What We’re Reading

• Tesla’s Model Y and other EVs will now qualify for $7,500 tax credit, IRS says (CBS News, February 3, 2023)

  In a big win for EV OEMs such as Tesla, GM, Ford, and Volkswagen, the U.S. Treasury Department announced late last week revisions to its vehicle classification definitions that will substantially broaden the scope of EVs that now qualify for a federal tax credit up to $7,500. The new EV tax credit system is part of a $430 billion climate bill approved in August—the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022—which includes a key federal tax credit for new (up to $7,500) and used (up to $4,000) EVs assembled in North America that meet MSRP limits based on vehicle size and weight.

  Under the original vehicle classification definitions, SUVs had a higher price threshold ($80,000) to qualify for EV tax credits than sedans and wagons ($55,000). The new announcement allows vehicles that OEMs traditionally classified as “crossover SUVs” to qualify for tax credits at the higher $80,000 cap. EVs such as GM's Cadillac Lyriq, Tesla's five-seat Model Y, the Ford Mustang Mach-E and Escape Plug-in Hybrid, and Volkswagen’s ID.4, which were all previously classified as sedans, will now be considered SUVs. Since all of these models are priced between $55,000 and $80,000, they will now qualify for tax credits under the new classification definitions. 

  This change should continue to stoke demand for these crossover EVs, particularly as OEMs continue dropping prices. As noted by Albert Gore, executive director of the Zero Emission Transportation Association, “[c]ongressional intent with the IRA and clean vehicle tax credit was to rapidly accelerate deployment of qualified EVs, and today's decision is a big step toward that goal.”

  For a comprehensive list of EVs eligible for the clean air tax credit, read here.

• Tesla’s infamous Full Self-Driving Beta v11 is coming this week if you believe Elon Musk (Electrek, February 6, 2023)

  It has proven not to be unusual for Elon Musk to make ambitious promises about product deliveries without actually delivering. FSD Beta v11, for example, was first promised back in November, but has not yet been made available to the now 400,000 FSD Beta testers in the U.S. If Musk’s tweets can be believed, however, the promise may become reality this week. Musk tweeted on Saturday that he hopes the highly anticipated update will “ship” by the end of the week, explaining the delay by saying “V11 has been tougher than expected, as it is a significant rearchitecture of NNs, plus many more NNs replacing C++.”  [“NN” means neural network; “C++” is a programing language.]

  Why is this software update so notable, and so anticipated? Because “it is expected to merge Tesla’s FSD Beta software stack primarily used on roads and city streets with Tesla’s Autopilot software stack, which is used as a level 2 driver assist system on highways.” Put another way by Teslarati, FSD Beta v11 is “the first version of the electric vehicle maker’s advanced driver-assist system that utilizes a single software stack for both highway and inner-city driving.”

  Some consumers remain skeptical given FSD’s spotty performance. Examples can be seen in the 176 (and counting) comments to this article, including one in which a driver relays that his “wife ordered [him] not to use FSD with her in the car anymore ... after a phantom slow-down ... and we went down from 70 to 55 in about 100 feet.”

• Researchers Propose a Fourth Light on Traffic Signals – For Self-Driving Cars (NC State University, February 7, 2023)

  A team of transportation engineers at North Carolina State University believe that adding a white light to traditional traffic signals “would enable autonomous vehicles to help control traffic flow,” leading to fewer delays and greater fuel efficiency. The researchers have tested this “white phase concept” through microscopic traffic simulators with encouraging results, finding up to a 10.7% reduction in intersection delays depending on the number of AVs involved. 

  While red lights would still signal “stop,” and green lights would signal “go,” a white light would signal that a driver should “simply follow the car in front of them.” A white light would be triggered through communications between AVs to coordinate their movements; when a critical mass of vehicles indicate they are approaching an intersection, the light would turn white to facilitate the flow of traffic.

  The concept relies on a distributed computing approach, harnessing the “computing resources of all the AVs to dictate traffic flow.” While the researchers grant that the concept is unlikely to be adopted any time soon, potential applications extend beyond intersection traffic to environments like port traffic and commercial transportation.