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Chevrolet Bolt EV owners may have trouble with parking after battery recalls
Chevrolet Bolt EVs have been in the news quite frequently as of late due to their extensive recall from General Motors due to battery cell malfunctions that could cause fires. However, a parking lot is taking precautions to an extreme measure by banning Bolt EVs from their facility due to the recalls, which have been heavily covered in the past few weeks.
The Bolt EV has had recalls three times over the past year due to battery issues. The first was in November 2020, with the second and third coming within the last several months after battery malfunctions in cells provided by LG Energy Solutions could have “the simultaneous presence of two rare manufacturing defects in the same battery cell.” GM’s second recall covered 69,000 vehicles total. Still, the company then decided to extend the recall by spending an additional billion dollars on other vehicles that were not listed in the initial recalls “out of an abundance of caution.” So far, GM has spent $1.8 billion on the recall since Q2.
How the Chevy Bolt EV became GM’s 1.8 billion dollar problem
GM encouraged owners to limit their state of charge to 90% and avoid depleting their battery below 70 miles of remaining range when possible. Additionally, owners were encouraged to park their vehicles outside after charging and not charge their cars overnight as a precaution.
Because of the mass amount of media attention the Bolt EV recall has received, some entities are now banning the vehicle’s presence on its premises. A parking lot in San Francisco is one example.
A sign was seen at the lot by Reddit user u/scarls13, who took a picture of the warning that read:
“For customer safety:
CHEVROLET BOLT EVs are STRICTLY PROHIBITED from parking at this facility.
Thank you for your compliance!”
The owner of the lot likely was taking a necessary and understandable precaution, but this sort of message could be detrimental to the development of electric vehicles. Just as media coverage fixates on instances of Tesla Autopilot irresponsibilities, EV fires, and commonly spread misinformation regarding EVs in general, the Bolt EV story has become a mainstay of fear for those who are still skeptical of the EV movement. It is important to remember that GM, Chevrolet, and LG Energy Solutions have taken drastic steps to fix the issue, even recalling non-effected vehicles to have battery packs replaced to prevent further events of combustion.
Statistically, EV fires are not a common occurrence. FEMA stated that 171,500 vehicle fires occurred annually on average between 2014 and 2016. Only 10 of these fires were Bolts, and ICE vehicles made up a vast majority of the vehicles that caught fire. The 269 million vehicles on the road in the U.S. in 2016 and one in 1,569 fossil fuel-powered vehicles caught fire during that time. Furthermore, there were 1.2 million EVs in China in 2018, but one in 30,000 vehicles caught fire. This effectively means that an ICE vehicle was twenty-times more likely to catch fire than an EV, according to Forbes.
Of course, it is understandable to be preventative and safe, but the Bolt EV fires are still a statistically rare occurrence. GM admitting its wrongs and pushing toward full replacements of battery cells to prevent future instances of fires should begin to take control of signs like the ones above, but lot owners are within their rights to refuse service to anyone for any reason.
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Elon Musk
Starlink passes 9 million active customers just weeks after hitting 8 million
The milestone highlights the accelerating growth of Starlink, which has now been adding over 20,000 new users per day.
SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service has continued its rapid global expansion, surpassing 9 million active customers just weeks after crossing the 8 million mark.
The milestone highlights the accelerating growth of Starlink, which has now been adding over 20,000 new users per day.
9 million customers
In a post on X, SpaceX stated that Starlink now serves over 9 million active users across 155 countries, territories, and markets. The company reached 8 million customers in early November, meaning it added roughly 1 million subscribers in under seven weeks, or about 21,275 new users on average per day.
“Starlink is connecting more than 9M active customers with high-speed internet across 155 countries, territories, and many other markets,” Starlink wrote in a post on its official X account. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell also celebrated the milestone on X. “A huge thank you to all of our customers and congrats to the Starlink team for such an incredible product,” she wrote.
That growth rate reflects both rising demand for broadband in underserved regions and Starlink’s expanding satellite constellation, which now includes more than 9,000 low-Earth-orbit satellites designed to deliver high-speed, low-latency internet worldwide.
Starlink’s momentum
Starlink’s momentum has been building up. SpaceX reported 4.6 million Starlink customers in December 2024, followed by 7 million by August 2025, and 8 million customers in November. Independent data also suggests Starlink usage is rising sharply, with Cloudflare reporting that global web traffic from Starlink users more than doubled in 2025, as noted in an Insider report.
Starlink’s momentum is increasingly tied to SpaceX’s broader financial outlook. Elon Musk has said the satellite network is “by far” the company’s largest revenue driver, and reports suggest SpaceX may be positioning itself for an initial public offering as soon as next year, with valuations estimated as high as $1.5 trillion. Musk has also suggested in the past that Starlink could have its own IPO in the future.
