An industry-favored 2017 law made Texas a hotbed for AV investment, but critics say safeguards are needed as driverless cars fill public roads.
Mark Walter is buying majority ownership of the Lakers at a $10 billion valuation, reports ESPN. Walter runs TWG Global, which owns chunks of other sports teams, and also owns a fun grab-bag of other companies, including Shield AI and Slate Auto. LeBron-themed pickup truck when?
We’re barely recovered from meeting the 2025 Corvette ZR1, and now Chevrolet has announced a regenerative hybrid variant (no plugging in here), dubbed the ZR1X. This 2026 Corvette model takes the E-Ray’s EV modes and all wheel drive setup, turns up the horsepower, and puts it in a package with the ZR1’s LT7 V8, along with some other tweaks for maximizing performance on the road or the track.
This ‘true American hypercar’ with 1,250 horsepower will go from zero to 60 mph in under two seconds, GM estimates. No price announced yet.
The anti-Elon Musk protest organizers sent a letter to T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert demanding he “cut ties to Starlink,” citing T-Mobile’s use of the SpaceX subsidiary to power its T-Satellite direct-to-cell satellite messaging service:
By contracting with Starlink, T-Mobile is funding Elon Musk’s attacks on democracy in the US and around the world. We’re demanding T-Mobile pick a side. If they choose to continue in partnership with Starlink, they’re complicit in his assault on working people and his support of far-right authoritarian governments around the world.
The protesters are hinting that they’ll boycott T-Mobile if the company doesn’t comply. And given the brand damage that Tesla Takedown has inflicted on Musk’s company, it’s not a threat that T-Mobile can take lightly.
[actionnetwork.org]
Senate Republicans’ version of President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” — similar to the bill the House passed last month — would slash tax incentives for electric vehicles, wind, and solar power.
Industry leaders warn that it could be a killer blow to new energy projects and factories in the US. “This bill will end any hope of onshoring domestic manufacturing,” Mike Carr, executive director of the Solar Energy Manufacturers for America Coalition, said in a press statement today.
With over 300 miles of estimated range, a Tesla charge port, and native Android software, the pioneering EV is back and better than ever.
The EV demonstrator can handle 6,900 lbs of downforce at 150 mph — which, you know, is insane.
Unlike other EV-only automakers, Lucid seems to have come around on phone mirroring. It added Apple CarPlay support in 2023, and then last year, the luxury EV company said it would roll out support for Android Auto in the fall of 2024.
That’s been delayed until today, when Lucid announced that Android Auto is now available in all Lucid Air vehicles via an over-the-air update (Lucid OS 2.7.0). Access for Lucid Gravity owners is “coming soon.”
Just food for thought ahead of the company’s robotaxi launch later this month.
Ten more states joined the suit filed today against President Trump and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Congress recently voted to revoke EPA waivers that allow California to set tougher air pollution standards for vehicles than the nation as a whole, in what the plaintiffs allege was an unlawful use of the Congressional Review Act.
Rivian just posted an interesting video about the design and engineering work that goes into its upcoming R2 vehicle. The best part is when they take us into the garage where they work on their engineering test vehicles and we get to see the “Mule 3.2,” which is basically an x-ray version of the car with all the wiring and electrical components completely exposed. I promise, it’s SFW.
Last month, Bloomberg reported that the launch would be July 12th. But Tesla never confirmed it, and now Musk is saying the long-awaited robotaxi service will “tentatively” kick off in Austin, Texas, on June 22nd. (An X user spotted one of the first driverless Teslas in the city earlier this week.) Musk also claimed that a Tesla vehicle will drive itself from the factory to a customer’s home for the first time on June 28th.
And seeing how Tesla has yet to respond to federal regulators’ questions about the safety of its vehicles, Musk also made nice with President Trump. (Trump, for his part, sounded less enthusiastic about burying the hatchet.)
You might recognize this TeslaVision campaign seeking fan-submitted ads as a callback to the Project Loveday contest from 2017 (that was the year the Model 3 started shipping, but the new Roadster and Semi did not).
Beyond the request for free advertising labor amid an ongoing brand crisis and political quagmire, Tesla’s 2025 request is also designed to try to flood social media, requiring posts on YouTube, X, and Instagram by July 17th to maybe win a Model Y and a trip to Gigafactory Texas.
