About the Car and Driver Gear Team: Why Trust Us
Since 1964, Car and Driver has prided itself on hands-on testing and real-world experience behind the wheel and under the hood to bring you the best in automotive news. The Gear Team brings that same legendary passion and knowledge to our product reviews and gear tests.
We take the same approach to gear that our car reviewers rely on to test cars: We evaluate products on their own merit, compare them to the competition, and tell you the truth.
With many of the trusted magazines and newspapers of the good old days replaced by search-engine-hacking, algorithm-manipulating websites, the Gear Team delivers honest evaluations of the most popular automotive parts, tools, and products, driven by decades of knowledge and experience.
If you're finding yourself increasingly baffled, bemused, and disappointed by the "expert" reviews you see online these days, you can still trust Car and Driver. The Gear Team gets our hands on nearly every product, tool, and piece of gear we test, and we never recommend anything we wouldn't buy ourselves.
The Gear Team chooses all our products independently based on our knowledge of the automotive market and gear landscape. We never accept payment in exchange for editorial placement. Ever. We'll never say anything is "the best" if we wouldn't recommend it to our friends or buy it ourselves, and we won't tell you we've tested something unless we've put it through our own wringer. That's a promise.
The Gear Team purchases most of the gear and products we rate and review. Some is supplied by manufacturers for testing purposes; trustworthy manufacturers and retailers offer us the chance to test their gear because they believe in the quality and value of the work they do and the products they make and sell. In fact, we're often suspicious of companies who refuse to donate products for evaluation.
Car and Driver is one of the largest, most influential automotive publications in the world, so we don't have to worry about gaming search engines to get traffic, or promoting lousy products to sell junk. Rather, we're concerned with our legacy, our reputation, and most of all the trust that you, our readers, have in us. We know you rely on us to give it to you straight, and like our editorial car reviewers, the Gear Team promises to deliver the truth, every time.Head of Special Projects
Thanks to the Cannonball Run movies and tales of his father's beloved 1969 Plymouth GTX, Patrick Carone has been obsessed with cars since the Reagan administration. Testing vehicles from his home in New York City has given him the dubious ability to confidently pilot half-a-million-dollar supercars through midtown at rush hour.Deputy Commerce Editor
Jon Langston is an avid motorcyclist and gear collector whose work has appeared in Men's Journal, The Drive, Rider, Iron & Air, Cycle World, and more.Associate Commerce Editor
Collin Morgan is the Associate Commerce Editor at Hearst Autos, where he presents the best gear for your automotive endeavors. He's been a technician in the trenches of Midwestern automotive repair, explored the automotive shrines in central Italy, and now enjoys making slow cars go fast around various Michigan racetracks.Commerce Editor
Collin Morgan is a Commerce Editor at Hearst Autos, where he presents the best gear for your automotive endeavors. He's been a technician in the trenches of Midwestern automotive repair, explored the automotive shrines in central Italy, and now enjoys making slow cars go fast around various Michigan racetracks.Associate Testing Editor
Gannon Burgett loves cameras, cars, and coffee: a perfect combination for his Hearst Autos work. His byline has appeared in USA Today, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Digital Trends, the Detroit Free Press, and more.Associate Testing Editor
Gannon Burgett loves cameras, cars, and coffee: a perfect combination for his Hearst Autos work. His byline has appeared in USA Today, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Digital Trends, the Detroit Free Press, and more.Assistant Testing Editor
By day, Katherine Keeler evaluates tools for your enjoyment; by night, she Frankensteins her ever-changing fleet of rust-bucket oddities back to repair. Her dream is to open a roadside attraction where the public can view, drive, and learn repairs at her emporium of curious cars.Associate Testing Editor
By day, Katherine Keeler evaluates tools for your enjoyment; by night, she Frankensteins her ever-changing fleet of rust-bucket oddities back to repair. Her dream is to open a roadside attraction where the public can view, drive, and learn repairs at her emporium of curious cars.Assistant Commerce Editor
The Assistant Commerce Editor for Hearst Autos, Justin Helton is an enthusiast with a passion for heavily depreciated autos and a penchant for philosophical debate. As a lifelong Manhattanite, he has mastered the ins and outs of classic car ownership in one of the least car-friendly cities in the world.Assistant Testing Editor
With a degree in multimedia journalism and a passion for the automotive world, Mason Cordell enjoys driving, wrenching, writing, and everything in between. At the age of 22, his garage consisted of a '95 Miata, an '08 M5, and a 1987 Porsche 944S. Clearly, he has a problem.
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Car and Driver
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1981 Honda Accord SE Pushes Honda into $10K Territory
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USA Today
2 days ago
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Waymos are being torched in LA. Why burning EVs isn't a good idea.
