Volkswagen is looking to beef up its battery business and localize cell production for its electric vehicles. It has taken another step toward that goal by announcing subsidiary PowerCo's first North American battery cell factory, which it will build in Canada.

The automaker's first cell manufacturing gigafactory outside of Europe will build sustainable unified cells and it will be located in St. Thomas, Ontario. VW said in a statement that Canada was an ideal location due to the supply of raw materials from local sources and "wide access to clean electricity." More details about the gigafactory will be revealed later, but VW plans for production to start in 2027. Last year, VW said it planned to build six PowerCo factories in Europe, starting in Salzgitter, Germany and Valencia, Spain.

The news comes just a week after VW confirmed plans for a factory in South Carolina, where it will build electric pickups and SUVs under its new Scout brand. VW expects to manufacture more than 200,000 EVs at the plant every year as part of its strategy to have a stronger foothold in North America. Production is slated to start by the end of 2026.

An hour north of Marseille sits Château La Coste, a winery, hotel and art gallery nestled in the heart of a beautiful Provincial valley. In its grounds is a Renzo Piano-designed steel and glass oubliette, buried in a knife wound carved out of the undulating vineyards. It’s here that Lexus has gathered the world’s press to show off its latest vision for the future of driving. Lexus believes the new RZ 450e is a new dawn for electric vehicles, but also for the way that we control them. That’s because several of the prototypes on show utilize the company’s long in development steer-by-wire system that threatens to upend more than a century of technology.

The RZ 450e is Lexus’ first battery electric vehicle, so long as you forget about all of the other ones it's sold over the years. Unlike its predecessors, this is the first to be conceived as an EV from the get-go, rather than as a variation of a model built to accommodate an engine. It sits atop Toyota’s E-TNGA platform, the same underpinning both the bZ4X and Subaru’s Solterra. As much as the platform is common, however, Lexus was keen to point out that this is not just a rebadged bZ4X, and is very much its own vehicle. Whereas that car was designed to be more friendly when going off-road, this car is built exclusively for town-and-city living.

Given both are midsize crossover SUVs built on the same platform, there are many similarities between the two. But Lexus’ design language makes the RZ look less bland than its cheaper sibling, with sharper side lines and a more aggressive nose. Unlike the Toyota, the Lexus is only available in a four-wheel-drive, dual-motor system that outputs a combined 230kW power (150kW from the front, 80kW back). But that translates into a quoted brake horsepower of 309, so it won’t be as quick as some of its would-be rivals in raw speed. The company would probably point out, however, that its Direct4 system, which uses a variety of digital control units to monitor where force needs to be distributed to ensure the car remains planted on the road, potentially offers a far better sense of driving than its rivals.

There are other differences: The boot is larger, 522 liters in the main boot, plus an extra 58 liters under the false floor, compared to the bZ4X’s 452 liters. The interior options are nicer, and for more cash you can get Alcantara-esque trims and nicer metallic paint jobs. The interior plastics are all high quality, with all the surfaces you come into contact with feeling thicker and nicer than some vehicles I could mention. Which is to say that this is still a Lexus.

Unlike other EVs, Lexus will sell you just one battery size, with each RZ coming with a 71.4kWh battery, of which 64kWh is available to drive. Lexus says that rather than messing with different battery sizes, it’s worked instead to squeeze a lot of performance and efficiency out of this cell. You should expect to wring 245 miles from a charge with 20-inch wheels, and get closer to 265 miles if you opt instead for the 18-inchers. I have an urge to castigate the company for not even breaching the 300 mile range limit given that, to many, it might feel like a dealbreaker. That said, I’m not sure I could drive from my house to Liverpool (4 hours, 42 minutes, 254 miles) without stopping for a comfort break.

