always adds an unexpected element—like the striped red and orange curtains that peek through from the adjacent room. STYLE…

A half-dozen companies are potentially ready to spend $80 billion for C-Band, a new set of airwaves that promise to fix the perilous state of American 5G, at an FCC auction. That’s a vast amount of money, and it shows how important C-Band is. But what is C-Band, and what does it mean for 5G? Do you need a C-Band phone? Is C-Band a new frequency? Should you be scared of C-Band? I can explain. RECOVERING THE SATELLITES According to wireless testing firm Rohde and Schwarz, the C-band is all frequencies between 4GHz and 8GHz. When US wireless geeks talk about C-Band, though, they’re talking about 3.7GHz to 4.2GHz—and specifically, in this case, the range from 3.7GHz to 3.98GHz. This frequency had been used for satellite TV since the 1970s, but as C-Band…

when the numbers get too large, our little brains struggle to contextualize. We realize that vehicle development and manufacturing, along with building out a nationwide distribution and dealer network, burns money at a rate that makes trust-fund millionaires look like they’re living paycheck to paycheck. But what does it actually take to start with nothing and end up with a 1111-hp electric luxury sedan? Let’s put it this way: If you stuffed $100 bills into 55-gallon oil barrels, you’d need nearly 300 barrels to contain the $5 billion that Lucid Motors has spent thus far. The cliché that a venture like this is a moonshot is fitting. Actually, it could be many moonshots, as this sum would more than pay for both Bezos’s and Branson’s rockets combined. The fact that billionaires…

The International Union for Conservation of Nature says more than 37,400 species are threatened with extinction. Big V-8s in small cars and unexpected off-roaders are not on the ledger, but if they were, we’d expect to see them listed as “near threatened,” defined by the conservation union as “species close to the threatened thresholds or that would be threatened without ongoing conservation measures.” Since high-horse V-8s can still be spotted in Land Rovers (Range Rover, Range Rover Sport, Defender), Jeeps (Grand Cherokee, Wrangler Rubicon 392), Cadillacs (CT5-V Blackwing), Lexuses (IS500 F Sport), and Dodges (Hellcat everything), to name just a few, they’re clearly not yet extinct. Possibly, they’re not even endangered. On the automotive watchlist, V-8s are still healthier than the manual transmission, but they’re roaming the land in fewer…

We ordered a long-term Tesla Model 3 for one primary reason: to be able to report on using Tesla’s Full Self-Driving software over time. Well, the joke’s on us, because after we spent $6000 on that option (the price is now double that) in 2019, our car came and went without ever getting it. Paying for an option we didn’t receive is definitely a first, one of many when it came to the Model 3. Had we instead invested that money in Tesla stock, we could’ve cashed out with as much as $150,000. Another new experience was being alerted via a mobile app that our car had a catastrophic breakdown while parked. Other than that biggie, which required a new $2500 rear-motor assembly that was replaced under warranty, our car…

For Cadillac’s new Blackwing sedans, the beginning is also the end. The CT4-V Blackwing and CT5-V Blackwing mark the finish line of the brand’s nearly two-decade quest to combine brutally powerful engines with precise handling and luxurious refinement. Cadillac says these are the last gas-burning V cars it will build. Will the coming electric era render anything as memorable as the second-generation CTS-V—a car that came in coupe, sedan, or wagon form with 556 horsepower and an available six-speed manual transmission? Despite the uncertainty of that unanswerable question, giddiness is warranted, because both Blackwings come standard with a six-speed Tremec TR6060 manual. It’s a somewhat surprising move, considering Cadillac hasn’t offered a stick in a V-8-powered sports sedan since the two-generation-old CTS-V. But the brand said the continued desirability of that…

