OpenAI executives are considering premium subscriptions for advanced language models, including the reasoning-focused Strawberry and flagship Orion, with potential monthly prices ranging up to $2,000, The Information reported Thursday, citing a source.

The move reflects growing concerns about covering operational costs for ChatGPT, which currently generates approximately $2 billion annually from $20 monthly subscriptions, the report added. More sophisticated models like Strawberry and Orion may require additional computing power, potentially increasing expenses, the report added.

Visa said it plans to launch a dedicated service for bank transfers, skipping credit cards and the traditional direct debit process. From a report: Visa, which alongside Mastercard is one of the world's largest card networks, said Thursday it plans to launch a dedicated service for account-to-account (A2A) payments in Europe next year. Users will be able set up direct debits -- transactions that take funds directly from your bank account -- on merchants' e-commerce stores with just a few clicks. Visa said consumers will be able to monitor these payments more easily and raise any issues by clicking a button in their banking app, giving them a similar level of protection to when they use their cards.

The service should help people deal with problems like unauthorized auto-renewals of subscriptions, by making it easier for people to reverse direct debit transactions and get their money back, Visa said. It won't initially apply its A2A service to things like TV streaming services, gym memberships and food boxes, Visa added, but this is planned for the future. The product will initially launch in the U.K. in early 2025, with subsequent releases in the Nordic region and elsewhere in Europe later in 2025. [...] Static direct debits, for example, require advance notice of any changes to the amount taken, meaning you have to either cancel the direct debit and set up a new one or carry out a one-off transfer. With Visa A2A, consumers will be able to set up variable recurring payments (VRP), a new type of payment that allows people to make and manage recurring payments of varying amounts.

Madrid City Hall said on Thursday it would ban all rental e-scooters from October because of the risk they pose to pedestrians, the latest city to make the move. From a report: "We are withdrawing authorization for companies hiring out scooters on the city's streets," the Spanish capital's conservative mayor Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida wrote on X. "Our priority is the... safety of the people of Madrid," he said, adding that the measure would "take full effect in October." The three companies currently with licenses to rent out e-scooters on the streets of Madrid -- Lime, Dott and Tier Mobility -- will now have to remove their devices. These firms "did not comply with the conditions we imposed to guarantee the safety of pedestrians, particularly the elderly," the mayor said. Madrid City Hall criticized the firms for not using technology to prevent e-scooters from driving or parking in prohibited areas and lacking the appropriate accident insurance.

Volvo now says it will push back its deadline to sell only electric vehicles by 2030, citing the need for stronger government support. "The new plans call for 90 to 100% of global sales to be electrified, including EVs and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs)," reports Electrek. "The other up to 10% will be "a limited number of hybrids" if needed. By 2025, Volvo expects 50 to 60% of sales to be electrified." From the report: Volvo was one of the first automakers to set a 100% EV sales goal by 2030. The announcement was made over three years ago in March 2021. The plan was to sell only fully electric cars while phasing out "any car in its global portfolio with an internal combustion engine, including hybrids." [...]

Volvo has already launched five all-electric models: the EX40, EC40, EX30, EM90, and the EX90. After delivering its first model in January, the Volvo EX30 is already the third best-selling EV in Europe. Another five EVs are in development. However, Volvo said the shift comes as the charging infrastructure rollout has been out slower than expected, and government incentives have been withdrawn. Volvo is calling for stronger and more stable government policies to support the transition to EVs.

Volvo also adjusted its CO2 reduction goal. The company aims to reduce CO2 emissions per car by 65% to 75% by 2030 (using 2018 as a baseline). That's down from the previous 75% reduction target. Next year, Volvo aims for a 30 to 35% reduction (with 2018 as a baseline), down from 40%. The company is still working with suppliers to cut CO2 emissions across its value chain. "We are resolute in our belief that our future is electric," said Volvo Cars CEO Jim Rowan. "An electric car provides a superior driving experience."

Despite this, "it is clear that the transition to electrification will not be linear, and customers and markets are moving at different speeds of adoption," Rowan explained.

Safe Superintelligence (SSI), co-founded by OpenAI's former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, has raised $1 billion to develop safe AI systems that surpass human capabilities. The company, valued at $5 billion, plans to use the funds to hire top talent and acquire computing power, with investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, and DST Global. Reuters reports: Sutskever, 37, is one of the most influential technologists in AI. He co-founded SSI in June with Gross, who previously led AI initiatives at Apple, and Daniel Levy, a former OpenAI researcher. Sutskever is chief scientist and Levy is principal scientist, while Gross is responsible for computing power and fundraising. Sutskever said his new venture made sense because he "identified a mountain that's a bit different from what I was working on."

