“Tesla on Thursday plans to unveil a product that Elon Musk, the company’s chief executive, has said will add trillions of dollars to its stock market value and fuel its growth.

The product is a prototype of a self-driving taxi that Mr. Musk has been promising for years. And it will be shown at an invitation-only evening event at the Warner Bros. studio near Los Angeles. Mr. Musk has promised that the cab, which he calls the Robotaxi, will be able to ferry passengers to any destination without human intervention, a feat that other companies have achieved in just a few places, like Phoenix and San Francisco.”

From New York Times.

“When Hurricane Helene knocked out the power in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Friday, Dustin Baker, like many other people across the Southeast, turned to a backup power source. His just happened to be an electric pickup truck. Over the weekend, Baker ran extension cords from the back of his Ford F-150 Lightning, using the truck’s battery to keep his refrigerator and freezer running. It worked so well that Baker became an energy Good Samaritan. ‘I ran another extension cord to my neighbor so they could run two refrigerators they have,’ he told me.

Americans in hurricane territory have long kept diesel-powered generators as a way of life, but electric cars are a leap forward. An EV, at its most fundamental level, is just a big battery on wheels that can be used to power anything, not only the car itself. Some EVs pack enough juice to power a whole home for several days, or a few appliances for even longer. In the aftermath of Helene, as millions of Americans were left without power, many EV owners did just that. A vet clinic that had lost power used an electric F-150 to keep its medicines cold and continue seeing patients during the blackout. One Tesla Cybertruck owner used his car to power his home after his entire neighborhood lost power.”

From The Atlantic.

“Uber Technologies Inc. is partnering with Chinese autonomous car company WeRide Inc. to expand its robotaxi offering to the United Arab Emirates.

Users of the Uber app in Abu Dhabi will be able to book a ride in a robotaxi from later this year, the companies said in a statement on Wednesday.

Uber has signed a string of deals with driverless car companies including Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo and Cruise LLC as part of an effort to position itself as a platform for commercializing autonomous vehicles.”

From Bloomberg.

“On a sunny morning in December, an 18-wheeler will pull into a truck depot in Palmer, Texas, just south of Dallas. The driver will step out of the cab and help transfer his trailer to a second rig outfitted with powerful sensors.

This second truck will head south on Interstate 45 toward Houston. It will move cautiously, mostly cruising in the right lane at 65 mph despite the 75 mph speed limit…

Trucks travel the 200 miles between Dallas and Houston all the time. But there will be something special about the middle leg of this trip: There will be no one in the vehicle.

A startup called Aurora has spent seven years—and hundreds of millions of dollars—preparing for this driverless trip, which it hopes to complete before the end of the year.”

From Ars Technica.