And despite its obvious weight and size, Lexus said that it has made the RZ 450e as efficient as it can be. It should be able to get between 3.4 and 3.7 miles per kWh, although another midsize SUV, Hyundai’s Kona Electric, has it beat in the on-paper efficiency stakes. There’s an 11kW charger on board that, Lexus promises, will harness enough DC fast charging to re-juice the 450e’s battery to 80 percent within half an hour. None of those figures are eye-grabbing on their own, but speak to a package that’s solid, uncontroversial and hopefully reliable on the longer term. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t hoping that, since Toyota and Lexus have lagged so far behind the rest of the industry, that its new generation of EVs would have performance figures to make it stand out against its high-priced competition.

Lexus is already taking orders for the 450e in select territories, but you can only pick it up with the standard electrically-assisted rack and pinion steering system. At the launch I attended, Lexus also equipped some of the trial vehicles with its One Motion Grip (OMG) steer-by-wire system which will be available as an additional option at some point in 2025. OMG removes the mechanical link between steering wheel and wheels, replacing it with a torque actuator on the driver’s end, which is connected by wire to a control actuator on the axles. Rather than turning the wheel directly, you’re issuing instructions which are transmitted to the wheels for it to carry out. A bit like when you play any video game, come to think of it.

Lexus pre-programmed our test vehicles with routes designed to take advantage of Provence’s twisty, scenery-filled roads. But it was on one mercifully straight highway that I wondered how much of this system will be the last straw for purists craving connection to the road. Even with so many aids added to steering systems as they presently exist, there’s still a physical sense that you turn a wheel, and the vehicle obeys. This ever-so-slightly feels like the beginning of the end for mechanical steering, the drawing of a veil over the last century plus of driving.

Daniel Cooper

With any new technology, there is the inevitable culture shock as you get to grips with the change. Spending a few hours with it does not constitute enough time for endorsement or indictment, but I do have some initial thoughts. Driving with One Motion Grip is a lot more alive and active than you may expect from a stately SUV, especially one from Lexus. The system does demand your attention, and going around my first roundabout I needed to make lots of fine-tuned adjustments to my steering. I can see why the press who tested a very early version of this system a few years back described it as “twitchy.” It’s not the right word, but you get a sense that you need to recalibrate your sense of turning, which is hampered by the fact that the turning will change depending on the speed you’re traveling at.

It has taken the better part of twelve years for Lexus to develop this system, although it’s not the first to the idea. Infiniti, Nissan’s luxury car marque, launched the 2014 Q50 with Direct Adaptive Steering, albeit it remained a mechanical connection to the wheels as well. Lexus is going all in on wires, but to reassure wary would-be purchasers about reliability, also added redundant actuators at both ends, as well as a back-up battery, to ensure steering never loses power. That means there’s no great weight saving (vital for BEVs) compared to “real” steering, but you still get all of the other potential benefits of switching to the technology.

With One Motion Grip, the 450e can offer the same level of dynamism for driving as seen in other parts of the car. The Direct4 system can already alter the torque put to each wheel to balance the ride, and you get a similar level of dynamic-alteration when driving. For instance, the system will adjust how much turn you get depending on the speed you’re driving at, with tricky car-park maneuvers more dramatic than switching lanes on a highway. And for that, we come to Lexus’ most eye-catching, controversial and interesting change, ditching the steering wheel for a yoke in a quest to end “hand-over-hand” driving.

Ditching the steering wheel also means that Lexus can reduce clutter and make it easier for drivers to see the instrument binnacle. This is a great idea in theory, but falls victim to the problem that more than a few Toyota and Lexus vehicles have suffered from over the last few years. I don’t know why, but many models (including the 2014 Mirai, 2015 Prius, 2012 and 2018 Corolla, amongst others) have their infotainment displays too low down in the center console. So when you want driving directions, you need to physically take your eyes off the road to look at the screen. At least in the bZ4X, the display is at the same height as the steering wheel, but here, the 14-inch infotainment display is buried below the air vents. Maybe it’s all a clever ploy to ensure everyone opts for a heads-up display, but it’s a persistent bugbear of mine.

