In a bizarre turn of events, rather than focusing on developing replacements for the aging Stelvio and Giulia, it appears the storied Italian automaker is instead trying its hand at the dating scene. The pitch? That the Junior Elettrica is the perfect segue to a romantic date.

According to its research, which comprises a 1,000-member sample size of people actively dating in the U.K., 60% of daters are tired of their dating apps. The solution? Go on a drive. Again, based on Alfa’s own research, 44% would prefer to go on a drive or a day trip versus the traditional dinner and drinks.

Read: Alfa Romeo’s Junior Has Some Appeal, But It’s Not The Smart Choice | Review

Fear not, singles. Because Alfa Romeo has partnered with Kate Mansfield, a dating and relationship coach, to craft the “Love Thy Romeo” guide to dating in real life, and not from behind a screen. Mansfield is apparently outstanding in her field, and specializes in helping women move from those pesky apps to a real-life connection.

It’s an odd development for a car company, sure. But then, we’ve seen weirder, and we suppose Alfa Romeos are often associated with passion, right?

A Ploy For The Junior

Now, obviously, we’re not really suggesting that Alfa has diverted its R&D budget away from replacements (even if the lineup is beginning to look a bit aged a la Chrysler) into creating a dating guide. What’s actually happened is it spent some of its marketing budget on something a bit different, if a bit odd.

But the way the Junior is being shoehorned in as the perfect road-trip companion is what makes it especially entertaining, with Jules Tilstone, Managing Director, Alfa Romeo UK, saying: “Junior Elettrica is the perfect date companion for a romantic escape, combining performance with passion and style, rooted in its Italian DNA.”

We’re not convinced, and it’s got us thinking: what might be the perfect car for that long, romantic road trip? A few suggestions we’ve come up with: perhaps a classic R107-generation Mercedes-Benz SL500, with that smooth, torquey V8 and the wind in your hair. Or, if you wanted to keep the Italian passion front and center, how about the Pininfarina-designed Fiat 124 spider. New or old, we’d probably take either of these over the electric Alfa.

Let us know what kind of vehicle you’d choose for a first-date getaway.

We’ve all seen situations where folks at a gas pump forget that they’re fueling and drive away. In the process, they take the pump with them. Tesla has long prevented its cars from committing the same mistake even if the driver forgets that they’re plugged in. Now, that’s changing in the name of safety. That’s right. In an emergency, Tesla cars can now drive away while charging, but don’t expect the resulting damage to be inexpensive.

Dubbed Emergency Drive Away, the new feature allows owners to shift into Drive and leave a Supercharger while the cable is still attached. Tesla isn’t installing some clever new breakaway connector, either. The car simply lets you go, and whatever happens to the charging hardware afterward is very much a secondary concern. That’s notable because gas pumps often have specific breakaway elements.

More: NHTSA Wants Tesla To Explain What Made Cybercab Street Legal

Tesla demonstrated the feature this week and confirmed that it is arriving with software version 2026.38.3. When a driver attempts to shift into Drive while plugged in, the touchscreen displays an Emergency Drive Away warning. The driver must hold the brake pedal and tap “Activate,” at which point the usual charging interlock is overridden, and the car can move.

Unsurprisingly, Tesla is very clear that you shouldn’t try this simply because you’re running late for work. “Use of this feature will damage your vehicle and the Supercharger,” Tesla Charging warned, adding that deliberate misuse will result in additional penalties. The company hasn’t explained exactly what those penalties entail. And boy howdy can the damage add up quite quickly.

Emergency Drive Away lets you shift into Drive while still plugged into a Supercharger pic.twitter.com/40GSzyP4lG

— Tesla Charging (@TeslaCharging) October 1, 2026

When someone asked Tesla how much destruction owners should expect, the company said electrical and civil costs associated with repairing a Supercharger can reach $25,000, depending on the station. The vehicle’s charge port will also require a mandatory service visit afterward. Importantly, Tesla hasn’t said that someone escaping a legitimate emergency will necessarily be handed that massive repair bill.

Tesla’s demonstration gives you a pretty good idea why repairs aren’t cheap. As the car pulls away, the charging cable is ripped free, and coolant pours onto the ground. Tesla confirmed that the liquid is glycol and said cleanup will be handled as part of the mandatory Supercharger service visit. In other words, this isn’t really a breakaway system. It’s Tesla giving the car permission to break things.

