Elon Musk's Tesla robot trick, Amazon's color Kindle, and EV buyer's remorse: Tech news roundup

Tesla (TSLA) on Thursday tried to show off its Optimus project again after an event featuring them last week “tricked” some analysts who were unaware the humanoid robots were being assisted remotely.

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Tesla’s big autonomy event last night was mainly focused around the two-seat Cybercab and art deco city bus Robovan, but the company also talked about some updates to Optimus — the painfully slow robot that Elon Musk hopes will be an infinite money glitch for the company. The event’s afterparty heavily featured Optimus as a bartender and dancer, but it turns out the bot wasn’t doing anything itself. Tesla employees were remote controlling it the whole time.

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About 10% of electric vehicle owners regret their purchases, according to a new survey, though the figure varies significantly depending on the automaker.

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There’s no denying it, the long-delayed launch of the Cybertruck has been a sales success for Tesla. The angular behemoth has become one of the best-selling six-figure cars and it’s now the third-best-selling electric vehicle in America. That impressive run could be coming to an end, however, as it sounds like Tesla may have reached the bottom of its reservation list.

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The world watched with mild interest as Tesla boss Elon Musk unveiled his vision for our autonomous future at a glitzy event in Los Angeles last week. The launch included the unveiling of an autonomous bus, called the Robovan, and a self-driving taxi that Tesla calls the Cybercab. The company hopes to roll out a swarm of these autonomous vehicles before 2027, says Musk, but Tesla has a few hurdles to overcome before then.

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Plug-in hybrids are proving to not be the transitional bridge between gas-powered cars and electric vehicles many folks were hoping for. That’s a shame because when used properly, PHEVs are absolutely fantastic. A study from JD Power is shedding new light on how and why customers are unsatisfied with their plug-in hybrids. 

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Police in California are experiencing what happens when good intentions crash into reality. Police departments are transitioning to battery powered vehicles but those vehicles come with challenges that make cops’ jobs more difficult.

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Amazon (AMZN) unveiled a suite of Kindle devices Wednesday, including its first e-reader to have a color display.

The Kindle Colorsoft will retail for $279.99 and start shipping on Oct. 30. It will allow users to see the color of book titles and to add different colored highlights to text.

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Elon Musk’s Tesla (TSLA) is being investigated by federal regulators after one of its vehicles equipped with driver-assistance technology fatally struck a pedestrian.

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General Motors (GM) is increasing its investment in a Nevada lithium mine and its operator to almost $1 billion as it looks to secure a long-term supply of a critical mineral for electric vehicle batteries.

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