OPINION

Overlanding has become a thing in America. Before the coronavirus pandemic tapped the brakes, people all over the country were jumping into their 4x4s and taking the road less traveled, turning away from the interstates and the neon-lit desolation of cheap hotels and fast food joints, journeying instead along the quiet back roads and trails that still crisscross the country. Overlanding has made the voyage as important as the destination. Where I grew up, it always was. Australia is about the same size as the lower 48 states but has just 7 percent of the population, most of which lives within 100 miles of the eastern and southern coasts. What in the U.S. is called the Heartland is in Australia called the Outback. No prairies and cornfields and red-painted barns here, though: Most of inland...

A man envisions a future of electric cars, starting with a high-powered, six-figure, midsize super sedan, followed by a platform-sharing SUV, then migrating to smaller, more affordable vehicles in mass quantities. Sales will mostly be handled online (thanks to a virtual reality app), with a scattering of factory-run boutique stores in tiny enclaves. Service will be done via a remote van. If it reads a little like Tesla’s playbook, it’s because Peter Rawlinson, the chief executive officer and chief technology office of Lucid Motors, was once Elon Musk’s engineering czar before venturing out on his own. He just wants to build a better mousetrap. It’s also basic business strategy: You have to pay off your initial investors, and selling high-zoot luxury cars delivers la...

Small accidents can be the most frustrating. Whether it’s scraping a wheel on a curb, tapping a bumper on a pole, or opening a door into a wall, low-speed parking impacts can cause minor yet massively annoying damage. Backup cameras are now mandatory on new vehicles, but more visibility is always better. To that end, some automakers install 360-degree camera systems to give a complete view of your surroundings. What is a 360-Degree Camera in a Car? A 360-degree camera system in a car provides you with a real-time view of the area surrounding your car. The 360-degree camera tech combines the perspectives of several video cameras placed around the vehicle into one image, typically a top-down view. As you maneuver into a parking space, the 360-degree camera system shows nearby obstacles...

“If the car was invented today and we said this consumer product will improve mobility and productivity, but … it will kill 33,000 people a year in America, do you think the government would approve it for sale?” Volvo senior safety engineer Thomas Broberg’s measured iconoclasm came as the automaker defended its decision to restrict the top speed of all its vehicles to 112 mph. I first came across this institutional mindset 30 years ago, when I interviewed Pehr Gyllenhammar, author, economist, lawyer, and, at the time, chairman of the board of AB Volvo. “We are not a luxury car producer,” declaimed Gyllenhammar bluntly. The smiles of the Volvo PR flacks became instantly fixed, brittle. Color drained from their faces. The Volvo chairman was happy to elaborate: ...

I’d love to know how many wheels are curbed and bumpers are tapped each year in attempts to parallel park. There’s a whole industry of rubber bumper guards built around how difficult parking alongside a curb can be; crowded cities like New York are full of them. You might catch yourself thinking, “If cars can sort of drive themselves, why can’t they sort of park themselves?” They can. How Does Self-Parking Work? Most cars with self-parking capability can’t actually do it all themselves. These systems can locate a parallel (and in some cases a perpendicular or diagonal) parking spot upon activation by utilizing proximity sensors on the front, side, and rear of the vehicle; often, the tech requires activating a turn signal to indicate what side of the road it should look for a space. Once th...