Walk up to your car nowadays, and it recognizes your key fob and unlocks the door. It might also set the seat in your preferred position; wirelessly connect to your phone; change the interior accent lights to the yellow, green, and purple you chose last Mardi Gras and never updated; and ask if you want to play Centipede or maybe order a pizza. These are crucial upgrades to the motoring experience, and if this were 1982 or, heck, even 2012 (the pre–Apple CarPlay days), this hypothetical car would be a mind-blowing feat of futuristic technology. In 2022, it’s just a Subaru. Or a Dodge. Or pretty much any moderately optioned new model from the past couple of years. Automakers are racing to showcase new and interesting technology, and that means we…

Early in June, Blake Lemoine, an engineer at Google working on artificial intelligence, made headlines for claiming that the company’s Language Model for Dialogue Applications (LaMDA) chat program is self-aware. Lemoine shared transcripts of his conversation with LaMDA that he says prove it has a soul and should be treated as a co-worker rather than a tool. Fellow engineers were unconvinced, as am I. I read the transcripts; the AI talks like an annoying stoner at a college party, and I’m positive those guys lacked any self-awareness. All the same, Lemoine’s interpretation is understandable. If something is talking about its hopes and dreams, then to say it doesn’t have any seems heartless. At the moment, our cars don’t care whether you’re nice to them. Even if it feels wrong to leave…

With rounded corners for all windows, relocated taskbar icons, and more elegant Settings dialogs, Windows 11 is a significant visual refinement of Windows 10. It’s also a free update, which means you’re probably keen to install it on your existing PC. The good news is that if you’re planning to buy a mainstream desktop or laptop or if you’ve bought one in the past four years, it’s probably compatible with Windows 11. But the requirements for the new OS aren’t straightforward. Microsoft made things more confusing with a problematic compatibility checker tool called PC Health Check, which it withdrew just a few days after its release. The PC Health Check app is back and is significantly improve. If it detects any incompatibilities with your PC, it will list them individually. But you…

Many people thought there would never be a Windows 11—understandably, after Microsoft announced in 2015 that Windows 10 would be the operating system’s last version number. New competition from Chrome OS likely made the case for a more significant interface update, though, and Windows 11 borrows heavily from Google’s lightweight desktop design. Despite its drastically new look, Windows 11 remains nearly functionally identical to Windows 10, with some new features and conveniences added. After six years of ho-hum upgrades, a major overhaul to the world’s most popular desktop operating system is welcome news: Windows fans finally have something to get excited about. PROS: Beautiful, more consistent new design. Great window layout options. New video game options. Better multi-monitor functionality. New performance-improving features. Planned support for Android apps. CONS: Requires a recent CPU.…

There may be no more pleasurable part of the Tesla Model 3 driving experience than when you tap the accelerator with some force. The vehicle immediately shoots forward, quicker than most gas-powered cars could ever translate your input into motion. And there may be no more annoying part of that same scenario than what can follow: at 60 miles per hour on the highway, when you turn to the Model 3’s cluttered touch screen to cue up a road-trip soundtrack. I spent almost 1,700 miles piloting an all-wheel-drive Model 3 Long Range rented from Hertz on the highways, byways, and streets of Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and California for PCMag’s Best Mobile Networks 2022 testing. It left me loving parts of the Tesla life but sour on others. FIRST, THE GOOD Performance: The Model 3’s…

The Ford Eluminator concept truck ruined me. Ever since Ford announced its electric crate motor, I’ve been daydreaming about putting one (or two) in a ’90s Bronco. But then I got to drive Ford’s own 1978 F-100 retro-rod out on the street in Charlotte, and it’s so good that nothing I could create will ever compare. The Eluminator drives like a Mustang Mach-E GT Performance with a cool old truck body draped over its running gear, which is exactly what it is. It’s tight, agile, and extremely quick, and I could never hope to build anything like it. But Ford could, and definitely should, because the Eluminator is flush with an attribute that can be elusive for EVs: personality. If you drive one particular electric vehicle all the time, you might…

