The Weekly Driver Podcast

Craig Nehamen is a co-founder of Fair. It's among several apps debuting within the past decade that provide a new car leasing option for way for consumers.

The app, which launched in September 2017, allows consumers to lease a previously owned vehicle for a short or long time frame.

Nehamen is our guest on episode #130 of The Weekly Driver Podcast. Co-hosts Bruce Aldrich and James Raia talk with Nehamen about the business and the process of leasing a vehicle online via Fair.

The Fair.com app provides a "subscription" service for consumers interested in using a vehicle for  short or long-term needs.

The car leasing option, Fair calls a subscription, is increasingly popular during the coronavirus. Consumers are still buying vehicles but car dealerships aren't currently a viable option.

Car leasing safe with Fair.com

Conceived to fill the white space between long-term car renting, car-sharing and car ownership, Fair provides no commitment, all-in leases, allowing its customers to drive the vehicle for as short or as long as they'd like. Dealerships sign up to offer inventory via the Fair app, and customers use the app to browse available inventory.

Even without a health crisis, more consumers are buying and selling vehicles online. The "brick and mortar" car-buying options are less appealing for more people. Car leasing is smart option.

According to its mission statement: "Fair aims to grant access to mobility to everyone by pioneering the car-as-a-service (CaaS) concept. It gives customers the freedom to drive the car they want for as long as they want, and the flexibility to walk away at any time."

Fair has undergone management changes. The company had expanded its availability to 27 states. But it's currently available in California and Florida. Expansion is pending.

Join us as we discuss the Nehamen the demographics of Fair's customer base and how the company's business is changing during the coronavirus.

The Weekly Driver Podcast encourages and appreciates feedback from our listeners. Please forward episode links to family, friends and colleagues. And you are welcome to repost links from the podcast to your social media accounts.

Support our podcast by shopping on Amazon.com.

Please send comments and suggestions for new episodes to James Raia via email: [email protected].

All podcast episodes are archived on www.theweeklydriver.com/podcast Every episode is also available on your preferred podcast platform:

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Ron Richman, an attorney in San Francisco, recently received a phone call from the eldest of his two sons, Sam, a lawyer in Los Angeles. The father immediately heard something in his son's voice that wasn't right.

His instincts were accurate. The younger Richman, 29, had been driving his 2014 Subaru Impreza hatchback with a friend as a passenger on Santa Monica Blvd. at 30-35 miles per hour. He was hit from behind by a car witnesses estimated was traveling about 80 mph. The Subaru Impreza then hit a bus.

The totaled driver's side of a 2014 Subaru Impreza hatchback after a recent Los Angeles crash. All images © Ron Richman/2020.

The aftermath of a Los Angeles accident and the remains of the Subaru Impreza hatchback.

The totaled driver's side of a Subara Impreza hatchback after a Los Angeles crash.

The driver and front-seat passenger in this Subaru Impreza left this mangled vehicle on their own and sustained and recoverable injuries.

A car accident attorney can help determine the legal ramifications of the situation.

Sam Richman suffered a concussion, bruised lungs and kidneys, deep bruises from his seatbelt, a sprained ankle and a concussion. Sam's friend, whose name is not being used via request, suffered two crushed fingers, a sprained left hand, bruises and a black eye. Both are recovering well.

The elder Richman, who lives with his wife Kathleen in Foster City, California, is our guest in Episode #129 of The Weekly Driver Podcast.

Co-hosts Bruce Aldrich and James Raia discuss the accident and its aftermath with Richman. We talked about how a used Subaru Impreza helped saved the lives of his son and his son's friend.

Subaru Impreza impressive

"My son said he never saw the car coming," said Richman. "The next thing he knows he's is hit from behind, spinning the car around and into oncoming traffic. His car then hit an oncoming LA Metro Bus. The bus driver was able to slow down some and swerve, avoiding a head-on collision."

Richman, who drove to Los Angeles with his wife to assist their son, further explains:

"The Subaru had front and side airbags, front and back seats, all deployed. The side airbags truly did their job, but as little as I know about car design and crumple zones, it appears the car did exactly what it was designed to do, absorb the impact and protect the driver and passengers."

"After seeing the car, I was just shocked, and amazed that my son and his friend were able to walk away from that crash with relatively minor injuries."

