car

the wheels of your car are revealing your position to anyone who wants to monitor you

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I can think of few uglier scenarios behind the wheel than a puncture going 120 kilometers per hour. Fortunately, tire pressure sensors minimize this risk because they act as whistleblowers in case of mishaps, ranging from a blowout to a simple loss of pressure. They were designed with security in mind and not privacy and that has opened a door: monitor where your car passes. And obviously, where are you. Context. Tire pressure monitoring systems or TPMS are required by law: in the EU since 2014, also in the pioneering United States and other countries such as South Korea or Japan. This system uses small sensors integrated into each wheel to monitor the pressure and send wireless signals to the car’s computer to alert the driver if a tire drops below the set pressure. Due to regulations and validity, there are millions of vehicles in circulation with TPMS and no one perceives them as a risk: they are safety sensors, not connectivity. The discovery. A research team from IMDEA Networks has shown that TPMS sensors continuously emit a unique identification number via radio frequency that has neither encryption nor authentication. The ID does not change, so it works as if it were a license plate. Like that radar that catches you on a specific day and time at a certain point. Thus, anyone with a radio receiver can pick it up and if they do it once, from then on they will be able to recognize that car at any other time. This operation occurs without the driver knowing and, furthermore, he cannot do anything to avoid it. Why is it important. To begin with, because the research team has already confirmed that by crossing the four data from the four wheels, the reliability of the identification is high. Alessio Scalingi, professor at UC3M and one of the authors of the study, summarizes it like this: “data that seems passive and harmless can become a powerful identifier when collected at scale.” But it is also much more discreet than a conventional radar or camera: the TPMS emits radio signals continuously and these are invisible and can pass through obstacles or walls. Hiding is not an option. On the other hand, there is no need to hack anything: the signal is public and by default it arrives unencrypted. In short: TPMS tracking is cheap, difficult to detect, and difficult to avoid. How they did it. To reach this conclusion, the IMDEA Networks Institute research team together with European partners conducted a 10-week study in which they collected signals from more than 20,000 vehicles. The equipment used was a network of low-cost SDR radio receivers ($100 each), which were distributed near parking lots and roads. In that time they were able to collect more than six million messages, which helped them to reconstruct routes and routines, for example what time someone arrives at work or how often they go shopping, the type of vehicle or even whether it transports heavy cargo. The receivers are capable of capturing signals from moving cars at more than 50 meters, even if the sensors are hidden or inside buildings. How it affects you as a driver. You are potentially exposed to monitoring of your car journeys no matter what you do. This sensor goes inside the wheel and has no switch, so as a driver you cannot do anything to avoid this tracking beyond obviously not using your private vehicle. Of course, it requires someone to deploy this network of receivers deliberately. The ball is in the regulators’ court. As the research team explains, the real problem is structural: the TPMS regulations do not require encryption for these sensors, so the solution is not in the hands of users, but in those who regulate and the manufacturers. As concludes Dr. Yago Lizarribarone of the authors of the study: “Our findings demonstrate the need for manufacturers and regulatory bodies to improve the protection of future vehicle sensor systems.” In Xataka | The industry has been filling cars with complex safety systems for years. The only problem is that we don’t use them In Xataka | The Government of Spain has insisted that we do not exceed the speed limits. And it has a threat: jail Cover | Waldemar Brandt

Stellantis has lost 22 billion euros with the electric car. Their hope to solve it is called Zaragoza

