MyOpinion

Tesla owners who drive for Uber and Lyft with "Full Self-Driving" enabled operate like gray-market autonomous taxis, as a new report from Reuters details. That's a problem when one of these not-actually-self-driving cars crashes, as Justin Yoon's allegedly did.

Reuters broke the story of Yoon's allegedly car getting in a collision with another car while being operated for a ride-share service. The accident was ruled to be the other vehicle's fault, not Yoon's, but it was Yoon himself who eventually steered to mitigate the impact of the accident. Both Yoon and his passenger sustained minor injuries.

Reuters spoke to 11 other Uber or Lyft drivers who said they used the system while driving for ride-sharing companies. The drivers said they used it to reduce fatigue and stress while driving, allowing them to work more hours and earn more money. I am editorializing here, but I find it far more stressful to monitor an inept robot driver that I'm legally responsible for than I do to drive.

Tesla's inaccurately named "Full Self-Driving" (FSD) system is a fully supervised system, meaning that the driver remains fully responsible for any collisions while the system is engaged. That's an entirely different category of product from true driverless self-driving systems operated by companies like Waymo and Lyft, which face strict regulations and bear responsibility for collisions caused by their products. Tesla says that drivers must pay attention while using FSD and be ready to intervene.

Uber and Lyft both responded to Reuter's report. While neither company seemed to directly support the idea of drivers using Tesla FSD, neither expressed direct disapproval or banned the practice.

Uber told Reuters: "Drivers are expected to maintain an environment that makes riders feel safe; even if driving practices don't violate the law."

Things aren't looking great for Stellantis. Sales for the company's Dodge and Jeep brands in America are cratering, and its overseas brands aren't doing much better. Adding to the bad news, Stellantis announced today it will extend its suspension of production for the all-electric Fiat 500 until November 1 over low demand.

The company originally stopped production of the 500 on September 12, planning to idle the car's Mirafiori, Italy plant for four weeks. Now, that stoppage has been extended by another three weeks.

The decision, Reuters reports, comes alongside a statement given to trade unions claiming the electric car market in Europe is "in deep trouble."

(Fiat never seems to learn they keep creating these cars with such limited range.)

A few days ago, Michael Barnard slammed Jim Farley for being asleep at the wheel during his time as CEO of Ford Motor Company. Michael’s primary complaint about Farley is that he has failed to usher Ford into the electric car era fast enough. He contended that only in the middle of last year did Farley realize the Chinese weren’t just doing cheap knockoffs of US products and buying US brand cars with the proceeds.

“Presumably, it took a year for this to become public because Farley’s sleeping pattern was so disrupted that he couldn’t concentrate. That would explain why electric vehicles were only 1.65% of Ford’s global sales in 2023, and still only a paltry 4.3% in the first half of 2024. Meanwhile, Tesla sold 25 times as many electric cars globally. BYD sold 41 times as many plug-in cars. While those two firms are the highest volume car, SUV, and light truck OEMs in the electric arena, Ford has been outsold by 180 times in this space,” Barnard wrote.

In response, Ford reached out to CleanTechnica to make their case as to why and how Farley had not been asleep on what’s happening in China. Additionally, in response, Zachary Shahan wrote a followup piece arguing that Farley had actually done a pretty good job at grabbing Ford by the scruff of the neck and dragging it forward into the EV future. It has in fact created a separate division within its corporate structure called “Model e” that is dedicated exclusively to the development, manufacture, and sale of electric vehicles. Some readers will recall a time when Elon Musk got his knickers in a knot because Ford had trademarked “Model E,” thus preventing Tesla for using it. That suggests the Model e division was not some Johnny Come Lately afterthought. Somebody within the company had actually been planning for the EV future quite a few years ago.

Just a few days ago, my colleague Tina Casey wrote about a new initiative started by Jim Farley to address the fear of the unknown that keeps many potential EV owners from considering an electric car. Ford wants to solve that by giving customers a free EV charger and assistance from a licensed electrician to install it (in most cases), which seems to indicate Ford really does see the big picture when it comes to marketing electric vehicles.

Ford Doubles Down On Iconic Cars

During a recent interview with the UK’s Car Magazine to introduced the new battery electric Ford Explorer for Europe, Jim Farley’s alter ego made a surprise appearance. He said the company’s marketing plan going forward was to stop building “boring” cars and start selling “iconic” EVs, off-road trucks, SUVs, and crossovers, as well as more muscle cars. “We’re getting out of the boring car business and into the iconic vehicle business,” he said in the interview.

