Volkswagen says last generation of combustion engines to be launched in 2026

Volkswagen’s strategy chief said on Tuesday the German carmaker’s core brand will develop its final generation of vehicles using combustion engine technology in 2026.

Volkswagen made a strategy shift toward battery-driven vehicles in the wake of a damaging diesel-emissions cheating scandal in 2015, which forced the carmaker to pay more than 27 billion euros in fines for hiding excessive pollution. read more »

Congress Races To Pass A Self-Driving Car Law By Year's End

On Wednesday, Waymo officially launched its self-driving taxi service in the suburbs of Phoenix, Arizona. Sure, the cars still have humans behind the wheel and they’re only open to a subset of the few hundred people already enrolled in the company’s exclusive beta tester program, but it’s a reminder that driverless cars are coming (if more slowly than many had hoped and hyped).

So it’s high time that these new robo-things get firmer rules, regulators, consumer advocates, and even the self-driving industry itself has reasoned. To that end, this week, senators began to circulate new language for the AV Start Act, a bill that has lingered in congressional limbo for almost a year. read more »