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BMW has filed a patent for a drift-initiation system that uses adaptive suspension to briefly bounce the rear axle, temporarily unloading the rear tires and making it easier to break traction with minimal throttle input. The system would engage only during hard cornering or at high steering angles, monitor vehicle speed, and can even store steering-angle thresholds to define when drifting is and isn’t permitted. It’s a genuinely clever piece of engineering — and it lands right in the middle of a debate that performance-car buyers have been having for years. The question isn’t really whether the technology works. It’s…

The biggest car news and reviews, no BS Our free daily newsletter sends the stories that really matter directly to you, every weekday. Welcome to The Downshift, or TDS for short, The Drive’s morning news roundup bringing you the biggest automotive headlines from around the world. The Downshift recaps news briefly, with links to full stories for those seeking more info. We hope you had a fine weekend, and here’s your bulletin for Monday, August 31, 2026. 🪪 According to a new report, Volkswagen of America is about to undergo a major personnel shift, with current Audi sales chief Marco Schubert expected to take…

Relocating to New Orleans is an exciting experience. Whether you’re moving for work, school, retirement, or simply looking for a change of scenery, you’ll soon discover that the Crescent City has its own rhythm. Historic neighborhoods, one-way streets, streetcars, festivals, and narrow roads all contribute to its unique charm—but they can also make your first few days behind the wheel a little overwhelming. Many newcomers choose to fly into New Orleans and have their vehicle transported professionally instead of driving hundreds or even thousands of miles. It saves time, reduces wear on your car, and lets you focus on…

PaXini’s Tora-One humanoid robot works at Geely Auto’s Qiantang manufacturing base. Credit: PaXini BYD will provide complex auto manufacturing environments and real-world operating data for robot validation and model iteration. The shift from capital ties to business collaboration shows BYD is deepening its push into core perception technologies for embodied AI. BYD (HKEX: 1211) has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Chinese robotics startup PaXini Tech, aiming to jointly deploy robots in industrial manufacturing. The companies signed the agreement on August 25 at BYD’s global headquarters in Shenzhen. The partnership will cover areas including data collection and robotics, the new…

The Hubble telescope has an almost legendary status. Over the last three decades, Hubble gave us some of the most spectacular close-ups of the universe ever captured, and now, NASA’s newest space telescope wants to see the bigger picture. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope successfully launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy from Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 7:26 a.m. EDT on August 30. Roman is now beginning a roughly three-month journey toward the Sun-Earth L2 point, nearly a million miles away, where it will spend its primary five-year mission surveying huge portions of the cosmos. Roman carries a…

We’ve previously mentioned how the manual gearbox is becoming the preserve of high-end sports and performance models, bu you don’t have to spend half a million pounds on a supercar to get something with three pedals. While we can’t promise a Ferrari’s V12 howl, our selection shows you can find used cars of various bodystyles with an engaging six-speed manual through our Buy A Car service. Mazda CX-5 – £22,300The Mazda CX-5 has long been a left-field family-SUV choice for those wanting something that’s a little more exciting to drive than a Volkswagen Tiguan, for example. While the latest CX-5…

As backlash grows over Flock’s AI surveillance cameras, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has frozen state spending on them. The move came just ahead of the publication of a Texas Tribune investigation that revealed the state spent over $30 million on Flock cameras. That money was primarily raised by tacking a $1 fee onto insurance policies, allegedly to help fight catalytic converter theft.In recent months, cities around the country have been canceling their contracts with Flock, including many in Texas. Abbott’s Democratic opponent in the race for governor, Gina Hinojosa, has criticized him for expanding use of the cameras in the…

If your phone’s acting up or you’re transferring it to someone else, you’ll need to reset it. Harry Howitt/Shutterstock When trying to troubleshoot iPhone issues, there are several escalating steps that can be taken as potential fixes, including both soft and hard resets. Before you resort to taking your phone in for repairs, consider some basic troubleshooting at home. The tech community at large has long been split about the specific definitions of soft and hard resetting. To some, a soft reset means restarting a device, while a hard reset is a complete factory reset that…

Each time Trader Joe’s launches another one of its tote bags, a line wraps around the block and turns everyone from kindergarten teachers and kind-hearted grandmas into chair-chucking WWE wrestlers. The five-figure asking prices for ‘limited edition’ striped totes for sale on eBay only further prove the passion of these hardcore fans. But we can’t throw stones, since we’re the ones that tell you why each new Porsche 911 to debut is the coolest one yet, assuming you have the funds to afford one. The sentiment is no different with the latest Carrera S, which is available with a new…

We’ll never tease anyone for being a conscientious consumer, walking to the corner store instead of driving there, or buying reusable grocery bags instead of cluttering your cupboards up with the plastic ones. But comparing a typical American’s carbon footprint to that of even the most eco-friendly billion-dollar corporation, it’s a drop of water in the ocean. We’re hardly the first to tell you that data centers stand among the worst offenders, but we’re willing to bet it’s worse than you thought, and, once you read the numbers, you’ll never second guess a day at the track ever again. AI…