Be saw lots of new 8K TVs at CES in January, with some coming from vendors known for making affordable models, such as TCL. That means 2021 is likely to be the year we start seeing 8K TVs hit the market at prices that far more people can realistically consider—we’re talking under five digits! Don’t freak out about replacing your still-new 4K TV just yet, though. 8K AT CES TCL’s announcement that its 2021 6-Series TVs will be entirely 8K is one of the more notable pieces of news from this year’s show, as the 6-Series has long been a PCMag favorite for offering high quality at a reasonable price. That said, TCL hasn’t yet announced pricing for its 6-Series TVs, and it noted that 2020 models will still be available this…

I got the T-shirt long before I got the car. I couldn’t even drive at the time, so its muscle-car graphics didn’t mean anything to me, other than a clean replacement for whatever I was wearing before I spilled something during a slumber party. I don’t know why Kelly Crowe had a too-big tee emblazoned with a blue 1974 Dodge Challenger Rallye, “So Rare!” written beneath it in a late-’70s font, but she was older and cooler, and willing to part with it. When I offered it back, Kelly told me to keep it. “It suits you,” she said. I don’t know what sort of automotive precognition Kelly possessed, but several years later, I ended up buying a 1972 Challenger. Perhaps all that time in the shirt had subtly influenced my…

IN response to the question “How do you make a 600-hp sports sedan?” BMW, Audi, and Mercedes have turned in answers so similar that if this were an exam, they’d be accused of cheating. The brands started with the bones of a buttoned-down sedan and crafted a version with a narrow-eyed performance-car glare, a dropped roofline, and a sloping tail. Each car has all-wheel drive, adaptive dampers, brake rotors the size of Saturn’s rings, and a twin-turbo V-8 of at least 4.0 liters making completely unbuttoned dyno numbers. Add up all three and you get 1838 horsepower. Presumably to enrage our readers, the marketing people advertise these things as four-door coupes. “Swoopy, saggy-assed sedans” could work, but that doesn’t quite capture the seriousness of this trio. The Audi RS7, the BMW M8 Competition…

Windows 11 may be better known for its centered taskbar and rounded window borders, but the new Snap Layouts feature (sometimes also called Snap Assist) might be a more useful UI innovation. Windows, as its name implies, has long been excellent at managing and rearranging program windows, but Snap Layouts elevate the operating system (OS) to the next level. HOW DO SNAP LAYOUTS WORK? To get started with this new productivity tool, you simply hover the mouse over the Maximize icon in a program window’s upper-right corner. You’ll see a choice of layouts, like this: Note that not every application supports this feature. In my testing, the Firefox and Spotify programs showed only the old Maximize option. But you can still position them within a Snap Layout after starting the process with an…

The year was 2001. It was November and the weather was cold and brisk, typical British weather. I was about to embark on a journey to the Asian sub-continent. The airport was Heathrow; the plane was scheduled to depart in four hours. During a visit to India the previous year, a monk named Swami Awadheshanand Giri had met me at a religious festival and invited me to come and live in his ashram. He wanted to help me fulfil my wish to devote myself to the study of Sanskrit and the Vedic literature. He even wrote a letter which I presented to the Indian High Commission in London. His letter helped me get the difficult five-year visa which I was hoping to secure. After arriving at the airport, I stood in the…

There I was with the wind rushing past, the starlit sky above, the air alive with the soft thrum of a V-8 on a warm autumn night. Was I driving a Mustang convertible? Something fancier, like a Mercedes SL? Nope. I was in the bed of my 2003 Dodge pickup, wondering where it all went wrong. There’s a difference between riding in the bed of a truck for fun and riding there because you must. I was in the latter camp thanks to my own decisions—namely, my foolish devotion to the regular-cab pickup. Ours is a family of four, and the Ram seats three. When those unforgiving facts collide, the guy who bought the truck gets to experience the great outdoors while listening to his wife slipping the clutch a…

The debut of a mid-engine supercar is always an event worth commemorating. Roll out a new car with a gnarly engine mounted somewhere just ahead of the rear wheels, and we’ll be scouring Google Maps for twisty roads quicker than you can say “The C8 Corvette democratized this whole category.” So when Maserati unveiled the 2022 MC20, we couldn’t let the occasion pass without smashing a figurative champagne bottle over the prow. By which we mean bring an MC20 to the most glorious, desolate roads we could find and see how it stacks up against the 2021 Porsche 911 Turbo S Lightweight. “But,” you cry, as your blood pressure skyrockets and your dog runs away, “the Porsche 911 Turbo S is not mid-engined! I reject this premise!” Well, we’re sorry, but the…

