In a regulatory filing, Microsoft said it would “record an impairment charge of approximately $800 million in the second quarter of fiscal year 2025” tied to GM’s decision to defund its robotaxi subsidiary Cruise. Microsoft has been a minority investor in Cruise and a strategic partner since 2021. For example, Cruise used Azure to manage its (now defunct) robotaxi fleet.
The Vermont-based startup provided a tech demonstrator aircraft to use for mail delivery across the island in 2025. The air carrier also purchased several charging solutions to keep the battery-powered aircraft in flight. Air New Zealand will use the aircraft to familiarize itself with Beta’s technology, including pilot and maintenance teams and route-planning.
Cruise co-founder and ex-CEO Kyle Vogt — the one who got ousted after the company withheld footage from regulators of one of its robotaxis dragging a pedestrian — kept it short and sweet when reacting to GM’s surprising announcement that it was pulling funding from the beleaguered company.
The US Postal Service is supposed to add 66,000 electric trucks to its fleet by 2028 using $3 billion from Biden’s climate legislation. But Reuters is now saying that Donald Trump is likely to kill the effort by cancelling the contracts with supplying automakers Oshkosh and Ford. It’s yet another example of Trump’s eagerness to unspool his predecessor’s efforts to promote EVs.
Dodge is getting ready to launch its first electric muscle car, the Charger Daytona. And clearly the company is feeling a little insecure about alienating its so-called “Brotherhood of Muscle.” The first ad strikes a weirdly combative tone, rejecting the environmental case for going electric and bashing other EVs on the road as “weak” and “soulless.” Meanwhile, influencers got their first taste of the Charger’s fake “Fratzonic Chambered” exhaust noises this week. And most people say they think it sounds like Roblox.
