Electric Vehicles & Cars News - Page 46

Just imagine driving around through a 35MPH zone and some hacker manipulates your Tesla electric car and its Autopilot mode, tricking it into seeing that 35MPH speed sign and making it think it was an 85MPH sign.

Yeah, so a group of McAfee researchers did just that -- manipulated a speed limit sign that tricks the Autopilot self-driving technology that Tesla is a leader in. The researchers put a small sticker on a 35MPH speed limit sign, tricking both a 2016 Tesla Model X and Model S in Autopilot mode, into thinking it was an 85MPH sign -- both vehicles then began accelerating up to 85MPH.

MIT Technology Review says that this isn't the first time researchers have been able to manipulate Tesla in Autopilot mode, where they report: "In an 18-month-long research process, [McAfee researchers] Trivedi and Povolny replicated and expanded upon a host of adversarial machine-learning attacks including a study from UC Berkeley professor Dawn Song that used stickers to trick a self-driving car into believing a stop sign was a 45-mile-per-hour speed limit sign. Last year, hackers tricked a Tesla into veering into the wrong lane in traffic by placing stickers on the road in an adversarial attack meant to manipulate the car's machine-learning algorithms".

There has recently been quite a lot of controversy surrounding Tesla's Autopilot feature, and a new level of hostility and division arose after Walter Huang's death on March 23rd, 2018.

Huang's vehicle experienced an Autopilot glitch that caused it to get lanes mixed up as it approached a left exit on US Highway 101. The vehicle was traveling at 70 miles per hour, but since then, new information has surfaced in multiple new documents released by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The documents confirm that Huang experienced this same glitch in this very same spot, multiple times before his death. What isn't confirmed is that if Huang told Tesla about this issue.

The documents state that on the last two times Huang drove over the same spot on highway 101 he noticed the glitch and grabbed the wheel to correct it. This evidence was gathered from the SD card that is inside every Model X (Huang's vehicle). A friend of Huang, Hans Ting, also asked Huang in a private message on March 19th how his vehicle was doing, a screenshot has been provided below. Huang's family claims that Huang notified Tesla of this Autopilot issue and said that Huang visited Tesla in regard to it.

Just imagine your $150,000 new Porsche Taycan electric car exploding while parked, stationary and turned off, in your garage. I can't imagine it, and it is a scary thought but it has happened to one Porsche Taycan owner in Florida.

There are only 130 of them in the US so far, with the German premium car maker seeing one of its Taycan electric vehicles exploding, catching on fire and burning to a crisp in a garage in South Florida on February 16. Electrek reported with a video from Twitter, saying that "the electric car was burned down to the some parts of the frame, and the garage sustained significant damages".

Porsche has confirmed with Electrek that they are "aware of the incident and that no one was hurt". There's also one fact that Electrek drives home, and that's the bit where they say "Electric car fires often get a lot of attention from the mainstream media, despite the fact that they happen far less frequently than gasoline car fires".

Well, well, well... what do we have here? Oh, just the Tesla Motors self-titled 'Anti-Handbook Handbook' for new employees which is actually ridiculously awesome. Check out the Tesla Anti-Handbook Handbook right here.

The purported Anti-Handbook Handbook is filled with regular-sounding explanations of everything, and not a bunch of stuff that is corporate speak. It's actually very refreshing, with Tesla starting off the Anti-Handbook Handbook with: "We're Tesla. We're changing the world. We're willing to rethink everything. We're different and we like it that way. Being different allows us to do what no one else is doing; to do what others tell us is impossible".

Tesla also says that anyone at Tesla can and should email or talk to anyone else "according to what they think is the fastest way to solve a problem for the benefit of the whole company". Tesla staff can talk to their managers, their manager's manager, to a VP in another department, or even Elon Musk himself -- the Anti-Handbook Handbook adds that "you can talk to anyone without anyone else's permission. Moreover, you should consider yourself obligated to do so until the right thing happens".

An Apple engineer who was killed in a fatal Tesla car crashed in March, 2018 had previously reported issues with Tesla's Autopilot system.

According to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) documents that were shared just this past Tuesday, Apple engineer Walter Huang had previously reported that his Tesla car steered away from the highway. Reuters reported that Huang's brother said that Huang discussed how the car swerved towards the highway barrier with him. Huang also reportedly complained to Tesla about the issue, but their response was that they couldn't replicate the problem.

Tesla also said that it was Huang's fault and that he ignored several "hands-on warnings" that prompted him to take control of the wheel. Huang's family filed a lawsuit against Tesla, claiming that Huang's vehicle (Model X) was "defective" in its design. Not too long ago, US Senator criticized Tesla's Autopilot feature, calling the title of the feature "misleading", check out that story here. It's not all doom and gloom for Tesla's Autopilot feature, back in August last year a driver had a heart attack while driving, and the Autopilot feature saved his life. More on that here.

