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Polestar’s incoming Phone spotted on Google Play’s list of supported devices

Polestar Phone

A few months after sharing initial details and images, Polestar’s flagship smartphone, developed by Meizu in China, has been spotted on Google’s API website as a device compatible with the Play Store. Details of the incoming Polestar Phone remain relatively light, but we can confirm it will run on Android and support Google Play.

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Toyota was the most searched auto brand in 2023, but Tesla still dominates EV queries

most searched EVs

2023 was yet another pivotal year for EVs as the segment began to expand beyond early adopters and into the early majority. What should come as no surprise to most people is that American automaker Tesla dominated Google Trends search data for EVs last year. Still, gas and hybrid specialist Toyota remained the most searched auto brand, not by any specific state.

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Prime time! Amazon Prime Video has been integrated in Polestar 2 operating system

Polestar Prime

Just in time for NFL Thursday Night Football, Polestar 2 owners will be able to tune in and watch the game on Amazon Prime Video from the comfort of their… EVs. Just months after adding Google’s YouTube app to its operating system, Polestar is following up by adding another major streaming app in Prime Video.

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Sibros and Google Cloud team up to deliver OTA updates, AI, and real-time data to a wide range of EVs

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Connected vehicle system developer Sibros has added a new partner to its Rolodex. This time it isn’t an automaker but Google Cloud. By adding Google’s advanced scalable data infrastructure, Sibros looks to bolster its connected vehicle management technology to support a number of data-driven functions to its EV customers, like fleet management and OTA updates.

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Volvo previews sleek upgrades to Android OS infotainment system for the Polestar 3 and other upcoming EVs

Volvo infotainment

Volvo Cars has announced it will use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 3rd generation digital cockpit technology to help power its infotainment system. Together with Google’s Android Automotive Operating System (AAOS), this upgrade will mean a faster infotainment system offering an ecosystem of features for future drivers of the Polestar 3, Volvo’s forthcoming electric SUV, and other upcoming EVs.

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EGEB: Indiana solar struggles, Google’s Taiwan solar project, NC open for wind

solar on roof

Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news.

Today in EGEB, a new bill designed to jumpstart Indiana’s solar industry looks to be stopped before it gets started. Google’s first green project in Asia. And a moratorium on North Carolina land-based wind projects ends.


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Google is officially 100% sun and wind powered – 3.0 gigawatts worth

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Google is officially off-setting 100% of its energy usage with either wind or solar power. The company signed contracts on three wind power plants in recent days to bring them over 3GW of production capacity.

Google’s energy infrastructure investments have totaled over $3.5 billion globally, with about two-thirds being in the US.


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VW wants to improve electric car batteries through a quantum computer partnership with Google

Volkswagen has been heavily investing in batteries in order to support its planned ramp-up of electric vehicle production starting next year.

Their efforts have so far been focused on actual battery production and securing the rarer raw materials needed, like cobalt, but they are also exploring more future-oriented options to improve batteries at the technological level.

Today, VW is announcing a partnership with Google to use quantum computers to improve electric car batteries and others parts of the future of transportation, like traffic optimization and new machine learning processes.
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Anthony Levandowski steps aside from Uber’s Advanced Technologies unit amidst legal battle

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According to a report this afternoon from Business Insider, Anthony Levandowski, the subject of a dramatic legal battle between Alphabet’s Waymo and Uber over alleged stolen self-driving car technology, has stepped aside from his role as lead of Uber’s Advanced Technologies group. Levandowski will reportedly continue overseeing operations and safety, however…


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Google’s Project Sunroof Data: 79% of US rooftops analyzed are viable for solar – is yours?

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Solar viability at Google’s Googleplex HQ

Today Google updated its Project Sunroof with some pretty striking data on approximately 60 million buildings and the viability for Solar Panels to power them. According to the search giant, almost 4 in 5 US homes are viable for solar panels with over 90% of homes in sunny states like Florida and California being viable. But even for houses in “not so sunny states” like Maine and Minnesota, over 60% of the homes surveyed were eligible to benefit from solar panels.

That’s a huge, untapped market for solar companies like Tesla’s SolarCity subsidiary… 
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Chrysler and Waymo unveil the design of first fully self-driving electric Chrysler Pacifica; 100 of them produced for test fleet

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Autodesk VRED Professional 2017 SR1

In October, we got our first look through spy shots at the Chrysler Pacifica minivans that Google has been outfitting with its self-driving technology. Today, Chrysler and Waymo, the new Alphabet company created out of Google’s self-driving effort, have officially unveiled the final design of a Chrysler Pacifica with self-driving hardware.
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Google has reportedly backed off plans for radical self-driving cars in run-up to launch

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An electric self-driving Chrysler Pacifica is Google's first confirmed partnership

Google has long said that it has no plans to manufacture self-driving cars itself, instead partnering with automakers, but it had been thought that it might press ahead with cars without steering wheels or pedals. However, a new report from The Information suggests that parent company Alphabet has now ‘backed off’ these plans in favor of something more conventional.

The report also echoes a much earlier one on the company’s intentions for the self-driving car project …


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Google starts deploying its self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans: first prototypes spotted

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While Tesla’s fleet recently reached 222 million miles driven on Autopilot in about a year, Google’s fleet of self-driving cars just passed the 2-million miles mark last month after 7 years on the road. As we previously discussed, Tesla’s Autopilot miles are not really equivalent to Google’s self-driving miles, but it still gives us a good indication of the speed at which each company is deploying their semi-autonomous and autonomous programs.

Now Google is about to speed up its effort by deploying a lot more vehicles through its partnership with Fiat-Chrysler to build a fleet of self-driving Pacifica, Chrysler’s new plug-in hybrid minivan. The first few prototypes were spotted in Mountain View over the weekend.
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Google self-driving car prototype involved in serious crash with van in Mountain View, no injury

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We have been reporting quite often on accidents involving Tesla’s Autopilot program so it’s just fair that we also let you know about accidents involving other autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle programs.

We learned that one of Google’s self-driving prototype was involved in a serious crash with a commercial van in Mountain View today.
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Google’s self-driving car project is one step closer to market w/ hire of ex-Airbnb exec

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It feels like Google/Alphabet’s self-driving car project has been at a bit of a yellow light lately, with the recent departure of its technical lead & director Chris Urmson and other key members being the biggest sign of trouble. Now, Reuters reports that the Mountain View company has hired ex-Airbnb executive Shaun Stewart as “a director of the self-driving car project” (albeit not a replacement for Urmson), and that his role will be “to help commercialize Google’s self-driving technology.”


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comma.ai releases 7 hours of self-driving car data, calls for Tesla, Google and others to do the same

geohot driverless car

comma.ai CEO George Hotz recently praised Tesla, Google and Otto for being fairly opened about their self-driving car programs, but he is taking his own company a step further in openness with the release of a dataset of 7.25 hours of comma.ai’s prototype at work.

We’ve often discussed at Electrek how data will be extremely important in the race to create a fully self-driving car, and also in the race to get such a system approved by regulators, which is why comma.ai’s move here is particularly interesting.
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