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Stellantis embarked on a path of rapid and aggressive transition to the electric car. Along the way, it merged models on the same platform, wanted to convert brands to zero emissions and lost the identity of some of them. The result is 20 billion euros of real and expected losses. Now, part of his future is at stake in Zaragoza with a Chinese car. Saragossa. The news was almost a not news because Stellantis, through the mouth of its CEO Automotive Newshad already confirmed that it would manufacture Leapmotor’s Chinese cars in Spain. By then, with a CATL factory in the middle of construction and already manufacturing Stellantis small electric cars, Zaragoza seemed the best placed city, ahead of Madrid and Vigo. Last week, Filosa himself reconfirmed what was already known but expanded the information with some nuances as stated in The Aragon Newspaper. The car will be manufactured in Zaragoza and will not be alone. And the company has awarded Spain the production of up to four completely electric Chinese models. It will, therefore, be the reconversion of Figueruelas. The Stellantis situation. Although the investments were already confirmed, the last presentation of results could have raised some doubts. Then Stellantis confirmed that the electric car would have a negative impact of 22,000 million euros in your accounts. This does not mean, exactly, that it loses that money, but it is the readjustment that amounts to the cancellation of two new factories, the compensatory payment to suppliers, the money invested in new developments and the money that will no longer enter the company’s coffers. All of this is a consequence of a project led by Carlos Tavares, former CEO of the company, which has failed. The Portuguese wanted to accompany the conversion to all-electric too quickly and with a very aggressive cost adjustment. The result has been too much product at dealerships that very few have bought and models little differentiated from each other with a total loss of identity between companies. Good news (1). Firstly, because the arrival of Leapmotor in Zaragoza represents support for the electric transition in Figueruelas. The factory will be in charge of producing one of the first purely Chinese electric cars to arrive in Europe, a key step to be able to sell them without tariffs. But this also guarantees two things. The first is the opening of a new assembly line because they cannot use exactly the same one as for the Opel Corsa, Peugeot 208 and Lancia Ypsilon electric that Figueruelas produces at the moment. The second is that it increases pressure on the production of batteries that CATL will set up nearby, giving greater support to the project. It remains to be seen if the other three Stellantis models will also roll out of their doors.. Good news (2). The second part of the announcement is interesting in that the Leapmotor B10, the first car to be assembled in Zaragoza, is different from the three mentioned above and that in itself is a reason for joy for Zaragoza. And it is that the Stellantis urban electric cars have not been working well in the market. Everything indicates that, in the future, these electric vehicles will have to receive the embrace of the European customer but at the moment it is not being like thatwhich raised questions about long-term production with a plant that could operate at half gas. The Lepmotor B10 is a car that Stellantis has hopes for because it is different. It has much more striking interiors, adjusted to the huge screens that the industry has demanded in recent years. And it has purely Chinese software and development, so Stellantis can play with the price because its investments have been minimal. The company has the power to distribute the car outside of China but the development, investments and sales within China have been left to Leapmotor itself. Strengths and weaknesses. Stellantis’ decision to produce in Spain reminds us the strength that our country has gained in Europe as a productive alternative to advance electric cars. Either because labor is cheaper than in countries like Germany or France, or because energy is also cheaper, Chery or Stellantis, with Leapmotor, have decided that they will manufacture on our soil. Spain has the advantage of a well-established industry that needs reconversion. The problem is that, for the moment, it has focused on the assembly of small cars (as also happens in Martorell) which are the ones that are having the most problems to sell them or, if necessary, for the brand to make a profit from them. It would be interesting for our country to expand its presence in the development of vehicles and not only focus its industry on their production. Therefore, it is good news that Chery also bets on our country for its new R&D&i space. Photo | In Xataka | Volkswagen’s cheap electric car is manufactured in Spain: this is the new megaconstruction that makes it possible

15 Chinese car manufacturers are going to produce humanoid robots. They will use the same advantage that made them leaders

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China is not late to humanoid robotics: it arrives with factories, suppliers, engineers and software already amortized, an advantage that is difficult to overcome. The supply chain of an electric car (sensors, motors, batteries, chips, perception algorithms…) overlaps by more than 60% with that of a humanoid robot, according to CITIC Securities estimates. XPeng, one of the most technological manufacturers in the sector, It also ensures that its robot reuses 70% of the same AI software as its cars.. If those numbers are real without many asterisks, the Chinese manufacturers of electric vehicles are not that they are aspirants to robotics, it is that they are clear favorites. The panoramic. Fifteen Chinese car brands have announced humanoid robot programs, according to the analysis firm Kaiyuan Securities. China already manufactures 70% of the components of “classic” industrial robotics, and the jump to humanoids takes advantage of the same factories, the same suppliers and the same talent that have given it leadership in electric vehicles. The parallel with what Tesla is doing with Optimus is inevitable, but China is running it with dozens of companies in parallel, at a speed that no single company can match. Between the lines. The bets diverge as much as the companies: Yes, but. There are dark clouds on the sunny day that is humanoid robotics for China. XPeng’s IRON robot crashed in a shopping mall in Shenzhen a few days ago. The company has been in robotics for six years. Driving on roads and moving through the rooms of each parent are very different problems. Roads have lanes, signs, and fairly predictable physics. The rooms have stairs, dozens of small objects, people moving, doors to open, intricate locations or chargers with a cable on the floor. The manual dexterity and dynamic balance required by a humanoid robot have no equivalent in the control architecture of any car. And the most talented engineers in the sector know it: several former XPeng executivesLi Auto and Huawei have left their companies to found their own robotics startups. When the path seems clear, the best are not afraid to go it alone. The contrast. Unitree, a pure robotics company with no ties to the automotive industry, distributed 5,500 robots in 2025. Agibot is approaching 1 billion yuan in revenue, about 122 million euros. These companies built from the ground up for robotics are already delivering their product while car manufacturers are still in the reorganization phase. The technological overlap between cars and robots is real in sensors and perception software, but it quickly thins out when the robot has to manipulate objects with great precision, maintain balance on uneven terrain, or work alongside humans. That last “frontier”, the 30% that does not transfer, may be where it is decided who dominates the industry. In Xataka | China manufactures 90% of the world’s humanoid robots and the reason is not its industrial policy: it is crossing the street Featured image | Xpeng

