2016 Tesla Model S on 2040-cars

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Recharge Wrap-up: Chicago and NY taxis consider their own hailing apps; Zipcar extends one-way service in Boston

Chicago and New York are considering creating hailing apps for taxis. In order to keep up with rivals like Uber and Lyft, Chicago has approved plans for an app (or perhaps multiple apps) that allow users to hail a cab from their smartphone. A New York City councilperson has also proposed a similar app that has yet to be voted on. The Chicago plan, which is part of the city's Taxi Driver Fairness Reforms package, has the backing of a taxi union, as drivers would benefit from keeping pace with the technology and convenience other hailing apps provide. Read more at The New York Times. Zipcar is extending its point-to-point service test, called ONE>WAY, to all of its members in the Boston area. This service is available between Zipcar Pod locations throughout the area (including Logan International Airport), and includes a reserved parking space at the destination. Zipcar has 200 Honda Fit vehicles available at its Pods for ONE>WAY trips. "ONE>WAY remains true to our mission of enabling simple and responsible urban living by continuing to reduce congestion in cities as members are not circling the block searching for parking," says Zipcar President Kaye Ceille. Read more in the press release below. Two early investors in Tesla are raising a new investment fund worth $300 million. Nancy Pfund and Ira Ehrenpreis are raising a fund through DBL Investing called DBL Partners III. Pfund, through DBL, has invested in various cleantech companies, as well as Elon Musk's Tesla, SpaceX and SolarCity. Ehrenpreis invested in Tesla through Technology Partners, and runs the World Energy Innovation Forum. The plans for the newest DBL investments are unclear, but it's not hard to imagine more green technology and more involvement with Musk. Read more at GigaOM. Andromeda Interfaces has released a video for its Electric Vehicle Interface Controller (EVIC). The EVIC is a display module that monitors efficiency and consumption and interprets that data for the driver. It works as a configurable dashboard with all the important data especially important and specific to EV driving, whether that's range, voltage, rpm, temperatures and the like. The EVIC is meant to be affordable, and suitable for aftermarket or OEM customers, as well as commercial and industrial EVs. See the video below for more information. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Cadillac's Super Cruise — look, Elon, no hands!

Cadillac is about to start selling vehicles with an autonomous driving mode and TechCrunch got an early look at the technology in a production car. "Wait for the green light and let go," the Cadillac engineer instructed. That's it. The car was driving itself. I, the person behind the steering wheel, was no longer the driver. Cadillac's Super Cruise system was driving. The 2018 Cadillac CT6 sped along U.S. 23 under the direction of Super Cruise. Traffic was light and the weather was perfect. The system held the Cadillac sedan in lane and responded appropriately to traffic. I spent an hour on the expressway and touched the steering wheel and pedals only a few times. Super Cruise made the drive boring. I think that's the point. Here's how it works Super Cruise is available once the driver navigates the vehicle onto an expressway. When ready, a little icon is displayed by the speedometer and the driver hits a button on the steering wheel to switch it on. Once the light bar on top of the steering wheel turns green, the driver can let go. Super Cruise is driving.This steering wheel light bar is key to the operation. When green, the driver knows Super Cruise is in control. Blue means the driver interrupted the system to change lanes and red means Super Cruise needs the driver to confirm they're paying attention and not checking Twitter. When active, Super Cruise controls the steering and speed, but again, only on an expressway. This is done through onboard sensors and using GPS and mapping data. GM employed GeoDigital, a startup in GM Venture's portfolio, to map 160,000 miles of expressways in the U.S. and Canada. The car company then used Super Cruise-equipped vehicles to test each mile. This combination of onboard systems combined with map data makes the system feel polished and sophisticated. During my admittedly limited time in the vehicle, the CT6 precisely held its position in the lane and confidently handled sweeping curves at speed. There was no wiggling or squirming — from the Cadillac or myself. The car was in control, and I felt safe. Although the driving conditions were perfect for my test ride, during adverse weather, the system will work normally until one of the key systems is unable to operate.

Questions bubble up about Tesla Model S sales numbers

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said that releasing monthly sales numbers allows the media, "to read all sorts of nonsense into the deliveries." He said that with the company's irregular delivery schedule – 1,000 in a country one month, only a handful the next – the spikes and valleys would not give an accurate picture of the company's actual orders or demand. But, when there's no transparency, people will go looking for answers – or nonsense. Daily Kanban found only 17,819 Model S EVs were registered between January and September 2014. Case in point: Tesla Model S sales, which everyone wants to know about but no one is quite sure about. The best we can do is the quarterly delivery numbers that Tesla does release. For 2014, the official numbers released so far add up to 21,821 (1Q: 6,457, 2Q: 7,579, 3Q: 7,785). That's for the first three quarters, or from January through the end of September, and represents global deliveries. But Daily Kanban obtained global data for all sorts of electric cars from JATO and discovered that there were only 17,819 Model S EVs registered around the world between January and September 2014, a difference of 4,002. Previously, Daily Kanban quoted John Lovallo, a research analyst at Merrill Lynch, saying that Tesla might have around 3,000 Model S EVs, "in inventory or in transit," and is curious to know what's going on. While this next comparison isn't perfect because the dates don't match up, we can take a look at sales of the Nissan Leaf to see how the official and JATO numbers compare. Nissan said in the middle of January 2014 that it sold a cumulative 100,000 Leafs and then announced towards the end of November that it had sold 150,000 total. JATO's numbers show that Nissan sold 44,897, globally, between January and September. We certainly don't know if the different between JATO's number and the official Tesla figures represent a delay in how fast people register their cars or if something else is going on. We have asked Tesla for a comment and for more detailed sales numbers, but have not gotten a response. We do know that, while not ideal, monthly sales data can sometimes be quite helpful in figuring out what's going on in the industry.