Tesla Cybertruck (first time)
Not my picture, just one I saw on reddit, but still the most interesting car I’ve seen today.
A Mustang Mach-E Electric hearse.
Someone else looked up the plate number and found a website that sells electric hearses. This website feels like it’s claim to fame isn’t that the hearses are electric, but rather that they’re odd looking (IMHO) versions of regular passenger vehicles.
Here’s a Ford Cardinal, which I believe is a Taurus.
This is also a Ford Cardinal. Looks like someone just frankenstein’d two cars together.
Interestingly, at least to me but maybe it’s more common in the UK than it is here, the casket/coffin is up at window height so onlookers can see it. I know in the US some hearses do that, but you don’t see them often.
What did you think of it?
Waymo driverless Jaguar I-PACE all-electric, AWD self-driving SUV
In San Francisco, a Waymo driverless Jaguar I-PACE all-electric, AWD self-driving SUV loaded with lidar, radar, and cameras used for its “eyes”.
One of these days, I want to give Waymo a try!
Produced since 2018, the I-PACE will be discontinued this year. The I-PACE has an EPA-rated range of 234 miles, and according to wiki, it can ford through water that’s up to 20 inches deep.
Waymo is headquartered in Mountain View CA and was founded in 2009 as the Google Self-Driving Car Project. Its company roots include the Stanford University Self-Driving Car Team back in 2004, the Stanford Racing Team competing in 2005, and DARPA Grand Challenges in 2007 (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). Waymo has been operational as “the world’s first fully driverless ride on public roads” since the fall of 2015. Waymo became the first company to offer service to the public without safety drivers in the vehicle in October 2020.
Besides San Francisco and Daly City in California, Waymo also operates its commercial robotaxi services in Phoenix, Arizona, and Los Angeles, and will soon expand to Austin TX. They use Nvidia’s GPUs (which are also used in AIs) and also Intel CPUs.
Waymos have had some crashes, and fortunately with no reported fatalities.
Search images for Waymo crash Phoenix AZ ➜ Waymo crash Phoenix AZ - Google Search ←
Search, Waymo market recall ➜ Waymo market recall - Google Search ←
Waymo’s Jaguar I-PACEs, or their software, have been recalled for bug fixes:
● 13 Feb 2024 ➜ Voluntary recall of our previous software ←
● 13 Jun 2024, 672 driverless cars were recalled to make them less likely to drive into telephone poles ➜ Waymo recalls driverless cars to make them less likely to drive into poles | CNN Business ←
And…
On 13 May 2024 the US NHTSA’s ODI opened an investigation on Waymo for 17 crashes and 5 other incidents. (US NHTSA ODI, National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration Office of Defect Investigations
NHTSA’s ODI
See ➜ https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/inv/2024/INOA-PE24016-12382.pdf ←
)
But have they made a hearse from a Jaguar?
Not electric, but The Queen Mum got a ride in one.
Looks like QE2 was in a (ICE) Mercedes, but I’m seeing conflicting info. Though some of that may have to do with the badge vs what the base vehicle actually is.
And here’s a Nissan Leaf, for when your buddy’s last wish is to ride shotgun to the burial spot.
Holy cats, that’s so ugly. And so much needless complication on the glass, sheet metal, weather stripping, gaps to fill, etc. And not even good sightlines for the freight, comparing between the two.
This post
prompted me to look up classic Jaguar hearses in Google Images.
I certainly won’t see anything more interesting than this Daimler today.
Ferrari 458 Italia in Mountain View CA, by the hospital
Porsche 356 coupe in Mountain View CA
They have some other interesting ones on their site as well…
There’s also a “camper van hearse” but from the outside, it just looks like a regular camper van.
Now that’s going out in style!
I forgot to post this yesterday… I took my Miata out for a drive yesterday while the weather is still nice enough to drive with the top down, and I passed a classic Woodie station wagon heading in the opposite direction. I’m not completely sure of the make and model, but my best guess is maybe early 1940s Ford.
There must have been a Miata club ride on Sat as we saw a TON of 'em heading back west as we were going East in the afternoon. They were interspersed with other cars over a period of miles, kind of like they left a restaurant as each table finished & paid. It was sunny but only if the 50s so not exactly top down weather but a lot of them did have tops down, & no doubt bundled up inside. Interestingly, many more classic ones than newer ones.
