Cars

ugly-infotainment-mars-the-2025-subaru-forester-hybrid-experience

Ugly infotainment mars the 2025 Subaru Forester Hybrid experience

2025 Subaru Forester Hybrid, car review, Cars / /

Although many of us associate it with rally-derived machinery from the late 1990s and early 2000s, these days, Subaru has mostly abandoned its performance cars to concentrate on its true calling—rugged, all-wheel-drive vehicles that are high on practicality, powered by horizontally opposed “boxer” engines. One area where the brand has never particularly excelled has been fuel efficiency, which is where today’s test car, the Subaru Forester Hybrid, comes in.

The last time Ars reviewed a Subaru Forester, it left us impressed. How about one with 40 percent better economy, in that case? Now, the 2.5 L flat-four engine operates on the Atkinson/Miller cycle, which generates 162 hp (121 kW) and 154 lb-ft (208 Nm). There’s an electric motor-generator starter and an electric traction motor with 118 hp (88 kW) and 199 lb-ft (270 Nm) that work together to send a combined 194 hp (145 kW) to all four wheels via a symmetrical all-wheel drive system and a planetary continuously variable transmission.

The Forester Hybrid is 183.3 inches (4,656 mm) long, 70.2 inches (1,783 mm) wide, and 68.1 inches (1,729 mm) tall, with a 105.1-inch (2,670 mm) wheelbase. Jonathan Gitlin

If that sounds vaguely familiar, that’s because it’s the same powertrain that Subaru has also fitted to the smaller Crosstrek Hybrid that we drove in September.

The 14 hp (10 kW) bump over the non-hybrid Forester is little enough that it probably won’t be noticed, but a combined EPA fuel efficiency of 35 mpg (6.7 L/100 km) is a meaningful increase over the unelectrified Forester’s 29 mpg (8.1 L/100 km). In practice, I struggled to exceed 31 mpg (7.6 L/100 km) during my week with the Forester, although as you’ll note from the temperatures displayed on the dash, winter temperatures have arrived, and we all know the cold makes all vehicles less efficient, not just EVs.

Driving a CVT hybrid can often feel disconcerting. Sometimes you press the accelerator and the car decides that electric propulsion will suffice; other times, the engine will rev with a non-linear relationship to the power being delivered at the wheels, as internal combustion tops up lithium-ion and then sends electrons to a motor to make the car go. Like all Atkinson cycle engines, it doesn’t sound very mellifluous when worked hard.

The rest of the driving experience was quite pleasant. The Forester Hybrid rides well on tires that have plenty of sidewall, and the 8.7-inches (221 mm) of ground clearance gives plenty of room for suspension travel. While it doesn’t handle like a WRX (or my dear departed Saab 9-2x), driving the Forester is no real chore. Other than the engine and some wind noise, it’s mostly refined on the move.

Ugly infotainment mars the 2025 Subaru Forester Hybrid experience Read More »

f1-in-abu-dhabi:-and-that’s-the-championship

F1 in Abu Dhabi: And that’s the championship

Cars, F1, Formula 1, racing / /

Going into the final race—worth 25 points for a win—Norris was on 408, Verstappen on 396, and Piastri on 392 points. A podium finish was all Norris needed to seal the championship. If Verstappen won and Norris came fourth or worse, the Dutch driver would claim his fifth championship. Piastri, for a long time the title leader, had the hardest task of all—nothing less than a win, and some misfortune for the other two, would do.

Lando Norris of McLaren during the first practice ahead of the Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates on December 5, 2025. (Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

At times, the orange cars have made their life harder than it needed to be. Credit: Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Qualifying went Verstappen’s way, with Norris a few hundredths of a second faster than Piasrtri for second and third. The Ferrari of Charles Leclerc and the Mercedes of George Russell could have complicated things by inserting themselves between our three protagonists but came up short.

The big day

Come race day, Verstappen made an OK start, defended his position, then got his head down and drove to the checkered flag. The Yas Marina circuit, which is reportedly the most expensive race track ever created, had some corners reprofiled in 2021 to improve the racing, so the kind of “slow your rival down and back them into the chasing pack” games that Lewis Hamilton tried to play with Nico Rosberg in 2016 no longer work.

