VW Leaks Data, A Car Engine Made Of 50 Drills And MAGA Love The Cybertuck Bomber In This Week's News Roundup

Things aren’t going so great at Volkswagen right now, and while the latest scandal likely won’t rise to the level of the diesel emissions scandal, a security lapse by VW’s in-house software developer Cariad did expose the locations of about 800,000 electric vehicles to hackers. The app owners used to access many of their cars’ features, including preheating the cars and checking their charge levels, reportedly left the data it gathered largely unprotected, Spiegel reports. - Collin Woodard Read More

Everyone who has ever picked up an electric drill has wondered if it would be possible to use one to drive a car. Wait, you haven’t wondered that? Well I guess it’s just me and the Garage 54 hooligans. What if you had 50 drills? It makes sense for EVs to be powered by multiple electric motors, but what if each of those motors had its own battery and ran a common crankshaft via a series of complex pulleys and belts? Yes, this is a simple solution for the modern electric vehicle. No more wondering where the batteries will fit, you just have to put them inside the motor. - Bradley Brownell Read More

Traditionally, blowing up a truck outside a hotel has been considered bad. You know, because hurting other people is bad? Well, apparently, if you’re a former representative who nearly became the new attorney general, that’s not always the case. On Twitter, Matt Gaetz, the disgraced former Florida representative, posted, “The Vegas dude seems like a real CHAD??” and has yet to delete it at the time of writing, more than 18 hours later. - Collin Woodard Read More

Generally speaking, you shouldn’t break the law, but if you insist, it’s a good idea to remember the Jalopnik Law: commit only one crime at a time. One California man chose to ignore that advice Monday night and was reportedly speeding in his Rolls-Royce Ghost when officers pulled him over. They then proceeded to discover an adorable surprise — a one-month-old spider monkey wearing a onesie. Oh, and they also found five cell phones and a ton of weed, the LA Times reports. - Collin Woodard Read More

New Year’s Day was marred by violence when two men used trucks in separate incidents that are now being investigated as terrorist attacks. While the attacks did occur on the same day, their methods were wildly different, and there was little reason to believe they may be connected. Now, it appears both men served on the same Army base, prompting authorities to investigate a possible connection between the two men, Denver7 Investigates reports. - Collin Woodard Read More

Bedbugs, Cimex lectularius, are tiny vampiric asshole insects that come out at night to feed on blood. According to reports from travelers, these bugs are infesting Turkish Airlines planes, and the company doesn’t seem all that bothered by the bugs. Despite photographic evidence that the bugs were on their planes and further evidence they were bitten, affected travelers say Turkish Airlines dismissed their concerns, or denied them altogether, according to reports from The New York Times. - Bradley Brownell Read More

A Tesla Cybertruck packed with fireworks and canisters of gas was detonated outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas New Year’s Day. The FBI is now investigating the explosion, which killed one person and injured seven more. - Owen Bellwood Read More

For the first time in over ten years, Tesla’s sales were worse than they were the year before. This comes despite a year-end push from the Austin, Texas-based automaker meant to make up the difference in the fourth quarter. Still, Tesla sold 1.79 million vehicles in 2024, according to a release from the company. That’s slightly below the 1.81 million vehicles Tesla delivered in 2023. It’s also below where analysts thought they’d be. - Andy Kalmowitz Read More

Norway is leading the entire world when it comes to electric vehicle adoption. Nine out of ten cars sold in the Nordic country in 2024 were powered by electricity. That puts the country well on track to hit its goal of only adding EVs to the road in 2025. That’s a lofty task, but if anyone is equipped to do it, Norway is. - Andy Kalmowitz Read More

Cities and cars just don’t get along. Cities are compact, maximally utilizing space for their human residents, while cars aren’t — they take up precious space just sitting parked, and carry few people while moving. We’ve already seen that motorcycles are faster than cars for getting through vehicle-friendly Los Angeles, but a new set of tests from Chicago, LA, and New York City shows that cars lose nearly everywhere. - Amber DaSilva Read More