A Chinese driver rigged his car to drive alone while he was drunk. It wasn’t the best idea

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The Supreme People’s Court of China has had to come out to clarify what may have already seemed obvious: a driver cannot delegate all of his actions to a car with level 2 autonomy. Much less if that driver is traveling drunk and in the passenger seat, leaving the driver’s seat completely empty. As? Yes, you read that right. To Justice. History brings it CarNewsChinawhere they cover the case of a driver who was arrested for drunk driving… more or less. Because, really, he wasn’t the one driving. He was traveling in the passenger seat, with the small detail that no one sat in the driver’s seat. Wang Mouqun, a resident of Linping (a suburb of Hangzhou, a city with almost 12 million inhabitants), has been tried by the Supreme People’s Court of the People’s Republic of China, the most important court in the country, in the first case dealing with behavior related to road safety. The detainee has been punished with 45 days in jail for testing positive in the alcohol test. The decision comes after the driver had also received another sanction for the same reason in less than two years, which has aggravated the punishment. Nobody at the wheel. The truly curious thing about the case is that Mouqun had rigged the car so that the driving assistance system worked even if there was no one at the wheel. Thus, the owner of the car was able to sit in the passenger seat and sleep peacefully while the vehicle was driving without anyone at the wheel. In the Chinese media They talk about “an accessory installed to fool the system” but it is not clear exactly how it did it. What is clear is that the vehicle, a Aito M9drove with adaptive cruise control down the road without ever detecting that there was no human at the wheel. It is not the first case that has occurred in China either. of a driver who activates the driving assistance assistants to avoid driving under the influence of alcohol. What is new is that the Supreme People’s Court of the People’s Republic of China is in charge of handling the case. Level 2 autonomy. Cars like this Aito M9, with a autonomy level 2can circulate without human intervention but require a person to remain attentive to what is happening around them to take the reins at any time. In addition, they require keeping your hands on the wheel. Level 3 autonomy cars can drive without human intervention but, in Europe, only Mercedes is allowed to do so and in very specific circumstances. In fact, the system is so useless at the moment that the company has stopped offering it in the new Mercedes S Class. Between both levels there is an intermediate step known as autonomy level 2+, which does allow for some license. These systems are those that equip cars that, in addition to maintaining the adaptive cruise control system, can overtake cars on their own, just by activating the turn signal or even looking to the sides like BMW. Ford is the only company in Europe with which You can drive without hands on the wheel although the system monitors that the driver keeps his eyes forward. Responsible. What the Chinese Justice has decreed is that in any case, the driver is responsible, even if he was traveling in the co-pilot system and with the driving assistance systems activated. And although no risk situations derived from this way of acting were detected. In fact, the vehicle was kept in operation between 1:15 in the morning and 1:37 when the vehicle detected the trick and stopped the car by itself on the shoulder of the road. It was then that other drivers detected that something was happening and called emergency services. They tested the driver, who tested 114.5 mg/100 ml of alcohol in his blood. in Chinaexceeding 0.80 mg/100 ml of blood alcohol is punishable by a fine and exceeding 150 mg/100 ml is an aggravating circumstance. Above 180 mg/100 ml of blood alcohol is punishable by a prison sentence without parole, with exceptions. The Chinese court considers that Mouqun was ultimately responsible for what happened behind the wheel and that, therefore, he is guilty of both hacking the car and “driving” under the influence of alcohol. Added to a previous withdrawal of his driving license in 2024, the driver has received the aforementioned penalty of 45 days in jail and a fine of 4,000 yuan (about 490 euros at direct exchange rate). Photo | XHBY.NET In Xataka | Fine of up to 1,000 euros for a beer: the DGT prepares the definitive attack against alcohol and it is called rate 0.2

