Ralph Nader asks NHTSA to recall Tesla’s ‘dangerous and irresponsible’ FSD

Ralph Nader, a political and consumer advocate and former presidential candidate, has issued a statement calling Tesla’s “so-called” full self-driving (FSD) technology “one of the most dangerous and irresponsible actions by a car company in decades.”

Nader is calling on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to use its safety recall authority to order that FSD technology be removed in every Tesla. Per CEO Elon Musk’s recent statements, that’s about 100,000 vehicles.

The author of the bestselling book “Unsafe at Any Speed,” which criticized the American auto industry, cited research that found FSD malfunctions every eight minutes. That research was published in January by The Dawn Project, an organization aiming to ban unsafe software from safety critical systems that put out a full-page ad in The New York Times slating Tesla’s FSD, which analyzed data from 21 YouTube videos of Tesla owners using FSD beta software.

“This nation should not allow this malfunctioning software which Tesla itself warns may do the ‘wrong thing at the worst time’ on the same streets where children walk to school,” wrote Nader. “Together we need to send an urgent message to the casualty-minded regulators that Americans must not be test dummies for a powerful, high-profile corporation and its celebrity CEO. No one is above the laws of manslaughter.”

Nader’s callout comes as Tesla is gearing up to release the next version of its FSD software, version 10.69, on August 20. Musk tweeted out the announcement, saying nothing about the next iteration’s capabilities other than: “This release will be big.” During Tesla’s Q2 earnings call, Musk also said Tesla would increase the price of the software and that the automaker was hoping to “solve full self-driving” by this year.

Really, Nader should be targeting Tesla’s Autopilot, as well. Tesla and Musk have been adamant in the past that FSD has not been responsible for any crashes or deaths. (However, a recent YouTube video from AI Addict shows a Tesla in FSD mode colliding with a bike lane barrier post.) Autopilot, on the other hand, has likely been the cause of several crashes. NHTSA is currently investigating 16 crashes in which Tesla owners were potentially engaging Autopilot and then crashed into stationary emergency vehicles, resulting in 15 injuries and one fatality. Since 2016, there have been 38 special investigations into crashes involving Tesla vehicles, of which 18 were fatal.

Other automakers have come out with similar ADAS technology, and based on NHTSA’s recent ADAS crash report, appear to have far fewer crashes. It’s difficult to compare how dangerous Tesla’s technology is in relation to its rivals, in part because there are far more ADAS-equipped Teslas on the road than any other vehicle.

NHTSA did not respond immediately for a request for comment.

In a pair of July 28 filings, the California Department of Motor Vehicles accused Tesla of false advertising to promote its Autopilot and FSD technologies — both of which are advanced driver assistance systems and do not provide full autonomous driving. While Tesla’s website states that “the currently enabled features require active driver supervision and do not make the vehicle autonomous,” the DMV told the Los Angeles Times that the disclaimer “contradicts the original untrue or misleading labels and claims, which is misleading, and does not cure the violation.”

The California DMV also said earlier this year that it was revisiting its approach to regulating Tesla’s autonomous vehicle technology, as the agency does with every other company that claims to pursue full self-driving and does public road testing. Tesla has gotten away without reporting crashes and system failures to the DMV for so long because its systems fall under the ADAS category, which requires a human driver must be present. However, after reviewing dozens of videos showing “dangerous use” of that technology — and such use is informed by the way Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk speak about the technology — the DMV decided to reevaluate.

This reevaluation is ongoing, and the DMV told TechCrunch it could not comment until it is complete. That said, based on the DMV’s most recent claims that Tesla is falsely advertising, Tesla could be facing revocation of its licenses to make or sell its cars in California, in the worst case. That probably won’t happen, but if it did, it would spell trouble for the EV maker. California is home to Tesla’s most loyal buyer base.

Musk has had a fraught relationship with the state ever since May 2020, when Alameda County ordered Tesla to shutter its Fremont factory to stop the spread of COVID. In October last year, Musk announced Tesla would be moving its headquarters to Austin, Texas.

The celebrity executive has also repeatedly underlined the importance of FSD to the company, saying in June that without it, Tesla is “worth basically zero.” It is likely based on the belief by many, including Nader, that FSD is not what it’s cracked up to be; Nader went on to tweet Wednesday that Tesla’s stock is vastly overvalued.