Richman, who supplied the images in this post, also explains how talking about what happened has helped him.

Without one vehicle negotiating its 18 percent devilish descent on turn 8 or even one engine starting, WeatherTech Laguna Seca Raceway has negotiated a lot of racing in recent weeks.

But it's all been behind the scenes and against the calendar clock and uncertainty of the coronavirus.

WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca gas amended its season calendar and will now begin to host the competition in July. Image © WeatherTech Laguna Seca Raceway.

Joining the ever-lengthening list of sports teams and venues, the raceway and recreation area has amended its yearly calendar with a series of rapid-fire announcements.

Barry Toepke, director of marketing and communications for the raceway, is our guest on this episode of The Weekly Driver Podcast. He discusses with co-hosts Bruce Aldrich and James Raia how the famous raceway has adjusted its season in conjunction with various national series calendars.

WeatherTech Raceway season 3 months away

With an amended schedule, raceway competition will start in July and extend through early December.

The schedule will include a rare doubleheader. With the cancellation of the Detroit Grand Prix in late May due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey will now also include a second race Sept. 19. It will join the previously scheduled race Sept. 20.

Likewise, because of the coronavirus, the Trans America SpeedFest and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and Sea Otter Classic cycling festival, all international events, have been rescheduled. Local events, including the Twilight Cycling event and Cars & Coffee, both scheduled for late April, have been canceled.

Campers already sheltering in place can remain at their sites if rental fees are current. While the track remains closed, hiking and biking trails remain open, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

"We have a 500-plus acre park and people want to come out for a little respite," said Toepke. "You see the deer and the bobcats around; there's more wildlife. It's quiet."

Toepke said because of the rescheduled calendar of early in the season, the recreation area's hillsides remain green.

"Being such a big park, there's a lot of landscaping that needs to be done,” he said. "Without on-track activities, our team can go out a start the landscaping and clean up the weeds. When we do open our doors, hopefully in July, people are going to notice the difference, that the place looks good."

In addition to maintenance, management had also planned to begin a track repaving project in September. But the rescheduling of the race calendar has postponed the project.

Two weeks after the MotoAmerica Superbike Superfest, the Ferrari Challenge Series is scheduled (July 23-26). It will be followed by the Monterey Pre-Reunion (Aug. 8-9), Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion (Aug. 13-16), Monterey SportsCar Championship (Sept. 4-6), Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey (Sept. 18-20) and Trans Am Speedfest (Dec. 3-6).

The Sea Otter Classic will be held Oct. 1-4.

Spectators who have already purchased tickets to any impacted events can use their tickets on rescheduled dates. Additional ticket information is available via email: [email protected] or via the website: www.weathertechraceway.com.

The Weekly Driver Podcast encourages and appreciates feedback from our listeners. Please forward episode links to family, friends and colleagues. And you are welcome to repost links from the podcast to your social media accounts.

Support our podcast by shopping on Amazon.com.

Please send comments and suggestions for new episodes to James Raia via email: [email protected].

All podcast episodes are archived on www.theweeklydriver.com/podcast

Every episode is also available on your preferred podcast platform:

Google Play

iTunes

Spotify

Stitcher

iheartradio

The Weekly Driver Podcast took a brief hiatus during the continuing coronavirus crisis. But Co-hosts Bruce Aldrich and James Raia both live in Sacramento, Calif., are back to discuss the coronavirus in the auto world

#126: Couple embraces home tech business | RSS.com

Valerie Antkowiak and Mark Pallone are retired Intel engineers, but they're still involved in their careers via a home-based business about home technology.

The husband-wife team, who lives in El Dorado Hills, California, publishes the website AppMyHome.com. The site and their home is the testing ground for all things in the extended home technology field.

Valerie Antkowiak of appmyhome.com discussing the technology in her new 2020 Hyundai Santa Fe.

Antkowiak is our guest on episode No. 126 of The Weekly Driver Podcast.

Co-hosts Bruce Aldrich and James Raia discuss talk with Antkowiak about the couple's history with the site and their process for testing home technology equipment.

The couple's home technology extends to the automobile industry, and we discuss that, too. We talk about navigation systems to the future of autonomous driving.

