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Recharge Wrap-up: Tesla firmware update videos, Mercedes S500 Plug-In Hybrid

See the Tesla Model S with Firmware 6.0 in action in new videos from Teslarati. The large software update includes improved traffic-based navigation, a calendar function, updated power management, "Location-Based Smart Air Suspension" as well as other improvements. Drivers get more route options to save energy, and more control over how the car saves energy. The car can also remember ride height settings when driving in those same locations again. Additionally, you can start and drive the car without a key, just using the smartphone app. See how it all works in the videos below, the second of which focuses on pairing with the updated phone app. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has deemed ride-hailing app Uber's carpooling service illegal. The way the UberPool service is categorized by the CPUC, charging multiple riders separate fares for a single ride runs afoul of the law. The technical details are a bit convoluted, and what supporters could deem arbitrary, but Forbes delves into the details a bit further to try to make sense of California's intentions (even considering the possibility of other ride services, such as airport shuttle companies, fueling the fire). Lyft - which operates a similar service called LyftLine - and Sidecar have also received notices from the CPUC. Read more at Forbes. China's recent enthusiasm for electric vehicles could be largely attributed to a single person, Ma Kai. After the Politburo member was named vice premier, he encouraged maintaining and increasing EV subsidies when China sought to decrease them. He also seems ready to fight for more EV deregulation to encourage more clean vehicles. Read more about Ma Kai and what he's done for China's EV legislation at Automotive News. Mercedes-Benz begins deliveries of the S500 Plug-In Hybrid this month. The high-tech luxury PHEV features energy saving modes based on driver, route and traffic, and features a haptic accelerator that can signal when the driver should ease off to save power. It's powered by a biturbocharged V6 and 85-kW electric motor. Its 8.7-kWh battery offers about 20 miles of electric driving. The S500 plug-in starts at about $146,000. Read more in the press release below. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Tesla Supercharger wins AOL Autos Tech of the Year award

The votes are in, the ballots have been counted and the envelope is open. Together with our partners at AOL Autos, we're proud to announce the winner of our second annual Technology of the Year award. After having awarded the inaugural prize last year to Chrysler for its UConnect infotainment system, this year we've selected the Tesla Supercharger network as the top technological advancement in the automotive industry.
While enthusiasts will likely associate the name "supercharger" with forced induction, Tesla has successfully redefined the term to apply to its increasingly sprawling network of charging stations across the country. Drive your Model S up to one of the 54 such stations in the United States, and you can be on your way with a full charge in just 20 minutes, instead of the full eight hours it usually takes. With much of the industry and government still wringing its hands over a lack of infrastructure for alternative fuels, Tesla has taken the reins and is working to fix the problem itself.
The winner was selected from a compelling list of candidates by a jury including editors from AOL Autos, Autoblog, AutoblogGreen, Translogic and even Engadget. The Tesla Supercharger beat out such contenders as Chevy's MyLink Valet Mode, Infiniti Backup Collision Intervention, Volvo Pedestrian and Cyclist Detection, Mopar In-Vehicle Wireless Charging and Mercedes-Benz Intelligent Drive to claim the hardware, which was presented at this week's CES show in Las Vegas.

Why is Tesla getting more and more secretive?

Tesla's unorthodox vision and the even more unorthodox means it is using to achieve that vision have made it what it is: a tiny company with an overachieving product and an oversized stock valuation and voice in the global EV discussion. However, one of its unorthodox practices has been giving investors pause for a year now: not divulging information in its quarterly reports that could be taken as adverse developments. An article in Seeking Alpha called "The Incredible Shrinking Tesla Disclosure" lays out the timelines and details to support one analyst's suspicions for why Tesla will no longer say how many reservations it has, how many cars it's building, and where those cars are going. The company has never reported sales by month, not in the US or any other market. However, for more than two years it provided the number of reservations it had, but stopped that practice in Q1 of 2013 after it revamped its reservation process to allow prospective buyers to customize a Model S in three steps and place a non-binding order, rather than place their names on a list. The change meant, to Tesla, that the new reservations numbers wouldn't accurately correspond to the previous numbers, so they disappeared to be replaced by general numbers preceded by phrases like "were over" or "up from about." Yet Tesla still calls that three-stop process "a reservation" and continues to give them general numbers, and those numbers have gone down. Analysts take that as one instance of Tesla going dark when a metric heads down. Then, again after years of doing so, the company stopped reporting deliveries by market. Instead of investors and analysts getting a breakout of how many cars went to each market - the US, Europe, the Asia-Pacific - Tesla only provided a global delivery number, which Tesla says is how many cars were delivered to customers. Observers, having tried to parse the numbers and detected a downturn in US sales, and knowing China is missing its targets, said this was the second instance of Tesla getting quiet about numbers it didn't like. The third instance is production numbers, which didn't make an appearance in the Q3 report of 2014. Tesla used to say how many cars it had built in the quarter, but in its last report it said instead that production was affected by a two-week shutdown to retool its factory in Fremont, California, and it wouldn't predict production for the coming quarter, either - something else it formerly did.