My books
A rollicking exploration of why the stuff we use (mostly) works—and a celebration of the engineers who ensure it does.
When a manufacturer offers a 10,000-mile warranty on a car or slaps a “bear-resistant” label on a camping cooler, what do we know about how trustworthy that promise is, and how it’s backed up?
For the cooler, it’s Kobuk the Destroyer, the fiercest member of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee’s panel of product-testing bears: Gifted at cracking locks and foiling manufacturers, Kobuk and his fellow bears play a crucial role in keeping us (and our snacks) safe.
For everything else, we have test engineers who imagine how anything and everything could go wrong, and fight back.
From echo-proof chambers to Formula 1 wind tunnels to airplane hangars turned torture labs, Kobuk the Destroyer takes readers behind the scenes of a workforce that combats contingency with equal parts analytical rigor and wild imagination. Armed with sixty-foot cannons that fire frozen chickens into jet engines, rocket sleds so fast they knock fillings out of teeth, and Lazy Susans for tasting hundreds of cups of tea a day, test engineers break it so you can buy it.
Advance praise for
Kobuk the Destroyer
“When Alex Davies gets curious about a question, I follow him where he goes. This time, the adventure is the story of the people who push the world to its breaking point for the greater good. I can’t remember the last book I devoured this quickly, or the last writer whose company I enjoyed this much.”
“Only a writer as good as Alex Davies could take a litany of failure―a chronicle of broken things―and turn it into a celebration of human ingenuity. Things fall apart, but in Kobuk the Destroyer, Davies tells the story of the people who pick up the pieces, subject them to rigorous testing, and rebuild the world.”
“While some books test your wits or even your patience, Kobuk the Destroyer tests far more, taking us through the often rollicking and relentlessly inventive realm of test engineering—where industrious engineers give everything hell so the rest of us don’t have to. Wildly entertaining and surprisingly profound, this book left me with fresh respect for the hidden heroes who make sure our world actually works. In the end, Alex Davies doesn’t just survive the test—he aces it.”
“This highly entertaining book explains why appliances aren’t constantly catching fire and why planes generally stay up: that is, thanks to test engineers who, it turns out, quietly prevent disaster and save countless lives years in advance and behind the scenes, without the rest of us noticing. Kobuk the Destroyer will teach you to anticipate problems and protect your plans, whether from bears like Kobuk or other calamaties, just like the professionals do—or else!”
“Every day, we benefit from the creativity and curiosity of test engineers who reduce safety risks across transportation, health care, and every aspect of our lives. Alex Davies delivers an engaging and illuminating account of how these individuals make our world safer.”
My 2021 book Driven is the definitive inside account of how a few young entrepreneurs launched the self-driving car industry and the battle for the future of transportation.
Chronicling technological breakthroughs in a human-powered story, Driven was shortlisted for SABEW’s 2021 Best in Business Book Awards and won a bronze medal in Axiom’s 2021 business book awards.
Praise for Driven
“With Alex Davies’ superb book, we learn that autonomous cars are far from driverless: the amazing effort to produce them has been directed by a cast of brilliant, and sometimes flawed human beings, all of whom are compellingly rendered in this illuminating and important narrative. Read Driven, preferably not while behind the wheel.”
“The author’s excitement for his subject translates vividly across pages of racing details and participants’ blueprints for success. . . . A timely, focused, and thorough examination of a global engineering marvel that is very much still in the works.”
“A fast-paced, scandal-laced story of the people and ideas that animate the history of autonomous vehicles. . . . A powerful fable of technological hubris.”
“An epic tale of competition and comradery, long odds and underdogs, all in service of a world-changing moonshot. Driven is the The Right Stuff for robotic cars.”