DC fast charging is a type of EV charging that can add a lot of energy quickly. It’s especially useful for commercial vehicles and robotaxis that need to keep moving.
Volterra is a company that builds and runs EV fast-charging. Here, they’re teaming up with another charging company to provide charging mainly for commercial drivers and robotaxis, not regular public use.
Ravel is another EV-charging company. The hosts explain that it’s being merged into Volterra, so the combined business will operate under the Volterra name.
“Fleets” means many cars used for work by a company, like rideshare or delivery vehicles. Their charging needs are different because the cars are used constantly and need fast, reliable charging.
The Lucid Air Pure is an electric car. This episode says some of them may lose power while driving because of a problem in the car’s electrical system.
An inverter is a key electrical box in an EV that helps turn battery power into the right kind of power for the motor. If part of it gets damaged, the car can lose power.
The switching module is part of the EV’s inverter that controls how power is delivered to the motor. If it gets damaged, the car may not be able to keep running normally.
A non-refundable deposit is a payment you make to reserve something, and if you change your mind you usually can’t get that money back. They’re explaining how that differs from a refundable deposit.
The Rivian R2 is an electric SUV from Rivian. Here they’re mainly talking about when it starts being delivered and who gets it first based on early reservations.
EPA range refers to the estimated distance an EV can travel on a full charge under U.S. Environmental Protection Agency test procedures. It’s commonly used as a standardized way to compare EVs, and the host says the R2 matches Rivian’s EPA range information.
“EPA numbers” are official test results used to estimate things like range and efficiency. Real driving can be different because conditions aren’t the same as the test.
CarPlay lets you connect your iPhone to your car and use apps like maps and music on the car’s screen. It’s popular because it feels familiar and easy to use.
Android Auto connects your Android phone to your car so you can use maps, music, and other apps on the car screen. It’s useful because it keeps your phone apps in a familiar interface.
Concept
AI-defined cars
This phrase means cars that use AI to handle more of what you normally do through phone apps. The host is debating whether that would actually replace things like CarPlay and Android Auto.
Stellantis is a big car company. In this segment, they’re considering bringing Chinese electric cars to North America, which could change what brands and models you can buy.
Leapmotor is a Chinese electric-vehicle brand. The idea mentioned is that a different company could buy their cars and sell them under another brand name.
Solid-state batteries are a newer type of battery for electric cars. Instead of using a liquid inside the battery, they use a solid material, which could make the battery safer and potentially store more energy.
Semi-solid state batteries are a step between regular lithium-ion batteries and fully solid-state batteries. They use a thicker or gel-like material inside, but not the fully solid setup.
This is about who pays after a crash when the car is using its self-driving features. The host is describing BYD’s promise to cover costs, but only if you meet certain requirements (like using the right software version and mode).
Godseye is the name of BYD’s self-driving software. The idea here is that if you’re using that system and there’s an accident, BYD says it will help cover the cost under certain conditions.
Navigate on Autopilot is a driver-assist mode that helps the car drive along a planned route, especially on highways. Here, the host says BYD’s coverage only applies when you’re using that particular mode.
Liability means who is responsible for paying after a crash. In this story, the host says BYD would cover the costs if the accident happens while the car is in the supported driving-assist/autonomy mode.
An at-fault accident is when investigators/insurance decide someone caused the crash. The host is saying the coverage described would apply to that kind of crash scenario.
Premiums are what you pay regularly for insurance. The host is saying those other insurance costs shouldn’t go up just because you’re using the driving-assist mode.
“X9” here sounds like an electric vehicle model from a Chinese EV maker. The podcast is using it as an example of what other companies are doing in the EV market. It’s brought up to consider whether Tesla might react to similar ideas.
Level 4 means the car can do most or all of the driving by itself, but only in certain situations or areas. In those conditions, you don’t have to constantly watch and be ready to take over.
The “commercialization phase” is when a new technology moves from experiments into real customer use. For robotaxis, that means more cars operating and more places offering rides.
The “validation phase” is when a self-driving system is tested to make sure it works well and safely. It’s the step before the company tries to roll it out widely.
“Connected software vehicles” are cars that rely on internet-connected software features. The host is talking about U.S. rules that limit importing some Chinese cars with that kind of connectivity.
In this context, “Chinese connected software” means the car’s built-in internet-connected software. The host says Waymo removes it before shipping so the car can meet U.S. import requirements.
Mesa, Arizona is where the host says Waymo does the work to prepare the robotaxi cars. They add the needed software and extra equipment there before sending the cars out.
Place
LA
“LA” is short for Los Angeles, and the host says Waymo is sending robotaxi cars there too. It’s one of the early places the fleet is going.
The Tesla Semi is an all-electric truck designed for hauling cargo. The podcast mentions seeing one being transported, which shows it’s moving through real-world logistics. Semi trucks matter for EVs because they’re used for long-distance work and need dependable energy use.
Term
elevator style doors
These are doors designed to make getting in and out easier—like how some elevators open. That matters for a taxi/robotaxi where lots of different people will be riding in and out quickly.
Embedded Braille means the car includes raised letters you can feel with your fingers. It’s meant to help people who are blind or have low vision use the vehicle’s information and controls.
A screen reader is a tool that reads what’s on the screen out loud. Putting one in the vehicle helps riders who can’t see the display still get the information they need.
A multi-camera setup gives an autonomous vehicle overlapping views around the car, which improves perception for lanes, traffic signs, and other road users. Here, the segment also ties camera resolution to better low-light sensitivity and dynamic range, which helps the system interpret scenes more reliably.
Dynamic range is how well a camera can handle scenes with both bright light and dark shadows. Better dynamic range means the car can still “see” details even when the sun is in the frame or lighting is uneven.
Lidar is a sensor that shoots laser beams out and measures how long they take to bounce back. That lets the car “see” the world in 3D, which helps it drive safely.
Radar is another sensor that uses radio waves to detect objects around the car. It’s good at sensing what’s moving nearby, and it still works better than cameras in bad weather.
Inclement weather just means bad weather—like snow or heavy rain. The point here is that the self-driving system is designed to keep working when visibility is worse.
The Hyundai Ioniq is a line of electric cars made by Hyundai. In this episode, it comes up because Waymo plans to use the Ioniq Five for future operations. That’s why it’s being discussed—because it’s expected to be used in large-scale driving.
A retractable solar shade is a sun-blocking panel that you can pull out and slide back in. It helps keep the cabin cooler by blocking some of the sun’s heat through the glass roof.
