Autopian spy drones, each weighing no more than four to six portable typewriters and powered by a 3 horsepower Harbor Freight 79cc Predator gasoline engine, have infiltrated the tents being set up in the parking lot of Tesla’s Fremont plant that have been acting as Twitter’s new interim head offices. Flying at near-kneecap levels, the drones recorded audio that, if correctly interpreted over the rather substantial drone of those engines, suggests that a significant portion of Tesla’s AI team has been re-directed to FST Beta development....

Is it possible to look at that expression and not think holy crap, that’s a hell of a lot of sass! I bet you can feel the radiant pressure of raw sass energy just beaming out of your monitor, pounding against your face, infusing your pores with weaponized sassium. It’s impressive as all hell. Other Hillman Imp advertising sticks with a bold red Imp, but loses the bold redhead inside....

Back in 2018, I took my 2012 Smart Fortwo off-roading for the first time. Taking that little car off-road wasn’t just fun, but it legitimately changed my life for the better. At the time, it seemed like taking a Smart off-road was a rare concept. Sure, there was (and still is) a lift kit available for the Fortwo, and I’ve seen a number of lifted Smarts. But I’ve never really seen a Smart actually get dirty off-road....

In case you would like a little visual refresher on the evolution of the hilariously-named Hi-Rider Revolutionary Vehicle, which is what Honda tells us HR-V stands for, I have you covered: Look how incredible that first-generation one is! It came in both two- and four-door versions, and was a wedgy little FWD or 4WD small SUV based on the Honda Logo hatchback. It had a really distinctive look with that taught, angular body and the high-riding stance....

Welcome to The Morning Dump, bite-sized stories corralled into a single article for your morning perusal. If your morning coffee’s working a little too well, pull up a throne and have a gander at the best of the rest of yesterday. The Chinese Are Ready For The Future I start today with this clip from “The West Wing” to make two points: We have fairly free trade, though it’s unequal (thus the rush to build EV battery plants in America)....

For about as long as there have been planes there have been entrepreneurs and engineers trying to make aviation more accessible to the masses. Today, there are companies promising to make the sky for everyone with electric VTOLs that are too expensive with far too many limitations to achieve that promise. Back in the 1960s and 1970s, there was another engineer promising to make aviation more accessible. As homebuilt plane publication Kitplanes wrote, Jim Bede was an aviation engineer with big dreams....

Early this morning a 2011 Black Audi A4 with Quebec licence plate X10 SNP smashed through Vaughan Mills. Two suspects committed a break and enter and fled. If you have any information on this vehicle or the suspects, please call police. pic.twitter.com/m358aeD3G3 — York Regional Police (@YRP) February 1, 2023 According to police, the incident took place at Vaughan Mills, just a few minutes north of Toronto. It’s the sort of sprawling suburban shopping center where you can find everything from Hot Topic to Kate Spade....

Welcome back to Comment Of The Day! Every day, we read every single comment posted on our site and pick the one that made us laugh, get informed, or feel warm inside. You don’t have to go into our comments sections and write thousand-word stories about why you love a car so much, but a lot of you do, and that means a lot to us. So we’re highlighting some of the most excellent bits of thought that you’ve formed into words and digitized onto our website....