After announcing the very cute Honda E and a long-term collaboration with GM, Honda has made its EV ambitions clear. But it's still lagging behind most other carmakers—especially its closest rival Toyota, which is rolling out its first mainstream electric car this year. To whet our appetites a bit, Honda has revealed a teaser image of the Prologue, its first electric SUV launching in 2024. And, well... it looks pretty much like what we'd expect from a Honda SUV.

The lone image, which is just a render and not a photo of the Prologue in action, shows off the SUV's clean body lines and beefy tires. The Prologue is a design collaboration between its studios in Los Angeles and Japan, and it was also developed together with GM. There's a bit of old and new here, for sure, but its relatively plain aesthetic makes Toyota's BZ4X look practically radical in comparison.

Honda plans to unveil 30 new EVs by 2030, with expected sales of 2 million units. After kicking off sales of the Prologue in 2024, Honda plans to start producing and selling new EVs based on its e:Architecture in 2026, and it'll have affordable EVs (also developed with GM) in 2027. You'll find the Prologue first in Zero Emissions states, but it should start heading to more states in the US afterwards. 

Honda

There's only so much we can learn from a single render, but it's still helpful to see that Honda has its eye on the EV ball. The company also plans to bring Level 2 and fast-charging to dealerships around the US, as well as some slightly more modern building designs.

Ford’s self-driving Argo AI unit has hit a major milestone. On Tuesday, it began driverless operations in Austin and Miami. The company’s cars aren’t carrying paying customers just yet, but they’re now allowed to ferry Argo AI employees without a safety driver at the wheel. Argo called the announcement an “important step” in its plan to commercialize autonomous driving technology by providing a suite of APIs designed to allow ridesharing, delivery and logistics companies to incorporate its vehicles into their own services.

Argo is one of a handful of companies competing in the already crowded space, and a clear winner has yet to emerge. At the start of the year, GM’s Cruise began offering public driverless taxi rides in San Francisco, but when they’re not being pulled over by confused cops, the company’s cars are limited to off-peak hours. Waymo, meanwhile, recently began testing fully driverless cars in San Francisco, but its Arizona service is only partly open to those outside of its Trusted Tester program. 

Rivian is recalling some of its R1T electric trucks because of an issue with airbag sensors. The vehicle may not disable an airbag when a child is sitting up front, according to a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration filing spotted by The Verge. This is Rivian's first recall and it covers 502 R1T vehicles that were built between September 2021 and April 2022.

Although the NHTSA recommends that children aged under 13 should be in the back seat, that's not always possible for various reasons. Airbags, which can deploy even in a minor accident, can injure or kill children who are sitting in the front seat. 

Rivian said the recalled vehicles "fail to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard number 208, 'Occupant Crash Protection.'" The company said no injuries have been associated with the issue. 

The front passenger seats in the recalled EVs will be replaced for free at Rivian service centers — it currently has 20 of those in the US. The company expects to mail notices to all affected customers by July 1st. Rivian said that until it can replace seats in recalled vehicles, owners should not allow infants or children to sit up front.

After all the big hardware and software announcements during the I/O 2022 keynote presentation, today Google is sharing some updates for cars with Android Auto and vehicles with infotainment systems based on Android Automotive. 

Detailed as part of Google's "What's New with Android for Cars" session, the most important upcoming change is a refreshed UI for Android Auto focused on making it easier to navigate, control media and communicate with others while driving. To accommodate the larger displays in new cars, the company is making split screen view standard across all devices so that you can see directions, music and texts all at the same time. That means you'll be able to quickly pause a song or see a new message without having to navigate through a bunch of menus and settings. 

Google

On top of that, Google is also improving support for adaptive layouts that can more easily adjust to the growing variety of displays in new cars. So regardless of if you have a sweeping extra-wide display on your dash or a tall portrait-orientated screen, the Android Auto UI can still show all your pertinent info. Meanwhile, to improve hands-free controls, the Google Assistant is better contextual suggestions for things like returning missed calls, texting arrival times and more. 