Yesterday, I saw a dumb car - a one-off Smart car with big off-road tires, no doubt it was a Frankencar converted to 4WD, not quite as jacked as this Solstice, though
Austin Healey 3000.
A tricycle Hummer limo. Well, it was sitting, in traffic, on three tires…& one rotor! 
Let alone this:
A few years ago I saw one of these (not this one, just one like it driving down the street)
I came across a couple NYC cabs today, blocking traffic. This was in downtown LA, with a huge crowd, cops, and film crew. Was very tempted to give them a NY salute, but was too busy just trying to get through the mess.
50 seconds, and 50 years of the Porsche 911
About 50 seconds apart this afternoon I spotted two Porsche 911s that were manufactured about 50 years apart from each other: the blue Porsche 911 GT3 PTS made in about 2020, and the orange Porsche 911T made in about 1970.
When you see a first generation 911 on the road today, they are downright tiny. Very small. And when you see a late model 911, you can see how they’ve gotten so much bigger. They’re massive. But they are also much safer in a crash than the originals.
The blue Porsche 911 GT3 PTS was parked in downtown Sunnyvale. When I was done taking pictures, not 1 minute later this orange Porsche 911T drove by. I chased it down and its driver pulled over to park and talk with his wife on the phone. He was okay with me taking these pictures.
With these two examples you can quickly see the evolution of the Porsche 911, which has been manufactured since 1964.
I have no idea, no guess, what the “10DREAN” plate is supposed to mean. Any guesses?
The Porsche 911 GT3 is a high performance, track-oriented homologation of the 911 that focuses on the racing models. The GT3 nameplate was introduced in 1999 with the 911 type 996.1. It is a homologation model for the cars entered in the FIA GT3 racing cup, the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, for grand tourer racing cars.
According to wiki, GT3 cars are designed to have a weight of about 2,700 lbs and engines with about 500-600 HP. All GT3 cars have a very similar power to weight ratio, but that is achieved either by high power and high weight cars like the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG, or by lower power and lower weight cars such as the Porsche 911 GT3.
This particular blue example is a Type 992 GT3, which has been produced from 2021 onwards. To compare the 911 GT2 and the 911 GT3, the 911 GT2 focuses on the massive power and higher absolute speed, while the 911 GT3 focuses on tighter gearing, lighter responsiveness, and better overall handling.
MSRP for the 911 GT3 starts at about $190,000 and can go up to about $300,000 depending on trim and options.
What is PTS? Porsche’s Paint To Sample, part of Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur, the department that offers high-end, enhanced personalization for customers, focuses on the unique and special colors made by Porsche through the years. There are approximately 105 special colors from Porsche’s past according to Boris Apenbrink, Director of Exclusive Manufaktur Vehicles at Porsche. Historical Porsche colors like Signal Yellow and Viper Green and Guards Red are some of what customers can specially order today. But PTS, Paint To Sample, takes the color personalization process to a higher level. Porsche experts take your color choice and they effectively create it from scratch. “There’s a lot of development involved in making a new color,” said Boris Apenbrink. “It’s similar to how perfumes are created. The way they mix together ingredients to create a special fragrance is also true for our ‘colorists’. These experts take the tiniest pieces of different ingredients, combine them to make a unique color.”
➜ Paint your Porsche any colour you want with Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur ■
➜ PTSRS – the Instagram channel for Porsche Paint to Sample ■
Moving on to the orange 911T, the 911T was first launched in 1967 and was manufactured until 1973. To remind, the Porsche 356 was Porsche’s first car manufactured for the public and was made from 1948 to 1965. The Porsche 911 was their second car and has been made since 1964. There was a small overlap between the two cars in 1964 and 1965.
The 911T was first introduced as a Europe-only model designed to be a lower priced, lower performance entry point into the world of 911 ownership. It sat below both the 1968 911L and the 1968 911S. The 911T featured engine Type 901/03, a 2.0L, 6 cylinder boxer engine that made about 110 horsepower. By comparison, the engine in today’s GT3 typically makes over 500 horsepower, and the 1968 Porsche 911S made 160 horsepower.
➜ The history of the Porsche 911 ■
➜ Porsche 911t Buyer | Beverly Hills Car Club ■
➜ The original 911: the masterpiece from Zuffenhausen - Porsche Newsroom ■
