Month: April 2022

Enlarge / This will be the 11th OTA update for the Polestar 2 since its launch in mid-2020. (credit: Polestar)

This month, Polestar 2 owners can expect a substantial over-the-air update for their electric vehicles. The Swedish automaker will push out an OTA update that, among other things, upgrades the underlying operating system to Android 11.

"Software technology in our cars should not be much different from how the latest software is pushed out on smartphones in everyday life," said Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath. "With OTA updates, our customers receive constant enhancements without making a trip to a workshop. We're very encouraged by the positive response as seen from the exponential growth in the number of OTA installations and will continue to deliver ongoing enhancements."

The Polestar 2 was the first car to ship with an infotainment system running Android Automotive. Not to be confused with Android Auto, which casts the screen and audio from a phone to the infotainment unit like Apple CarPlay, Android Automotive is a full-blown car OS that is increasingly being adopted by other OEMs like General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis.

Enlarge / The 2023 Hummer EV has gone from idea to production in just two years. (credit: Jonathan Gitlin)

PLEASANT VALLEY, Ariz.—The headline figures verge on the ridiculous: a thousand horsepower. A curb weight so heavy that you'd need a special license to drive it in some countries. A lithium-ion battery that's almost twice the capacity of anything else on the road. A zero to 60 mph time of just three seconds. And despite the worst efficiency of any electric vehicle we've driven to date, it still has more than 300 miles of range.

If all that sounds like overkill to you, or if you already think EVs are a good idea, you are not the target audience for GMC's new Hummer EV.

Instead, GMC is positioning the Hummer EV as "an all-electric super truck with zero emissions and zero limits" (except perhaps a road's weight rating). It's meant to convert the electro-curious over from gasoline or diesel to electrons. So think "off-road recreation Rivian R1T rival" rather than "blue-collar Ford F-150 Lightning fighter."