Verstappen was pursued by Piastri, who saw a chance to pass Norris on lap 1 and took it. For his part, Norris let him go, then gave his team some cause for panic by letting Leclerc’s Ferrari close to within a second before showing more speed. An early pit stop meant Norris had to do some overtaking on track. Which he did decisively, a far cry from the more timid driver we saw at times earlier this year.

ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - DECEMBER 05: Max Verstappen of the Netherlands driving the (1) Oracle Red Bull Racing RB21 on track during practice ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi at Yas Marina Circuit on December 05, 2025 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images)

With eight wins this year, Verstappen has been in amazing form. Which makes Norris’ achievement even more impressive. Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images

Verstappen’s teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, was in one of the cars he needed to pass. Promoted from the junior Racing Bulls squad after just two races this season, Tsunoda has had the typically torrid time of Red Bull’s second driver, and Abu Dhabi was to be his last race for the team after scoring less than a tenth as many points as Verstappen. Tsunoda tried to hold up Norris and ran him to the far edge of the track but gained a five-second penalty for swerving in the process.

F1 in Abu Dhabi: And that’s the championship Read More »

a-big-bike-on-a-budget:-lectric’s-xpress-750

A big bike on a budget: Lectric’s XPress 750

Cars, cycling, e-bike, Lectric / /

A budget e-bike that offers more than you might expect.

Almost every bit of bike testing I’ve done starts out the same way. After assembling the bike, I set the seatpost to its maximum recommended height, take it on a short test ride, and try to figure out new and creative phrasing to describe the same old problem: The frame isn’t quite big enough to accommodate my legs. While I’m on the tall side at a bit over 6 feet (~190 cm), I’m definitely not abnormally large. Yet very few e-bike manufacturers seem to be interested in giving people my height a comfortable ride.

So imagine my surprise when, within two blocks of my first ride on the XPress 750, I had to pull off to the side of the street and lower the seat. This was especially notable given that the XPress is a budget bike (currently on sale for just under $1,000.00) that is only offered in a single frame size. So kudos to Lectric for giving me a comfortable and enjoyable ride, and doing so with a lot of features I wouldn’t expect at this price point.

That said, hitting that price necessitated some significant compromises. We’ll discuss those in detail so you can get a sense of whether any of them will get in the way of your riding enjoyment.

A bit more than you paid for

Lectric is not a household name, but the company says its XPress foldable bike is the bestselling model in the US, making it a major vendor in that market. It’s gotten there largely through affordability, with none of its models costing over $2,000.00. Within that limit, however, the company tries to remain responsive to its users’ needs, as its intro video for the latest version of the XPress makes clear.

The XPress model isn’t foldable, and it comes in both step-through and step-over frames; we tested the latter. It’s a pretty standard hybrid-style bike, not quite built for everything you’d use a hard-tail mountain bike for but more than robust enough for commuting or errand-running and a bit sportier than a dedicated commuter bike. It comes with a suspension fork for cushioning the ride a bit; this also includes a setting that locks it in place, which is nice for riders who spend their time on smooth pavement and find that the fork sags when they stand up on the pedals.

Image of the cranks and rear wheel of a black metal bicycle.

The gearing on the XPress wasn’t a great match for its motor. Credit: John TImmer

The pedals are actually one of the bike’s most unusual features. Rather than screwing into the cranks, the pedals click into an insert when a sleeve is pulled out. The result is indistinguishable when you’re turning the cranks, but it avoids the complexity of remembering that the left and right pedals thread into the cranks in opposite directions. That makes a lot of sense for a company that ships at volume to people who may have limited experience in assembling or maintaining bikes. The pedals themselves are covered in metal pins that suggest they’re meant to be used for mountain biking, which is somewhat odd, given that the rest of the bike really isn’t.

The electric portion of the bike is fairly standard, with a battery in the downtube and a rear hub motor. It’s driven by a torque sensor, which registers the force you’re applying to the cranks and is relatively rare on cheaper bikes. A simple three-button controller (power and up/down) handles navigation, and the stat-tracking screen is bright and colorful and lays out all the information you’re likely to want. There’s also a very bright front light and rear brake/tail light linked into the electrical system. The controller lets you choose between five levels of assist, and there’s a throttle that can get the bike moving even without any pedaling.

