Transportation

Hat tip to investor Reilly Brennan, who noted in his Future of Transportation newsletter that Waymo software engineer Reed Morse has been beefing with Tesla fans on X over sensors and service area maps. Morse said Tesla is “mostly bluffing” its way through its upcoming Cybercab launch. It’s just more evidence that despite being the undisputed leader in driverless robotaxis, Waymo still feels the need to point out the fallacies in Tesla’s approach to robotaxis.

First it was the Toyota Engineering Society’s Miraidon Project, a life-size version Pokémon Violet’s motorcycle-like mascot. Now it’s time for Pokémon Scarlet’s mascot: Honda has its life-size Koraidon on display at PokémonXP in San Francisco. It looks fantastic, and it blinks. Its mouth even opens!

NBC News identified 43 videos that appear to show Tesla drivers asleep at the wheel, 17 of which were posted this year alone. This is, of course, a well-worn problem for Tesla, which has tried to curb the trend with stricter driver monitoring systems. But drivers are easily subverting these guardrails with sunglasses, allowing them to continue sleeping despite eye-tracking technology.

Waymo announced today that it will launch a robotaxi service in Munich by the end of 2027, marking the latest international market for the autonomous vehicle operator. The company is also eyeing London and Tokyo for future service. It remains to be seen whether overseas regulators will be more welcoming than some US cities?

The low-volume truck that Elon Musk once claimed would sell over 250,000 units annually is now about $5,000 more expensive, according to Reuters. Two trims are going up in price: the dual-motor version is now $74,990, up from $69,990; and the all-wheel drive Cybertruck is $84,990, up from $79,990. Tesla has futzed with the truck’s lineup before, introducing a $60,000 all-wheel drive version and jacking up the Cyberbeast trim by $15,000. But it’s done little to juice sales, with only 3,519 Cybertrucks delivered in Q1 2026, down 45 percent year over year.

Did you know there’s a website you can check to see if Flock customers (like policing and surveillance agencies) have searched for your license plate number? Have I Been Flocked? warns users that its data is incomplete, but developer Cris van Pelt told Business Insider that visits to the database have “exploded.”

Guests are being invited to “experience the future of full autonomy” at the event in Austin, Texas. The gold-tinted driverless vehicle has been popping up around the country, although often with a steering wheel and pedals, as employees continue to gather data. In the lead up to the event, the company has increasingly been operating its fleet of Model Y robotaxis without human supervision.

The publication doesn’t often recommend against an entire product category, but that’s what happened after CR’s testers tried out 13 e-scooters. They found that e-scooters have gotten dangerously fast over the past several years, just as the number of scooter-related injuries as also skyrocketed. Both of CR’s testers sustained injuries while riding scooters! (I can sympathize.)

Eleven automakers, including Tesla and Xiaomi, launched software updates to comply with China’s largest recall ever over mechanical door release handles that may be hard to find or ​operate during emergencies. China previously banned Tesla-style concealed door handles because people were getting trapped inside their cars. The country also ordered Tesla to add driver monitoring to over 2 million vehicles to make sure drivers keep their eyes on the road, Electrek reports.

Nevada’s transportation authority unanimously approved permits for Tesla, Waymo, and Uber, paving the way for up 7,000 robotaxis to flood the streets of Clark County over the next 12 months, TechCrunch reports. Tesla received approval for 5,000 robotaxis — though the company’s reps said they’d be thrilled if they get to 2,500 — while Waymo and Uber were authorized for 1,000 each. Amazon’s Zoox already has a permit for 100 robotaxis in the city. The vote positions Las Vegas as the next major robotaxi market, with Amazon, Uber, Waymo, and Tesla all battling for customers.

The Zeekr RT minivan, which has been rebranded as Ojai, is now available to all riders in Phoenix, San Francisco, and Los Angeles (after launching to select passengers last May). The company plans on bringing the egg-shaped shuttle to Denver, San Diego, and Las Vegas as its next cities before the end of the year.

The company calls it the world’s first state-backed trial aimed at mitigating warming contrails across an entire flight corridor — specifically the eastern half of the North Atlantic corridor, which accounts for around 5 percent of global contrail warming.

While checking out the 1,800-horsepower Destrier that Bugatti unveiled at Monterey Car Week, the folks at Road & Track also got a taste of the carmaker’s C-Seed Bugatti N1 TV.

Swedish trucking company Einride says it will buy 500 Tesla Semis, representing the largest order for the electric Class 8 truck yet reported. But as Electrek notes, it’s not clear that Einride has enough money to fund the purchase. The trucking company has about $77 million in the bank, which is less than the estimated $145 million it will cost to buy the Tesla Semis.

Segway’s new $449.99 S2 Kids self-balancing scooter is a direct descendent of the brand’s original Personal Transporter but includes upgrades like animated RGB lighting and built-in Bluetooth speakers for blasting music. It’s got a top speed of 8.7 mph, a range of eight miles, and a weight limit of up to 132 pounds.

Google won a $10 million bankruptcy auction to acquire a hefty collection of business data from the now defunct Spirit Airlines, which it plans to use for AI training. The data, which includes calendar info, documents, spreadsheets, emails, and employee chats will be “deidentified,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement to Axios:

“Do not do that! Holy cow!”

Last month, I spoke to Matthew Haiken, who owns a Polestar dealership in Short Hills, New Jersey, about the EV brand’s sudden decision to withdraw from the US market. Now, Haiken is suing the company, claiming it planned to pull out of the US even before the government issued a de facto sales ban. When we spoke, Haiken said Polestar had plenty of foreknowledge of the government’s decision.

The car was expected to sell for around $1.1 million, but the polarizing EV absolutely shattered that at auction. The proceeds from the sale of chassis #0 will be going to charity, but it’s still a wild price for a car that starts at $600,000 retail.

Waymo has received regulatory approval in the state to “expand” its autonomous ride-hailing service “across the SF Bay Area and LA” and bring it to Sacramento and San Diego, the company said on Friday. The approved expansion covers “most of the state’s population,” Electrek reports.

Bike shop owners say the law, which places heavy restrictions on e-bike ownership in the state, is fueling a steep drop in sales, with some saying as much as 90 percent of their business has evaporated.

The very popular Dutch maker of cargo bikes is now selling its Breeze Stateside. You can’t pass a school in Amsterdam without seeing a dozen Urban Arrows with kids frolicking in their front buckets, but longtails seem to sell better in the US of A. Prices start at $6,999.