“Tesla and @elonmusk exposed the technological stagnation of the auto companies and broke ground with EVs and other climate-benign technologies,” tweeted Nader. “However, a fast moving company can not obscure wildly speculative stock valuation on top of a general stock market bubble that could implode on pension and mutual fund savings of millions of Americans. Fundamentals can’t be ignored.” 

Nikola taps its president for CEO post

Electric truck maker Nikola announced Wednesday that President Michael Lohscheller will become CEO on January 1.

Lohscheller, who will replace CEO Mark Russell upon his retirement, has joined the Nikola Board of Directors, effective immediately. He served as CEO of Opel and VinFast, as well as CFO at Volkswagen Group of America and Mitsubishi Motors Europe, before joining Nikola as President in March, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Since then, the company brought its long-delayed Tre battery-electric vehicle into series production and began piloting a hydrogen fuel cell version of the Tre with Total Transportation Services.

“In his six months since joining our company, Michael has continued to bring an increased sense of urgency, high level of accountability, improved lines of communication and accelerated decision-making to Nikola Motor,” Steve Girsky, Nikola’s Chairman of the Board, said in a statement.

Nikola’s stock price rose 5.9% on the news during pre-market trading Wednesday. The share price was flat as of 10 a.m. ET.

The startup has struggled since going public through a $3.3 billion merger with special purpose acquisition company VectolQ in June 2020.

After making headlines for its eye-popping $29 billion valuation, the company was slowed by a string of controversies stemming from its founder Trevor Milton, which resulted in his removal as CEO and a $125 million penalty to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for deceiving investors.

The SEC said that Milton misled investors on numerous fronts including the company’s technological advancements and production capabilities. Milton was charged with criminal fraud.

Nikola reported Thursday a second-quarter net loss of $173 million, or 41 cents per share, on revenues of $18.1 million.

The company said it had produced 50 Nikola Tre BEVs in its Coolidge, Arizona, factory and that it remains on track to deliver between 300 and 500 of the trucks by the end of the year.

 

 

Ford locks in solar energy deal with DTE Energy

Ford said Wednesday it has reached a deal with DTE Energy to power its electricity supply in Michigan with clean energy, a step toward its goal to become carbon neutral by 2050.

The automaker’s deal with DTE, Michigan’s largest producer of renewable energy, will add 650 megawatts of new solar energy capacity in the state by 2025, allowing the carmaker to assemble each vehicle it makes there with renewable energy.

Ford called the deal the largest-ever renewable energy purchase from a utility in the U.S. The arrangement will help Ford decarbonize its operations and meet its sustainability goals, including a target to power all of its global facilities with renewable energy by 2035.

Ford said the purchase will help it cut its carbon dioxide emissions by up to 600,000 tons. Overall, Ford’s arrangement with DTE will increase Michigan’s solar capacity by 70%, according to the automaker.

The announcement comes one day after Ford said it will raise the price of its electric F-150 Lightning pickup truck between $6,000 and $8,500 for new orders.

“Due to significant material cost increases and other factors, Ford has adjusted MSRP starting with the opening of the next wave of F-150 Lightning orders,” a statement read.

The entry-level Lightning will now retail for $46,974, while the top-tier “Platinum Extended Range” version starts at $96,874. The price increase will not apply to customers who have already ordered a truck and are awaiting delivery.

Ford also said the truck’s standard range battery can now travel 240 miles, up from 230 miles, on a full charge.

Elon Musk sells nearly $7 billion in Tesla shares

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is at it again selling shares of his electric vehicle company, per a regulatory filings. Since Friday, the executive has sold 7.9 million shares, which totals about $6.9 billion. This is the first time Musk has sold shares in Tesla since April, when he disposed of 9.6 million shares, worth about $8.5 billion.

Musk, usually an avid tweeter, has been mum on social media as to why he’s shedding his stake in the company yet again. Over the last ten months, Musk has sold around $32 billion worth of stock in Tesla.

Tesla shares were down 2.44% today but are trading relatively flat in after-hours, suggesting the stock sales are yet to have an effect on Tesla’s share price. Tesla’s stock took a hit late last year when Musk sold off more than $16 billion worth of sales after polling his Twitter fans on whether he should trim his stake, a move that got him in hot water with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

When Musk sold stake back in April, TechCrunch mulled the possibility of the executive putting the money towards his $44 billion Twitter acquisition. Last month, Musk told Twitter he’s killing the deal because he believed the social media company to be misleading in its bot calculations. However, over the weekend, the executive waffled a bit, tweeting: “If Twitter simply provides their method of sampling 100 accounts and how they’re confirmed to be real, the deal should proceed on original terms. However, if it turns out that their SEC filings are materially false, then it should not.”