Despite the simplicity of the three-button control system, Lectric lets you use it to exercise pretty fine-grained control over the behavior of its assist. By tweaking three different control settings, it’s possible to switch the bike between Class 1 (20 mph/32 kmph) and Class 3 (28 mph/45 kmph) modes or even set the assist to cut out at lower speeds (nine and 15 mph/15 and 24 kmph). You can also fine-tune the amount of assist each of the five settings provides.

Compromises

At the moment, Lectric is offering a lower-end version of the XPress for just under $1,000. It’s informative to compare it to a $1,000 e-bike from just four years ago, the SWFT. Just about every aspect of the XPress is better. It has multiple gears, a suspension fork, much better control over the electronics, a bigger, removable battery, a better screen, disc brakes, the tail light, and probably more that I’m not noticing. The value proposition of low-priced e-bikes has changed dramatically for the better over just a few years.

That said, it’s impossible to hit this price range without making some compromises. If this is the price you’re targeting, you’ll want to do your best to minimize the compromises while making sure the ones you make won’t bother you in the long term.

The biggest compromise to me is in the drive train. It’s using a Shimano Tourney, which is controlled by a cheap-feeling plastic dial with awkwardly placed buttons (I can’t find it on Shimano’s site, but here’s an eBay listing). That’s hooked up to seven gears in the rear, but almost all of them are only needed for going uphill or pedaling with the assist off. I spent almost all my time in the top two gears and almost never touched the lower end of the range.

Image of the right handlebar of a bike, showing a shifter and a brake lever.

My least favorite feature is the bike’s shifter. Credit: John TImmer

Another big problem is with the system that tracks battery use. As we saw in another affordability-focused bike, the battery display was prone to exaggerating the speed at which the actual battery was being drained. Shutting the bike off and letting it sit for 10 minutes was often enough to seemingly restore over a quarter of the battery’s capacity (again, it was there all the time, but the battery management software somehow failed to see it). This made judging how well the bike met Lectric’s range claims impossible and frequently left me wondering whether I could complete errands under power if I started them without a full charge.

The final thing was the noise. The XPress had the misfortune of being tested between two other bikes with motors that were nearly silent. The XPress, by contrast, emitted a very audible whine that cut into part of what makes biking special to me: silently gliding through quiet neighborhoods. I eventually settled on making the assist cut out at 20 mph (the lower of its two primary settings), where, on flat ground, my legs could easily minimize the need for the motor. But I wouldn’t want to be putting in that much physical effort if I were just running errands in typical summertime temperatures.

If any of those issues are dealbreakers for you, you’ll likely want to pay more for your bike or do an exhaustive search for something with a different combination of compromises. But in this price range, you’ll never avoid facing compromises.

That’s an indirect way of saying that this is a very good bike for its price range, and if its limitations are ones you can adjust to, it would be a great option for errand running, commuting, or light trail riding. It can be set to Class 3 to help it fit in with typical suburban traffic, it provides a throttle to help you avoid over-exertion in hot weather, and you can put a rack on back if you need to add cargo capacity. If you don’t try to treat it as something it’s not, it should perform quite well.

That said, riding it has me interested to see how many of these compromises might disappear from low-end models over the next four years.

Photo of John Timmer

John is Ars Technica’s science editor. He has a Bachelor of Arts in Biochemistry from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley. When physically separated from his keyboard, he tends to seek out a bicycle, or a scenic location for communing with his hiking boots.

A big bike on a budget: Lectric’s XPress 750 Read More »

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Toyota’s new GR GT picks up where the 2000GT and Lexus LFA left off

Cars, Lexus LFA, Toyota GR GT, Toyota GR GT3 / /

There’s some Toyota news today that doesn’t involve the chairman wearing a MAGA hat. The Japanese automaker evidently decided it’s been too long since it flexed its engineering chops on something with two doors and plenty of power, so it has rectified that situation with a new flagship coupe for its Gazoo Racing sporty sub-brand. Meet the GR GT, which looks set to go on sale toward the end of next year.

