K1K2
01Engineering / Transmission · 21 min
How DSG Broke the Automatic — and Sometimes Itself
Volkswagen’s dual-clutch gearbox made shifts disappear, reset the automatic and generated one of motoring’s fiercest reliability arguments.
Read story →Vienna · Subject desk
Systems · Failure · Consequence
Engineering
The interesting part of modern automotive engineering is not that it is complicated. It is how the complication changes the driver, the repair bill and the life of the car ten years later.
4 published pieces
Engineering / Human factors · 11 min
The Car That Made You Worse at Driving
Modern cars prevent crashes brilliantly. They also ask a less practised, more distracted human to rescue them when the brilliance runs out.
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Engineering / Diesel · 9 min
The Medieval Cathedral Built Around a Diesel Engine
How soot, nitrogen oxides and regulation turned one engine into an entire chemical works.
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Technology / Evidence · 10 min
Your Car Is a Witness
The final seconds before a crash can survive inside the car with less imagination than any eyewitness.
Read story →Read the DSG story
Start with the engineering.
Understand what the dual-clutch transmission changed before comparing individual families and failures.
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