Every year, most car manufacturers have a new vehicle model coming out, and now that we are well into 2020, what vehicles are the most anticipated?

According to a new study conducted by Partcatalog, who analyzed Google Trends data between the dates of January 1st and February 1st found that Americans are most excited for Ford's new vehicle -- the Ford Bronco. The above map showcases each state and what they are most excited about in terms of brand and vehicle.

In summary, the following vehicles were the most popular; Ford Bronco - 19 states, Chevy Corvette Stingray - 13 states, Land Rover Defender - 6 states, Porsche Taycan - 5 states, Tesla Model Y - 3 states, Rivian R1T - 2 states, Ford Mustang Mach-E - 2 states. If you are after any more statistics like this, a new info-graph is released every month regarding vehicles. Be sure to check back here soon for more.

Since the announcement of Tesla's Cybertruck, competitors have scrambled to announce their own version of an electric truck. But how will these newly announced affect Tesla's Cybertruck, and what does the public think?

During this year's Super Bowl, we saw GM's Hummer EV advertisement that featured LeBron James. Since that advertisement went live, there has been some talk about how GM's Hummer EV will be a threat to Tesla's Cybertruck that was announced late last year. According to a nationwide survey of 20,264 Americans that was conducted by Piplsay, 35% of those who did the survey believe that the Hummer EV will be a "threat" to Tesla's Cybertruck.

The survey also found that 47% of men think that the Hummer EV will challenge the Cybertruck, as compared to 29% of women. While this survey and these statistics don't predict the exact future of how the sales of each of these vehicles will end up, it does give us some insight on what Americans are thinking about both of these vehicles coming to market. It should also be noted that the sample size for this survey is extremely small, but can still be looked at as somewhat relevant.

The world is well aware of Tesla's all-electric Cybertruck, but now more and more car companies will get on the electric truck hype train with Nikola Motors joining in on the fun with its new electric pick up truck dubbed Badger.

Nikola Motors' new Badger will be offered as both a fully battery-electric vehicle, as well as an electric/fuel-cell hybrid that will have some serious horsepower. The hybrid powertrain of the Nikola Motors Badger will have a maximum range of 600 miles, while the battery-powered model taps out at 300 miles.

The company claims the electric truck will have towing power of up to 8000 pounds, and will go from 0-60 miles per hour in just 2.9 seconds. Nikola Motors will be getting very close to Tesla Cybertruck territory if it can meet these claims, which would not be too bad at all. But when can we expect the Badger? The company will fully detail its new Badger truck at the Nikola World 2020 event in September, where it will then accept limited reservations.

Update: As it turns out on February 10th, 2020 the Sinot Yacht Architecture & Design released a public statement that is in response to the media coverage of this yacht and Bill Gates. They said that the hydrogen concept yacht, Aqua Ship is "not linked to Mr Gates (or his representatives) in any form or matter" and that Sinot has "no business relationship" with Bill Gates. I'd also like to personally apologise for this confusion, the statement was released overnight while I was asleep and at the time of writing the post Sinot had not commented on the matters.

Microsoft co-founder, Bill Gates, has reportedly ordered the world's first hydrogen-powered superyacht, proving his stance towards alternative fuels.

According to The Guardian, Gates has ordered what is called the Aqua Ship, which is a 370 ft superyacht that is completely powered by liquid hydrogen. Originally, the superyacht was showcased at last year's Monaco yacht show by the Dutch design firm Sinot. Sander Sinot, a designer of the Aqua Ship, said, "For the development of Aqua we took inspiration from the lifestyle of a discerning, forward-looking owner, the fluid versatility of water and cutting-edge technology, to combine this in a superyacht with truly innovative features."

Back to the Future is one of my top 10 movies of all time (seriously movie studios: do NOT ever remake or reboot this movie) -- but the insertion of the Tesla Cybertruck is just plain awesome.

Toronto-based visual effects studio Fort York VFX has beautifully inserted the Tesla Cybertruck into Back to the Future, at the point when the DeLorean is first cranked up and goes back in time and flies through Doc and Marty. The entire video is all A-class stuff, looking like it was done by a team of movie professionals.

There were nine Fort York VFX staffers that worked on the project, but it has to be the last few seconds when the number plate is spinning around that was the cherry on top. In the movie Back to the Future the number plate reads 'OUTATIME' but in this Tesla Cybertruck infused version of Back to the Future they troll with 'LOL GAS'.