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 / The Clip attached to a late-90s vintage mountain bike. (credit: Eric Bangeman)

Shortly after World War II, a French manufacturer by the name of Solex started selling mopeds. These were not your "typical" moped that looks kind of like a motorcycle with pedals—the mopeds made by Solex were essentially bicycles with a small, two-stroke engine mounted over the front wheel that could propel the rider around 100 km on a single liter of gas mixture. The downside: Solex mopeds were loud and cumbersome to ride due to the weight distribution, and they never really caught on in North America.

Clip, a startup based in Brooklyn, New York, has come up with its own twist on the Solex. Its only product, the eponymously named Clip, is a friction drive unit that attaches to the front fork of any bicycle, turning it into an e-bike. At $499 for the Commuter model and $599 for the Explorer, it is a relatively inexpensive way to turn just about any bicycle into an e-bike for a fraction of the cost of a new one.

The Clip mounts to the front fork just below the brake caliper. (credit: Eric Bangeman)

Weighing in at 8.8 lb (4 kg) for the Commuter model (the Explorer is a pound heavier), the Clip is at its essence a portable friction-drive. There's a detachable controller that mounts on the handlebar and the unit itself. The Explorer model, the one we reviewed, has a 192 Wh battery that takes an hour to fully charge. Its range is pegged at "up to 12 miles," a claim that is pretty accurate based on our testing, and the top speed is 15 mph. The Commuter model offers half the battery capacity, charge time, and range.

Enlarge / Jeep is ready to join the electric SUV fray with the new Wagoneer S, which goes on sale later this year. (credit: Jeep)

The Jeep brand has finally debuted its first purpose-built electric vehicle. It's targeting the hotly contested SUV segment with the new Wagoneer S, which goes on sale this fall. But other than its name, it shares little with the gasoline-powered Wagoneer; the Wagoneer S uses the same EV architecture—called STLA Large—as the forthcoming electric Dodge Charger.

It looks like Jeep is using a similar playbook to Dodge and Ram as it introduces its electric models: Give them the same name and styling as a familiar bestseller to keep customers comfortable, then give them serious power output and some headline-grabbing numbers to generate a halo effect.

Powerful

That's why the Jeep Wagoneer S Launch Edition will offer 600 hp (447 kW), 617 lb-ft (837 Nm), and a 0–60 mph (0-98 km/h) time of 3.4 seconds. It's powered by a 100.5 kWh battery pack with nickel manganese cobalt chemistry operating at 400 V.

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 / For a while the Lyriq was a rare sight on the road, but now that production has picked up, we decided it was time to get a second impression. (credit: Jonathan Gitlin)

We first drove the Cadillac Lyriq a couple of years ago. It was the first of a whole range of new electric vehicles from General Motors built on shared electric powertrain components. Compared to more recent Ultium-based EVs from GM, the Lyriq launch went relatively smoothly, despite pre-production test vehicles. Hype was so great that Cadillac was said to have increased the first year's production run by almost a factor of 10.

But customers faced a long wait for their orders as the company stumbled at the step where cells get turned into battery packs. Now the production kinks have been worked out, and Lyriqs are becoming a more common sight. So it seemed like a reasonable time to check in on the electric Caddy.

We've written quite a lot in the past about the Lyriq's Ultium powertrain, so I won't repeat too much detail here. For model-year 2024, the underpinnings remain the same, although our test car is an all-wheel-drive version. (Cadillac only had the rear-wheel-drive variant at the first drive in 2022.) There are a pair of new trims, Tech and Sport—this test car was the top-of-the-line Sport 3, with a $78,295 sticker price (including delivery charge).

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 / Used Tesla Model 3s can be had for less than $20,000 now. (credit: Getty Images)

The launch of a new electric vehicle these days is invariably met with a chorus of "this car is too expensive"—and rightfully so. But for used EVs, it's quite another story, particularly used Teslas, thanks to a glut of former fleet and rental cars that are now ready for their second owner.

"Due to a variety of reasons, Tesla resale values have plummeted, making many Tesla models very affordable now. Plus, for some consumers, an additional $4,000 Federal tax credit on used EVs may apply, sweetening the deal even further. Buying a used Tesla can be a great deal for the savvy shopper, but there are significant things to look out for," says Ed Kim, president and chief analyst at AutoPacific.

