Electric Vehicles & Cars - Page 5

That headline might sound like a joke, but the sheer amount of data being collected and tracked by modern smart cars is incredible. As revealed by ExpressVPN, data collection and monitoring in smart cars goes well beyond what you'd expect to find. Driving habits, GPS data, and how close you let the tank get to empty before pulling into a gas station for fuel or a charge? Sure.

Everything there is to know about you and your behavior, right down to fingerprints and facial scans? Not cool.

It's a long, seemingly never-ending list of personal information and data being collected. According to the Mozilla Foundation, smart cars are the worst offenders when it comes to the excessive collection of personal data. In the U.S., Nissan's privacy policy confirms that its smart cars collect sensitive information like driver's license numbers, citizenship status, nationality, race, and gender - but also "sexual activity."

The time has finally arrived, or at least it's just around the corner, as Elon Musk has revealed a date for when Tesla's Cybertruck will begin shipping out to customers.

In what seems like a road that was plagued with delays, the Tesla Cybertruck is expected to hit the streets sometime soon as Tesla CEO Elon Musk took to his personal X account to announce that deliveries will start this Thursday. Tesla has been developing the Cybertruck for the past four years, and during that time, it has been taking refundable deposits of $100, which Musk claims has now exceeded over a million interested buyers. Musk has also said that it would take Tesla five years to complete its backlog of orders at its current rate of manufacturing.

However, Musk has previously stated that Tesla plans on ramping up production of the Cybertruck over the coming years, with the hopeful target of hitting 200,000 Cybertruck's manufactured per year. Musk revealed these stats last month, saying Tesla should be able to manufacture 250,000 Cybertruck's in 2025. Furthermore, Elon Musk only recently let comedian and podcaster Joe Rogan fire an arrow at the side of a Cybertruck door to demonstrate it's bullet proof design. If you want to see that video, check out this link here.

It was only recently that Elon Musk let comedian and podcaster Joe Rogan fire an arrow at the door of an unreleased Tesla Cybertruck, and now we are seeing some unannounced features in the wild.

A new video that was originally posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, showcases two unannounced features of the Tesla Cybertruck: the wake-up light sequence and the raising of the entire vehicle to medium ride height. The above video shows the light sequence taking place when the driver opens the Cybertruck's door, and then once the driver is in the vehicle, the whole Cybertruck begins to rise from low to medium ride height.

This shift in suspension isn't new for vehicles, but it is the first time we've seen it used in public with the Cybertruck. What is the point of this feature? To assist the driver in getting into the vehicle, hence why it is placed in low mode when it's parked. The only concern that seems to be prominent from the video is how high the medium ride height setting is, with one X user writing, "That's medium? Want to see what high looks like!".

Tesla's new Cybertruck will reach its first customers on November 30, where owners of the new EV pickup truck are actually banned from reselling their Cybertruck within the first 12 months.

Seriously? Yeah, seriously. Inside of Tesla's terms and conditions is a clause titled "For Cybertruck Only" inside of its Motor Vehicle Order Agreement. Tesla explains in its Motor Vehicle Order Agreement: "You agree that you will not sell or otherwise attempt to sell the Vehicle within the first year following your Vehicle's delivery date. Tesla may seek injunctive relief to prevent the transfer of title of the Vehicle or demand liquidated damages from you in the amount of $50,000 or the value received as consideration for the sale or transfer, whichever is greater. Tesla may also refuse to sell you any future vehicles".

However, if a customer has a good enough reason to sell their new Tesla Cybertruck, the EV giant might buy back the Cybertruck at its original price, minus "$0.25/mile driven, reasonable wear and tear, and the cost to repair the Vehicle to Tesla's Used Vehicle Cosmetic and Mechanical Standards". If Tesla decides not to purchase your used Cybertruck, it could agree to let the customer sell it to someone else.

Ausom has announced that it will be launching the "Gallop", an electric scooter that's capable of reaching a top speed of 41 mph.