Towards the end of my time with the setup, it got easier, and I suspect that it’ll only take a few days of regular use before it becomes second nature. It’s almost tragic that, for all of the effort, this technology will eventually pass unremarked into everyone’s daily driving habits. But I will admit that, when it came time for our last trip, driving the 450e back to the airport, me and my driving partner James both said we’d prefer driving the version with the wheel. But then, it’s always easier to run screaming back toward the comfort of the familiar when you’re pressured for time.

Lexus has been in the process of building electrified vehicles for the better part of two decades but it’s only now that it has launched its first clean-sheet EV. Toyota may have been the first to make a partially-electric vehicle work as a mass-market proposition, but it always had hydrogen as its north star of its strategy. It, in tandem with fuel companies and the Japanese government, opted to pursue hydrogen as the wonder-fuel of the future. Company officials frequently cited the cost and weight of batteries, and the speedy refueling times of hydrogen, as justification to avoid following the market. Inch-by-inch, sector-by-sector, the corporation has ceded more and more of the ground it initially cultivated to upstart rivals. The only evidence the company still clings to the hope of re-litigating the last decade of auto industry evolution was in a clearing across from the chateau’s polished concrete garage.

There, surrounded by metal barriers clad in Toyota-branded banners, was a hydrogen generator used to feed power into the facility necessary to charge so many cars all at once. But for my own pessimism, there remains hopeful shoots that Toyota’s fuel cells may finally find their place. The company recently announced a deal to sell hardware to Hyliko, a French trucking startup, to build the sort of heavy-duty equipment that hydrogen power is ideal for. Similarly, BMW has started showing off its iX5 Hydrogen, a prototype hydrogen EV that uses Toyota’s technology. But these are still little more than green shoots of hope that hydrogen hasn’t become a technological cul-de-sac the company has driven itself down into. Especially given the natural benefits of generation, transport and efficiency that electricity has always had over its rival.

As for the RZ 450e, it’s an EV that makes a better case for your head than perhaps it does your heart. Perhaps it’s because all EVs are a little more bloodless than their gas-powered rivals, and that the company has spent so long refining its offering. It’s powerful enough that you’ll feel a real kick when you put your foot to the floor, and the steering is a lot more active and direct than you would expect from a big, heavy, Lexus-branded SUV. But there’s also something sterile about the whole thing, the seriousness of the machine stripping out some of the fun. But that’s flimsy criticism of a grown-up vehicle that gets the fundamentals right, and should leave you with no doubts about the reliability of its hardware.

The Lexus RZ 450e is available to order in the UK for £62,000, with the most expensive Takumi variation costing £72,100. Deliveries for the vehicle are expected to begin at the end of May.

An hour north of Marseille sits Château La Coste, a winery, hotel and art gallery nestled in the heart of a beautiful Provincial valley. In its grounds is a Renzo Piano-designed steel and glass oubliette, buried in a knife wound carved out of the undulating vineyards. It’s here that Lexus has gathered the world’s press to show off its latest vision for the future of driving. Lexus believes the new RZ 450e is a new dawn for electric vehicles, but also for the way that we control them. That’s because several of the prototypes on show utilize the company’s long in development steer-by-wire system that threatens to upend more than a century of technology.

The RZ 450e is Lexus’ first battery electric vehicle, so long as you forget about all of the other ones it's sold over the years. Unlike its predecessors, this is the first to be conceived as an EV from the get-go, rather than as a variation of a model built to accommodate an engine. It sits atop Toyota’s E-TNGA platform, the same underpinning both the bZ4X and Subaru’s Solterra. As much as the platform is common, however, Lexus was keen to point out that this is not just a rebadged bZ4X, and is very much its own vehicle. Whereas that car was designed to be more friendly when going off-road, this car is built exclusively for town-and-city living.

Given both are midsize crossover SUVs built on the same platform, there are many similarities between the two. But Lexus’ design language makes the RZ look less bland than its cheaper sibling, with sharper side lines and a more aggressive nose. Unlike the Toyota, the Lexus is only available in a four-wheel-drive, dual-motor system that outputs a combined 230kW power (150kW from the front, 80kW back). But that translates into a quoted brake horsepower of 309, so it won’t be as quick as some of its would-be rivals in raw speed. The company would probably point out, however, that its Direct4 system, which uses a variety of digital control units to monitor where force needs to be distributed to ensure the car remains planted on the road, potentially offers a far better sense of driving than its rivals.

