Welcome to Must Read, where we single out the best stories from around the automotive universe and beyond. Today we've got reports from The New York Times, MIT TechnologyReview, NASCARNOMICS, and Petrolicious.

Disruptions: How Driverless Cars Could Reshape Cities – The New York Times

A big discussion over "how driverless cars" will change everything is just starting. Here's the NYT take on it.

Harvard University researchers note that as much as one-third of the land in some cities is devoted to parking spots. Some city planners expect that the cost of homes will fall as more space will become available in cities. If parking on city streets is reduced and other vehicles on roadways become smaller, homes and offices will take up that space. Today’s big-box stores and shopping malls require immense areas for parking, but without those needs, they could move further into cities.

Rebelbook: A Mix of Technologies Let Dedicated Citizens Change Egypt – TechnologyReview

Don't fear the future just yet, there's a lot of old technology that can still change the world.

It started not with a Facebook group or Twitter hashtag but a paper form. The day before what may have been the largest protest in history (and undoubtedly the biggest in Egypt) Mahmoud Badr, spokesman for Tamarod – ‘Rebel’ in Arabic – announced that they had collected 22,134,465 documented signatures on petition sheets calling for President Morsi’s removal and new presidential elections. Although impossible to verify, the numbers Tamarod mobilized on the streets – one military source estimated 14 million Egyptians protested on June 30th – told their own story.

ALFA’S GTV6 MAKES EXOTIC NOISES FOR USED ECONOBOX CASH – Petrolicious

On the topic of old technology that still works...

As Petrolisti, we all wear an invisible, yet easily recognizable badge identifying ourselves as such. Self-bestowed, and earned through actions like choosing impractical, dangerous, cantankerous modes of personal transportation over more conventional, airbagged and crumplezoned ones, spending our dispensable income and time keeping up with a constant stream of maintenance needs, mitigating rust, expensively and painstakingly eeking out modest performance gains only to be passed by a bone stock 2010 Corolla driven by a disengaged phlebotomist, ruining clothes through impromptu roadside repairs, constantly smelling like a combination electrical fire/oil spill, suffering for our collective superb taste and elevated sense of fun and adventure—none of it matters, according to Jeremy Clarkson, if you’ve never made said sacrifices at the altar of Alfa.

On Night Racing… – NASCARnomics

And some things even work better old.

Night racing doesn’t look too good from a television perspective. All other race characteristics (track type, television station, etc.) held equal, running an evening event erodes the audience by roughly 12%, according to the reported coefficient value [ -0.118 * 100 ]. For example, a race that draws a 4.0 during the day earns just a 3.5 at night [ (-0.118 * 4.0 ) + 4.0 ]. Obviously, exceptions such as the Daytona summer race exist (and what about that idea of running weeknight races?); but in general, the proliferation of night racing has a significantly negative effect on the interest-level of NASCAR.

Photo Credit: Getty Images, Petrolicious

The bar is ridiculously low for drift videos. Way too many of them are so overloaded with a dubstep or Nickelback soundtrack and bad attempts at Top Gear-style editing that they're borderline unwatchable. But what if someone out there could elevate the drift video to the level of art?

That's what photographer and videographer Landin Williams appears to have done with this amazing video of a Pat's Acres Drift event. It's all in black and white, with a tasteful amount of music and clever use of slow-motion that really lets you drink in the careful, precise mechanical ballet that is the act of drifting.

And it's helped by the sheer variety of cars involved. There's everything from 240SX-es and RX-7s (of course) to Pontiac GTOs and BMW E36s getting smoky and sideways.

It makes sense. Williams is the cinematics director for Turn 10 Studios, the makers of the Forza series, so he should know how these things ought to look.

Frankly, it's downright beautiful to watch. Consider the bar raised.

Hat tip to JT!

Talk about building a car from the ground up

Traffic sucks, so why not start your morning off with some music? You provide the toast and we'll provide the jams.

Kanye West's new album Yeezus drops tomorrow, though it already leaked last week. If you were looking for another College Dropout or even My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, look elsewhere.

Yeezus is a visceral, tribal, rage-filled deconstruction of 'Ye's previous work, as well as modern hip-hop and all its bling-obsessed trappings. Some of it even sounds like industrial rock. It's as radical an album as 808s and Heartbreak was, but in a completely different way.

