Cars

gm-faces-ban-on-selling-driver-data-that-can-be-used-to-raise-insurance-rates

GM faces ban on selling driver data that can be used to raise insurance rates

Cars, data brokers, General Motors, OnStar, Policy / /

The FTC said its complaint alleged that “GM used a misleading enrollment process to get consumers to sign up for its OnStar connected vehicle service and the OnStar Smart Driver feature.” Lina Khan, who is in her final week as FTC chair, said that “GM monitored and sold people’s precise geolocation data and driver behavior information, sometimes as often as every three seconds.”

Settlement not quite finalized

The proposed settlement was approved in a closed meeting by the FTC’s three Democrats, with the two Republicans recorded as absent. The pending agreement will be subject to public comment for 30 days after publication in the Federal Register, and a final FTC decision will be made under the Trump administration.

In addition to location data, the GM/FTC settlement covers “radio listening data regarding specific content, channel, or station; hard braking, hard acceleration, hard cornering, crossing of a designated high-speed threshold, seat belt usage, or late-night driving; and trip time and duration for such events.” GM and OnStar agreed to delete data collected before the settlement and ask third parties to delete data previously shared with them.

GM also “must allow consumers to disable the collection of Location Data from their Vehicles to the extent the Vehicle is equipped with the necessary technology.”

GM issued a press release on the settlement. “Last year, we discontinued Smart Driver across all GM vehicles, unenrolled all customers, and ended our third-party telematics relationships with LexisNexis and Verisk,” GM said. “In September, we consolidated many of our US privacy statements into a single, simpler statement as part of our broader work to keep raising the bar on privacy… As part of the agreement, GM will obtain affirmative customer consent to collect, use, or disclose certain types of connected vehicle data (with exceptions for certain purposes).”

Affirmative consent is not required for purposes such as providing driver data to emergency responders, responding to customer-initiated communications, complying with government requests and legal requirements, and investigating product quality or safety problems. While the ban on sharing driving data lasts only five years, the overall settlement would be in place for 20 years.

GM faces ban on selling driver data that can be used to raise insurance rates Read More »

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Trek FX+ 7S e-bike is a premium city commuter 

Cars, Class 3 e-bike, e-bike review, trek / /

Post-pandemic, my creed became “Bicycles deliver the freedom that auto ads promise.” That belief is why I’ve almost exclusively used a bike to move myself around Portland, Oregon since (yes, I have become a Portlandia stereotype).

However, that lifestyle is a lot more challenging without some pedal assistance. For a few summers, I showed up sweaty to appointments after pedaling on a $200 single-speed. So in 2024, I purchased the FX+ 2, based primarily on my managing editor’s review. It’s since been a workhorse for my daily transportation needs for the past year; I’ve put more than 1,000 miles on it in eight months.

So given my experience with that bike, I was the natural choice to review Trek’s upgraded version, the FX+ 7S.

A premium pedaler

First off, my time with the FX+ 2 has been great—no regrets about that purchase. But my one quibble is with the battery. Due to the frequency and length of my rides, I need to charge the bike more often than not, and I sometimes experience range anxiety riding to the opposite side of town. Even though both e-bikes are considered lightweight at 40 pounds, they’re still not the easiest things to pedal sans assist, and I’m reliant on their built-in lighting systems after dark.

But I didn’t have to worry about my remaining charge with the FX+ 7 and its 360 Wh battery. Its extra capacity gives me much less range anxiety, as I can ride without fear of losing juice on the route home. And the LCD on the frame gives you a clear indicator of how much distance and time you have left in your ride, which is always handy. I would caution, however, about relying too much on your estimated distance remaining.

The Trek FX+7's LCD screen show the charge remaining in the bike.

The LCD provides some useful info. You can see how much charge is left on the battery, or you can press that button to see your speed, wattage power, or miles ridden. Credit: Chris DeGraw

During a 15-mile, hour-long ride while fluctuating between the first two assist levels I had modified, I drained 61 percent of the battery. While the estimated time remaining on my ride was consistent and accurate, the predicted mileage dropped occasionally, although that’s probably because I was changing the assist level frequently.