The recent insider trading could also have something to do with Tesla’s plans to issue a three-to-one stock split, which was approved by Tesla shareholders last week. We’ll keep an eye out for Musk buying back those shares on the cheap once the split goes through.

Tesla’s next gigafactory might be in Canada

While onstage at Tesla’s annual shareholder event, CEO Elon Musk hinted that the automaker would choose the location for a new gigafactory by the end of the year. Musk jokingly asked his fans where the company should build, and when a few yelled out “Canada!” Musk replied, “I’m half Canadian. Maybe I should.”

It seemed like a throwaway comment at the time, but a July lobbyist registration from Tesla reveals the company might actually have its eyes set on the U.S.’s neighbor to the north.

Tesla recently added an amendment to its registration with Ontario’s Office of the Integrity Commissioner that sets forth the automaker’s plans to engage with the Ontario government to identify opportunities for “industrial and/or advanced manufacturing facility.” To sweeten the deal, Tesla’s lobbyists propose such a facility could “increase the competitiveness of Ontario and its ability to attract capital investment.”

Tesla did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s requests for comment.

Ontario may not need much of a push to welcome a Tesla gigafactory into its lands. The region already has a thriving automotive ecosystem that plays off its neighbor Detroit. Ford and General Motors already have existing plants there. In fact, in April, the Canadian government invested about $415 million into GM’s two new plants in Ontario, including one that will produce electric vehicles.

“By making Ontario a competitive business environment, including reducing the cost of doing business by $7 billion annually, we have attracted nearly $16 billion in electric vehicle investments in the last 20 months,” Vic Fedeli, minister of Ontario’s economic development, job creation and trade, said in a statement shared with TechCrunch. “We are building an end-to-end supply chain right here in Ontario, and expect to continue to see more companies from around the world looking to our province as a place to invest and grow.”

Musk said during the shareholder meeting last week that Tesla could ultimately have 10 to 12 gigafactories globally. Even though Tesla has opened gigafactories in Berlin and Shanghai, the U.S. still makes up for the vast majority of Tesla vehicle sales globally, so it makes sense the company might choose another North American location for its next factory — especially considering the headaches the Shanghai factory has endured, what with consistent lockdowns and factory line updates causing vehicle sales in China to fall.

It’s possible that Tesla is rushing to find locations to build batteries and vehicles closer to home after the Inflation Reduction Act was approved on Sunday by the U.S. Senate. The $430 billion bill could restrict automakers from using Chinese-made materials and require them to use North American-sourced battery components if they want to be eligible for consumer tax credits for EV purchases.

Ford raises F-150 Lightning prices across the board

Ford is raising the price of the F-150 Lightning, with increases ranging from $6,000 to $8,500, depending on the model and trim level. The entry-level “Pro” badged F-150 Lightning will now retail for $46,974, while the top-tier “Platinum Extended Range” version comes in at nearly $100,000.

Ford cites rising costs for materials, as well as “other factors” as the reasons behind the bump, and noted that the increase will only be valid for new orders and will not impact those who have already placed an order for one of the electric pickups and are waiting on delivery of their vehicle. If you had a reservation and were offered an order but declined to make a purchase because the specific trim you were looking for was out of stock, Ford says you’ll get “a private offer for use in upcoming waves.”

Orders have been on hold due to availability and high demand, but Ford says it’s announcing the price hike now in anticipation of reopening the ordering process so that those who have registered their interest with the system will be able to “make an informed decision around ordering a Lightning” — aka decide whether they’re cool forking over more cash.

Ford says that they’ve sold “over 4,400” of the all-electric trucks to date, since they began selling them officially in April this year.

BMW hedges its EV bet, appears poised to repeat mistakes of the past

For a while, it seemed like BMW had turned a corner with its EV strategy. Its i4 and iX have received stellar reviews, and this spring the company announced an all-electric platform, the Neue Klasse, which it said will underpin EV versions of the 3-series sedan and the X3 crossover starting in 2025. The company that had squandered its once-promising EV lead seemed poised for a comeback.

Seemed.

It’s increasingly clear that Neue Klasse isn’t going to be a dedicated EV platform, at least not in the way just about every other automaker conceives of one. “We could also imagine a hydrogen drivetrain for this new vehicle generation,” CEO Oliver Zipse said in last week’s earnings call.

