Spot The Difference

Look at these two nearly identical photographs and see if you can spot the main difference between them:

Did you spot it?

 

Yes, of course you did! The second photo has more Volkswagens in it.

 

Car+Driver have the story today.

 

This is a recreation by Volkswagen Sweden of the classic Abbey Road album cover.  It celebrates the 50th anniversary of the album and raises money for a children's charity in Sweden - you can download a version of this picture for a donation. It is also to promote VW's Park Assist - observe that the Beetle in the original picture (sometimes referred to as "the fifth Beetle") is badly parked. 

 

So, yes the second photo does have more Volkswagens in it.

 

But less Beatles.

"Toyota realizes that not everyone has access to my wife"

A brilliant quote from a brilliant article in Autoguide.  They've been very sparse with their writing lately but this one is a welcome piece from their writer Chris Tonn.

Although the subject matter is a bit concerning in a Big Brother sort of way.

Toyota are attempting to patent technology whereby cars would be able to judge your driving and limit what you are allowed to do dependent on your driving skills.

Don't know if it could stop you exiting motorways if you don't understand how indicators work.

Probably not a good idea - motorways would end up full of BMWs that had run out of fuel.

Meanwhile, the BBC of all people, have an article that is very badly written.  They cover a story about how the Mayor of Cheshire East will be getting a new car.

Mayor of Cheshire East!?

Is that even a thing?

Apparently so.

Cheshire East is half a county - how can half a county have a mayor?

Well it has.  Not just half a mayor but a complete mayor.  It also has the Bentley factory so the mayoral car is a Bentley.  Logical if somewhat extravagant.  The lucky mayor has a Bentley Continental Flying Spur. But, according to the story, not for long.

According to the story, "Bentley will soon be launching a plug-in hybrid model called the Bentayga" - this is accompanied by a picture of a three-year-old Bentayga:

Martin Smith, the council's registration and civic services manager told councillors the current petrol-driven Flying Spur emits 254g of carbon dioxide per km, and does about 24 miles per gallon (mpg) of fuel.

 

I shall stop now before I am overcome with excitement.

Signal Failure

I saw a bloke driving a Nissan Juke today.

Not sure I've ever seen one driven by a man before.

It's certainly not something you see every day.

I also saw a pink and mint coloured traffic cone on the M53:

Again, not something you see every day.

 

Or maybe it will be now that I know it's there.

 

What I do tend to see every day, especially on the M53 is people who don't understand Mirror-Signal-Manoeuvre.

 

This one doesn't bother with the "signal" bit at all:

I think I was miffed because I'm the BMW driver and I'd been signalling since the second exit marker.

 

Now I think this one has gone for Manoeuvre-Mirror-Signal which is quite a popular combination on the M53:

It doesn't look quite as dramatic on Dash-Cam as real life but I had figured out what was about to happen so wasn't too bothered.

 

Now, back to that Juke.

 

Maybe it was his wife's car.

Smashed

You can't legislate for stupid.

This is what happens when you put your Tesla into Auto-Pilot mode so you can eat your breakfast:

It didn't catch fire (which some Teslas have been known to do even when not crashing) but it did take out a Fire Truck.  Car+Driver have the story here.  Apparently, because the driver spilled his coffee and his bagel was smashed up in the crash, they aren't sure which was in his hand at the time.

Meanwhile, in the North-West of England yesterday.  It was a gin truck that was driven into - by another HGV. (Heavy Gin Vehicle?)

Gin spilled onto the carriageway but was coated with foam before anyone could get smashed on it.  The M6 was shut leading to much annoyance and many puns.  The BBC have the story here.  My favourite pun was "Was it in the sloe lane?"

Meanwhile, in a different bit of the North-West of England, also yesterday, this squirrel avoided getting smashed up against a van:

Summer of 69

This has been coming to a head for a quite a while now.

Two years ago I noticed they were coming - Sex Plates

Last year I got a bit more excited - No 68 Reg

Now they are finally here:

I hope it doesn't turn into an anti-climax.