cars

Tesla has two cars, the S60 and the S75, that are physically more or less identical, but one costs $8500 more than the other. The cheaper car ($66K base price)

EVs with 90,000 to 120,000 miles on the clock are more likely to pass MOTs than petrol models of the same age

New study finds cars send driver data to Big Tech companies, including locations, VINs, and other identifiers.

...in Europe, where standards are stricter than in the U.S.

The "AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act" has passed the U.S. House of Representatives.

Smarter cars could be the smartest way to fix traffic congestion

“There’s a lot to be worried about,” the project lead said.

Data on millions of cars in the UK shows electric cars last longer than petrol cars, and the reliability gap gets bigger at higher mileages.

Capture and visualise live V2X traffic from cars and roadside infrastructure with a $20 ESP32-C5 board and an Android phone.

"Men are tormented with the opinions they have of things, not by the things themselves." —Epictetus

Tighten your fan belts, drivers, because the automotive future has tomorrow written all over it!

Most usage-based APIs I have paid for charge by length. Tokens, calls, rows, seconds of video. It is...

BMW has opened the US order books for its hotly anticipated new 3 Series sedan . Built on an all-new platform called Neue Klasse , it now offers a fully electric version for the first time, using BMW’s advanced sixth-generation electric powertrain we liked so much in the iX3 . And for those not quite ready to make the switch from liquid hydrocarbons to pure electron power, there are also a pair of gasoline-powered variants. At launch, the only electric version will be the 2027 BMW i3 50 xDrive. It’s an all-wheel drive setup, with a combined 463 hp (345 kW) and 467 lb-ft (633 Nm). And while BMW is still putting the finishing touches on the car’s EPA certification ahead of its showroom arrival in Q1 next year, it expects 446 to 468 miles (718-753 km) of range on a single charge. Contributing to that very impressive range is the new cylindrical cell battery pack, which uses a cell-to-body approach that maximizes energy density, along with the aforementioned new sixth-gen motors. We’re not sure whether BMW is planning any single-motor, rear-wheel drive i3s for the US market, such as the i4 eDrive40 we liked so much. But later next year, we can expect the i3 M60 xDrive, and then the first completely electric BMW M3 , which will increase the motor count to four—one for each wheel. Read full article Comments

When BMW first announced it was reimagining the i3 as an all-electric four-door sedan built on its Neue Klasse platform, it left out a lot of important details, like battery capacity, range, and price. Today, the German automaker is finally starting to fill in the blanks on the i3. Let's start with price. BMW says the 2027 i3 50 xDrive will start at $61,500, plus a $1,350 destination fee, putting it firmly in the Mercedes C-Class segment of competition. (Back in March, we could only guess a ballpark starting price around $60,000.) We also weren't certain when the new EV would be available in the US; today, BMW confirmed an official launch … Read the full story at The Verge.

In news that should surprise very few, connected cars remain a complete privacy nightmare. But now we have a better idea of what data those cars are giving away, and to whom, thanks to a study conducted by a team of researchers at Northeastern University and Consumer Reports . Testing 21 cars from 19 different brands revealed patterns of traffic to advertisers and trackers, as well as data shared with Big Tech firms like Microsoft and Adobe. And using a car’s companion app can multiply the problem, their testing found. In 2023, the Mozilla Foundation published a widely covered report looking at the privacy policies of more than two dozen automakers. They were appalled, writing that “cars are the worst product category we have ever reviewed for privacy.” But that analysis was conducted by sitting down and reading all the various privacy policies of each brand; today’s study involved measuring traffic from actual cars under a number of scenarios, including idling and being driven. The researchers even parked 11 cars—just the electric ones—in a Faraday tent to see if the loss of a cellular signal would push that traffic to the car’s Wi-Fi connection instead. Attempts to actually see what was in the data packets using modified certificates failed in every case. But “the network traces still yielded valuable information, including the domains contacted via DNS traffic, Server Name Indication (SNI) in TLS handshakes, the volume and timing of transmissions, and differences in behavior across experimental scenarios,” they found. Read full article Comments

You hear it all the time: Modern cars are basically smartphones on wheels. And just like the phone in your pocket, the car in your driveway collects vast amounts of data - tracking where you drive, how fast you accelerate, how hard you brake, how aggressively you turn, and much more. The legality of this data harvesting remains hotly debated. Last year, the Federal Trade Commission penalized General Motors for illegally collecting and selling precise location and driving behavior data without informed consent. Other automakers, like Ford and Honda , have faced minor fines for making it overly difficult for customers to opt out. While industr … Read the full story at The Verge.