There are other differences: The boot is larger, 522 liters in the main boot, plus an extra 58 liters under the false floor, compared to the bZ4X’s 452 liters. The interior options are nicer, and for more cash you can get Alcantara-esque trims and nicer metallic paint jobs. The interior plastics are all high quality, with all the surfaces you come into contact with feeling thicker and nicer than some vehicles I could mention. Which is to say that this is still a Lexus.

Unlike other EVs, Lexus will sell you just one battery size, with each RZ coming with a 71.4kWh battery, of which 64kWh is available to drive. Lexus says that rather than messing with different battery sizes, it’s worked instead to squeeze a lot of performance and efficiency out of this cell. You should expect to wring 245 miles from a charge with 20-inch wheels, and get closer to 265 miles if you opt instead for the 18-inchers. I have an urge to castigate the company for not even breaching the 300 mile range limit given that, to many, it might feel like a dealbreaker. That said, I’m not sure I could drive from my house to Liverpool (4 hours, 42 minutes, 254 miles) without stopping for a comfort break.

And despite its obvious weight and size, Lexus said that it has made the RZ 450e as efficient as it can be. It should be able to get between 3.4 and 3.7 miles per kWh, although another midsize SUV, Hyundai’s Kona Electric, has it beat in the on-paper efficiency stakes. There’s an 11kW charger on board that, Lexus promises, will harness enough DC fast charging to re-juice the 450e’s battery to 80 percent within half an hour. None of those figures are eye-grabbing on their own, but speak to a package that’s solid, uncontroversial and hopefully reliable on the longer term. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t hoping that, since Toyota and Lexus have lagged so far behind the rest of the industry, that its new generation of EVs would have performance figures to make it stand out against its high-priced competition.

Lexus is already taking orders for the 450e in select territories, but you can only pick it up with the standard electrically-assisted rack and pinion steering system. At the launch I attended, Lexus also equipped some of the trial vehicles with its One Motion Grip (OMG) steer-by-wire system which will be available as an additional option at some point in 2025. OMG removes the mechanical link between steering wheel and wheels, replacing it with a torque actuator on the driver’s end, which is connected by wire to a control actuator on the axles. Rather than turning the wheel directly, you’re issuing instructions which are transmitted to the wheels for it to carry out. A bit like when you play any video game, come to think of it.

Lexus pre-programmed our test vehicles with routes designed to take advantage of Provence’s twisty, scenery-filled roads. But it was on one mercifully straight highway that I wondered how much of this system will be the last straw for purists craving connection to the road. Even with so many aids added to steering systems as they presently exist, there’s still a physical sense that you turn a wheel, and the vehicle obeys. This ever-so-slightly feels like the beginning of the end for mechanical steering, the drawing of a veil over the last century plus of driving.

Daniel Cooper

With any new technology, there is the inevitable culture shock as you get to grips with the change. Spending a few hours with it does not constitute enough time for endorsement or indictment, but I do have some initial thoughts. Driving with One Motion Grip is a lot more alive and active than you may expect from a stately SUV, especially one from Lexus. The system does demand your attention, and going around my first roundabout I needed to make lots of fine-tuned adjustments to my steering. I can see why the press who tested a very early version of this system a few years back described it as “twitchy.” It’s not the right word, but you get a sense that you need to recalibrate your sense of turning, which is hampered by the fact that the turning will change depending on the speed you’re traveling at.

It has taken the better part of twelve years for Lexus to develop this system, although it’s not the first to the idea. Infiniti, Nissan’s luxury car marque, launched the 2014 Q50 with Direct Adaptive Steering, albeit it remained a mechanical connection to the wheels as well. Lexus is going all in on wires, but to reassure wary would-be purchasers about reliability, also added redundant actuators at both ends, as well as a back-up battery, to ensure steering never loses power. That means there’s no great weight saving (vital for BEVs) compared to “real” steering, but you still get all of the other potential benefits of switching to the technology.

