Author: kirklandc008@gmail.com

Automotive What started as a closely watched federal investigation has now become a full-scale recall, and it is a big one for Ford. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has upgraded the probe into a recall covering 1,392,935 Ford F-150 pickups from the 2015 through 2017 model years equipped with the 6R80 automatic transmission. The core issue remains the same one that first raised alarms: a signal loss tied to the transmission system that can trigger an unexpected multi-gear downshift, with the potential to momentarily lock the rear wheels and increase the risk of a crash. For anyone…

Tesla launched its “Robotaxi” service in Dallas and Houston yesterday — expanding to two new cities for the first time since Austin. There’s just one problem: there are virtually no cars available. Data from Robotaxi Tracker shows that Tesla’s new Houston and Dallas deployments have had 0% to 2% availability over the past 24 hours, with only brief spikes to around 50% during a narrow morning window before dropping back to zero. It looks like Tesla deployed a car or two in each city and called it a launch. The pre-earnings pattern If this sounds familiar, it should. In January,…

Today’s launch of AST SpaceMobile’s BlueBird 7 satellite aboard Blue Origin’s reusable New Glenn rocket was a partial success. The New Glenn touched down on its landing pad without incident, making it the second launch and landing for the first stage booster, and officially giving Jeff Bezos a reusable launch vehicle. Unfortunately for AST SpaceMobile, the mission was less successful. Its cell-tower-in-space was delivered to a lower orbit than expected by the second stage of the launch vehicle, rendering it functionally useless.While the satellite separated from the launch vehicle and powered on, the altitude is too low to sustain operations…

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes There are few things more frustrating than switching on your car’s air conditioning on a warm day only to be greeted with a blast of warm air. Whether you drive a compact hatchback or a premium saloon, this issue is surprisingly common. The good news is that most causes are diagnosable and often fixable without excessive cost. his guide explains the most common reasons your car AC is not cooling properly, how to identify the problem, and how to approach repairs without overspending. How Car Air Conditioning Actually Works To understand why things go wrong,…

Is breakfast the most important meal of the day? Pfft. Only if you want it to be: there’s not much evidence beyond some observational studies. But we’ve been conditioned into believing it by a breakfast food maker who asked a physician to agree it was true, who in turn asked a group of other doctors to countersign his statement. That was sent to the newspapers and so later it’s what our mums told us when they wanted us to eat our porridge. Ultimately, though, it was a marketing campaign, a message that Big Bacon concocted when it wanted to boost sales. Eat…

Small economies often experience the same basic problem: They do not have enough people or enough local demand to build a broad industrial base. Small populations limit internal consumption, and that means businesses have fewer chances to reach the scale that lowers costs. That is why many small economies have limited industrialization and rely on a few primary economic sectors such as fishing, agriculture, government services, or tourism. When imports are expensive and labor markets are thin, a domestic manufacturer has a hard time competing. Isolation makes this worse. In remote areas, a container of fuel, cement, or food can…

Hyundai’s U.S. EV sales grew by 40% between February and March, the company’s CEO said.  José Muñoz, CEO of Hyundai Motor Company, attributed the gains to higher gas prices.  The Hyundai Ioniq 5 continues to be one of America’s top-selling EVs, despite the market’s downturn. Stubbornly high gas prices have many people wondering: Could this trend reenergize a sluggish U.S. market for electric cars? Have EV sales boomed as a result? Not yet. But just over a month into the conflict with Iran, there are already signs that things are beginning to shift.  According to Hyundai Motor Company CEO José…

Apple’s MacBook Neo is a $600 (or $500 for students) shot across the bow at affordable Windows laptops, and it seems like Microsoft has ready its first response. The newly announced “Microsoft College Offer” is a bundle of Microsoft 365 Premium, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, custom Xbox controller and discounted laptop that the company thinks could woo students away from Apple’s new deal.With the purchase of a discounted machine directly from Microsoft, retailers like Amazon and Best Buy or PC makers like HP, ASUS and Acer, you can get what the company says is an extra $500 of value from…

In a market where midsize sedans are increasingly defined by value rather than aspiration, the Kia K5 GT-Line stands out as an exception. Not only does it compete on price, it also punches into territory once reserved for entry-level luxury cars. From the moment you approach it, the K5 GT-Line projects a sense of intent, blending aggressive styling cues with a level of polish that feels far beyond its segment. Under the skin, the K5 GT-Line is engineered to strike a careful balance between performance, efficiency, and everyday usability. What makes the K5 GT-Line compelling isn’t raw output or sumptuous…

Some people love the look and “out there” design of an old sports car but feel that regulators have been too draconian in “banning” things like pop-up headlights. They may feel particularly aggrieved because those regulators don’t seem to be doing anything about the size of pickups and SUVs. Those blunt-edged big guys must represent more of a threat to pedestrians than any pop-up headlight-equipped car and the disparity seems particularly unfair if safeguarding pedestrians is the name of the game. However, this story is not quite so straightforward, as regulators did not simply ban headlights in the US under…