Trek FX+ 7S e-bike is a premium city commuter  Read More »

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GM patents a dual-port charging system for EVs with vehicle-to-load

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The battery system on an electric car can either charge—from regenerative braking or an external power supply—or discharge—powering the EV’s motor(s) or supplying that power via so-called vehicle-to-load. As a rule, it can’t do both at once, but General Motors has some thoughts about that. The patent analysis site CarMoses spotted a recent GM patent application for a system that is capable of charging and discharging simultaneously.

The patent describes a “charging system” with a pair of charging ports. One is for drawing power from an external source, just like every other EV. The second charge port is connected to a bi-directional charger, and the battery management system is able to charge the battery pack from the first port while also supplying power from the second port.

That second port could be used to charge another battery, including the battery of another EV, and the patent includes an illustration of three EVs daisy-chained to each other.

Credit: USPTO

The idea of two charge ports on an EV is not unheard of; Porsche’s Taycan (and the related Audi e-tron GT) have one on each side, and it’s an option on the newer PPE-based EVs from those brands, if I’m not mistaken. I have no idea whether GM’s patent will show up on a production EV—car companies patent many more ideas than they ever get around to building, after all.

And I must admit, I’m not entirely sure what the use case is beyond seeing how long of an EV-centipede you could make by plugging one into another into another, and so on. But I am intrigued.

GM patents a dual-port charging system for EVs with vehicle-to-load Read More »

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Tire simulation is so good it’s replacing real-world testing

Cars, goodyear, tire / /

“If it’s a one-second maneuver, you want it to take one second, right? Those millions of degrees of freedom model do not necessarily execute in real time like that. So there’s a translation that has to happen to be able to drive the simulator,” Rohweder said.

Goodyear now has a pair of dynamic simulator centers, one in Akron, Ohio, which opened in 2021, and a second in Luxembourg, which opened in 2024.

The payoff is that it’s now much faster to iterate during development. “Back in the late ’90s, you could count on a half a dozen—maybe up to 10—physical iterations where you’re actually ordering a mold, making tires, and putting them on test. [If] you didn’t get the result, [you would] work your way back through,” Helsel said.

Over time, simulating the tire’s footprint allowed Goodyear to cut that in half, “and then since we’ve really been pushing this higher fidelity tire modeling and now into the simulator, we’ve cut that in half again,” Helsel said. Now, when working with a car manufacturer on tires for a specific model, “we only need basically a build and test confirmation physical [tire], so [we’re] down to one,” Helsel said.

That’s quite a savings—perhaps as many as 13,000 tires and 60,000 miles of test track driving that would otherwise be needed before everything was signed off.

“We’ve done variation in studies with [tire] sizes when we’re setting targets working with the manufacturer before they start the vehicle development,” said Rohweder. “Tire dimension is easy to adjust. Compound, major design changes—when you have the data and you prepare it, you can go into the simulator environment and quickly move around in the design space to find out what the driver feels is most effective and best for shooting on that target. So that’s why we say that the maturity of that first physical iteration is really the benefit,” Rohweder said.

Tire simulation is so good it’s replacing real-world testing Read More »

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Ban on Chinese connected-car software is almost ready

Cars, connected cars / /

However, the ban, as written, is not absolute. Companies can seek authorization to import software or hardware that would otherwise be outlawed, but the request would need to satisfy the US government and possibly be subject to conditions.

There are also exemptions for software for vehicles older than model year 2027 and hardware for vehicles older than model year 2030, including parts imported for warranty or repair work. (The government points out that retroactively applying the new rule would be a little pointless as any harm would already be done by vehicles that had compromised systems that predate it going into effect.)

And the final rule would only apply to light-duty vehicles. Anything with a gross vehicle weight rating of more than 10,000 lbs is exempt but will be dealt with in “a separate regulation tailored to the commercial sector in the coming months.”

Auto industry suppliers probably face the most disruption as a result of the new rule—just the presence of a Chinese-made module in a larger system is enough to trigger the import ban. But there should be little disruption to the US car market, at least for now.

