MediaPost will conduct its first automotive conference on Nov. 9. There is no shortage of topics. The industry is changing, and not only because it is about to be thrown on its head by Apple and Google, and is being disrupted by Tesla both the product and retail sides of the business. Automakers are also trying to navigate the protean world of digital marketing. As such, it is forcing marketers to filter data to evolve their tactics intelligently and efficiently.

Warnings about cybernetic marketing insights were as ubiquitous at the Association of National Advertisers' Masters of Marketing conference last week as badly designed swimming pools are in Orlando, a city that itself is a kind of hotel swimming pool, but shallower. It's Los Angeles with lakes and even less reality. If the center does not hold in L.A., the center is a black hole in Orlando, appearing around the time Disney World dropped its roots there and started sucking the entire city into its "World" view. Not the best place to talk about real people and what they really want, …

The latest in Diesel Gate, wherein Volkswagen faces the anger of the world and contumely of the press over its emissions deceit: could other automakers have also altered their tailpipe results? Reportage is out now that several other diesel nameplates perhaps emit more NOx in real-world driving than in test mode. Mercedes-Benz, Honda, Mazda and Mitsubishi have, apparently, been outed by tests at a firm called Emissions Analytics. The tests seem to show some European diesel models emit up to 20 times the smog-causing oxides of nitrogen as EU rules permit.

I just had breakfast with an 18-year-old son of a friend of mine, a jazz musician in college at Eastman, stopping by the city to see his dad. I could tell he was a little tired of talking music theory, so his dad asked me if I'm still reviewing cars. "I don't really do that. I write about the marketing." "Really, that's pretty obscure."