Shoutout to Ron R. for sending over newsworthy articles that he thinks are interesting. Thank you to all of you who made a purchase from our Store. We made a donation to the Marshall Fire GoFundMe. We also made another donation to One Tree Planted to go towards planting more trees.
Last, but not least… Congratulations to Rashid! You are the winner of the merch for the month of January. We’ll be in touch via a separate email.
Thank you to everyone’s support. We’ll have more giveaways in the future.
AV Corner
Cruise reached a milestone in San Francisco, officially opening up their autonomous taxi service to the public. The company is excited to grow into other cities. Keep an eye out for AVs to come to a city near you.
In other AV News
- TXAI, the UAE’s first fully driverless taxi service, has completed its first trial phase with over 2,730 passengers and over 10,000 miles traveled in Abu Dhabi between November and December.
- VW is partnering with Bosch to advance its autonomous technology to begin manufacturing and commercializing self-driving vehicles by 2023. VW and Bosch plan to create 1,000 new jobs.
- Elon Musk stated that he would be shocked if Tesla, Inc. didn’t reach their goal to have their Full-Self Driving vehicles be safer than human drivers by the end of 2022. Since its release, around 60,000 Tesla owners have used FSD Beta in the U.S.
- Pennsylvania has advanced a bill for cars and trucks to allow the operation of autonomous vehicles despite whether a human driver is on board, in the driver’s position, or even if a driver is in a remote location.
EV Headlines
Michigan plans to build the United States’ first electric vehicle charging road in Detroit. Governor Gretchen Whitmer announced that the state has contracted with Electreon to build the road, expected to finish in 2023. Copper coils are installed under the road and the vehicles have a receiver underneath. As the vehicle drives over the coils, energy is transferred from the coils to the receiver and charges the vehicle.
In other EV News
- Australia’s electric car sales have nearly tripled, recording a total of 20,665 EV sales in 2021. That’s up from 6,900 sold in 2020. Right now, EVs make up 1.95% of the Aussie car market, with the Tesla Model 3 at the top of the list.
- Ford’s CEO Jim Farley promises to be more friendly to small businesses. Ford wants to start providing financing, electric vehicles, telematics, and more to small businesses as a bundled service. In addition to reaching small businesses, Ford is also increasing their EV spending up to $20 billion over the next 5 to 10 years.
- Volkswagen has officially started its ID.5 and ID.5 GTX production at its large facility in western Saxony. The ID.5 Pro Performance has a range of over 320 miles on a single charge. The ID.5 is offered in 3 variants: the Pro, Pro Performance, and the GTX.
- Reviewers got their hands on the new EV6 this week. The Kia EV6 retails for between $42,115 - $59,715 depending on the package you get. There is the First Edition, the EV6 Light RWD and AWD, EV6 GT-Line RWD and AWD, and the EV6 Wind RWD and AWD. The GT-Line is the fastest with a 0-60 of around 5.1 seconds and the RWD Wind and FT-Line have the longest range at around 310 miles.
- Cars.com best electric vehicle for 2022 had some impressive nominees, including the 2022 Ford Mustang Mach-E, the 2022 Tesla Model Y, and the 2022 Volvo XC40 Recharge Twin. For me, I’d choose the 2022 Volvo XC40 Recharge Twin for the spacious interior and a range that fits my lifestyle.
- Electrify America won first place in the 2021 Electric Vehicle charging infrastructure benchmark by umlaut and Charged. The companies tested charging infrastructure based on their digital platform and the charging location across seven states.