Electric car battery makers are retooling to make batteries… for AI data centers

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In the United States there are a slowdown in the electric vehicle industry, which has caused more and more manufacturers in the sector to convert their business. According to account Financial Times, ten North American factories that produced batteries for electric cars are allocating a good part of their production to energy storage systems for AI data centers. It is the latest industry to readjust around artificial intelligence. The change of course. The media shares data from the consulting firm CRU, which states that these ten plants have canceled enough capacity to produce batteries for 2 million electric vehicles. Of these, seven will focus primarily on the energy storage systems (ESS) market. Among the names involved are Ford, which is converting a factory in Kentucky, and Stellantis along with its partner Samsung SDI, which are converting production lines at its Indiana plant. General Motors is also considering producing its own energy storage batteries, according to declared its head of batteries, Kurt Kelty, to the Financial Times. Why data centers need batteries. Data centers that process AI models require uninterrupted power supply to protect against blackouts or voltage fluctuations. With the construction boom of these centers in the United States, storage batteries have become a critical component of infrastructure. This opens up an alternative revenue stream for automotive companies struggling with electric vehicles. The Tesla example. It is worth taking a look at the numbers of Elon Musk’s company, since in addition to producing vehicles it also manufactures energy storage systems such as Megapack and Powerwall. In this sense, its battery business is turning out to be tremendously profitable, since the company reported income for energy and storage of $12.8 billion in its last quarter, a growth of 27% year-on-year. In 2021, that figure barely reached 2.8 billion. Meanwhile, its revenue from electric vehicle sales has fallen 9% to $64 billion. Political context difficult. Just like account FT, Since the Trump administration eliminated tax incentives for electric vehicle buyers put in place during the Biden era and lowered emissions standards, the electric vehicle market in the United States has seen a slowdown. This has led BloombergNEF to revise its forecast downwards: from expecting electric vehicles to represent 48% of total car sales in 2030, they now project only 27%. Electric vehicles currently account for about 8% of new car sales in the United States. The aid that is maintained. As well as mention In the middle, although these subsidies have been eliminated, the administration retains generous incentives for battery manufacturers: a production credit of $35 per kilowatt-hour and a 30% tax credit for investments in energy storage. In addition, tariffs on Chinese storage batteries are around 60%, allowing manufacturers to produce in the United States at prices close to parity with Asian imports. Between the lines. It is also worth highlighting important nuances. CRU’s Sam Adham counted to FT that battery manufacturers will not necessarily pass on what they save on costs to their customers (they may increase their margins, for what). In addition, according to the FT, the Korean companies that lead the production of storage batteries in the United States have less experience with the lithium iron phosphate technology used by these systems, compared to their Chinese rivals. It is not a total reconversion, for now. Wood Mackenzie’s data suggest that electric vehicles will continue to absorb a greater proportion of battery installations than energy storage until the end of 2030. “If there is a rebound in demand for electric vehicles, companies that have switched to storage systems could be left behind,” said Milan Thakore, an analyst at the consultancy. More sectors than They pivot towards AI. From the Semafor newsletter, also they mention another very interesting sector that is beginning to convert its business towards AI: cryptocurrency miners. And according to Morgan Stanley, facilities dedicated to cryptocurrency mining are seeing a more profitable business in the creation of data centers for AI. The economics of cryptocurrency mining have gotten worse and worse since the reward is lower, and converting these facilities into infrastructure for artificial intelligence is much more profitable. According to the calculations Morgan Stanley, transforming all bitcoin mining facilities in the United States could reduce the electrical capacity deficit for data centers by between 10 and 15 gigawatts. Cover image | CHUTTERSNAP and İsmail Enes Ayhan In Xataka | If AI is the “weapon” of the future, the US is already investing 25% of all world military spending in it

The new Ferrari Luce is much more than Ferrari’s first electric car. It is a desperate cry to find a new audience

