Electric Vehicles & Cars News - Page 1

Mercedes-Benz has taken to its website to announce new features coming to Mercedes vehicles, and according to the German car company, Mercedes owners can expect an AI-powered upgrade.

The company explained in a blog post that it will be rolling out updates to its Hey Mercedes voice assistant, and that customers will be able to opt-in to the beta program by simply saying, "Hey Mercedes, I want to join the beta program". Once the correct words are spoken, the vehicle will initiate an over-the-air update that will upgrade the MBUX Voice Assistant with OpenAI's extremely popular chatbot, ChatGPT.

Mercedes says on its website that ChatGPT will "greatly improve natural language understanding and expand the topics to which it can respond. Soon, participants who ask the Voice Assistant for details about their destination, to suggest a new dinner recipe, or to answer a complex question, will receive a more comprehensive answer." Mercedes says this new ChatGPT integration with its vehicles was made possible through Microsoft, a massive investor in OpenAI, the developers behind ChatGPT.

YouTube channel WhistlinDiesel has posted a new video showcasing a modified Tesla Model 3 with 10ft tall wheels driving along the road.

Cody Detwiler, the host of the WhistinDiesel YouTube channel that has amassed more than 5 million subscribers, explains that the goal of the above video is to test the Tesla Model 3 to see if it meets all of the claims Tesla has made about its vehicles. Notably, there is a strong vein of comic essence running through all of WhistinDiesel's videos, and the testing process is purely for entertainment purposes only, as Detwiler decides to set his own testing parameters.

One of the biggest claims from Tesla is that electric cars are greener for the planet than petroleum-powered vehicles, and while that may be true at face value, it really depends on where the electricity is sourced from. For example, if the electricity that is powering any electric car comes from a renewable source, such as solar-powered energy, then the vehicle would be greener than a typical combustion engine vehicle.

We're all very familiar with the idea of wirelessly charging our phones, watches, and earbuds but have you ever considered wirelessly charging your car?

Screencap from Tesla Investor Day - Image source: electrek.com

That obviously only applies to people who have electric vehicles, but wireless charging would fix one of the bigger problems with owning an EV - having to plug it in all the time. Now it appears that Tesla is working on fixing that with some sort of wireless charging technology.

While Tesla hasn't confirmed that it's working on anything of the sort, the company might have teased something during this week's Investor Day.

Ford has filed for a patent on a new type of system that is designed to cause drivers "discomfort" if they happen to miss consecutive car repayments.

The car manufacturer filed for the patent back in August 2021, but it only became public last week when it was published online. The Drive reports that the patent includes technology that would revoke key features of the vehicle in the event of car repayments being missed by the buyer. Features that would be taken away incrementally would be air conditioning, GPS, and even the radio.

Furthermore, the patent describes a new system called the "repossession system computer", which will serve as the brain for carrying out all these discomforts. The patent states that this new computer would begin with minor annoyances to the driver, such as removing air conditioning, cruise control, or the radio. Then if warnings of missed payments are continued to be ignored, the system could initiate an "incessant and unpleasant sound" whenever the driver is around.

Flying cars has always been this benchmark for something futuristic; that is, once flying cars are real - we're well and truly living in the future. And that's precisely what we've got here, with the Airspeeder MK4 from Alauda Aeronautics - based in Adelaide, South Australia.

The Airspeeder MK4 from Alauda Aeronautics

A fully crewed flying racing car because we're already at the flying racing car stage. The Airspeeder MK4 is described as the world's fastest hydrogen electric "Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft."

It can reach its top speed of 360km/hr (225m/hr) in 30 seconds from a full-standing start and is set to debut in the burgeoning field of Airspeeder racing. Yeah, it's a flying racing card built for performance motorsports. As mentioned above, this is a hydrogen-electric flying car with an impressive range of 300km - with the vehicle weight being just 950kg.

Tesla has made an appearance at the Super Bowl, but it isn't a positive one, as the advertisement comes from one of the company's biggest critics Dawn Project.