Since the rules only go into effect from model year 2027, the few Chinese-made vehicles on sale in the US—models from Polestar, Volvo, Lincoln, and Buick—may remain on sale. However, Polestar’s Chinese ownership may prove somewhat of a sticking point compared to Ford and GM. Ars notes that lawyers representing Polestar met with the Commerce Department last week—we reached out to the automaker for a comment and will update this piece should we hear back.

Ban on Chinese connected-car software is almost ready Read More »

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How GM’s Super Cruise went from limo driving to lane changes and towing

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The Unified Lateral Controller

The algorithm that handles all of that is called the Unified Lateral Controller. “So it’s a single software stack, but it is also modular to adapt with different vehicle configurations, with different driving scenarios, different maneuvers,” Zarringhalam said.

“Let’s imagine that you’re driving a Super Cruise vehicle, and you indicate to the left, or the system automatically decides to make a lane change to the left, and then, for whatever reason, the driver decides that they want to go back, mid-maneuver; they want to go back to the original lane. So you can just indicate to the opposite side, in this case, the right-hand side. Under the hood, in this scenario, everything is jumping. Our target trajectory is jumping from a left-lane maneuver to a right turn. The turn can be very sharp. There could be other objects that narrow the envelope of operation that you’re allowed to function in,” Zarringhalam said.

Again, that behavior has to be consistent and predictable, whether it’s below freezing or in the middle of a heatwave, and things like tire wear must also be taken into account. Or, say, the presence of a trailer, which could be anything from a bike rack with wheels to a three-axle trailer.

“As soon as we detect that the trailer is attached, we run several real-time algorithms—trailer inertial parameters, trailer math, trailer configuration, even how many axles we have, and the control adapts itself to execute lane turning and keep both the vehicle and the trailer at the center of the road,” Zarringhalam said.

That’s done automatically without the driver having to input the information (obviating the problem of someone entering the wrong details), “and if you change the loading or the trailer configuration, even mid-drive—if you pull over, load more weight and continue driving on the same road with Super Cruise active—these learnings happen in a matter of seconds,” Zarringhalam said.

How GM’s Super Cruise went from limo driving to lane changes and towing Read More »

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Tesla’s Model Y crossover finally gets a facelift—just in China for now

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Yesterday, Tesla revealed a facelift for its bestselling Model Y crossover. Or at least it did if you live in China—customers in the US and Europe will need to continue to wait for the revamped electric vehicle.

Better efficiency was a goal—in the past, Tesla simply ignored complaints over its exaggerated range claims, but now it says the Model Y, codenamed “Juniper,” has updated suspension, wheels, and tires that “make the driving experience smoother and quieter.”

Tesla says that range has increased from 427 miles (688 km) to 446 miles (719 km), albeit under the Chinese efficiency testing regime, which produces very different numbers from the more realistic tests used by the US Environmental Protection Agency.

More obvious are the new treatments for the front and rear, with a full-width daylight running light at the front and a full-width rear light. On the inside, Tesla has added ventilated front seats and an infotainment screen for the rear passengers, and there are now blindspot monitors, all additions that will help Tesla stay close to feature parity with its many rivals in that market.

Chinese customers will be expected to pay a price premium for the facelifted model, however. Tesla has increased the price by more than 5 percent, although at $35,939 (263,500 yuan) before incentives, it remains far cheaper than the $44,990 starting price for the Model Y in the US.

Speaking of the US, consumers here wishing to buy a facelifted Model Y probably have a few more months before that becomes possible. The even more outdated Model 3 received its “Highland” update in China in September 2023, with European sales starting a month later, but in the US, the revamped Model 3 only appeared in early 2024. A similar wait for the “Juniper” Model Y should be expected, as the company will need to refit its Model Y production lines at its factories in Germany, California, and Texas before that can happen.

Tesla’s Model Y crossover finally gets a facelift—just in China for now Read More »

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Only 5 percent of US car buyers want an EV, according to survey

Cars, EV adoption / /

Only 5 percent of US consumers want their next vehicle to be a battery electric vehicle, according to a new survey by Deloitte. The consulting company gathered data from more than 31,000 people across 30 countries as part of its 2025 Global Automotive Consumer Study, and some of the results are rather interesting, as they pertain to technologies like new powertrains, connectivity, and artificial intelligence.