SSI is currently very much focused on hiring people who will fit in with its culture. Gross said they spend hours vetting if candidates have "good character", and are looking for people with extraordinary capabilities rather than overemphasizing credentials and experience in the field. "One thing that excites us is when you find people that are interested in the work, that are not interested in the scene, in the hype," he added. SSI says it plans to partner with cloud providers and chip companies to fund its computing power needs but hasn't yet decided which firms it will work with. AI startups often work with companies such as Microsoft and Nvidia to address their infrastructure needs.

Sutskever was an early advocate of scaling, a hypothesis that AI models would improve in performance given vast amounts of computing power. The idea and its execution kicked off a wave of AI investment in chips, data centers and energy, laying the groundwork for generative AI advances like ChatGPT. Sutskever said he will approach scaling in a different way than his former employer, without sharing details. "Everyone just says scaling hypothesis. Everyone neglects to ask, what are we scaling?" he said. "Some people can work really long hours and they'll just go down the same path faster. It's not so much our style. But if you do something different, then it becomes possible for you to do something special."

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Jazmin Jones knowswhat she did. "If you're online, there's this idea of trolling," Jones, the director behindSeeking Mavis Beacon, said during a recent panel for her new documentary. "For this project, some things we're taking incredibly seriously ... and other things we're trolling. We're trolling this idea of a detective because we're also, like,ACAB." Her trolling, though, was for a good reason. Jones and fellow filmmaker Olivia Mckayla Ross did it in hopes of finding the woman behind Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing. The popular teaching tool was released in 1987 by The Software Toolworks, a video game and software company based in California that produced educational chess, reading, and math games. Mavis, essentially the "mascot" of the game, is a Black woman donned in professional clothes and a slicked-back bun. Though Mavis Beacon was not an actual person, Jones and Ross say that she is one of the first examples of Black representation they witnessed in tech. Seeking Mavis Beacon, which opened in New York City on August 30 and is rolling out to other cities in September, is their attempt to uncover the story behind the face, which appeared on the tool's packaging and later as part of its interface.

The film shows the duo setting up a detective room, conversing over FaceTime, running up to people on the street, and even tracking down a relative connected to the ever-elusive Mavis. But the journey of their search turned up a different question they didn't initially expect: What are the impacts of sexism, racism, privacy, and exploitation in a world where you can present yourself any way you want to? Using shots from computer screens, deep dives through archival footage, and sit-down interviews, the noir-style documentary reveals that Mavis Beacon is actually Renee L'Esperance, a Black model from Haiti who was paid $500 for her likeness with no royalties, despite the program selling millions of copies. [...]

In a world where anyone can create images of folks of any race, gender, or sexual orientation without having to fully compensate the real people who inspired them, Jones and Ross are working to preserve not only the data behind Mavis Beacon but also the humanity behind the software. On the panel, hosted by Black Girls in Media, Ross stated that the film's social media has a form where users of Mavis Beacon can share what the game has meant to them, for archival purposes. "On some level, Olivia and I are trolling ideas of worlds that we never felt safe in or protected by," Jones said during the panel. "And in other ways, we are honoring this legacy of cyber feminism, historians, and care workers that we are very seriously indebted to." You can watch the trailer for "Seeking Mavis Beacon" on YouTube.

The latest Windows personal computers with AI features have "the best specs" on "all the benchmarks," Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella recently said. There is one problem: The chips inside current models are incompatible with many leading videogames. From a report: Microsoft and its partners this spring rolled out Copilot+ PCs that include functions such as creating AI-generated pictures and video. Under the hood of the new laptops is a hardware change. Instead of the Intel chips that have powered Microsoft Windows PCs for nearly four decades, the initial Copilot+ PCs to hit the market use Qualcomm chips, which in turn rely on designs from U.K.-based Arm.

Most PC games, including popular multiplayer games such as "League of Legends" and "Fortnite," are made to work with Intel's x86, a chip architecture that has been the standard for many personal computers for decades. To make some of these programs function on the Qualcomm-Arm system, they must be run through a layer of software that translates Intel-speak into Arm-speak. Chip experts say the approach isn't perfect and can result in bugs, glitches or games simply not working. The problem is widespread. About 1,300 PC games have been independently tested to see if they work on Microsoft's new Arm-powered PCs and only about half ran smoothly, said James McWhirter, an analyst with research firm Omdia.

