Cars Archive

I’m going to have to respectfully disagree with Rivian software chief Wassym Bensaid, who told the audience at TechCrunch’s Disrupt conference this week that buttons were “a bug...not a feature,” and that soon everything will be controlled through voice. Digital controls like touchscreens have been shown to be less safe than physical buttons because we can’t use our muscle memory to find them while keeping our eyes on the road. Also people hate them!

The automakers describe the yet-to-be-revealed EV as “a nimble SUV with the sharp driving characteristics of a BEV” with “ample cruising range.” Production is scheduled for spring 2025 at Suzuki Motor Gujarat.

Warner Bros. has officially sanctioned Action Vehicle Engineering to build 10 replicas of the Batmobile from Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, according to Hypebeast. The Tumblers are only available by invite and while fully-functional (minus the jet engine) they won’t be street legal. So you’ll also want to factor in the cost of a massive display case.

All cars lose value as soon as you drive them off the lot, but EVs in particular have been know to depreciate more than usual. YouTuber and Out of Specs reviewer Kyle Conner found this out recently when he tried to trade in his Tesla Model S Plaid, for which he paid a whopping $140,940 two years ago, only to find out Tesla’s offer was just $46,400. That’s $94,450 in value obliterated in 24 months. On top of that, the Model S is “falling apart,” Conner noted.

The US Fifth Circuit Appeals Court found that the Tesla CEO’s 2018 tweet questioning why workers attempting to unionize would “give up stock options for nothing” was protected free speech, reports Bloomberg.

The Hyundai Casper (in Korea) / Inster (everywhere else) is a compact utility vehicle that’s just too good to come to the United States... or is it?

Think again, says The Autopian’s Jason Torchinsky, who has a highly detailed breakdown of the new Terra and Traveler EVs designs, as well as a thorough debunking of the sentiment that they’re just Rivian clones. I’ve personally read over a dozen comments on our own story accusing Scout of copying Rivian’s R1 designs. Like, you do know this company existed over 50 years before Rivian was even a glimmer in RJ Scaringe’s eye, right?