Pilots Take Flight

Hit-and-Run is a serious crime.  And somebody in the Australian state of Victoria has been critically injured so I'm not going to make light of it.

But the driver is blaming her car.

The Drive story is here.

She can't be too bright because when she did the "run" bit, she did it on foot leaving the car behind.

It's a Tesla and she claims it was in "auto-pilot" mode.  I'm sure the car will be able to tell the Victorian Police what mode it was in at the time, but even if it was driving, as Tesla keep pointing out, the person sat in the driver's seat is still in charge.

I think Tesla really could do with renaming that feature.

Apparently, when this comes to Court, there will be much interest in the outcome from a legal responsibility point of view and also from an insurance payout point of view.

But at least she was caught.

Unlike the paraglider pilot in this story.

Flipping Chevrolets!

Earlier this week, Fox News asked the question, "Should you stay in your car during a tornado?"

The answer was "Probably not"

Just to sort of make their point...

The sixteen year old lad driving this Chevrolet Pick-Up had a scary experience.

It was turned onto the driver's side, spun around, then righted again by a tornado.

The local Chevy dealers though have offered him a brand new truck to replace it.  The story is here.

Meanwhile, on a lighter note, and also from Fox News this week, here's a funny story involving KFC, Mercedes F1 and Twitter:

Moving on to Solids

Autocar are starting to get coy with their articles.  Business-related ones at least - like this one.

Last week, they were telling me I had to sign up to see them but this one seems to be one of my two free ones now.

Alternatively, I could just see what Auto Express have on the subject.

Back in the day, people told Skoda jokes - 

Why do Skodas have heated rear windows? 

To keep your hands warm when you are pushing them.

How many Skodas does it take to change a lightbulb?

Two - in part-exchange.

But then Skoda became good.

Looks like this is a new image change, or, using management-speak, a new design language.

It is called Modern Solid - and if you look that up on Google, you get a Taiwanese company that makes various bits of office furniture specialising in arms for monitors.

Anyway, the new language comes with a picture:

A deliberately blurry picture.

They don't want to give anything away before their big launch in September.

Apart from maybe a Vizor front grille.  Although, can you call it a grille if it is solid?

According to Auto Express, outgoing Skoda CEO Thomas Schäfer claims “You will soon see a wow moment for our competitors and our customers”

It doesn't say whether he is outgoing as in extrovert or he is outgoing as in leaving.

Hopefully the latter if he is associating the word "wow" with an electric SUV.

Integrating

Saw this Car+Driver story today about the new Acura Integra:

We'd call it a Honda.

I like it.  It looks quite snazzy.

And it's not a cross-over SUV!

I wonder what Vauxhall/Opel make of it though?

Look at their Insignia:

Are the differences insignificant?