Ausom has taken to its website to showcase the Gallop, which it has outfitted with an incredible amount of technology that pushes the electric scooter to new levels of capability. The company has whacked a dual 1200W powerful motor onto the Gallop that's able to climb an angle of 35%, along with an impressive maximum distance of 55 miles off a single charge thanks to its 23.2Ah removable battery pack.

Furthermore, Ausom has placed dual hydraulic disc brakes on the Gallop that bring the e-scooter to a smooth, safe stop. Additionally, Ausom has included a slick LCD display, shock absorption springs for going over rough terrain, two charging ports, an all-round lighting system, and effortless folding capabilities. As for charging, Ausom writes on its website that its dual charging port design allows the Gallop to reach its maximum charge in just 6 hours.

Elon Musk has warned that the launch of the highly anticipated Cybertruck is going to put Tesla in a tight spot, but it must be done.

During Tesla's Q3 earnings call, company CEO Elon Musk said that Tesla "dug our own grave" with the release of the Cybertruck, and that it will be many months before production can be ramped up enough that Tesla is turning a profit. Musk estimated that the process of ramping up production of the electric truck, which was originally announced in 2019, will take approximately 18 months before Tesla makes a profit. Initial internal estimates by Tesla project at least 250,000 Cybertrucks manufactured by 2025.

Musk explained that these production problems can be attributed to the uniqueness of the vehicle, explaining that the Cybertruck is a special product that "comes along only once in a long while. And special products that come along once in a long while are just incredibly difficult to bring to market to reach volume, to be prosperous." Additionally, Musk said that these challenges of reaching an appropriate level of production for the Cybertruck so that it's cashflow positive "is simply normal".

Tesla's innovative and much-hyped Cybertruck EV will see its first deliveries roll off -- hopefully a Tesla Semi truck -- on November 30 during an event at its Gigafactory in Austin, Texas.

On the official X account for Tesla, a post read, "Cybertruck production remains on track for later this year, with first deliveries scheduled for November 30th at Giga Texas". Tesla added that the production of their higher density 4680 cells is progressing as planned as they continue building capacity for cathode production and lithium refining in the United States.

Tesla originally announced its Cybertruck back in 2019, with production affected multiple times between then and now -- especially the pandemic right in the middle of it -- while in that time, other auto companies have stepped up with EV truck announcements. Ford has its fantastic F-150 Lightning, while there's also the R1T from Rivian.

The Apple Car is fast becoming something of a myth at this point, and it now seems increasingly unlikely that we will ever see it hit the roads. Especially not in the next few years, we're told.

With the Apple Car presumably still under development inside Apple using the same Project Titan name that we've been hearing for years, supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has now hinted that the project has gone dark.

In a post on X, the social network previously known as Twitter, Kuo says that the Apple Car "seems to have lost all visibility," suggesting that there has been no movement on the project in terms of the supply chain and companies responsible for sourcing parts. The analyst goes on to hint that we won't see the Apple Car go into mass production within the next few years unless something dramatic happens.

"We would also like to reaffirm that the system malfunction was not caused by a cyberattack and apologize to all parties for any concern this may have caused," writes Toyota in an announcement regarding its factory operation in Japan where last month production stopped for multiple days due to unforeseen issues.

It turns out that the company's servers simply ran out of disk space, with the "insufficient disk space" issue causing "the system to stop." Toyota's Japanese factories and production lines halted due to the server maintenance thing that all big systems experience - with this example of a complication arising undoubtedly being a very costly one.

"During the maintenance procedure, data that had accumulated in the database was deleted and organized, and an error occurred due to insufficient disk space," Toyota said. "Since these servers were running on the same system, a similar failure occurred in the backup function, and a switchover could not be made."

It appears that Elon Musk has his very own mode within Tesla vehicles after a hacker discovered the setting and dubbed it "Elon Mode".

Bloomberg reported, along with the hacker, that this unannounced mode seemingly enables Tesla drivers taking advantage of Full Self-Driving to not periodically touch the steering wheel. Typically, Tesla drivers using Auto Pilot or Full Self-Driving will be required to make contact with the steering wheel after a certain amount of time.

