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 South Korean automaker’s new $7.6 billion factory is a bulwark against tariffs and EV-hostile policies.
Elon Musk says the company has been testing self-driving Model Y cars around Austin without anyone in the driver’s seat for the “past several days.” That’s good news for the company’s fledgling robotaxi business, which may launch as soon as June 12th. Though as Electrek points out, a few weeks of driverless testing is a far cry from the six months Waymo worked through before its Austin launch this year.
[x.com]
The original deal between Amazon and Stellantis, first announced in 2022, was to create a “digital cockpit” for “millions” of Jeep, Dodge, and Ram vehicles — similar to how Google has developed operating systems for a handful of key automakers. But after three years, the two companies are now “winding down” that aspect of their partnership, Reuters says. (The e-commerce company also said it would purchase electric Ram ProMaster delivery vans; no word on whether that deal went through.) And it’s not looking good for a future Amazon in-car experience, as Reuters notes that most of the company’s Digital Cabin staffers have resigned or left the company.
[reuters.com]
Well, as Jalopnik points out while referring its readers to the below video of a Volvo EX90’s Lidar scanner wrecking a camera sensor on the iPhone 16 Pro Max filming it, doing so can be “the technological equivalent of staring directly into the sun.”
Lidar’s effects on camera sensors isn’t new information, but as more cars use Lidar, this video is a solid reminder to take care when showing off your new car.
GOP lawmakers passed resolutions rescinding federal approval of California’s plans to require that all car sales be zero-emission by 2035, as well as policies limiting nitrogen oxide emissions and other pollutants from trucks.
Republicans fast-tracked passage of the resolutions using a maneuver that nonpartisan watchdogs said should be barred, and that Governor Gavin Newsom calls illegal. The Clean Air Act gives California authority to set state pollution limits that are more stringent than federal regulation.
Rivian’s smaller, more affordable electric SUV may not arrive until the end of 2026, but the company is getting geared up to start testing development versions of the R2. But before they get released into the wild, they need to disguise themselves in camouflage so prying eyes (and phone cameras) can’t perceive their full awesomeness. To that effect, the company was eager to show off its custom wrap, which looks a bit different from the industry standard black-and-white design. Yes, there’s a Yeti in there.
After outdoing Tesla’s global revenue last year, Chinese auto manufacturer BYD just outsold it in Europe for the first time too.
BYD sold 7,231 battery-electric cars in Europe in April — up 169 percent over the same month last year — which was enough to just overtake Tesla, which once led Europe’s market but now sits in tenth. Tesla sales of 7,165 are 49 percent down on 2024.
[bloomberg.com]
During an interview with CNBC, Elon Musk laid out some of the details for next month’s robotaxi launch in Austin, Texas, most of which was already known. It will be a small number of vehicles, only 10-20, in the first week, but will increase in size week by week. It will be geofenced to the parts of Austin “that we consider to be the safest,” Musk said. And the vehicles will be monitored by remote operators who can intervene in case of emergency. “We’re going to be extremely paranoid about the deployment as we should be,” he added. “It would be foolish not to be so we’ll be watching what the cars are doing very carefully.” The rest was the standard bluster about “over a million Teslas doing self-driving in the US” and why he thinks Waymo’s use of lidar is fundamentally flawed.
The company is walking back some of its long-term electrification plans, cutting 3 trillion yen (about $20.8 billion) from its investment in electric cars over the next six years. Instead, it’s shifting focus to hybrids, though still plans to be selling only EVs by 2040.
It’s not just them: Toyota is in the midst of a similar reassessment, while last year Volvo gave up on its plan to be fully electric by 2030.
[asia.nikkei.com]
China has implemented new export controls for rare earth minerals and magnets. The changes could upend the shift to electric vehicles.
The update puts a focus on Formula 1 racing in promotion of both upcoming Apple movie F1 and the 2025 Monaco Grand Prix race happening later this month. The update is full of special Monaco Grand Prix-related things, including little renders of Formula 1 cars at the pits and road closure advisories.
Not that any of us will ever use it — this is basically an update for Apple exec and known sports fan Eddy Cue, right?
Tesla’s Optimus robot has been plagued by fakery since it launched with a dancer in a suit followed by remote manipulation at the cybercab event. So what is this? Generative AI? A man behind the curtain in a mocap suit?
Does it even matter if Tesla can’t mass produce them without China’s rare earth magnets?
The struggling automaker, still going it alone after the failure of merger talks with Honda, has confirmed plans to cut 20,000 jobs in the next few years, including 9,000 announced in November. It will also shut seven of its 17 factories by 2027, with the aim of saving 500 billion yen (about $3.4 billion) and becoming profitable by 2026.
[global.nissannews.com]
The paintless, affordable EV pickup truck started taking reservations just over two weeks ago and crossed the 100,000 mark this past weekend, reports TechCrunch.
It’s a good showing, though as the outlet notes, Slate Auto is only asking $50, and reservations are fully refundable.
“EPA approved it, and everyone hates it, so we’re fixing it,” says Lee Zeldin.
It’s unclear what “fixing” means here. Engine start / stop systems can already give you better fuel economy, as explained by Engineering Explained.
In the two days leading up to being let go, former Tesla employee Matthew LaBrot published a website calling for Tesla to “move forward without Elon as CEO,” then attended a Tesla Takedown protest, reports Business Insider.
It’s not the first time a former Tesla employee has claimed to have been fired for criticizing Musk.
[businessinsider.com]
As part of the “maxed out” trade deal agreed today between the US and UK, up to 100,000 British cars can be imported into the US every year at the 10 percent baseline tariff rate, rather than the 25 percent rate for vehicles from elsewhere.
Steel and aluminum tariffs have been cut too, along with protections from Trump’s future tariffs on pharmaceuticals. In return, the UK will take more US beef and other agricultural goods.
The US Patent and Trademark Office rejected Tesla’s request to trademark the term for being “merely descriptive” and describing “similar goods and services by other companies,” reports TechCrunch:
Tesla needs to give the agency specific plans for how and why it deserves the “Robotaxi” trademark.
The examiner also wrote that Tesla will need to tell the USPTO if “competitors” use the terms “ROBO, ROBOT, or ROBOTIC to advertise similar goods and/or services.”
Tesla has three months to respond before the application is abandoned.