With One Motion Grip, the 450e can offer the same level of dynamism for driving as seen in other parts of the car. The Direct4 system can already alter the torque put to each wheel to balance the ride, and you get a similar level of dynamic-alteration when driving. For instance, the system will adjust how much turn you get depending on the speed you’re driving at, with tricky car-park maneuvers more dramatic than switching lanes on a highway. And for that, we come to Lexus’ most eye-catching, controversial and interesting change, ditching the steering wheel for a yoke in a quest to end “hand-over-hand” driving.

Ditching the steering wheel also means that Lexus can reduce clutter and make it easier for drivers to see the instrument binnacle. This is a great idea in theory, but falls victim to the problem that more than a few Toyota and Lexus vehicles have suffered from over the last few years. I don’t know why, but many models (including the 2014 Mirai, 2015 Prius, 2012 and 2018 Corolla, amongst others) have their infotainment displays too low down in the center console. So when you want driving directions, you need to physically take your eyes off the road to look at the screen. At least in the bZ4X, the display is at the same height as the steering wheel, but here, the 14-inch infotainment display is buried below the air vents. Maybe it’s all a clever ploy to ensure everyone opts for a heads-up display, but it’s a persistent bugbear of mine.

Towards the end of my time with the setup, it got easier, and I suspect that it’ll only take a few days of regular use before it becomes second nature. It’s almost tragic that, for all of the effort, this technology will eventually pass unremarked into everyone’s daily driving habits. But I will admit that, when it came time for our last trip, driving the 450e back to the airport, me and my driving partner James both said we’d prefer driving the version with the wheel. But then, it’s always easier to run screaming back toward the comfort of the familiar when you’re pressured for time.

Lexus has been in the process of building electrified vehicles for the better part of two decades but it’s only now that it has launched its first clean-sheet EV. Toyota may have been the first to make a partially-electric vehicle work as a mass-market proposition, but it always had hydrogen as its north star of its strategy. It, in tandem with fuel companies and the Japanese government, opted to pursue hydrogen as the wonder-fuel of the future. Company officials frequently cited the cost and weight of batteries, and the speedy refueling times of hydrogen, as justification to avoid following the market. Inch-by-inch, sector-by-sector, the corporation has ceded more and more of the ground it initially cultivated to upstart rivals. The only evidence the company still clings to the hope of re-litigating the last decade of auto industry evolution was in a clearing across from the chateau’s polished concrete garage.

There, surrounded by metal barriers clad in Toyota-branded banners, was a hydrogen generator used to feed power into the facility necessary to charge so many cars all at once. But for my own pessimism, there remains hopeful shoots that Toyota’s fuel cells may finally find their place. The company recently announced a deal to sell hardware to Hyliko, a French trucking startup, to build the sort of heavy-duty equipment that hydrogen power is ideal for. Similarly, BMW has started showing off its iX5 Hydrogen, a prototype hydrogen EV that uses Toyota’s technology. But these are still little more than green shoots of hope that hydrogen hasn’t become a technological cul-de-sac the company has driven itself down into. Especially given the natural benefits of generation, transport and efficiency that electricity has always had over its rival.

As for the RZ 450e, it’s an EV that makes a better case for your head than perhaps it does your heart. Perhaps it’s because all EVs are a little more bloodless than their gas-powered rivals, and that the company has spent so long refining its offering. It’s powerful enough that you’ll feel a real kick when you put your foot to the floor, and the steering is a lot more active and direct than you would expect from a big, heavy, Lexus-branded SUV. But there’s also something sterile about the whole thing, the seriousness of the machine stripping out some of the fun. But that’s flimsy criticism of a grown-up vehicle that gets the fundamentals right, and should leave you with no doubts about the reliability of its hardware.