The Camry-esque look at the front, and to an extent the rear, came second to the GR GT’s aerodynamics, which is the opposite way to how Toyota usually styles its cars. It’s built around a highly rigid aluminum frame—Toyota’s first, apparently—with carbon fiber for the hood, roof, and some other body panels to minimize weight. The automaker says that lowering the car’s center of gravity was a top priority, and weight balance and distribution also help explain the transaxle layout, where the car’s transmission is behind the cockpit and between the rear wheels.

I get a LOT of Camry from the nose. Toyota

That transaxle transmission will be an eight-speed automatic that uses a wet clutch instead of a torque converter and into which the car’s hybrid motor is integrated. Power from the 4.0 L twin-turbo V8 and the hybrid system should be a combined 641 hp (478 kW) and 626 lb-ft (850 Nm). Despite the aluminum frame and use of composites, the GT GR is no featherweight; it will weigh as much as 3,858 lb (1,750 kg). The V8 is a new design with a short stroke, a hot-V configuration for the turbochargers, and dry sump lubrication.

Toyota’s new GR GT picks up where the 2000GT and Lexus LFA left off Read More »

trump-wants-tiny-japanese-style-cars-for-us-even-as-he-cuts-mpg-goals

Trump wants tiny Japanese-style cars for US even as he cuts mpg goals

CAFE standards, Cars, fuel economy, kei cars / /

It’s been less than a year into the second Trump administration, and to many outside observers, US government policies appear confusing or incoherent. Yesterday provided a good example from the automotive sector. As has been widely expected, the White House is moving ahead with plans to significantly erode fuel economy standards, beyond even the permissive levels that were considered OK during the first Trump term.

Yet at the very announcement of that rollback, surrounded by compliant US automotive executives, the president decided to go off piste to declare his admiration for tiny Japanese Kei cars, telling Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to make them street-legal in the US.

50.4 mpg 40.4 mpg 34.5 mpg

A little over a decade ago, the Obama administration announced new fuel economy standards for light trucks and cars that were meant to go into effect this year, bringing the corporate fleet fuel economy average up to 50.4 mpg. As you can probably tell, that didn’t happen. It wasn’t a popular move with automakers, and the first Trump administration ripped up those rules and instituted new, weaker targets of just 40.4 mpg by 2026.

With the change of government from Trump to Biden, the rollback was reversed, and more ambitious fuel economy targets became official policy. The targets required a lot more EVs to be sold, at least until the second Trump administration began in January.

By the end of that month, Duffy had already ripped up the Biden fuel economy standards, blaming them for making cars too expensive. In March, the US Environmental Protection Agency threw out its versions of the fuel economy regulations, with the EPA claiming that the US auto industry had been “hamstrung by the crushing regulatory regime.”

Further attacks on an efficient, clean fleet arrived this summer. The budget bill passed by a Republican-controlled House and Senate stripped electric vehicle incentives from the tax code, and the federal government revealed it would no longer fine automakers who exceeded the corporate average fuel economy targets.

Now, automakers would only be required to reach a fleet average of 34.5 mpg by model year 2031, versus the 50.4 mpg that Biden wanted (and which was the original 2025 target for the Obama administration). This would make cars cheaper to the tune of a little more than $900, the Department of Transportation says, but that fails to take into account the added cost of all that extra fuel from cars that consume 30 percent more of it than they were going to.

Trump wants tiny Japanese-style cars for US even as he cuts mpg goals Read More »

f1-in-las-vegas:-this-sport-is-a-200-mph-soap-opera

F1 in Las Vegas: This sport is a 200 mph soap opera

Cars, F1, Formula 1, las vegas / /

Then there’s the temperatures. The desert gets quite chilly in November without the sun shining on things, and the track surface gets down to just 11° C (52° F); by contrast, at the recent Singapore GP, also at night, the track temperature was more like 36° C (97° F).