This isn’t the first time Ford has slashed its lineup to focus on a small number of the most profitable — and expensive — models. Ford stopped selling the Fusion in the US in 2020. The Focus is set to be discontinued next year. The Fiesta was killed off in 2023; the Flex in 2019. The C-Max left the stage in 2018 and 2019 for the regular and hybrid models, respectively. The last Taurus rolled off the factory floor in 2019.

What all of these models had in common was that they were priced lower than Ford’s other offerings but still high for their market segments. Ford is no stranger to cutting its most affordable, least profitable models. It seems yet again the company is angling away from its roots as the name that brought automobiles to the masses to focus instead on catering to wealthier clientele.

Kia officially launched the 2025 Ray EV in Korea with the same low starting price of under $21,000. However, the new model year gains additional features. With incentives, the entry-level electric car can be bought for as little as $15,000 (20 million won).

The “New Kia Ray” was reborn as an entry-level EV last year. After opening pre-orders last August, starting at around $20,500 (27.35 million won), the Kia Ray EV secured over 6,000 reservations in less than a month.

Toyota is the master at slow walking EV production. Oct 3 (Reuters) - Toyota Motors will postpone the start of electric-vehicle production in North America to the first half of 2026 due to design adjustment and slowing EV sales, the Nikkei business daily reported on Thursday.

The Japanese automaker recently told suppliers the start date for production of its first battery EV model at its factory in the U.S. state of Kentucky - a three-row SUV - will be delayed by several months, the Nikkei said.

My friend Jørn Grønkjær called me up and said: “Jesper, you have to see this, I’m getting my 1913 Detroit Electric towed to an exhibition at Aalborg Congress & culture center, by a Ford F-150 Lightning!”

My jaw dropped. It’s one thing that I am lucky enough to know the guy who owns one of the very few Detroit Electric vehicles in the world, that I wrote in depth about (with video), but as it turned out, the owner of a local auto shop, Kim Hansen, had recently traveled to New York and purchased a Ford F-150 Lightning Lariat and had it shipped to Denmark in the hope of getting it legally on the road. In which he succeeded, and celebrated by fitting 26-inch wheels on it!

esla Q3 2024 Expectations

After two quarters in a row with deliveries being down year-over-year, a first for Tesla in almost a decade, Wall Street has been expecting Tesla to finally return to year-over-year growth this quarter.

Analysts have a consensus of 463,000 deliveries.

While meeting those expectations would mark a return to year-over-year for Tesla, they would be short of the 485,000 deliveries it needs to stay on track for overall delivery growth in 2024 and short of the 585,000 deliveries it needs to stay on track for its original goal of 2 million deliveries for the year.

Tesla isn’t releasing precise guidance for annual deliveries anymore. Tesla Q3 2024 Production and Delivery Results

Before markets opened today, Tesla released its production and delivery results for the last quarter. The automaker confirmed that it produced 469,796 vehicles and delivered 462,890 vehicles between July and September 2024.

Production	Deliveries	

Model 3/Y 443,668 439,975 Other Models 26,128 22,915 Total 469,796 462,890

This comes literally just about a hundred vehicles under Wall Street expectations.

Tesla had been sitting on about 13,000 vehicles in over production before Q3. Now, it adds about 7,000 vehicles to that tally.

Skoda has taken the wraps off the all-new Elroq, which is billed as the “most affordable EV in its segment, taking into account its battery size and extensive standard equipment.” While pricing varies by market, the model starts at £31,500 in the United Kingdom and will cost around €33,000 in mainland Europe.

The crossover rides on the MEB platform and will be offered with an assortment of different powertrains. The entry-level Elroq 50 has a 55 kWh battery pack and a rear-mounted motor producing 168 hp (125 kW / 170 PS) and 229 lb-ft (310 Nm) of torque. This enables the model to accelerate from 0-62 mph (0-100 km/h) in 9 seconds, hit a top speed of 99 mph (160 km/h), and have a WLTP range of 233 miles (375 km).

The Elroq 60 has a larger 63 kWh battery pack and this increases the range to more than 249 miles (400 km). Buyers will also find a beefier motor producing 201 hp (150 kW / 204 PS) and 229 lb-ft (310 Nm) of torque. While the top speed remains unchanged, the 0-62 mph (0-100 km/h) time falls to 8.5 seconds.

