Enlarge / The regular Hyundai Elantra is a perfectly fine compact sedan. But once the boffins at Hyundai N got hold of it, they transformed it into something with a lot more character. (credit: Peter Nelson)

Few cars are aimed quite at driving enthusiasts like the wholesome sport compact. In terms of everyday usability and fun factor, little can touch them, and luckily, there's still a good variety of them on the new market. Among the best is the Hyundai Elantra N, which, for the 2024 model year, received a styling and chassis refresh. Pricing starts at $33,245 for three pedals and a manual gearbox, or $35,515 for a dual-clutch eight-speed, and either is a massive value for the performance and fun factor that they offer.

Amply sporty styling, plenty spacious

The 2024 Elantra N's biggest change is in its face. Where previously it had beady eyes surrounded in a sea of black trim—kind of like the vehicular equivalent of a Belgian Malinois—its headlight, grille, and intake are now more geometric. Looks are subjective, but I'm a fan of the headlights, and the functional inlets improve radiator and brake cooling over the previous fascia.

Elsewhere, it's pretty much the same angular four-door wearing some trapezoidal accents across its body panels and a pronounced rear spoiler. A new set of forged 19-inch wheels is wrapped in 245/35/19 Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires—these also shave off 8.25 lbs (3.75 kg) of unsprung weight at each corner, which bodes well for acceleration and handling.

Enlarge / No one's entirely sure if driverless racing will be any good to watch, but before we find that out, people have to actually develop driverless race cars. A2RL in Abu Dhabi is the latest step down that path. (credit: A2RL)

ABU DHABI—We live in a weird time for autonomous vehicles. Ambitions come and go, but genuinely autonomous cars are further off than solid-state vehicle batteries. Part of the problem with developing autonomous cars is that teaching road cars to take risks is unacceptable.

A race track, though, is a decent place to potentially crash a car. You can take risks there, with every brutal crunch becoming a learning exercise. (You’d be hard-pressed to find a top racing driver without a few wrecks smoldering in their junior career records.)

That's why 10,000 people descended on the Yas Marina race track in Abu Dhabi to watch the first four-car driverless race.

Enlarge / Until the Bolt returns, this is Chevrolet's entry-level electric car, the Equinox EV. (credit: Michael Teo Van Runkle)

A new entry-level EV from General Motors hits the market this year bearing the name Equinox, but other than nomenclature, this Chevy is not at all related to the current internal-combustion compact crossover. Instead, the new Equinox EV rides on the smallest iteration of GM's Ultium platform until the Bolt reboots with a new (lithium iron phosphate) Ultium battery pack.

The Equinox EV shares its chassis with the forthcoming Cadillac Optiq but aims instead to hit the market as cheaply as possible and significantly undercut Tesla's Model Y. Deliveries will start later this year with the LT trim level, which has a starting MSRP of $34,995. Eager to prove what it no doubt hopes will be the new cash-cow EV's bona fides, Chevrolet invited media to Detroit to drive a fleet of Equinoxes in various trim levels.

On paper, the Equinox's stats look fairly solid. A smallish 85 kWh battery is sufficient for an EPA range estimate of 319 miles (513 km) for the front-wheel-drive base model. Output for the single motor clocks in at a respectable 213 hp (159 kW) and 236 lb-ft (320 Nm) of torque. Perhaps the only downside appears to be a max DC fast-charging rate of 150 kW, though thanks to the battery's overall capacity, the Equinox should still add 77 miles (124 km) of range in about 10 minutes.

Enlarge / The Mustang Mach-E Rally is the latest version of Ford's electric crossover. It features plenty of power and a new drive mode, as well as plenty of rally-inspired accoutrements. (credit: Tim Stevens)

Mildly off-road-ready performance variants are extremely trendy right now, and it's easy to turn your nose up at them. But when cars like the 911 Dakar or Huracan Sterrato actually improve the day-to-day drivability and comfort of the road-focused machines upon which they're lifted, you have to respect them.

Me? I'm a die-hard rally fan and someone who'd rather drive sideways than straight. It's no surprise that I love these special editions, from their top-boxes down to their all-terrain tires. But I also love electric vehicles, and while there are plenty of electrified crossovers and SUVs out there, it's slim pickings if you want something rally-ready.

Today, that changes.

Enlarge / The Cadillac Optiq is the brand's next EV, slotting underneath the electric Lyriq in the range. (credit: Michael Teo Van Runkle)

Earlier this month, Cadillac showed off the all-new, all-electric 2025 Optiq to select media in downtown Los Angeles. The Optiq will slot in below the larger Lyriq, Celestiq, and Escalade IQ SUVs but is still based on GM's steadily proliferating Ultium electric vehicle architecture.

Having driven no fewer than five different Ultium-based vehicles in the past year, I visited the Optiq preview, hoping to learn how Cadillac can differentiate this compact crossover from other offerings in an increasingly competitive segment. I also wanted to see whether GM has effectively made the case for EV converts who are looking at entry-level options versus a lower price point for the similarly specced Chevrolet Equinox EV.