There is, of course, a very serious reason for doing so. The feature arrives two months after a mass shooting in Twin Falls, Idaho, where a gunman killed three people and injured seven others. Police said the attacker fired at three people inside two Teslas at a nearby Supercharger, killing 66-year-old Dale Schultz.

Tesla hasn’t explicitly said that the shooting prompted Emergency Drive Away. In fact, Tesla charging executive Max de Zegher said the company had gone “back and forth on this for years” before deciding to offer it. He described it as “a feature we hope you never need.” The timing, however, is impossible to ignore. Additional options are never a bad thing. 

Images: Tesla

Charging an EV at home is generally about as exciting as plugging in your phone. Frankly, that’s the optimal experience in most cases. However, you’re dealing with a whole lot more electricity, often for hours at a time, and cutting corners can have some spectacularly expensive consequences. One Rivian owner appears to have learned that lesson in about the worst possible way.

Photos shared to the Rivian subreddit show an R1S with its entire front end absolutely cooked. Seriously, a lightning bolt might have done less damage. On top of that, there’s substantial fire damage to the garage nearby. According to the Reddit user who posted the images, they stumbled across the aftermath while walking their dog and were told by a neighbor that the fire began while the Rivian was charging through an extension cord.

More: Nissan Warns 51 Leaf Owners To Stop Using Their EVs Right Now

That said, it’s a secondhand account. We haven’t found a fire department report confirming the exact cause, so we can’t say definitively that the extension cord started the blaze, nor do we know for sure precisely what type of cord, outlet, or charging equipment was being used. What we can say is that Rivian really doesn’t want owners doing this.

The automaker’s owner’s guide specifically warns drivers not to plug its Portable Charger into “an extension cord, power converter, power strip, or any type of power adapter.” It also warns against using damaged, loose, or worn outlets. That’s key because Rivian’s J1772 portable charger can pull up to 32 amps and deliver 7.6 kW when plugged into a 240v outlet. While it won’t necessarily draw those maximums constantly, it’s still trying to draw significant electricity through the cordage for lengthy periods of time.

The Reddit post itself sparked an interesting debate over whether extension cords themselves are really the problem. Several commenters argued that a properly rated heavy-duty cord can safely carry substantial current, while others pointed to possible problems involving undersized wiring, damaged connections, coiled cords, or overheated plugs. One commenter even suggested the photos appear to show a NEMA 14-50 RV-style extension cord rather than some bargain-bin household cable.

No doubt, extension cords come in all sorts of sizes and qualities. That said, Rivian’s instructions don’t leave room for interpretation. It simply says not to use one. In this case, it appears that advice could’ve kept at least this R1S on the road. Most importantly, the Reddit poster says neighbors confirmed that the owners of the SUV were okay. Hopefully we can all appreciate the reminder that comes from their material loss.

Photos: A Reddit User

A trial involving Tesla has just started in California, some four years after the electric car manufacturer was sued by the California Civil Rights Department for allegedly allowing racial discrimination against black workers at its Fremont factory.

Rather than a typical jury trial, state Superior Court Judge Peter Borkon ordered a bench trial. This means that he alone will determine if Tesla violated local civil rights laws, rather than a jury made up of members of the public.

Read: Tesla Settles Potentially Costly Lawsuit Over Autopilot Death

The lawsuit, filed in February 2022, asserted that Black workers at the company’s site in Fremont, California, have been segregated to the lowest level of the workforce and “discriminated against in job assignments, discipline, pay, and promotion.” It has also been alleged that Tesla has turned a blind eye to years of complaints from Black workers who’ve had to endure racial slurs and seen racist writing and graffiti in common areas, including swastikas and other hate symbols.

The director of the California Civil Rights Department says the agency wants to hold Tesla accountable. Tesla has vehemently denied the accusations and, in late 2022, countersued the agency, alleging it had violated laws by filing the suit without seeking public comment or giving the car manufacturer time to settle.

California does not have a cap on the damages that a court can award to workers affected by workplace discrimination, so if Judge Borkon rules for the plaintiffs, Tesla may be forced to cough up a serious amount of money.