The Tesla Model Y is an electric SUV. This part is about an add-on shade that slides under the roof glass to block some of the heat when the sun is strong.
Radiant heat is the heat you feel from the sun shining on surfaces. The shade helps block that sun heat from getting into the car through the glass roof.
Wade mode is a setting that helps an EV handle shallow water crossings. It raises the truck and adjusts how the battery/vehicle behaves so you can drive through water more safely.
The Tesla Cybertruck is an all-electric pickup truck. It has features intended to help it handle tougher situations, including driving through shallow water. The podcast mentions an owner using a water-related mode and then attempting to cross.
The battery pack is the big battery inside the EV that powers the motor. The host says wade mode changes how the battery pack is handled when driving through water.
A warranty is the manufacturer’s coverage for repairs. The host is saying that if you do something the car isn’t approved for—like crossing water beyond the limits—then the warranty probably won’t pay.
A salvage title means the car was so badly damaged that an insurance company considered it a total loss. After that, it’s usually worth much less and harder to sell.
Resell value is how much you can sell the vehicle for later. The host is saying that after a salvage title, the resale price is usually very low.
Car
Tesla 14.3.3
“Tesla 14.3.3” is a particular update to Tesla’s driver-assist software. It changes how often the car reminds you to keep your eyes on the road, so it can feel less or more demanding depending on the version.
“Full self-driving” is Tesla’s advanced driver-assist system. Even when it’s doing a lot of the driving, the driver is still expected to watch and be ready to take over.
Here, “fraud” means the lawsuit claims Tesla allegedly made misleading promises about what the self-driving features would actually deliver. The plaintiffs say they bought the cars based on those claims.
This means the car’s physical equipment (sensors and computer) might not be capable of running the most advanced features. So even if software is advertised, the car may not be able to deliver the promised behavior.
Tesla can charge a one-time fee to unlock advanced driving software. Whether you actually get the promised capability can still depend on your car’s equipment and what’s approved where you live.
The Tesla Model 3 is an electric car. Here it matters because the speaker says someone bought a 2021 Model 3 and paid for Tesla’s full self-driving software, then sued when it didn’t match the promise.
In China, Tesla uses a different name for its driver-assist software. The idea is that the feature may be similar, but the label changes because of local rules.
Estonia is a country in Europe that, according to the episode, has approved Tesla’s supervised self-driving software. It’s part of the point that these features don’t launch everywhere at once.
Lithuania is one of the European countries mentioned as having approval for Tesla’s supervised self-driving software. It’s an example of how these features roll out gradually.
The Netherlands is mentioned as one of the places where Tesla’s supervised self-driving software is approved. The takeaway is that availability varies by country.
Robo-taxis are self-driving cars used like ride-hailing. Even when they’re mostly automated, there may still be a person watching or ready to take over, depending on where they operate.
“Self-driving rides” means the car is doing the driving for passengers. Sometimes there’s no one in the driver’s seat, but other times there’s a safety person watching in case the system needs help.
“Full unsupervised” usually means there’s no safety driver sitting in the car. The system is expected to handle the driving on its own, though it may still be limited to certain areas or conditions.
A safety monitor is a person who watches over the automated driving. They’re there in case the car needs help, so the ride isn’t truly fully driverless.
This is a central building that runs the fleet. It helps decide which car is sent where (dispatch) and keeps the cars cleaned and fixed so they’re ready to drive again.
Irving, Texas is the city where they’re setting up a dedicated operations site. The idea is to keep the self-driving cars organized—stored, cleaned, and serviced—rather than leaving them all over town.
This is a scale for how much the car can drive itself. “Level 4” means the car can do the driving tasks on its own in certain situations, and it doesn’t rely on you to save the day if something goes wrong.
It means all the driving actions the car has to do moment-by-moment. For level 4, the car handles those tasks itself, not just one small part of driving.
This is basically the car’s “allowed area and conditions.” Level 4 systems are designed to work only in certain places and situations, like specific roads or weather.
“L4 compliant” means the system is being treated as a Level 4 self-driving system. The key point here is that the host says the robo-taxi setup is considered Level 4, even if a regular driver-assist mode in a consumer Tesla is only Level 2.
Term
L2
“L2” refers to SAE Level 2 driving automation, where the car can assist with parts of driving but still expects a human to supervise and take over when needed. The host uses this to contrast consumer “full self driving supervised” with the claimed L4 robo-taxi operation.
Self-certify means the car maker does the testing itself and then says, “Yep, it meets the rules.” The worry is that it’s not checked by an independent group, so mistakes or bad behavior could slip through.
Connected cars are cars that can communicate over the internet. That can enable features like remote apps and software updates, and regulators may require proof that the car’s software and data handling are safe.
Geely is a Chinese company that owns part of Volvo. Because of that connection, U.S. regulators are paying attention to what software and data Volvo’s connected cars use.
The Department of Commerce is a U.S. government agency. In this story, it’s involved in the approval process that determines whether certain connected cars can be sold in the U.S.
The Chevrolet C10 is a pickup truck model name. In this podcast context, it’s being discussed as an electric vehicle called the “Leap Motor C10,” connected to someone’s ownership story. The main point is that it’s an EV that the guest bought and lives with.
LIVE
Hello everyone and welcome to Kilowatt, a podcast about electric vehicles, renewable
energy, autonomous driving and a much much more. My name is Bode and I am your host on today's
episode. We have a lot of news. So I mentioned last episode that I was going to take a little bit
of a break so that I could spend some time with my family. My kids are out of school now. We're
going to do some hiking, you know, fun stuff, just family stuff. And I wanted to have time where I
wasn't recording. I was just hanging out with them, unfortunately, because life, the way that life
works is I've only got one episode actually recorded out of the four. This would be the second one.
So I still need to record two more episodes over the next couple of days. So it's not going to be
exactly like all free time. But yeah, anyway, it will be a good time. And by allowing me to kind
of take a break, it really helps. So thank you very much. Starting to get a little burned out,
not going to lie. In terms of other things that I'm going to be doing on my break, I'm finally
getting around to responding to more emails. I think I only have maybe seven or eight more emails
to respond to. I responded to quite a few this morning in between putting this show together.
So if I don't respond to you within a couple of days and you're expecting a response back,
please let me know because I don't like leaving anybody unresponded to. If you take the time
to send me an email, I feel an obligation to take the time to reply back to you. That's kind of,
I just think that's good manners. So although I don't mind when other people don't respond to me
when I email them. So it's, you know, whatever. This is just how I feel. I feel an obligation to do it.