Antkowiak and Pallone recently purchased a Hyundai Santa Fe, and they're impressed with varied and efficient technology functions the South Korean SUV features.

Antkowiak narrates and Pallone produces a piece on the extensive features available on the Hyundai. It's among the many videos the couple has featured on their YouTube channel.

Here's how Antkowiak and Pallone define their business:

“Exploring technology and products available for the Smart Home, the Kitchen and Travel. We test and review products in our own home or occasionally, at our friends’ and relatives’ homes, and share our experience with stories and videos.”

For more tech reviews, visit: www.appmyhome.com.

Episode Transcript

[00:00:00] James Raia: Welcome back to The Weekly Driver Podcast. My name is James Raya. I'm an automotive columnist for Bay Area News Group, and I edit and publish the website, the weekly driver.com. My friend and colleague is Bruce Aldrich, and today our guest is Valerie Ann Kak. Valerie and I met, at a meetup group several months ago, and we had a nice conversation after getting some expertise in, in the WordPress world in Sacramento.

And Valerie was nice enough to contact me oh, a few weeks ago that she and her partner husband bought a. New Hyundai Santa Fe, and she let me know that we had talked about that and they drove it and they liked it and they thanked me for my recommendation, which was really nice of them.

But more importantly is that Valerie in her world does great things with a wonderful app called app my home.com, and on that website. You guys just do everything in the wonderful world of how it technology relates to your home. And the video that you guys did on YouTube about the navigation system and other things in the Honda Santa Fe was very impressive.

So that gets us to today, and we've reciprocating each other's expertise. And so you're our guest today to talk all about all the things that in the technology world with in your website that relate to the automobile, which is. Almost everything these days. So the long way of saying welcome to our show, and it's great to have you as a guest.

[00:01:38] Valerie Antkowiak: Oh, thank you very much. I'm happy to be here.

[00:01:41] James Raia: Valerie, can you take us through a kind of a general overview of the site and how it began for the two of you and what what the mission statement is, if you will? Of, of at my home. Sure.

[00:01:54] Valerie Antkowiak: So my husband and I started at my home in 2013. And we're both techies, we both work at, we worked at Intel and so we obviously love technology and we were playing around with all these smart home gadgets.

And my husband Mark, he just kept bringing home all these different things to play with. First it was smart light bulbs, and then it was a smart garage door opener. And then and he just he would hook them up and he would put the app on his phone and put the app on my phone, and then he would tell everybody about it.

Oh, I got this great smart light bulb. Let me show you how I can turn it on and off from my phone. And so after all of this, all this expense at the Apple store and a lot of stories, yes, I said to him, I said, Hey. I said hey, maybe we should start a blog and then instead of me hearing the same story 50 times, when you tell all of our friends, typical husband, wife, open the garage door.

[00:02:44] James Raia: Yes.

[00:02:45] Valerie Antkowiak: Yeah, I said, maybe we should start a blog and, I wanted to learn how to do blogs and learn how to do social media better. And I gave at first my feeling was I was gonna give Mark a platform to to talk about all this with everybody. So we started on Twitter and face.

Book and we called the app from my home because at the time everybody was using apps on their phone to control everything. So that was really the only way you could control things in your house. You download an app and then all of a sudden you change the light bulb color from red to green to blue, or you can open and close your garage door.

You can lock and unlock the door. So that's how we got started. So it started off as fun we would. We would put some things on there. We got the very first video doorbell that one of the very first ones that came out called the SkyBell. And Mark would write little pieces. He would basically email them to the WordPress site and we'd put them up there.

And after, maybe 10 or so of those little blogs, I said, Hey, how about you install the technology and I'll do the writing and maybe that'll work out a little better. Yes. So I, I have a background in journalism and I was a product manager and a software engineering manager, but I wasn't getting a lot of opportunity to write.

So it was a great partnership for both of us. I could do some writing and he could tinker with the electronics in the house. And our first goal was, it was a hobby. And I thought, maybe if we get some free stuff out of this, it will help us pay for the website hosting.

Sure. And we won't be spending $60 on a light bulb at Apple Store all the time. So that's how we got started. Back in 2013, the smart home technology market was different. I would say it's still not mature, but it's evolved a lot over the years and we've had a lot of fun. We go to the Consumer Electronics Show every year and look at all the new gadgets and write about it and shoot videos and we're, we're at the point in our, on our website.