If BMW follows through and makes the Neue Klasse accommodate both batteries and hydrogen, it’ll have created yet another compromise platform, a futon of automotive engineering that doesn’t excel at anything except making waffling board members happy.

The iconic Meyers Manx dune buggy makes it return as an EV

The Meyers Manx, the iconic 50-year-old dune buggy that’s been copied thousands of times, is officially making its return in 2023. But this time around, it’s electric.

The Meyers Manx 2.0, which debuted Monday at an event in Malibu, will launch thanks to venture capitalist Phillip Sarofim and famed automotive designer Freeman Thomas, say they are committed to bringing back the dune buggy that is intimately connected to California’s surf history.

“I think in some ways I’m, I’m connecting to my childhood,” Sarofim, the CEO and founder of Trousdale Ventures, the VC firm that purchased Meyers Manx from Bruce Meyers in 2020, told TechCrunch, “I think the Meyers Manx represents so much. It’s a symbol of, of fun, of purity, of simplicity, and it also represents 1960s California optimism, and we want to bring that back.”

The Meyers Manx 2.0: An electric dune buggy

Details are still sparse on the little machine. The tl;dr is that it looks a lot like the iconic dune buggy designed more than 50 years ago and the real change is what’s underneath.

“We wanted to make sure to try and keep the exact same footprint of the original vehicle dimensionally,” Sarofim said, “But, everything is different except the housing for the headlights. Those two round pieces are the only thing that remains the same. Everything else has been re-engineered.”

The Meyers Manx 2.0 will come with two different power options: a 20 kWh battery with around 150 miles of all-electric range or a 40 kWh battery with a company estimated 300 miles of range.

The power comes from lithium-ion pouch batteries with an integrated battery management system. It will weigh an estimated 1,500 pounds with the smaller battery and around 1,650 pounds with the larger one. A pair of rear-wheel-mounted electric motors should make the Manx 2.0 a blast to drive. The company says in its tests with the 40 kWh battery pack, the new vehicle will do 0 to 60 miles per hour in 4.5 seconds.

The company hasn’t released any pricing information, but it plans to only make 50 of these vehicles as 2023 models. More details will be available when pre-orders open after the official launch at The Quail Motorsports Gathering event in Carmel, California, later this month.

“A lot of new startups want to get big, fast, and we’re low volume,” Thomas said. “We’re starting off walking before we run. That’s the main reason we want to do the 50 vehicles is that those are going to become more like test drivers. These are people that we will have relationships with. We will work out all the bugs and make sure that it’s perfect. And then, slowly, we will begin ramping up. And I think that because of that, it’s going to be a little bit of an exclusive product in the beginning.”

Both Sarofim and Thomas did say that the Manx 2.0 will get over-the-air updates once they begin to get feedback from initial customers.

This isn’t the first time that the Meyers Manx has shown up with an electrified powertrain. Bruce Meyers built and showed off an electric prototype in 2014. And back in 2019, Volkswagen showed off a concept called the ID. Buggy that was based on Meyers Manx.

Not much is know about the where these new vehicles will be manufactured except that the company has partnered with a “U.S.-based manufacturing entity.” Trousdale, Sarofim’s VC firm, is a shareholder in Coreshell, a company that has scaled the process of coating the inside of an EV battery for industrial manufacturing and is also working with the reimagined Meyers Manx.

When pressed for details about their manufacturing partner, Sarofim stated, “Our manufacturing partnership is a non-exclusive one, and it’s not with a car maker per se. Yeah. So it is a very good relationship, a symbiotic one, a friendly one and we’re, we’re really excited. It allows us to get up to speed in a much faster way.”

The team behind Meyers Manx 2.0

Trousdale Ventures purchased the Meyers Manx, Inc. directly from the founder, Bruce Meyers in 2020, just a few months before he passed away at age 94 in 2021. He and Freeman Thomas, the designer behind iconic vehicles like the iconic Audi TT and the Volkswagen New Beetle (the one from 1997), met at the well-known and controversial Malibu Cars & Coffee.

Sarofim says he drove a Manx to the impromptu car show where Freeman approached him about the little dune buggy. Both Sarofim and Freeman are automotive enthusiasts, and Thomas said he asked Sarofim if he’d ever met Bruce Meyers. From there, the two visited Meyers in his California home, and the three of them became fast friends. Sarofim says that Meyers was in his 90s at the time.

