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Earlier than we soar into the remainder of the information, a phrase about Grok, the AI mannequin created by xAI, an Elon Musk firm that lately acquired his social media service X. Sure, that is associated to transportation.
Grok, which might analyze pictures and reply to questions, is supposed to be a competitor to fashions like OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Grok has turn out to be a centerpiece of X, the place customers work together with the AI chatbot. It’s additionally turn out to be more and more combative and gone on a number of antisemitic tirades, praised Hitler, and even made rape threats. (These posts have been taken down.)
And simply yesterday, AI reporter Max Zeff found that xAI’s latest mannequin, Grok 4, appears to seek the advice of social media posts from Musk’s X account when answering questions in regards to the Israel and Palestine battle, abortion, immigration legal guidelines, and different controversial points.
How is any of this associated to transportation? Grok is coming to Tesla automobiles as quickly as subsequent week, in response to Musk.
A well known white hat hacker who makes use of the deal with “Inexperienced the Solely” dug into Tesla’s firmware and made just a few discoveries. For instance, drivers will be capable to select sure Grok “personalities,” together with ones which are NSFW (not protected for work), argumentative, children story, attractive, therapist, unhinged, and extra. He additionally discovered that “Grok at present requires premium connectivity and pairs into your present account.”
A bit chook
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Offers!
In one other episode of “Is it 2016?” Rivian micromobility spinout Additionally raised one other $200 million with a post-money valuation of $1 billion. Sure, that’s proper, a micromobility firm that has but to disclose its first product.
As we’ve reported earlier than, there may be loads of hype and anticipation round Additionally — and Jony Ive’s LoveFrom connection to the model definitely helps increase its profile.
Different offers that received my consideration this week …
Talking of buzzy EVs which have raised eye-popping rounds, senior reporter Sean O’Kane interviewed the founders of Slauson & Co., a Los Angeles enterprise agency that launched 5 years in the past and was an early investor within the Jeff Bezos-backed Slate Auto. Wish to compensate for Slate Auto information? We created a helpful Slate Auto timeline that covers all our scoops and information. We are going to replace this recurrently.
Finnish e-motor startup Donut Lab raised €25 million ($29.2 million) in a seed funding spherical led by Risto Siilasmaa, the founding father of cybersecurity firm WithSecure (previously F-Safe). Risto has additionally joined Donut Lab’s board.
INSHUR, an insurance coverage merchandise service targeted on the on-demand economic system, raised $35 million from Trinity Capital. The brand new funding will help INSHUR’s continued enlargement throughout the USA.
Notable reads and different tidbits
Autonomous automobiles
President Trump has nominated Jonathan Morrison to move the Nationwide Freeway Site visitors Security Administration. Morrison has a historical past of tussling with Tesla.
In the meantime, it appears like Tesla is making an attempt to unfold its robotaxi wings. The corporate utilized to check and function autonomous automobiles in Arizona in a bid to convey its fledgling robotaxi service to the Metro Phoenix space. Our story has just a few fascinating tidbits and explains the AV allowing course of in Phoenix. One essential level: The corporate can even want a TNC allow to offer ride-hailing providers.
Musk additionally commented that robotaxis will come to the Bay Space as soon as they obtain regulatory approval in “a month or two.” There’s only one challenge with that: The California DMV, which regulates AVs, says Tesla hasn’t even utilized for a driverless testing or deployment allow but. As of right now, Tesla solely has an autonomous automobile testing allow for public street testing with a security driver, which it’s held since 2014.
Waymo continues to develop, and never simply geographically. The corporate is opening up its robotaxi service in Phoenix to youngsters. There are caveats right here, particularly that the kids can solely join via a verified father or mother’s account. And so they must be ages 14 to 17, so no 13-year-olds. That implies Waymo needs to keep away from center schoolers and solely present service to these in highschool.
In the meantime, Waymo is sniffing round New York Metropolis (a famously restrictive place for AVs) and Philadelphia. The corporate kicked off “street journeys” within the two Northeastern cities. Street journeys could be considered as early testing, though in New York Metropolis the automobiles will all be manually pushed and used to map and accumulate information.
Electrical automobiles, batteries, & charging
A number of new EVs broke cowl this previous week: Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Källenius took the upcoming all-electric GLC for a check experience; Subaru stated it’ll reveal its new all-electric compact crossover SUV at 7:30 p.m. ET on July 17; and Volvo shared details about the carbon footprint of the all-electric ES90, which begins manufacturing later this summer season.
In the meantime, I spent just a few days within the 2026 Rivian quad-motor R1S and R1T. That is the second technology of the flagship EV and the EV maker’s most costly trim, which prices between $115,990 and $125,990, relying on the model.
Try the complete article about my check drive, which digs into the tech behind the second-generation flagship EV.
