Enlarge / CXC Simulations needed to come up with something special for Norwegian Cruise Lines, so it built an off-road racing simulator. (credit: CXC Simulations)

Racing simulators keep evolving as graphics get more and more realistic while physical motion systems innovate new ways to mimic the sensation of driving a real race car. The task of rendering the controlled environment of a well-known racing circuit makes most modern sims a bit easier to understand, and the physical footprints of screens, seats, VR goggles, and motion systems continue to shrink. But now, leading developer CXC Simulations has unveiled a massive sim that offers a more embodied experience of off-road racing. The project began in partnership with Norwegian Cruise Line, but CXC will now sell the Motion Pro Truck to the general public, albeit at a starting price of $600,000.

I visited CXC's headquarters in Los Angeles to learn more about how the wild physicality of high-speed off-roading translates to sim racing. After all, the company's most popular Motion Pro II sim setup typically features a compact racing seat, steering wheel, and pedals atop a small base platform, with the choice of one or three screens or a set of VR goggles. The Motion Pro II has proved popular since founder Chris Considine originally launched CXC out of his garage in 2007, to the point that his company now works with professional racing teams, enthusiasts, federal government agencies, the military, and law enforcement agencies on six continents.

I tested CXC's Motion Pro II, which is equipped with three 55-inch screens, and Considine loaded me into a Radical SR8 racecar at the Watkins Glen circuit. The realistic pedals and steering wheel feedback, as well as subtle tilting at the seat of my pants and seatbelts that tightened under hard braking, all contributed to a fun experience. And as someone who typically suffers from motion sickness, I never felt any nausea creeping in—while appreciating how much the wraparound triple screens contributed to a sense of speed that other single-screen sims entirely lack.

Enlarge / Tesla is laying off around 500 staff who have worked on its Supercharger network, plus its new vehicle development team and its public policy team. (credit: Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

There's more chaos at Tesla this week. The Information reports that last night, the company's erratic CEO Elon Musk emailed workers with the news that he has dismissed a key pair of executives—one responsible for the Supercharger network, and the other head of new vehicle development.

The electric car maker posted its quarterly results last week and they paint a poor picture , with shrinking sales and plummeting profit margins. While Tesla once had a strong first-mover advantage and benefited from Musk's marketing savvy, the company has frequently ignored the many hard-learned lessons of the auto industry.

Customers not turned off by Musk's antics instead are losing interest with a product line up of two EVs that are ancient in car years (the Models S and X) and two EVs that are merely old (the Models 3 and Y). The Models 3 and Y are also the only two vehicles that Tesla sells in volume. Any other automaker would have a second-generation Model 3 ready to go either this year or next, but at Tesla the product pipeline is empty.

Enlarge / BlueCruise allows drivers to take their hands off the wheel but not their eyes off the road. (credit: Ford)

The federal regulator responsible for road safety has opened yet another probe into the safety of a hands-free driver assistance system, we learned this morning. And no, it's not a system from Tesla. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Office of Defects Investigation has opened a preliminary investigation into Ford's BlueCruise system, following a pair of fatal crashes, both of which occurred at night.

Ford first introduced BlueCruise in 2021 . Like the similar General Motors Super Cruise, but unlike Tesla Autopilot, BlueCruise has been designed with a tightly controlled operational design domain (ODD) that only allows it to be engaged on restricted access, divided lane highways that have been lidar-mapped in advance.

Additionally, like Super Cruise but unlike Tesla's far more dangerous system, there is an infrared gaze-tracking driver monitoring camera that will disengage the system if it determines the driver is not actually paying attention to the road.

Enlarge / A 2014 Tesla Model S driving on Autopilot rear-ended a Culver City fire truck that was parked in the high-occupancy vehicle lane on Interstate 405. (credit: Culver City Firefighters Local 1927 / Facebook )

Tesla's lousy week continues. On Tuesday, the electric car maker posted its quarterly results showing precipitous falls in sales and profitability. Today, we've learned that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is concerned that Tesla's massive recall to fix its Autopilot driver assist—which was pushed out to more than 2 million cars last December—has not actually made the system that much safer.

NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation has been scrutinizing Tesla Autopilot since August 2021, when it opened a preliminary investigation in response to a spate of Teslas crashing into parked emergency responder vehicles while operating under Autopilot.

In June 2022, the ODI upgraded that investigation into an engineering analysis, and in December 2023, Tesla was forced to recall more than 2 million cars after the analysis found that the car company had inadequate driver-monitoring systems and had designed a system with the potential for "foreseeable misuse."

