EV owners were sent hefty PCNs but say some signs in private car parks fail to warn of fees to park and recharge car

Does refuelling your car class as parking? The answer appears to be yes if it’s an electric vehicle. Guardian Money has been contacted by several readers who were fined after charging their cars away from home.

The motorists report being caught out by signs that fail to make clear that charging points are subject to parking tariffs or to store opening times. Also, they have found some chargers being advertised as available for use when it would be a breach of the car park’s terms and conditions to use them.

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© Photograph: Nigel A Messenger/Alamy

© Photograph: Nigel A Messenger/Alamy

© Photograph: Nigel A Messenger/Alamy

Waymo has activated fully driverless operations in Las Vegas, its riders will now see vehicles with no human at the wheel, and the Alphabet unit says Denver, San Diego, and Tampa are next in line.

The move adds four new markets to Waymo’s driverless footprint and pushes the company deeper into its target of 1 million paid rides per week by the end of 2026.

Zoox, the autonomous vehicle company owned by Amazon, unveiled a new look for its boxy, bidirectional robotaxi, calling it the "next evolution" of the vehicle intended for mass production. The company is currently operating a free robotaxi service in San Francisco, Las Vegas, Austin, and Miami while it waits for the federal government to approve its request for an exemption from safety rules that require production vehicles to have traditional controls, like steering wheels and pedals.

While other robotaxi operators have typically relied on vehicles with familiar nameplates for their fleets, Zoox is unique in its embrace of a purpose-built …

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After a slower start than its major rivals, Toyota has been making up for it with a flurry of new electric vehicles for the North American market. Its first attempt, the bZ4x, was an also-ran, but a new battery pack, more efficient motors, and a NACS charging port transformed the face-lifted bZ into an EV I happily recommend. Then, earlier this year, it followed up with some bZ-related variants. For those who miss the vibe of a station wagon, there is the bZ Woodland, and an all-electric Highlander is nearing the showroom, too. But today's focus is the C-HR, and I'm still not entirely sure what to make of it.

It's the smallest of the bunch, some 6.7 inches (170 mm) shorter than the bZ. But it's still as wide and only a little more than an inch shorter. So if you're put off by the bZ's size and are looking for something diminutive—and based on reader feedback, there are many of you out there—this small SUV will probably still fail to pass muster.

It's not any cheaper than the bZ until you consider that the C-HR is only available with one choice of powertrain: a twin-motor AWD setup with a combined 338 hp (252 kW) powered by a 74.7 kWh battery pack. That same arrangement, with a 223 hp (167 kW), 198 lb-ft (268 Nm) front motor and 118 hp (88 kW), 125 lb-ft (169 Nm) rear unit, costs almost $3,000 more in a bZ than the $37,000 starting price of the C-HR.

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A Fatal Crash and a Disputed Cause A Tesla tore through the brick front of a home in

An elderly Texas woman tragically died Friday after a man who told police he was relying on his Tesla Model 3’s automated driver-assistance mode lost control and crashed his car into her family’s home.

In a statement, the Harris County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to Ars that Michael Butler said that “he was operating with an automated driving-assistance system engaged at the time of the crash.” Police are currently investigating whether the autopilot feature in any way caused the crash but confirmed that Butler was not intoxicated and is cooperating, partly by helping cops understand how Tesla’s Autopilot feature works.

“Butler failed to drive in a single lane, left the roadway, and struck the residence” at a “high rate of speed,” the sheriff’s office said.

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© via The Office of Constable Terry Allbritton on Facebook

Just three months ago, Lucid Motors showed off a new midsize electric vehicle platform that it said would give rise to a number of new vehicles in the coming years. The Saudi-backed startup is now selling its Gravity SUV alongside the ever-improved Air sedan and plans to reach profitability with smaller and cheaper models sold in higher volumes. But things are far from rosy at Lucid; today, the automaker is laying off approximately 1,500 workers—18 percent of its workforce.