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We thought of 2026 as the year in which we would see Ferrari’s first electric car. Boom. As of February 9, we already know the first details of its interior. The company itself has made them public in what is the first of the many appetizers that they will provide us before knowing the final bite. At the moment we already have its name, its interior and a bomb: the design of the cabin has been carried out by Jony Ivewho led Apple design until his departure in 2019. He Ferrari Lucewhich will be the company’s first electric car, has been seen with an interior that breaks with the entire collective imagination of what a Ferrari should be and, at the same time, draws on its history. Why an electric Ferrari? We have been talking about Ferrari’s first electric car for more than five years. Do you remember what life was like before 2020? The electric car seemed like the future, brands were striving to make the leap to zero emissions and the European Union warned that in 2035 we would not have a single car on sale with a combustion engine. Five years later, regulators have accepted that cars with combustion engines can be sold. Of course, the common mortals will not touch them. Or, at least, we will not be able to go to the dealership and order one because the real demands regarding emissions dictate, right now, that if a brand does not want to pay fines it will have to sell many (very many) electric cars for each pure combustion car. And that leaves two paths: either the brand sells those electric vehicles or it puts cars on the market that are expensive enough for the customer to pay the fine and continue to get an economic return from them. Come on, what Combustion cars will be a thing for the rich. But this change in regulation comes late for most brands. Because almost all of them had launched a 100-meter dash race to have their electric cars ready as soon as possible. This career has come hand in hand with enormous investments that, except in very specific cases, were no longer worth stopping. One of them is Ferrari. The brand has needed to move forward with Luce, its first electric car. A car that will not only take advantage of the advantages of electric motors. The first thing its interior tells us is that the Ferrari Luce will be much more than a sports car. It is one of the most important cars in its history. And Ferrari wants to make it a before and after. Ferrari Luce interior Much more than an electric Ferrari In its first electrified car, the Ferrari LaFerrari, the Maranello company sent a clear message: its first electrically powered car was going to be the most cutting-edge and wildest Ferrari ever built. With its first fully electrified car, the first to be sold without an exhaust pipe, Ferrari sends another clear message: techie customer, customer who wants to be fashionable, we are here. It is no coincidence that the cabin of This Ferrari Luce was designed by Jony Ive. Whoever was the head of design at Apple is considered one of the legends of industrial design, with decisions in which he clearly opted for form over functionality. The beautiful over the practical. The Ferrari Luce is everything we could expect since the relationship between Ive and those from Maranello is known. The cabin plays with a neo-retro design, with a steering wheel that recalls the simplicity of the extreme sportiness of a Ferrari F40 or an interior where the buttons have been replaced by aviation-style keys. There are just a few buttons on the center console to raise and lower the windows or lock them. A kind of joystick acts as a gear shift lever. Ferrari Luce gear selector Detail of the central screen button panel The interior of the Luce does not forget that a Ferrari is a sports car with paddles behind the steering wheel rim. But the small islands that shelter the selection positions here forget about the most sporting details to prioritize more day-to-day functions. And this is important. It still has a manettino to select the driving mode but it has a second lever to select what, we assume, will be the degree of power delivery to extend the battery’s autonomy. We have a direct button to control the wipers and another to, we suppose, deactivate the beeps of the wipers. ADAS systems. The turn signals, on what look like touch surfaces but I’ve explained to Top Gear which are physical, are integrated into the spokes of the steering wheel itself instead of having physical buttons and routes as in the brand’s latest models. But, of course, what draws the most attention are its two screens. We have long accepted an instrument cluster and a central screen for a Ferrari. What we did not imagine is that the main screen would be the absolute queen of the cabin with its 10.12 inches and a mobile solution at the bottom that balances between genius and purist horror. The handle is pure Ive design. The graphics displayed by Ferrari are so reminiscent of Apple that one would almost think they have embraced CarPlay Ultra. And at the same time, its 12.86-inch OLED instrument cluster screen is displayed as it would in a classic Ferrari, with its clocks well separated and extraordinary clarity for reading. The whole set is a sample of where Ferrari is right now. The company could have chosen to put an electric car in the body of a combustion Ferrari. Instead he has embraced another proposal: if I can’t convince you to jump to an electric car, I will look for new customers. Although those from Maranello have cars that are more or less usable on a daily basis, until now their proposals have always been consistent. racing Inside, a clear reminder that … Read more