So if for some reason by, let's say next Monday, you have not received an email from me and you
were expecting one, just send me a note to remind me because I might have missed it. It's been a lot
of email inbox sorting the last couple of days. So I might have accidentally deleted something I
didn't mean to. One more little bit before we get into our news. If you could do me a favor,
why you're listening to this podcast is go to wherever you got your podcast or, you know,
wherever you listen to your podcast and rate and review this show. That would be really appreciated
just because one, it's probably a good idea for me to ask that more often than I do.
And two, let me read to you the, I have, let's see, 43 reviews. Here are just some of the
reviews that I've gotten so far. This was eight years ago and I've been doing this podcast for
almost 10 helpful review of the news. That was from Mason. So Mason, thank you very much.
This next one was from Alice and Sheridan three weeks ago. Tesla dominates the EV market,
so it's easy to overlook the plethora of options we have available to us. Bode keeps us informed,
which was very nice. And Allison goes on to say more. And then we have a very nice, great job,
always insightful. That's very nice. And then this one, this next one came three years ago.
It just says unions one star, just the pro union podcast, which that is untrue. I am a pro union
podcast host, but I'm not a pro union podcast. I have said many times on this podcast that
as a proud member of a union, sometimes we cause more problems than we solve, not always, just
sometimes. Anyway, you got some great works, amazing show, a kilowatt works for me. And
here's one from eight years ago, stunned. What a dour and cynical show says something negative
and then says, what do I know? I actually had to turn it off. Just a constant, a phasic search
for negativity. Well, I mean, that might be true. And then the last one here guy literally reads a
headline and gives half informed opinions, which he admits to not being fully aware of the details.
First of all, he found he found the need to announce every single freaking sip of alcohol
he took, dude, podcast or drink, don't do both. Now I will agree with this. This was early on in
the podcasting and I was very nervous. So I used to enjoy a little bit of alcohol with the show.
That's also when I drank a lot more than I do now. So fair, fair criticism. Anyway, what I'm
trying to do with this is please go leave a review. It'd be great if it's funny. It doesn't have to
be four or five stars. It could be one star if that's really what's in your heart. But yeah,
rate and review the show. I need some cover for the pro union thing. Again, I am pro union.
This podcast is neutral. All right. Now having said all that, we have a really big show because
what I did was I had 180 some articles in my queue. I whittled those down to around 33. That
doesn't mean I have 33 different stories. I just have 33 different sources that I got information
from. And then I put those into the show notes. So just so you know, it's not as scary as it might
sound. But normally we do like, I don't know, six to eight stories. So it's going to be a little
bit of a bigger show today, just because I am going, we're not doing news for a while. So
I thought I might as well clear my inbox and catch up on it. And I'm happy to say
I have zero stories in my inbox. I did not push the button to retrieve more stories
before I started recording because otherwise I'd never finish. But as the time of this recording
and not hitting the refresh my feeds button, I have completely cleared out my inbox when it comes
to the news feeds that I follow. All right, let's go ahead and start off with our EV news.
Volterra and Ravel are partnering up to bring DC fast charging to fleets. And specifically,
it's going to be fleets, rideshare drivers and robo taxis. So this won't be available.
These DC fast chargers won't be available to the general public. This is a new venture that
will continue under the Volterra brand name. And Ravel will just kind of disappear into the
sunset. But the CEO of Ravel, whose name is Frank Reg, he will become the CEO of the new Volterra
company. So this is what he said about the merger. He said companies have spent years building,
said both companies have spent years building charging infrastructure for fleet operators
in dense cities and combining forces is a natural next step to scale faster in key markets.
The new Volterra will have around 1000 charging stalls in 11 different cities.
Now that's not nothing, you know, it pales in comparison to, you know, what electrify America
has and and what Tesla has, but they're very specific to rideshare drivers,
robo taxis and fleets. So I mean, we'll kind of keep an eye on it and see where it goes.
Lucid is recalling the Lucid air pure because it might lose power when you're driving it.
This affects 2000 through 2039 Lucid Pures built between September 2023 and December 2024.
And the issue has is because of a damaged inverter. I don't know why I said that so word inverter.
There's a switching module in the inverter that can become damaged due to the vibrations
created by the motor. And when that happens, it can cause the peer to lose power. So
Lucid is working on a recall for that. And I'm sure you'll be getting something in the mail
stating as such if you have one of those vehicles orders for the slate pickup truck
will open on June 24th. That's exciting. What's not exciting is they're taking a $300
non refundable deposit if you are wanting to preorder one of these trucks. Now you might be
saying to yourself, wait a minute, I put $50 down on this truck to preorder. Does that mean I'm not
going to get the money back? Because they said it was refundable. Well, in your situation,
the $50 that you put down to get in line is refundable. But then you'll if you want to actually
buy the truck, you'll have to put down a $250 non refundable down payment, I guess. What is it
called? Deposit. There we go. You have to put down a $250 deposit. And then you will be able to
buy the truck. Actually, the people who put down the $50 deposit first, the refundable one,
those are the people that are going to be first in line to actually get a slate pickup.
But June 24th is the day as of right now. Oh, for everybody else that didn't put down the
preorder, that's who the $300 non refundable deposit applies to. Now we don't have an official
price yet for the slate. We know it's going to be sub $30,000 or we assume it is because that's
what they said. We'll see what happens when they actually release the vehicle. But we're going to
find out the official price on June 24th, which is the day the preorder start. Speaking of deliveries,
Rivian is set to deliver the Rivian R2 on June 9th. And that is going to be those are going to be
like early reservation holders. If you didn't put in, you know, within the first hour, you're probably
not getting it on June 9th. But that's when they're going to start is on June 9th. And I honestly
cannot wait to start seeing these cars driving around. I'm super stoked about it. I think it's,
I don't know, there's a certain amount of stocking that I do, not not creepy stocking.
I mean, I guess all stocking could be considered creepy, but I like to look at these cars and kind
of, you know, pull up beside them, get behind them. Just overall try to get a good look at the car
without seeming creepy, which as I explained it, it sounds creepy. Not going to lie.
