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GM begins mass-producing self-driving Bolt EVs
The Chevy Bolt EV is an affordable, long-range electric car that's garnered positive reviews, but GM wasn't willing to stop there. They've just completed production on 130 self-driving test Bolt EVs. These aren't the first autonomous Chevy Bolt EVs that GM has produced. The company has been testing over 50 cars in San Francisco, Scottsdale and Detroit since June 2016, though the self-drive technology on this current crop of Bolts is more advanced. This new fleet of Bolts is notable, though, because it's the first time a company is using mass production techniques on self-driving vehicles. If autonomous vehicles really are the way of the future, manufacturers need a way to produce them in a cost-effective manner. That's just what GM is working on with these new Chevy EV Bolts: marrying safe and reliable self-driving technology with production methods that scale affordably.
GM has a rental car service for Uber and Lyft drivers
Maven, General Motors' Zipcar-style service, is expanding to grease the wheels of the despair-inducing gig economy. Maven Gig lets you rent a vehicle for, say, a week at a time, specifically as a way of making money on the "freelance mobility economy." Specifically, if you pay $229, you'll take control of a Chevy Bolt for a week so you can live your dream of working for Uber, Lyft, Instacart, Rodie and GrubHub.
The Chevy Bolt makes green driving fun
I've driven the Chevy Bolt a few times. At CES, briefly in San Francisco, and after a tour of the GM plant where the electric car will be assembled. But all those tests were in preproduction vehicles. Sure, they were working cars, but they weren't quite ready for consumers. The company still needed to tweak and refine the EV leading up to its official launch at a dealership in Fremont, California, in December. Finally , GM put me behind the wheel of a consumer-ready Bolt, and I wasn't disappointed.
Apple's new solar-powered campus, and more in the week that was
As the founder of Tesla, Elon Musk is a proponent of clean technology and renewable energy. That's why it's so surprising that Donald Trump has selected Musk to serve as a strategic advisor -- here's hoping Musk can convince the President-elect to take climate change seriously. In other news, Chevrolet just delivered its first batch of Bolt EVs to customers in the San Francisco Bay Area, beating Tesla's Model 3 to the punch. Steven Hawking is working with NASA to launch a self-healing starship that will search for habitable planets in Alpha Centauri. And Japan Airlines has developed a way to transform old clothing into jet fuel.
Tesla's plan for world domination, and more in the week that was
Tesla is known for producing some of the world's best electric cars, but founder Elon Musk has even bigger plans for the company: world domination. Musk's new masterplan will grow the company to produce trucks and buses while using battery technology and solar infrastructure to transition the world away from fossil fuels. Meanwhile, the world's first "Tesla Town" is coming to Australia, and every home in it will feature solar panels and a powerwall. Driverless cars are almost here: This week Mercedes-Benz unveiled the fully autonomous bus of the future, while a GM exec confirmed plans to launch a self-driving Chevy Bolt EV with Lyft. And we spotted a crazy truck that's able to lay its own road across treacherous terrain in just six minutes.
Taking a spin in the electrified Chevy Bolt EV
There's a reason the Chevy Bolt EV received Best of CES from Engadget. Even though we drove a model that's about 80 percent of what will end up in production, the promise of a solid compact car that's also a long-range electric vehicle was certainly there. We were also only able to squeeze in a few laps on the closed track with the car. But in that time, we got to try out the drivetrain options and the new and customizable infotainment system.