This isn’t the only lawsuit that Tesla is dealing with, related to the Fremont factory. In 2023, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a lawsuit against Tesla in federal court, also alleging that starting in 2015, Black employees had been subjected to racial slurs. This separate lawsuit also claims Tesla has failed to investigate complaints of racial conduct and even fired or retaliated against those workers who reported being harassed.

Lawsuits that turn into jury trials can be costly, and likely to avoid a potentially astronomical payout, Tesla has settled a lawsuit filed in relation to the death of a 31-year-old killed while driving a Model S with Autopilot enabled. As you may expect, details about the settlement remain confidential.

On February 18, 2023, Genesis Giovanni Mendoza Martinez was driving his 2014 Tesla Model S on Interstate 680 in Contra Costa County, California, when the EV slammed into a fire truck responding to an earlier accident. Martinez was killed in the 70-mph crash, while his brother in the passenger seat suffered serious injuries.

Read: NHTSA Suspects Tesla That Hit Firetruck In Fatal Crash Was Using Autopilot

The lawsuit took issue with how Tesla advertised its Autopilot system, and suggested that the 31-year-old would not have been killed had the system performed as advertised. The lawsuit alleged that both Tesla and company boss Elon Musk had misrepresented the capabilities of the Level 2 driver-assistance system, causing Martinez to place too much trust in it.

The case was being overseen by Judge Vince Chhabria, who determined last year that the ‘Autopilot’ name was “plausibly misleading.” He also ruled that Musk’s statements about Autopilot, including statements in which he said it was “probably better” than a human driver, were legally actionable.

Did Tesla Make False Promises?

Contra Costa Fire Department/X

Data recovered from the wrecked Model S revealed that Autopilot had been engaged roughly 12 minutes before the crash. Because of advertising around the technology, the lawsuit said the driver thought the EV “would drive itself and he no longer needed to drive it.”

Tesla fiercely contested the claims, saying it wasn’t at fault given that Martinez had ignored warnings in the owner’s manual and active warnings while inside the vehicle. Despite this, the judge cleared the path for a jury trial where Musk’s statements on Autopilot would have inevitably been put under the microscope. To avoid this, Tesla has agreed to settle.

The automaker has settled numerous similar lawsuits in the past. In 2025, it opted against settling a case in Florida, and a jury returned a verdict that it must pay $243 million in damages in relation to the 2019 death of a man who was inside a Model S with Autopilot engaged, which hit a parked Chevrolet Tahoe.

Hyundai has an all-new generation of interiors, introduced first on the Grandeur in Korea and since carried over to the Ioniq 3, Avante/Elantra, and Tucson. Every one of them is built around Pleos Connect, a large central infotainment screen that borrows its layout and its logic from Tesla, and there is no shortage of processing power behind the glass. On the cheaper trims, though, one piece of hardware got left off the list.

It has now emerged that the new 2027 Avante/Elantra, which just launched in Korea, and the global-market Ioniq 3 go without a digital instrument cluster in front of the driver in base trims, an item which has been standard-fit on most of Hyundai’s current-generation cars.

A Cluster You Have To Pay For

According to Motor1, Korean buyers can add a slim 9.9-inch cluster to the Avante, though it costs 350,000 won (US$255). No such option box appears to exist for base Ioniq 3 models, leaving owners to read everything off the central touchscreen. The Ioniq 3 also goes without a head-up display, exactly like a Tesla Model 3 or Model Y. In the UK, the entry-level £22,245 (about $30,000) Ioniq 3 Advanced arrives without the cluster, while the £25,595 (roughly $34,500) Premium trim and above include it.

Read: Hyundai’s Radical New Tucson Makes The RAV4 Look Half-Asleep

It’s hardly a secret that screens are the cheaper option for manufacturers. A panel of glass and the software behind it costs less than the gauges, bezels, wiring, and physical switchgear it replaces, which explains why the industry has moved this way with so little resistance. Cost is not the whole story, though. Buyers have been asking for this kind of interface, the tablet-style layout with app menus and over-the-air updates, and Hyundai’s new setup answers that request.

Hyundai Should Know Better

Even so, it’s pretty poor form from Hyundai to make such a small screen an optional extra, rather than fitting it as standard equipment. The display includes important functions like speed, speed-limit signs, range figures, and efficiency details. We’ve yet to try out the new Pleos system, but having to glance over to the infotainment display to check your speed is a bit of a nuisance.  