Say what you want about his ego (it's called Yeezus for crying out loud) or his behavior, but I'm a fan of Kanye West's music, and I think he's kind of a fascinating guy in general. Read his interview in the New York Times to get some insights into this crazy new album. We'll see if the Yeezy faithful embrace it or not, but I think it's worth checking out.

After all - what a friend we have in Yeezus.

Nationally, violent crime rates today are down considerably from their historic highs in the 80s and early 90s. Social scientists will tell you there are many reasons for this, including harsher penalties and changing demographics. They're wrong. The real reason is high tech crime-fighting cars.

Back in the 80s, Americans didn't dick around with criminals like we do today. We commissioned KITT, the souped-up Trans Am from Knight Rider, to take out our trash.

After all, the only logical way to deal with skyrocketing murder rates and the crack cocaine epidemic was a snarky, talking Pontiac driven by David Hasselhoff.

That was fine for the 80s, but law enforcement had to step up its game in the 90s. So for an unfathomable four seasons between 1994 and 1999, the Viper Defender prowled the streets of Metro City on NBC and syndication in the TV show Viper.

With the flick of a switch, the car would transform from a regular Dodge Viper RT/10 to a stylized gray one with a four-wheel-drive mode, battering rams, a cloaking device, a turbo booster, and (of course) lasers.

Understandably, criminals got the message, and that's why this country is so much safer today.

And now's your chance to own one. One of the Viper Defenders from the TV show is now for sale on eBay, and as of this writing it's going for a mere $75,100.

Of course, the ad has some real head-scratchers here. The seller doesn't list the actual year of the car (he says it's a 1900 model, which I find somewhat hard to believe) but he says it has just a hair under 10,000 miles. He also says it has a V8, which we all know is untrue unless the car got some kind of an engine swap for TV duty. I hope that's not really the case. (Update: Actually, yes, it does have a V8 instead of the Viper V10.)

The seller brags that the car is not a "clone," but rather the same one that failed to sell at a 2010 Mecum auction for "$270,000 THOUASND DOLLARS."

So... $270 million? I mean, if it does all the stuff the car did on TV, that sounds reasonable.

In addition, he says the car is "not built for road use, for display and events purposes only," but I feel like that's only a suggestion.

One of you should buy this thing and take back the streets in your hometown.

Watch this video to the end. You will not believe how bad this scooter rider is.

Here we see what can only be described as the world's best scooter rider crash into a van, then immediately crash into a car, then immediately crash into a motorcycle, then immediately crash into a truck, and finally crash into an open pit.

The scene was recorded by CCTV somewhere in China and the rider reportedly suffered only minor injuries.

Is this some kind of ploy at an insurance scam gone wrong? Is this rider really so bad at piloting a scooter? Is the rider drunk? Is the rider on the run? Is this real life?

You saw the news yesterday. The Xbox One was everywhere, and everyone talked a lot about it. But when a new console hits, often we'll latch onto the biggest, shiniest new baubles. Now though, having slept on it, let's dig into the real nerd porn. It's worth a look.

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Microsoft, which has been trying to force Windows Phone into the Android and iPhone conversation in its recent commercials, is going head on against Apple in its latest spot. That's not surprising (as Samsung loves to pick at Cupertino all the time), but what's hilarious is that Microsoft is using Apple's own Siri to do the ribbing in the commercial. You can hear Siri poke fun of the iPad when compared to the Surface in the ad. It's pretty good (for a commercial). [Windows Video]

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Do you hate backseat drivers? What about all passengers in general? Jalopnik readers have ten road-legal single seaters that would be perfect for you.

Welcome back to Answers of the Day - our daily Jalopnik feature where we take the best ten responses from the previous day's Question of the Day and shine it up to show off. It's by you and for you, the Jalopnik readers. Enjoy!

As it turns out, there haven't been many single seat road cars. Cars are supposed to transport people, and building a car to only hold one person isn't particularly efficient. Moreover, what's the point of a sports car where you can't scare a person sitting next to you?

Consequently, most single seaters turn out to be 1+1s, with little seats on the side or tiny seats in the back. The Tango electric car, the Caparo T1, the LCC Rocket, the Tramontana R, just about every Le Mans race car converted to road use- these all have room for at least half a person with no legs.

These ones, though, are the real deal.

Photo Credit: Rinspeed

10.) Mazda Miata Mono Posto

Mazda built this back in 2000. Where the regular Miata is a tribute to classic British sports cars, the Mono Posto was more of a throw back to the old single seat speed record Italian cars of the 1950s. Very cool.

