Everyone needs to get around. How we do it will change more over the next decade than it has in the last century. Legacy automakers, like Ford and GM, are scrambling to become technology-savvy companies, and the tech industry is trying to cash in on the change. New players, like Rivian and Tesla, are disrupting the industry and sometimes stumbling. We look at how self-driving hardware and software make the automobile better or, in some cases, deeply flawed. We cut through the hype and empty promises to tell you what’s really happening and what we think is coming. Verge Transportation cares about all moving machines and the place they have in the future.
The Miles Plug adds crash detection, roadside help, location tracking, and a warning-light decoder to your car for as low as $11 a month.
It’s ultra-smooth and looks fantastic, but a few rough edges keep it from greatness.
The company’s new Heritage Collection is targeted at classic car collectors wanting modern stereo features like Bluetooth and support for HD Radio and SiriusXM while also preserving the vintage look of their vehicles. The $499 SXT-C10PS head unit and matching $299 TS-X40SXT speakers are both available for preorder now.
The incredible flying Tesla Roadster may only have been for show, but it was still a pretty good show. Wired has a great breakdown of how the tricks worked, explaining the physics of static friction and vertical acceleration behind the Roadster’s many stunts.
Waymo is reportedly looking to use that $5 billion loan it acquired this month to quintuple its current fleet of 4,000 robotaxis: bringing it to 8,000 by the end of this year, and 20,000 by December 2027. The goal is to expand to more US and international locations, having recently announced it’ll launch in Toronto, Canada by 2028.
Frustrated by federal gridlock, cities and states across the political spectrum are taking matters into their own hands to rein in autonomous vehicles.
The company is asking for $5,000 upfront for Roadster pre-orders, followed by $245,000 within 10 days. But even if you fork over the money, Tesla won’t guarantee your car will be delivered. According to the terms and conditions of the pre-order (emphasis ours):
You understand that Roadster is still under development at the time you entered into this Agreement and so we cannot guarantee when your vehicle will actually be delivered or if it will be delivered.
Turns out nothing is guaranteed in this world, not even flying cars.
Waymo announced that it’s coming to Canada — Toronto to be exact — with the goal of welcoming the first riders in 2028. The robotaxi company, flush with cash but still unprofitable, is increasingly looking at cities outside the US as it seeks to scale its operations. Waymo says it will start with data-gathering, manually driven cars before transitioning to fully autonomous ones. And once it starts its commercial service, Toronto-based Element Fleet Management will handle all the charging, cleaning, and maintenance of the vehicles.
Hagerty’s Henry Catchpool sat down with Tesla VP for Engineering Lars Moravy to talk through the details of last night’s impressive Tesla Roadster demonstration. But behind all the flipping and flying (falling?) stunt work is some impressive engineering — as well as some surprising reveals. (The Roadster is rear-wheel drive?!?)
It’s okay to marvel at the stunt — it’s pure spectacle.
What else do you need from the Tesla Roadster? I mean, it can apparently fly and do kickflips too, but this video shows what you’ll actually be seeing inside the driver’s seat, including an interactive 3D X-Ray of the car you can check out on its infotainment system.
I mean, duh. But still I’m glad they are making that explicit.
Ford is now accepting sign-ups for preorder invites for the upcoming Ford Fathom, the automaker’s $28,350 electric truck that’s coming out next year. Keep in mind, no one has seen this truck beyond a few camouflaged images. But with the average transaction price for a new vehicle over $50,562, it couldn’t hurt to get in line for Ford’s new ultra-low-cost EV.
Last Saturday, The Verge won a New York Emmy Award for our 2025 video about how electric cargo bikes are reshaping cities. It won in the “Environment / Science” category, which is fitting since e-bikes are proven tools for combating climate change.
On a personal note, it was especially gratifying to win an Emmy for a video that featured the bike bus I helped start in my town in New Jersey. Kids should be able to bike safely with their friends to school! And electric cargo bikes help make that happen.
It took nearly a decade for Tesla’s next-gen sports car to arrive, but it’s finally here. The timing couldn’t be worse.