Verizon is in advanced talks to acquire Frontier Communications in a deal that would bolster the company's fiber network to compete with rivals including AT&T, WSJ reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. From the report: An announcement could come this week, granted the talks don't hit any last-minute snags, the people said. A deal would be sizable, given Frontier's market value of over $7 billion. The company, cobbled together by several deals over the years, provides broadband connections to about three million locations across 25 states.

Verizon, the top cellphone carrier by subscribers, has faced increased pressure from competitors and from cable-TV companies that offer discounted wireless service backed by Verizon's own cellular network. Verizon has its Fios-branded fiber network, and AT&T has focused on expanding its fiber network since shedding its WarnerMedia assets in 2022. Fiber M&A has heated up as telecom companies and financial firms pour capital into neighborhoods that lack high-speed broadband or offer only one internet provider, usually from a cable-TV company.

A pair of devices launching Wednesday highlight a growing trend in consumer hardware: doing one thing well, Axios writes. From the report: The smartphone rendered many formerly standalone devices obsolete, but now some tech with a single purpose can offer an experience that a digital Swiss Army knife can't. GoPro announced its latest cameras on Wednesday. The $199 GoPro Hero is a smaller, simpler camera that presents fewer controls, while this year's flagship -- the $399 Hero 13 Black -- supports a series of add-on lenses without losing its core as a rugged, waterproof action camera.

Meanwhile, the reMarkable tablet company is adding its first color model. ReMarkable's tablets allow creators to write and sketch without the distractions of more full-featured devices. ReMarkable's paper tablets are similar to Amazon's Kindle Scribe, but with a focus on creating and editing documents rather than reading digital books. In addition to adding color -- the most requested feature -- the Paper Pro has built-in illumination, a larger eInk display and an active digital pen, which allows digital ink to appear on the display within an imperceptible 12 milliseconds. The new Paper Pro ($579 or $629, depending on which pen is bundled) is still aimed at those who want to avoid notifications rather than those who want to multitask.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Axios: The German company says it may close plants in its home country amid what CEO Oliver Blume reportedly called "a very demanding and serious situation" for the European automotive industry. That would mark the first-ever German plant closures in the company's nearly nine-decade history. VW is facing a pair of competition-related challenges -- one outside its control, and the other of its own making. Chinese automakers are wresting market share away from VW in China, where it once held the highest share of any automaker. The company's China sales have fallen from 4 million in 2017 to an estimated 2.5 million in 2024, according to Dunne Insights analyst Michael Dunne. And its Chinese competitors are bringing cheap electric vehicles to VW's other critical market: Europe. Another part of the problem is that VW is a bloated company compared with its competitors, meaning it has less margin for error.

The company had some 684,000 employees in 2023. That's about 309,000 more than the ever-efficient Toyota, which sold about 2 million more vehicles than VW worldwide last year. The VW brand's profit margin fell from 3.8% in 2023 to 2.3% in the first half of 2024, moving in the wrong direction from the company's long-term target of 6.5%, according to Evercore ISI analyst Chris McNally. Hence the "drastic attempt to cut costs" as the company's bottom line suffers, McNally writes. But VW isn't just facing operational issues and increased competition in key markets -- it's also falling behind on technology. The company recently agreed to invest in Rivian to get help from the American startup on EV development despite having 40 times more employees than its new partner. And VW's long-awaited ID. Buzz -- its EV revival of its famed microbus -- recently disappointed enthusiasts with underwhelming battery range of 234 miles and a starting price of about $60,000.

During a 2023 deployment, senior enlisted leaders aboard the Navy ship USS Manchester secretly installed a Starlink Wi-Fi network, allowing them exclusive internet access in violation of Navy regulations. "Unauthorized Wi-Fi systems like the one [then-Command Senior Chief Grisel Marrero] set up are a massive no-no for a deployed Navy ship, and Marrero's crime occurred as the ship was deploying to the West Pacific, where such security concerns become even more paramount among heightened tensions with the Chinese," reports Navy Times. From the report: As the ship prepared for a West Pacific deployment in April 2023, the enlisted leader onboard conspired with the ship's chiefs to install the secret, unauthorized network aboard the ship, for use exclusively by them. So while rank-and-file sailors lived without the level of internet connectivity they enjoyed ashore, the chiefs installed a Starlink satellite internet dish on the top of the ship and used a Wi-Fi network they dubbed "STINKY" to check sports scores, text home and stream movies. The enjoyment of those wireless creature comforts by enlisted leaders aboard the ship carried serious repercussions for the security of the ship and its crew. "The danger such systems pose to the crew, the ship and the Navy cannot be understated," the investigation notes.

