CES 2019 - Harley-Davidson has just unveiled its new LiveWire electric motorcycle with pre-orders opening up ahead of its release in August, where it will cost $29,799 - not too bad considering its the first electric motorbike from the company famous for motorcycles.

The new LiveWire has some wicked takeoff speeds where it will go 0-60MPH in 3.5 seconds, and it'll do so with a "futuristic" sound. Harley-Davison is bringing bikes into 2019 with LTE connectivity inside of the LiveWire that will let you remotely check on your bike, retrieve service numbers, and you'll be able to see if someone is trying to hijack your ride. If someone does, don't worry - it can be tracked with its built-in GPS.

Harley-Davidson says its new electric motorbike is good for around 110 miles of urban riding, but there are other bikes from Zero Motorcycles that push further up to 163 miles riding around the city. The LiveWire takes its own market with its power, tech (especially LTE) and super-styled looks.

Elon Musk has just unleashed a Christmas surprise for Tesla owners, with a few new Easter Eggs included in the latest over-the-air update to its fleet of electric vehicles. One of them includes the ability to fart, yes fart, on-demand.

As you can see from Kevin Pereria's tweet, one of the Easter Egg's in the new update are called Emissions Testing Mode, which gives drivers six different fart noises to choose from. This is an awesome troll for people who haven't read this news, or don't own a Tesla as you'll get a Tesla vehicle owner driving their friends around trolling them with fart noises... coming from THE CAR. Hat tip, Mr. Musk.

The six different fart sounds are themed around Musk's companies and marketing, including:

1. Not a Fart (a reference to Not a Flamethrower that Musk sold in 2018)
2. Short Shorts Ripper (Musk simply can't seem to stop trolling short sellers)
3. Falcon Heavy (as in SpaceX's big rocket that launched in 2018)
4. Ludicrous Fart (super speed?)
5. Neurastink (a reference to another Musk company Neuralink; we're not sure how farts play into the company's plans to build a brain-to-machine interface that would allow the human mind to keep up with AI.
6. Boring (as in The Boring Company)
7. * The seventh choice, called "I'm so random," will pick one of the sounds randomly.

Volvo has been working on autonomous car technology for a while now, and has just announced that it has inked a deal that will see six of its autonomous trucks carrying limestone from a Brønnøy Kalk to a Norway port, which is a 3-mile or so journey.

Most of these deals for trucks at mines would involve a fleet of trucks being made, and then deployed to the mine where the mine would get drivers in and using the trucks. This deal is Volvo's first end-to-end autonomous offering, where it means the mining company is paying Volvo for each metric tonne its autonomous trucks are delivering. This means that Volvo will want to make its trucks the most efficient they can, as they won't be paid if they fail or are filled with problems.

The new autonomous trucks are already being tested in Norway, with the full service going live towards the end of 2019. Volvo Trucks' Director of Autonomous Solutions, Sasko Cuklev said: "It is exciting to reach this point where we introduce autonomous solutions. By working in a confined area on a predetermined route, we can find out how to get the best out of the solution and tailor it according to specific customer needs. This is all about collaborating to develop new solutions, providing greater flexibility and efficiency, as well as increased productivity".

Over the next 12 months we're going to see the explosive launch of 5G connectivity, with Qualcomm already out and ahead of the competition with its Snapdragon products and 5G modem designs, but NTT DoCoMo along with Mitsubishi have set world records with their 5G trials.

The two Japanese giants teamed up to run 5G connectivity tests in outdoor trials in Japan's Kanagawa Prefecture, where the world's first 5G transmission that exceeded 20Gbps using one terminal. At a distance of 32.8 feet (10m) the tests hit a peak speed of 27Gbps, while at 328 feet (100m) away the connection was still an incredible 25Gbps. The proof-of-concept 5G trials used a single mobile terminal, and 500MHz of spectrum within the 28GHz band.

NTT DoCoMo and Mitsubishi Electric used a 16-beam spatial multiplexing in "line-of-sight conditions, where massive-element base-station antennas on the wall of a building directed beams to mobile-terminal antennas installed on the rooftop of a vehicle" reports Mobile World Live.

Elon Musk has taken to Twitter to tease that in the upcoming Tesla V9.0 release that is 4 weeks away, that Tesla owners will enjoy "some of the best classic" Atari games as Easter Eggs in the new Tesla update.