Companies really enjoy working with us and we have no problem getting free gadgets to test. That keeps us really busy and achieved my first goal of getting the free stuff. We really like it because we. We're both technology people. We like working with a new technology.

We like, especially working with the small companies that are really trying to make a difference. And our policy is that, if you send us a product and we test it we know we keep it in our house, we'll do a video or a story. But if we don't like it and we don't think it works very well, we're not gonna do a negative story.

It's just not our, it's not in our personality. It's not what we'd like to do. We think everyone's really trying hard to make these products work, and we don't see the point of doing a negative review. So in that case, we would just send the product back, and that's happened a couple times and not very often.

Most of these products now are really good and they, we can always find something good to say about them, even if it's not the exact thing we would recommend.

[00:05:27] James Raia: Yeah, I would say similar to that in the automotive world is people sometimes will ask Bruce's more of an expert in automobiles than I am, but they'll ask, what kind of car should, what would you consider?

And I would say something along the lines every car's got something good to offer and. I'm not of the mindset to rip cars either, because they're all, in my opinion, they're all pretty good. They're just degrees of better than, some are better than others. But yeah I understand and agree with your point is that there's something, why be a doom and gloom or there's something positive or there's some balance.

If there's a fault or a weakness in the product that you review, that's okay, but there's no reason to go after stuff on purpose like that. So in take moving forward, you've had the site for almost a decade now. And I'm not asking specifically, but it's turned in, it sounds like it's turned into a good business for the two of you.

You have Amazon affiliate, you have other relationships, and how are the two of you finding the business world of owning a website? Is it, something that you could work 24 7 and still work on it, or do you, have you found some balance that, we're turning off the laptops, now it's time to do something else.

[00:06:37] Valerie Antkowiak: I think that we're in a situation in our lives where, we can drive how much we wanna work or not.

[00:06:42] James Raia: Yes.

[00:06:42] Valerie Antkowiak: Yeah, we both retired from Intel. Mark did it in 2016 and I left in 2018.

And we just, we, we, we we're able to make some. Some money from the Amazon affiliates.

Affiliate marketing is challenging.

[00:06:55] James Raia: Yes. As

[00:06:55] Valerie Antkowiak: probably everybody knows. But, so we're make, we're able to make some money and we're able, especially with YouTube, everything is going to YouTube nowadays, so we're really focusing on getting more videos onto YouTube because we get a lot more traction, all of that.

So it's going well for us and it's. We love to travel and so it gives us the opportunity to do it from wherever we are. And the nice thing about traveling is that you, when you have smart home technology, you can keep an eye on your house while you're away. So that makes it a nice,

[00:07:23] James Raia: that's really good.

Yes.

[00:07:25] Valerie Antkowiak: A nice benefit. It's and we drive how much we wanna work or not....

#125 Drive Toward A Parkinson’s Disease Cure | RSS.com

Deb Pollack has been involved in the automotive industry for decades. She's worked for small and large companies and several manufacturers, Ferrari to Maserati and General Motors to Mitsubishi

Pollack's work in public relations, which the Los Angeles-based businesswoman describes as the "blending of cars and camaraderie," has also resulted in her national philanthropic efforts with the organization she founded, Drive Toward A Cure (www.drivetowardacure.org).

Deb Pollack (driving) is the founder of the non-profit Drive Toward A Cure. It raises money to benefit the fight against Parkinson's Disease. Image courtesy of Deb Pollack.

In addition to currently working as the publicist for the boutique restoration house Singer Vehicle Design, Pollack advocates the ability to team cars and camaraderie to raise funds to benefit the battle against Parkinson's Disease.

Pollack is our guest on Episode #125 of The Weekly Driver Podcast. Co-hosts Bruce Aldrich and James Raia discuss with the organization's founder how her idea — fundraising automotive-travel events around the country — has grown, and what's planned this year.

"Having been in the car industry for several decades — blending cars and camaraderie has always been something of second nature," said Pollack, based in Los Angeles. "But when I lost my mom to Parkinson’s in 2006, I realized there were meaningful ways to share friendships and the emotional bonds and gratification that driving can bring to support the challenges others may face."

