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.
That was Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, former Ferrari president, commenting on the recent reveal of the polarizing electric Luce. He continued (translated from Italian):
There is a risk of destroying a legend. I am very sorry. I hope… I hope to… I hope they take the prancing horse off that car, at least… This is definitely a car that, at least, the Chinese won’t copy.
The automaker’s RACE stock is down over 7 percent, while its US-listed shares are down 4 percent, according to CNBC. It would seem Ferrari fans are not the only ones disappointed by the Jony Ive-designed Luce.
During a recent episode of Ryan McCaffrey’s Ride the Lightning podcast, Tesla’s chief designer, Franz von Holzhausen, confirmed its second-gen Roadster (first announced in 2017) will be built in Texas. The company’s vice president of engineering, Lars Moravy, also confirmed that alpha prototypes of the vehicle are currently in testing.
While gas prices continue to skyrocket, China’s EV industry keeps advancing. It can be hard to keep up, so here are some recent headlines to check out:
The National Transportation Safety Board disabled its public docket today after realizing an image it released in connection with a 2025 UPS airline crash could be used to reconstruct audio from a cockpit voice recorder — something it’s prohibited by law from doing. The agency cites “advances in image recognition and computational methods” as the enabling factor. (h/t to Scott Manley for pointing this out.)
I’ll let Jalopnik’s Daniel Golson set the scene for you:
With 600 people in attendance, the automaker shut down Los Angeles’ 6th Street Bridge, turning it into a Hollywood Autobahn on which the new EV was ripping burnouts up and down the concrete just after sunset, with Brad Pitt and George Russell sitting shotgun. Then Blink-182 did a 30-minute set and made a lot of dick jokes.
Also Jacob Elordi was there? Wild times.
Audi says that its Matrix LED headlights reduce glare for oncoming drivers by using the vehicle’s front-facing cameras to continuously shape the light pattern in real time. Audi first released the headlights in Europe in 2013, but regulatory hurdles delayed their adoption in the US. A rule change in 2022 eased those hurdles, allowing Audi to launch the new Matrix LED headlights in its Q9 and SQ9 SUVs later this year.
Parent company Stellantis said it would be integrating Wayve’s tech into its STLA AutoDrive platform to enable “hands-free, door-to-door supervised automated driving across both urban streets and highways.” Think of it as Stellantis’ answer to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving. The automaker also has a preexisting deal with Nvidia, Uber, and Foxconn to make robotaxis.
With imports from China effectively blocked, Israeli drone company Flytrex is opening a new “manufacturing and maintenance facility” in the Dallas-Fort Worth area with the capacity to produce “thousands” of drones annually. The company says the new facility is key to its plan to open 60 new delivery sites across DFW by mid-2027. Flytrex currently operates a drone delivery service with Uber Eats and DoorDash, with some of its drones capable of delivering a couple pizzas at a time.
The rocket company says it’s ‘highly dependent’ on Musk’s leadership. And that his other companies are possible competitors.
Karpathy, who had also been on the founding team of OpenAI, says he will be working on R&D at Anthropic. Previously, he had been working on “new kind of school that is AI native,” and he says he’s still “deeply passionate about education” and plans to go back to it “in time.”
A bipartisan bill that was just introduced in the House would levy an annual fee of $130 on everyone who owns an electric vehicle. The reasoning is that EV owners need to help pay for road and infrastructure improvements, since they don’t pay the gas tax that funds the Highway Trust Fund. But EV advocates are miffed that they’re being asked to pay almost twice what the average car owner pays each year in gas taxes, especially at a time when high gas prices are leading some consumers to give EVs a new look.
First teased in 2023, this ID. Polo GTI is the first EV in the GTI brand’s 50-year history, launching in Germany this fall for “just under” €39,000, and probably never in the US. It features a 52kWh battery with a max range of 424 km (263 miles). Volkswagen says the electric GTI can accelerate up to 100km/hr in 6.8 seconds.
First, Waymo vehicles needed a software update to stop trying to drive through flooded roads. Then, a neighborhood in Atlanta was overwhelmed by empty Waymos that caused a traffic jam in a cul-de-sac.
Meanwhile, a driver in Dallas caught a Waymo blazing through a red light at a busy intersection.
Business Insider thinks so, pointing to some recent evidence like Uber’s CTO tweeting about a “scary Waymo moment” and an Uber white paper that emphasizes a hybrid model of human- and robot-powered rides over an AV only model. Driverless Digest’s Harry Campbell is also predicting that Waymo and Uber’s partnership may be running out of steam.
[Business Insider]
We asked the company to clarify what’s going on here. Maybe there’s an explanation, but I know a lot of people wouldn’t put it past Amazon to pull a stunt like this.
That means we won’t get an all-electric Mazda until 2029 at the earliest. The Japanese automaker also plans on slashing its investment in EVs to ¥1.2 trillion ($7.52 billion) through 2030, down from an earlier budget of ¥2.0 trillion ($12.53 billion), the CEO told Automotive News. I guess it could have been worse; Mazda could have gone full Honda and cancelled everything.
According to documents filed with NHTSA, defective software was triggering a system reset that would result in temporarily blank screens. (If you’ve seen Mercedes’ massive screens, you’ll know that’s a lot of blank real estate.) Drivers could lose access to their driving information, which could cause a crash. The recall affects 144,000 vehicles built between 2024-2026, including the AMG GT, C-class, E-class, SL-class, CLE-class, and GLC-class.
While some automakers are pulling back on EVs, others are embracing them. Four years after the launch of the Cadillac Lyriq, the GM-owned brand is selling more EVs than ever. In addition to the Lyriq, there’s also the Optiq, Vistiq, and Escalade IQ. (And don’t forget the bespoke $360,000 Celestiq.) Moreover, three-quarters of customers buying new EVs are conquests from other brands, particularly Tesla, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Lexus, and BMW.
[Cadillac]
As Bloomberg reports, Lime finally filed for an IPO on Friday, five years after it originally announced plans to go public. The Uber-backed micromobility company notes in its SEC filing that it intends to use the proceeds from the IPO to pay off debt.
As noticed by Automotive News, the Little Tike Cozy Coupe — yes, the classic red and yellow toy car that has delighted children for over 40 years — is going zero-emission. Little Tikes recently introduced the Cozy E-Charging Station ($33) for the Cozy Coupe’s theoretical EV battery. Now your kid can simulate standing around for 45 minutes to an hour waiting for their EV to recharge. Fortunately I don’t think there’s an app that goes along with it. And no word on the E-Charging Station’s charging speeds. Probably slower than BYD’s.
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