Toronto, Ontario — The European Union approves the 2035 phase out of CO2-emitting cars, a new NHTSA recall after 637 Lucid Airs lose power to their motors and a self-driving car collides into a car doing donuts at 1 a.m. This is the latest in electric and autonomous vehicles.
Stamp of Approval
The European Union has given the final stamp of approval to end the sale of CO2 emitting cars in 2035, with one exception for Germany to continue selling cars running on e-fuels, reads a recent Reuters article from Mar. 28.
Intended to decarbonize the next generation of cars, this law will require all new cars to have zero CO2 emissions from 2035.
Following protests by Germany, the EU is working towards legal alternatives allowing for the sale of combustion engine vehicles, assuming they can only use e-fuels which Reuters considered carbon-neutral.
Unsafe Switches
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is recalling several 2022 to 2023 Lucid Air sedans following reports of 637 of these vehicles having electrically activated contact switches that may unexpectedly disconnect and cut power to the electric motors.
Under NHTSA recall number 23V-110, the American safety organization recommends that Lucid implement a hardware fix, update the software of all sedans affected by the glitch and replace the affected switches for free.
Lucid Air owners in the United States should expect to be contacted by April 21, but may contact customer service at 1-888-995-8243.
Robo-Road Rage
A driverless car owned by Cruise in San Francisco recently collided with a Infiniti Q50 who’s human driver was doing donuts in the street, presumably in a bid to be the first AI to win a Darwin award.
This bizarre incident occurred on Mar. 6 around 1 a.m., with the empty Cruise taxi being part of an ongoing series of late-night robotaxi testing. Consequently, the vehicle suffered moderate damage with no passengers to be injured.
According to NBC News, the condition of the Infiniti driver is unclear as they left the scene shortly after the accident.