“We spent a couple of hours just hanging out.” Sarofim said, “And Bruce said, you know, I think you all should buy my company. And I thought, I don’t know that I necessarily want to be in the car business. And then, a year had transpired and I called Freeman and I said, we have to do this. We have to do this. And we got together with Bruce and a week later, we, we owned the company.”

Manx has about 50 full-time employees currently, according to Thomas, who is the CEO and COO of Meyers Manx, today. “I have designers that are coming from Porsche, from Audi, from Volkswagen, that just wanna be part of Manx,” Thomas said. “In some funny way, we are becoming the “It” brand among designers.”

The target audience for the Manx 2.0 will be the wealthy with multiple homes and multiple cars. “What will be really compelling is that you could be able to leave it in your garage for months and months on end. If it’s at your vacation house and all of a sudden you come there, there’s no smells, there’s no, you know, oil dripping,” Thomas said. “All you do is go. It”s like your laptop, you open it up and it’s ready to go.”

Sarofim and Thomas both say that the Manx 2.0 won’t be the only vehicle you might see from the revitalized company, however. “We do have other vehicles coming that will be unveiled in the next, I mean, coming years, and we do intend to reach new customers and new audiences, and different use cases as well,” Sarofim said. “But you know, who is the ideal Meyers customer, I think is the real question. It’s just someone who loves cars and has this spark in their eye and dreams with optimism. I think that’s the customer. Yeah. Someone who has a love of adventure.”

Canoo burns cash in race to hit $1B EV sales goal

Electric vehicle company Canoo’s second-quarter results, like its first-quarter results, show a pre-revenue company that’s burning through cash. However, last quarter, Canoo was warning it might not have enough cash to stay in business. Three months later, the EV startup-gone-SPAC is touting access to enough capital to see it through the rest of 2022.

“We are preparing for [standard operating procedure] readiness,” said Ramesh Murthy, chief accounting officer at Canoo, during Monday’s earnings call.We have customers. We have access to capital. We have a strategy that benefits our company and shareholders against the backdrop of this global economic condition. We are making it happen.”

Canoo says it has closed out the quarter with more than $1 billion in its sales pipeline. This is largely attributable to a recent deal with Walmart to purchase 4,500 units, with an option to buy up to 10,000 units. Canoo also scored a deal to supply its multi-purpose platform to the U.S. Army for analysis and demonstration, which could lead to sales in the future. The company also recently unveiled the EVs it’s making for NASA.

Like many EV SPACs, Canoo has had a tough time, and is likely still reeling from its past controversies, which include internal drama, legal issues, production delays and an SEC investigation. That said, there appears to be light at the end of this tunnel.

Canoo’s shares hiked almost 7% after the company released its Q2 results. Let’s dig in.

Canoo’s financial results

While Canoo does have quite a lot of potential money in the pipeline, the company has still not brought in any revenue since making its public debut in December 2020. Canoo saw a net loss of $164.4 million in the second quarter and $289.8 million in the first half of the year, compared to a loss of $112.6 million and $127.8 million in the same periods last year, respectively.

In Q1, Canoo was struggling to get the cash it needed. When the company announced its results in May, it still hadn’t realized the gains of the $300 million private investment in public equity (PIPE) investment from its SPAC. Canoo had also filed a $300 million universal shelf, all of which would be necessary to make it to the start of production. As a result of the delayed funds, Canoo issued a growing concern warning.

Today, Canoo is singing a different tune. The company closed out the quarter with access to $250 million, which includes about $220 million of unused capacity on its SEPA facility, and cash and cash equivalents of $33.8 million.

Additionally, as Canoo has previously mentioned, the company has secured more than $400 million in non-dilutive incentives from the states of Oklahoma — where Canoo is expanding operations at its first U.S. factory and establishing a technology hub and customer support and finance center — and Arkansas, where Canoo is setting up headquarters and another technology hub.

Walmart to the rescue

When Walmart agreed to buy 4,500 electric delivery vehicles from Canoo in July, no doubt the company and its investors all breathed a collective sigh of relief. Not only did that assure future revenue for Canoo, but it also gives the company another opportunity to go after additional non-dilutive and lower cost capital financing opportunities, said Murthy.

“The first agreement represents $300 million of potential revenue for us with an additional path of deeper partnership opportunities to generate revenue for us with our new partner,” said Tony Aquila, CEO of Canoo.

Presumably, having clout with Walmart will also lead to additional partnerships with other partners in the future, but per Walmart’s agreement with Canoo, rival Amazon will not be one of them.