Google

Finally, for owners of cars with systems based on Android Automotive (such as new vehicles from Ford, Volvo and others), Google is expanding your in-car entertainment options with wider support for video streaming apps. Earlier this year at CES, Google announced the ability to stream clips from YouTube, and now the Tubi TV and Epix Now apps will be added soon. Just remember, you can only watch videos while the car is parked, so don't try to stream and drive. And in the future, the company says it also has plans to let passengers stream content from their phones to their vehicle's built-in display, though there isn't a concrete timeline for when that will be available yet. 

Follow all of the news from Google I/O 2022 right here!

After months of teasing, Harley-Davidson’s LiveWire brand has unveiled its second all-electric motorcycle, the new middleweight Del Mar. Built on the brand’s new Arrow platform, it features a 60 kW motor capable of accelerating the EV from zero to 60 miles per hour in under four seconds, Electrek reported on Tuesday.

The Del Mar’s 21700-format battery is housed in a structural case that doubles as part of the motorcycle’s frame, reducing the overall weight of the vehicle. To make the Del Mar even lighter, LiveWire integrated a handful of components, including the onboard charger, into a single unit mounted to the outside of the structural battery case. All told, it’s about 25 percent lighter than the LiveWire One.

LiveWire expects the Del Mar will be able to travel approximately 100 miles on a single charge. Additionally, the EV will feature built-in GPS and cellular connectivity, which will allow the company to roll out new software features to the motorcycle and tune its performance through OTA updates. One feature you won’t find on the Del Mar is DC fast charging. It’s limited to Level 1 and 2 charging.

Following Tuesday’s reveal, LiveWire made 100 $17,699 “Launch Edition” Del Mar motorcycles available for pre-order. Those sold out almost instantly. As for the production model, which should go on sale sometime in the spring of 2023, LiveWire said it’s targeting a price of $15,000. For context, the LiveWire One, currently the brand’s most affordable electric motorcycle, starts at $22,799 before federal subsidies. LiveWire also teased that it’s already developing a third model based on the Arrow platform.

For at least the third time this year, Tesla is recalling some of its cars over a software issue. Last week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) published a notice on its website notifying owners of 2021 and 2022 Tesla Model S and X vehicles, as well as 2022 Model 3 and Y vehicles of an overheating issue affecting the infotainment system in their cars.

According to the agency, a software bug can cause the CPUs in those systems to overheat either when you’re about to fast charge the affected models or already in the process of doing so. Subsequently, the processor can slow down or restart when it gets too hot. “A lagging or restarting CPU may prevent the center screen from displaying the rearview camera image, gear selection, windshield visibility control settings, and warning lights, increasing the risk of a crash,” the NHTSA says in its notice.

The recall covers approximately 130,000 cars, Reutersreported on Tuesday. Tesla will issue an over-the-air update to address the issue. In a timeline Tesla shared on May 4th, the company said it wasn’t aware of any crashes, injuries or deaths related to the bug. Tesla has so far issued 11 recalls this year, tying it with Dodge parent company Stellantis for fourth-most in 2022. Earlier in the year, the company recalled more than 817,000 cars over faulty seat belt chimes, putting this latest action among the smaller recalls Tesla has carried out recently.

Due to the ongoing chip shortage, BMW is temporarily shipping some vehicles without support for Android Auto or Apple CarPlay, according to report from Automotive News Europe (which we found through 9to5 Google). According to a statement the company gave to Automotive News Europe, BMW has changed suppliers and begun using a chip that does not fully support Android Auto or CarPlay. As a result, the company continued in its statement, affected vehicles will receive an over-the-air software update by "the end of June at the latest."

As 9to5Google notes, you can check if your recently purchased vehicle is affected by checking for "6P1" in the car's production code. It also seems that all of the vehicles in question were manufactured in the first four months of 2022, and have final destinations in the US, France, Italy, Spain and the UK.