Last but not least, there’s the range-topping Elroq 85. The rear-wheel drive variant features an 82 kWh battery pack, which promises to provide a WLTP range of 361 miles (581 km). Its motor produces 282 hp (210 kW / 286 PS) and 402 lb-ft (545 Nm) of torque, allowing for a 0-62 mph (0-100 km/h) time of 6.6 seconds and a top speed of 112 mph (180 km/h).

Skoda also confirmed plans for an Elroq 85x, which features a dual-motor all-wheel drive system. However, the company didn’t have much else to say about it at this point.

Charging times and technology vary by model, but the crossover supports DC fast charging rates of 145 kW, 165 kW and 175 kW. The latter can take the 82 kWh battery from a 10-80% charge in as little as 28 minutes.

The U.S. government has issued $2 billion in advance point-of-sale consumer electric vehicle (EV) tax credit payments since Jan. 1 covering more than 300,000 vehicles, the Treasury said on Tuesday.

Since new rules took effect allowing for consumers to take advantage of EV tax credit worth up to $7,500 at the point of sale, more than 250,000 tax credits have been issued for new EVs and around 50,000 for used models. Nearly all involve transferring the credit to a car dealer at the time of purchase resulting in a significant rebate.

Microsoft has removed Windows Mixed Reality from Windows 11. With Windows 11 24H2, the latest major version of Microsoft's PC operating system, you can no longer use a Windows MR headset in any way - not even on Steam. This includes all the Windows MR headsets from Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Samsung, including HP's Reverb G2, released in 2020.

UploadVR tested Windows 11 24H2 with a Reverb G2 and found the above notice. Microsoft confirmed to UploadVR that this is an intentional removal when it originally announced the move back in December. In August 3.49% of SteamVR users were using a Windows MR headset, roughly 80,000 people. If they install Windows 11 24H2, their VR headset will effectively become a paperweight. “Existing Windows Mixed Reality devices will continue to work with Steam through November 2026, if users remain on their current released version of Windows 11 (version 23H2) and do not upgrade to this year’s annual feature update for Windows 11 (version 24H2).” The death of Windows MR headsets comes on the same week Microsoft revealed that HoloLens 2 production has ended, and that software support for the AR headset will end after 2027.

A group of more than 5,000 car dealers have made public their worries about a lack of demand for electric vehicles. Earlier this year the group lobbied the White House to water down impending federal fuel efficiency regulations that would require automakers to sell many more EVs. Now, they're sounding an alarm over impending EV mandates, particularly in the so-called Zero Emissions Vehicle states.

The ZEV states—California, Connecticut, Colorado, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and the District of Columbia—all follow the emissions standards laid out by the California Air Resources Board, which require that by 2035, 100 percent of all new cars and light trucks be zero-emissions vehicles (which includes plug-in hybrid EVs as well as battery EVs).

That goes into effect starting with model-year 2026 (i.e. midway through next calendar year) and would require a third of all new vehicles to be a BEV, claim the car dealers. But there is not enough customer demand for electrified vehicles to buy those cars, the dealers say. Worse yet, it would make gasoline-powered cars more expensive.

Spookality, our annual Halloween-themed jam, returns!

Every year, Spookality allows us to highlight some of the most talented creators in VRChat. From October 1st to October 14th, you can submit your avatars and worlds for consideration.

We will pick the winners on October 14! The best worlds will be featured in VRChat’s main menu, and the best avatars will be in the default VRChat home world.

The theme of our last jam, “Summer Music Fest,” was very broad. You gave us feedback that you wanted something a little more special: Only people who submit entries related to the theme can win prizes. We like this idea, so let’s try it this year!

We also heard that you’d like to be able to split the digital prizes with your collaborators. This is now also possible for up to four collaborators! So, if you have a team of three and you would like to split the one year of VRC+, you would get four months each. For the pins, however, we can only send to one person. I don’t think you want us to chop up poor little VRCat!

Please make sure your email associated with your VRChat account is up to date! We will be reaching out to you through your email to coordinate physical merch prizes this year.

Before submitting, please take some time to review our Official Contest rules as well as our Terms of Service and Community Guidelines. The submitter must also have the rights to use the content submitted (including all component parts and any referenced intellectual properties).

Any content violating the above rules won’t be selected!

Additionally, all content submitted must make use of VRChat SDK3 to be qualified for submission. Worlds must use VRCSDK3 for worlds and avatars must use VRCSDK3 for avatars. While the use of more advanced features within the SDK (such as Avatar Dynamics) is recommended, it is not required!

Your content must have been uploaded after submissions have opened (October 1st).

“But what’s the theme?” you may ask.

In Spookality 2024, there are three categories: one for avatars, and two for worlds.