Suggested By: SKZ, Photo Credit: Mazda

9.) Formula Ford Road Car

Ford decided to stick some headlights onto one of their no-wing trainer racecars and called it a day. It is as close as you'll get to a racecar for the road because, well, it's a racecar that's road legal.

Suggested By: Joe_Limon, Photo Credit: Ford

8.) Mini Hotrod

A few Germans thought up the idea of a hot road built off of a riding motor "after a few beers," as all good ideas are. Amazingly, the ultra-strict German vehicle approval department approved these things for road use, though they can't top 50 miles an hour.

Suggested By: wulfenX, Photo Credit: Custom Manufaktur

7.) Vanwall GPR-12

Back in the 1950s, even the highest-level race cars were much closer in design to road cars, with their front engine layout and fairly basic suspension. You can actually buy a replica of one of those great single seaters, the Vanwall, with Jaguar V12 power up front.

Suggested By: Hart88

6.) SUB Threewheeler

For some reason, the idea of an open three-wheeler where the passenger seat is taken up by a Suzuki TL1000R engine didn't catch on. Shame.

Suggested By: Wilhelm_de_la_Kraut, Photo Credit: SUB

5.) Exomotive Atomic

In the same vein as the SUB is Exomitive's Atomic. This one has four wheels, but the passenger side is still filled up with a Yamaha R1 motor.

Suggested By: Kiwi_Commander, Photo Credit: Exomotive

4.) Neander Cyclecar

I have no idea if more than two of these things were build by Neumann Neander in Germany, but the design is just amazing. It's a three-wheeled one-seater that leans with the turns, and apparently you stop by pulling up on the wheel. Car design used to much more free form.

Suggested By: Jonee, Photo Credit: Le Cyclecariste Belge

3.) Lamborghini Egoista

The supercar of choice for lonely multimillionaires. As mad, weird, and excessive as a Lamborghini should be.

Suggested By: fartburgler, Photo Credit: Lamborghini

2.) Rinspeed ADVANTIGE R1

Much as we think of Lamborghini as being off the wall, nobody does crazy like Rinspeed. This 2001 concept (the R1 name is "R" raised to the power of one) was supposed to be 'green' since it runs on bio-mass fuel, but we're more interested in the cockpit that leans into turns.

Suggested By: Daniz207RC, Photo Credit: Rinspeed

1.) Mazda Suitcase Car

It's a car that's built into a suitcase. The idea was to go on a business trip, open up your suitcase, and then be able to drive wherever you needed to go in the city you're visiting. Read more at Road Race Engineering, then give thanks to the glory of Mazda engineers.

Suggested By: t_s, Photo Credit: Road Race Engineering

A lot of drivers hate cyclists. A lot of cyclists hate drivers. Then there's Emma Way, who hates cyclists so much that she hit one with her car, drove away, and bragged on Twitter about how it wasn't her problem because the cyclist "doesn't pay road tax." Unfortunately for Emma, her local police also use Twitter.

The incident occurred yesterday in England, when Emma was driving in Norwich. According to a witness, she sped around a corner just as cyclists who were part of a 100-mile race were coming the other way and hit 29-year old rider Toby Hockley. The mirror hit Toby and broke, sending him off the bike and into the trees where he was banged up, but wasn't seriously injured.

You'd think that, as a motorist, Emma would stop and help Toby since she just hit him. Nope. Not the case. Instead, she drove off, and tweeted about the incident right after it happened.

There are some things you just don't tweet about. Committing a crime, and then acting indignant about it, is one of those things.

But in today's always connected world, Emma made a pretty critical error. Twitter users saw the tweet, and instead of siding by her "suck it cyclists" mantra, they sent it off to the Norwich Police Department, who also happen to be active on social media.

@emmaway20 we have had tweets ref an RTC with a bike. We suggest you report it at a police station ASAP if not done already & then dm us

— Norwich Police (@NorwichPoliceUK) May 19, 2013

Even though the crash hadn't totally been confirmed, people started looking into Emma's social media profiles. They reportedly found photos of her tailgating other drivers as well as a picture of her speedometer a 95 MPH that were also sent into the police. Once the tweet started to go viral, Emma deleted her Twitter account. But by that point, the damage was done and the tweet was out there in perpetuity.