Enlarge / This Toyota factory in Indiana is getting a $1.4 billion investment so it can assemble a new three-row electric SUV for the automaker. (credit: Toyota)

US electric vehicle manufacturing got a bit of a boost today. Toyota has revealed that it is spending $1.4 billion to upgrade its factory in Princeton, Indiana, in order to assemble a new three-row electric SUV. That will add an extra 340 jobs to the factory, which currently employs more than 7,500 workers who assemble the Toyota Sienna minivan and the Toyota Highlander, Grand Highlander, and Lexus TX SUVs.

"Indiana and Toyota share a nearly 30-year partnership that has cultivated job stability and economic opportunity in Princeton and the surrounding southwest Indiana region for decades," said Governor Eric Holcomb.

"Toyota's investment in the state began with an $800 million commitment and has grown to over $8 billion. Today's incredible announcement shows yet again just how important our state’s business-friendly environment, focus on long-term success, and access to a skilled workforce is to companies seeking to expand and be profitable far into the future. Indiana proudly looks forward to continuing to be at the center of the future of mobility,” Holcomb said.

Enlarge / Honda is investing CAD$15 billion (US $11 billion) to expand EV manufacturing in North America with four sites in Ontario, Canada. (credit: Honda)

Honda announced today that it will spend $11 billion to expand its electric vehicle manufacturing presence in North America. The Japanese automaker already has a number of factories in the US, Mexico, and Canada, and it's this last one that will benefit from the expansion, with four EV-related plants planned for Ontario.

Honda says it has begun evaluating requirements for what it's calling an "innovative and environmentally responsible" EV factory and a standalone EV battery plant in Alliston, Ontario, which is already home to Honda's two existing Canadian manufacturing facilities.

Additionally, the automaker wants to set up another two sites as joint ventures. One will be a plant that processes cathode active materials and their precursors—the various elements like nickel and manganese that are combined with lithium in lithium-ion batteries—set up in a partnership with POSCO Future M, a South Korean battery material and chemical company. (POSCO is already working with General Motors on another joint venture battery precursor material facility in Betancour, Quebec, that is supposed to become operational in 2026.)

Enlarge (credit: boonchai wedmakawand )

California's electric grid, with its massive solar production and booming battery installations, is already on the cutting edge of the US' energy transition. And it's likely to stay there, as the state will require that all passenger vehicles be electric by 2035. Obviously, that will require a grid that's able to send a lot more electrons down its wiring and a likely shift in the time of day that demand peaks.

Is the grid ready? And if not, how much will it cost to get it there? Two researchers at the University of California, Davis—Yanning Li and Alan Jenn—have determined that nearly two-thirds of its feeder lines don't have the capacity that will likely be needed for car charging. Updating to handle the rising demand might set its utilities back as much as 40 percent of the existing grid's capital cost.

The lithium state

Li and Jenn aren't the first to look at how well existing grids can handle growing electric vehicle sales; other research has found various ways that different grids fall short. But they have access to uniquely detailed data relevant to California's ability to distribute electricity (they do not concern themselves with generation). They have information on every substation, feeder line, and transformer that delivers electrons to customers of the state's three largest utilities, which collectively cover nearly 90 percent of the state's population. In total, they know the capacity that can be delivered through over 1,600 substations and 5,000 feeders.

Enlarge / Electric power has not robbed the G-Wagon of its off-road skills. If anything, it has enhanced them. (credit: Mercedes-Benz)

Mercedes-Benz provided flights from San Francisco to Los Angeles and accommodation so Ars could attend the G-Wagon event. Ars does not accept paid editorial content.

The Mercedes G-Wagon, a very capable off-roader typically purchased by people who never intend to take it anywhere near dirt, is getting an electric upgrade.

Unveiled in Beverly Hills—the most fitting of locations—the 2025 G 580 with EQ Technology spun its way onto the scene. The all-electric G-Wagon sports a 116 kWh capacity battery pack, four motors (one for each wheel), and a new sound system to replace the gas motor, called the G-Roar. Sadly, there's no word on price, delivery date, or range. But on paper, its impressive specs make it better than the ICE version off-road.

For serious off-roaders likely not residing in Beverly Hills, the luxury off-roader's four independent motors offer true torque vectoring and electronic differential locks. Each motor is coupled with a two-speed transmission for a reduced gear low range. The ideal use for this is rock crawling. In fact, there's an actual "Rock" crawling mode in the G 580. Mercedes is not playing.