Led by the senior enlisted leader of the ship's gold crew, then-Command Senior Chief Grisel Marrero, the effort roped in the entire chiefs mess by the time it was uncovered a few months later. Marrero was relieved in late 2023 after repeatedly misleading and lying to her ship's command about the Wi-Fi network, and she was convicted at court-martial this spring in connection to the scheme. She was sentenced to a reduction in rank to E-7 after the trial and did not respond to requests for comment for this report. The Navy has yet to release the entirety of the Manchester investigation file to Navy Times, including supplemental enclosures. Such records generally include statements or interview transcripts with the accused.

But records released so far show the probe, which wrapped in November, found that the entire chiefs mess knew about the secret system, and those who didn't buy into it were nonetheless culpable for not reporting the misconduct. Those chiefs and senior chiefs who used, paid for, helped hide or knew about the system were given administrative nonjudicial punishment at commodore's mast, according to the investigation. All told, more than 15 Manchester chiefs were in cahoots with Marrero to purchase, install and use the Starlink system aboard the ship. "This agreement was a criminal conspiracy, supported by the overt act of bringing the purchased Starlink onboard USS MANCHESTER," the investigation said. "Any new member of the CPO Mess which then paid into the services joined that conspiracy following the system's operational status."

Records obtained by Navy Times via a Freedom of Information Act request reveal a months-long effort by Marrero to obtain, install and then conceal the chiefs Wi-Fi network from superiors, including the covert installation of a Starlink satellite dish on the outside of the Manchester. When superiors became suspicious about the existence of the network and confronted her about it, Marrero failed to come clean on multiple occasions and provided falsified documents to further mislead Manchester's commanding officer, the investigation states. "The installation and usage of Starlink, without the approval of higher headquarters, poses a serious risk to mission, operational security, and information security," the investigation states.

Firefox 130 introduces several enhancements, including improved local translation handling, better Android page load performance, and the WebCodecs API for low-level audio/video processing on desktop platforms. Notably, it also supports third-party AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Google Gemini via the new Firefox Labs feature. Phoronix reports: The WebCodecs API is particularly useful for web-based apps like video/audio editors and video conferencing that may want control over individual frames of a video stream or audio chunks. For any web software interested in that low-level audio/video encode/decode handling there is now WebCodecs API working on the Firefox desktop builds. As for the third-party AI chatbots, here's what Mozilla's Ian Carmichael said back in June: "If you want to use AI, we think you should have the freedom to use (or not use) the tools that best suit your needs. Instead of juggling between tabs or apps for assistance, those who opt-in will have the option to access their preferred AI service from the Firefox sidebar to summarize information, simplify language, or test their knowledge, all without leaving their current web page."

You can learn more about Firefox 130 via developer.mozilla.org. Binaries for Linux can be found at Mozilla.org.

In the days following Brazil's shutdown of X, the decentralized social networking startup Bluesky added over 2 million new users, up from just half a million as of Friday. "This rapid growth led some users to encounter the occasional error that would state there were 'Not Enough Resources' to handle requests, as Bluesky engineers scrambled to keep the servers stable under the influx of new sign-ups," reports TechCrunch's Sarah Perez. From the report: As new users downloaded the app, Bluesky jumped to becoming the app to No. 1 in Brazil over the weekend, ahead of Meta's X competitor, Instagram Threads. According to app intelligence firm Appfigures, Bluesky's total downloads soared by 10,584% this weekend compared to last, and its downloads in Brazil were up by a whopping 1,018,952%. The growth seems to be having a halo effect, as downloads outside Brazil also rose by 584%, the firm noted. In part, this is due to Bluesky receiving downloads in 22 countries where it had barely seen any traction before.

In terms of absolute downloads, countries that saw the most installs outside Brazil included the U.S., Portugal, the U.K., Canada and Spain. Those with the most download growth, however, were Portugal, Chile, Argentina, Colombia and Romania. Most of the latter group jumped from single-digit growth to growth in the thousands. Bluesky's newcomers have actively engaged on the platform, too, driving up other key metrics.

