The Car Curious Weekly for July 19, 2026

The Car Curious Weekly is a look at what the automotive podcast world is talking about, who's saying it, and what patterns emerge when you listen to all of them at once.

July 12 - July 18, 2026 · 243 episodes across 159 podcasts.

This week's podcasts examined the gap between autonomous vehicle hype and regulatory reality, while questioning what defines a car's core features. Tesla's Cybercab operates within a limited geofence, but regulators made clear that no driverless vehicle anywhere is street-legal without human controls yet. Meanwhile, Ferrari's new clutch-by-wire manual raised the question of whether a transmission is "manual" when software mediates the driver's input to actuators instead of mechanical linkage.

Here are the five biggest storylines and where they showed up across the feed.

Cybercab Runs in a 14-Square-Mile Geofence, but No Driverless Car Is Street-Legal Yet

A regulatory expert told Smart Driving Cars Podcast that every autonomous vehicle currently on public roads, whether operated by Waymo, Tesla, or anyone else, is running in test mode, because no market has issued a framework allowing a driverless vehicle to be sold and operated legally without human controls.

Smart Driving Cars Podcast:
Smart Driving Cars episode 416 -new regulations for driverless, Waymo, Tesla and more

"There isn't any vehicle that can be sold today in any market today that can be sold as a street legal vehicle that either an individual or a company could operate in driverless mode."

Kilowatt found the Cybercab confined to roughly 10 to 14 square miles of Miami and noted that its charging port disables drive capability while plugged in. The more consequential detail is what's absent: without a steering wheel, brake pedal, or accelerator for a human to use, Kilowatt argued the car is Level 4 autonomous by definition, not by any regulatory sign-off.

Kilowatt: A Podcast about Electric Vehicles:
The Flintstone's Guide to FSD, Robotaxis and Cybercab

"If the Cybercab does not have human input in terms of steering wheel, brake pedal, and accelerator, then that Cybercab has Level 4 autonomy."

Waymo, meanwhile, is logging 500,000 trips a week across multiple markets, according to The InEVitable, with safety data the company claims shows a large advantage over ride-hail drivers. The gap between operational scale and legal standing is the story: the vehicles are running, but the regulatory structure to call them street-legal does not yet exist.

The InEVitable:
The Rideshare Guy: How Uber Drivers Make Money, and When Robotaxis Take Over

"Waymo is now doing 500,000 trips a week in a bunch of different markets."

Ferrari's Clutch-by-Wire Manual Revives the Question of What a Manual Is

Ferrari's 12Cilindri uses a clutch-by-wire setup that reads pedal position and uptake rate, then relays those inputs to actuators instead of mechanically connecting driver to gearbox, a distinction Full Throttle Talk and Carbage Time both flagged this week, extending the debate five shows opened in last week's recap.

Carbage Time noted the contradiction plainly: automakers once insisted drivers didn't want manuals, yet 83% of buyers for one expensive model chose exactly that, and third parties are now retrofitting manuals into cars that left the factory without them.

Full Throttle Talk:
Ferrari's Fake Manual? The Future of Driving Just Got Complicated

"This is like a manual clutch by wire rather than actual, like a mechanical actuation of a clutch and the gears."

Full Throttle Talk described the Ferrari arrangement as layering e-manual technology on top of a dual-clutch transmission, a setup that preserves the physical ritual of clutch-and-shifter without the mechanical link that defines it to purists.

Carbage Time:
Carmakers Were Lying To Us About Manual Transmissions

"They said people didn't want manuals and now people are retrofitting backwards, either companies or third parties."

VW's Board Deadlock Puts German Co-Determination Under EV-Era Pressure

Volkswagen's supervisory board rejected management's restructuring proposal by a vote of 12 to 7, a result Automotive News Daily Drive attributed to co-determination, the German governance requirement that large strategic decisions need buy-in from union representatives who hold board seats.

The Automotive News Daily Drive panel noted that straight job cuts and factory closures were always a difficult sell under that structure, and that once an automotive factory closes, it does not reopen.

Car Stuff Podcast:
200 MPH Corvette, VW is Hurting, Where the EV Market is Going

"Volkswagen's problem is, is multi-fold in that they invested very heavily in electric vehicles. And part of this was because they had been embarrassed by Dieselgate."

Autoline Daily added that VW, Mercedes, and BMW are all down more than 30 percent in China over the last quarter, tightening the financial vice around whatever compromise the board eventually reaches. Car Stuff Podcast framed the underlying trap: Volkswagen spent heavily to develop an EV platform after the diesel scandal, and that platform has not delivered.

Automotive News Daily Drive:
July 14, 2026 | Peter Sigal talks Volkswagen’s tough decisions; EV range anxiety decreases

"VW's supervisory board voted down management's restructuring proposal 12 to 7."

Australia Sets EV Sales Share Record at 23.4% as UK Road Trip Finds Charging Still Patchy

Australia recorded a new EV sales share record of 23.4%, with the leading brand now only 234 units behind Toyota, according to Ludicrous Feed.

A decade after its first charging-infrastructure benchmark run, the Motoring Podcast completed a repeat road trip around Britain to measure how much the network has improved, finding reliability still inconsistent enough that the advice is to move to the next machine when one fails.

Motoring Podcast - News Show:
Recharging Round Britain Day 3 - 15 July 2026

"We did charging around Britain 10 years ago. We wanted to find out how good the charging infrastructure was back then, and we wanted to find out how good the charging infrastructure is right now."

Driver's Republic Podcast added a complication the sales record doesn't capture: most drivers don't understand that charging speed drops sharply above 80% state of charge, and the hosts argued that closing that knowledge gap is as urgent as building more chargers.