The first of a diverse series of Drive Toward A Cure events this season is the organization's inaugural 'weekend getaway.'

Specifically, it's The Kentucky Bourbon Trail Getaway.

As Pollack describes the weekend:

"It's a full day of unlimited Touring Lapping at the NCM Motorsports Park before heading to Louisville. After we’ve checked into the historic Brown Hotel, we’ll hit a local 'speakeasy' for great food and libations, and a chance to unwind.

"Saturday will feature a relaxing day touring several hand-picked Kentucky Bourbon distilleries and three great meals. Finally, on Sunday we apply the tried-and-true Drive Toward a Cure formula of great back road driving, crossing state lines into Tennessee and changing time zones with great visits to the Bavarian Bierhaus in Nashville and the Lane Motor Museum!"

In addition to other rally-travel days, Drive Toward A Cure also recently expanded its fundraising efforts to support for those challenged by Parkinson’s Disease by establishing an all-new "Special Assistance Fund." It will provide financial assistance to qualified applicants following extenuating circumstances, such as the recent devastating tornado in Nashville, Tennessee.

Since its inception, Drive Toward A Cure has raised more than $300,000, including contributions that provide financial assistance for research and patient programs.

For program details and this season's schedule of events, visit: www.drivetowardacure.org

 Episode Transcript

[00:00:00] James Raia: Welcome back to episode number 1 25 of The Weekly Driver Podcast. My name is James Raya. I'm an automotive columnist for Bay Area News Group, and I publish the website the weekly driver.com. My co-host and friend is Bruce Aldrich, and today for our 125th episode we have on a woman I met briefly a couple of years ago, maybe three years ago now at the LA Auto Show.

Her name is Deb Pollock. Pollock. I almost, I didn't angle it. Deb Pollock, I beg your pardon. Deb Pollock is the founder and runs with her husband, I believe an organization called Drive Toward a Cure. And it's a, from what we know about it it's doing great things to raise money for. Parkinson's disease, and I would venture to say almost everybody has a friend or a relative who's been afflicted by Parkinson's.

And so Deb is doing this great thing [00:01:00] every year to raise money with rallies and functions across the United States and different areas. And she's our guest today to talk all about the program she has. Welcome, Deb, to our podcast. Thank you very much for being available.

[00:01:12] Deb Pollock: Thank you James.

Appreciate it very much. Just two quick things. I'd just love to just say yeah. I am the founder of this organization. My husband is not a part of it. I beg your pardon. He's a supporter, but he's not, he is not part of the whole program. My partner in Cause is a gentleman by the name of Mark Davidson, who has been with me since the beginning inception of this as well as a colleague professionally for probably 20 years.

And Mark is based in Toronto and Mark has a company called Intelligent Communications and he helps us with our branding and our website and all of the visuals that you see out there. And he's really more my partner in cause. So I'd love to say it's my husband, but he's my travel husband. I guess

[00:01:54] James Raia: that's it.

Thanks for sitting me straight. I made an assumption there and. So thanks for filling us in. Could you [00:02:00] give us an overview of what precipitated the organization and what's it all about in a good general overview? Sure.

[00:02:07] Deb Pollock: Sure. I unfortunately lost my mom to Parkinson's in 2006 and and it was, a trying, challenging experience and I've been a part of the automotive community for a god awful long time, probably since the late eighties.

And. Part of my role as a publicist in automotive has been including product launches and doing things that are interactive with cars. And in 2006 I was working with Ferrari, north America and Maserati, and one of our very big friends and parts of Maserati and Ferrari was a gentleman by the name of Phil Hill, who I'm sure you're.

Aware of,

[00:02:43] James Raia: never heard of him. And

[00:02:44] Deb Pollock: Phil was America's first Formula one champion, Phil. Yes, he was Phil. Phil and his family based in Santa Monica. And are good friends of mine. And unfortunately, Phil was facing the cha, same challenges. He had Parkinson's and when he turned 80. Through Ferrari and Maserati, we decided to [00:03:00] ask him to come out to a a test day for the press up at Laguna Seka.

And we surprised the press by bringing out Phil for his 80th birthday celebration and bringing out a Maserati Mc 12 and his son and giving Phil, which turned out to be his final time on a racetrack. And we felt that we were the bookends of Phil's racing career because his first. Big race was back in 1958 in Rems, in a Maserati, I think it was a two 50 GT or something.

