QOTD: What Other Automotive Web Sites Do You Visit Regularly?

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– Posted on March 6, 2017

This question is a bit different, but I thought it might be interesting to learn a bit more about our readers’ reading habits. First, I’ll share with you my top sites (after CC, of course!) that I check in on towards the tail end of my breakfast or lunch-time reading:

You might be surprised to know that they’re not old-car sites. In fact, I very rarely visit old car sites, unless it’s specifically part of some research I’m doing. Frankly, the last thing I need is additional eyeball time with old cars.

Truth be told, I’m actually as much or more interested in what’s happening currently in the automotive world. When I started writing for TTAC, I wrote about current auto news, as well as my Auto-Biography. I didn’t start doing Curbside Classics until 2009, two years later, as a new sideline.

But my interest in new cars has very much narrowed down over the years/decades. Frankly, my interest in most new cars per se is fairly limited, meaning I’m not all that up on every current model and their stats and features, excpet in a general way. My interest going way back, and cultivated from my experience as a business executive (in the tv industry) is primarily in the business of cars, hence Automotive News (subscription) is at or near the top of my daily reading.  Although I have to admit, I wish they were better at what they do. A lot of the writing and journalism (as is so commonly the case these days) is often marginal; none more so than the consistently mediocre/sleepy editorials of its Editor in Chief (and owner, I assume) Keith Crain. I assume his dad built up Crain Media, not him.

And of course too much of its focus is on dealers, and that’s not at all interesting to me. But it does cover the key automotive industry stories, and I’d rather get them from the source than re-blogged by one of the many blogs, which all get a lot of their stories from AN.

The other site that has become a daily check-in for me is Electrek. Apparently unlike so many of you, I’ve always been very interested in new technology, especially in regard to energy efficiency, electric cars, alternative energy sources, and more recently, autonomous vehicle technology. And Electrek covers most of these quite thoroughly, especially developments with Tesla and other EVs, the dramatic improvements in photo-voltaic efficiency and cost, and other related developments.

1 GW solar array in China

Did you know that PV costs have dropped much more dramatically in the last couple of years than anyone predicted? And its implementation is now switching from primarily individual roof-top to utility-scale micro-plants that can now replace fossil fueled plants cost-effectively, due to price drops in panels and large battery systems (like Tesla’s) so that they can be effectively buffered.

Without going into details, the growth of solar and/or battery-buffer systems is exploding globally, due to unexpected drops in cost and and improvements in efficiency. US solar installations in Q3 of 2016 was up 191% of the same period in 2015.

Ok, enough of that; I’m probably boring some of you to tears. But I find it quite exciting to see how new technology is making huge transformations in energy production, automobiles, and other forms of transportation.

And one more mention: I have come to follow Alex Roy (at thedrive.com  or the autonocast he does with my son Ed and Damon Lavric). Alex has more hands-on experience and thoughtful insight into autonomy and its unfolding impact than anyone out there.

Back to you and the question at hand: Where else do you go to get your daily fix of automobile-related media?