These aren't the first layoffs of the year, either; In February, Lucid let go of 12 percent of its workforce.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Lucid wrote that the layoffs were "designed to advance the Company’s path toward profitability and positive cash flow generation by streamlining its organizational structure, optimizing operating expenses, and aligning production plans with anticipated demand."

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Apart from effort to electrify, there were geopolitical tensions around climate science and the 1.5C goal at pre-Cop31 climate talks

Electrifying the world – with electric vehicles, electric heating and cooling, and modernised heavy industry – could be the next biggest step towards phasing out fossil fuels, replacing the 80% of global energy that still comes from hydrocarbons. As using electrical energy is much more efficient than combustion, the move would save billions of dollars for consumers and businesses – global energy demand could be halved, according to one estimate.

For decades, electrification has been a nerdish backwater of global climate action. But in the last two weeks, at preparatory talks in Bonn before the forthcoming UN Cop31 climate summit, the subject finally took centre stage.

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© Photograph: Filip Singer/EPA

© Photograph: Filip Singer/EPA

© Photograph: Filip Singer/EPA

Robotaxis Recalled From Highways Waymo has recalled nearly 4,000 robotaxis and pulled them off highways while it works

One of the most hotly anticipated electric vehicles makes its formal debut next week. It's the Blank Slate, a refreshingly simple pickup truck EV designed by Slate Auto, which is trying to take some of the soaring cost out of a new car with a back-to-basics approach that means even electric windows are an optional extra. Of course, a crucial aspect of this pared-back approach is pricing.

Plenty of people are attracted to the idea of a truck with a compact footprint, no infotainment system or embedded modem, and the option to upconvert it later into an SUV or fastback. In the abstract, at least, people aren't going to jump at the prospect of a truck with 150 miles (241 km) of range if it costs too much.

When Slate broke cover in 2025, it was targeting a price of around $20,000, assuming the $7,500 IRS clean vehicle tax credit would remain in effect, but it was abolished later that year.

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Has the allure of the Porsche Taycan waned? The four-door electric sedan that thinks it's a GT sold well for the first few years after its introduction in 2020, but sales began to slip even before the brand added the smaller, more affordable Macan SUV to its electric lineup. The EV underwent its midlife refresh a couple of years ago, but it seems Stuttgart wasn't done yet; Porsche has some more tweaks for model year 2027, at least for the US market.

For one thing, the 105 kWh performance battery is standard across the Taycan range now—which starts at $111,900—and can charge at up to 320 kW with an 800 V DC fast charger.

And as long as you're not ordering the stripped-out Turbo GT with the Weissach Pack, there's a new plug for that—the CCS1 port that usually lives on the passenger side has been replaced by a NACS port. So no adapter is needed to charge at any of those thousands of Tesla superchargers, but only a small percentage of them operate at sufficient voltage to charge near the Taycan's limit. But IONNA has native NACS chargers capable of 400 kW, and Porsche will provide a CCS1 adapter to use with Electrify America and other 800 V chargers.

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Against all odds, the Tesla Cybercab is in production. And while Elon Musk's company may not have a very coherent plan for the tiny, autonomous two-seater, it's still taking the necessary steps to certify the EV's legitimacy. As such, Tesla recently filed paperwork with the Environmental Protection Agency that reveal many of the Cybercab's specs, including its weight, battery size, and preliminary range estimates.

What these documents reveal is the lightest, most range efficient vehicle Tesla has ever produced - and quite possibly one of the most efficient EVs ever produced.

The EPA filings confirm the Cybercab runs on a single front-mou …

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The driving technology company Mobileye plans to launch a robotaxi service in an as-yet-unnamed US city in 2027, it said earlier today. The service will be vertically integrated, using Mobileye's Moovit mobility platform to interact with customers booking rides, coordinate drivers, and so on. The Israeli company, which was bought by Intel in 2017 before going public again in 2022, says it will start with around 100 robotaxis early next year.

"Mobileye has spent more than two decades building the technologies required for autonomous driving," said Amnon Shashua, founder and CEO of Mobileye. "Today we are taking the next step: combining those technologies with operational ownership to create a financially and geographically scalable robotaxi business designed from the ground up for global deployment."