that parking your car costs more than a ticket

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We have been talking about for years the drift schizophrenic that has been generated around large live events, and especially music concerts. The phenomenon has led us to accept that if you want to go to a Bad Bunny concert or Radiohead The formula that never fails is to multiply the original price by three and go to the slaughterhouse from resale. Now, someone unexpected has wanted to go further by opening a parallel market to one of the most anticipated events. The World Cup car parks… and their resale, of course. Pay before entering. The 2026 World Cup to be held in the United States and Mexico is shaping up to be the tournament most expensive ever organized in history, and not only because of the price of the tickets, which are already supposed to be astronomical, but because of everything that surrounds the simple act of going to the stadium. In an urban context designed for the car and not for the pedestrian such as the United States, the fan’s experience begins long before access control and becomes a sum of tolls that raise the real cost to unprecedented levels in the history of football. Parking as a core business. The ironic thing, or perhaps not so ironic, is that it is FIFA itself that has started selling parking passes for figures that range between 75 and 175 dollars in minor games, but that in key venues like Los Angeles reach, attention, nothing less than up to 250 and 300 dollars per vehicle and match… even when those spaces are located more than a kilometer from the stadium. In practice, parking already costs the same (or more) than many official tickets, so a round of 16 or quarterfinal match with a ticket of 400 or 500 dollars and a parking lot of 300 easily raises the total bill per person to around $1,000, a figure that redefines what it means to “go to football.” Stadiums far away, car mandatory. It happens that, unlike in Europe, where large stadiums are usually integrated into the city and connected by subway, train or bus, many World Cup venues in the United States are located in peripheral areas and were specifically conceived to arrive by car. This structural dependency turns the parking lot into an essential resource and allows it to be monetized as part of the show, something unthinkable in most European venues, where even when some clubs already charge for parking (as happens at Atlético de Madrid) there is always the real and massive alternative of public transport. Planned shortages and inflated prices. Plus: the problem is not only the price, but deliberate scarcity. Many parking spaces near the stadiums will remain within security perimeters or reserved for sponsors, drastically reducing the offer for the general public. In cities accustomed to tens of thousands of seats at NFL events, the World Cup will put only a fraction on sale, creating a bottleneck perfect to justify exorbitant prices under the argument of the “local market” and “large comparable events”. Hello resale. Yes, this brings us to an “old acquaintance” of any massive event worth its salt: resale. They counted this week in The Athletic that, as has happened with the concert ticketsparking has fully entered the speculation circuit, with passes resold in secondary markets for even higher figures, although it may seem difficult. In fact, this occurs even in venues where FIFA has not yet published your final offer. The result is a general feeling of abuse, in which the fan pays not only to watch the game, but for each step necessary to get there. A deja vu. This escalation is not an isolated phenomenon and we have been counting in the last few yearsdocumenting how concerts and big events live have entered a price spiral marked by dynamic rates, uncontrollable resales and added charges that turn the luxury experience. The 2026 Soccer World Cup adds to that logic: tickets that are difficult to get at the official price, crazy resale and peripheral costs (such as parking) that equal or exceed the show itself. Parking as a symbol of a new frontier. The underlying message is crystal clear and deeply uncomfortable: the World Cup, a phenomenon of masses and global audiences, is going to explode. a new business without any shame, that of making parking the car cost the same (or even more) than a ticket to watch the games. It is not a trivial detail, nor logistical, nor even collateral damage, but one more piece of the economic model of the tournament, designed to maximize income in each phase of the fan’s journey. The curious thing is that football remains the same as always on the pitch, but off it, getting to the stadium has become part of the bill. If we are not in hell, the truth is that we are getting closer with the tips of our fingers. Image | Ron ReiringRawPixel In Xataka | RTVE wants to win the ratings war at any price. Although that price is 55 million for the World Cup In Xataka | The Government believes it has the solution to the very serious increase in ticket resale prices. It may just make it worse.

Tesla popularized “invisible” car door handles. China has just handed down its death sentence