President Donald Trump announces plans to weaken fuel efficiency and emissions rules for cars and trucks in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, on December 3rd, 2025. | Photo: Getty Images The US Department of Transportation finalized its plans today to weaken fuel efficiency standards, calling it "among the largest deregulatory actions under the second Trump Administration." It's a nail in the coffin for Biden-era standards that would have required fleet average fuel economy to reach 50.4 miles per gallon by model year 2031. President Donald Trump's plan requires 34.9 miles per gallon, not much higher than the 30.1-mile-per-gallon target previously set for model year 2024. Consumer advocacy, health, and environmental groups are incensed The Trump administration claims its plan would shave $1,300 off the average cost of a n … Read the full story at The Verge.

Formula 1 raced on the streets of Baku, Azerbaijan, this past weekend. Although the race predates Liberty’s acquisition of the sport by a few months , it’s a rather good microcosm of the sport as it exists today. The track is a real challenge; it takes place on dusty city streets lined with concrete walls and through a medieval fortress gate, followed by a 1.4-mile (2.2 km) flat-out blast to the finish line, with gusts of wind from the Caspian Sea a block away. It’s interesting to look at, with Baku’s mix of modern and classical architecture sharing the stage with a massive hospitality and pit lane complex. And since it wouldn’t be F1 without some controversy, this year the race was held a day earlier than normal after F1 switched up its schedule to avoid clashing with Azerbaijan’s celebration of its recent war with Armenia—it’s almost as if Bernie Ecclestone had never left. The proximity of the walls leaves very little margin for error at the speeds F1 cars go around Baku. Last year , qualifying was interrupted by no less than six red flags after crashes. This year was much less dramatic, unless you were championship leader Kimi Antonelli. The 20-year-old sophomore misjudged how much front grip he had going into turn 1, found more than expected, and clipped the corner of the wall with his left front tire. It happened in the first of the three knock-out qualifying sessions, and while Antonelli had already banked a time good enough to proceed to the next session, the damage to his car meant he would take no further part and start the race from 16th. A few weeks ago, at Monza, penalties for a power unit change saw Antonelli start the race from even further back (19th), which he followed a day later with a spectacular drive through the field to take the win away from his teammate George Russell. But there was some luck involved then; two standing starts (the second following Leclerc’s big crash on lap 2) allowed him to pass a lot of cars quickly, for one thing. In Baku he would have a much tougher task. Read full article Comments

In a widely expected move, Volkswagen announced Monday that it will replace the recently retired ID.4 crossover with the upcoming ID.Tiguan. The decision is an acknowledgment by the German automaker that its more recognizable nameplates like Tiguan are likely an easier sell with consumers, especially when it comes to EVs. When it lands in Europe in early 2027, the ID. Tiguan will join the ID.Polo and ID.Cross to round out Volkswagen's new-and-improved electric lineup. VW also confirmed that the ID.Tiguan will come to the US, where the ID.4 was previously manufactured, "at a later date." Design details remain under wraps, as the ID.Tiguan i … Read the full story at The Verge.

Hitting its goal of making 20,000 Optimus robots per week is reportedly proving tricky for Tesla. The Information reports that Tesla produced "several hundred robots a week" last month, after it repurposed its Model S and Model X production lines for Optimus earlier this year. However, this strategy is reportedly creating manufacturing snags, like issues lining up parts precisely, as The Information notes: "Not only are the Optimus production lines new, but the Optimus parts are much smaller and have to fit together far more precisely than car parts." It reports that even in the "V3" Optimus robots it's currently producing, the hands and f … Read the full story at The Verge.

Remember the Tesla Semi? The long-gestating, heavy-duty truck first introduced in concept form in 2017 is finally in volume production as of April 2026 - nearly a decade after its initial introduction. On Thursday evening, the company held yet another event for the Semi to demonstrate to customers and investors that the long wait was finally over. The event was held at Tesla's new Semi factory next to Gigafactory Nevada, where the company says it can build 50,000 trucks a year, or 1,000 per week. The purpose was to announce a raft of new (and old) customers for the Semi, including PepsiCo, US Foods, DHL, WattEV, ABF, Einride, IMC, and OK P … Read the full story at The Verge.