What's not creepy is based on Rivian's EPA range information or data filings. The R2 matches the
efficiency of the Model Y performance. Now I'm not going to go through all of the numbers because,
you know, those EPA numbers are, you know,
not necessarily real life. So as these cars come out and as people start testing them and
and we'll kind of get a good comparison from a couple of reliable sources, we'll see if that's
true. In other Rivian news, their chief of software, oh man, Wasim bin Said said that carplay
and Android Auto are obsolete because of AI-defined cars.
Now I'm going to be honest, I think it is totally fine for a company not to include
carplay or Android Auto when, you know, they're building a car. I think it's a mistake, but
I think it's completely fine. But I think a lot of car companies are underestimating is the
connection that people have with their smartphones and specifically the apps that they use on their
smartphone. It's just more of an intimate experience. So I think that carplay and
Android Auto certainly have their place. They're also not obsolete. You know,
I think that's an arrogant way of looking at it is how I should have probably said that in the beginning.
Let's see. Stellantis is considering building Chinese EVs in North America. Now they wouldn't
be building it under a Stellantis brand, which I actually said this, you know, a couple months
ago when we talked about this initially when Stellantis was going to use a factory in Canada to
build some of their North American brands and then they decided not to. I said I wouldn't be surprised
if they brought in something from Leap Motors and rebranded it as a Dodge or Jeep or Chrysler product.
Well, turns out they might be using their factory in Canada to build, you know, just Leap Motors
vehicles, which is interesting. Now none of this will happen in the United States.
And we probably won't see these cars in the U.S. unless somebody from there is
vacationing or maybe they bought it in Canada and drove down here. We'll kind of see how that goes.
I would imagine that at some point in time this will be something that the U.S. stops if that
happens or you have to get a special waiver and we'll talk about some of that stuff later
in the show. But yeah, sounds like Stellantis is going to start bringing over Chinese brands
to North America, not to the U.S., to North America, which means Mexico and Canada.
This is a big if, though. It does not mean that they are 100%. This is their plan. It's an if,
not a win. Couple BYD stories here. BYD is planning on bringing
all solid state batteries to the market in 2027. That is not to say that they are bringing, you
know, every new car that they build in 2027 will be solid state batteries. That is to say that it's
not a semi-solid state battery. It is a true solid state battery. And their goal, like I said,
is to have them in cars in 2027. I would imagine that's not going to be in a bunch of cars. It's
going to be in a few cars by 2027. But this is, you know, we seem to be getting closer. This is
something that other car companies are testing out. We have semi-solid state batteries and all
that stuff. So we'll keep an eye on it, see where it goes. BYD also announced that they're going to
take the responsibility if your car gets into an accident when it is operating in its self-driving
mode. So BYD's autonomous driving software package is called Godseye, which I have always
thought is a weird name for a lot of different reasons. One of which is that this thing could
potentially, like one of the reasons why we don't have Chinese connected, you know, cars here in the
US is because of spying reasons. And this is a car that could literally spy on you, which all,
it's not just BYD, any car with this technology could do that. I just think it's a weird, it's
just a weird name to have cameras and potentially microphones and a bunch of other stuff everywhere,
recording everything that you do. Anyway, if a driver is using Godseye and gets into an accident,
BYD will accept the liability and cover the cost of the accident. There are some stipulations.
So this is only available in China. You have to be using Godseye version 5.0,
you have to be using Navigate on Autopilot, although it does sound like there's some other
features. And I'm not super familiar with their software package, but it does seem like there's
some other features in which you're covered, but Navigate on Autopilot for sure. And then
you have to be in compliance with a bunch of different regulations. I'm sure if, you know,
you activate the Navigate on Autopilot feature and then you get in the back seat and you get in
an accident, BYD is probably not going to cover it in that situation. Godseye has Navigate on
Autopilot has to be activated at the time of the accident. And this is only for new car buyers,
kind of. So if you buy a car now, and it comes, you know, it comes with the
Godseye 5.0, then it sounds like you're good for life. If you've already owned a BYD vehicle and
you upgrade the software package to 5.0, then it sounds like you get an year covered for free.
I don't, it didn't say anything about having to pay after that. But if you buy a new car
and you get this automatically when it comes with the car, and then on top of that,
you don't have to pay for any extra insurance. So it's not like if you buy a Tesla and you go and
buy Tesla insurance, like you have your regular commercial insurance. And then that's for when
you're just driving around like, like an animal, like with your hands and your feet and your eyes.
But if you are using God's mode, Gar Godseye, of Virgin 5.0, and you're driving around and you
get in an accident, then that's when BYD takes that liability. And they will cover of any,
they'll cover all costs associated with an outfall, an at fault accident. So that includes
repairs, property damage, and personal injury. And then also, it doesn't, like, there's no
payout cap. So it's not like they'll cover up to $10,000 or anything like that, but there's no cap.
So that's cool. And it should not affect, if you're using Navigate on autopilot feature,
it should not affect the premiums for your other commercial insurance that you're actually paying
for. This sounds cool. You know, I don't think, I don't think this will be something that Tesla
does, but we'll see. It won't be, it won't be something that Tesla does. But I don't know
much about the laws in China, right? To say that I know nothing, I know next to nothing about the
different laws in China, but it does seem like it's cheaper to pay this out when you're, when
people are operating in your software package, your autonomy, your autonomous driving mode.
It seems cheaper just to pay people out in this way than it does to get sued afterwards.
You know, I guess they could still get sued. But if you look at, I don't know, a recent
a Tesla judgment, there was a fatal autopilot crash and the family of the victim, they were
awarded $243 million from Tesla. And I believe Tesla is fighting that. But $243 million is a lot
of money. And I asked Jim and I what, like based on the average cost of an accident,
how many accidents could that have covered? Now, keep in mind, there are lots of accidents
every single day, especially here in the US, but we are talking about accidents for a specific car
company in a specific, you know, country. So these numbers seem, in some cases seem low,
but if you, you know, just break it down to one company, I don't think they're as low as they
seem. So if we use $243 million in a fund, we could on average cover 8,678 accidents if you
combine all of the accidents, potential accidents that are out there. If you include property damage
and no injuries, then we could cover 42631 accidents. If we looked at accidents with
injuries only, that would be 9,000 accidents. Accidents with evident injuries, which I'm
going to guess is more serious injuries, 5,522 accidents with disabling injuries, it would
cover 1,455 and it would cover about 124 fatal accidents, just that $243 million.
So, you know, I don't know if these numbers are good or bad, but, you know, they're just
interesting to look at. And again, will Tesla follow suit? Probably not. I have been wrong before.