And then we, the last drive that he was in was the Maserati Mc 12 that his son drove on the track. Yes. And when we brought him out, there was not a dry eye in the house. And it was a wonderful day for him. He was happy and it was a wonderful day for us. And unfortunately later that year, he had passed away.

And after he passed away. We took his car out to the Danville Concor and they, in turn were friends of Phil's and they were raising money for Parkinson's at the time. And both he and my mom were treated at the Parkinson's [00:04:00] Institute where they were raising money for. And so I had gotten previously fer I and Maserati involved in the charity program.

And when Phil passed away they separated. Stayed on, but we brought the mc 12 back and said, you know what, we wanna do some passenger hot laps in Phil's name and raise some money. And so we brought that mc 12 and Derrick Hill back to Laguna Seca and we sold passenger hot laps. And I didn't know what to charge, I thought, what do you do for something like that?

And I charge 250 bucks and in an hour and a half we raised $7,500. Fantastic. Wow. And it was. A wonderful experience. We took the car out to the track, we did the hot laps and filled my purse with money and went to the Parkinson's Institute and said, this is all you know in Phil's name. And I continued working with the Danville program for a number of years as a volunteer and said to them, you know what?

We're in a really high net worth area. We're with people that really enjoy driving cars. We should include in your weekend of car events. 'cause they did a car [00:05:00] show and they also did a a gala dinner at the Black Hawk Museum. I said, we should do a drive. We should do something interactive to get these people out there and participating.

So we started a one day tour and it was just for lunch where you went from the Walnut Creek area up to Napa. And we chose a different winery every year and raised some money. And that went on under my domain for eight years. And people kept saying, why don't we do a weekend?

And I never had time because I do work full time. This is really just, my volunteer efforts and I happened to be the publicist for a small. Boutique restoration house called Singer Vehicle Design. It's a Porsche company. And so I'm busy all the time with that and I said I don't really know that I'm gonna have the time.

And they kept asking. And then in 2016, my mom would have turned 90 and it was 10 years after she was gone. And I said, gosh, if I don't start something official now, it's never gonna happen. And so we started drive toward a cure. I went to. My partner in cos Mark, [00:06:00] who I had brought over to help on the Danville program as well, and he and I had worked together for years at Ferrari and Maserati and I said, why don't you help me with this?

And together we decided we're gonna, we're gonna create drive toward a cure. And it began as a, weekend multi-day rally. A program.

[00:06:17] James Raia: Yes.

[00:06:17] Deb Pollock: For. For enthusiasts to participate for several days for a good cause, and and to see where it would go. And so we did one to two of those a year and it was really great.

We became a 5 0 1 C3 in 2016 and I didn't know. At that time, what more to do,

Steven M. Johnson is a cartoonist with a fondness for the absurd. With astute detail, humor and poignancy, he's a purveyor of wacky, futuristic product ideas. It's all silly, except for when it's not.

Johnson, an editorial cartoonist and illustrator for nearly 60 years, is our guest on this week's episode of The Weekly Driver Podcast. The 81-year-old author of 10 books lives and works in Carmichael, California.

The Honest Commute (above) is among Steven M. Johnson's Patent Depending panels about the auto industry. Below, left to right, a cover of one of Johnson's books and two additional examples of Patent Depending series. All images courtesy of Steven M. Johnson.

A former city planner who attended Yale but transferred and graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in Journalistic Studies, Johnson was a long-time general assignment cartoonist for the Sacramento Bee. He also had a weekly panel at the newspaper with future ideas called A Step Ahead.

Feature reporters were fortunate when Johnson was assigned to illustrate their stories. We didn't work together often, but more than 35 years ago, I wrote an article about taking "gambler's buses" for the newspaper's long-ago defunct section called Out & About. It was a glimpse into the popular transportation method of many pensioners who enjoyed making the trip from Sacramento to Lake Tahoe.

Johnson's illustration showed the bus, newly equipped with arms and legs, sitting a poker table playing card with other patrons. It one of my brief moments into the cartoonist's world.

On another occasion, during the major long-distance running frenzy in the 1980s, Johnson illustrated an article I wrote for the same outdoors section on newfangled running gear.