The company first rose to prominence in the mid-2010s, when Tesla began using Mobileye's advanced driving assistance systems (ADAS) as part of Autopilot. That relationship lasted until 2016, when Mobileye dropped Tesla as a customer after being alarmed that a driver assistance system was being sold to end users as driverless technology. Since then, Mobileye has continued to work with other partners on ADAS and autonomous vehicles.

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Just in time for Le Mans, BMW is pulling the cover off its new M performance concept built on the Bavarian automaker's Neue Klasse next-generation architecture.

The concept is the debut of a new design language for BMW's M division, signaling a shift toward a more electrified future. The company says it is built on the guiding principle "Born on the racetrack. Made for the streets," bridging BMW's motorsports heritage with its next-generation EV technology.

Marketing bromides aside, the new concept is a two-door sedan with powerful proportions, precise lines, wide wheel arches, and a muscular shoulder section. It's also an introduction to …

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Uber One, meet Waymo Premier.

The robotaxi operator announced a new $29.99-a-month premium tier for riders who want a more elevated and exclusive autonomous experience. The invite-only membership service is aimed at Waymo customers who use the service most frequently, offering them a number of perks, including priority pickups, 10 percent cash back on every trip, early robotaxi access in new cities, and up to five free cancellations a month.

Waymo Premier will be initially offered to select riders in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix, the company said. The program will scale to new cities as Waymo continues to expand; the company h …

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Chinese EV colossus BYD has announced plans to speed up its conquest of the European auto market with the rollout of superfast Flash Chargers across the continent. BYD has already installed the first new chargers in Germany and the UK, and plans to roll out 3,000 across Europe by the end of next year.

At an estimated cost of €580,000 (about $670,000) per charger according to the Financial Times, that would mean a total spend of roughly $2 billion to install the network. The 1,500kW charging stations are significantly more powerful than Tesla's 500kW V4 Superchargers, though Tesla already has 20,000 chargers installed in Europe. BYD, which h …

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Waymo has a lot of experience building virtual systems to help its autonomous vehicles better understand the real world. It built realistic 3D worlds to better anticipate natural disasters and unpredictable edge cases. It created a virtual representation of a hyperattentive driver to test against its own autonomous vehicles in a series of simulated scenarios to see which is better at crash avoidance.

Now, in a new research paper published today in Nature Communications, Waymo describes a new computer-based cognitive model that explains how human drivers make split-second decisions to avoid crashes. The company thinks the new model will serv …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Third of world’s energy needs should come from electricity by 2035, says Murat Kurum, as priorities set out for this year’s UN climate summit

The world should aim to meet a third of its energy needs from electricity within a decade to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the host of the next UN climate summit has said.

While about a third of global electricity generation already comes from renewable sources, other energy-intensive sectors – chiefly transport, heating and industries – have lagged behind. Close to four-fifths of final energy still comes from fossil fuels, as a result.

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© Photograph: Images By Tang Ming Tung/Getty Images

© Photograph: Images By Tang Ming Tung/Getty Images

© Photograph: Images By Tang Ming Tung/Getty Images

Thousands of electric vehicles in Waymo’s autonomous robotaxi fleet may eventually give up their used batteries for a very different purpose—contributing up to hundreds of megawatt-hours of stationary energy storage to local power grids.

That prospect comes from a “strategic supply agreement” announced by Waymo and B2U Storage Solutions on June 4. B2U has been repurposing thousands of used batteries from various electric vehicles by installing them in large stationary energy storage projects. Such energy storage facilities can capture excess renewable energy during low demand periods and release such energy when local power grids are experiencing peak demand periods.

“Our business is getting the full residual value out of electric vehicle batteries after they're no longer suitable for automotive use,” Freeman Hall, CEO of B2U Storage Solution, told Ars. “Waymo puts a lot of miles on EVs and their model is expanding rapidly, and so we're just very pleased and honored to be able to work with them.”

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Aviation start-ups and the Trump administration want to replace helicopters with electric aircraft, but the new vehicles still have to pass arduous tests before the public can use them.