Following mounting pressure, European officials have recommended the bloc drop its 2035 ban on new gas cars, instead aiming for a 90 percent reduction in emissions from new vehicles, leaving room for a few hybrids to still hit the market. The change will still have to pass the EU parliament.
The electric vehicle battery recycling and manufacturing venture is rolling out new battery recycling and retreival bins in San Francisco and Nevada to collect old, unused, and unwanted batteries. No special packaging or disassembly required. Inside the bins, a microcontroller uses infrared, ultrasonic, and other sensing tools to scan each item and maintain safe conditions. Any batteries up to 300Wh will be accepted.
The company’s decision to cut off CarPlay and Android Auto hasn’t exactly been popular. While GM isn’t backing down anytime soon, some industrious drivers are working to bring back support. A reasonably complicated open-source hack involving hardware and sideloaded software adds Wireless CarPlay to newer models like the Equinox EV.
That’s triple the number of fares it did in 2024, the company said today. Assuming that the average Waymo ride costs $20.43, that could mean in excess of $286 million in revenue for the company. Of course, some of that money is going toward taxes and other ride-hailing fees. Still, that’s an impressive number for a company that only operates in five cities in the US — and soon to grow to 20 cities internationally. Waymo also says it’s now on track to do 20 million lifetime trips by the end of the year.
The new feature was recently announced by Rio Akasaka, Google Maps’ senior product manager, as spotted by 9to5Google. You’ll need to first connect your iPhone to your car through USB, Bluetooth, or CarPlay, but when you’re done driving Google Maps will automatically save your vehicle’s location for 48 hours, or until you start driving again.
Trump was talking about Japanese kei cars, specifically, but Stellantis is hoping his good will extends to Italian quadricycles like the Fiat Topolino. The automaker says it will bring the micro-EV to the US sometime next year, but I’m not convinced American car buyers will be as charmed as the president. Last year, Fiat had to pause production of the slightly larger 500e after record-low sales. At one point Fiat dealers were practically trying to give them away.
As spotted by TechCrunch, the new expansion to Grand Theft Auto Online, dubbed “A Safehouse in the Hills,” includes a fictionalized version of Waymo called “KnoWay.” The cars are recognizable as autonomous thanks to their rooftop lidar sensors and their Waymo-esque logos. But the similarities end there, as the vehicles are shown in a trailer for the game dangerously swerving all over the road and even crashing through a billboard. The expansion is available starting December 10th.