Let's move on to another Chinese EV maker, X-Pang, or X-Pong, I'm going to say X-Pang,
but I think it's X-Pong. Anyway, they started mass producing robotaxies in Guangzhou, China,
recently. This is going to be a in-house, completely developed in-house robotaxie with
level 4 autonomous driving capability, which is impressive, although I did note that it
still has a steering wheel, just in case you were wondering. In the early days, and by early days,
I mean like 8 and 10 years ago when people were still leaving negative comments on my,
or negative reviews on my podcast, on Apple podcast. Anyway, in the early days, X-Pang didn't have
maybe the best reputation. They were accused of stealing or copying Tesla in the, in how their
early models looked like their first two models. I believe it was their first two models looked
very similar to the Model S and Model X, not identical actually. It looked like a Timu Model
S and Model X. It was an okay looking car, but not to my taste. The Model S and Model X looked
so much nicer. But X-Pang, they made some smart hires. Some of those hires worked for Apple and
Tesla, and some of those employees were accused of stealing an intellectual property from those
companies and giving it to X-Pang. I don't know how those cases turned out off the top of my head,
so don't quote me on what happened there. But over time, their vehicles have taken on their own
unique look. They actually look quite nice. I saw a review of one the other day on YouTube. I can't
remember which one it was, but the interior looked great. The exterior was fantastic. So X-Pang has
really come into its own. But with all that controversy and those accusations behind them,
they seem to be kind of cruising along, making their own way. There's a song. Anyway,
I'm not going to sing the song. They are, in terms of the robotaxi stuff, they're moving from the
validation phase to the commercialization phase. So we'll see what later this year in 2027 brings
for the X-Pang robotaxis. Speaking of robotaxis, Waymo is introducing a new EV to the fleet.
It's made by Chinese EV maker Zeekr, which is owned by Zhili. So I see it being called the Waymo
Ohai, O-J-A-I, or O-J-O-I. Anyway, it doesn't matter. I see it being called the Waymo Ohai,
but in reality, it was built by Zeekr. It's O-J-A-I. And this is an interesting
import, let's say the least, because we already talked about recently that I believe that you
can't import connected software vehicles or Chinese connected software vehicles into the U.S.
How was Waymo able to get around the restrictions on Chinese EVs? Well, first it's heavily modified
by Waymo. Before it is shipped, the Ohai is stripped of its Chinese connected software,
so that helps sidestep the restrictions on the band. I imagine that the band, not band,
I would imagine that Waymo still has to pay the tariff on the car, which is at 100%.
But this is a car that's built for mass production. And then these cars go to the Waymo facility in
Mesa, Arizona, and then they're outfitted with all the software and whatever extra hardware they
wanted to put in there. And then they're shipped to San Francisco, LA, and Phoenix for now. Now,
we'll say I did see one of these driving around the other day. I think it was on Friday. And then
also I saw a semi truck carrying a bunch of these. And I actually got a video with my Tesla,
because I just happened to be driving behind it. But it's not a great video. It just shows the cars
and hardware three cameras, maybe not what they could be. And I was facing into the sun on top
of that. So I was going to post it, and then I decided not to. But these Ohai vehicles, they
have these elevator style doors. So they open in the middle and to the left and the right
to make it easy to get in and get out of. It's got a pretty large cabin. It's got one screen in
the front that you can't touch if you're sitting in the back and two screens in the back. And that
allows the riders in the back to adjust audio and different climate controls if needed. And then
this is really cool. There's an embedded screen reader for people who are vision impaired. And
then it also has embedded Braille. So that's neat. Let's see. It has some different compatibility
integrated into the seat handles. I'm guessing that's the Braille. Let's see. These vehicles are
going to use Waymo six generation autonomous driving technology, which features fewer sensors.
It'll have 13 cameras. Each camera is going to be 17 megapixels in size or resolution,
which gives it better resolution, better low light sensitivity, better dynamic range.
And then there's going to be four lidars and six radars. So this car is designed to handle
inclement weather like snow. So it's better handling that it's also cheaper. I think it's
like $120,000 or something like that cheaper than what the what it costs to outfit a Jaguar
eyepace. And yeah, I mean, again, I've seen this, I've seen one of these driving around and I happen
to be in the area where I'm pretty sure that Mesa warehouse is. So I just happened to be in that area.
I think they look cool. They're smaller than you would think, but they definitely feel
seen smaller than the eyepace. But depending on how it's configured on the inside, which I have
not gotten an opportunity to see, this might be a really good option for families trying to get
from point A to point B. You know, my kids are in camp right now. And while I can take them on my
days off, we're kind of stuck when my wife and I are both working. So having an opportunity to
use something like a Waymo to get them from point A to point B would be really helpful right now,
but they're not 14. You have to be 14 in order to do that. So now we just manage as best as we can.
But at some point in time, this will be a cool option to get them to different places where
they need to be. In addition to the old highs, Waymo is also planning on using Ioniq Fives in the
future. So we'll keep an eye on that and looking forward to Waymo expanding.
All right, let's move on to some renewable energy, which we haven't talked about recently.
Indebridge, which is a Canadian energy company, is investing $1.1 billion into the Sequoia Solar
Project, which is in Texas. And it's just, I can't remember, it's just outside of Dallas,
I believe for this one. I said just outside of Tesla because I'm an idiot, but I'm pretty sure
it's just outside of Dallas. There are two phases to this project. And when it's all finished,
it'll be capable of generating 815 megawatts, which is a lot. They recently turned on phase one,
which is currently generating 400 megawatts. And phase two will come on later this year and
give us another 415 megawatts. Now, this specific project is not for residential homes or anything
like that. It's going to go on to supply electricity to AT&T, Toyota, PepsiCo, and Donaldson Company,
which I thought was a weird mention. But I looked it up. Donaldson Company manufactures
like filtration systems and stuff for filtration systems. So cool. Now we know what that company
does. In related renewable energy news, Vesper Energy just closed $236 million in financing
to build a 201 megawatt solar project in Swisher County, Texas. Now, this is in the northern
part of the state, not by Dallas. If you're not from the US, Texas is an enormous state,
not as big as Alaska, where I'm from, they're number two. They're teeny tiny compared to where
I'm from, but they are the biggest state in the lower 48. So we'll give them their props there.
