Electric Cars Archive

According to the New York Times, Republicans plan on using the Congressional Review Act “that permits lawmakers to reverse recently-adopted regulations with a simple majority vote.” Except California’s ban on gas-car sales isn’t a federal law, it’s a waiver under the Clean Air Act of 1970, and therefore isn’t subject to Congressional review. Yet another legally questionable move from an administration that’s openly hostile to the idea of slashing tailpipe emissions.

The company’s value dropped below $1 trillion for the first time since last November, causing anti-Elon Musk protesters to celebrate on Bluesky. But the losses don’t appear to have much to do with the demonstrations, which only started earlier this month.

After questions were raised earlier this month about the line item proposing $400 million for “Armored Tesla (Production Units),” the State Department said the solicitation stemmed from a Biden-admin request. However, an NPR reporter says a document shows the Biden administration had approved less than $500k to look into armoring electric vehicles, while experts said the new figure would just about account for replacing the department’s entire 3,000-vehicle fleet with Tesla trucks.

The company has been laboring for years to get the permissions in place to launch its Full Self-Driving system in its largest customer market, and now it seems like that work is finally about to pay off. Bloomberg reports that Tesla has a software update ready to push in a couple of days. It’s not clear whether FSD will be as expansive as it is in the US. But Tesla is facing some real competition in China, including from BYD’s recently announced God’s Eye driver assist feature.

The federal team in charge of overseeing the safety of autonomous vehicles was already pretty small: only about seven people total, according to the Washington Post. But now the Elon Musk-led cuts have eliminated three of the seven. That’s probably good for Tesla, which aims to launch a robotaxi service this summer.