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In China they have been wanting for a long time ban retractable handles of the vehicles, a design commonly popularized by Tesla. It is no wonder, since over the last few years we have witnessed serious fatal and safety incidents involving this type of handles. The regulations will force many of the best-selling models on the market to be redesigned. what has happened. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China has approved a new safety regulation that will come into force on January 1, 2027. The regulation prohibits door handles recessed in the body and requires that all vehicles have visible handles and a mechanical opening system on each door, according to they count from Financial Times. Why is it important. The hidden handle design has become popular in recent years in electric cars. In China they had been following Tesla’s example for a long time, looking for a more minimalist aesthetic and small aerodynamic improvements. Virtually all of the major electric car manufacturers in China have models with retractable handles. However, these designs have proven to be dangerous in emergency situations. The trigger. A fatal accident in 2024 with Aito’s M7 SUV was one of the main triggers. Three people, including a two-year-old child, died after a crash. Videos shared on social media showed rescue teams breaking windows to try to save victims. As Aito explained in a statement, “the power and signal cables were immediately cut, preventing the handle controller from receiving the ejection signal.” The concern continued after two accidents with the Xiaomi SU7whose videos showed people struggling to open the vehicle doors to rescue those inside, without luck. What the regulations require. Just like they explain from CarNewsChina, the ‘GB 48001-2026’ standard states that each door must have a mechanical exterior handle located in specific areas of the door surface, with sufficient space for manual operation in emergencies such as deployment of restraint systems or battery problems. Electric handles must include independent mechanical mechanisms capable of withstanding forces of at least 500 N. On the other hand, inside, each side door must have at least one mechanical opening handle with graphic symbols of at least 100 mm × 70 mm and clearly visible instructions or pictographic symbols. Impact on the industry. The regulations will affect numerous models from manufacturers such as Xiaomi, BYD and others that have adopted designs similar to Tesla. Bill Russo, founder of Automobility, counted to FT that the standard will require changes to some models but not a complete redesign. “Many manufacturers already design alternative handle solutions for export markets with different regulations,” he explains. “With the new regulation, we will be ready to change any handle as the government wants,” Stella Li, executive vice president of BYD, told Bloomberg TV. Outside China. Perhaps the most notorious case is in the United States, where the issue of hidden handles is also being investigated. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened investigations on Tesla Model Y and Model 3 over concerns about the accessibility of their vehicles in emergencies. A particularly serious accident in California that caused the death of three teenagers in a Cybertruckwhere neither the occupants nor anyone close to the incident could open the doors through the hidden handles and reinforced glass, prompted Congress to take action and Tesla to announce a redesign of its handles. Cover image | Eyosias G In Xataka | Putting solar panels on an electric car sounds like a total win-win: the reality of extra autonomy is a bucket of cold water

The electric car needs cheap batteries. And a Spanish region is closer to giving it to them: Extremadura

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It’s just the go-ahead but it’s a key go-ahead. It is what will allow Yuneng International Spain New Energy Battery Material SLU to launch a project in Mérida to produce lithium iron phosphate (LFP/LiFePO₄). In other words, Mérida will be key to producing essential materials for the manufacture of LFP batteries. Batteries that aspire to be essential in the popularization of the electric car. Merida. It was the place chosen by Yuneng International Spain New Energy Battery Material SLU to build a factory that can produce lithium iron phosphate. The project will be located in the Expacio Mérida business park and will extend across 467,000 square meters after the Government of Extremadura has confirmed the approval of the environmental declaration for this factory. The project aims to have financing of 800 million euros and generate 500 jobs to produce the planned capacity of 50,000 tons per year of these materials. In the first phase they will mobilize between 116 and 125 million euros of investment creating about 160 direct jobs, they point out in Motorpassion. Why is it key? The production of lithium iron phosphate is essential for LFP batteries. Batteries are made up of modules and these, in turn, are made up of cells. In each cell there is an anode and a cathode. It is in the cathodes of LFP batteries where lithium iron phosphate sheets are located. Without them, the batteries would not work. In batteries of this type there are small lithium particles on the anode (negative pole). These particles move to the cathode (positive pole) through a liquid electrolyte found inside. This is when the electric current is generated which is then used by the motors to move the wheels. LFP Batteries. LFP batteries are one of the big promises of the electric car to make models cheaper and popularize this technology. It is a technology that offers less autonomy than NMC (cathode formed by nickel, cobalt and manganese) or NCA (nickel, cobalt and aluminum) because they have lower energy density. However, these batteries are cheaper because lithium and iron are cheaper than nickel or cobalt. And, in addition, they are safer and better resist load cycles so they will be more durable. This is essential for smaller cars, which will have less autonomy and must undergo a greater number of charging cycles but with the backpack of not being able to raise its price. Estremadura. In recent years, Extremadura has become relevant in the electric car supply chain. In addition to this lithium and iron phosphate production plant, in Navalmoral de la Mata (Cáceres) it is already rising a plant to produce complete batteries. This factory was designed to produce NMC batteries but has pivoted to produce LFP accumulatorsso both industries can be connected when the time comes. Additionally, the region is rich in lithium. Next to Cáceres it is believed that there are one of the largest deposits in Europe. The mine that should exploit this deposit has encountered the opposition from some neighbors and environmental platforms which has paralyzed the project. However, up to three of the seven projects that the European Commission wants to carry out in Spain for the exploitation of minerals and rare earths They are in Extremadura. The cheap electric car. To popularize the electric car, China has been betting on LFP batteries for years. In Europe, most electric cars have opted for batteries that include nickel or cobalt because they allow greater charging and discharging power and autonomy but are more expensive. Over the years, this has changed. Renault works with LFP batteries for the entry-level range of electric cars such as the Twingo or the Renault 5 (in the future). Tesla also uses them in the more modest versions of Model 3 and Model Y. In Spain, CATL is going to manufacture this type of batteries in Zaragoza for the smaller Stellantis cars. And Volkswagen too has this type of accumulator in mind for its most affordable electric cars that will come out of the Martorell line. Photo | Mercedes and Google Maps In Xataka | Europe has its hope in the 25,000 euro electric car and Volkswagen already knows who will manufacture it: Spain