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - NOVEMBER 21: Lando Norris of Great Britain driving the (4) McLaren MCL39 Mercedes lifts a wheel on track during qualifying ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Las Vegas at Las Vegas Strip Circuit on November 21, 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by )

It’s rare to see an F1 car on full wet tires but not running behind the safety car. Credit: Clive Rose/Getty Images

So, low aero and mechanical grip, an unusual layout compared to most F1 tracks, and very cold temperatures all combine to create potential surprises, shaking up the usual running order.

We saw this last year, where the Mercedes shined in the cold, able to keep their tires in the right operating window, something the team wasn’t able to do at hotter races. But it was hard to tell much from Thursday’s two practice sessions, one of which was interrupted due to problems with a maintenance hatch, albeit not as serious as when one damaged a Ferrari in 2023. The cars looked impressively fast going through turn 17, and the hybrid power units are a little louder than I remember them, even if they’re not a patch on the naturally aspirated engines of old.

Very little of any use was learned by any of the teams for qualifying on Friday night, which took place in at times damp, at times wet conditions—so wet that the Pirelli intermediate tire wasn’t grooved enough, pushing teams to use the full wet-weather spec rubber. Norris took pole from Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, with Williams’ Carlos Sainz making best use of the opportunity to grab third. Piastri would start fifth, behind the Mercedes of last year’s winner, George Russell.

If the race is boring, the off-track action won’t be

Race night was a little windy, but dry. And the race itself was rather boring—Norris tried to defend pole position going into Turn 1 but ran wide, and Verstappen slipped into the lead, never looking back. Norris followed him home in second, with Piastri fourth, leaving Norris 30 points ahead of Piastri and 42 points ahead of Verstappen with two more race weekends and 58 points left on offer.

F1 in Las Vegas: This sport is a 200 mph soap opera Read More »

data-driven-sport:-how-oracle-red-bull-racing-and-at&t-move-terabytes-of-f1-info

Data-driven sport: How Oracle Red Bull Racing and AT&T move terabytes of F1 info

AT&T, Cars, F1, Formula 1, Red Bull Racing / /

“We learned how to be more efficient because before… we were so focused on performance that we almost forgot about efficiency, about it was full performance, and we have more people now than we had in 2017, for example, in the team, but we are spending less money,” Maia told me.

Bigger data

The number of sensors on each race car has tripled, with around 750 of them, each sending back a different data stream, amounting to around 1.5 terabytes per car per race. Telemetry used to be pretty basic—a TV feed, throttle, brake, and steering applications, and so on. Now a small squad of engineers sits at banks of screens in the back of the garage, hidden away from the cameras, in constant link with their colleagues in the Milton Keynes factory.

“We need as well to bring it straight away to Milton Keynes because it’s helping us to fine-tune the setup—so when you are here on Friday—and it’s helping us as well on Sunday to make the best decision for the race strategy. So that’s why it’s very good to have a lot of data, but you need as well to transfer it back and forth,” Maia said.

“It is a sport of milliseconds, as you know,” said Zee Hussain, head of global enterprise solutions at AT&T. “So the speed of data, the reliability of data, the latency, the security is just absolutely critical. If the data is not going, traversing, at the highest possible speed, and it’s not on a secure and reliable path, that is absolutely without question the difference between winning and losing,” Hussain said.

“I think the biggest latency we have is between Australia and the UK, and it’s around 0.3 seconds. It’s nothing. I think if you are on WhatsApp, calling someone is maybe more latency… So it’s impressive,” Maia said.

Data-driven sport: How Oracle Red Bull Racing and AT&T move terabytes of F1 info Read More »

“hey-google,-did-you-upgrade-your-ai-in-my-android-auto?”

“Hey Google, did you upgrade your AI in my Android Auto?”

android auto, Cars, Google / /

Now it’s “Hey Google” not “OK Google” to trigger the assistant, which had started feeling a little left behind in terms of natural language processing and conversational AI to other OEM systems—sometimes even AAOS-based ones—that used solutions like those from Cerence running on their own private clouds.

Gemini

Going forward, “Hey Google” will fire up Gemini, as long as it’s running on the Android device being cast to the car’s infotainment system. In fact, we learned of its impending, unspecified arrival a couple of weeks ago, but today is the day, according to Google.

