Cleantech & EV’s

It’s now July, which means schools from around the world are making final preparations for the Electrek American Solar Challenge 2026, and this year is going to be an especially notable one! A record 42 teams from colleges in the US, Canada, Belgium, and the Netherlands are registered to compete in the Formula Sun Grand Prix pre-qualifier track event in less than two weeks. This is a big deal…

Harris County prosecutors have charged the Tesla driver who crashed into a Katy, Texas, home and killed a 76-year-old woman with manslaughter, alleging he overrode Full Self-Driving to floor the car to 73 mph in a residential cul-de-sac. The charging document also reveals something new: in the weeks before the crash, the driver had been Googling that FSD wasn’t aggressive enough. Michael David…

Rivian’s new R2 has been spotted near Rivian HQ sporting a LiDAR sensor, which won’t be included with the earliest vehicles but will be added in a few months. And the implementation actually looks pretty good, compared to the large “taxi bumps” present on many other vehicles. Claims of future self-driving ability are all the rage in the automotive industry for quite some time now, a…

Rivian has released approximate order invite dates to reservation holders for its new mid-sized Rivian R2 SUV. Rivian recently started shipping its new R2, which also coincided with the availability of demo drives, order invites, and media reviews. The R2 is basically a smaller version of the company’s flagship R1S SUV, with a few new features and in a much more space and energy efficient…