Cars are the technology of the future. The Verge brings you new car reviews, auto show insights, deeply reported investigations, and news from the frontlines of autonomous and electric vehicle development. We bring you updates from major companies like Ford, GM, Mercedes, and VW as well as digital upstarts like Uber, Google, and Tesla. Cars are among the biggest computers that we’ll ever own, and we know computers. We also bring you news and analyses from the growing effort to reduce the number of cars crowding our cities and the fight to reduce oil consumption, cut CO2 emissions, and shift to more sustainable sources of energy.
The US Postal Service is supposed to add 66,000 electric trucks to its fleet by 2028 using $3 billion from Biden’s climate legislation. But Reuters is now saying that Donald Trump is likely to kill the effort by cancelling the contracts with supplying automakers Oshkosh and Ford. It’s yet another example of Trump’s eagerness to unspool his predecessor’s efforts to promote EVs.
Dodge is getting ready to launch its first electric muscle car, the Charger Daytona. And clearly the company is feeling a little insecure about alienating its so-called “Brotherhood of Muscle.” The first ad strikes a weirdly combative tone, rejecting the environmental case for going electric and bashing other EVs on the road as “weak” and “soulless.” Meanwhile, influencers got their first taste of the Charger’s fake “Fratzonic Chambered” exhaust noises this week. And most people say they think it sounds like Roblox.
The auto manufacturers? The insurers? The NHTSA just fell down on the job? Could be that more people just drive with their brights on all the time. Personally, I think we should send all of them to the Hague to get this sorted out.
Shout out to r/fuckyourheadlights, a bastion of sanity.
[www.theringer.com]
On the heels of its controversial rebranding, the British automaker is expected to reveal a new vision for its all-electric future during Miami’s art week. And ahead of that, the images of Jaguar’s Design Vision Concept, a low slung, ultra-luxury GT, have leaked online, courtesy of Coche Spias. It’s very large, and very wide, and incredibly pink. But whether it joins the pantheon of iconic pink cars — Elvis, Barbie, Angelyne — only time will tell.
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The satellite radio service has been available in the Model S and X since 2020 but was conspicuously absent from Tesla’s two best-selling models and electric truck.
Like the Apple Watch app, it’s part of Tesla’s 2024 holiday update, and SiriusXM’s offering a one-month free trial. Of course, Tesla Premium Connectivity ($9.99/month) or an active Wi-Fi connection is also required.
Hyundai Ioniq 5 N review: fake shifting, real fun
Even diehard car enthusiasts have to smile at what Hyundai’s N Performance Division has done with the Ioniq 5.
ABC 7 Bay Area reports that last night in Piedmont, CA, a Cybertruck “jumped the curb, struck a cement wall, and then wedged in between the wall and a tree,” according to officials who said speed was a factor. Like a fatal Cybertruck wreck in August, it then caught fire.
One person was pulled from the vehicle by another driver, and they are recovering from burn wounds.
According to Bloomberg, Governor Gavin Newsom’s office is considering adding “market-share limitations” to its proposal to revive the state’s Clean Vehicle Rebate program. The program would be in lieu of a federal EV tax credit, which is on Donald Trump’s chopping block. Tesla CEO (and Trump donor) Elon Musk, unused to his chickens coming home to roost, is calling the proposal “insane.”
A new job listing noticed by Electrek says the team will provide “remote access to our robotaxis and humanoid robots.” The job calls for a “C++ Software Engineer” who has experience with Python, 3D graphics, and Unreal engine; it offers a salary between $120,000-$318,000.
It was already confirmed that the Tesla Optimus bots at the Cybercab event in October had human remote operators.
Tesla notified a California judge that it had reached a conditional settlement with Rivian, reports Bloomberg, four years after accusing Rivian in a lawsuit of intentionally poaching Tesla employees and stealing trade secrets.
Conditions of the settlement weren’t revealed in the filing, and Tesla expects that a request to dismiss the suit will be filed by December 24th, Bloomberg notes.
A Tesla Cybertruck was spotted joining President-elect Donald Trump’s motorcade in Texas while traveling to the SpaceX Starship launch.
The Secret Service wouldn’t answer Road & Track’s questions about who was driving the Cybertruck, but come on, we all know who it was. A better question is whether the Cybertruck will officially join once Trump takes office. I mean, he’s already got one, gifted by streamer Adin Ross. And it is bulletproof — sort of.
Sweden’s Northvolt filed for Chapter 11 this week after racking up $5.8 billion in debt and burning through $30 million in cash. The company had investments from Volkswagen and Goldman Sachs and orders from Audi, Porsche, and BMW.
It was working with Volvo on new batteries due in 2025 with higher energy density to be integrated as a structural element of the vehicle, It’s unclear whether Northvolt will make that deadline, although it plans to “operate as usual” during the restructuring.
[northvolt.com]