Among US consumers, internal combustion engines (ICE) remain number one, with 62 percent indicating that their next car will not be electrified. Another 1 in 5 would like a hybrid for their next vehicle, with a further 6 percent desiring a plug-in hybrid. (The remaining survey respondents either did not know or wanted some other powertrain option.)

By contrast, only 38 percent of Chinese consumers want to stick with ICE; meanwhile, 27 percent of them want a BEV next. That’s a far higher percentage than in other large nations—in Germany, only 14 percent want a BEV; in the UK and Canada, only 8 percent are BEV-bound; and in Japan, the number is a mere 3 percent.

Meanwhile, hybrids are far more attractive to consumers in most countries. While only 16 percent of Chinese and 12 percent of German consumers indicated this preference, 23 percent of Canadians, 24 percent of UK consumers, and 35 percent of Japanese consumers replied that they were looking for a hybrid for their next car.

Deloitte suspects that some of this reticence toward BEVs “could be due, in part, to lingering affordability concerns.” The hoped-for parity in the cost of a BEV powertrain and an ICE powertrain has still not arrived, and fully 45 percent of US consumers said they did not want to pay more than $34,999 for their next car (11 percent said less than $15,000, 9 percent said $15,000–$19,999, and the remaining 25 percent said $20,000–$34,999.)

Why the reticence?

Despite popular sentiment, there are actually quite a few electric vehicles available for much less than the average new vehicle price of $47,000. But other than the Nissan Leaf, all of them have prices starting with a “3.” (Meanwhile, 75 percent of car buyers in the US buy used cars, and the transition to electrification will not change that underlying reality.)

Only 5 percent of US car buyers want an EV, according to survey Read More »

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“I’m getting dizzy”: Man films Waymo self-driving car driving around in circles

Cars, Policy, self-driving, waymo / /

Waymo says the problem only caused a delay of just over five minutes and that Johns was not charged for the trip. A spokesperson for Waymo, which is owned by Google parent Alphabet, told Ars today that the “looping event” occurred on December 9 and was later addressed during a regularly scheduled software update.

Waymo did not answer our question about whether the software update only addressed routing at the specific location the problem occurred at, or a more general routing problem that could have affected rides in other locations.

The problem affecting Johns’ ride occurred near the user’s pickup location, Waymo told us. The Waymo car took the rider to his destination after the roughly five-minute delay, the spokesperson said. “Our rider support agent did help initiate maneuvers that helped resolve the issue,” Waymo said.

Rider would like an explanation

CBS News states that Johns is “still not certain he was communicating with a real person or AI” when he spoke to the support rep in the car. However, the Waymo spokesperson told Ars that “all of our rider support staff are trained human operators.”

Waymo told Ars that the company tried to contact Johns after the incident and left him a voicemail. Johns still says that he never received an explanation of what caused the circling problem.

We emailed Johns today and received a reply from a public relations firm working on his behalf. “To date, Mike has not received an explanation as to the reason for the circling issue,” his spokesperson said. His spokesperson confirmed that Johns did not miss his flight.

It wasn’t clear from the video whether Johns tried to use the “pull over” functionality available in Waymo cars. “If at any time you want to end your ride early, tap the Pull over button in your app or on the passenger screen, and the car will find a safe spot to stop,” a Waymo support site says.

Johns’ spokesperson told us that “Mike was not immediately aware of the ‘pull over’ button,” so “he did not have an opportunity to use it before engaging with the customer service representative over the car speaker.”

While Waymo says all its agents are human, Johns’ spokesperson told Ars that “Mike is still unsure if he was speaking with a human or an AI agent.”

“I’m getting dizzy”: Man films Waymo self-driving car driving around in circles Read More »

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VW will offer “highly competitive” leases on ID.4 as sales restart

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Last September, faulty door handle hardware caused Volkswagen to take the rather drastic steps of suspending sales and production of the electric crossover, as well as recalling almost 100,000 customer cars. Now, it says it has new parts that will allow it to fix existing cars, lift the stop-sale order, and soon, resume production at its factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

The ID.4, like many new EVs, features flush door handles in service of the all-important effort of drag reduction. Instead of conventional mechanical handles that interrupt the laminar air flow down the side of the car, VW instead went with an electromechanical solution.

