Author: Alex Davies / Source: WIRED
It’s been a week since we cracked open the champagne to celebrate our 25th birthday, along with our memory banks to take a look at our history of predicting the future. Now that we’re back in the present and once again looking forward, it seems like we’re not the only outfit reconsidering the road ahead.
Chinese automaker NIO thinks it can make battery swapping work this time. Elon Musk reveals yet another Model 3 that costs more than $35,000. Uber and Lyft are defending against claims they make traffic worse—again—and we have yet more confirmation that systems like Tesla’s Autopilot are confusing people.It’s been a week. Let’s get you caught up.
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If you remember Better Place, maybe you remember battery swapping for electric cars as a garbage idea. Time to rethink that, say contributors Levi Tillemann and Colin McCormick. They take a look at EV maker NIO, arguing the Chinese newcomer could make the whole idea work—for everyone’s benefit.
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If Lime is going to deliver on its goal of getting people out of cars, its scooters have to live up to life on the mean streets. CEO Toby Sun told Aarian its new “Gen 3” vehicle will do just that, with more range, improved stability, and extra ruggedness.
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And if Uber and Lyft are going to deliver on their goal of getting people out of personal cars, they need to convince the public and regulators that their services don’t clog up the streets. A new report from the San Francisco County Transportation Authority finds that between 2010 and 2016, the two ride-hailing giants caused more than half of the daily vehicle delay hours increase. But, as Aarian notes, the whole situation’s a lot more complex than that stat indicates.
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On Friday, self-driving startup Drive.ai launched a new service in Arlington, Texas, ferrying just about anybody along a few fixed routes, including to and from the Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium. I’ve got the…
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