Connect with us

News

Forthcoming Lucid Gravity spotted testing in South Korea

Credit: Lucid Motors

Published

on

Lucid Motors is set to launch the Gravity SUV later this year, and ahead of the company’s plans to enter production of the electric vehicle (EV), another prototype has been spotted undergoing some testing in South Korea.

Photos of the Lucid Gravity test vehicle were shared by X user 2028Lucid on Saturday, showing the electric prototype with a special wrap as it drove on a highway near the city of Uiwang. The wrap includes the word Gravity in varying sizes and directions, along with the word Lucid written in larger text along the sides and the back of the SUV.

Credit: 2028Lucid | X

The sighting is just the latest in the Lucid Gravity’s testing on public roads, after the automaker announced that it would begin testing pre-production versions of the SUV on public roads last April. A Lucid Gravity sporting the same wrap could also be seen in a photo on X on Friday, as posted by Car and Driver editor John Voelcker.

Advertisement

 

Although Lucid currently only sells its vehicles in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and the Middle East, the sighting comes just after the automaker announced plans last week to expand its AMP-1 factory in Casa Grande, Arizona, to prepare for production of the Gravity. In addition to the Arizona plant, Lucid also has a factory in King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC), Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where the company had assembled around 800 Air sedan units as of December.

Lucid is expected to begin producing the SUV by the end of 2024, and the automaker is targeting a price tag under $80,000, along with around 440 miles of range. The automaker has also said it hopes to eventually launch competitors to the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y at a lower cost, though the most affordable of the Lucid Air configurations currently starts at $77,400.

Advertisement

Throughout 2023, Lucid built a total of 8,428 Air units and delivered 6,001, after forecasting around 10,000 units produced in the year. The automaker was also delisted from the Nasdaq 100 Index in December, following a struggling stock trajectory throughout several months prior.

Lucid struggles in Q4 and decreases deliveries from a year earlier

What are your thoughts? Let me know at zach@teslarati.com, find me on X at @zacharyvisconti, or send your tips to us at tips@teslarati.com.

Zach is a renewable energy reporter who has been covering electric vehicles since 2020. He grew up in Fremont, California, and he currently lives in Colorado. His work has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, KRON4 San Francisco, FOX31 Denver, InsideEVs, CleanTechnica, and many other publications. When he isn't covering Tesla or other EV companies, you can find him writing and performing music, drinking a good cup of coffee, or hanging out with his cats, Banks and Freddie. Reach out at zach@teslarati.com, find him on X at @zacharyvisconti, or send us tips at tips@teslarati.com.

Advertisement
Comments

News

“Foundation:” Elon Musk wants to send a record of Grokipedia to space

The idea sounds outlandish, though it is also something that is in character for the CEO.

Published

on

Credit: xAI

Elon Musk has announced one of his latest initiatives, and it is every bit as sci-fi as it is surprisingly grounded. In a post on X, Musk stated that Grokipedia, xAI’s new open-source encyclopedia, will be etched into stable oxide and launched into space. 

The idea sounds outlandish, though it is also something that is in character for the CEO.

Preserving human knowledge among the stars

Musk posted his plan following the launch of Grokipedia’s V0.1’s iteration. The CEO congratulated the xAI team for the online encyclopedia’s launch, though he also stated that the goal for Grokipedia is to create an open-source collection of knowledge. This would then be distributed to the cosmos.

“Nice work by the xAI team on Grokipedia! The goal here is to create an open source, comprehensive collection of all knowledge. Then place copies of that etched in a stable oxide in orbit, the Moon, and Mars to preserve it for the future. Foundation,” Musk wrote in his post.

While seemingly outlandish, this is not the first time that a record of human knowledge of sorts was sent out to space. In 1977, the Voyager Golden Record was launched aboard NASA’s Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft. The record contains sounds and images that ere aggregated to portray the diversity of the Earth’s culture. Of course, Musk’s plan with Grokipedia, is infinitely more ambitious. 

Advertisement

Grokipedia and AI neutrality

Musk launched Grokipedia as an AI-driven alternative to Wikipedia, designed to eliminate the human biases that could affect conventional online knowledge platforms. The system is powered by xAI’s Grok, which scrape and summarize information from across the internet, offering balanced and nuanced coverage of topics ranging from science and technology to culture and politics.