Now, instead of needing to know precise trigger phrases to get Google Assistant to do what you’d like it to do, Gemini should be able to answer the kinds of normal speech questions that so often frustrate me when I try them with Siri or most built-in in-car AI helpers.

For example, you could ask if there are any well-rated restaurants along a particular route, with the ability to have Gemini drill down into search results like menu options. (Whether these are as trustworthy as the AI suggestions that confront us when we use Google as a search engine will need to be determined.) Sending messages should supposedly be easier, with translation into 40 different languages should the need arise, and it sounds like making playlists and even finding info on one’s destination have both become more powerful.

There’s even the dreaded intrusion of productivity, as Gemini can access your Gmail, calendars, tasks, and so on.

A polestar interior

Google Gemini is coming to all Polestar models. Credit: Polestar

Gemini is also making its way into built-in Google automotive environments. Just yesterday, Polestar announced that Gemini will replace Google Assistant in all its models, from the entry-level Polestar 2 through to soon-to-arrive machines like the Polestar 5 four-door grand tourer.

“Our collaboration with Google is a great example of how we continue to evolve the digital experience in our cars. Gemini brings the next generation of AI voice interaction into the car, and we’re excited to give a first look at how it will enhance the driving experience,” said Polestar’s head of UI/UX, Sid Odedra.

“Hey Google, did you upgrade your AI in my Android Auto?” Read More »

twin-suction-turbines-and-3-gs-in-slow-corners?-meet-the-drg-lola.

Twin suction turbines and 3-Gs in slow corners? Meet the DRG-Lola.

Cars, Formula E, Lola Cars, Lucas di Grassi, racing / /

One advantage of the suction fans is how efficient they are, requiring five times less energy per unit of downforce generated than a conventional rear wing (which creates drag and therefore requires energy to counter). The covered wheels should also help minimize spray during wet races.

The drag coefficient is around 0.48. Lola Cars

“You gain so much time in the low-speed corners that you’re able to have this amazing difference in performance,” he said. How much difference? About 4.3 seconds a lap at Monaco, and with a tenth of the energy per lap as a current F1 car, di Grassi and Lola reckon. Qualifying performance could be even greater, as cars could run with a minimum battery pack for the occasion, making a dent in what should be a 1,100 kg curb weight.

Just don’t expect to see a DRG-Lola race series just yet. For one thing, Formula E has the exclusive rights to the FIA’s single-seat electric championship, and with the Gen4 car due to arrive at the end of 2026, that series won’t be looking for a new car for another few years. But the idea is to inspire race car designers and series organizers, di Grassi said. “This is not a technical challenge anymore; we can do this,” he said.

“This project should serve as an inspiration for the future generations of electric racing cars. The question of whether such cars can be faster than Formula 1 has been answered with data and simulation. My plan is to build this car in the next two years,” he said.

For Lola, the project serves as notice that the marque, which was once well-represented across the motorsports world selling customer cars to numerous series, wants to reclaim those days. “At Lola, we are always looking for new ways to drive innovation through motorsport, and supporting Lucas with this design through utilizing our in-house expertise and state-of-the-art R&D facilities was a perfect project for this. The result is a car which pushes the boundaries of what is possible in electric racing through maximizing technological solutions which are already available,” said Lola Cars technical director Peter McCool.

Twin suction turbines and 3-Gs in slow corners? Meet the DRG-Lola. Read More »

tesla-safety-driver-falls-asleep-during-passenger’s-robotaxi-ride

Tesla safety driver falls asleep during passenger’s robotaxi ride

Cars, Tesla, Tesla robotaxi / /

Later in the thread, another poster claims to have had the same safety driver who also fell asleep, this time on a traffic-choked drive from Temescal to San Francisco.

Being a human safety driver in an autonomous car is a relatively hard task, and Waymo insists on a lot of training before letting its employees loose in its cars on the road. It’s possible that Tesla is being far less diligent in this regard.