As one Bluesky engineer remarked, the number of likes on the social network grew to 104.6 million over the past four-day period, up from just 13 million when compared with a similar period just a week ago. Follows also grew from 1.4 million to 100.8 million while reposts grew from 1.3 million to 11 million. As of Monday, Bluesky said it had added 2.11 million users during the past four days, up from 26,000 users it had added in the week-ago period. In addition, the company noted it had seen "significantly more than a 100% [daily active users] increase." On Tuesday, Bluesky told TechCrunch the number is now 2.4 million and continues to grow "by the minute."

According to Mark Gurman, Apple's upcoming M4 Mac mini will undergo a major redesign, dropping USB-A ports entirely in favor of five USB-C ports. The new design will also feature front ports for the first time, an internal power supply, and retain Ethernet, HDMI, and the headphone jack.

"As I've been reporting for several months now, the Mac is in for a big transition to M4 chips -- starting around the end of this year and extending into the first half or so of 2025," writes Gurman in a newsletter for Bloomberg. "Apple plans to kick things off soon with a new Mac mini, iMac and MacBook Pro. Of those models, the Mac mini will get the most dramatic new design, its first major overhaul since 2010. Just to put that in perspective: The last time there was a Mac mini redesign, preorders of the iPhone 4 had just began."

Google has released Android 15 for developers, with support for Pixel phones expected in the coming weeks. The update will roll out to compatible devices from Samsung, Motorola, OnePlus, and other manufacturers in the following months.

Key features of Android 15 include single-tap passkeys, theft detection, improved multitasking for large-screen devices, and app access limitations. The update also enhances TalkBack, Android's screen reader, with Gemini AI integration for audio descriptions of images. Google is expanding its Circle to Search feature with song identification capabilities and extending earthquake alerts to all U.S. states and six territories. The alerts use data from Android devices' accelerometers to detect potential seismic activity, complementing traditional seismometer readings in states with access to the USGS ShakeAlert system.

Nvidia dominates the chips at the center of the AI boom. It wants to conquer almost everything else that makes those chips tick, too. From a report: Chief Executive Jensen Huang is increasingly broadening his company's focus -- and seeking to widen its advantage over competitors -- by offering software, data-center design services and networking technology in addition to its powerful silicon brains. More than a supplier of a valuable hardware component, he is trying to build Nvidia into a one-stop shop for all the key elements in the data centers where tools like OpenAI's ChatGPT are created and deployed -- or what he calls "AI factories."

Huang emphasized Nvidia's growing prowess at data-center design following an earnings report Wednesday that exceeded Wall Street forecasts. The report came days after rival AMD agreed to pay nearly $5 billion to buy data-center design and manufacturing company ZT Systems to try to gain ground on Nvidia. "We have the ability fairly uniquely to integrate to design an AI factory because we have all the parts," Huang said in a call with analysts. "It's not possible to come up with a new AI factory every year unless you have all the parts." It is a strategy designed to extend the business success that has made Nvidia one of the world's most valuable companies -- and to insulate it from rivals eager to eat into its AI-chip market share, estimated at more than 80%. Gobbling up more of the value in AI data centers both adds revenue and makes its offerings stickier for customers.

[...] Nvidia is building on the effectiveness of its 17-year-old proprietary software, called CUDA, which enables programmers to use its chips. More recently, Huang has been pushing resources into a superfast networking protocol called InfiniBand, after acquiring the technology's main equipment maker, Mellanox Technologies, five years ago for nearly $7 billion. Analysts estimate that InfiniBand is used in most AI-training deployments. Nvidia is also building a business that supplies AI-optimized Ethernet, a form of networking widely used in traditional data centers. The Ethernet business is expected to generate billions of dollars in revenue within a year, Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress said Wednesday. More broadly, Nvidia sells products including central processors and networking chips for a range of other data-center equipment that is fine-tuned to work seamlessly together.

Night trains are experiencing a resurgence across Europe as travelers seek more environmentally friendly alternatives to flying. European Sleeper, a Dutch cooperative, recently launched a new overnight route from Brussels to Prague, extending its existing service to Berlin. The 13-hour journey traverses Germany in refurbished 1970s-era carriages, accommodating up to 600 passengers. Bart Poels, head of service, reports high demand with most routes fully booked through September.

