Andrew J. Hawkins

It’s been more than 16 months since Ford kicked off the auto industry’s switch to Tesla’s North American Charging Standard, and so far, it and Rivian are the only two companies with access. The bottleneck seems to be the lack of adapters — though Tesla recently said it has increased production to 8,000-a-week at its Buffalo gigafactory. But in the meantime, industry heads are getting worried:

Forbes noticed that Musk’s first two manifestos have been scrubbed from Tesla’s website. The first Master Plan, which was released in 2006, outlined Tesla’s plan to release a series of EVs and use the revenues to build more affordable models. The second plan included plans for additional EVs, as well as solar panels and battery storage. The earliest blog post on the company’s site now dates to 2019. Coincidentally, the purge comes as Musk as aligned himself with former President Donald Trump, and has come to the defense of the oil and gas industry.

After almost two years of testing and a gradual phase-in program, Waymo says its finally ready to provide 24/7 robotaxi service at Phoenix’s Sky Harbor Airport. It’s a pretty big milestone, given how financially essential airports trips are for all human-powered ridehail and taxi services. Waymo also recently completed its 100,000th trip to the airport, and is available for curbside pickup at Terminals 3 and 4. Airport pickups are typically pretty chaotic. So, good luck robots!

I got an uncomfortable feeling while reading this essay about the difficulties of finding a reliable means of transportation from the DNC. Part of it is the over-reliance of cities on ridehail apps like Uber to accommodate large numbers of people in the absence of adequate public transit. And the other part is the knowledge that this is just the way it’s going to be from now on. Taxi stands are a thing of the past. Uber has its claws sunk deep in the government. We’re all stuck in the Ride App Zone for life.

The US Department of Transportation is hosting a half-day webinar about EV battery safety, in light of several high-profile incidents of deadly fires sparked by lithium-ion battery cells. The August 27th event, which is free to the public, will feature “representatives from DOT and other agencies and organizations will discuss EVs and fire safety topics related to lithium-ion batteries.” The webinar comes a few days after California firefighters had to dump hundreds of gallons of water on a burning Tesla Semi in order to cool the battery pack.