The Lexus RZ 450e is available to order in the UK for £62,000, with the most expensive Takumi variation costing £72,100. Deliveries for the vehicle are expected to begin at the end of May.

General Motors is working on an in-car digital assistant based on the same machine learning models that power ChatGPT. News of the development was first reported earlier this week by Semafor, with GM later sharing confirmation with Reuters. “ChatGPT is going to be in everything,” GM Vice President Scott Miller told the outlet.

Among other things, the automaker envisions the digital assistant supporting drivers in situations where they may have turned to their vehicle’s owner’s manual in the past. For instance, the assistant could show you how to replace your car’s tire if it suffers a flat. It could also offer integration and scheduling features with other devices, including garage door openers.

"This shift is not just about one single capability like the evolution of voice commands, but instead means that customers can expect their future vehicles to be far more capable and fresh overall when it comes to emerging technologies," a GM spokesperson told Reuters.

According to Semafor, the digital assistant will operate differently from other chatbots like Bing Chat. GM is reportedly working on adding a “car-specific layer” on top of the large language models that power ChatGPT. The effort is part of a broader collaboration between the automaker and Microsoft. In 2019, the two partnered to work on autonomous vehicles. Microsoft is OpenAI’s sole cloud provider, meaning GM’s in-car assistant will almost certainly run on Azure. GM did not tell Semafor whether it has a name for the software yet, nor did it share a potential release date.

Audi is the latest automaker to dip into upscale e-bikes. The brand has introduced an electric mountain bike that takes design cues from its RS Q E-tron E2 electric Dakar Rally racer while promising high-end specs. Built by Italy's Fantic (Autoblognotes it's based on the XMF 1.7), it combines a 250W Brose motor (similar to that for Harley-Davidson's Serial 1 Bash/Mtn) with Fantic's 720Wh battery to deliver a sizeable 66ft/lb of torque.

While Audi isn't providing the top speed or range at this stage, the power pack is decidedly larger than the Bash/Mtn's 529Wh unit, which provides between 30 to 95 miles of range depending on conditions. Like other Brose-powered e-bikes, Audi's model has four levels of electric assistance ranging from a mild Eco through to the all-out Boost mode.

The aluminum frame design uses decidedly different parts than the Porsche eBike lineup beyond the motor and battery. You can expect Braking IN.CA.S disc brakes, an Öhlins fork and shock, and Sram components for the chain, shifters and derailleur. You'll also find Italian touches like the Vittoria tires and Sella Italia saddle. The Öhlins gear offers 7.1in of suspension travel versus the XMF 1.7's 6.7in.

The Audi electric mountain bike comes in three sizes, but you'll need to act quickly and carry a large bank balance. The bike is only available as a "limited run" model priced at £8,499 (about $10,200) in the UK. That puts it roughly on par with Porsche's $10,700 eBike Sport, and it's priced well above the $3,999 Bash/Mtn, the GMC Hummer e-bike (also $3,999) and the more powerful $5,499 Jeep e-bike. You're paying for the big battery, the other well-known parts and Audi's design. If you can afford one of Audi's higher-end EVs, though, its two-wheeler is likely within reach.

Pilots have to worry about more than just mid-flight crashes and bad weather — they also risk a collision if they land on the taxiway instead of the runway. Thankfully, they have now have a digital safeguard. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) tellsAxios that 43 major US airports are now using ASDE-X Taxiway Arrival Prediction (ATAP), a software platform that warns air traffic controllers if an aircraft is lining up to land on a taxiway by mistake. An aviator shouldn't endanger lives on the ground simply because they're inexperienced or fatigued.

The system relies on standard radar along with other sensors. It also works regardless of aircraft size — it can flag small turboprops and large airliners. ATAP first saw use at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in 2018, and the FAA says it finished software upgrades at compatible airports last September. Some of the airports using the tech include Boston Logan, Chicago O'Hare and New York's JFK.