The above Super Bowl ad was created by Dawn Project, an organization committed to making "computers safe for humanity". The organization was created by tech entrepreneur Dan O'Dowd and has been going after Tesla since the company began rolling out its Full Self-Driving (FSD) feature. The Super Bowl ad is designed to bring awareness to purported faults within Tesla's FSD software, and these faults are demonstrated numerous times throughout the duration of the video.

Dawn Project shows Tesla vehicles failing to stop for child-sized dummies that are crossing the street, failing to stop for stop signs attached to the side of a school bus, crossing illegally into the oncoming lane, driving past 'do not enter' signs and even hitting a stroller in the middle of the road. Dawn Project's goal for the Super Bowl ad is to bring awareness to FSD in hopes that lawmakers will ban the feature from public roads.

Mercedes-Benz has received a new level of driving automation for its Drive Pilot system, which is a direct competitor to Tesla's Autopilot system.

Mercedes took to its website with a press release that states its Drive Pilot system is approved for use in Nevada, receiving the first Level 3 "conditionally automated" driving certification, making it the very first car company to reach Level 3.

According to the announcement, Mercedes' Drive Pilot system at Level 3 capabilities will be able to keep the car in a lane, change lanes, and maintain the car at a safe distance behind the one that it's in front of by adjusting speed and more. However, all of this new technology is only permitted at speeds up to 40 mph. Notably, Tesla currently sits at Level 2 autonomy with its Autopilot system, but many of the features that make up Level 3 autonomy are already present in Level 2, which are already present on the road.

Sacramento Metro Fire District took to its social channels to share information about a Tesla Model S suddenly bursting into flames while traveling down eastbound Highway 50 & Sunrise Blvd.

According to the posts by the fire department, the firefighters arrived at the scene, and the vehicle was already engulfed in flames, and according to the driver, the Tesla Model S began emitting black smoke from under its hood while it was traveling at "freeway speeds". The driver pulled over, and the fire eventually took over the vehicle, causing it irreparable damage. Metro Fire of Sacramento notes that there were no injuries as a result of the incident.

Firefighters had to use 6,000 gallons of water to completely put out the fire as the vehicle's battery cells continued to combust, refueling the fire. Comparatively, a normal combustion engine requires approximately 700 gallons of water to extinguish and typically a single fire truck. Metro Fire of Sacramento states it needed two fire engines, a water tender, and a ladder truck.

Californian carmaker Rezvani has unveiled the Rezvani Vengeance, and the Batmobile-like SUV comes with a military package that is truly shocking.

The Rezvani Vengeance is not your typical SUV as this vehicle is truly equipped for an apocalyptic event with the inclusion of bulletproof glass, blinding strobe lights, electrified door handles, smoke screen, thermal night vision, EMP protection, gas masks, and even a pepper spray dispenser. Looking at the Rezvani website, the company states that "vengeance is yours," and if you decide to get the military package, all of the aforementioned features are yours.

Notably, these features and the vehicle by itself don't come cheap. The Rezvani Vengeance base model, without the bells and pepper sprayers, comes in at $285,000. Those that decide the military package is a necessary upgrade will have to pay a whopping $499,000. It should be noted that tactical weaponry equipped to the Rezvani Vengeance isn't marketed towards the US military personnel but to everyday Americans.

A Tesla owner has bragged online that he used his vehicle while intoxicated to make it back home after Christmas celebrations.

The Tesla owner, whose Twitter handle is @denguyen73 admitted to the act on Twitter Spaces, where he said that he was a little bit "tipsy" after Christmas day celebrations and that he was "probably drunk" when he got behind the wheel. The driver said that he engaged Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD) after jumping behind the wheel and Tesla's autopilot driving software "flawlessly" took him home.

As you can probably imagine, driving while intoxicated, even with Tesla's FSD beta software engaged, is completely illegal, which led to many members of the public speaking out about the driver's admission. One Twitter user whose handle is @eriz35 simply booed the driver while the Twitter Spaces call and said, "Don't do that", adding, "please don't do that again".