Waymos are being torched in LA. Why burning EVs isn't a good idea. Waymo taxis were set on fire during L.A. protests. It's unclear whether they were called or if protesters simply took advantage of their presence Show Caption Hide Caption Protesters set Waymo cars on fire in Los Angeles anti-ICE protests Footage showed flames and thick smoke as demonstrators set Waymo cars on fire during an anti-ICE protest in Los Angeles on Sunday afternoon. Multiple Waymo self-driving robotaxis were set on fire in Los Angeles during protests there. Other cars were also put to the torch but the Waymos have garnered special interest, partially because they're something new on the scene and partially because as electric vehicles, they raise different and specific concerns if their batteries burn. Here's what we know and what experts worry about. How many Waymos burned? From social media and photos, it appears that at least five Waymo self-driving robotaxis were set on fire on Sunday, June 8 amidst immigration protests in downtown Los Angeles. Protesters smashed windows on the cars – all Jaguar I-PACE electric SUVs – as well as spray painting them with anti-ICE and anti-Trump slogans. Some were also set on fire. The burning cars, whose base sticker price is $73,000, according to Car and Driver, sent plumes of thick black smoke billowing into the blue Los Angeles sky, making for stunning photos that have figured prominently in many media feeds about the protests. What's Waymo doing about the attacks on its cars? Waymo has suspended service to the affected area of downtown Los Angeles. A Waymo spokesperson told USA TODAY on Monday morning, June 9, the company has removed its vehicles from downtown Los Angeles and is currently not serving the area "out of an abundance of caution." The spokesperson said the company is still operating in Los Angeles, which covers 500 square miles, and is working in coordination with the Los Angeles Police Department. What other cities have Waymos? Waymo are available for rides in Austin, Phoenix, Los Angeles, parts of Silicon Valley and all of San Francisco. They're expected to start in Atlanta, Miami and Washington in 2026. In April the company announced its first foreign venture, with testing beginning in Tokyo. According to the company, more than 250,000 trips a week are taken in its driverless robotaxis. Waymo is owned by Google's parent company, Alphabet. Are people targeting Waymos specifically? It's not clear if the Los Angeles protesters were specifically targeting Waymos or if the cars just happened to wander into the area and because they have no drivers, they were perceived as more vulnerable or they simply didn't know to drive away. The Waymos that burned all appeared to be empty, meaning no passengers were potentially at risk. There have been suggestions online that protesters might have called Waymos to the area specifically to set them on fire. However that would mean Waymo would know the name and contact info of the people who'd called them, making the scenario less likely though certainly not impossible. Waymo would not say how its cars came to be in the area. There have also been suggestions that the Waymos were targeted because they are festooned with cameras, meaning they might be used to identify protesters engaging in illegal activity. However many modern cars are equipped with cameras, so Waymos aren't that different from most newer vehicles on the road. In cities where Waymos are available, which include San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin and Phoenix, the cars are very much like human-driven taxis. They're a frequent sight as they drive around on their way to pick up passengers, or to park as they wait for their next ride request. That means they're often wandering around on city streets, especially in popular and busy areas – like downtown Los Angeles. So it's quite possible the Waymos that were attacked were just going about their business and happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. It's also true that Waymos are very conservative in their driving habits and won't drive threateningly if surrounded by people. So while a human driver might rev their motor or honk or drive aggressively to get out of a potentially dangerous situation, a Waymo would just calmly try to go on its way – making it an easy target. What happens when an EV burns? Electric vehicle fires can burn hotter and more intensely than gasoline-fueled cars, if their batteries catch fire. This can happen if they are crashed or if their batteries are infiltrated with saltwater, as can happen to cars nears the coast during hurricanes and flooding events. If an electric vehicle's battery is damaged by a collision or water intrusion, a short circuit can occur, which causes the cell to discharge energy and heat up. This can lead to an event called 'thermal runaway,' in which the heat propagates from one cell to the next, causing them to burn. Heat generated from a fire, thermal runaway of an adjacent cell, or shorting of the battery can melt the porous membrane between the battery's cathode and anode, causing this cell to go into thermal runaway. The heat causes the cell to vent flammable gas, which can ignite and catch fire, which can cause a chain reaction. Is a burning car a health hazard? There are important distinctions between electric vehicle (EV) fires and traditional gasoline-powered vehicle fires, both in terms of combustion characteristics and potential health hazards, said Dr. Alberto Caban-Martinez, deputy director of the Sylvester Firefighter Cancer Initiative at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. EV fires can release gases such as hydrogen fluoride, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, and metal-based particulates. 'These emissions differ in composition from those generated by gasoline combustion, which primarily include carbon monoxide, benzene, and other hydrocarbons,' he said. The health concerns from EV fires arise for anyone nearby, particularly bystanders downwind of the smoke plume who may inhale toxic combustion byproducts, Caban-Martinez said. But firefighters are at special risk due to the frequency and intensity of their exposure to EV fires. 'Firefighters often work in close proximity to the fire, are involved in prolonged suppression and overhaul tasks, and may experience cumulative exposure over the course of their careers. Repeated exposures, even at low doses to hazardous substances released during EV fires can increase the risk of long-term health effects, including respiratory disease and cancer,' Caban-Martinez said. Putting out a fire in an electric vehicle requires different techniques If an electric vehicle's battery catches fire, different firefighting techniques can be required to quench it. Firefighters are trained on these techniques and the National Fire Protection Association offers emergency response guides to most alternative fuel vehicles. Today most EVs are built with what are known as "cut loops" or "first responder loops" that allow firefighters and first responders to easily cut and disconnect the high-voltage system outside of the high voltage battery, to reduce the risk of electric shock and possible fire. Note: this can only be done safely by trained professionals with the appropriate tools and gear. EV fires are more difficult to put out than ones in gasoline-powered cars and require different firefighting techniques, which firefighters are trained on. The biggest difference is that an EV battery fire cannot be put out with the type of firefighting foam used to smother other fires. If an EV battery is on fire, it does not require oxygen to burn because it is self-sustaining, so the foam cannot stop the fire. Instead, the battery must be cooled to stop the fire and end thermal runaway. One technique is to use special "pancake nozzles" that can slide underneath the vehicle to spray water on the bottom of the battery box, though these require large amounts of water.