And that's when the rider decided to come forward. For some reason, Toby wasn't going to tell anyone because he didn't want his girlfriend to fear for his safety while riding. His under-sharing is almost as extreme as Emma's over-sharing. But once Toby saw her attitude in the tweet and how widely it was shared, he contacted police.

His riding club, Iceni Velo, issued this statement about the incident:

As a club we are conscious that we share the road with other road users all of whom are expected to adhere to the requirements of the Highway Code. Incidents like this seem to be relatively rare and we are disappointed by the reaction of the individual motorist involved. We hope this raises the awareness of how vulnerable people can be whether that's as a cyclist or pedestrian on our roads. The club and its committee will cooperate fully with police enquires where necessary and when asked to do so.

Once they had both pieces of the puzzle, Norwich Police confirmed via Twitter that they had identified who was involved and were "progressing with them."

Thank you to all those that have forwarded tweets on a bike RTC. We have the info we need and are making further enqs.

— Norwich Police (@NorwichPoliceUK) May 20, 2013

1/2 RTC update -we have identified parties believed involved and are progressing with them. Thanks for all the comments & feedback.....

— Norwich Police (@NorwichPoliceUK) May 20, 2013

2/2 sorry ..but for obvious reasons we are unable to put any futher info on this into the public domain. #staysafe

— Norwich Police (@NorwichPoliceUK) May 20, 2013

Just because you can share something doesn't mean you should share something. That means a hit-and-run you just committed is not the best thing to put out there if you don't want to get caught. Emma learned that lesson the hard way, but thankfully she didn't kill anyone.

Think before you tweet folks. And don't drive away if you hit a cyclist.

Photo Credit: Iceni Velo Cycling Club

I'm an embarrassingly slow driver, but I was lucky enough to be offered the chance to take part in a two-day race driving class at the Performance Driving Center at Sonoma Raceway and, while it didn't turn me into Mario Andretti, I'd like to pass on some of what I learned to any other rank but hopeful amateurs out there.

(Full Disclosure: Simraceway was so disgusted with my general lack of track driving skills that they let me take this class for free, as long as I found my own way up there. I did, in a press-car V6 Mustang, and I got a speeding ticket on the way there. The cop didn't like it when I told him I was an auto journalist, saying "I see. You write about how fast cars go so every idiot can go out and drive them fast?" I was boned.)

The class I took was a special event for winners of a contest held in the Simraceway community. So, the people I was with were from all over the world — Spain, Poland, New Zealand, Narnia, California — and all were excellent at the high-end racing sim that got them out to Sonoma. Except me. I'd never actually played it, but it sure looked impressive.

Some of the winners had some real track experience, and a good number had a lot of karting experience, which is how almost all real racers start. Even their computer-based racing experience proved useful for learning tracks, finding the ideal lines through turns, and helping to train your eyes and reflexes.

In other ways, the simulator is useless. Nothing can replicate the physical feel of the car in a hard turn, and you can't exploit physics in the real world without some serious health-and-money related consequences. All in all, more realistic simulators like Simraceway do seem to help a little bit, at least, so if you needed another excuse to play, there you go.

Normally, our How To Drive Fast columns are written by genuinely fast people like Alex Lloyd, but I thought there should be at least one of these that covers the subject from an unskilled perspective. And boy am I qualified to do that. Despite how incredibly well we all drive on the racetracks located inside our craniums, I suspect that I'm not alone, and there's a good number of readers interested in more competitive track driving but who just never had the time or resources to really give it a try. This is for you.

For the vast number of you who know more than I do, I'm looking forward to your suggestions down there in Kinja, and the painful ache of shame in my stomach when you inevitably call me out on some woefully wrong bit of advice.

So, here's the six big things I took away from racing school. I think the fact that these seem to be the ones that stuck with me must mean something, right?

1. Imagine a string tied from your steering wheel to your gas pedal.

This is one of the most fundamental pieces of advice I got about driving fast, and it seems obvious once you hear it, but thinking about it while driving makes a big difference. Essentially, what this business of strings tied to gas pedals means is that you can only really go fast when your wheel is straight. If the wheel is cranked far in one direction or the other, your string will be tight on the gas pedal, and you can't push it much. When the wheel is straight, there's plenty of slack, so you can stomp that gas.

Lots of gas with your wheel cranked will usually just get you in trouble. So, you let up in the turns, and bury it in the straights. As you're driving, keep imagining that string, and you'll be surprised how much easier it is to adjust your throttle to what your car is actually doing.