Indeed, a quick search on the topic easily reveals some horror stories of ex-rental Teslas, so here are some things to consider if you're in search of a cheap Model 3 or Model Y.

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 / After building almost 100,000 W12-powered Bentley Continental GTs, the brand is moving to a plug-in powertrain. (credit: Jonathan Gitlin)

BARCELONA—The days of big engines are numbered, even for big spenders. Owning a GT that lets you drive across Europe in a day in cosseted luxury means very little if you're not allowed to drive it into the city you're meant to be visiting, after all. Low emissions zones are either a fact of life or on the way in many of the more desirable urban postcodes, and even here in the US, we're about to start getting quite tough on fuel efficiency. Which is why Bentley is saying goodbye to its W12-powered Continental GT Speed and replacing it with a new plug-in hybrid instead.

The W12 engine has become something of a trademark for Bentley in the 21st century. For many years, Bentleys were essentially just badge-engineered Rolls-Royces, while both companies were owned by the aircraft maker Vickers. But VW group took control of Bentley in 1998—BMW got Rolls-Royce—and it was time for something fresh.

Originally developed within parent company Volkswagen Group for use in the all-aluminum Audi A8, the W12 design essentially mated a pair of narrow-angle V6 engines as used in the Golf VR6 to create a compact and powerful multi-cylinder engine for those customers looking for a powertrain a bit less common than a V8.

Enlarge / The current 911—known to Porschephiles as the 992 generation—has just been given its midlife refresh. The most obvious visual indicator is the presence of vertical strakes in the front air intakes. But we're much more interested in what's gone on under the skin. (credit: Porsche)

Today, Porsche gave the venerable 911 a bit of a spiff-up, putting an updated engine in the base 911 Carrera and making some design tweaks to keep the 992-generation machine looking fresh. But the most interesting update is an all-new powertrain in the 911 Carrera GTS. For the first time, you can now buy a hybrid 911.

When Porsche has been asked about adding electrification to the 911, the answer has generally been some variation of "we'll do it when the technology gets light enough." Plug-in hybrid Cayennes, Panameras, and battery electric Taycans are all well and good because they are big cars.

But a Porsche 911 remains a relatively small car, even if it has grown a little since 1963. The engine bay behind the rear axle isn't exactly expansive, and adding a high-voltage battery and electric motors had to be done thoughtfully.

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 / BMW's single-motor, rear-wheel drive i4 eDrive40 ticks an awful lot of my boxes. (credit: Jonathan Gitlin)

I have a theory about electric vehicles, and with a few notable exceptions, it's this: The cheaper, less powerful version is usually the one to get. Big power outputs and short 0–60 times have been the industry's go-to, but always with the trade-off being less range and a bigger sticker price. Today's EV is a good example. It's the BMW i4 eDrive40, a single-motor version of BMW's smaller electric fastback sedan. It has taken a while to get some seat time in one, but the wait was worth it, because this is one of the best electric sedans we've tested so far.

I've driven the BMW i4 a few times now since its launch in 2021, but always the very fast, very powerful, rather expensive i4 M50. Which is fine, but not exciting like the M3. The i4 eDrive40 undercuts the twin-motor, all-wheel drive M50 by more than $10,000—it starts at a more reasonable $57,300 and goes more than 30 miles (48 km) farther on a single charge of the same capacity 84.3 kWh (net) battery pack, with an EPA range of 301 miles (484 km).

BMW made its name on the back of a string of driver-focused, rear-wheel drive sedans, and I had high expectations for the eDrive40 to live up to. With no front motor, there's less weight on the front axle, and the front wheels just have to worry about steering and braking, not laying down power as well. Less power to put down means smaller wheels, which translates into a better ride and more range, although our test car was equipped with 19-inch wheels (a $600 option), which reduced its range to 283 miles (455 km) compared to the 18-inch option.

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 / Tesla sold 1.2 million Model Y crossovers last year. (credit: John Paraskevas/Newsday RM via Getty Images)

For at least a decade, a car theft trick known as a “relay attack” has been the modern equivalent of hot-wiring: a cheap and relatively easy technique to steal hundreds of models of vehicles. A more recent upgrade to the radio protocol in cars' keyless entry systems known as ultra-wideband communications, rolled out to some high-end cars including the latest Tesla Model 3, has been heralded as the fix for that ubiquitous form of grand theft auto. But when one group of Chinese researchers actually checked whether it's still possible to perform relay attacks against the latest Tesla and a collection of other cars that support that next-gen radio protocol, they found that they're as stealable as ever.

