Category: Opinion

RoboCop Is Already Policing Our Roads – How AI Judges Drivers

AI traffic cameras were just the beginning. Around the world, machines are now judging how you drive – and once the system decides, there’s no arguing back

Remember when getting pulled over went a bit like this… You’d clock the flashing lights, feel your stomach drop, rehearse your apology, and then hope – just hope – that the officer was having a good day. Maybe you’d get a telling-off. Maybe a warning. Maybe, if the stars aligned and Mercury was in retrograde, you’d get sent on your way with a “take it easy, mate”. Yeah, about that…

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Driverless Chaos, Insurance Mortgages & Other Car Predictions for 2026

Cars that drive themselves, insurance that costs more than the car, and progress that appears to have misplaced the steering wheel – welcome to 2026

The future has arrived. Not with a heroic fanfare or a cinematic fly-through of a gleaming metropolis, but more like a confused relative turning up late to Christmas dinner wearing mismatched socks and asking if anyone’s got the Wi-Fi password. Because the trouble with the future is this: it never arrives the way the sci-fi promised. There are no flying cars. No elegant solutions. No perfectly optimised utopia. Instead, we’ve been handed a series of half-finished ideas, each more complicated than the last, and told they’re all part of a journey.

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2026 Is the Real Deadline: Why Cool Petrol Cars Are Dying Now (Not in 2030)

Everyone’s watching 2030, but it’s Euro 7, GSR2 and new rules that are quietly killing off cool petrol cars years earlier

For years now, motorists have been told the same soothing bedtime story: “Don’t worry. You’ve got until 2030.”

Plenty of time, apparently. Time to save. Time to decide. Time to enjoy one last glorious petrol-powered hurrah before the lights go out and the chargers take over. Except… that story is nonsense.

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AI, Cars and What’s Real Anymore? Bond, Bots and the Lotus That Refuses to Die

Reality is now optional; cars feel increasingly fictional; James Bond belongs to Amazon; and the Lotus Esprit has returned to mess with our heads

Somewhere between the fifth AI-generated video you didn’t trust and the third car launch you instantly forgot, it dawned on us: we might be living in the uncanny valley… and it’s a charged congestion zone!

That unsettling sense of digital déjà vu is where this latest BCG Podcast begins. I’m joined by Sy from Drivers Union, and together we tumble headfirst into a bonkers tangled conversation about AI, cars, car culture, Bond, books, events, identity and the creeping suspicion that none of us quite know what’s real anymore – including ourselves.

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When the Years Catch Up: A Birthday Reflection

A raw, witty confession about relevance, resilience and refusing to be scrapped, even when the suspension’s a bit knackered and the engine is spluttering!

Gotta be honest. I’m starting to feel it. It’s my birthday today. I’m 57 years old. Five, seven. Fifty-seven. How did that happen? When? Surely that’s an admin error. A typo someone forgot to correct.

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BCG Therapy Podcast: Remembering Quentin Willson: A Personal Tribute to a Motoring Giant

A personal tribute to Quentin Willson, filled with memories, gratitude and the stories that show why he mattered so much to car people everywhere

Some news knocks the wind out of you, even when you don’t expect it to. The passing of Quentin Willson did exactly that. A motoring journalist, consumer champion, former Top Gear presenter, and one of the sharpest, driest voices ever to grace British car culture. For many of us, he wasn’t just part of the furniture – he built the room.

For me and Imthishan, the shock ran deeper because we’d spent a week with Quentin in December 2024 when we hosted him as a guest of the Mille Miglia. It meant we got to spend some time with him: conversations, long drives, and the sort of unexpected moments you only appreciate later. Now, looking back, that week feels very precious.

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Petrolhead ≠ Politically Incorrect: I don’t Rev for the Right, but nor do I Line-Lock for the Left!

Some think that if you enjoy the sound of a V8 and a whiff of burnt rubber, you’re a climate-denying dinosaur. Time to set the steering straight

I know that I’m pigeon-holed sometimes. And I know why. I love cars, especially big hairy monstrous motors that smoke their tyres and obliterate decibel detectors. 

Yes, my name is Shahzad and I’m an Autoholic. I confess the thrum of a V8 turns me on, octane is my cologne, and a gear-snatching, wheel-twirling thrash up a twisty road is my therapy. Cyclists are annoying, traffic cameras are the enemy, and the Highway Code is a quaint little booklet that’s just the right thickness for the wobbly leg of my coffee table. 

And most damning of all, I refuse to apologise for any of this. 

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The Future We Promised Ourselves – And Why We’re Not at Warp Yet

Shahzad Sheikh staring at the Starship Enterprise from a shuttlecraft window
I’ve always loved Star Trek for its vision of a hopeful, united, intelligent humanity. But as the USS Enterprise prepares to warp into the future, I can’t help but wonder – have we stranded ourselves in the past?

Stardate: Right-Here-Right-Now

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve loved Star Trek. Not because of the phasers, photon torpedoes, or the occasional red-shirt casualty (though let’s be honest, those were fun too). No – it was the future it promised. A future built on intellect, compassion, curiosity, and progress. A future where humanity finally grew up, stopped arguing about nonsense, cured disease, ended hunger, explored the stars – and had the decency to put cup holders on shuttlecraft.

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Britain’s Most Lucrative Yellow Boxes!

Trapped! Britain’s Most Expensive Box Junction Is Fining Drivers £1,800 a Day!

Imagine being fined £160 – not for speeding, not for parking on double yellows, not even for driving in a bus lane – but for doing absolutely nothing more than being in the wrong bit of yellow paint for a few seconds. Welcome to Kingston Road, South-West London – home of Britain’s most expensive yellow box junction. Or as locals call it: the cash cow!

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PODCAST: Ghosts, Gearboxes & Great Stories – Is Car Journalism Dead or Just Rebooted?

BCG Therapy Session Podcast with Jeff Bailey & Imthishan Giado

Somewhere between haunted roads, electric cars, and the eternal fight between influencers and journalists, a very honest discussion broke out. In the latest BrownCarGuy Therapy Session Podcast, I was joined by Jeff Bailey – long-time motoring writer, serial car buyer, and author – and Imthishan Giado, my partner-in-crime from our Car Middle East and Motoring Middle East days. We didn’t plan to solve the mysteries of the universe, but somewhere between the nostalgia and the banter, we might just have done that – or something…

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