The cartoon showed a runner burdened with all kinds of contraptions, some of which were included in the article. Johnson added other ideas for embellishment, hilarious doses of worthy, light-hearted sarcasm about some of the ludicrous products.

The former high school and collegiate runner had already accomplished much before his 17-year career at the newspaper. And much has happened since.

Johnson's favorite topics include the automobile and transportation industries. It was how his admirable career began at age 36 while he was employed as the editorial cartoonist for formerly titled Sierra Club Bulletin.

"The first assignment that triggered the 'inner inventor' in me was in 1974 when I was asked to envision future RVs," Johnson recalls. "The editor wanted 16 cartoons and I created 109. I could not stop!"

Follow his tenure working for the Bee, Johnson was hired as a "futurist" for the research and development division of Honda. It's part of Johnson's collection of employment titles, some self-determined like whimsicalist and possibilitist.

Some of Johnson's bizarre ideas have proven prophetic. In 1975, Johnson fashioned the idea of pre-torn clothing. He described a product similar to Google Glasses in 1992. Several ideas in his theme of Public Therapy Buses have been made. His auto panels include Road Office, Honest Commute and Tunnel Bus. Thousands of his ideas abound in cartoons.

Nearly a decade ago, Johnson began his involvement with the Maker Faire, the global yearly gathering of inventors and artists. He had a booth in Xian China in 2017 and in Shenzhen two years ago.

Johnson's involvement resulted in a contract with a publisher in China. His current two-book project is scheduled for publication this year in the world's largest automotive market.

Please join co-host Bruce Aldrich and me for our interview with Johnson. We discuss the artist's long-time fascination with automobiles and other transportation matters, all wonderfully absurd.

The full spectrum of Johnson's work is available on www.patentdepending.com.

The Weekly Driver Podcast encourages and appreciates feedback from our listeners. Please forward episode links to family, friends and colleagues. And you are welcome to repost links from the podcast to your social media accounts.

Support our podcast by shopping on Amazon.com.

Please send comments and suggestions for new episodes to James Raia via email: [email protected].

All podcast episodes are archived on www.theweeklydriver.com/podcast

Every episode is also available on your preferred podcast platform:

Google PlayiTunesSpotifyStitcheriheartradio

Danny Shapiro, Senior Director of Automotive at Nvidia Corporation in Santa Clara, California, is as knowledgeable as anyone in the autonomous automotive industry. The technology company is at the forefront of delivering solutions to automakers for self-driving cars, infotainment, digital instrument clusters, rear-seat entertainment and advanced driver assistance systems.

Nvidia's GTC Technology Conference, scheduled March 22-26 in San Jose, California, is the premier AI and deep learning event, providing you with training, insights, and direct access to experts from NVIDIA and other leading organizations.

Danny Shapiro discusses Nvidia and the 2020 GTC Technology Conference in this episode of The Weekly Driver Podcast.

Shapiro is our guest on this episode of The Weekly Driver Podcast. Co-host Bruce Aldrich and James Raia discuss all things related to the future of autonomous vehicles with the 25-year veteran of the computer graphics and semiconductor industries.

Shapiro has degrees in electrical engineering, computer science and business administration from Princeton and UC Berkeley. And he's keen on the solutions that will enable faster and better design of automobiles, as well as in-vehicle solutions for infotainment, navigation and driver assistance.

Since 2014, Nvidia has diversified its business focusing on four markets: gaming, professional visualization, data centers and auto. Nvidia is also now focused on artificial intelligence.

In addition to manufacturing, Nvidia provides parallel processing capabilities to researchers and scientists that allow them to efficiently run high-performance applications. They are deployed in supercomputing sites around the world.

Where is the future of autonomous driving? We discuss that. How safe is it? We cover that, too, as well as the fierce competition in the marketplace of the Silicon Valley in California and China.

Join us for an informative episode from an expert in the future of autonomous vehicles.

For additional information, visit: GTC Technology Conference

The Weekly Driver Podcast encourages and appreciates feedback from our listeners. Please forward episode links to family, friends and colleagues. And you are welcome to repost links from the podcast to your social media accounts.

Support our podcast by shopping on Amazon.com.