This is more than just a theoretical exercise. The FAA notes ATAP has caught over 50 potential taxiway landings since 2018, and there have been eight alerts so far in 2023. While accidental landings are far less common than crashes (and thus far less deadly), the software may still be helpful even if it prevents chaos from an aircraft disrupting the queue.

ATAP's rise comes as aircraft and airports increasingly rely on digital safety systems. Airbus, for instance, recently began testing a pilot assist that can automatically divert flights in emergencies, aid with taxiing and even land if the pilots are incapacitated. Full autonomy is still distant, but there may soon be many safeguards against everything from simple errors to an unconscious crew.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has opened an investigation into Tesla following reports of steering wheels falling off while on the road. The agency said it's aware of two reports of the wheel completely detaching from the steering column in the Model Y vehicles. It added that the vehicles were delivered to their owners without the retaining bolt that keeps the steering wheel attached.

In both cases, only friction was keeping the wheel in place until the force exerted on it "overcame the resistance of the friction fit while the vehicles were in motion," the NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation said (PDF). The vehicles each had low mileage.

One owner is said to have taken delivery of their Model Y just five days before the incident. When the wheel detached, there was no car behind the driver, who noted on Twitter and in an NHTSA complaint that they were safely able to pull onto the divider. There were no injuries in the incident, which the owner said occurred on Route 1 in Woodbridge, New Jersey, in late January.

"Both vehicles received an end of line repair requiring removal and reinstallation of the steering wheel," the NHTSA said. The agency's investigation, which covers an estimated 120,000 model year 2023 vehicles, will "assess the scope, frequency and manufacturing processes associated with this condition."

Tesla, which no longer has a communications department that can be reached for comment, has faced several NHTSA investigations over the last few years. Last month, the agency announced that Tesla was recalling almost 363,000 vehicles over issues with the Full Self-Driving software. The NHTSA said the system could "exceed speed limits or travel through intersections in an unlawful or unpredictable manner." Tesla said it would issue an over-the-air update to resolve the issues.

As the Associated Press notes, Tesla has had to issue 20 recalls since January 2022. Several of the recalls were mandated by the NHTSA. In November, for instance, the automaker recalled 321,000 Model 3 and Model Y cars over a rear light issue (one that was again remedied by a software update). That was Tesla's second recall in as many days.

Volkswagen is dealing with one of the risks of tying important car features to paid services. The brand is making its Car-Net connected emergency service free for five years for most 2020 to 2023 model year vehicles after a carjacking in the Chicago suburb of Libertyville. The thief stole a mother's Atlas SUV with her two-year-old son still inside, but police couldn't persuade a VW representative to reactivate Car-Net (a trial period had expired) and help track the car's location without paying $150. Deputies had already located the car and the child by the time a detective paid the fee.

The free Car-Net access will last for five years after sale or June 1st, 2023 (the effective date of the offer), whichever is later. It takes effect as soon as an owner creates a myVW account and accepts the relevant terms of service. Combustion engine models get automatic crash notices, emergency aid, stolen vehicle location and anti-theft alerts, while ID.4 buyers get the crash notification and emergency assistance features. The 2020 Passat sedan doesn't include Car-Net.

Customer experience Senior VP Rachel Zaluzec describes the response to the theft as a "process failure." VW is investigating what happened and will take actions to "make it right for the future," the executive adds.

The representative's response isn't necessarily typical of connected emergency services. GM's OnStar, for instance, explains that it will "immediately" contact police and start tracking a car's location in the event of a carjacking or kidnapping. In less urgent situations, OnStar will start tracking a stolen car when it verifies the owner's police report.

The incident comes as more automakers are moving car features to subscriptions, including previously one-time purchases like performance upgrades and heated seats. There's no mystery behind the strategy — this creates a steady stream of revenue that lasts long after a car reaches a customer. In the case of emergency services, however, it potentially complicates attempts to help owners who may be in life-threatening situations.