In a video shared with WIRED, researchers at the Beijing-based automotive cybersecurity firm GoGoByte demonstrated that they could carry out a relay attack against the latest Tesla Model 3 despite its upgrade to an ultra-wideband keyless entry system, instantly unlocking it with less than a hundred dollars worth of radio equipment. Since the Tesla 3's keyless entry system also controls the car's immobilizer feature designed to prevent its theft, that means a radio hacker could start the car and drive it away in seconds—unless the driver has enabled Tesla's optional, off-by-default PIN-to-drive feature that requires the owner to enter a four-digit code before starting the car.

Enlarge / These minerals were once part of lithium-ion battery cells and will be once again. (credit: Redwood Materials)

Battery recycling company Redwood Materials will start recycling battery production scrap from General Motors' new line of electric vehicles. This morning, Redwood announced that it is working with Ultium Cells, the joint venture between GM and LG Energy Solutions that makes Ultium battery cells. Approximately 10,000 tons a year of production scrap will be sent from the Ultium Cells plants in Ohio and Tennessee to Redwood's site in northern Nevada.

Redwood was started by former Tesla CTO JB Straubel in 2017 and in recent years has announced partnerships with multiple OEMs, including Ford, Volvo, Volkswagen, and now General Motors. Last year, the US Department of Energy approved a $2 billion loan to Redwood as part of its Advanced Technology Manufacturing program (which also funded Ultium Cells).

Redwood says that its hydrometallurgy facility is now a "commercial-scale source of lithium supply," the first to come online in the United States for decades. The facility also produces raw nickel and cobalt from battery scrap.

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 / Fleets looking for a medium-duty electric truck now have a new option. (credit: Motiv)

Medium- and heavy-duty vehicles account for about 23 percent of US vehicle emissions. That's much less than the amount of greenhouse gases emitted each year by light-duty vehicles, but if anything, businesses can often have a clearer case for electrification, whether that's to save money on annual running costs or to meet ESG goals. The annual Advanced Clean Transportation Expo is currently underway in Las Vegas, and yesterday Motiv Electric Trucks revealed the production version of its new modular medium-duty EV, the Argo.

Motiv has been around since 2009 and has been selling electric powertrains for school buses, step vans, box trucks, and even trolleys. Now it's branching out with its own vehicle, the modular Argo, which is capable of carrying up to 14,000 lbs (6,350 kg) with a range of up to 200 miles (321 km).

"Overnight we've moved from a company primarily serving a narrow slice of the $20 billion medium duty truck market to one that can serve nearly that entire market," said Motiv CEO Scott Griffith. "The launch of Argo is a transformational moment for our company as we can now offer more vehicles and options to help more fleet customers meet their sustainability goals."

Enlarge / A Waymo autonomous taxi in San Francisco. (credit: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Tesla fans—and CEO Elon Musk himself—are excited about the prospects for Tesla’s Full Self Driving (FSD) software. Tesla released a major upgrade—version 12.3—of the software in March. Then, last month, Musk announced that Tesla would unveil a purpose-built robotaxi on August 8. Last week, Musk announced that a new version of FSD—12.4—will come out in the coming days and will have a “5X to 10X improvement in miles per intervention.”

But I think fans expecting Tesla to launch a driverless taxi service in the near future will be disappointed.

During a late March trip to San Francisco, I had a chance to try the latest self-driving technology from both Tesla and Google’s Waymo.

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 / Aurora's sensors festoon this Volvo VNL class 8 truck. (credit: Volvo Trucks)

Recently, we took a look at Volvo's VNL new Class 8 heavy truck developed for the North American market. Last night at the ACT Expo trade show, the company debuted a new variant, called the VNL Autonomous. The name should give it away—this truck has been designed to drive itself using autonomous tech from the startup Aurora.

The VNL Autonomous has been designed for SAE level 4 autonomy and combines long-range lidar with radar, cameras, and other sensors. Input from these sensors is processed by a redundant pair of computers running Aurora's AI software. Aurora has been a partner with Volvo Autonomous Solutions for some years now, working on hub-to-hub driverless freight systems for the North American market.