Jordan Golson replied to Musk on Twitter saying there should be specific classic Atari games like Ms. Pac-Man, naturally. Food Fight, Dig Dug, Pole Position, Tempest, and Missile Command in the update. Musk replied saying that he's hoping to include the "last three" in this release, which means we should expect Pole Position, Tempest and Missile Command.

Musk continued, adding that with Pole Position it'll be "linked to actual car steering" but made sure to add that this is "while stationary" so that people don't think you'll be flying down the highway in your Tesla playing Pole Position at the same time. Because that would end in a disaster.

Tesla would have to be one of the most interesting and quirky companies in the world, but I think this new stunt takes it to the next level.

The company unveiled its new Limited Edition Tesla Surfboard over the weekend, which the company says was designed by the Tesla Design Studio in collaboration with Lost Surfboards and Matt "Mayhem" Biolos, the surfboard shaper for World Surf League Championship athletes.

Tesla uses a "mix of the same high-quality matte and gloss finishes used on all our cars. The deck is reinforced with light-weight "Black Dart" carbon fiber, inspired by the interiors in our cars, and featuring tonal logos in subtle contrast gloss". The company notes that the Limited Edition Surfboard will fit comfortably inside of their Model S, X, and 3 vehicles either inside, or outside of the car.

The surfboards will be custom made to order, with a super-limited 200 of them to be produced. Tesla will have them in consumers hands in between 2-10 weeks.

Pininfarina, the Italian car design firm that created the iconic look of the Ferrari, announced back in March it was working on its own electric hypercar, and now we have more information on what to expect.

The new electric hypercar is expected to cost a huge $2 million, hit 60 miles per hour in under two seconds, and have a top speed of 250 mph. The all-electric hypercar is expected to have a range of over 300 miles, and charge up to 80% capacity in a super-fast 15 minutes.

Pininfarina calls its upcoming electric hypercar the PFO, at least for now, with the Italian firm using ethically sourced natural woods and paints that are free of chemical ingredients. Pininfarina will be showing off PFO to VIP guests during the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance next month, but after that it'll be under wraps until the Geneva Motor Show in March 2019.

NVIDIA will be putting its Drive Pegasus self-driving AI platform to good use with a new announcement from Daimler and Bosch that teamed up for self-driving taxis that will be powered by NVIDIA's technology.

Remember that Daimler is the parent company of Mercedez-Benz, so we're not messing around here. NVIDIA's impressive self-driving technology is capable of a huge 320 trillion operations per second, with the self-driving AI technology to be used to power level 4 and 5 vehicles that will be used as self-driving taxis.

The companies will be putting the self-driving taxis onto the roads of Silicon Valley for testing in 2019, with NVIDIA set to work with Daimler and Bosch to build the system required for self-driving ride-hailing service... think next-gen Uber, where there's no human driver in your vehicle... but do you leave a 5-star rating? Heh.

UPS has announced that it has teamed with UK-based tech company Arrival, where the two will built 35 new state-of-the-art electric delivery vehicles.

These new EVs will be capable of up to 150 miles of range, will pack Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) which is designed to improve safety, and reduce driver fatigue. The international director for automotive engineering in the advanced technology group at UPS, Luke Wake, said that the new deal will help UPS make new ways to further reduce emissions.

Arrival CEO Denis Sverdlov said the new delivery EVs will feature a unique wrap-around front window that provides drivers with a far wider field of view, which is better for seeing the road, obstacles, bikes, and pedestrians.

It hasn't been a good ride this week for Tesla, with the electric car company now issuing a recall for 123,000 Model S electric vehicles that were built before April 2016.

Tesla's Model S vehicles made before April 2016 have issues with corrosion in the bolts that hold the power steering system together, which as you can imagine, is a big deal. The company has been busy sending out affected Model S owners emails, explaining the recall and that replacing the bolts would be an hour long process.

This new Model S recall is the biggest in Tesla history, where back in 2016 the company recalled 50,000 electric cars over parking brake problems, while 90,000 cars were recalled in 2015 over seat belt problems. Tack this onto the end of Tesla stock being down earlier this week and now more with the news of the recall, and it's not looking good.