Month: January 2016

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LAS VEGAS—On the Monday night before CES kicked off properly, several hundred journalists and VIPs assembled under a purple-lit tent in a vacant lot to witness the reveal of a new electric vehicle from a startup called Faraday Future. The company, flush with cash thanks to the owner of LeTV (think Chinese Netflix) had touted the event for some time, promising to show us what it called a "Tesla-killer."

As it turned out, the car underneath the sheet wasn't actually a Model S rival, nor will it be going into production. Rather, we saw a race-inspired concept called the FF Zero 1, a 1000-hp electric vehicle that the company chose to show instead. As you can see in the video above, the following day we sat down with Richard Kim, Faraday Future's head of design, to talk about the car.

(credit: Ehang)

The Chinese startup company Ehang unveiled yesterday at CES what it claims is the first passenger drone, capable of carrying one person for about 20 minutes. According to a report in The Guardian: "The cabin fits one person and a small backpack and is fitted with air conditioning and a reading light. It is designed to fit, with propellers folded, in a single parking spot." The company hopes to sell the device for $200,000 to $300,000 (£140,000 to £200,000) later this year.

The Ehang 184 Autonomous Aerial Vehicle (AAV) weighs 200 kilograms (440lbs), and has four sets of paired electric motors. The company claims the batteries can be charged in two to four hours. The drone is controlled via a tablet, which is used to set the flight path before take-off. According to the company's website: "Ehang 184 AAV flies in a inverted U shape. It takes off and lands vertically, point to point direct flight based on altitude and latitude of the origin and termination point. Take Off/Landing points are landing targets pre-set with Ehang Logo. The landing camera will position the landing targets automatically and accurately."

Since the passenger has zero inflight control over the machine, safety is naturally a major concern. The company claims: "Even with one propeller malfunctions, it can still land in the nearest possible area safely." In addition, if any other components malfunction or disconnect, "the aircraft will immediately land in the nearest possible area to ensure safety."

Jonathan test drives a Chevy Volt. Video shot/edited by Jennifer Hahn, additional camera by Nathan Fitch. (video link)

LAS VEGAS—Yesterday at CES Chevrolet formally unveiled the Bolt, its new, battery-powered electric vehicle. But the Bolt wasn't the only EV that the company brought to Las Vegas. Joining the pre-production prototypes at the little test track it laid on for journalists were a pair of Volts—plug-in hybrid EVs that are now on their second generation. We got our first drive of the new Volt back in October of last year when Tiffany Kelly checked it out in the Bay Area, but as the cars were on hand, taking a second look (and the opportunity to drive it a bit) seemed like a wise idea.

The first-generation Volt taught Chevrolet quite a lot about electric vehicles, and its enthusiastic fan base provided the company with a lot of feedback that has been incorporated into the new car. The interior is much-improved, as is the powertrain, which is both lighter and more powerful than before. The car combines an electric motor and 18.4 kWh battery with a 1.5L direct-injection gasoline engine that exists mainly to charge the batteries but which also sends power to the front wheels when it makes sense to do so.

(credit: Hayes Davidson / Sebastian Anthony)

Happy new year, Arsians! I come bearing exciting news.

A new hire

Kelly Fiveash, Ars Technica UK's new taco editor.

To begin with, we have a new hire. After a very successful first year (we grew from around 400,000 readers to 1.5 million), the Powers That Be decided that we deserved another writer. You will be unsurprised to hear that it's rather hard to find someone who is up to the task of writing for Ars Technica—but still, after a couple of months and a final interview stage where I quizzed a half-dozen applicants on their knowledge of Latin, I finally settled on Kelly Fiveash.

Kelly comes to us after more than eight years at The Register, another large UK tech site. Prior to that she was a freelance music journalist and night-shift worker at The Guardian, and before that an IT helpdesk bod. She lives in north London with a blond chihuahua called Señor and spends most of her spare time listening to an album called What?! by the Atomic Bomb! Band (she's still a music nerd). Kelly has a lot of experience covering UK tech, IT, security, and policy—four areas that I'd like to expand on here at Ars Technica.