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Cars are the technology of the future. The Verge brings you new car reviews, auto show insights, deeply reported investigations, and news from the frontlines of autonomous and electric vehicle development. We bring you updates from major companies like Ford, GM, Mercedes, and VW as well as digital upstarts like Uber, Google, and Tesla. Cars are among the biggest computers that we’ll ever own, and we know computers. We also bring you news and analyses from the growing effort to reduce the number of cars crowding our cities and the fight to reduce oil consumption, cut CO2 emissions, and shift to more sustainable sources of energy.

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This EV has a novel response to all those ‘EVs suck in the cold’ stories.

The Nio ET9 can literally shake snow off itself thanks to wire-controlled chassis that vibrates and shakes from side to side. Not a bad feature to have for snowier climates, especially when EVs in general are dealing with poor performance in extreme cold.

The ultra-luxe ET9 is eventually expected to compete with Porsche and Mercedes-Benz when it starts deliveries later this year. But we can assume that it’s approach to the competition will be similar to how it handles a fresh layer of snow.


Is this Rivian’s R2 vehicle in the wild?

A number of photos appearing to show Rivian’s more affordable R2 vehicle at a photoshoot in LA have cropped up on the internet. They’re a little blurry, but they seem like they could be legit. Compared to an R1S, the new R2 vehicle is smaller and appears to have a different charging port and new wheels. Whether these images are real or not, we’ll get a much closer look at the official reveal March 7th.


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Toyota made an anime and it looks Supra.

Did you have a car company producing an anime series on your Friday afternoon bingo card? I sure didn’t. But the show is real and it’s called GRIP, will have five episodes released weekly starting February 26th, and is described as “a battle between the human spirit and computer control.” If we’re lucky, it’ll be something like an animated spiritual successor to The Hire series.


Rivian is keeping the oval headlights for its R2 vehicle.

You’d be mistaken if you thought Rivian would ditch the signature lights for its next-generation electric trucks and SUVs! Ovals for life, baby!

The R2 is getting a proper reveal on March 7th, which will be livestreamed on X.


Rivian R2 tease
Rivian’s R2 vehicle is expected to be a smaller, more affordable crossover.
Screenshot: Rivian
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A report suggests Tesla’s Full Self-Driving system may have been involved in a deadly 2022 crash.

Hans von Ohain, a former Tesla employee, was killed after his Tesla Model 3 veered off a Colorado road and into a tree, where the vehicle caught fire. However, The Washington Post interviewed the surviving passenger and obtained 911 dispatch recordings, which indicate von Ohain may have had FSD enabled at the time of the crash.

Colorado State Patrol investigators were never able to determine whether FSD was involved due to the extensive damage and closed the investigation last year. Elon Musk maintained Tesla’s FSD system caused no accidents or injuries just months before the crash occurred.


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Fisker’s electric SUVs keep losing power.

TechCrunch senior reporter (and Verge alum) Sean O’Kane got a bunch of internal documents from EV startup Fisker, and sudden-loss-of-power is just the tip of the iceberg.

Customers have also reported sudden loss of braking power, problematic key fobs causing them to get locked inside or outside of the vehicle, seat sensors that don’t detect the driver’s presence and the SUV’s front hood suddenly flying up at high speeds.

The hood on my 1985 Honda Accord flew up once when I was driving it. I don’t recommend it.


Welcome to the first Thursday Decoder.

This week marks the launch of Decoder’s second episode, which will explain big topics in the news with Verge reporters, experts, and other friends of the show. (The other Decoder you know and love, featuring big interviews with CEOs and others, now publishes every Monday.)

For this episode, I sat down with Verge Transportation Editor Andy Hawkins, to discuss a fantastic article he wrote called, “The EV Transition trips over its own cord.” It’s all about how the momentum for electric cars in America has started to hit serious snags, even as more people than ever before go fully electric. Check it out.


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GM brings in a ringer to help with its EV battery problems.

Kevin Kelty was the former battery tech chief at Tesla during the infamous “production hell” Model 3 ramp. He’ll take the role of Vice President of Batteries and will report directly to GM President Mark Reuss. He worked at Tesla for 11 years and Panasonic for 15 years, so safe to say that if he can’t help GM get its stuff together, no one can.

The company has run in numerous hurdles scaling up its EV and battery making operation, including recalls and persistent delays related to automation on its Ultium assembly line. Suffice to say, Kelty will have his work cut out for him.


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Maybe all the fuss about slower EV demand is way off?

Case in point: General Motors just inked a deal with South Korea’s LG Chem for $19 billion — yes, billion with a “b” — worth of EV battery material. That’s one of the largest EV supply deals of all time. The money will be spent over a decade and will fund the start of cathode production at the Tennessee plant operated by the two companies’ joint venture.

LG Chem said it will supply GM with half a million tons of cathode materials — nickel, cobalt, manganese, aluminum — which is enough to power over 5 million EVs with 300 miles of range each. Keep that in mind the next time someone tells you that EVs are just a fad.


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Is this a day in the life of Christopher Walken?

BMW’s i5 electric sedan Super Bowl commercial makes good use of Walken, who forever seems like a good sport.