We’re not even a full year into the new regulations, and Formula 1 is already thinking hard about its next iteration, set to be introduced as early as the start of 2030. This was supposed to be a big year for F1, with the introduction of a bold new technical rules package that puts far more emphasis on the electric side of the cars’ hybrid power units than before. But those rules were perhaps too ambitious for 2026 , with batteries that can only power the electric motor for a tiny fraction of a lap. Such was the shock of getting it wrong that F1 may fast-track a fix for 2030 rather than 2031, when the next set of rules is currently set to start. And according to a report in Autosport , there is now some agreement on what those power units will look like. Where are we now? The current rules were finalized several years ago , when optimism about electrification among automakers was high. F1 wanted more of those automakers, and automakers wanted more electrification. The sport would give it to them with a near 50:50 split between a small 1.6 L V6 turbo and an electric motor, both driving the rear wheels. The idea worked. Audi, Cadillac, and Ford have all signed up since, joining Mercedes, Ferrari, and Honda, which recommitted after pulling out in 2021. Read full article Comments

Waymo's latest batch of self-reported data continues to affirm the company's message that its driverless cars are safer than human drivers. As policymakers continue to debate the safety and economic impact of autonomous vehicles, Waymo is hoping that its own data will help bring more supporters to its side - even as some experts say the data fails to capture the non-crash traffic disruptions caused by its robotaxis. Waymo said it examined 271 million driverless miles in five cities through the end of June, which is 50 million more miles than its last safety report . The total number of miles driven across Atlanta, Austin, Phoenix, Los Angele … Read the full story at The Verge.

Bentley provided flights from Washington, DC, to Monterey, California, and accommodation so Ars could ride in a preproduction Torcal EV as well as drive the Supersports and ride in a 1920s Bentley as well. Ars does not accept paid editorial content. A few weeks ago, Bentley gave Ars a ride in a new camouflaged electric vehicle . Named after a Spanish rock formation, the Torcal is the brand’s first battery EV, and today the production car had its formal unveiling. That camo was effective: The real car is less bulbous and more blocky than its disguise would suggest. And it’s fair to say it brings some of the ideas of the EXP 15 concept to the road—even if that didn’t include that show car’s elegant, stretched proportions . It’s smaller than the Bentayga, and it should slot beneath that model in pricing (or the PHEV version of it, at least), though Bentley has yet to reveal exactly how much US buyers can expect to pay. Underneath the bodywork are some relatively familiar underpinnings; Bentley shares technology with Porsche as both are part of the greater Volkswagen Group empire. The power output might not be as prodigious as the electric Porsche Cayenne but should be sufficient nonetheless. The standard car will offer peak outputs of 810 hp (604 kW) and 880 lb-ft (1,194 Nm), enough for a 3.3-second 0–60 mph time (0–100 km/h takes 3.4 seconds). The EXP 15's influence is stronger at the rear. Credit: Bentley The more powerful Torcal S boasts 875 hp (653 kW) and 995 lb-ft (1,350 Nm) at its most potent; this is capable of 60 mph from a standing start in a mere 2.8 seconds (2.9 to 100 km/h) and an increased top speed of 162 mph (260 km/h), up from 155 mph (250 km/h) for the standard version, either of which are academic outside certain stretches of German highway. Read full article Comments

Aftermarket devices that can boost or augment a vehicle’s native advanced driver assistance systems are the target of a new federal investigation this week. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Office of Defects Investigation says it knows of five crashes in which drivers using devices from comma.ai crashed into stopped or slow-moving cars. Two of the crashes resulted in three deaths, and 11 people were injured in four of the five crashes, some seriously. Comma.ai was the brainchild of George Hotz, who rose to prominence at the start of the last decade by jailbreaking iOS and hacking Sony PlayStations. In 2015, Hotz turned his attention to partially automated driver assists, which were gaining attention following Tesla’s exploits with its Autopilot system. Hotz first modified his own Acura to give it a more advanced driver assist that let him take his hands off the wheel, with the goal of selling his system to Tesla and replacing Mobileye as the company’s supplier. (Mobileye dropped Tesla as a customer the following year after becoming unhappy with the way the car company was using Mobileye products in unintended ways.) Read full article Comments

