Cars

Tesla is selling a cooler sized to fit perfectly in the weirdly-shallow Cybertruck frunk. And yes, it’s made of stainless steel. And yes, you can fill it full of Cyberbeer that I initially mistook for an IPA made by the Zodiac Killer because I forgot that Tesla makes its own beer now. But the real kick in the crotch is the price. Because why is god’s name would anyone shell out $700 for a cooler? Of course the answer is the same people who would pay $100,000 for an electric truck made by the guy who thinks people are being too mean to oil and gas executives. Now that’s cool.

Fort Worth, Texas Judge Reed O’Connor, who is presiding over Elon Musk-owned X’s antitrust lawsuit against advertisers and one against Media Matters, has invested as much as $50,000 in Tesla stock, NPR reports.

O’Connor is known for conservative-friendly rulings, such as one calling Obamacare unconstitutional (later overturned because he didn’t have jurisdiction).

During Monterey Car Week, which started yesterday and runs until August 18th, the company will show a “dynamically styled concept” that it says is a preview of a next-generation, all-electric SUV built on its new EV platform.

Acura teased the reveal with the picture below.

Today was supposed to be the day we got our first glimpse of Tesla’s much-hyped (but probably not fully operational) robotaxi. Instead, the event was pushed to October after Tesla CEO Elon Musk ordered some design changes to the prototype. Of course, as many theorized, the event was likely little more than a distraction from the company’s declining sales. And reports from the field of Tesla owners using Full Self-Driving don’t inspire much hope about the robotaxi’s near term viability.

After introducing the Arc brand a few years ago, Intel announced in China that cars with the GPUs could arrive “as soon as 2025.”

While it hasn’t specified which cars, a demo showed it running AAA games and a “new generation cockpit user interface (UI) that transforms vehicles into immersive mobile hubs supporting seven high-definition screens rendering 3D graphics and six-in vehicle cameras and interactive features.”

$1.5 billion to be exact, and only five months since the last major cash infusion of $1 billion. The money comes in the form of “$750 million of convertible preferred stock via private placement” and “a $750 million unsecured delayed draw term loan facility,” both from Ayar Third Investment, an affiliate of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. The money has helped the cash-losing EV maker from heading down a similar path as some of its less financially stable peers.

A sad inevitability: a Cybertruck driver died in Texas early Monday morning after their truck left the roadway for an unknown reason and smashed into a concrete culvert, the local news station reports. The Cybertruck became engulfed in flames after the crash, complicating the victim’s identification. Tesla has sold at least 11,000 Cybertrucks since the vehicle’s release late last year, according to a recent recall report.

Tesla’s other vehicles have stellar safety ratings, but third party groups have yet to rate the Cybertruck, which has been hit with multiple recalls.

YouTuber WhistlinDiesel could have taken a more conservative approach to his test of the Cybertruck, but instead we get a balls-to-the-wall, absolutely over-the-top series of stunts and bad decisions that practically leaves the electric truck a pile rubble at the end. Tune in for the evisceration of the Cybertruck’s tow hitch, stay for the part where he straps C4 to the tailgate.

I tend to agree with Jalopnik’s Andy Kalmowitz’s take that people complain too much about being distracted by all the new tech in their cars. You can see it in the surveys of new vehicle owners, where infotainment ranks high among the many hassles. But automakers are getting better about consolidating information on the main screen, and the reduction of hard buttons is certainly cleaner to look at.

Maybe, just maybe, the real distraction isn’t the touchscreens or the ambient lightning. Could it be the pocket computers we take with us everywhere?

The family of a motorcyclist killed by a Tesla Model 3 driver using Autopilot is suing the company for knowingly releasing “defective and inadequate” software, Reuters says. Its the latest in a growing volume of wrongful death suits targeting Tesla’s driver assist features. The company has fought some, settled others, so how it responds to this one remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, another motorcyclist was killed last April by a Tesla driver using Full Self-Driving.

Ford CEO Jim Farley announced the European Commission’s approval of its hands-free BlueCruise driver-assist tech (despite an ongoing NHTSA investigation), which means Mustang Mach-E buyers in 15 EU countries can now get the feature (and some current owners can get it through a software update).

BlueCruise has been driven for more than 213 million miles globally, according to Ford — up from 200 million in June.

YouTuber Taki Udon got an early look at a Ryzen 8845HS-powered PC built into a detailed replica of Tesla’s electric truck. It’s got working doors, headlights, ports hidden beneath the rear bumper, and a power button integrated into the truck’s front shocks.

Pre-orders for the Xyber XPC will eventually happen through Indiegogo, but pricing and availability hasn’t been announced yet.

iPhone owners love the feature and get up in arms when automakers resist it. Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe said this week on Decoder that CarPlay can’t “leverage other parts of the vehicle experience” and takes control away from automakers.

Meanwhile, friend of The Verge, Patrick George, has the so-far unpopular opinion that while CarPlay is familiar, it’s rapidly becoming out of date.