Another 8 Million Cars Recalled. Was the GM Bailout Worth It?
On Tuesday, General Motors announced yet another recall, saying that more than 8 million vehicles—some dating all the way back to 1997—are at risk of having faulty ignition switches. The recall...
View ArticleCadillac Leaves Detroit for NYC
Cadillac is revving its engine and making a cross country move to the Big Apple.General Motors announced today that New York City will be the new home for Cadillac, which was actually named after...
View ArticleOil Drops May Help at the Gas Pump, But Could Hurt in the Long Term
When you fill up your car this weekend you'll notice that gas is cheaper, down 20 cents a gallon in the last month. Travel organization AAA reports there are now 10 states with gas prices below three...
View ArticleRemembering Car Talk's Tom Magliozzi
For years, Tom Magliozzi and his brother Ray—"Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers"—changed the sound of public radio and pushed the boundaries of what public radio could be.The hosts of NPR's "Car...
View ArticleAmerica: Kicking an Addiction to Mid East Oil?
After Hurricane Katrina destroyed oil refining capacity in the gulf of Mexico in 2005, the price of a barrel of oil hit $60.00 a barrel, then a record high, pushing gas prices above $3.00 per gallon....
View ArticleSurprising Twist: GOP May Raise Gas Tax
Gas prices are the lowest they've been in five years, and drivers are finally feeling some relief.But now that fuel prices are falling, some lawmakers are talking in a serious way about raising the gas...
View ArticleWhat the Car of the Future Will Look Like
A robot car that drives itself might sound like something that belongs in a high-budget Hollywood film, but it might closer to reality than you think.Technology is completely changing the way vehicles...
View ArticleFighting Nazis, Fast (Not Furious), and Recommendations for Crying
This week, Rafer and Kristen explore movies that involve fighting Nazis and being fast (not furious). They also help a listener who wants help letting the tears out. On the chopping block: "Woman in...
View ArticleWhen the Backseat Driver is a Hacker
Like our phones and our computers, our cars can be hacked.And while bad software can mean millions of dollars in recall costs for carmakers, it can also present a frightening reality for drivers, who...
View ArticleYour Car is a Computer. Is That a Good or a Bad Thing?
Click on the audio player above to hear this interview.Volkswagen's acknowledgment that it lied about its emission technology has raised new concerns about regulation in the age of digitized...
View ArticleWhat Volkswagen Can Learn from GM and Chrysler
Click on the audio player above to hear this interview.Deceptive software that has been used to cheat on emissions tests was used in at least 2.1 million Audi vehicles, the luxury car from Volkswagen....
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Deadly Roads Lead Families on Search for Safer Streets
Click on the audio player above to hear this interview.According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, a pedestrian was killed every two hours and injured every seven minutes in traffic crashes...
View ArticleA Huge Step Forward for The Self-Driving Car
Click on the audio player above to hear this interview.Remember when humans used to drive around two ton machines at high speeds daily? It was a freedom celebrated with the roaring engines of the...
View ArticleHow GM Silenced a Safety Inspector
Tim Higgins, reporter for Bloomberg News, discusses the case of a lifelong General Motors employee that the company tried to silence when he blew the whistle on dangerous safety lapses in its cars.
View ArticleAAA Lashes Out Against D.C. Congestion Plan
The District's plan to tackle traffic congestion in downtown Washington is facing opposition from a group that represents drivers.The MoveDC plan calls for better bike lanes, bus lanes, sidewalks and...
View ArticleMan Visiting D.C. Has Wild Ride on Uber
A New York man visiting D.C. on business says he was kidnapped by a driver for the on-demand sedan service Uber and taken on a harrowing ride into Virginia.Ryan Simonetti and two coworkers ordered an...
View ArticleThe New Boom in Subprime Auto Loans
There's been a 130% increase in the number of loans to people with poor credit scores to buy used cars since the financial crisis. Michael Corkery discusses his investigation for the New York Times,...
View ArticleWant to Increase Transit Usage? Ditch Free Parking, Says Study
Commuters respond to incentives. When given a choice between using public transit benefits or driving to work, commuters in the Washington metropolitan area opt for the former, according to researchers...
View ArticleWhat Makes Honda's Engine Roar
Since it was founded as a motorcycle company in 1949, Honda has steadily grown into the world’s fifth largest automaker and top engine manufacturer. Jeffrey Rothfeder was the first journalist allowed...
View ArticleYoung Iraqis are 'drifting' through their country's crisis
Once a week, when night falls in Baghdad, young men get together to drive fast cars and do stunts. The sport is called drifting, and it’s helping some Iraqis forget about the harsh realities of their...
View ArticleWhat it Feels Like to Drive 80 MPH and Never Touch the Gas Pedal
After years of research, testing and development, Google now has 25 self-driving cars cruising city streets in California. From the beginning, the technology company has been the face of autonomous...
View ArticleSelf-Driving Cars May Be Our Safest Option
On average, 12 people die on the world's roadways every five minutes. Cars are killers, says MIT's Lawrence Burns — and car deaths should be treated as an epidemic. One solution? Self-driving...
View ArticleA Radical Future for the Automobile
Levi Tillemann talks about the race to build the car of the future, in The Great Race: The Global Quest for the Car of the Future. Tillemann argues that the $2 trillion automotive industry is in the...
View ArticleAlmost Car-Free Parks
Polly Trottenberg, the commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation and Mitchell Silver, the commissioner for the city's Department of Parks and Recreation, discuss the plan to make...
View ArticleOpen Road Edition: Movies in Motion
A father writes in to Movie Date to ask for suggestions on what to show his 8-year-old daughter while on a road trip. Also, Jack Black’s new movie, “The D Train,” focuses on a man traveling from his...