"Our platform engineering approach prioritizes safety by incorporating high-assurance redundancy systems designed to mitigate potential emergency situations," said Volvo Autonomous Solutions' chief product officer Shahkh Kazmi. "We built the Volvo VNL Autonomous from the ground up, integrating these redundancy systems to ensure that every safety-critical component is intentionally duplicated, thereby significantly enhancing both safety and reliability."

Enlarge / The Pedego Moto has serious moped energy. (credit: Eric Bangeman)

I'm not a fat-tire bike guy. My tire tastes run toward the thinner end of the spectrum: 28s on my road bike and 35s on my gravel bike. And I must confess to some distaste for fat-tire e-bikes, which I mostly encounter being ridden (and occasionally even pedaled) on local bike trails. But the $3,995 Pedego Moto caught my eye. The specs were impressive, but more importantly, it looked like it would be a blast to ride.

Unlike most of the other e-bikes I've reviewed, the Pedego Moto requires little assembly. The Moto arrived in a massive box strapped to a pallet, but once the box was cut away and the bike exposed, all I had to do was adjust the handlebars with a hex key and the Moto was good to go.

From the headlight to the bench seat, Moto sports a rugged moped vibe. There's a bright color display attached to the handlebars with four control buttons. The two on the front tweak the assist level and navigate setup screens, while the ones on the top and bottom handle power and confirm setup options. There's another controller just below and to the left of the display that handles the turn signals and headlights.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | SOPA Images)

A federal judge ruled yesterday that Tesla must face a lawsuit alleging that it committed fraud by misrepresenting the self-driving capabilities of its vehicles.

California resident Thomas LoSavio's lawsuit points to claims made by Tesla and CEO Elon Musk starting in October 2016, a few months before LoSavio bought a 2017 Tesla Model S with "Enhanced Autopilot" and "Full Self-Driving Capability." US District Judge Rita Lin in the Northern District of California dismissed some of LoSavio's claims but ruled that the lawsuit can move forward on allegations of fraud:

The remaining claims, which arise out of Tesla's alleged fraud and related negligence, may go forward to the extent they are based on two alleged representations: (1) representations that Tesla vehicles have the hardware needed for full self-driving capability and, (2) representations that a Tesla car would be able to drive itself cross-country in the coming year. While the Rule 9(b) pleading requirements are less stringent here, where Tesla allegedly engaged in a systematic pattern of fraud over a long period of time, LoSavio alleges, plausibly and with sufficient detail, that he relied on these representations before buying his car.

Tesla previously won a significant ruling in the case when a different judge upheld the carmaker's arbitration agreement and ruled that four plaintiffs would have to go to arbitration. But LoSavio had opted out of the arbitration agreement and was given the option of filing an amended complaint.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)

The Federal Trade Commission's Office of Technology has issued a warning to automakers that sell connected cars. Companies that offer such products "do not have the free license to monetize people’s information beyond purposes needed to provide their requested product or service," it wrote in a blog post on Tuesday. Just because executives and investors want recurring revenue streams, that does not "outweigh the need for meaningful privacy safeguards," the FTC wrote.

Based on your feedback, connected cars might be one of the least-popular modern inventions among the Ars readership. And who can blame them? Last January, a security researcher revealed that a vehicle identification number was sufficient to access remote services for multiple different makes, and yet more had APIs that were easily hackable.

Later, in 2023, the Mozilla Foundation published an extensive report examining the various automakers' policies regarding the use of data from connected cars; the report concluded that "cars are the worst product category we have ever reviewed for privacy."

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 / A Waymo self-driving car in downtown San Francisco on Bush and Sansome Streets as it drives and transports passengers. (credit: JasonDoiy | iStock Unreleased)

Crashing into parked cars, drifting over into oncoming traffic, intruding into construction zones—all this "unexpected behavior" from Waymo's self-driving vehicles may be violating traffic laws, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said Monday.

To better understand Waymo's potential safety risks, NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) is now looking into 22 incident reports involving cars equipped with Waymo’s fifth-generation automated driving system. Seventeen incidents involved collisions, but none involved injuries.

Some of the reports came directly from Waymo, while others "were identified based on publicly available reports," NHTSA said. The reports document single-party crashes into "stationary and semi-stationary objects such as gates and chains" as well as instances in which Waymo cars "appeared to disobey traffic safety control devices."

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | NurPhoto)

Two weeks ago, Tesla CEO Elon Musk enacted widespread layoffs throughout the company, including the 500-strong team responsible for the brand's Supercharger. Now, Tesla is looking to hire some of them back, Bloomberg reports, as Musk promises to spend $500 million expanding the network.