Passengers are citing various reasons for choosing night trains, including reduced carbon footprint, city center-to-center convenience, and cost savings on hotel accommodations, El Pais reports. The diverse clientele includes executives, families, and retirees. This revival comes after years of decline in night train services. Austrian railway OBB's Nightjet brand, launched in 2016, has also sparked renewed interest in overnight rail travel. The COVID-19 pandemic further accelerated the trend as travelers sought alternatives to flying. European officials are supporting the expansion of cross-border rail connections. The European Commission has backed pilot projects for more frequent and affordable services, while the European Investment Bank has provided loans for new equipment purchases.

Google executive James Manyika has warned that AI's impact on productivity is not guaranteed [Editor's note: the link may be paywalled], despite predictions of trillion-dollar economic potential. From the report: "Right now, everyone from my old colleagues at McKinsey Global Institute to Goldman Sachs are putting out these extraordinary economic potential numbers -- in the trillions -- [but] it's going to take a whole bunch of actions, innovations, investments, even enabling policy ...The productivity gains are not guaranteed. They're going to take a lot of work." In 1987 economist Robert Solow remarked that the computer age was visible everywhere except in the productivity statistics. "We could have a version of that -- where we see this technology everywhere, on our phones, in all these chatbots, but it's done nothing to transform the economy in that real fundamental way."

The use of generative AI to draft software code is not enough. "In the US, the tech sector is about 4 per cent of the labour force. Even if the entire tech sector adopted it 100 per cent, it doesn't matter from a labour productivity standpoint." Instead the answer lies with "very large sectors" such as healthcare and retail. Former British prime minister Sir Tony Blair has said that people "will have an AI nurse, probably an AI doctor, just as you'll have an AI tutor." Manyika is less dramatic: "In most of those cases, those professions will be assisted by AI. I don't think any of those occupations are going to be replaced by AI, not in any conceivable future."

Microsoft's Windows 11 operating system has surpassed Windows 10 usage for Steam users for the first time since its launch in 2021. From a report: Windows 10 has been holding strong in recent years, despite Microsoft's plans to end support for Windows 10 in October 2025. There are now signs that Windows 11 adoption is finally heading in the right direction for Microsoft. Steam hardware survey data for August puts Windows 11 usage at 49 percent, an increase of more than 3 percent over the previous figure in July of nearly 46 percent. Windows 10 usage has dipped by around 3 percent to 47 percent, while macOS and Linux Steam usage has largely remained the same during August.

"Let's get one thing out of the way," writes the Verge's transportation editor. Contrary to what you may have heard about U.S. sales of electric vehicles — sales are up. [Consumer insights company] JD Power is projecting that 1.2 million EVs will be sold in the US by the end of 2024, an increase over 1 million sold last year. That's 9 percent of total vehicles sold, which has been revised down from a previous prediction of 12 percent... Overall, an additional 35,000 battery-electric vehicles were sold in the first seven months of 2024 as compared to last year, JD Power says.

That includes hybrids and PHEVs, which I think gets at the root of the problem. Those who were expecting an even swap — battery-electric for internal combustion — didn't anticipate the popularity of hybrids in the market. If anything, hybrids are cannibalizing EV sales, giving the pure-battery electric vehicles more competition than anticipated. But in retrospect, it makes sense. What better response to "range anxiety" than a vehicle that, in a sense, operates as an electric vehicle until the battery runs out, and then switches over to gas...?

EVs are still too expensive, giving potential buyers sticker shock. According to data from Kelley Blue Book, the average transaction price for an electric car in July 2024 was $56,520. Meanwhile, the average gas-powered vehicle is selling at $48,401. There's also a depreciation problem. New research out of George Washington University finds that older EVs depreciate in value faster than conventional gas cars. Some even lost 50 percent of their resale value in a single year. The upside is that newer models with longer driving ranges are holding their value better and approaching the retention rates of many gas cars.

The charging experience is still wildly out-of-sync for most people. Either it's the single most satisfying thing about owning an EV or it's the worst. And the distinction is usually between people who live in houses and can install a home charger in their garage and those who live in an apartment building or multi-unit housing and have to rely on unreliable public chargers... But JD Power is optimistic about where that's heading, especially as public satisfaction is growing in both Level 2 and DC fast charging over two consecutive quarters. The Biden administration also continues to make massive investments in public charging, which should slowly ease the experience of public charging from "soul-sucking" to "honestly whatever."
The article concludes that the EV industry needs patience and flexibility. But more than that, it "needs to slow it down with the six-figure, luxury pickups and SUVs and start offering more low-cost compact cars and sedans."