Transpo

The driver-side door keypad was once standard on America’s best-selling vehicle. No longer, reports The Drive, as it will now become a $455 dealer option. I suppose the silver lining is that Ford isn’t trying to turn it into a subscription.

The Drive also points us to this excellent essay about the difference between “tiered permissions and variable access” which is totally worth a read in light of this news.

The state’s DMV is inviting proposals for how best to regulate heavy-duty autonomous vehicles, which have so far been prohibited on California’s public highways. Meanwhile, the California state legislature advanced a bill to require a human operator in robot trucks at all times. Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed a similar proposal last year, but hasn’t said whether he would do it again.

Seattle’s international airport was thrown into chaos over the weekend as authorities responded to a cyber attack. It’s like, bad: the website is down, screens throughout the terminal are dark, and there’s no timeline for getting any of it back. Devin Coldewey has a great firsthand account of the situation for TechCrunch. And if you’re flying through SeaTac anytime soon, well, godspeed.

After trying to make BrightDrop work as a standalone brand, GM has decided it will have a happier home among the Silverados and Camaros at Chevy. GM reabsorbed BrightDrop last year, citing “effeciencies,” and now its assigning it to Chevy in order to tap into the brand’s “broad commercial vehicle sales and service dealer network.” Chevy dealers will be able to sell BrightDrop’s 400 and 600 electric vans, as well as the fleet management software and other products.

The Leaf still hasn’t quite gone quietly into the night. Instead, Nissan is revitalizing its bi-directional charging abilities by approving new vehicle-to-grid charging hardware from Fermata Energy. Compared to the previous hardware, the new FE-20 is cheaper and supports 33 percent more power and additional UL and IEEE certifications. I’d say it’s a small win for the dying CHAdeMO charging port standard, too.

It’s been more than 16 months since Ford kicked off the auto industry’s switch to Tesla’s North American Charging Standard, and so far, it and Rivian are the only two companies with access. The bottleneck seems to be the lack of adapters — though Tesla recently said it has increased production to 8,000-a-week at its Buffalo gigafactory. But in the meantime, industry heads are getting worried:

The delays have fueled speculation that Mr. Musk was having second thoughts about opening up Tesla’s network, possibly because he was worried that access would help other automakers sell battery-powered models and lure customers from Tesla, which has suffered from declining sales.

Forbes noticed that Musk’s first two manifestos have been scrubbed from Tesla’s website. The first Master Plan, which was released in 2006, outlined Tesla’s plan to release a series of EVs and use the revenues to build more affordable models. The second plan included plans for additional EVs, as well as solar panels and battery storage. The earliest blog post on the company’s site now dates to 2019. Coincidentally, the purge comes as Musk as aligned himself with former President Donald Trump, and has come to the defense of the oil and gas industry.

After almost two years of testing and a gradual phase-in program, Waymo says its finally ready to provide 24/7 robotaxi service at Phoenix’s Sky Harbor Airport. It’s a pretty big milestone, given how financially essential airports trips are for all human-powered ridehail and taxi services. Waymo also recently completed its 100,000th trip to the airport, and is available for curbside pickup at Terminals 3 and 4. Airport pickups are typically pretty chaotic. So, good luck robots!

I got an uncomfortable feeling while reading this essay about the difficulties of finding a reliable means of transportation from the DNC. Part of it is the over-reliance of cities on ridehail apps like Uber to accommodate large numbers of people in the absence of adequate public transit. And the other part is the knowledge that this is just the way it’s going to be from now on. Taxi stands are a thing of the past. Uber has its claws sunk deep in the government. We’re all stuck in the Ride App Zone for life.

The US Department of Transportation is hosting a half-day webinar about EV battery safety, in light of several high-profile incidents of deadly fires sparked by lithium-ion battery cells. The August 27th event, which is free to the public, will feature “representatives from DOT and other agencies and organizations will discuss EVs and fire safety topics related to lithium-ion batteries.” The webinar comes a few days after California firefighters had to dump hundreds of gallons of water on a burning Tesla Semi in order to cool the battery pack.

The food delivery service will now let drivers appeal account deactivations directly in the app, instead of having to fill out a separate online form.

DoorDash is also rolling out a new safeguard to protect drivers from false or inaccurate reports. It will require customers who frequently report deliveries as missing to provide a PIN code to their Dasher when receiving their order.

Tesla quietly removed a controversial no-resale-for-a-year clause in the Cybertruck purchase contract.

There’s no indication that the automaker ever enforced the clause, but Tesla did cancel someone’s other two Cybertruck reservations when they tried to sell their first Cybertruck.

Tony West, who also served in the Department of Justice during the Obama administration, just spoke at the DNC. Of course, he wasn’t there to talk tech, but rather, to speak to Harris’ character.

The robotaxi company says its doing 100,000 paid trips a week, up from 50,000 a week last May. This comes after the company got rid of its waitlist in San Francisco, and expanded its service area in the city. Saswat Panigrahi, chief product officer, had this to say about the milestone:

People still think of autonomous vehicles as the faraway future, but for more and more people, they’re now an everyday reality.

People also don’t want to hear lots of robot cars honking at each other in parking lots as part of their everyday reality, but I digress. (Fixed this time, hopefully?)