It’s hard to know how close this ad is to showing what it’s like moving through the world while being Walken, but the constant barrage of impressions from random people feels right.


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Sounds like Tesla is prepping for some layoffs.

That’s the impression many employees got after the company asked managers to sort which jobs were “critical,” according to Bloomberg. Also biannual performance reviews were cancelled.

During the most recent earnings call, Elon Musk said Tesla was between “two major growth waves,” but warned of a sales slowdown in 2024. Tesla has roughly doubled in size since 2020, with around 140,000 on its payroll globally.


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Rivian’s second-generation vehicle platform will be revealed on March 7th.

We already knew the date thanks to the Laguna Beach city council. What we don’t know is whether we’re going to see a whole vehicle or just the chassis. I expect there to be at least a prototype, but what do I know? Rivian has said that R2 will serve as the platform for its next vehicle, a more affordable compact SUV expected to go into production in 2026.


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How independent are the boards of Musk’s companies?

Not very, according to The Wall Street Journal’s examination, published last night.

It’s not just that some members have earned, for example, “hundreds of millions of dollars” — far more than typical board member compensation, the Journal says.

It’s that reportedly, some members are heavily invested in Musk’s and each other’s companies, and regularly do drugs with him “because they think refraining could upset the billionaire, who has made them a lot of money.”


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Watch a Rivian R1T smash through a steel guardrail like its paper.

This video comes from the Midwest Roadside Safety Facility at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (via Inside EVs), which is studying roadway and military infrastructure as it relates to electric vehicles. And as you can see, our system of guardrails don’t really stand a chance against heavy electric trucks like the Rivian R1T. Vaporized.

“There is some urgency to address this issue,” said Cody Stolle, assistant director of the Midwest Roadside Safety Facility. “As the percentage of EVs on the road increases, the proportion of run-off-road crashes involving EVs will increase, as well.”


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Tesla will pay $1.5 million to settle a California lawsuit over dumping hazardous waste.

Tesla was being sued by 25 California DAs for dumping hazardous automotive components and waste like metal car panel welding spatter in the trash instead of handling it appropriately.

As TechCrunch points out, Tesla will pay $1.3 million in civil penalties, $200k for the costs of the investigation, and comply with an injunction for five years with training for employees and audits of its trash containers.


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CEOs can be friends with the people setting their pay —

apparently they just have to disclose it first.

Axios writes that CEOs other than Elon Musk should still be fine to receive pay packages as big as they’d like, so long as they keep their board processes buttoned up.


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Volvo and Polestar drift a little farther apart.

The Volvo / Polestar relationship has always been complicated — as Volvo CEO Jim Rowan explained to me on Decoder last year, Volvo owns 48 percent of EV maker Polestar, Rowan sits on Polestar’s board, and both companies share tech and platforms with Volvo’s majority owner Geely — but it’s getting a little simpler, as Volvo announced it won’t be funding Polestar directly anymore. (Geely says it will, though. So, still complicated.)

The WSJ frames this as EV market noise, but Volvo is just about to start delivery of the new EX30 EV which seems like a hit, and Polestar just announced the 4, so maybe it’s just sibling rivalry. After all, Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath told me in 2021 that “we will always be some kind of family, but of course we will develop our own life.”


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Tesla is getting sued in California for its hazardous waste handling.

Over two dozen California counties accuse the EV-maker of improperly labeling and disposing of hazardous waste in landfills that don’t process that type of material, according to a report from Reuters.

The hazardous materials in question include used batteries, antifreeze, paint materials, brake fluids, and more. As noted by Reuters, a violation of California’s hazardous waste management policies could result in penalties of up to $70,000 per day.


Google Assistant Driving Mode will shut down in February

Android Police spotted a new banner on the Google Assistant Driving Mode home screen stating the view will be gone in February (like so many other Google projects). It’s unclear if other parts, like music controls, will remain.

The built-in Google Maps feature offers drivers quick access to Assistant and audio apps. Its shutdown comes after Google also killed both the standalone “Assistant Driving Mode Dashboard” and the “Android Auto for Phone Screens” app.


Screenshot of Assistant Driving Mode
Image: Richard Lawler
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Ford EV owners will get their Tesla Supercharger adapters for free.

In a post on X, Ford CEO Jim Farley said that Mustang Mach-E and F-150 Lightning owners in the US and Canada could reserve their complimentary adapters. The adapters, which enable EVs equipped with CCS ports to charge at Tesla Superchargers, are being supplied by Tesla, a spokesperson said.

Ford was the first company to announce its intention to adopt Tesla’s North American Charging Standard for its future EVs — a commitment that was eventually repeated by basically the rest of the global auto industry.


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Will GM take my advice and bring back the Chevy Volt?

It sounds promising, after GM CEO Mary Barra said in an earnings call this morning that the automaker would be bringing back plug-in hybrids.

Our forward plans include bringing our plug-in hybrid technology to select vehicles in North America.

Is she responding to the influential GM dealers who urged the company to get back into hybrids after EV sales growth slowed? Or is she an avid Verge reader who loves a convincing blog post written by a handsome editor? I’ll let you decide.