This feature was implemented to make sure the driver was constantly paying attention to the road and the vehicle. If the steering wheel isn't touched, the Tesla will begin to blink visually, which then turns into beeping if the wheel still isn't touched, and then finally completely disabled from the driver. However, "Elon Mode" disabled all of these safety features and allows the driver to operate the vehicle hands-free for a prolonged amount of time.

Back in May, Ford announced that it was expanding its software capabilities within its vehicles, and now the company has revealed that its hands-free driving hardware is going to become a staple in all of its new vehicles.

The company announced on Monday that its hands-free driving capabilities called BlueCruise will be rolled out into 500,000 vehicles for its 2024 model year across North America. The expansion of Ford's hands-free driving capabilities seems to be taking inspiration from Tesla's driver-assist subscription services, as Ford will be taking a similar approach, but with a price reduction compared to Tesla. Notably, Ford said it will be building its hands-free tech into the F-150 lightning, F-150, Expedition, Lincoln Navigator, and Nautilus.

Previously, Ford required buyers to request the hands-free driving tech ahead of the purchase of the vehicle. However, with this new announcement, buyers will have the option of opting in whenever they like, but with some caveats. As with most hands-free driver technology, it isn't cheap. Ford will be offering three years of BlueCruise for $2,100. If that price is too high for buyers, or if drivers just wish to try out the feature, there is the $800 per year option, or the $75 per month option.

If you are considering picking up an electric scooter, then you may need to look no further than the newly announced Leopard.

Ausom is an emerging manufacturer and innovator of high-end electric off-road scooters and has recently unveiled its Leopard model, a flagship product that the company has brought to US markets for the first very time.

So, what can you expect out of the Leopard? Nothing short of raw power combined with fun. More specifically, the Ausom Leopard comes with a staunch 1000W motor that can push the electric scooter to a top speed of 34 mph and a 25% climb angle. Additionally, buyers will get a 20.8Ah battery capacity that will give a 52-mile total range off a single charge.

If you own a Tesla you're probably already very aware that you can't plug your iPhone in and use CarPlay like owners of cars from most other manufacturers. Tesla CEO Elon Musk hasn't given anyone hope that will change at any point soon, but a new report suggests that there might be something different in the works instead.

If that report is correct, Tesla appears to be getting ready to add a new AirPlay option to its cars that will allow drivers to wirelessly stream audio, and perhaps video, to their vehicles. That would work with more than iPhones as well, with iPads and Macs also supporting AirPlay.

The report comes courtesy of the @Tesla_iOS_App Twitter account that reports on changes to the Twitter for iPhone app. Based on references found in the latest Tesla app, that account believes that AirPlay support is on the way or at the very least being worked on. A string that references allowsAirPlayForMediaPlayback appears to suggest that there will be AriPlay support in the future.

Ford has announced that it will be recalling nearly one million F-150s as the trucks can unexpectedly engage their electric parking breaks.

The company has announced the recall in a new document posted by government safety regulators, Where it states that 870,000 of its F-150s between the years of 2021 and 2023 that have a single exhaust will be recalled. The document was posted last Friday and details that the rear wiring bundle can sometimes come in contact with the rear axle housing, resulting in the wiring experiencing chafing and, in some cases, short-circuiting.

This short-circuiting can result in the parking brake turning on without any interaction from the driver, which obviously increases the chances of a crash, hence the recall. So how often has this happened? According to the documents, there have been 918 warranty claims and three field reports of wire chafing across North America. Additionally, of those 918 warranty claims, 299 indicated unexpected parking brake activation. 19 of those claims happened while the truck was being driven.

Tesla announced the Cybertruck in 2019, and after what seems like countless delays and setbacks, the company has built its first vehicle.

The Cybertruck was originally unveiled in 2019 by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and after the hilarious demonstration of the not-so armor glass windows, news began to dwindle about the highly anticipated vehicle. Every now and again, there were murmurings about the Cybertruck, and they typically weren't the most positive ones as it was mostly production delay announcements attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic tying up materials.

