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@jaycee Yes, Bentley cars are made by Volkswagen-Audi group. So are Porsches and Lamborghinis. They're the world's largest auto manufacturing group. Two thirds of a million employees worldwide and revenue over $250Bn in 2021.

@cstross Indeed. Doesn’t make them the best or most honourable, remember the emissions cheat?

@jaycee Yep. I remember that VW got caught *first*, then it turned out most of the other big auto manufacturers were pulling pretty much the same shit with faking diesel emissions figures. The moral of the story should be to ban i/c engines in built-up areas, and ideally to promote public transport, e-bikes, and other mobility devices rather than big ugly single-user cars and SUVs.

@cstross I’m an old man now, retired motor mechanic, public transport in built up areas is the only answer. The U.K. destroyed perfectly good railway systems in the 1960s. I went to Munich about 20 years ago and the public transport there is incredible. The S and U bahn along with trams and busses was so good I parked my car up for the duration.

@jaycee It's really enlightening to visit an Eastern European city. Areas that were inhabited before 1990 have really dense tram/subway networks, but the suburbs that have been built in the past 30 years are mostly public transport deserts.

@aru @jaycee We already have reliable public transport where I live; *not* having reliable public transport at this point is a political decision, not a law of nature.

@aru @cstross good, that’s a rare thing, you are, of course perfectly correct about the lack of being a political decision.