Google subsidiary Waymo has won approval to open a commercial ride-hailing service with autonomous cars. No human driver will be on board when the fleet starts to pick up passengers in Phoenix, Arizona. It is the first such service in the USA.
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Berlin’s legislative approved a package of measures to improve air quality and to prevent driving bans. The package includes 10 immediate actions such as a further expansion of charging infrastructure on semi-public and private ground.
Read moreReading tip: Alberta Oil, an oil industry magazine, has put Tesla on its cover. The title: “Hell on wheels” is supported by the question if this is the beginning of the end. Well spotted, indeed.
albertaoilmagazine.com, treehugger.com
Video tips: Austrian Milan Milic owns a cab fleet of 200 hybrid Toyotas. He recently billed 1 million kilometres in a Prius taxi. For Toyota Austria, he publicly displays his love for the car in a 4-part series with subtitles.
youtube.com: part one, part two, part three, part four
Read and watch: Daniel Sparks spent three days with a Tesla Model S P85D, mainly to see if the company’s ambitious sales targets stand chance in real life at all. They do, he happily informs his fellow investors.
fool.com (with video)
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Ready, steady, go! 167 Tesla Model S have just taken up taxi services at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, making it the biggest electric cab fleet in the world. The programme will run for four years, but might be extended for another eight. Success seems somewhat guaranteed…
gas2.org, youtube.com (Video, in Dutch)
Equally electric is Brussel’s new e-taxi fleet. 34 BYD e6 will go into service in the Belgian capital. The Chinese manufacturer bid successfully against Nissan and Renault and impressed cab companies with a range of up to 300 kilometres.
bloomberg.com, cntv.cn
PlugSurfing to expand further: The app now includes another 130 charge spots in Austria, where PlugSurfing users can charge and pay via RFID keychain. Partner for the Alpine expansion are Electrodrive Salzburg and Wien Energie, both part of Hubject’s intercharge network.
plugsurfing.com
EV promotion in the States: Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection will fund at least 20 more charging stations. Installation is fully paid for if the stations are available to the public 24/7 and free of charge. Jacksonville, Florida, offers rebates of up to 1,000 dollars for both the installation of charge points and the purchase of EVs, following in the steps of i.e. California and Georgia, where incentives can reach 5,000 dollars.
westfaironline.com (Connecticut), ens-newswire.com (other states)
Charging infrastructure software: Chargepartner developed a modular software platform enabling utilities and other businesses to manage charging infrastructure services. The white-label solution facilitates authorisation, management and billing of vehicle charging as well as user management.
chargepartner.de