But anyway, this project is up closer to Amarillo. Amarillo is in a different county than Swisher
County, but it's in that same journal area. Anyway, the county has about 7,000 people in it,
and this solar project called the Nazareth Solar Project will cover around 2,400 acres
of private land, and it will supply power to about 53,000 homes. So that's pretty cool,
based on those numbers, 200-ish megawatts. If the Enbridge, the big old 815 megawatt system,
we're looking about 200,000 homes if they actually decided to power residential,
but they're not. They're going to power some industrial places,
which I think that's needed too. I'm not hating on it.
Okay, well that is our EV news. Now we have our Tesla news. If you want to email me,
you can do so. It's Bodie. No, I'm going to leave this in. I'm going to leave this in because I'm
so stupid. Well, that's our EV news. Let's get to our Tesla news. Before we do that, if you want to
support the show, you can go to supportkilowatt.com and sign up and support the show for as little
as a dollar. All the money goes back into the show. None of the money goes into my own pocket
for the Patreon. So it pays for things like Riverside, which is what I used for
recording my interviews. It pays for my Gmail workspace and all the other things that I need,
the Canva and all the other stuff that I pay for to keep the production of the show going.
So it's very helpful if you support the show. All right, moving into our Tesla news.
Lars Moravi, Moravi said on a podcast at the Ride the Lightning podcast,
if you're into Teslas and he does other things now too, he talks about other EVs. But if you're
into the electric vehicles, so check out Ryan at the Ride the Lightning podcast. But I don't know him,
but I wouldn't hesitate to recommend his show. I think it's good. Anyway, he said that Tesla,
Lars, said that Tesla thought about building a Model 3 plaid. And, you know,
doesn't mean that they're going to build a Model 3 plaid. And I do see that kind of being
presented out there on the internet. It just means that they thought about it. And it might be
a strategic mention to kind of gauge interest would people be interested in paying for
a Tri-Motor Model 3 plaid. Now, I wouldn't because I'm not going to spend that much money
on something like that when I could spend much, much less and you can get 80, maybe even 90% of
the same car. But there are other people who have different priorities. So we'll see where it goes.
I wouldn't be surprised if they did. Actually, I would be surprised if they did a Model 3 plaid
before they did a Model Y plaid. But that's just me. All right. By the way, I did not listen to that
episode. So go listen to it and let me know where I got what I got wrong.
Let's see. Tesla China released a retractable solar shade for the Model Y. So this is to cut
down the radiant heat through the glass. This is really cool. It fits just underneath the glass
roof inside the trim pieces. There are some things that you need to do to get it put in place. And
it also takes about, if you're going to do it yourself, it takes two people to get it in place.
But it's pretty cool because it will, the screen will retract. And then when it's hot outside,
you can close it and hopefully save yourself some of that radiant heat. Now in Arizona,
when it's really hot outside, I have not noticed my car needing this kind of thing. It would be
nice to have when you go into a store, be able to close it because why heat up the car extra?
But in general, the air conditioner works just fine. But I live in a dry heat. Maybe this is a
step. But anyway, I'm just something to think about. I do think it's a neat idea. It costs about
$220 US. It's only available in China. It looks like it's very well made. And if you don't want
to install it, you can pay Tesla to install it for an additional fee. But if this came to the US,
I think I would consider it. I don't know if I would actually buy it. I would have to see it in person.
All right, let's see. In 2021, Tesla started making efforts to build a factory in India.
At least there were rumors starting in 2021. It was actually probably earlier than that that they
actually started making efforts in this direction behind the scenes. But Tesla has given up on its
plans to manufacture cars in India. India has a lot of rules when it comes to manufacturing
products in their country. A certain amount of the parts need to be manufactured in the country.
Good, bad, or indifferent, Tesla decided to just walk away and pay whatever tariffs they needed to
get cars into that country. This next one is a little bit of a bummer.
A Cybertruck owner activated wade mode and then tried to cross Great Fine Lake in Texas. Now,
if you don't know what wade mode is, it pressurizes the battery pack and raises the height of the
truck so that you can wade across streams and things like that. Gene was on I think about a year
ago and he talked about his Cybertruck and he did some off-roading in it and he activated wade
mode. It takes a few minutes and it worked great. Well, Tesla says the max depth that you should
be wading through is 32 inches from the bottom of the tire. Obviously, if you are trying to cross
Great Fine Lake, which I think is just outside of Austin, anyway, if you're trying to cross that
in a Cybertruck, that's not going to work. If it does work great, if it doesn't work,
it's not going to be covered under warranty is what I should say. As they're trying to cross
the lake, somehow wade mode was disabled or somehow the Cybertruck was disabled and then it
started to take on water. All of the passengers and the driver abandoned ship and then they had
to get emergency services involved. The Cybertruck owner was actually arrested for the attempt,
which I was a little bit surprised at first, but there was no valid boat registration, no
safety equipment on board. I'm going to imagine some of that safety equipment you would need would
be like a fire extinguisher, life vests, that kind of thing. None of that was on board. He got
arrested and he was in jail for I believe a few days. Elon in the past has said that the Cybertruck
could cross rivers, lakes and seas. He actually said that you could possibly, I don't know why
I don't want to put the exact words in his mouth, but he talked about crossing the water between
Starbase and South Padre Island, which is, you know, I don't know how I wrote 360 miles,
that can't be right. And it can't be 360 kilometers either. So I don't know exactly what the distance
is, so don't poke me on it. But anyway, that does, that does, you knew somebody, when he said that,
you knew somebody was going to try. So even though Elon has said that the cable, the truck is capable
of something many times, because I've heard him say it more than once, crossing a lake actually
violates to what it says in Tesla's warranty. So, you know, it's always going to default back to
the warranty. It's going to be very difficult to get it to without suing the company to afford to
default back on to Elon or Tesla. So on top of everything else, the owners got arrested,
they now have to eat the repair for the truck, and it will likely have a salvage title when
it's all said and done, so there's no resell value. So I just want to make perfectly clear,
like I do not, I'm not making excuses for the person who drove this across the lake.
Like that was clearly a really dumb thing to do. I don't know if they were doing it for the lulls,
I don't know if they were trying to do it for a YouTube thing, I don't know if they were creating
content, or they just thought it would be fun to do after having a few beers. I don't know what the
motivation was, but it was reckless and it was irresponsible. So I'm not,
I'm not necessarily on the side of the driver, however, I certainly feel
bad for them, and take no joy in this, because this is a mistake, bad judgment that's
going to cost them tens of thousands of dollars, if not more, on top of somebody could have gotten
hurt or died. So I feel bad for them, but I don't feel like that absolves them of responsibility
for what they did. But yeah, when I think about if this was to happen to me or heaven forbid,
my kids decided to do something like this, how would I feel? I would feel devastation,
I just feel like a huge cut punch. So yeah, this sucks is what I'm saying.
