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Harri Weber

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We’re well past the revelation that automakers are software companies. But as the industry deepens its software roots, firms are still figuring out which upgrades they’ll charge for — and what folks are willing to pay. Subscription fatigue is real; the last thing anybody needs is another recurring charge....
Rivian vans are no longer an Amazon exclusive. The automaker said on Tuesday that it will now let other companies buy its commercial electric vans, ending an exclusivity deal that Amazon secured when it pumped more than a billion dollars into Rivian in 2019. Both companies’ stock prices rose...
Arrival set out eight years ago to make electric vehicle production “radically more efficient.” So far, its plan to forgo the gigafactory for local microfactories has proved anything but. Arrival trumpeted how its automated microfactories would simultaneously churn out electric vans for UPS, cars for Uber drivers and buses...
LA mayor wants the city, not a state agency to regulate commercial AVs operations. Mayor Karen Bass says Los Angeles — not a state agency — should have the power to decide how robotaxi companies expand in the city. On the same day Waymo expanded its operations in the city,...
Subaru wants in on Tesla’s Superchargers. On Wednesday, the Japanese automaker said its electric vehicles will adopt Tesla’s charging port starting in 2025. The move ensures Subaru’s future vehicles will have access to Tesla’s network of “50,000+” chargers. Toyota and Lexus also embraced Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) a...
Ford is buying and burying Auto Motive Power, or “AMP” for short. The secretive energy management startup once claimed to power “most of the world’s top electric OEMs,” though as far as we can tell it never disclosed its customers publicly. Following the deal, Los Angeles-based AMP will cease to...
Two of the biggest groups to oppose robotaxi expansion in California are now formally working together. Teamsters 856, which is tied to one of the longest-standing labor unions in the U.S., and Rideshare Drivers United (RDU), a group that advocates for app-based workers, said on Friday they’ll work together...
Less than a month after Waymo’s Los Angeles County expansion, labor organizers and an LA lawmaker are calling for new autonomous-vehicle regulations. On Tuesday, the office of LA Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez said he will introduce a motion “urging officials in the state to address public safety concerns around autonomous...
Circu Li-ion cofounder and CEO Antoine Welter says his startup’s upcycling machine can diagnose batteries in seconds. “We know exactly which cell can be reused and which one can’t,” he told TechCrunch on Monday. Circu Li-ion is in the business of saving usable battery cells from shredders. The German...
Another day, another convert: Toyota and Lexus electric vehicles will adopt Tesla’s chargers starting in 2025, Toyota said this week.   The top automaker by global sales, Toyota is the latest to back the North American Charging Standard (NACS), following Hyundai, Kia, Honda, Nissan, Mercedes, GM and Ford, among others....