Driver's Republic Podcast:
Goodwood '26, 1300km range Passat, charger etiquette

"Number one, it's way, way slower than when you started once you get to 80%."

Auto Credit Approval Index at Its Highest Since 2015, Average Loan Rate at 10.68%

U.S. auto credit availability has returned to 2015 levels, meaning lenders are approving more borrowers, including subprime, even as the average loan rate sits at 10.68%, per CarEdge Live.

The combination is producing predictable downstream damage: CarEdge Live reported a 5.67% subprime 60-day delinquency rate in June 2026, the second highest June on record since 1994.

CarEdge Live:
Customers REFUSE to Purchase, Car Dealers FEELING THE PAIN | Episode 1110

"The issue with this dealership is they add $2,554 in add-ons."

Negative equity declined slightly from a March record of 59.2% but remains 220 basis points higher than a year ago, with the average underwater borrower owing $7,183 more than their vehicle is worth, a figure Edmunds expects to rise further. Dealer add-ons compound the math, with CarEdge Live flagging one dealership piling $2,554 in extras onto already stretched loan totals.

Hidden Gems

Episodes worth checking out that you might have missed:
- Vertical Aerospace (Everything Electric Podcast) (Everything Electric Podcast): Technical analysis of eVTOL battery engineering, thermal runaway mitigation, and distributed electric propulsion, with insider perspective on how battery density and safety innovations enable flying cars beyond the marketing claims.
- Build a Business Worth Owning... and Worth Buying E265 (Chris Cotton Weekly Blitz): Flips conventional shop coaching upside-down by measuring success not on monthly KPIs but enterprise value, actionable framework for shop owners thinking about exit strategy or long-term sustainability.
- 20 Years In Automotive Journalism: Jason Cammisa's Most Insane Assignment, Carmudgeon Ep. 244 (The Carmudgeon Show) (The Carmudgeon Show): Behind-the-scenes look at a disastrous 1,000-mile 1983 Cadillac limo rally where everything breaks down repeatedly, revealing how automotive journalism unfolds in the field, beyond the standard press release.
- #159 Automotive Nostalgia (Best In Class): The hosts use specific sensory details, the sound of a Porsche 356 in third gear, the smell of an eight-track Chrysler LeBaron, a Ferrari fire on Mulholland, instead of vague reminiscing, connecting weekend Sunset Boulevard cruising to childhood diecast collecting to learning manuals on the wrong car.

Recommendations

If You Only Listen To One

Mark McCann: Fixing His BROKEN Bugatti & The Shocking Repair Bill Revealed, Cars & Money

The Bugatti Veyron repair saga has everything: a gearbox hunt that goes cold, a shop that stops returning calls, a 'full-on scam' involving a second-hand gearbox, and a final bill of £39,000 after they literally split the car in half. McCann tells it with genuine disbelief at each new development, and the hosts keep prodding for specifics on parts scarcity and why hypercar ownership economics are so brutal. Even if you have no interest in owning a Veyron, the story of a £1M+ car becoming an expensive paperweight while the clock ticks is compelling listening.

More Episodes Worth Hearing

• The best car I've driven this year (Smith and Sniff): The episode earns its headline through a winding path: ice cream van tangents, diesel stench jokes, and a Saab 99 barn-find story before landing on the Renault Twingo EV verdict. The hosts have genuine chemistry, and the sideways opener about 'mind that child' signage sets a tone that makes the eventual straight-faced conclusion about a city EV being the year's best drive land with more impact than a conventional review ever would.
• Episode #233 - Overpriced Wheels & Screaming Deals (Another Pointless Automotive Podcast): The hosts work through a sharp, opinionated breakdown of which collector cars are priced way beyond what they deliver to drive (air-cooled 911 SCs, Ferrari Mondials, the NSX/Supra gap), then flip to genuine bargain picks like the Mitsubishi 3000GT VR4 and the Miata NB. The Gran Turismo versus Forza tangent is a nice detour that explains exactly how gaming shaped a generation's sense of what cars are desirable and why those perceptions haven't faded.
• Ep 50: WHY MECHANICS HATE THESE CARS! (The ReDriven Podcast): The Ford Ranger wet belt section alone is worth the listen: the host explains how a timing belt running in an oil bath can fail early and then details the extraordinary disassembly required to fix it. The Mercedes Vito injector story (engine removal because the rear injectors are unreachable) and the broader argument about warranty gaps making repairs economically impossible give this practical content a genuine edge-of-frustration energy.
• "I Never Took Their Money!" Why Some Manufacturers Tried to Blacklist this "Car Mom" | Kelley Stumpe, Founder & CEO at The Car Mom (Car Dealership Guy Podcast): Stumpe's explanation of why she refused manufacturer money and how that decision shaped her independence reveals a more nuanced story than the headline suggests. Her argument reframes a familiar dealership complaint from an angle most car content ignores: family car shoppers treat the purchase as a safety decision, not a casual buy, and salespeople consistently fail to match that seriousness. The child car seat fit discussion is specific and practical, grounded in real constraints families face.
• AAH #799 - Honda: New Hybrids, More MPGs On The Way (Autoline After Hours): Honda VP Lance Wolfer gives straight answers on the Prelude return, Civic volume strategy, and why Honda sees EV buyers gravitating toward hybrids instead of waiting. The USMCA and tariff production discussion covers specific compliance pressures that most industry analysis overlooks, and the CPO and dealer experience section reveals where Honda's retail relationship stands heading into the second half of 2026.

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Also from our team: Suspension News is a daily automotive briefing for people who need to stay informed without spending their morning reading car news. It scans industry news, trade publications, filings, Reddit, and YouTube, then turns the important stuff into one useful email.

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243 episodes. 3021 car mentions. 12125 terms explained. Browse every episode with searchable annotations and plain-language term definitions in the Car Curious app.