OK, everyone, repeat after me: Tesla’s new Autopilot feature is not a substitute for driving. That nonetheless hasn’t stopped many Tesla drivers from relying too heavily on Autopilot and posting videos of scary experiences of it on YouTube. Here are some of the best/worst examples we could find. More →
Citing reliability issues, Consumer Reports is no longer recommending the Tesla Model S, the very same car that not too long ago scored so highly during testing that it broke Consumer Reports’ ratings system.
In a survey of 1,400 Model S owners, the publication found that many users experienced a number of lingering problems affecting all facets of the driving experience. From drivetrain and charging issues to problems with the car’s somewhat iconic 17-inch center digital console, Consumer Reports was apparently taken aback by how frequently users were forced to take their cars in for repairs.
Tesla completely changed the way I think about cars last week but I didn’t realize how big of a deal it really was until this week. 21.co CEO Balaji S. Srinivasan really put it all into perspective for me when he remarked on Twitter earlier this week that “Tesla’s use of an over-the-air update to create self-driving cars is one of the most important things ever to happen in technology.” And when you really step back and think about it, what Tesla has accomplished with its latest software update is nothing short of staggering. More →
Do you think of self-driving cars as some futuristic technology that’s still decades away? Well, you shouldn’t. As a 60 Minutes report from Sunday makes clear, self-driving cars are very much with us right now even though they still sound like something we’d expect to see in The Jetsons. More →
If you’ve ever looked at your receipt for an UberX ride, you might notice that the company charges you something called a “safe rides fee.” This fee covers the cost of everything associated with giving you a safe ride to your destination, including insurance, 24-hour support and background checks on prospective drivers. Ah yes. Background checks on drivers. Uber has shown itself to be awesome at those. More →
Earlier this week, Tesla released its new Model S software version 7.0 that gives its Model S cars the power to perform some neat new tricks including automatic lane changing and automatic parallel parking. Over the past day, the first videos showing these new tricks in action have started popping up on YouTube and they demonstrate that the Model S really does now change lanes for you when it detects that it’s safe to do so. More →
Uber tends to get a lot of flack but here’s a story that even the most ardent Uber detractor can get on board with. The ride-sharing company today announced a new initiative whereby it will send out AMBER Alerts to drivers who happen to be located in the vicinity of an abducted child. With over 160,000 Uber drivers (as of January 2015), the program is a smart way to leverage the ubiquity of Uber drivers for a great and important program.
It’s a journalist’s duty to track down any leads necessary in order to tell a complete story, but it’s possible to take things too far. That appears to be what happened last Friday when two Reno Gazette-Journal staff members were found trespassing on the grounds of Tesla’s $5 billion Gigafactory in Nevada. More →
Believe it or not, people with expensive sports cars like to show off. Shocking, we know. Supercars have always been the tool of choice for wealthy people who like to flaunt their success, and there’s certainly nothing wrong with showing off if you want. At the same time, it’s always fun to point and laugh when over the top vanity backfires and things go awry.
We’ve seen plenty of videos where luxury sports cars have proven to be too much car for a particular driver, who ends up spinning out or even crashing a million-dollar supercar while trying to show off in a parking lot. Now, it’s time to enjoy a video of a Lamborghini bursting into flames as its driver revs his engine for a selfie being taken by the Ferrari driver in front of him.
That’s right, apparently no one told this guy that revving your engine doesn’t translate very well in a still photo. More →
Tesla CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter on Friday to backtrack on a few anti-Apple statements he made earlier in the week to a German business magazine. Musk, if you recall, said that Apple only hires the engineers that Tesla fires. “If you don’t make it at Tesla,” Musk flatly stated, “you go work at Apple. I’m not kidding.”
Driving the point home, Musk said that he and others at Tesla jokingly refer to Apple as the Tesla Graveyard.
Shots fired? Or was Musk, perhaps, just blindly firing from the hip and making a few outlandish statements? Regardless, the outspoken CEO attempted to diminish the sting of his aforementioned comments by tweeting that he does not, in fact, hate Apple and that he’s actually glad that they’re entering the electric vehicle market.
A new James Bond movie is about to be released, Daniel Craig’s fourth and possibly final appearance in the famous spy saga. As always, you can expect to see plenty of action-packed scenes, high-tech toys, new Bond women and cars. Focusing solely on cars for a moment, Bond will drive a custom Aston Martin DB10 in Spectre that has been designed precisely for this role.
Let’s check it out.