Notably, during Tesla's 2023 annual shareholder meeting, Musk said that Tesla expects to deliver between 250,000 and 500,000 units of the Cybertruck per year once production has reached maximum capacity, which it anticipates will occur later this year. Reports from Kelly Blue Book state that while Tesla's original price for the Cybertruck would be $39,900, that price has been jacked up to $50,000. The dual-motor, all-wheel drive model is believed to start around $60,000, and the tri-electric motor model at around $70,000.

Mercedes-Benz has taken to its website to announce new features coming to Mercedes vehicles, and according to the German car company, Mercedes owners can expect an AI-powered upgrade.

The company explained in a blog post that it will be rolling out updates to its Hey Mercedes voice assistant, and that customers will be able to opt-in to the beta program by simply saying, "Hey Mercedes, I want to join the beta program". Once the correct words are spoken, the vehicle will initiate an over-the-air update that will upgrade the MBUX Voice Assistant with OpenAI's extremely popular chatbot, ChatGPT.

Mercedes says on its website that ChatGPT will "greatly improve natural language understanding and expand the topics to which it can respond. Soon, participants who ask the Voice Assistant for details about their destination, to suggest a new dinner recipe, or to answer a complex question, will receive a more comprehensive answer." Mercedes says this new ChatGPT integration with its vehicles was made possible through Microsoft, a massive investor in OpenAI, the developers behind ChatGPT.

YouTube channel WhistlinDiesel has posted a new video showcasing a modified Tesla Model 3 with 10ft tall wheels driving along the road.

Cody Detwiler, the host of the WhistinDiesel YouTube channel that has amassed more than 5 million subscribers, explains that the goal of the above video is to test the Tesla Model 3 to see if it meets all of the claims Tesla has made about its vehicles. Notably, there is a strong vein of comic essence running through all of WhistinDiesel's videos, and the testing process is purely for entertainment purposes only, as Detwiler decides to set his own testing parameters.

One of the biggest claims from Tesla is that electric cars are greener for the planet than petroleum-powered vehicles, and while that may be true at face value, it really depends on where the electricity is sourced from. For example, if the electricity that is powering any electric car comes from a renewable source, such as solar-powered energy, then the vehicle would be greener than a typical combustion engine vehicle.

We're all very familiar with the idea of wirelessly charging our phones, watches, and earbuds but have you ever considered wirelessly charging your car?

That obviously only applies to people who have electric vehicles, but wireless charging would fix one of the bigger problems with owning an EV - having to plug it in all the time. Now it appears that Tesla is working on fixing that with some sort of wireless charging technology.

While Tesla hasn't confirmed that it's working on anything of the sort, the company might have teased something during this week's Investor Day.

Ford has filed for a patent on a new type of system that is designed to cause drivers "discomfort" if they happen to miss consecutive car repayments.

The car manufacturer filed for the patent back in August 2021, but it only became public last week when it was published online. The Drive reports that the patent includes technology that would revoke key features of the vehicle in the event of car repayments being missed by the buyer. Features that would be taken away incrementally would be air conditioning, GPS, and even the radio.

Furthermore, the patent describes a new system called the "repossession system computer", which will serve as the brain for carrying out all these discomforts. The patent states that this new computer would begin with minor annoyances to the driver, such as removing air conditioning, cruise control, or the radio. Then if warnings of missed payments are continued to be ignored, the system could initiate an "incessant and unpleasant sound" whenever the driver is around.

Flying cars has always been this benchmark for something futuristic; that is, once flying cars are real - we're well and truly living in the future. And that's precisely what we've got here, with the Airspeeder MK4 from Alauda Aeronautics - based in Adelaide, South Australia.

A fully crewed flying racing car because we're already at the flying racing car stage. The Airspeeder MK4 is described as the world's fastest hydrogen electric "Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft."

It can reach its top speed of 360km/hr (225m/hr) in 30 seconds from a full-standing start and is set to debut in the burgeoning field of Airspeeder racing. Yeah, it's a flying racing card built for performance motorsports. As mentioned above, this is a hydrogen-electric flying car with an impressive range of 300km - with the vehicle weight being just 950kg.