The new Elantra and Tucson will be the first Hyundai models sold in the US with the Pleos Connect system next year. Here’s hoping we get slightly more well-equipped versions that include the cluster screen as standard equipment.

Developing and building fully autonomous vehicles isn’t easy. Just ask Tesla, which has been working on the technology for more than a decade and has yet to perfect it. Based on a recent video of a Model Y currently being used by its robotaxi fleet in Austin, Texas, Tesla still has a long way to go.

This clip was recently shared on Reddit by a frequent user of Tesla’s Austin robotaxi service, and it may make you think twice before trying it yourself. For whatever reason, the Model Y in question attempted to make a right turn at a large intersection, but failed to realize that the inside corner of the road was blocked off by bollards for pedestrian safety.

Read: Tesla’s Cybercab Is About To Carry Real Passengers

A human driver would have seen these bollards and realized you have to turn around them. Instead, the Tesla Model Y drove directly into the blocked-off area and sat there for several seconds, presumably because it realized it was now stuck. Unable to reverse out and correct its mistake, the robotaxi instead tried to thread its way through two of the bollards, hitting them in the process.

It didn’t take long for Redditors to identify the exact intersection where the incident took place, and a Google Street View search revealed the bollards had been there since at least February 2024.

Video Reddit /bladerskb

Cybercabs Are Coming

Despite incidents like this, Tesla appears to be plowing ahead with plans to expand its robotaxi fleet in Austin. According to a recent report, it completed a local trial with the Cybercab and company employees on private roads and is now preparing to add the Cybercab to its fleet and make it available to the public.

It remains to be seen whether the Cybercab’s self-driving capabilities will be better than those of other Tesla models. We do know it’s equipped with more RAM and an upgraded AI4 Fully Self-Driving computer. Whether it actually performs any better than a Model Y like this remains to be seen, but as we’ve seen so often from Tesla in the past, members of the public will be used as test dummies.

Donfeng’s Voyah brand wanted headlines for its new electric SUV, so it drove the Passion S through a full 360-degree loop inside a Chinese tunnel, recreating the famous stunt Michael Schumacher pulled off in a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG back in 2010.

Read: Stellantis’ New Chinese Partner Is Going After The Xiaomi YU7

Photos and specs for the Passion S have been floating around for months, but the official launch came only late last week, timed to land alongside the stunt. Going upside down in a tunnel says nothing about how Voyah’s Xiaomi YU7 rival drives, though it did exactly what it was meant to do online.

The Internet Cried AI, Voyah Responds

Shortly after Voyah released its expertly edited clip of the Passion S completing the 360-degree loop in the tunnel, many suggested it may have been the work of artificial intelligence. Before long, separate footage leaked to Weibo showing a camouflaged Passion S prototype attempting to complete the loop but falling and crashing onto the road below.

CarNewsChina, which picked up that clip, points out that a company willing to write off multiple prototypes is probably using real cars rather than a render farm.

Voyah quickly responded, releasing the raw, unedited footage from the stunt. It shows the Passion S hitting the ramp at roughly 81 mph (130 km/h) and performing a complete loop, but only just. As the SUV spun upside down, it appears to have briefly lost contact with the ceiling before the wheels smashed into the down-ramp, allowing it to complete the loop.

If you review the footage in slow motion, you’ll notice the lower corner of the Passion S’s front bumper took an absolute beating as it came off the steep down ramp and back onto the road. In the edited clip, the Passion S is shown completing the loop unscathed and emerging out of the tunnel without a single scratch. Evidently, this part was filmed with another model.

Cheap And Powerful

Voyah has confirmed the Passion S will be offered with 81 kWh and 98 kWh battery packs, and all versions will use an 800-volt electrical architecture, allowing the pack to be charged from 20-80 percent in ten minutes.

Both rear- and all-wheel-drive models will be offered, although we only have specifications for the dual-motor version, which delivers 637 hp and 564 lb-ft (765 Nm) of torque, allowing the SUV to hit 62 mph (100 km/h) in 4.5 seconds. The rear-wheel-drive model has a claimed CLTC range of 459 miles (740 km), while the all-wheel-drive version should be good for 391 miles (630 km) between stops. Prices range between 229,900 yuan ($34,100) and 279,900 yuan ($41,500).