2. Brake hard and early.

This one was a bit counter-intuitive, and goes against how most of us have been trained to drive all our driving lives. Track driving is not like street driving, and this is one of those things that drives that point home. My instructor suggested that when you get to the braking point of your turn, right before your turn-in point, you need to hit the brakes hard and deliberately — with about 80%-90% of full braking force, then gradually let off the brake as you go through the turn.

This does two things: first, it slows you down before you get in your turn, pretty dramatically, and second, by gradually letting off the brake it keeps the front of the car planted, since your car will tend to nose-down while braking. This is essentially trail braking, and it helps your front tires, which are doing the steering, maintain good contact with the track so the turning actually works.

Slamming on the brakes hard as you approach the turn feels strange at first, since in most people's driving experience, that sort of stop equates to panic. Once you get past those feelings, it quite fun.

3. Hands at 9 and 3.

Now, don't let go. Even if your arms get all twisted.

In some ways, this one is the hardest to get used to, but it makes sense. Essentially, in track driving, you'll grab that wheel at 9 and 3 (not 6 and 7 like my preferred relaxed driving method) and keep those hands there. That means no letting the wheel slide through your fingers, no hand-over-hand. Your hands stay on the sides of the wheel.

This gets weird-feeling because at some points your arms will be crossed over each other like a challah or a French braid, and that just feels wrong. But it's not — in fact, look at that GIF there — I saw that this method is exactly what Tiff Needell uses when I was out with him at Willow Springs in a modified 911. If it's good enough for Tiff...

The reasons for this are to keep the range of how much your turning clear in your mind, and you'll never lose track of which way your wheels are pointing if your arms are mirroring their position. It also keeps you from inputing too much steering in situations where the steering isn't responding, because, invariably, if the front tires aren't able to steer you, adding more to the angle of those wheels sure isn't going to help.

So, practice this one off track, because it absolutely feels strange.

4. Not all corners are important.

I'm sure each of these corners mothers told them differently, but the sad truth is not all corners are created equal. One of the keys to being fast around a track is knowing how to exit a corner so you can get that wheel straight and start gaining speed again. So, in multiple-corner situations, the important one is the one that exits onto a straight. If you have to sacrifice an ideal line through one corner to enter another one well, give the one that exits into a straight the best entry, even at the expense of the one that doesn't.

No one said life was fair for corners.

5. Eyes up here.

That big window above the dashboard is quite useful, for drivers who don't insist on driving by the instruments alone. And how you look through that windshield is important as well. Generally, I was told to be always looking through the top 1/3 of the windshield. Keep your eyes on where you want to go in the distance, not right at the end of your own hood. Look where you want to drive to, and you'll drive there.

This sounds much easier to do than it actually proves to be. Just try it sometime.

6. It's not like regular driving, and it feels weird at first.

This is one of those things that sounds obvious, but it helps to keep it in mind when you start track driving. Even though a good racing driver is smooth, eases into and out of speed and all that, the truth is track driving does not feel like regular driving. You realize how little of your car and tires you actually use driving to and from work. On a track, everything is amplified: the speed, the noise, the inertia, the body roll, pitch, yaw, everything. You'll be tossed around and yanked and your arms will be exhausted when you're finished.

Your car will slip, grip, stop and move in ways you're just not used to. And it's absolutely great, but you have to adjust to it. You have to adjust your own thresholds of what is too fast, what is too hard to yank a wheel, to hit brakes, everything. The abandon doesn't come quickly, and that's a good thing. But be ready to adapt away from where you're comfortable.

How hard can you drift? Drift faster! Smokier! Sidewaysier! This guy drifts so hard that his car straight up explodes from the driftacular extremitude.

Yes, the Polish drifter we see here had his clutch and transmission explode in fiery fashion after a particularly high-rev tandem drift battle over the weekend.

There is no word on whether or not the driver momentarily became a dinosaur, having clearly entered the Drift Dimension by going into overdrift.

(Hat tip to Automatch, tipster fiend!)

After Halloween revelers desperately wanted to buy his impressively detailed Daft Punk helmet (Thomas Bangalter version) Mauricio Santoro realized he could probably make a few bucks from his creation. So he got a small production line going and is now selling the helmets on Etsy for $500 until they run out, or until Columbia Records catches wind of it.

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