My ride in the company’s latest electric car — Among those of us who cover the auto industry, one of the biggest annoyances is a press release and presentation about a vehicle that is “all new” or “first ever.” But every once in a while, a vehicle rolls out that actually qualifies as both all new and the first…

Manufacturing batteries is hard — If we’ve learned anything from Tesla over the past decade, it’s that no matter how innovative and disruptive your product might be, manufacturing safe hardware is hard. Building anything in high volume is a challenge that’s significantly amplified by the complexity of vehicles. Traditional processes like welding, painting, and assembly…

Maybe it’s time for them to move out of Silicon Valley — The year 2020 has been a tougher year than usual for almost everyone and particularly for those who live in the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition to the extraordinarily high cost of living in the region, it was one of the first American hotspots for the coronavirus outbreak, and…

Elon Musk vs. the Mayfly — On October 19, 2016, Elon Musk kicked off the lie about Tesla Full Self-Driving capabilities: “The basic news is that all Tesla vehicles exiting the factory have the hardware necessary for Level 5 autonomy. So that in terms of the cameras and compute power, it’s every car we make. So…

We’re nowhere near proving that automated driving technology is safer than human drivers — Back in late 2016, Michigan became one of the first states to pass laws explicitly governing the testing and deployment of automated vehicles (AVs). Part of that package of new rules included the ability to test vehicles on public roads without a safety driver. Numerous states now have similar regulations…

Autonomous ride-hailing services seem less appealing than ever before — 2020 was supposed to be the year that automated robotaxis took over the world. But instead of the year in which we can finally enjoy our robotaxi rides, this year has become the one in which much of the world’s economy ground to a halt because of an organism we…

Tesla has changed the way we see cars and software — Over the past 15 years or so, Sonos has established itself as the purveyor of pricey speaker systems that come with a unique twist. The company developed a proprietary wireless communication system that enabled multiple speakers to sync up for easy whole-home audio. But last month, Sonos announced that it…

Just because you can’t fix a new Apple laptop doesn’t mean you can’t fix anything — Ever since I was young, I’ve had the desire to do things on my own and make them last. I’m also frugal. I’ve got tools in my workshop that are well over 40 years old, my car just turned 30 and my Sorel Caribou boots are going into their 29th…