View ArticleOpen Road Edition: Revisiting Kerouac's 'On the Road'
For almost six decades, Jack Kerouac’s classic novel has been a totem for anyone who crawls behind the wheel in search of adventure. Studio 360 wanted to find out whether the book still speaks to...
View ArticleOpen Road Edition: Drive 80 MPH Without Touching the Gas
Will Knight covers artificial intelligence and robotics for MIT Technology Review. He traveled to Germany and got a taste for what it feels like to take your hands off the wheel, remove your feet from...
View Article7 Car-Crazy Classical Compositions
This October, one of Los Angeles’s most highly anticipated opera openings won’t take place in a theater, but on the city's massive parkways and congested streets. Hopscotch, will play out in 24 cars...
View ArticleEpisode 10: Lenny Shiller's Famous Cars, and the Search for a Lost Father
Lenny Shiller owns some of the most recognizable cars around; his vintage vehicles have been appearing in movies for years (often with Lenny at the wheel). We’ll visit the garage in Brooklyn they call...
View ArticleThese Cars Are Ready for Their Close-Up
Lenny Shiller’s collection of vintage cars, which goes back to the nineteen-thirties, is in a garage in Brooklyn, but some of the cars may be familiar: for decades, Shiller has rented them out to film...
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After a boom year, what’s down the road for the auto industry?
Watch Video | Listen to the AudioJUDY WOODRUFF: 2015 turned out to be a boom year for the auto industry, despite some of the worst news about its practices in recent years. Americans spent roughly $570...
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The Damsels of Design: The Women Who Changed Automotive History
Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear the full segment.For all of the horror that emerged from the Second World War, there were some bright spots: With the men out fighting, women were brought...
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Will robot cars drive traffic congestion off a cliff?
The computer screen in an autonomous prototype Continental Chrysler 300C sedan is seen during an event featuring numerous self-driving cars on Capitol Hill in Washington March 15, 2016. Photo by Gary...
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Automakers recall 12 million cars over Takata airbags
Visitors walk past a logo of Takata Corp on display at a showroom for vehicles in Tokyo on Feb. 5, 2016. Photo by Toru Hanai/ReutersAutomakers are recalling 12 million vehicles over faulty Takata...
View ArticleThe Indy 500 Speeds Up For 100th Running
Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this interview.It's time for the Super Bowl of auto racing.This Sunday marks the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500. More than 200,000 fans will pack into...
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How will driverless cars make life-or-death decisions?
Google’s driverless car prototype. Photo courtesy of GoogleIn a future when cars no longer need humans to drive, choices about who might live or die in a crash are already being made — by the so-called...
View ArticleInside the Takata Airbag Crisis, the Largest Recall in U.S. History
Beginning in 2013, several auto-makers began to recall Takata-made airbags. In the cover story for this week’s Bloomberg Business Review, "Sixty Million Car Bombs: Inside Takata's Air Bag Crisis,"...
View ArticlePutting the Brake on Auto-Pilot?
Will Oremus, Slate senior technology writer, explains the various levels of automation and why other companies seeking to develop self-driving cars aren't copying Tesla.Is Tesla's autopilot a fatally...
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Traffic deaths rise when cities remove red-light cameras, study says
A red light camera in Sheridan, Colorado. Photo by Kathryn Scott Osler/The Denver Post via Getty ImagesWASHINGTON — Red-light cameras are widely hated, but a new study says getting rid of them can have...
View ArticleThe World's Largest Building Will be a 'Gigafactory'
Tesla Motors is building the largest building in the world to house an ambitious battery factory, called the "Gigafactory," in the Nevada desert. It will be three times the size of Central Park.Why?...
View ArticleFord President: We're Not Changing Our Plans Because of Trump
Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this segment.Ford Motor Company announced on Tuesday that they were scrapping plans to build a new manufacturing plant in Mexico. Though the decision comes...
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More states adopt ‘click it or ticket’ laws, but do they work?
Photo courtesy of Flickr user Marcus PinkIn his 28 years with the Utah Highway Patrol, Lt. Lee Perry has seen a lot of carnage from crashes in which motorists weren’t wearing seat belts. One crash in...
View ArticleThe Most Dangerous Machine
Season 6, Episode 35This week on Freakonomics Radio: Uber is disrupting profitable sectors by using one of the world's most dangerous machines. Plus, Stephen J. Dubner learns that data from Uber's...
View ArticleRemixing the Heist Film in "Baby Driver"
Director/writer Edgar Wright joins us to discuss his new film “Baby Driver.” The film follows Baby, a talented young getaway driver (Ansel Elgort) who is reluctantly coerced to work for a crime boss...
View ArticleAs Auto Industry Downshifts, American Labor Stalls
After almost a decade of growth, the American auto industry is showing signs of a slowdown. And while a contracting of the car market is an inevitable reality of a cyclical business, the decrease in...
View ArticleA 'New World Order When it Comes to Car Safety'
Jake Fisher, director of auto testing at Consumer Reports, talks about the latest innovations in car safety features. @CRcarsJake says the 2 big new safety features in cars are forward collision...
View ArticleLabor Day: The Future of Car Safety, 50 Years of Unions, Raising the Minimum...
Happy Labor Day! Today's show honors American workers through different perspectives. But we also know that today is one of the busiest driving days of the year, so we'll start the show with a...
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Traffic deaths spiked in 2016, including pedestrians killed
There were 37,461 people killed on U.S. roads in 2016, the government said Friday. Photo by Flickr user Jim StoneWASHINGTON — Traffic fatalities rose 5.6 percent last year, with the biggest spikes in...
View ArticleWhere criminals get their guns
Across the country, criminals are arming themselves in unexpected ways. In Florida, they’re stealing guns from unlocked cars and gun stores. In other places, they’re getting them from the police...
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