Unlike Wikipedia’s human-edited format, Grokipedia would be able to evolve through machine learning, reading vastly more material than any editorial team could. Early testers, including Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger, praised its initial version as “very OK” and potentially more neutral than Wikipedia. Musk agreed, stating that even in its V0.1 form, Grokipedia is “already better than Wikipedia.”

Continue Reading

News

Tesla Cybertrucks to save Las Vegas police thousands in fuel and maintenance

Sheriff Kevin McMahill unveiled the new vehicles on Monday, describing them as “the next evolution to keep our community safer than it’s ever been.”

Published

on

Credit: @Sheriff_LVMPD/X

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department has officially unveiled its fleet of Tesla Cybertrucks as part of its push toward a more advanced, cost-efficient, and sustainable patrol system. 

Sheriff Kevin McMahill unveiled the new vehicles on Monday, describing them as “the next evolution to keep our community safer than it’s ever been.” The trucks are expected to begin service across all area commands within two weeks.

High-tech patrol fleet

Each UP.FIT-modified Cybertruck has been customized with ladders, shields, and less-lethal equipment to support law enforcement operations. The vehicles will connect to a live drone response hub capable of facial recognition and gunshot detection, enabling drones to launch automatically when alerts trigger. The system streams real-time footage directly to responding officers, enhancing both speed and situational awareness during emergencies.

Officers have already completed training with the new fleet and offered feedback on its performance, according to Fox 5 Vegas. Sheriff McMahill noted that the trucks, along with robot dogs and SWAT vehicles, represent a coordinated effort to combine human expertise with emerging technologies. The Cybertruck rollout was made possible through a donation from the Horowitz family.

Cybertrucks’ major savings

The department’s ten UP.FIT patrol Cybertrucks are among the most American-made law enforcement vehicles available, featuring roughly twice the domestic parts content of comparable Ford and Chevrolet patrol trucks. Beyond their build quality, the electric fleet offers major cost benefits. Each Cybertruck is projected to save between $8,800 and $12,000 in annual fuel costs and roughly $3,540 in maintenance over a five-year service life.

Advertisement

With regenerative braking, factory ballistic-resistant doors, and no idling fuel burn, the Cybertruck platform provides higher uptime, lower total cost of ownership, and a quieter patrol experience, all while reducing the department’s carbon footprint. Sheriff McMahill confirmed each area command will receive one of the new patrol units.

Continue Reading

News

Tesla Sweden faces new pressure in Sweden as Assa Abloy joins union action

The sympathy strike will block Assa Abloy’s 330 employees across six Swedish facilities from servicing or maintaining locks and gates used at Tesla Sweden’s sites.

Published

on

Credit: NicklasNilsso14/X

The labor standoff between Tesla and Sweden’s IF Metall union has widened again, this time pulling in Assa Abloy Industrial, a manufacturer of industrial doors and locks. 

IF Metall announced a new sympathy strike halting all Assa Abloy services for Tesla, set to take effect November 4, according to Dagens Arbete (DA). The move is aimed at further pressuring Tesla into signing a collective agreement after nearly two years of ongoing labor conflict.

New strike targets Tesla’s industrial operations

The sympathy strike will block Assa Abloy’s 330 employees across six Swedish facilities from servicing or maintaining locks and gates used at Tesla Sweden’s sites. IF Metall hopes the measure will disrupt Tesla’s daily operations and highlight the growing solidarity among Swedish companies.

Assa Abloy becomes the latest in a line of firms drawn into the dispute, with the Swedish Mediation Institute now logging fourteen conflict notices since September. The escalation shows that unions and partner industries are aligning to support of IF Metall’s campaign to secure a collective bargaining deal, something Tesla has consistently resisted.

IF Metall says Tesla must understand Sweden’s labor model

IF Metall chair Marie Nilsson recently reiterated her call for Tesla Sweden to reconsider its stance on organized labor, noting that Sweden’s union system differs sharply from the more adversarial model in the United States. 

Advertisement

“I can certainly understand that Elon Musk and Tesla are skeptical of the trade union movement,” Nilsson said. “They have experience with American unions that operate in a completely different environment and that have to be militant in a different way.”

Nilsson emphasized that Swedish unions function cooperatively and that signing a collective agreement locally does not commit Tesla to similar deals elsewhere. “Let’s give us a chance,” she added. “It is the practical system we have here to regulate the conditions.”

Continue Reading

Trending