The original Kona EV was appealing if you wanted a compact electric crossover, but it lost some of its appeal when the longer-ranged (and frankly more stylish) Ioniq 5 arrived on the scene. However, Hyundai just gave you a reason to consider its 'entry' model once more. After months of early peeks, the automaker has unveiled a sleeker second-generation Kona built with an electric powerplant in mind. That, in turn, promises some meaningful improvements to the performance and interior design.

The higher capacity 65.4kWh battery option now provides an estimated 304 miles of range using the WLTP testing cycle. We wouldn't be surprised if the EPA-estimated figure is more conservative, but that still hints a longer range than the 258 miles of the current model. You now get battery preconditioning to improve charging times and cold weather range, and vehicle-to-load support lets you power devices both inside and outside of the car. There's also new support for "i-Pedal" one-pedal driving. Just don't expect the speediest charging. The Kona doesn't have the 800V architecture of the Ioniq 5 or Kia EV6, so it will take 41 minutes to charge from 10 percent to 80 percent.

Regardless of what motor system is inside your vehicle, you can expect a larger "living space" with more storage (17 cubic feet in the trunk), a front trunk and plenty of in-cabin tech. An optional heads-up display sadly isn't available in North America, but you will find dual 12.3-inch screens, over-the-air software updates and NFC-based digital car key support. The driver aids are also supposedly more powerful than in other mini-SUVs in this class, such as an attention monitor (to make sure you don't doze off), a blind spot monitor and assistants for forward collision avoidance and safer highway driving.

Hyundai hasn't detailed US pricing, although it says the Kona will still be available in combustion-only and hybrid versions in addition to the EV. It should reach US customers in the third quarter of the year. If history is any indication, the Kona should cost less than the Ioniq 5. That could make it appealing if you want to go electric but can't justify the premium for the brand's most advanced offerings.

Even as it has radically expanded the hands-free driver assist capabilities of its current generation Super Cruise ADAS, General Motors has been hard at work on the system's successor, Ultra Cruise, since 2021. On Tuesday, GM finally revealed which model will be first to receive the upgraded features of Ultra Cruise and that vehicle is the Cadillac Celestiq.

"We're trying to expand our hands-free driving experience that we have with Super Cruise to most paved and public roads," Jason Dittman, General Motors' Chief Engineer, said during a press call Monday. "It will be a 'destination to destination' experience."

"You get in your car, use the internal nav navigation system, put a destination in it, and the car would essentially do the driving — roughly on 95 percent of the driving maneuvers on a typical drive, you'll be able to do hands-free," he added.

We already had a solid understanding of what Ultra Cruise would be capable of as GM went into detail when it first announced development of the system in 2021. Super Cruise currently works on around 400,000 miles of US and Canadian highways, allowing drivers to take their hands off the wheel when driving on a compatible highway or state route. It uses a mix of LiDAR, radar, GPS and cameras to know where the vehicle is on the road.

Ultra Cruise, builds off this with a new computing system, that will fuse the incoming data streams into a unified 360-degree view around the vehicle. "They're not redundant, they're fused together to give us the most accurate picture of the vehicle surroundings," Dittman said. Ultra Cruise equipped vehicles will also use an interior-facing infrared driver attention monitor that will track the, "driver’s head position and/or eyes in relation to the road," according to Tuesday's announcement.

Ultra Cruise will work on more than 2 million miles of highway at launch. Over time, the company plans to further expand the number of roadways covered by the Ultra Cruise network to include 3.4 million miles of roadway encompassing, "nearly every paved road, city street, suburban street, subdivision, and rural road in addition to the highways that today on the super cruise operates on," Dittman added.

Note that despite the larger number of roads the new system will work on, it still offers the same Level 2 driver assist capabilities as the rest of the auto industry, save Mercedes. That means, you will have to keep paying attention to the road you just won't have to keep your hands strictly on the wheel.

Unfortunately, current Super Cruise subscribers will not be able to upgrade to the new system once it arrives later this year. Ultra Cruise requires additional sensors and hardware to operate and GM doesn't currently have plans to offer a retrofit kit. You'll have to pony up the $300k Caddy is asking for the Celestiq if you want to be among the first to try it.