the new life of your Cable Car

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This week, January 20, 2026, works started to dismantle one of the symbols of Madrid. They are, however, the first step to modernize it and adapt it to current security standards. With more than 50 years Behind them, the Madrid Cable Car is being taken down. The reason is a comprehensive renovation of the infrastructure. In fact, the cable car will remain alive but The iconic image will no longer return of the blue cabins supported by cables that seemed to flex too much. Because those cables with more than half a century behind them are being dismantled. The project includes a completely renovated cable car. Fewer cabins, faster journeys and, of course, the obligatory announcement that we will have the AI ​​monitoring possible incidents. It is a turning point in a story that was born at the end of the 60s. A cable car to nowhere Year 1969. Gento continued running on the Real Madrid wing and Gregorio “Hacha braba” Benito brought order to the center of the defense. But the team’s best years in Europe had passed. Gárate, Ufarte, Adelardo and Luis Aragonés would lead Atlético de Madrid to become League champion the following year and a few years later to brush with glory in Heysel before that great shot hit the net by one of those Germans with an unpronounceable name. The 60s gave way to a new decade and Madrid began to breathe a certain air of change without yet letting go of its most traditional signs of identity. Carlos Arias Navarro, then mayor of the city, turned the city upside down to get anywhere by car. Urban highways such as scalextric from Atocha and the proliferation of parking lots honored the rich Madrid tradition of drilling holes in the ground and always keep some work active. But, unlike motorized vehicles, in 1969 Madrid inaugurated a mass of iron that allowed people to fly above what would later become the M-30 and unite the Argüelles neighborhood with the Casa de Campo, then open to traffic and the classic setting for Sunday picnics. The plan seemed perfect to spend a day with the family eating tortillas away from the hustle and bustle. A completely isolated hill that, really, has no services at hand. What then led to building a cable car to nowhere in a city that was in full ferment and whose neighbors seemed eager for new plans? They count in elDiario.es that, really, the current Casa de Campo station was nothing more than an intermediate stop to get to the Amusement Park and the Zoo. That 1969, in fact, an attempt was made to inaugurate the first of these attractions together with the Cable Car, taking advantage of the festival of San Isidro, patron saint of the city, but the flying cabins had to wait because some neighbors tried to stop the project, claiming that the passage of these vehicles did not respect their privacy since they could see the interior of their houses. The Casa de Campo Cable Car station is linked to the Lake, the Amusement Park and the Zoo by roads that run through the interior of the urban park. But then you had to walk through pine trees to get to the recent Amusement Park, which is located just over a kilometer from the end of the cable car. To get to the Zoo it is necessary to double the distance. And the project contemplated joining both spaces with the cable car in a monorail that never came to fruition. If it had left, one of the city’s wealthy neighborhoods would be linked by air to two of the municipality’s great leisure attractions at that turn of the decade. The project, however, was stopped. Since 1969 it has been in operation with the same infrastructure, its cables have remained active for more than 50 years and it is estimated that it has transported more than eight million people. In 2022, a review temporarily paralyzed the facility when it was considered that it was not completely safe and in 2023 it was temporarily closed indefinitely. Now, the Madrid Cable Car seeks to write a new page in its history. This week the works for its dismantling began but a renovation project is already underway, so that the cabins can fly again for almost three kilometers above the Parque del Oeste and the Casa de Campo. They will do it with new cabins and renewed cables from Switzerland. With artificial intelligenceof course, which according to the Madrid City Council will help control incidents. Spaces that will weigh a ton with seats to transport a total of 10 people per trip. The challenge, they say from the City Council, has been to put new material in a space that was designed 60 years ago, they collect in The World. If everything goes ahead as planned, the flying cabins will return to the Madrid sky next year. They will do so after a five-year hiatus and almost 60 years after the first travelers covered that walk that, one day, should have linked the Argüelles neighborhood with the Madrid Zoo. Photo | FDV on Wikimedia and Madrid City Council In Xataka | Madrid wants to put 110,000 tons of weight on the M-30. And the challenge is not technical: it is not to collapse the road

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