This is not the first time that BMW has delivered cars missing certain non-essential features in order to avoid shipping delays. Last fall, the company omitted touchscreen features from some vehicles, also due to the global chip shortage. And BMW is hardly the only automaker to take this tack either. Last fall, around the same time BMW was grappling with the touchscreen issue, Tesla decided to ship some cars without USB ports. Then, earlier this year, Ford, shipped some Explorer SUVs without rear climate controls. 

In the case of BMW's missing Android Auto and CarPlay support, it could be worse. As Automotive News Europe notes, when Mercedes-Benz was faced with a similar dilemma, it chose not to include the requisite chips in some vehicles, at which point customers would be forced to bring their cars into a ship to have them installed later.

You might soon see more electric trucks ferrying cargo around town. Volta has revealed that it's bringing its urban delivery EVs to the US, starting with a test fleet of 100 Class 7 (16.5 US tons) Zero trucks coming to Los Angeles in mid-2023. American production should start in 2024, with an "experienced" manufacturer chosen late this year. This inaugural truck will be followed by lighter-duty Class 5 (9.8-ton) and Class 6 (13-ton) models in 2024 and 2025.

The Class 7 Volta Zero's range is short, with modular batteries offering between 95 to 125 miles of driving. That's more than enough for city deliveries, however. Volta is also betting that 250kW DC fast charging will ease any range anxiety. You completely recharge the Zero in slightly over an hour at the right station. Moreover, the company has taken advantage of the switch to electric motors to improve safety — a lower, center-mounted driver's seat should reduce the usual truck blind spots.

There's pressure for Volta to move quickly. Fellow Swedish company Volvo has already introduced multiple electric medium-duty trucks, and American rival Freightliner has the eM2. Still, these are typically conventional designs that just happen to be electric, rather than from-scratch EVs. Volta might reel customers in simply by making a more compelling case for ditching diesel- and gas-based fleets.

GM is the latest automaker hoping its car data will help governments improve road safety. The company partnering with Inrix on a Safety View cloud initiative that gives crash, vehicle and "vulnerable road user" (think pedestrians and construction workers) data to US transportation officials. If all goes well, local governments can both prioritize new road safety projects and gauge the effectiveness of their current efforts.

The data is tailored for the Transportation Department's Safe Streets and Roads for All program, not to mention various agencies' Vision Zero (zero road fatalities or serious injuries) plans.

It's no secret why GM and Inrix might want to share car info with the government. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law includes $5 billion for the DOT's Safe Streets program. That's a lot of potential business from government clients that could be eager to modernize their roadways as much as possible. Whatever the motivation, it might be worthwhile if road safety improves based on real-world data that was previously difficult to obtain.

VW and BP know they'll both have to embrace electric vehicles, and they're ready to work together to ease some of the transitional pain. Autoweekreports the two companies are teaming up to install thousands of VW's Flexpole 150kW fast EV chargers at gas stations in Germany and the UK. Within two years, there will be as many as 2,000 charging units (4,000 charge points) in place at BP stations in the UK and Aral locations in Germany.

The expansion should help BP expand its charging network to 8,000 connections by the end of 2024. Not surprisingly, the locations of the new chargers will be available through both in-car apps in VW group cars (including Seat and Skoda) as well as VW's Elli charging app. The two firms also promise to explore "further opportunities" in eco-friendly transportation.

While the Flexpole chargers are quick and can deliver nearly 100 miles of charging in 10 minutes, their true appeal might be their flexibility. As they use battery storage, they can operate on low-voltage grids — it's easier to install them at gas stations and other sites where high voltage might not be an option.

This isn't an altruistic move, of course. VW has been ramping up its electrification plans and now expects 70 percent of its sales to be EVs by 2030 — it needs an extensive charging network if customers are going to buy these vehicles in droves. BP, meanwhile, is trying to shed its reputation as an oil and gas giant in favor of becoming an "integrated energy company." A partnership like this could help BP transition gas stations to EV charging more gracefully than it might on its own.