All right, if everybody else is jumping off the bridge, that doesn't mean you should jump off the
bridge. Moving on, Tesla 14.3.3 is rolling out a new feature, which is reduced driver monitoring
requirements, which just means let's kind of nag you less to pay attention. I guess I was doing
it around 20 to 30 seconds in previous versions of the software, and now that it'll nag you about
every minute if you're not paying attention, so it gives you an extra 40 seconds to make a mistake.
If you're in Mad Max mode, it actually requires you to pay much closer attention, because it's
so much more aggressive in the way that it drives. So yeah, I don't know, you could argue that this
is a good sign that we're getting closer to unsupervised full self-driving or we're getting
closer to a catastrophic event or accident when somebody's using full self-driving. One of the two,
or both, 10 Tesla owners in China are suing Tesla over full self-driving, and they are claiming fraud.
So they are seeking $3.95 million, which is about $583,000 in damages,
so each plaintiff paid around $7,800 further full self-driving between 2019 and 2021.
They claim that Tesla staff in Elon Musk assured them that full self-driving was imminent,
and that it would work on their car. Well, it's obviously come clear that that's not going to
happen, but these promises were a big motivation for them to buy the car, and instead of getting
what they were promised, they're saying that Tesla concealed the hardware limitations in order to
sell vehicles. And in China, if your company is found guilty of fraud, the consumer gets a refund
for what they paid, which would be around $7,800, and then they get three times or triple damages
on top of that. Of course, Tesla is claiming no wrongdoing, so yeah, we'll keep an eye on it
and report back as we hear how it went. Now, in other Tesla China news, Tesla posted on May 20,
2026 that full self-driving supervised was approved in China. Now, it's weird because Tesla has
different names in China for full self-driving. At one point in time, it was like intelligent,
assist driving. It's not exactly called full self-driving for legal reasons,
but it's only available on hardware for vehicles, and at this point in time, you can still make the
one-time $9,400 purchase, American dollars. There is some confusion to some folks in China
about how this is being rolled out, and I was not able to fully nail down the confusion. There's
some sort of different stories, so until somebody writes a better article on that, and I'm not reading
Reddit posts about it, we'll just leave it at that. There's some confusion about that.
Now, back in the US, Ben Gauzer, Gauweiser, he bought a Model 3 in 2021, paid $10,000 for full
self-driving. It became clear that he was not going to get full unsupervised full self-driving
like he was promised, so he decided to sue Tesla and was awarded $10,672, which I'm guessing was the
cost of the full self-driving plus court costs, by the guests. Oh, that other name that I couldn't
remember for Tesla, self-driving in China, it's called Tesla Assisted Driving. So yeah,
there you go. It's now called the Tesla Assisted Driving instead of Intelligent Assisted Driving.
Let's see. FSD Supervised has been approved in another European Union country, which is Estonia.
I've always wanted to visit Estonia. It seems like a cool place, but if you're keeping track,
the official list where FSD Supervised is approved in the European Union or in Europe,
not necessarily in the European Union, but in Europe is the Netherlands, Lithuania, and Estonia.
So there we go for that. And then, you know what? I was working off the wrong document,
so I'm going to go back here and make sure I was actually working off the old document.
So I have other stories to tell, but I'm going to finish this out as if we're doing it normal and
then we'll go into the stories that I missed out on. Sorry about that. Let's see. All right.
So this will be our final organized story, and then I'll go through and pick up the stories that
I forgot about or didn't forget about, but I left out because I opened up the wrong document.
In May of 2025, Elon said that Tesla would have over a thousand
robo-taxis within a few months. Now, we're one year later. How many robo-taxis do we have in service?
Based on that, you know, if you are saying in May, we're going to have a thousand and a few
months, you would think that we have at least 2,000 now. Right now, we have, according to the Texas
Department of Motor Vehicles, Tesla is operating 42 cars offering self-driving rides, and Electric
is reporting that Tesla is only really operating 20 of those cars that are full unsupervised.
So I guess the other 22 have a safety monitor in them. Now, you might say, well, what about the Bay
area? Well, the Bay area at one time was operating 107 robo-taxis. They did, and they still have
a safety driver behind the wheel, but Electric is saying that 107 is now down to nine, which seems
like a very low number to me, but 107 also seems like a high number to me. So I would imagine
that that number is closer to somewhere in the middle, but Tesla is definitely still operating
with a driver in the seat, because they have not been approved for driverless cars inside of,
where is it? Inside of San Francisco or the Bay area. Now, as they build up their fleet, because
Tesla is going to need a location that can kind of manage the fleet, so they can get
maintenance done in a dispatch center, so the cars just aren't sitting anywhere and everywhere
littered amongst the city. So they're building a dedicated maintenance and dispatch center in
Irving, Texas, which is, there's a lot of Texas stories going on today in the show.
This center or facility will be 35,000 square feet. It will do storage service,
and it will have cleaning services. This is similar to the one we talked about in Las Vegas,
so I wouldn't be surprised to see these in more cities, for sure, that are operating
robo-taxis, Tesla robo-taxis. And here we go. Here is our final, final until I have to go back
and figure out which ones, what stories I left out. A new law in Texas will allow companies
with Society of Automotive Engineers, level four autonomy or higher. I'm reading that out, SAE,
level four or higher, because lots of car companies are using some sort of marketing speak,
like level two plus, that's not a thing. It's society of automotive engineers, L4, or higher
to offer commercial driverless transportation. So basically, if your car meets this SAE level
four driving, autonomous driving, then you can offer commercial robo-taxis. So the Society of
Automotive Engineers International defines level four autonomy as, and I'm reading this
as it's written, entire dynamic driving tasks. So the system does all of the steering, braking,
accelerating, lane changes, signaling, and monitoring of the driving environment. It'll also
have a dynamic driving task fallback. So if something goes wrong, a sensor fails,
or there's a road closure, the system itself must be able to handle the situation and achieve a
safe outcome. And it cannot depend on a human driver taking over. And then there's operational
design domain, which is a set of specific conditions under which the system is designed to
operate. So certain roads in certain cities under certain weather conditions or different speeds,
that kind of thing. So these companies in Texas need to be able to prove all of that stuff that
I just told you, plus I'm sure a bunch of other stuff, in order to operate level four robo-taxis.
