“Tesla posted its first full year of net income in 2020 — but not because of sales to its customers,” reports CNN: Eleven states require automakers sell a certain percentage of zero-emissions vehicles by 2025. If they can’t, the automakers have to buy regulatory credits from another automaker that meets those requirements — such as Tesla, which exclusively sells electric cars….
Tag: automotive
The US Government’s Entire 645,000-Vehicle Fleet Will Go All-Electric
Jalopnik reports:
The United States government operates a fleet of about 645,000 vehicles, from mail delivery trucks to military vehicles and passenger cars. On Monday, President Joe Biden announced that his administration intends to replace them all with American-made, electric alternatives… In 2015, the government operated 357,610 gasoline vehicles and 3,896 electric ones; in 2019, those numbers grew to 368,807 and 4,475,…
Tesla Passes Facebook To Become Fifth Most Valuable US Company
Electric vehicle maker Tesla surpassed Facebook by market capitalization after markets opened Friday. From a report: Tesla’s stock jumped about 5.5% at 9:03 a.m. ET to give it a market cap of $802.6 billion, while Facebook stock dipped. Facebook now has a market cap of about $755.8 billion. The jump makes Elon Musk’s automotive venture the fifth biggest company in the…
Hyundai To Acquire Boston Dynamics For Nearly $1 Billion
According to The Robot Report, citing The Korea Economic Daily, Hyndai will finalize its acquisition of Boston Dynamics on December 10th. A source familiar with the deal said the acquisition is for about $1 billion. From the report: Robotics has become a bigger focus for Hyundai since Chung Euisun was named chairman in October. The company has since said robotics will…
More Than 500,000 Full Electric Cars Sold So Far This Year In Europe
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Carmakers have sold more than 500,000 battery electric cars in Europe during 2020, a milestone in the automotive industry’s move away from fossil fuels. Sales of all plug-in cars, including hybrids, have surpassed 1m during the year in the UK and the largest 17 European markets, according to data collated by Schmidt…
New Electric Cars Have Problems In Latest Consumer Reports Survey
schwit1 shares a report from Autoblog, adding: “And CR decides to predict poor reliability on EVs it hasn’t even evaluated yet.” From the report: The latest auto survey from Consumer Reports shows several newer electric cars to be beset with problems, contradicting the conventional wisdom that EVs with their simpler powertrains should have fewer issues than gasoline- or diesel-powered cars. The…
IBM Apologizes For Firing Computer Pioneer For Being Transgender… 52 Years Later
On August 29, 1968, IBM’s CEO fired computer scientist and transgender pioneer Lynn Conway to avoid the public embarrassment of employing a transwoman. Nearly 52 years later, in an act that defines its present-day culture, IBM is apologizing and seeking forgiveness. Jeremy Alicandri writes via Forbes reports: On January 2, 1938, Lynn Conway’s life began in Mount Vernon, NY. With a…
BMW Demos a Powered Wingsuit That Can Fly 186 MPH
Wingsuits normally create a wide surface area of fabric between a skydiver’s legs and from their legs to their arms, substantially slowing their fall. But to create a buzz for the unveiling of BMW’s new iX3 electric SUV, the company’s creative consultancy Designworks “has partnered up with Austrian stuntman Peter Salzmann to unveil a wicked-cool new electric powered wingsuit that can…
Ring’s Latest Security Camera Is a Drone That Flies Around Inside Your House
Ring’s latest home security camera is an autonomous drone, called the Always Home Cam, that can fly around inside your home to give you a perspective of any room you want when you’re not home. “Once it’s done flying, the Always Home Cam returns to its dock to charge its battery,” reports The Verge. “It is expected to cost $249.99 when…
Cory Doctorow: ‘Self-Driving Cars are Bullshit’
“Self-driving cars are bullshit,” writes Cory Doctorow:
I’m a science fiction writer, so I quite enjoy thinking about self-driving cars. They make for really interesting analogies about data, liability, self-determination, information security and openness… But I’m a science fiction writer and that means I can tell the difference between “thought experiments” and “real things.” Alas, the same cannot be said of corporate…