Fiat CEO teases subscriptions, car-sharing for all-electric 500e launch in US

Stellantis plans to “explore alternative business models,” such as subscriptions and car sharing, when it launches its all-electric Fiat 500e in the U.S. in the first quarter of 2024, Fiat CEO Olivier Francois told TechCrunch at the 2022 Los Angeles Auto Show. The exec did not rule out limiting the 500e’s U.S. launch entirely to… Continue reading Fiat CEO teases subscriptions, car-sharing for all-electric 500e launch in US

Hyundai’s hydrogen fuel cell concept hints at the performance N brand’s future

Hyundai revealed Thursday a hydrogen fuel cell hybrid concept vehicle called the N Vision 74 that the company says demonstrates the performance sub-brand’s vision for electrification. The Hyundai N sub-brand, the performance-focused arm of the automaker, has been applied to a range of production vehicles since its founding in 2015 from the Hyundai Veloster N… Continue reading Hyundai’s hydrogen fuel cell concept hints at the performance N brand’s future

BrightDrop is tracking $1 billion revenue in 2023

General Motors’ e-delivery van subsidiary BrightDrop said Thursday it’s on track to reach $1 billion in revenue next year. The company, which launched in 2021 and was incubated at the automaker’s global innovation center, said reaching the financial milestone would make it one of the quickest tech startups to reach unicorn status, ahead of Apple,… Continue reading BrightDrop is tracking $1 billion revenue in 2023

Stellantis is bringing its new all-electric Fiat 500e to North America in early 2024

Stellantis brand Fiat is coming back to the United States with its new all-electric 500e, a small urban vehicle that has been selling like hot cakes in Europe. The all-electric Fiat 500e is not like the original 500e, which was essentially a retro’d version of an internal combustion version of the same model. This time,… Continue reading Stellantis is bringing its new all-electric Fiat 500e to North America in early 2024

Toyota unveils all-electric SUV concept under its ‘Beyond Zero’ badge

Toyota unveiled Wednesday an all-electric SUV concept with plant-based seating and an AI “personal” assistant as the automaker expands its “beyond zero” portfolio. The bZ compact crossover concept that debuted at the Los Angeles Auto Show is meant to showcase Toyota’s vision for its battery-electric future. Toyota has said it plans to launch 30 fully… Continue reading Toyota unveils all-electric SUV concept under its ‘Beyond Zero’ badge

The new 2023 Toyota Prius plays up power, not fuel economy

Toyota is beefing up the fuel-sipping Prius hybrid, adding more power and quicker acceleration to appeal to a wider range of car shoppers in an increasingly crowded market. The car created – and dominated – the segment when it launched in the U.S. 22 years ago. But the world’s first production hybrid car has steadily… Continue reading The new 2023 Toyota Prius plays up power, not fuel economy

Cruise has expanded its driverless robotaxi service to daytime hours

Cruise is expanding its driverless ride-hailing service in San Francisco to daytime hours, Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt tweeted Wednesday. The robotaxi service is now available to employees 24 hours a day. Eventually, these expanded operating hours will be available to the public. The bolstered hours are the latest expansion of the GM subsidiary’s driverless operations… Continue reading Cruise has expanded its driverless robotaxi service to daytime hours

How Bird clipped its own wings

The scooter startup’s accounting blunders are about more than its bottom line Alex Wilhelm 11 hours Well, those Bird results were wrong. It recently came to light that Bird, a former startup unicorn in the once-hot scooter rental market, overstated its revenue for several years, leading to the company stating in a filing with the… Continue reading How Bird clipped its own wings

Waabi unveils its first generation self-driving truck

Autonomous trucking startup Waabi has unveiled its first generation of trucks that are purpose-built for OEM integration. The trucks are powered by the Waabi Driver, a combination of Waabi’s software, sensors and compute. Their launch signals both that Waabi is ready to verify and validate its self-driving stack and that it’s open for business. Waabi… Continue reading Waabi unveils its first generation self-driving truck

Parallel Domain says autonomous driving won’t scale without synthetic data

Achieving autonomous driving safely requires near endless hours of training software on every situation that could possibly arise before putting a vehicle on the road. Historically, autonomy companies have collected hordes of real-world data with which to train their algorithms, but it’s impossible to train a system how to handle edge cases based on real-world… Continue reading Parallel Domain says autonomous driving won’t scale without synthetic data