Tesla’s robotaxi experiment is proving to be more fraught than, say, Waymo’s. There have been at least seven crashes since the launch of its Austin trial in July, although Tesla continues to redact the data it provides to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Its operation in California may be even more shaky. Although Tesla Robotaxi LLC has a permit from the California Department of Motor Vehicles to test autonomous cars on public roads with a safety driver, it has no permits from the California Public Utilities Commission for autonomous vehicles. CPUC permits are required to test or deploy an autonomous vehicle with or without a safety driver onboard. (In March, Tesla obtained a permit to operate a conventional ride-hailing service with human drivers.)

Ars has reached out to Tesla regarding the sleeping driver and the status of its California ride-hailing operation and will update this article if we hear back.

Tesla safety driver falls asleep during passenger’s robotaxi ride Read More »

when-recreating-a-famous-suv-stunt-in-china-goes-wrong

When recreating a famous SUV stunt in China goes wrong

Cars, Chery Automobile / /

Be careful with your marketing stunts around national landmarks. That should be the take-home message from Chery Automobile’s recent attempt to measure itself up against Land Rover, an attempt that went sadly wrong.

In 2018, Land Rover and Chinese racing driver Ho-Pin Tung drove a Range Rover Sport up the 999 steps that make up the “Stairway to Heaven” that climb China’s Tianmen mountain. It was a dazzling stunt, for driving up a staircase that ranges between 45–60 degrees is no simple task, and one that’s certain to have left an impression with any acrophobics out there.

A YouTube screenshot of an SUV sliding backwards into some railings

A screenshot of the attempt gone wrong. Credit: Youtube

Chery certainly remembered it. The brand—which in fact is a long-time collaborator with Jaguar Land Rover and next year even takes over the Freelander brand from the British marque—has a new electric SUV called the Fulwin X3L and decided that it, too, was made of the right stuff. The SUV, which costs between $16,500–$22,000 in China, features a plug-in hybrid powertrain, boxy looks, and a whole bunch of off-roading features, including the ability to do tank turns.

Like Land Rover, Chery’s attempt was meant to highlight how capable the Fulwin X3L is when the going gets tough. But unfortunately, one of the safety lines to the SUV somehow became detached. This tangled up with a wheel, causing the Fulwin to slide backwards, taking out some of the railing in the process.

Chery said in a statement that there had been “insufficient estimation of potential risks and oversights in detailed control” for the exercise, and expressed deep regret for the damage caused, promising to shoulder the costs to put everything right, according to CarNews China.

When recreating a famous SUV stunt in China goes wrong Read More »

how-two-nissan-leafs-help-make-a-regional-airport-more-resilient

How two Nissan Leafs help make a regional airport more resilient

Cars, microgrid, V2G, vehicle to grid / /

Not everything about the future sucks. Like electric cars. Sure, there’s one thing that dinosaur-burners do better—short refueling stops—but even the least efficient EV is still multiple times better than its gas equivalent. So much better in fact that it offsets all the extra energy needed to make the battery within a year or two. They’re quieter, and easy to drive. And in a pinch, they can power your house from the garage. Or how about an airport?

OK, we’re not talking about a major international airport (although I really need to talk to someone at Dulles International Airport about my idea to electrify those Space 1999-esque mobile lounges at some point). But up in Humboldt County, California, there’s a microgrid at the Redwood Coast Airport that has now integrated bidirectional charging, and a pair of Nissan Leaf EVs, into its operation.

The microgrid has been operating since 2021 with a 2.2 MW solar array, 8.9 MWh of battery storage, and a 300 KW net-metered solar system. It can feed excess power back into PG&E’s local grid and draw power from the same, but in an outage, the microgrid can keep the airport up and operational.

Turning over an old leaf

One of the Leafs (from model year 2021) was bought by the Humboldt County Aviation Division, the other is a model year 2020 provided by Nissan. These are the previous generation of the Leaf we test drove recently, and they still rely on CHAdeMO for DC fast charging. But the second-gen Leaf was always capable of vehicle-to-grid; it’s just that no one ever set up a pilot in North America to do so, at least to my knowledge. We’ve seen school buses and F-150s get into the V2G game, and it’s good to see the second-gen Leaf now finally fulfilling that potential in North America, even if it has just been replaced with an improved model.

How two Nissan Leafs help make a regional airport more resilient Read More »