The Supercharger network is inarguably Tesla's crown jewel. The company recognized early on that, even though its owners slow-charged at home each night, knowing they had the ability to rapidly recharge on the road was critical in making an electric vehicle an acceptable alternative to existing vehicles.

Since then, it has built out more than 2,000 charging stations in the US alone, with more than 25,000 plugs. More than that, the chargers invariably work, something that is often not true for other charging networks.

Enlarge / New energy vehicles are being loaded into containers for export at Taicang Port and Taicang International Terminal in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China, on April 26, 2024. (credit: Photo by Costfoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

President Joe Biden is expected to levy new 100 percent tariffs targeted at specific Chinese industries, including electric vehicles, on Tuesday. The announcement follows growing calls from automakers, unions, and bipartisan efforts in Congress to address the problem of China unfairly subsidizing its own industries to undermine foreign competitors.

Why are Chinese EVs so cheap?

The Chinese government has been giving its green industries heavy direct subsidies for some time now, far in excess of those handed out by US or European governments. For EV makers like BYD, this has meant billions of dollars a year, in addition to the consumer-facing tax benefit for car buyers, similar to how EV sales are incentivized in the US.

Brands like BYD have concentrated on making their cars cheaper to build—only using one windshield wiper instead of two, for example—but also through vertical integration. Other than Tesla, automakers in the US, Europe, Japan, and Korea instead rely heavily on multiple tiers of suppliers, most of whom supply parts to more than one automaker.

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.

Enlarge / The Velomobile Bülk, with its hood in place. Note the hood has an anti-fog covering on the visor (which is flipped up). The two bumps near the front of the hood are there to improve clearance for the cyclist's knees. (credit: JOHN TIMMER)

My brain registered that I was clearly cycling. My feet were clipped in to pedals, my legs were turning crank arms, and the arms were linked via a chain to one of the wheels. But pretty much everything else about the experience felt wrong on a fundamental, almost disturbing level.

I could produce a long list of everything my mind was struggling to deal with, but two things stand out as I think back on the experience. The first is that, with the exception of my face, I didn't feel the air flow over me as the machine surged forward down a slight slope. The second, related to the first, is that there was no indication that the surge would ever tail off if I didn't hit the brakes.

Living the dream

My visit with a velomobile was, in some ways, a chance to reconnect with a childhood dream. I've always had a fascination with vehicles that don't require fuel, like bicycles and sailboats. And during my childhood, the popular press was filled with stories about people setting human-powered speed records by putting aerodynamic fiberglass shells on recumbent bicycles. In the wake of the 1970s oil crises, I imagined a time when the roads might be filled with people cycling these pods for their commutes or covering long distances thanks to a cooler filled with drinks and snacks tucked in the back of the shell.

Enlarge (credit: Honda)

Global carmakers are stepping up their investment in hybrid technologies as consumers’ growing wariness over fully electric vehicles forces the industry to rapidly shift gear, according to top executives.

A combination of still high interest rates and concern over inadequate charging infrastructure has chilled buyers’ enthusiasm for fully electric cars, prompting a rebound in sales of hybrid vehicles that most of the industry had long regarded as nothing more than a stop-gap.

Tapping the resurgent demand for hybrids was a priority, executives from General Motors, Nissan, Hyundai, Volkswagen and Ford told the Financial Times’ Future of the Car Summit this week.

Enlarge (credit: Graham Hughes/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The federal government is looking at a phantom braking problem that appears to be affecting the Fisker Ocean electric crossover. Earlier this week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Office of Defects Investigation opened a safety probe into the electric vehicle—its fourth so far. Open investigations are also examining whether the doors can fail to open, in addition to problems with shifting into or out of park and issues with partial braking loss over low-grip surfaces.

The newest preliminary investigation was opened by NHTSA's ODI after the regulator received eight complaints of alleged inappropriate automatic emergency braking. AEB is one of the more effective new active driver safety systems. NHTSA added it to its list of recommended safety features almost a decade ago, and last month, it published industry standards that will make the feature mandatory on all new cars and trucks, although not until September 2029.

But not every AEB implementation is equal. Both Tesla's and Honda's systems have suffered from too many false positives, also known as phantom braking, triggering the feature inappropriately, sometimes resulting in that car being crashed into from behind.