Tesla has officially self, self, I'm going to highlight self, certified their FSD software
on the robo-taxi feet as L4 compliant. Now, if you are somebody driving around in a Tesla vehicle
and you have full self driving supervised, you're still technically L2. You have not
changed from L2 to L4. The robo-taxi fleet is L4 compliant. Here are the standards according
to the Texas law that companies need to meet in order to self-certify their vehicles.
First one, they need to operate in compliance with Texas traffic laws. They need to maintain
proper registration, title, and insurance. That seems like a low bar. They need to be
compliant with automated driving systems, or they need to use compliant automated driving
systems, and they need to record onboard activity and handle system failures and glitches safely.
I don't love that companies have the ability to self-certify. I would feel much more comfortable,
and I'm not just saying just Tesla, just like all of the companies. I would feel much more comfortable
if there was some sort of certifying board that ran the test and said, yep, it passes.
And the self-certifying, I don't feel great about. It's not to say that anybody's doing anything
wrong, but it does leave room for somebody to do something wrong. And I guess we'll just have to
play it by ear and see how that goes.
Okay, let's clean up my mistakes here and talk about some of the stories that I left out.
Wasn't very many. Starting off, Volvo. So remember when I told you when we talked about the Waymo
stuff where they had to have the Chinese connected software stripped out of their vehicle before
they can bring it into the US? Well, Volvo went another way. They got a waiver on their
software to be able to bring it into the US. So if you don't know, Volvo is partially owned by
Chinese company Geely, and Volvo had they got permission to sell their connected cars in the
US, starting with model year 2027. So I'm going to read Volvo's statement here. And I'm actually
going to read the second part of the statement because the first part of the statement is just
basically whereas and therefore is in here as is. So let's read the second part.
Under the rule, Volvo car USA will was required to follow a process with the Department of
Commerce to obtain a specific authorization for the continued import and sale of connected cars in
the US. The process is carried out by on a case by case basis. And the issuance of a specific
authorization follows constructive discussion with the US Department of Commerce and other US
officials regarding Volvo cars governance technology and data security. So basically,
they prove their case that they weren't going to be spying on anybody. And I tend to believe
that Volvo is probably not spying on anybody. If you're wondering if this affects the Polestar,
which is Polestar is partially owned by Volvo, it does not. Polestar is working on getting
similar approvals that Volvo just got. But as of right now, they don't have it. So does this mean
that other Chinese car companies can appeal to the US and get around this band? I know I keep
saying band. I guess it does. But it doesn't mean that US will grant them approval. And they're
still 100% tariffs on Chinese vehicle imports. So I'm not sure that's going to be a wise use of
your time. All right. Okay, so that was the one for EVs. Let's go back down to the Tesla stories
here. Oh, European sales. So we talked a lot in the beginning of the year about European sales
of Teslas being down in 2025. In 2026, Tesla registrations in all of Europe, which includes
non-European Union countries, was up 46.5% year over year in April. And if we just look at EU
countries, the Tesla sales or registrations were up 67% year over year. So this pretty decent
growth that marks the third consecutive month of growth in Europe for Tesla. So I'm just going to
look at the year. We're looking at registrations that are up 655% in France. They are up 29% in
Norway. Norway has pretty decent saturation of EVs and Tesla is the leader in Norway anyway.
71% in Sweden, up 136% in Denmark, up 113% in Spain, up 350% in Portugal. So listen, these are great
numbers in terms of signaling the rebound for Tesla and Europe. And the percentages sound
impressive. And technically they are. However, we're not like all total with all of all of the
numbers that we talked about being up 600% and 350% and all that stuff. They still only sold around
15,000 cars in April. That's not nothing like that. I'm not I'm not taking away from that,
but it's not hundreds of thousands of cars. It's 15,000 like Sweden sold 858 in May.
And France, you know, they sold 5,446 and then the rest of those countries fell in between that.
And honestly, most of them were closer to what Sweden are registered in May of 2026.
Then they were closer to what France registered in 2026.
So yeah, just keeping that in the back of your head here.
I just want to go over this a little bit more to make sure I didn't miss anything. We talked about
Estonia, talked about Tesla's new service center or Robo Taxi Center.
Yeah, I mean, that's it. So overall, that was like 30 what I say 33 stories all together
are 33 different articles to make up today's episode. I do not know if this will actually go
if every single story will fit in the show notes for today's episode, we'll take a look. Well,
I'll I'll try or the show description. It might be too big. I this this is definitely going to test
simple casts system in terms of show notes. If you want to email me, you can do so. It's
I'm not on there very often. I'm more usually on LinkedIn, which I'm just Bodhi Grimm on LinkedIn.
That's B O D I E G R I M M. And yeah, I think that's it. Did I say you can email me Bodhi at
918digital.com? Anyway, it's been a long show. This was this it took me two days to write the
long days to write the show notes. And I don't know how many hours to record this. What time is
it right now? It's 428. I started recording at 130 and I had a meeting at two. And and then I
picked up recording again at three. So it's 430. So I've been here for a while. It doesn't seem
like that long. All right, everybody, I hope you enjoyed this episode. Next episode on Friday,
we're going to talk to David and I really think you're going to enjoy that episode. He's going
to tell us about his Leap Motor C 10. He purchased that he's living in New Zealand.
And yeah, I hope everybody has a great week and I will talk to you soon.
About this episode
Queue-clearing starts with listener reviews and a behind-the-scenes look at how the host whittles “180 some articles” down to “around 33” sources. EV news then moves through DC fast-charging partnerships, a Lucid Air Pure recall tied to inverter switching-module damage, and preorder/delivery updates for Slate and Rivian. The autonomy thread runs from Waymo’s sensor suite and import workarounds to Tesla’s FSD changes, robo-taxi supervision, and Texas L4 rules—plus BYD’s China-only liability coverage and solid-state battery timeline.
In this episode of Kilowatt, host Bodie clears out a massive news queue before heading into a well-deserved family break. We dive deep into Tesla’s self-certification of Level 4 autonomous vehicles in Texas, its dedicated new Robotaxi hub, and the real data behind its actual fleet size. Meanwhile, BYD announces a groundbreaking policy to accept full crash liability when its "God's Eye" driver-assist system is active, and Waymo officially begins testing its next-gen, purpose-built Ojai robotaxis in the US.