Keeping lean and quick

Canoo spent $115.5 million on R&D in the second quarter, which probably helped the company figure out how to get its total parts used on its EV platform down to 1,600, as compared to 1,800 last quarter. This is also partly due to Canoo’s decision to prioritize domestic manufacturing, which the company says will lead to higher margin business wins with commercial fleet operators, as well as have a meaningful long-term impact on total cost of ownership.

“This approach has aided us in dealing with the inflationary and supply chain environments, which not only affect the first owner but every owner thereafter, allowing us to demonstrate that the future is about becoming a TEM not just an OEM,” said Aquila, nodding to Canoo’s tech-first approach.

Canoo said it was able to double the total number of Gamma properties it manufactured in the second quarter, bringing the total number up to 89 and more than doubling the number of vehicles since Canoo last reported. In fact, during the second quarter, Canoo was able to hand off its Gamma build for certification to meet Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards requirements.

The result of having more vehicles at the ready is that Canoo now has $275 million in fixed assets as of June 30, which the company says can also be leveraged for additional non-dilutive financing.

Updated guidance

With a focus on SOP in Q4 2022, Canoo expects its operating expenses for the remainder of the year to be between $200 million and $245 million, excluding stock-based compensation and depreciation. That’s a 20% decrease in spending in the second half than the first because the company is completing its Gamma phase investments and moving closer to commercial production, according to Murthy.

Canoo expects capital expenditures of $100 million to $125 million, and Murthy said this is primarily related to facility readiness, machinery and equipment and production tooling.

“These investments will get our [Lifestyle Delivery Vehicle] in the hands of paying customers and support another milestone of 20,000 run rate in 2023,” said Murthy.

Spending in 2023 will continue on Canoo’s current pace in order to achieve 2023 production guidance, continued Murthy, noting that in order to achieve other long-term business aspirations, the company will need to tap additional capital.

Aquila mentioned a potential for an additional $85 million in the future, but didn’t go into details. He did seem optimistic that Canoo would have further access to capital since pulling forward some of its build-out programs.

Lyft creates media division to cash in on in-car ads

Lyft has created a new business unit to beef up its digital advertising business across its tablets, mobile app, rooftops and bicycles, creating the potential to add billions of dollars to its bottom line.

The ride-hailing company announced on its blog Monday that Lyft Media will help cash in on the growing market for in-vehicle digital ads, as cars become more connected and begin to feature multiple, larger infotainment screens. The announcement comes days after Lyft and its biggest competitor, Uber, announced robust second-quarter financial results.

Both face increasing competition for location-based advertising. Uber, which entered the ad business in 2019 via its UberEats app and before rolling out ads across its rooftops and ride-hailing app, said its advertising business could reach $1 billion in revenue by 2024.

Lyft’s blog post outlines a four-fold plan for raising ad revenue and competing against rivals.

“Our vision is to build the world’s largest transportation media network, delivering value to advertisers while also elevating the platform experience for riders and drivers,” the post read.

Lyft made its first digital ad play with the 2020 acquisition of digital advertising company Halo Cars, which makes the rooftop screens that run digital ads. The rideshare company uses Halo screens to show location- and time-targeted ads on some of its rideshares in New York City, Los Angeles, and Washington D.C. and plans to expand to other cities.

The rideshare company also shows ads on its in-car tablets that allow riders to track their route, rate and tip drivers and control the music through Lyft’s partnership with iHeartRadio. Lyft said it plans to roll out the service to 25% of its rides in Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington DC to reach millions of riders by the end of the year.

Lyft said that a portion of revenue from the display and tablet ads will go to its drivers, but it’s unclear how much of that money drivers will get.

The company also said that advertising opportunities on its mobile app can help brands reach almost 20 million active riders. Lyft Skins allow advertisers to overlay a customizable branded icon and banner on the screen. Lyft’s ads will also run on bikeshare ad panels and docks, as well as directly on its next-generation e-bikes.

As cars become more digitalized, the opportunities to generate revenue from targeting advertising content and subscription services multiply. A number of players are racing to provide the hardware, software and media that can rake in the advertising dollars.

Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are battling for more control over the user experience by burrowing into the guts of the vehicle. Apple announced at the 2022 Apple Worldwide Developers Conference that its next-generation CarPlay system will run the vehicle’s entire instrument cluster. Meanwhile, Google is upgrading its Android Auto system to allow split-screen displays to cram more information onto the monitor.

Plenty of other companies are angling for a slice, too. Audi spinoff Holoride said that it will roll out its virtual reality headsets in certain Audi models this summer.