GM is using AI models and a new mini factory to build and test cheaper EV battery cells in half the time.
Tiny pickup trucks might just become a thing in the US if the California-based startup Telo has its way.
VW’s successor to the ID.4 has a “completely redesigned exterior,” a range of up to 600 km (372 miles), and either a 58 or 77 kWh battery. The ID.Tiguan will start at €42,695 and could launch as soon as early 2027.
The airline said it will install Starlink across its entire mainland fleet of 1,300-plus aircraft, up from a previous commitment of 500 planes. Installations will begin in early 2027 and use Starlink’s Performance Aero Terminal, which can deliver speeds of up to 1 gigabits per second. Meanwhile, SpaceX founder Elon Musk is predicting Delta Air Lines’ CEO will lose his job over his decision to go with Amazon’s Leo satellite internet.
The Alphabet-owned company announced its first debt financing of $5 billion, arranged by Goldman Sachs and a bunch of private credit providers. Earlier this year, Waymo raised $16 billion in equity; this time its debt. As it scales its robotaxi service, Waymo needs to buy more stuff, like cars, sensors, charging stations, and depots. And banks and lenders are more willing to let the company take out loans using that stuff as collateral. At this stage of the game, paying back a loan with interest is cheaper than giving away equity. Waymo’s growing up!
The sportier, M-badged iX3 SUV has twin motors putting out 603 horsepower and 645 lb-ft of torque, with a blistering 0-60 time in 3.9 seconds. You can also expect all the standard M chassis tech, like adaptive suspension, variable sport steering, and an electronically controlled differential. BMW calls the design “unmistakably extroverted,” and yeah, I kind of agree.
A new software update rolling out the R2 enables Pet Cam, through which vehicle owners can keep tabs on their furry friends, as well as cabin temperature, via the Rivian app. (Tesla pioneered using in-cabin cameras to monitor pets with Dog Mode, released in 2019.) Rivian is also adding its AI-powered voice assistant to the R2 — which may be more of a mixed bag, based on some reviews from R1 owners.
If you buy something from a link, The Verge may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.
If you’ve ever been blinded by the atomic glare of an approaching car at night, this one’s for you. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced that it’s tackling headlight glare — a problem so widespread that it’s even spawned its own subreddit.
The agency said it will bring together experts in vehicle lighting with safety and equipment associations to come up with changes to federal safety rules. NHTSA already allows adaptive headlights, so I’ll be curious what solutions they come up with.
The ridehail and food delivery company is expanding into corporate catering with the acquisition of ezCater, a Boston-based company that generated $2.5 billion in gross bookings over the last 12 months. The purchase will boost Uber’s food business, which has been growing at a faster pace than its ridehail service.
The company just released its third quarter sales in report, in which it recorded a 6.7 percent decrease in deliveries and a whopping 24 percent drop in production. Lucid said it only built 2,954 vehicles in Q3, a 38 percent drop from the previous quarter and the lowest number of vehicles for the company since early 2025. But Lucid said this is all part of the plan:
Deliveries exceeded production as the company continued to execute its planned inventory reduction, converting existing vehicle inventory into customer deliveries as part of the previously announced operating reset targeting $1.4 billion of cash flow improvements in 2026.
BougeRV’s DuneRover is so good on hills and sand that you’ll forgive the disco lights.
First, it was a rainstorm. Then the cars couldn’t accelerate properly. Then everyone had to wait around for a software update. That’s how a race at the Sepang International Circuit ended up starting 90 minutes late. The new engines have proven controversial and drawn plenty of ire from drivers.
After being idle on the throttle and letting the car slow, as is the norm on a formation lap, the software bug prevented the electrical power from kicking in. Tombazis described it as being a “loop.” The computer was stuck and unable to initiate a power return. For some drivers, the only solution was to stop and reset the car to get it going again. Esteban Ocon compared it to restarting Windows on a computer.
Musk has famously insisted that cameras are enough for his self-driving cars, when everyone else is pairing them with more advanced sensors. Now He’s explicitly said that his Robotaxis can’t run at night because it’s dark — a problem lidar and radar could easily solve.
