America's Tesla divide, Apple and Google target tech stalkers, Ford's EV losses: Tech news roundup

Hertz gambled and lost when it placed its big EV bet on Tesla a few years ago. It was a chance for the rental car company to shake up the industry, instead the company bought 30,000 Teslas, got scared away by depreciation and expensive repairs and now wants to get rid of them. While all those used Teslas looked to be great used car deals, it turns out high mileage EVs that were formerly rentals are horrible to own as New York Magazine reported.  

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It’s pretty unusual for a car company to truly be divisive; outside of labor strikes or the occasional scandal or recall, they’re generally not something to be fought about at the Thanksgiving dinner table. Tesla, as usual, is the exception.

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Elon Musk fired the head of Tesla’s Supercharger department late last month, along with her entire 500-person team. It was a confusing decision that raised more questions than answers, especially considering that Musk had recently convinced every other automaker to agree to make their electric vehicles compatible with Tesla’s chargers. Assuming Reuters’ latest report is accurate, though, firing the Supercharger team wasn’t a business decision or a shift in strategy. It was simply Musk getting mad at someone for pushing back on what he was asking for and punishing the entire team as part of his tantrum.

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Parking lots full of Tesla vehicles are becoming impossible to ignore as the electric automaker seemingly can’t sell enough cars and trucks to match its rate of production. According to its own figures, the electric automaker produced 46,561 more vehicles than it delivered to customers during the first quarter of 2024. Where are all these cars going? Parking lots at its factories, malls and airports.

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It’s tough breaking into the electric vehicle game these days. Startups like Rivian and Lucid have posted massive losses while launching their lineups, General Motors has been slow to ramp up production of EVs and now Ford has shared some truly eye-watering losses from its own electric arm at the start of this year.

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Tesla’s charge port has become the North American Charging Standard (NACS), but what does it take for non-Tesla owners to take advantage of the brand’s ubiquitous Supercharger network? Online retailers like Amazon are full of NACS adapters that look like they would allow non-Tesla EVs to charge at Tesla Superchargers, but unfortunately none of these actually work. There are only a few ways for EV owners to use Tesla Superchargers, and there is no quick fix on Amazon. Consider for a moment though that your car costs a lot of money, and charging a whole car involves a lot more energy than charging a phone, so it’s not a smart situation to cheap-out on.

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Electric vehicle maker Rivian has informed officials in California that it is planning to carry out more layoffs in the state. In an April letter to the state’s Employment Development Department, Scott Griffin, Rivian’s vice president of people (read: head of HR) said the automaker planned to lay off over 120 employees, including 89 in Irvine and 28 in Palo Alto.

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If someone slips a tracking device onto your person, your phone will now start telling you, regardless if you’re an Apple or Android user.

Apple devices have long alerted users if an Air Tag or similar Apple bluetooth device is located in their vicinity. And Android phones have had the ability to detect unknown bluetooth devices — Air Tag or not — since at least July. A new update allows gadgets from either manufacturer to be fully cross-functional.

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A version of this article originally appeared on Jalopnik.

We’re not exactly the biggest fans of the Tesla Cybertruck. Aside from being a 7,000-pound monstrosity that was apparently designed without crumple zones, its frunk has a taste for fingers, its doors could slice your leg open and simply taking it through a car wash could brick your brand-new $100,000 truck. As more people get their hands on Cybertrucks, we’re also getting more behind-the-scenes looks at exactly how these trucks are built and a look at some of the problems they come with.

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