Tech companies are ready for self-driving cars, but the world may not be
By Seth Fiegerman. Which scares you more: Human error, or faceless robots? You’ll eventually have to pick a side. Eliminating error-prone human agency from the control of two-ton vehicles is the obsession of Google, Tesla and the world’s biggest automakers. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has even gone so far as to suggest human drivers may […]
Tesla vehicle deliveries rise 55% in the first quarter
By Myles Udland. Tesla’s holiday news dump is out. On Friday morning, Tesla announced that in the first quarter of the year, vehicle deliveries rose 55% to 10,030, a new record for the company. Tesla had forecast that it would sell 9,500 vehicles in the quarter. In a release, Tesla said: Tesla Motors (NASDAQ: TSLA) […]
New cars all electric by 2030 – professor
By Brian Fallow. Fossil-fuel vehicles to go the way of the horse and cart as costs come down. What people want from transport is to get from A to B as quickly, safely and cheaply as possible. For city-dwellers at least – and that is most of us these days – meeting that demand […]
Victoria Carter: City needs to think outside the square
By Victoria Carter. Auckland is desperately in need of some bold new ideas, and those ideas need the council’s support. How many good ideas has Auckland lost because of council’s lack of enthusiasm? How many good ideas drown in environments that are too bureaucratic or process bound? Auckland desperately needs ideas to be a more […]
Spark needed for electric vehicles, says Mighty River Power boss
By Brian Fallow. Mighty River Power chief discusses plan to convert 70% of firm’s vehicles to all-electric or hybrids. Fleets, public and private, are the key to the uptake of electric vehicles in this country, Mighty River Power chief executive Fraser Whineray says. An evangelical fan of the technology, Whineray says New Zealand is one […]
Plug-in Porsche Cayenne electrifies
By Dave Moore. The concept of a hybrid Porsche is well established now, even on the racetrack where prototype race cars and the marque’s 918 coupes and convertibles demonstrate how useful electric power is in terms of adding to performance, as well as saving the planet. In time, Porsche will add petrol-electric plug-in versions of […]
Electric-vehicle revolution is coming: charged by Aussie technology
By Sophie Vorrath. ‘It’s time to join the revolution.’ That was the message delivered by leading investment bank UBS in a note to clients last August that predicted investment in electric vehicles (EVs) – plus rooftop solar, plus battery storage – would be as low as six-to-eight years by 2020, triggering a massive revolution in […]
Get out of the driver’s seat, human
By Chris Taylor. Here are two things we know about human beings: First, they are nowhere near as good at driving as they like to think. Second, they are very resistant to change, even when that change will prevent millions of deaths. How bad at driving are we? In the U.S. alone, we get into […]