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Michigan becomes first state to approve self-driving cars for public roads
Michigan has become the first state to approve the sale of autonomous cars for use on public roads. Governor Rick Snyder signed the legislation making the sale of self-driving cars legal on December 9. The legislation is part of a package of four bills that cleared the Michigan senate last September. In addition to authorizing the sale of autonomous cars, the package includes funding for the American Center for Mobility — a research campus where autonomous driving technologies can be tested before being offered to the public.
Proposed American Center for Mobility Credit: Michigan Economic Development Corp
The new law permits the sale of vehicles similar to Google’s autonomous test car that has no steering wheel, accelerator, or brake pedal. “By establishing guidelines and standards for self driving vehicles, we’re continuing that tradition of excellence in a way that protects the public’s safety while at the same time allows the mobility industry to grow without overly burdensome regulations,” Gov. Snyder said at a bill signing ceremony. “We are still the heart and soul of the auto industry, make no mistake about that,” Snyder continued.
The driving force behind the legislative package — which was vigorously supported by Ford and General Motors — is a desire to stop the brain drain of engineers from Michigan to Silicon Valley and other West Coast technology centers like Seattle. The American Center for Mobility will be constructed at the GM’s former Willow Run powertrain factory and automotive testing area. Prior to that, Willow Run manufactured B-24 bombers during World War II and was an important part of a manufacturing structure that made America the so-called “Arsenal of Democracy.”
Willow Run already has some infrastructure that will be useful for testing autonomous cars. It has long straightaways for high speed testing. It features a three level interchange, a high speed loop, and several bridges and tunnels. In addition, it already has the infrastructure needed to test connected car systems and features mock-ups of urban, suburban, and rural environments, according to AutoBlog.
This legislation will turn “the eyes of the world once again on Michigan for its engineering and its research,” says Michigan senator Ken Horn, a co-sponsor on the legislative package. “It’s a different kind of car-building,” Horn said on the Senate floor prior to voting, “but car-building nonetheless.”
It is ironic that Michigan should be so intent on being a leader in some areas while remaining doggedly opposed to innovations in others. The determining factor seems to be what Ford and General Motors want, as they are the tail that wags the dog in Michigan. The state bitterly opposes Tesla’s direct to customer sales model, for instance.
On the one hand, the state has bought shares of Tesla Motors for its retirement fund. Tesla is also a significant presence in Michigan’s manufacturing sector after purchasing the former Michigan-based Riviera Tool Company. But despite all Tesla’s lobbying efforts, the state’s franchise dealers, with substantial support from General Motors, have managed to block any changes to state law that would permit Tesla to open showrooms in the state to sell its cars directly to the public.
The new law permitting the sale of self-driving cars highlights the current struggle between traditional car companies and technology companies. Leading up to next week’s Technology In Motion conference co-hosted by Automotive News, Mike Ableson, vice president of strategy and global portfolio planning for General Motors, said automakers need to look at “the innovations coming out of Silicon Valley from Apple and Google and Samsung and put boundaries around that, not just for the OEM but also for the consumer. How far into the car do you let them come?”
Frank Weith, director of connected services at Volkswagen Group of America, said automakers need to make sure they don’t lose their identity as new technologies play a larger and larger role in the cars of the future. “We don’t want to be just a commodity, selling bulk vehicles to Google or Apple or Uber,” Weith said. “We want to be part of the consumer experience and keep our product up there.”
Both Ableson and Weith pointedly refrain from mentioning Tesla, but the shadow of Elon Musk is clearly a background factor in their remarks.
Tesla has quietly rolled out one of its most practical software updates yet — and it could add real dollars to every used Model 3, Y, S, and X on the road.
Starting with the latest Tesla app version, owners now receive an official “Certification of Repaired HV Battery” whenever Tesla performs a major high-voltage battery repair or full replacement. The digital certificate appears directly in the vehicle’s Service History tab inside the Tesla app.
It’s permanent, verifiable, and downloadable as a PDF, so sellers can hand it over to buyers in seconds.
For years, the used EV market has suffered from one glaring problem: nobody could prove what happened to the battery.
Service invoices often vanish when a car changes hands. Third-party battery-health scans are expensive and inconsistent. Buyers, staring at a car with 80,000 miles and an 8-year warranty ticking down, would negotiate hard — or walk away entirely — because the battery is the single most expensive part of any Tesla.
That uncertainty routinely shaved thousands off resale values and slowed the entire secondhand market.
Now Tesla has eliminated the guesswork. The new certificate, which was spotted by Tesla App Updates, logs exactly what work was done, when, and by whom. It lives inside the car’s digital profile forever, exactly where any future owner will look. No more digging through old emails or hoping the previous owner kept paperwork.
— Tesla App Updates (iOS) (@Tesla_App_iOS) May 5, 2026
The outlet describes why the update is so important:
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Official Digital Certificates: The string “Certification of Repaired HV Battery” confirms that if your vehicle undergoes a major battery repair or replacement, Tesla will now issue an official, verifiable digital certificate documenting the work.
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Service History Integration: Strings such as viewRepairedBatteryCert and repairedBatteryCertId indicate that this document won’t be lost in an old email thread. It will be permanently anchored to your vehicle’s profile inside the app’s Service History tab.
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Easy Exporting: The service_history_repaired_battery_cert_download_fail error state indicates you will be able to download this certificate directly to your phone as a file (likely a PDF) to share with others.
Sellers who have already replaced packs under warranty are especially excited; they can now prove the vehicle received a fresh Tesla battery without any gray-area questions.
