I sometimes think here at Ti we’re in danger of being a little backwards looking. Guilty, perhaps, of a touch of nostalgia; of succumbing to the temptation of thinking that things were somehow better ‘before’. We may at times be a tad grumpily suspicious of things like EVs, or touchscreens, and to wish that the days of the manual gearbox and naturally aspirated engine could last forever.
I’m as guilty as any of us. I am embarrassed to admit that I once replied to an unfortunate journalist who asked me to list the Alpine A110’s ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) with ‘well, it’s got a throttle pedal and a steering wheel’, with more than a whiff of self-satisfaction. But I do genuinely try my best, as engineers should, to dispassionately analyse new technologies and to point out their benefits as well as their inconveniences.