Please send comments and suggestions for new episodes to James Raia via email: [email protected].

All podcast episodes are archived on www.theweeklydriver.com/podcast

Every episode is also available on your preferred podcast platform:

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The Weekly Driver Podcast usually has at least one guest each week, sometimes more. But sometimes co-hosts Bruce Aldrich and James Raia just talk it out.

We did exactly that in episode #122. There's always a lot going on in the automotive industry— recalls to Tesla's latest fiascos, the further saga of the autonomous driving industry to new car and truck models.

Bruce Aldrich and James Raia interview automotive experts every week on The Weekly Driver Podcast.

Bruce and I agree on many areas of the automotive industry, but not everything.

Listen to the new episode of our 30-minute podcast as we cover a lot of areas, the above-mentioned topics to a few random opinions about cars old and new.

It's also a good time to reiterate our appreciation for the guests we interviewed from many areas of the automotive world. We've talked with famous people, renowned mountain climber and van enthusiast Alex Honnold to Larry Dominique, President of Peugeot North America.

We've chatted with spokespeople from trade shows, auctions and various entrepreneurs. We interviewed vintage car collectors, artists and memorabilia experts. We're having a blast.

The Weekly Driver Podcast also needs our listeners' assistance. The more listeners, the better our chances of secure funding to expand what we do best — staying abreast of the automotive industry. Spread the word about our podcast via your social media accounts.

The archives of our 2 1/2 years of podcasting, all my automotive reviews dating to 2005 as well a sign-up for my just-debuting electronic weekly newsletter are all available on my website, theweeklydriver.com.

If you'd like to support theweekldydriver.com financially via advertising or sponsorship, please contact me via email: [email protected].

The Weekly Driver Podcast also encourages and appreciates feedback from our listeners. Please forward episode links to family, friends and colleagues. And you are welcome to repost links from the podcast to your social media accounts.

Also support our podcast by shopping on Amazon.com.

Please send comments and suggestions for new episodes to James Raia via email: [email protected].

All podcast episodes are archived on www.theweeklydriver.com/podcast

Every episode is also available on your preferred podcast platform:

Google Play

iTunes

Spotify

Stitcher

iheartradio

Julie Blackley, communications manager for the car search engine iSeeCars.com, is a frequent guest on The Weekly Driver Podcast. Blackley writes and distributes monthly studies that analyze automotive data, on topics ranging best used cars to popular car colors to states with the most pick-ups.

The wide-ranging categories, according to the website, are aggregations of a massive amount of information tabulated from "proprietary algorithms to objectively analyze, score and rank millions of cars and tens of thousands of dealers, providing helpful insights and guidance to users to find a good car at a good price from a trustworthy seller."

Best used cars, best new cars, best enduring cars from iseecars.com.

For automotive statistics junkies, the site is a tremendous fix.

Blackley was our recent guest in her fourth appearance on The Weekly Driver Podcast. Co-hosts Bruce Aldrich and James Raia discussed with her the results of data from three recent studies:

1. Top 15 Vehicles Owners Keep for 15 Years or Longer; 2. The Most Popular Cars By State (the 10 largest states) ; 3. The Best Used Cars For 2020.

Due to technical issues, our interview with Blackley is not available.

Instead, Bruce and James revisit the three areas of the most recent iSeeCars.com surveys and recap the knowledge and insight Blackley provided. In separate posts, I have also published each of the surveys and well as a new analysis of the most popular car colors.

Links to the posts our archived podcast episodes with Blackley are also provided below.

The iSeeCars.com site is a comprehensive platform for all car buyers, and The Weekly Driver Podcast recommends visiting the site for practical information to help determine your next purchase.

As Blackley says, "I write and disseminate monthly studies that analyze iSeeCars data on topics that help consumers navigate the difficult car-buying process."

The Weekly Driver Podcast encourages and appreciates feedback from our listeners. Please forward episode links to family, friends and colleagues. And you are welcome to repost links from the podcast to your social media accounts.

Support our podcast by shopping on Amazon.com.

Please send comments and suggestions for new episodes to James Raia via email: [email protected].

All podcast episodes are archived on www.theweeklydriver.com/podcast

Every episode is also available on your preferred podcast platform:

Google Play

iTunes

Spotify

Stitcher

iheartradio