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is mostly known for its global dominance over petroleum production and oil reserves - not necessarily cars and auto manufacturing, and certainly not electric vehicle production. So it was a little surprising on Monday when a Saudi startup called Ceer unveiled a pair of hyper-angular, spaceship-like EVs, with plans to launch an additional five models by 2030. The Exobot (yes, that's the real name) sedan and SUV are expected to go on sale in Saudi Arabia starting in 2027. The ultra-futuristic designs scream Tron , Blade Runner , and every other sci-fi movie you've seen - and then some. The gullwing doors are ripped s … Read the full story at The Verge.

Ceer provided flights from Detroit to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and accommodation so Ars could visit the factory. Ars does not accept paid editorial content. KING ABDULLAH ECONOMIC CITY, Saudi Arabia—It may come as a surprise to some, but Saudi Arabia has never had a domestic automaker. That changes with Ceer. A joint venture between the country’s Public Investment Fund and Foxconn, it’s the Kingdom’s first home-grown automaker and a significant part of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 plan to diversify its economy away from oil production and bring technological innovation locally by the end of the decade. Ceer in Arabic means to “drive forward,” and this forward-looking approach applies to the vehicle lineup. The flagship vehicles you see here—the Exobot sedan and SUV—are demonstrations of what the company is capable of and the vision it sees for future vehicles in the portfolio. It plans to have seven new cars in its portfolio by 2030—some of which will be hybrids—and while that doesn’t currently include sales outside the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) region, Ceer says it's building a competitive, world-class product and that if the demand is there, expansion is possible. Read full article Comments

Last week, GM announced a new software experience for its upcoming Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra trucks, including a new look for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, the popular phone mirroring systems that the automaker made a big deal about removing from its electric vehicles in 2023. Naturally, this led to some confusion about whether GM was "bringing back" CarPlay and Android Auto to its vehicles. Yahoo Finance reported it that way, calling it an "about-face" by the automaker, while Apple Insider 's headline boasted that GM "cave[d]" on its decision to remove the interface from its gas-powered vehicles. Even The Verge 's own commenters were … Read the full story at The Verge.

Ferrari’s two-seat sports cars might be the brand’s identity, but the Italian automaker has always catered to customers who want to bring more than one passenger along for the ride. It started building cars with back seats in the 1960s with the 250 GT 2+2; as the name suggests, the second row was more for occasional use, something that was true all the way through to the 612 in the early 2000s. Ferrari followed with its first true four-seater, the all-wheel drive FF , which adopted " Breadvan " styling. Its first hatchback was still a three-door, though, and slightly more practical for carrying cargo rather than humans in the rear. That was true for the GTC4 that followed , too. But with the Purosangue, the rear passengers have been given something of an upgrade. For one thing, there is an extra pair of doors, rear-hinged ones that provide direct access to the pair of rear bucket seats. There’s still a rear hatch, so this is technically a five-door. But there’s an immovable firewall between the cargo area and the passenger cabin, and the rear seats do not fold flat. So unlike the 21st century breadvans we have previously reviewed, a Costco run in the Purosangue might be possible, but you’re probably going to want a roof rack if you plan to go skiing, cycling, or anything else that requires bulky equipment. It’s also probably accurate that Ferrari says the Purosangue is not an SUV but an FUV—a Ferrari Utility Vehicle. Underneath that long hood lives a 6.5 L naturally aspirated V12, but mounted back in the chassis such that this is technically a front-mid engined layout. That contributes to the 49:51 front-to-rear weight ratio, as does the use of a transaxle gearbox for the rear wheels (an eight-speed, dual-clutch box); a separate power transfer unit at the front of the engine drives the front wheels, for this is an all-wheel drive Ferrari. But make no mistake, it’s a substantial one, too, befitting that massive 715 hp (533 kW), 528 lb-ft (716 Nm) engine: 195.8 inches (4,973 mm) long, 79.8 inches (2,028 mm) wide, 62.6 inches (1,589 mm) tall, with a 118.1-inch (3,018 mm) wheelbase and a 4,784 lbs (2,170 kg) curb weight. Read full article Comments