In person, the Optiq's exterior styling continues the language established by Lyriq and Celestiq, if toned down to a slightly less-aggressive futuristic level. Straked patterns on the angular, faded quarter panels make for a nice touch, though the details looked two-dimensional, as if they were stickers, until I got up close enough to inspect the use of real glass layering.

Enlarge / The Sky-Watcher HEQ5 Pro and the Unistellar Odyssey Pro. (credit: Tim Stevens)

It's been 300 years since Galileo and Isaac Newton started fiddling around with lenses and parabolic mirrors to get a better look at the heavens. But if you look at many of the best amateur telescopes today, you'd be forgiven for thinking they haven't progressed much since.

Though components have certainly improved, the basic combination of mirrors and lenses is more or less the same. Even the most advanced "smart" mounts that hold them rely on technology that hasn't progressed in 30 years.

Compared to the radical reinvention that even the humble telephone has received, it's sad that telescope tech has largely been left behind. But that is finally changing. Companies like Unistellar and Vaonis are pioneering a new generation of scopes that throw classic astronomy norms and concepts out the window in favor of a seamless setup and remarkable image quality.

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson)

European car manufacturers are currently tripping over themselves to figure out how personal transport and "last mile" solutions will look in the years to come. The solutions are always electric, and they're also tiny. What most companies (bar Citroen, Renault, and Fiat) seem to have forgotten is that we've had an answer to this problem all along: the microcar.

The microcar is a singular little thing—its job is to frugally take one person (or maybe two people) where they need to go while taking up as little space as possible. A few have broken their way into the public consciousness—Top Gear made a global megastar of Peel's cars, BMW's Isetta remains a design icon, and the Messerschmitt KR200 is just plain cool—but where did these tiny wonders come from? And do they have a future?

Well, without the microcar's predecessors, we may not have the modern motorcar as we know it. Sort of.

Enlarge / Chevrolet is starting at the top with the Silverado EV RST First Edition. It's betting that EV truck buyers want a lot of range and towing capability and will pay handsomely for the experience. (credit: Michael Teo Van Runkle)

The latest addition to Chevrolet's growing family of Ultium electric vehicles recently began shipping to dealers in the form of the Silverado EV's early RST First Edition package. Silverado's top spec level now joins the lineup's previous fleet-only WT trim, meaning the general public can now purchase an enormous electric pickup that strongly resembles the Avalanche of 2001 to 2013. But despite any other similarities to the Hummer EV, which shares a related chassis, or ICE trucks of old, the 2024 Silverado aims to change the game for GM's market positioning despite arriving a full 24 months after Ford's F-150 Lightning.

With a large crew cab, a longer truck bed, and angular sail panels, the Silverado EV looks less boxy than GMC's Hummer EV. Aero gains thanks to the smoother design pair with lower rolling-resistance tires, allowing the Silverado to achieve an EPA range estimate of up to 450 miles (724 km), though the RST First Edition I recently drove over the course of a long day in Michigan earns a rating of 440 miles (708 km).

On the highway, judging by wind noise around the cabin alone, the aerodynamic gains of the Silverado's styling seem to make a noticeable difference versus the Hummer. On the other hand, tire hum might cover up any aero deficiencies because the RST's single weirdest detail constantly occupies center stage here: a set of 24-inch wheels, the largest ever equipped to a car, truck, or SUV straight from the factory.

Enlarge / The Chevrolet Blazer was pulled from sale almost immediately after our first drive in December. Now it's back on sale—with a price cut. (credit: Michael Frank)

General Motors appears to have solved the problem that was holding back the production of its Ultium-based electric vehicles. These are now rolling out of factories—you can expect to read about the new Silverado EV tomorrow and the (allegedly affordable) Equinox EV next week, to name but two. We got a first-blush drive of the Blazer this past winter before GM had to put a stop on sales due to some… glitches. Now, with the vehicle back on sale and the software debugged, it's time to see if the fixes helped.

In reintroducing the Blazer EV and returning it to market, Chevy has also lowered the price pretty significantly, by an average of about $6,000 per model. The LT AWD now starts at $48,800, and there's a $7,500 incentive for customers who aren't eligible for the IRS clean vehicle tax credit. The RS AWD, which we tested, has an MSRP of $53,200, but with the delivery charge and GM's cash on the hood, it came in at $47,095. Both have an 85 kWh battery good for 279 miles (449 km) max range per charge. The longer-range, bigger-battery 102 kWh RS RWD boasts a more impressive 324 miles ( 521 km) per charge and works out to $48,670.

These are pretty competitive prices when you consider the mid-sized EV SUV segment. An obvious comparison: The Ioniq 5 SE AWD costs $49,350 and cannot qualify for the federal tax credit (unless leased), and its range runs shy of the Chevy Blazer RS AWD, too, at 260 miles (418 km) versus the Chevy's 279.

Enlarge / The Land Rover Defender has a cult following, and if you're looking to make one electric, there's now one more option. (credit: BEDEO)

British electric vehicle company BEDEO specializes in turning diesel vans into hybrids thanks to smart in-wheel motor tech. And its latest project—an electric Land Rover Defender conversion—could see its tech wind up on your driveway.