News
NVIDIA Director of Robotics: Tesla FSD v14 is the first AI to pass the “Physical Turing Test”
After testing FSD v14, Fan stated that his experience with FSD felt magical at first, but it soon started to feel like a routine.
NVIDIA Director of Robotics Jim Fan has praised Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) v14 as the first AI to pass what he described as a “Physical Turing Test.”
After testing FSD v14, Fan stated that his experience with FSD felt magical at first, but it soon started to feel like a routine. And just like smartphones today, removing it now would “actively hurt.”
Jim Fan’s hands-on FSD v14 impressions
Fan, a leading researcher in embodied AI who is currently solving Physical AI at NVIDIA and spearheading the company’s Project GR00T initiative, noted that he actually was late to the Tesla game. He was, however, one of the first to try out FSD v14.
“I was very late to own a Tesla but among the earliest to try out FSD v14. It’s perhaps the first time I experience an AI that passes the Physical Turing Test: after a long day at work, you press a button, lay back, and couldn’t tell if a neural net or a human drove you home,” Fan wrote in a post on X.
Fan added: “Despite knowing exactly how robot learning works, I still find it magical watching the steering wheel turn by itself. First it feels surreal, next it becomes routine. Then, like the smartphone, taking it away actively hurts. This is how humanity gets rewired and glued to god-like technologies.”
The Physical Turing Test
The original Turing Test was conceived by Alan Turing in 1950, and it was aimed at determining if a machine could exhibit behavior that is equivalent to or indistinguishable from a human. By focusing on text-based conversations, the original Turing Test set a high bar for natural language processing and machine learning.
This test has been passed by today’s large language models. However, the capability to converse in a humanlike manner is a completely different challenge from performing real-world problem-solving or physical interactions. Thus, Fan introduced the Physical Turing Test, which challenges AI systems to demonstrate intelligence through physical actions.
Based on Fan’s comments, Tesla has demonstrated these intelligent physical actions with FSD v14. Elon Musk agreed with the NVIDIA executive, stating in a post on X that with FSD v14, “you can sense the sentience maturing.” Musk also praised Tesla AI, calling it the best “real-world AI” today.
News
Tesla AI team burns the Christmas midnight oil by releasing FSD v14.2.2.1
The update was released just a day after FSD v14.2.2 started rolling out to customers.
Tesla is burning the midnight oil this Christmas, with the Tesla AI team quietly rolling out Full Self-Driving (Supervised) v14.2.2.1 just a day after FSD v14.2.2 started rolling out to customers.
Tesla owner shares insights on FSD v14.2.2.1
Longtime Tesla owner and FSD tester @BLKMDL3 shared some insights following several drives with FSD v14.2.2.1 in rainy Los Angeles conditions with standing water and faded lane lines. He reported zero steering hesitation or stutter, confident lane changes, and maneuvers executed with precision that evoked the performance of Tesla’s driverless Robotaxis in Austin.
Parking performance impressed, with most spots nailed perfectly, including tight, sharp turns, in single attempts without shaky steering. One minor offset happened only due to another vehicle that was parked over the line, which FSD accommodated by a few extra inches. In rain that typically erases road markings, FSD visualized lanes and turn lines better than humans, positioning itself flawlessly when entering new streets as well.
“Took it up a dark, wet, and twisty canyon road up and down the hill tonight and it went very well as to be expected. Stayed centered in the lane, kept speed well and gives a confidence inspiring steering feel where it handles these curvy roads better than the majority of human drivers,” the Tesla owner wrote in a post on X.
Tesla’s FSD v14.2.2 update
Just a day before FSD v14.2.2.1’s release, Tesla rolled out FSD v14.2.2, which was focused on smoother real-world performance, better obstacle awareness, and precise end-of-trip routing. According to the update’s release notes, FSD v14.2.2 upgrades the vision encoder neural network with higher resolution features, enhancing detection of emergency vehicles, road obstacles, and human gestures.
New Arrival Options also allowed users to select preferred drop-off styles, such as Parking Lot, Street, Driveway, Parking Garage, or Curbside, with the navigation pin automatically adjusting to the ideal spot. Other refinements include pulling over for emergency vehicles, real-time vision-based detours for blocked roads, improved gate and debris handling, and Speed Profiles for customized driving styles.
Starlink passes 9 million active customers just weeks after hitting 8 million
NVIDIA Director of Robotics: Tesla FSD v14 is the first AI to pass the “Physical Turing Test”