Tough Love for the Sub-$40K The Bolt EUV is really boring, and I want those 15 minutes of my life back.—Elana Scherr There is lots of value in the Bolt EV at the lower 2023 price.—Greg Fink The Kona feels far more spry than the Bolt EUV and looks less dorky, but the interior feels cheap and the rear seat is more cramped.—Drew Dorian Perhaps rising interest in electrics means the time has now come for the little Chevy Bolt, widely ignored upon its introduction.—Joe Lorio The Chevrolet Bolt EV and Bolt EUV—a new-for-2022 SUV-like variant—are the sensible shoes of the EV world. Neither will blow your socks off with face-melting acceleration, and they don’t draw attention with flashy styling or gimmicky tech. While the Bolt duo’s appearance may get them mistaken for gas-powered economy…

Astronomy’s experts from around the globe answer your cosmic questions. Q | WHY WILL DAVINCI JETTISON ITS PARACHUTE SO QUICKLY INTO VENUS’ ATMOSPHERE? WON’T THIS RESULT IN LESS TIME TO COLLECT DATA AND IMAGES? Steven Portalupi Newmarket, New Hampshire A | Venus and its massive atmosphere present an incredibly challenging environment for any in situ probe mission. The planet’s surface temperature is approximately 860 degrees Fahrenheit (460 degrees Celsius) thanks to the dense CO2 atmosphere, which also creates a surface pressure 90 times greater than Earth at sea level. Sulfuric acid clouds exist roughly 25 to 43 miles (40 to 70 kilometers) above the surface in a thick layer. When the DAVINCI descent sphere spacecraft (DS) jettisons its main parachute approximately 32 minutes into the descent — around 24 miles (39 km) above the…

IN 2010 there was drought in China, a 260-square-kilometre ice island broke off one of Greenland’s main glaciers, wildfires raged across Russia. And Finland recorded its highest ever temperature as the mercury hit 37.2ºC. Professor Petteri Taalas, then head of the Finnish Meteorological Institute, experienced first-hand one consequence of global warming. When he visited his holiday house close to the Russian border, the fires were close enough to set off his smoke alarms. “When you are close to these things, it has a big impact,” he says today. Now a year into his second four-year term as Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), he has the job of sounding the alarm on climate change to the world. And as the world looks forward to a time beyond the COVID-19 pandemic,…

As companies like Ford, Stellantis, and GM abandoned cars to focus on segments that are more popular and profitable, Honda’s venerable Civic has hung on to its market share. U.S. Sales January–June 2021 All Vehicles 8,242,764 January–June 2011 All Vehicles 6,333,313 Source: Automotive News These days, if you walk into a dealership looking to spend as little as possible on a new car, the salesperson will probably steer you toward a shrink-rayed version of the brand’s bestselling SUV, not the matchbox sedan you might have been directed to 10 years ago. Depending on the dealership, there might not even be a new entry-level sedan or hatchback on offer. But chez Honda, the compact-car-as-brand-entry structure is alive and well with the Civic. The outgoing Civic was nimble, engaging, affordable, and efficient. It was an enthusiast car…

There’s a reason retired athletes, family trusts, and private equity like to park big chunks of cash in automotive dealerships. And it isn’t necessarily that they like cars. In the United States, the sale of automobiles annually accounts for close to a trillion dollars in economic activity, and it turns out that situating yourself somewhere near the receiving end of all of that money changing hands is a pretty good place to be. Lately, it’s been better than ever. Yet all that is great and good about being a car dealer is about to change dramatically. Or maybe it isn’t really, depending on whom you talk to. In a time of plenty, carmakers and car dealers—whose interests are not always aligned—are bracing for big changes. How big and of what sort…