Land Rover's now defunct "old" Defender is a ripe candidate for an EV restomod. There's space for motors, batteries, and various other sundries within; in certain parts of the world, you'll find yourself tripping over them without trying. For some reason, people go all gooey with nostalgia over them, so they don't mind throwing money at their perfect Landie. There are plenty out there already—the UK military is looking into converting some of its fleet of Defenders into EVs, while restomod companies will sell you one upholstered with the skin of an exotic creature, and numerous others promise super silent cruising up and down the lumps and bumps of the world.

Whereas most will rip out the diesel motor and replace it with a traditional EV powertrain, BEDEO's method is different. Rather than mounting the motor(s) on the chassis, connected to the wheels by driveshafts, the company hub-mounts them, putting a motor in each wheel, saving room elsewhere to avoid encroaching on space previously used by oily bits.

Enlarge / An oceangoing scientific drilling vessel may be needed to figure out how huge undersea aquifers formed. (credit: Credit: IODP)

One-quarter of the world’s population is currently water-stressed, using up almost their entire fresh water supply each year. The UN predicts that by 2030, this will climb to two-thirds of the population.

Freshwater is perhaps the world’s most essential resource, but climate change is enhancing its scarcity. An unexpected source may have the potential to provide some relief: offshore aquifers, giant undersea bodies of rock or sediment that hold and transport freshwater. But researchers don’t know how the water gets there, a question that needs to be resolved if we want to understand how to manage the water stored in them.

For decades, scientists have known about an aquifer off the US East Coast. It stretches from Martha’s Vineyard to New Jersey and holds almost as much water as two Lake Ontarios. Research presented at the American Geophysical Union conference in December attempted to explain where the water came from—a key step in finding out where other undersea aquifers lie hidden around the world.

Enlarge (credit: SEAN GLADWELL)

Unraveling how consciousness arises out of particular configurations of organic matter is a quest that has absorbed scientists and philosophers for ages. Now, with AI systems behaving in strikingly conscious-looking ways, it is more important than ever to get a handle on who and what is capable of experiencing life on a conscious level. As Christof Koch writes in Then I Am Myself the World, "That you are intimately acquainted with the way life feels is a brute fact about the world that cries out for an explanation." His explanation—bounded by the limits of current research and framed through Koch’s preferred theory of consciousness—is what he eloquently attempts to deliver.

Koch, a physicist, neuroscientist, and former president of the Allen Institute for Brain Science, has spent his career hunting for the seat of consciousness, scouring the brain for physical footprints of subjective experience. It turns out that the posterior hot zone, a region in the back of the neocortex, is intricately connected to self-awareness and experiences of sound, sight, and touch. Dense networks of neocortical neurons in this area connect in a looped configuration; output signals feedback into input neurons, allowing the posterior hot zone to influence its own behavior. And herein, Koch claims, lies the key to consciousness.

In the hot zone

According to integrated information theory (IIT)—which Koch strongly favors over a multitude of contending theories of consciousness—the Rosetta Stone of subjective experience is the ability of a system to influence itself: to use its past state to affect its present state and its present state to influence its future state.

Enlarge / GM used a Silverado EV to power a 10,000-square-foot house as a demo of its Home Energy system. (credit: General Motors)

LOS ANGELES—Let's face it: The American power grid is a hot mess. The system is outdated and overstressed by amp-sucking appliances, air conditioning units, and extreme weather. Depending on where you live, it's likely only a matter of time before your home will experience a blackout. GM Energy, a subsidiary of General Motors, is here to help.

At a demonstration in a swanky 10,000-square-foot mansion in Beverly Hills, California, where I counted 51 recessed lights in the great room, the new home products from GM Energy easily kept the electrons flowing, eschewing the grid and drawing power from the 200 kWh battery in a 2024 Chevrolet Silverado RST.

It all starts with the GM Energy PowerShift charger. On an 80 A circuit, the charger can charge your EV at a whopping 19.2 kW, and its bi-directional technology can push electrons from the truck's battery into an inverter to convert it to the AC power your home requires. The happy little AC current then goes into the Home Hub that distributes the power to the appropriate circuits, and voilà—the lights are on.

Enlarge / First revealed in 2017, the current Aston Martin Vantage has just had a styling and engineering overhaul. (credit: Aston Martin)

It's high time Aston Martin had a winner on its hands. Last year it updated the DB12 with a smart new face, plenty of power, and the sort of infotainment you'd hope for from a luxury GT. The Vantage, the firm's 'entry-level' car, has been given similar treatment in the hopes that it can peel a few more people away from Porsche dealerships.

Aston is looking not only to make better cars, but also to shift its image—it's aiming to be seen as more luxurious than before, and is throwing as much power at the cars as possible. At first glance, it looks like Aston has cooked up something truly delightful.

The new car is more than 150 hp (112 kW) more powerful than the one it replaces, with 656 hp (490 kW) and 590 lb-ft (800 Nm) from a wonderfully appointed turbocharged 4.0 L V8. Its 0 to 60 time is quoted at 3.4 seconds, and Aston reckons that if you have enough space (and no speed limits) you'll see the far side of 200 mph (321 km/h). It is not slow.