The timing couldn’t be better. As more Teslas roll off 8-year/100,000- or 120,000-mile battery warranties, the used market is exploding. Lenders, insurers, and even auction houses have quietly asked for better battery documentation for years. Tesla’s certificate hands it to them on a silver platter.
For current owners, the feature adds peace of mind and protects long-term value. For buyers, it removes the single biggest risk in any used EV purchase. And for Tesla itself, it quietly strengthens the entire ownership ecosystem — making vehicles more liquid, more desirable, and more valuable over time.
In an industry obsessed with range numbers and 0-60 times, Tesla just proved that sometimes the biggest innovation is a simple line in the Service History tab. One small certificate, one giant step for used-EV confidence.
In the global race toward electrification, Norway stands unchallenged as the world’s most mature EV market.
In the first quarter of this year, EVs captured a staggering 97.9 percent market share, with plugin EVs reaching 98.6 percent. Out of 27,175 new vehicles registered, non-BEV powertrains have been reduced to statistical noise—petrol and hybrids combined accounted for fewer than 80 units.
At the heart of this transformation is Tesla.
The Model Y dominated overall vehicle sales with 5,406 units, outselling the next five best-selling non-Tesla models combined. The refreshed Model 3 followed in second place with 2,010 units, giving Tesla a commanding one-two finish. Toyota’s bZ4X placed third with 1,400 units, while Volvo’s EX40 and others trailed further back.
The @Tesla Model Y was the #1 best-selling vehicle overall in Norway in Q1 2026 by a wide margin, with BEVs in general taking a 97.9% market share. Model 3 ranked #2.
Model Y (5,406 units) sold more units than the next five best-selling non-Tesla vehicles on the list. pic.twitter.com/LE2SD5UQjs
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) May 5, 2026
This dominance is no fluke. Norway has spent decades building the infrastructure and policy framework that makes EVs the rational choice. Generous tax incentives, exemption from VAT, reduced tolls, free ferries for EVs, and a dense charging network have turned the country into a living laboratory for mass adoption. High fuel prices—often exceeding $8 per gallon—further tilt the economics decisively toward electricity.
The result is a market where choosing anything but an EV feels increasingly anachronistic. Diesel and petrol cars have all but vanished from new registrations. Even plug-in hybrids, once a transitional favorite, have collapsed to 0.7 percent share.
Chinese brands like XPeng, BYD, and Zeekr are making inroads, while legacy European and Japanese automakers scramble to field competitive BEVs. Yet Tesla’s combination of range, performance, software, Supercharger network, and brand cachet continues to set the benchmark.
Norway’s Q1 figures come after a volatile start to 2026 caused by VAT changes that pulled forward sales into late 2025. The market rebounded strongly in March, underscoring underlying demand. Tesla’s Q1 performance in the country also jumped significantly year-over-year, reinforcing its position even as competition intensifies.
What happens in Norway rarely stays there. The country has long served as a bellwether for EV trends across Europe and beyond.
Its near-total transition demonstrates that when incentives align with infrastructure and consumer economics, adoption accelerates dramatically. For automakers, Norway signals a future where success hinges not on legacy powertrains but on delivering compelling electric vehicles at scale.
As other nations ramp up their own EV ambitions, Tesla’s continued reign in the world’s heaviest EV market sends a clear message: in a fully mature electric future, the company that started the revolution remains the one to beat. With the Model Y still the best-selling vehicle overall—quarter after quarter—Norway’s roads are a rolling testament to Tesla’s enduring leadership.
Tesla has taken home the “Overall Loyalty to Make” award from S&P Global Mobility for the fourth consecutive year, reinforcing Tesla owners’ willingness to come back. The 2025 awards are based on S&P Global Mobility’s analysis of 13.6 million new retail vehicle registrations in the U.S. from October 2024 through September 2025. The complete list of 2025 winners includes General Motors for Overall Loyalty to Manufacturer, Tesla for Overall Loyalty to Make, Chevrolet Equinox for Overall Loyalty to Model, Mini for Most Improved Make Loyalty, Subaru for Overall Loyalty to Dealer, and Tesla again for both Ethnic Market Loyalty to Make and Highest Conquest Percentage.
Tesla’s streak in this category started in 2022, and the brand has now won the Highest Conquest Percentage award for six straight years, meaning it keeps pulling buyers away from other brands at a rate no competitor has matched. Tesla’s retention among Asian households reached 63.6% and among Hispanic households 61.9%, rates that significantly outpace national averages for those groups. That breadth of appeal across demographics adds a layer of significance to a win that some might dismiss as routine.
The timing matters too. After several consecutive quarters of decline, Tesla’s share of U.S. EV sales jumped to 59% in Q4 2025. That rebound, arriving just as competitors were flooding the market with new models and incentives, suggests Tesla’s loyalty numbers are not simply the result of limited alternatives. Buyers are still choosing it when they have plenty of other options.
What keeps Tesla owners coming back has a lot to do with the and convenience of charging. The Supercharger network is the most straightforward example. With over 65,000 Superchargers globally, it remains the largest and most reliable fast-charging network in the world, and owners who have built their routines around it face a real practical cost when considering a switch. Competitors have made progress, but the consistency, speed, and availability of Tesla’s network is still the benchmark the rest of the industry is chasing. Then there is the software side. Tesla has built a model where the car you own today is functionally different from the car you bought two years ago, through over-the-air updates that add continuous game-changing improvements such as Full Self-Driving that has moved from a driver-assist feature to an increasingly capable autonomous system. For many Tesla owners, leaving the brand means starting over with a car that will not get meaningfully better over time, and that is a trade-off fewer and fewer are willing to make.
Tesla adds new in-app feature to solve the used EV market’s biggest headache
Tesla reigns supreme in the heaviest EV market on Earth
