Yesterday, regulators at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it had begun looking into possible issues with the suspension on Tesla’s Model S sedans, but the high-end electric vehicle maker is currently denying that there are any safety issues with the Model S suspensions, or that there is a formal investigation into the matter. [More]
Transportation & Infrastructure
Tesla Denies Report Of Possible Safety Defect In Model S & “Troubling” Nondisclosure Agreements
By 6.10.16
Uber Now Allows Riders To Schedule Trips In Advance
By 6.10.16
Less than two weeks after Lyft rolled out a new service that allows riders to book trips in advance — despite the fact that that action essentially defeats the purpose of an on-demand ride-hailing app — the company’s biggest rival is joining club: Uber will now let users schedule trips between 30 minutes and 30 days in advance. [More]
Tesla Shipping Model X Owners Sunshades To Fix Windshield Glare
By 6.9.16
Just weeks after Tesla began shipping its long-anticipated Model X SUV, the new owners began expressing concerns over several quality issues including a windshield that distorted oncoming headlights and street lamps and allowed too much heat to enter the vehicle. Today, the electric carmaker is trying to fix one of those issues by shipping sunshades to owners. [More]
New Legislation Targets Deadly Furniture Tip-Overs
By 6.9.16
Each year, some 25,000 Americans — mostly children — are injured or killed from furniture and other household appliances that tip over or fall because they are not properly secured. A new piece of legislation aims to reduce these potentially deadly incidents by establishing sturdier minimum standards. [More]
Inspector General: FDA Still Takes Too Long To Recall Tainted Food Products
By 6.9.16
Five years ago, the Food Safety Modernization Act granted the Food and Drug Administration the statutory authority to compel food producers to recall tainted products. However, a new report from a federal investigator shows that people are falling ill while the FDA sometimes takes months to issue recalls, even after it has evidence of contamination. [More]
In France, Uber And Executives Convicted Of Deceptive Commercial Practices
By 6.9.16
Ride-hailing app Uber’s service that lets any safe driver with access to a new-ish car become a driver for hire is generally popular with the frugal public all over the world, but is less popular with regulators and with professional taxi drivers. That’s been the case in France, where the company was convicted today of deceptive commercial practices and illegal business activity, and with its executives fined a collective €850,000 ($962,689). [More]
NHTSA: Self-Driving Cars Need To Be Twice As Safe In Order To Reduce Traffic Deaths
By 6.8.16
Proponents of self-driving vehicles claim the new technology will decrease the number of crashes occurring on the roadways, thereby reducing the number of driver and pedestrian deaths. But for that to happen, regulators say the new industry must take significant steps to improve autonomous vehicle safety. [More]
Human-Carrying Drone Taxi Gets Approval For Testing In Nevada
By 6.8.16 — Updated: 2.13.17
Flying cars might not yet be within our reach, but there are companies out there working on technology that would let drones ferry around human passengers like flying taxis, so at least that’s something. [More]
Uber’s Head Of Global Customer Support Steps Down
By 6.7.16
After hopping over to Uber from Amazon in January 2015, the head of the ride-sharing company’s global customer support operations, Tim Collins, is returning from whence he came: he’s stepped down from his job at Uber and is reportedly going back to Amazon. [More]
Uber Rolling Out Guaranteed Arrival Times For UberPool
By 6.7.16
In its latest effort to get more people to use its carpooling service UberPool, Uber is introducing guaranteed arrival times, so passengers won’t have to worry about being late, even if they’re picked up first and dropped off last. [More]
Our Government Has Somehow Managed To Suggest An Even Worse Name For The Sharing Economy
By 6.7.16
If you want to bash your head against the closest rock whenever you hear that a new service wants to be the “Uber of [fill in the industry],” you are not alone. Both the industry and the general public have struggled to come up with names for the new model of sharing cars, homes, etc.: there’s the sharing economy, the gig economy, and now, the government has its own idea for a term that might be worse than all the rest. [More]
Uber Adds Tools To App For Drivers, Doesn’t Add Higher Pay Or In-App Tips
By 6.6.16
What drivers for ride-hailing apps really want is to make more money. They’d like higher fares, or for passengers to have the ability to tip them from inside the app: really, either of those would be great. Instead, drivers for Uber are getting a suite of handy features, like being able to pick up passengers traveling in the same direction as they want to end up. Not higher fares, though. [More]
Walmart Partners With Uber, Lyft For Online Grocery Delivery
By 6.3.16
Shoppers in more than a dozen cities can already order groceries from Walmart.com then later have someone bring their order out to their waiting car. Soon, these folks won’t even have to leave home. [More]
CPSC Recalls Kids’ Jewelry Kits With Cra-Z Amount Of Lead
By 6.2.16
Last month, an investigation by New York state’s attorney general turned up craft kits marketed to children with 10 times the acceptable level of lead. While state attorneys general don’t have the power to order a recall, the AG forwarded the information to the Consumer Products Safety Commission and the distributors and retailers of the product. Today, the distributor announced a recall of the craft kits. [More]
Another 4.4 Million Cars From 11 Brands Recalled For Takata Airbags
By 6.2.16
Sometimes it might be shorter and easier to just publish a list of the vehicles that haven’t been recalled today. While cars continue to be manufactured and sold with the potentially harmful ammonium nitrate airbags, 2.4 million more vehicles containing the problematic safety equipment have been recalled in the last two days. [More]
Tesla Will Probably Charge Model 3 Owners For Using Supercharging Stations
By 6.1.16
While current Tesla owners can drive up to any one of the Supercharging stations in the company’s network, plug in, and fill up on electricity for free, future owners of Model 3 cars probably won’t be able to enjoy that same service without paying for it. [More]
Report: Carmakers Continue To Equip Vehicles With Defective Takata Airbags
By 6.1.16
Fourteen automakers have recalled nearly 40 million vehicles equipped with more than 80 million defective Takata airbags that can deploy with enough force to shoot pieces of shrapnel at drivers and passengers, leading to 10 deaths in the U.S. and hundreds of injuries. While the Japanese parts maker, federal regulators, and carmakers have worked to replace these dangerous safety devices, a new report reveals that at least four carmakers continue to equip new vehicles with affected airbags. [More]
5 Things You Should Know About Uber’s Xchange Leasing Program & Its Costs
By 5.31.16
Last summer, Uber launched a car leasing program that aimed to remedy the one big obstacle for anyone who wanted to sign up as a driver and hit the road — if you don’t have a car, you’ve got nowhere to put passengers. Nearly a year after Xchange Leasing began connecting would-be drivers with new vehicles, experts say the program may not be all it’s cracked up to be for already financially vulnerable drivers. [More]