Unfortunately, the door handle assemblies weren’t sufficiently waterproofed, allowing the electronics inside to corrode. Consequently, early last year VW started getting complaints of ID.4s with doors that would intermittently open while driving, with reporting almost 300 warranty claims by September, when it pulled the car from sale, issued the recall, and stopped the production line.

That line will restart “in the coming weeks,” VW says, and now that there are new and improved door handles available, dealers will now be able to complete the recall. That also means that any ID.4s in inventory can be fixed and then sold. To sweeten the deal, the automaker says that it will offer some “highly competitive lease offers,” as it hopes to send its clean crossover back up the sales charts.

VW will offer “highly competitive” leases on ID.4 as sales restart Read More »

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The 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid: A refreshing alternative to a crossover

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The Honda Civic Hybrid powertrain.

This is the hybrid powertrain. Credit: Honda

And that can be tempting. The car we tested is much more pedestrian than the Type-R, but from the driver’s seat, it wants to eat corners almost as ravenously as that track-tuned model. That surprised me because the Type-R uses a limited slip differential, and these more sedate models do not. This is indeed a car that will reward you for hustling it down a twisty road should the desire arise.

The paddles on the steering wheel increase or decrease the amount of regenerative braking you experience when you lift the throttle rather than changing (non-existent) gears. Turned off, the Civic Hybrid will coast down the road with aplomb; in its strongest setting, it’s not quite one-pedal driving.

The driving position is now rather low-slung for a normal passenger car, no doubt a feeling exacerbated by a driving diet too-heavy in crossovers and SUVs, but you don’t feel quite as close to the ground as you might in, say, an MX-5. Visibility is good, and the ergonomics/HMI deserves praise for the fact that most of the controls are physical buttons. The air vents even have little machined metal stalks to aim them.

It’s a well-thought out interior. Honda

It’s also easy to live with. The hatchback means loading cargo is no hassle, although at this price point, you have to close your own tailgate; there is no motor assistance. The front and rear are spacious enough, considering the class of car, and there are plenty of USB-C ports for people to use to recharge their stuff. The heated front seats heated up very quickly on cold days, although a heated steering wheel would have been a nice addition.

The Sport Touring Hybrid we tested also comes with a 9-inch Android Automotive-based infotainment system that includes a full suite of Google’s automotive services, as well as Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. And all Civics come with Honda Sensing, the company’s suite of advanced driver assistance systems. Unusually for a Honda, we didn’t even notice that many false positive alerts for the forward collision warning.

In all, I find very little reason not to recommend the Civic Hatchback Hybrid to people looking for a fun and efficient car that’s not too huge, too expensive, or too dependent on touchscreens.

The 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid: A refreshing alternative to a crossover Read More »

how-nascar-and-its-teams-are-embracing-3d-printing

How NASCAR and its teams are embracing 3D printing

3D printing, Cars, NASCAR, racing / /

Carbon fiber, aluminum, maybe the odd bit of titanium here or there: These are the materials we usually expect race cars to be made of. Now you can start adding thermoplastics like Ultem to the list. Additive manufacturing has become a real asset in the racer’s toolbox, although the technology has actually been used at the track longer than you might think.

“Some people think that 3D printing was invented last year,” said Fadi Abro, senior global director of automotive and mobility at Stratasys. The company recently became NASCAR’s official 3D printing partner, but it has a relationship with one of the teams—Joe Gibbs Racing—that stretches back two decades.

“Now the teams only have certain things that they can touch in the vehicle, but what that does is it makes it so that every microscopic advantage you can get out of that one tiny detail that you have control over is so meaningful to your team,” Abro said.

Currently, JGR has five printers, which it uses in a variety of applications. Some are common to other industries—additive manufacturing is a good way to quickly develop new prototypes, as well as tooling and fixtures. But the team also prints parts that go straight onto the race car, like housings, ducts, and brackets.

“These are elements that are really integral for the vehicle to be on the track. If there are changes they want to make, they throw it to the printer, it prints overnight, and you have a part that can go on a track that’s specific to that track. So that gives them a competitive advantage,” Abro said.

How NASCAR and its teams are embracing 3D printing Read More »