Jameson Dow

Tesla rejected a $60 million settlement offer in the Autopilot wrongful death case which resulted in a $243 million verdict against the company, according to new legal documents.

It’s a rare example of Tesla sticking to its promise not to settle cases it thinks are unjust, and it may end up biting the company right in the pocketbook.

Oil-funded groups are engaging in strategic harassment to stop scientists from revealing the nature of their politically-linked disinformation networks – in what should be a surprise to nobody.

Car dealers, who have long been a roadblock in the rollout of EVs in the US, are continuing with their old tricks and filing lawsuits against new spinoff EV brands, like Sony Honda’s Afeela and VW’s Scout, which had hoped to extricate themselves from the dealership model.

Tesla released its larger, six-seat Model Y L in China one week ago, and now we’re starting to get an idea of what it’s capable of from the earliest reviews.

Mercedes took its GT XX concept out to the Nardo high-speed test track in Southern Italy and came back with a slew of records for electric distance driving – including one for driving a distance equal to the circumference of the world.

As Cybertruck sales fall, Tesla raised the price of its top-end “Cyberbeast” model by $15k today, bundling some additional software and perks to go along with it. The top-end trim now costs $45k more than its original announced price.

Thousands of Britons have voiced opposition to a request by Tesla to supply electricity to British homes.

And what’s the sole reason for this opposition? It’s because of Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

Tesla is now selling retrofit turn signal stalks for certain Model 3 vehicles, after having deleted the stalks in its update of the Model 3. At first, they were only available in China for certain cars, for the equivalent of ~$350. Now they’re available in the US, but for $595 instead.

From the ashes of Elon Musk’s decision to fire the whole Supercharger team last year, a new company has risen: Hubber, which will take its founders’ expertise at setting up Tesla Superchargers and apply that to addressing the lack of high-speed urban charging for taxis and other commercial vehicles.

Mercedes gave us a sneak peek of its “Vision V” electric van concept, complete with 65-inch TV screen in its private jet-like interior, ahead of its US unveil at Pebble Beach.

Rivian has posted a job listing for a steering engineer, specifically mentioning work on a future steer-by-wire system for the company.

Update, Aug 11: Rivian has now specifically mentioned rear-wheel steering in a job posting.

Tesla filed for a patent which looks like it could be the promised “SpaceX package” which it will supposedly include on its oft-delayed next-gen Roadster. But will the system let the Roadster “fly,” as CEO Elon Musk has promised?

Tesla’s brand loyalty levels dropped from the best in the industry to fairly middling results, according to new data from S&P Global Mobility, and it’s all because of the company’s CEO, Elon Musk.

Last week, the US Environmental Protection Agency proposed a plan to delete its scientific finding recognizing that greenhouse gases are harmful to human health, with the goal of making cars less efficient and more costly to fuel. That plan is now up for public comment.

Tesla opened its retro-futuristic “Tesla Diner” last Monday, July 21st. It’s a cool concept and the realization of a plan that was first talked about in 2018… but in the 12 days since it opened, it hasn’t been all roses so far.

The Environmental Protection Agency today announced plans to roll back the scientific finding that climate change harms humans, with the intent to also rollback regulations that make cars more efficient. But this will also raise your fuel costs by $.76/gallon, according to the very same people who made today’s announcement.

(Update: Public comments are now open on the plan to raise your gas prices, until September 15)

In an Orwellian move, the Chief Saboteur of the Environmental Protection Agency, oil industry plant Lee Zeldin announced plans to delete the EPA’s endangerment finding today, which is the EPA’s official finding recognizing the scientific reality that climate change is harmful to human health. And he’s doing it so he can raise your fuel costs, letting the oil industry extract more money from your already-strained pocketbook.

(Update: Even the Energy Department’s own numbers acknowledge this rollback will cost you money, in the form of higher gas prices by $.76/gal)

(Update 2: Public comments are now open, until September 15)

Chinese media outlet Dongchedi conducted another massive test of driver assist systems, testing many of the same cars as it did in the highway test we we reported on this weekend.

This time, the test covers various urban driving scenarios, where much more human carnage is possible due to the presence of vulnerable road users like pedestrians and two-wheelers. And given how poorly the cars did on the last test, you can guess how they might have done on this one – although, once again, Tesla fared rather well, but was not without issue.

The long-promised “more affordable” Tesla model has been spied on Chinese social media, and it’s disappointingly about what we expected: a slightly decontented version of the Model Y.

Tesla will use Samsung for as a supplier for its self-driving computer’s next-gen hardware in a $16.5 billion deal, according to Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

But despite planning two generations ahead, the company still doesn’t have a solution to bring the promised full autonomy to hardware that it’s been promising that capability to since 2016.

RBW, a British handcrafted electric car manufacturer, brought its cute little Roadster out to Santa Monica and invited us up for a drive.

Chinese media outlet Dongchedi closed down a real highway for a multi-day test of 36 different car driver assist systems in complicated, dangerous real-world driving situations, and most came up severely lacking – though Tesla escaped the tests relatively unscathed.

(Update: Dongchedi released another test, this time of city driving, which you can read about here)

Tesla’s business in shrinking in every way except for one: Supercharging revenue, which Tesla CEO Elon Musk once said would never become a profit center for the company.

Rivian has started adding Tesla/NACS cables to its Rivian Adventure Network, now allowing Tesla vehicles and other brands with NACS ports to charge on Rivian’s charging network.