Ends of eras can be bittersweet. Back at the opening of 2010s, there was much optimism about new transportation technology—how it might, say, make it easier to abandon personal cars in favor of “sharing economy” solutions. This week, the Daimler- and BMW-owned service Share Now announced it would depart from the US, the latest sign that more companies are probing whether those sorts of transportation businesses can make money in the long term.
This year also marks the end of federal tax credits for Tesla buyers; the company has sold enough cars that it’s aged out of the program. Does that mean that electric vehicles are off and running, or that there’s lots of work to do? Well, probably both.
Still, going into the 2020s, we at WIRED are feeling optimistic about lots of things on wheels. For example: electric bikes. Check out our review of the Christini Fat E-5, which features a 1,000-watt motor, 50 miles of range, and all-wheel drive. Who needs a car-share when super-bikes are on offer? It’s been a week—nay, a decade. Let’s get you caught up.
Headlines
Stories you might have missed from WIRED this week
Pricey Half-Second of the Week
One of the most fun things about owning a Tesla is the constant tweaks and improvements. This week, the electric carmaker rolled out an especially merry one: For $2,000, owners of dual-motor Model 3s can take a half-second off the car’s 0 to 60 time. A click and a virtual credit card swipe will take speed demons from a 4.4-second acceleration time to just 3.9 seconds.
Stat of the Week
4.7%
The share of US residents 16 and over who reported driving under the influence of marijuana in 2018, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control—accounting for 12 million people in all. Eight percent, or 20.5 million, said they had driven under the influence of alcohol that year. Researchers are still working to understand the associations between marijuana use and motor vehicle crashes. But they have found that “co-use” of pot or other illicit drugs with alcohol definitely increases the risk of impairment, and of a crash.
Required Reading
News from elsewhere on the internet
