Month: January 2021

Enlarge / Anthony Levandowski exits federal court in San Jose, California, on August 27, 2019. (credit: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

On his final full day in office, Donald Trump pardoned Anthony Levandowski, the engineer at the center of Waymo's epic 2017 trade secret battle with Uber. Last year, Levandowski pleaded guilty to stealing a single confidential Google document; prosecutors agreed to drop other pending charges against him.

Levandowski was a key early member of Google's self-driving car project, but he quit Google in early 2016 to found his own self-driving startup. Within months, the startup was acquired by Uber for a nine-figure sum, and Levandowski was put in charge of Uber's self-driving efforts.

But then, Google's self-driving unit—now known as Waymo—accused Levandowski of stealing trade secrets. According to Waymo, Levandowski had downloaded thousands of confidential documents from Google in his final days as a Google employee. Waymo says it was tipped off to the theft after Uber submitted a design for a lidar circuit board to a third-party vendor—a vendor also used by Waymo. Uber's design looked almost identical to Waymo's.

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  As we expected, Porsche has introduced a single-motor, rear-wheel drive version of the Taycan electric vehicle to its lineup. [credit: Porsche ]

On Tuesday, Porsche filled out its Taycan electric vehicle lineup with a cheaper, lighter variant. It's just called the Porsche Taycan—no S, no Turbo, not even any numbers—and it differentiates itself from the other Taycans by virtue of having just a single electric motor, which drives the rear wheels. It's even keenly priced... for a Porsche. At $79,900 (before any tax credits or incentives) it's almost $24,000 cheaper than the next variant in the range, the Taycan 4S.

As with the 4S, there is a choice of two batteries. The standard Taycan comes with a 79.2kWh (total capacity) pack and a rear motor capable of 321hp (240kW) and 250lb-ft (339Nm), boosting up to 402hp (300kW) and 254lb-ft (344Nm) if you use launch control. Do so—exiting a highway tollbooth, for instance—and the Taycan will reach 60mph in 5.1 seconds. Find a derestricted stretch of German autobahn, and eventually the Taycan will call time at 143mph (230km/h). At 4,566lb (2,071kg) it's the lightest Taycan, although the drag coefficient of 0.24 makes it slightly less slippery than the 4S or Turbo unless you add back the optional air suspension.

Thanks to Porsche's 800V electrical architecture, fast recharging is indeed fast. Connected to a 350kW-capable DC fast charger, the Taycan will charge at up to 225kW and from 5-80 percent state of charge in 22.5 minutes, just like the more expensive Taycans. An official EPA range should be available in the next few weeks, so for now, an EU figure of 28kWh/100km—which equates to 2.2 miles/kWh, with the understanding that the WLTP test is very different to the EPA's, making direct comparison difficult—is all the information we have. (The Taycan is notorious for having a greater real-world range than its EPA estimate.)