When Jeep owners complained ads were appearing while driving, the carmaker said it was a glitch. But as automakers consider connected car opportunities, in-vehicle selling might be too tempting to ignore.

Engineers who work for Elon Musk’s SpaceX have been brought on as senior advisers to the acting administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), sources tell WIRED.

On Sunday, Sean Duffy, secretary of the Department of Transportation, which oversees the FAA, announced in a post on X that SpaceX engineers would be visiting the Air Traffic Control System Command Center in Virginia to take what he positioned as a tour. “The safety of air travel is a nonpartisan matter,” Musk replied. “SpaceX engineers will help make air travel safer.”

By the time these posts were made, though, according to sources who were granted anonymity because they fear retaliation, SpaceX engineers were already being onboarded at the agency under Schedule A, a special authority that allows government managers to “hire persons with disabilities without requiring them to compete for the job,” according to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

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SpaceX engineers were said to be simply touring the Federal Aviation Administration on Monday. In fact, some were already being onboarded at the agency under a policy designed to increase “employment opportunities for people with disabilities.”

Chargers funded through the program were due to be just a small share of those opening this year. The longer-term effects aren’t yet clear.

The US Department of Transportation has ordered states to kill their implementation plans related to the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program, according to a memo obtained by WIRED that was later made public. The decision appears to halt in its tracks a $5 billion program designed to fund state projects to install electric vehicle charging stations across the United States.

Officials at the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), which manages the program, ordered state transportation directors to “decertify” the plans that all 50 states have used to outline where and how they will build their charging stations, and with what companies they’ll contract to do so. States have followed those plans to build more than 30 charging stations across the US, with hundreds more on the way.

Surveys show prospective car buyers cite the country’s lagging electric vehicle charging infrastructure as a major reason they won’t buy electric. The NEVI program, established by 2021’s Infrastructure Law, was the government’s answer to those concerns. It attempts to build chargers along thousands of miles of federal highway, with a focus on places that might not otherwise be able to financially support a charger.

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The US government has ordered states to retract their plans to build hundreds of federally funded EV charging stations, according to a memo obtained by WIRED.

For some in the car industry, the uncertainty surrounding a US-border trade war is almost worse than the tariffs themselves. If the tariffs go through, the costs might get passed down to buyers.

President Donald Trump blamed DEI efforts at the FAA for the tragedy. But experts and investigators say open minds are critical to finding out what really happened.

In the DeepSeek AI saga, global technologists are relearning the lessons of the Chinese auto boom.

The future of EVs might hinge on a decades-old air pollution law. Whether the law is upheld will have ramifications far beyond the borders of the Golden State.

Policy experts say the implications of Donald Trump’s executive order for EV owners—and the EV-curious—won’t be clear for a while.

Waymo confirms to WIRED that its planned partnership with Chinese-owned automaker Zeekr remains “on track.”

As extreme wildfires become the new norm, scientists are trying to crack how to save lives.

Automakers are showing off whizz-bang tech for vehicle interiors meant to reshape drivers’ relationships with their cars.

Electric vehicle sales are growing globally overall, despite Tesla's recent slump.

The incoming Trump administration has signaled its hostility toward EVs. Will the red-state/blue-state divide come for public charging?

The “four rings” turns to “four letters” in China—a choice that also signals deeper shifts in the global auto market, where Chinese automakers now dominate.

The automaker has sunk billions into making a self-driving car service work. Now it says it will focus on “personal” autonomous vehicles instead.

Newly published research finds that the flashing lights on police cruisers and ambulances can cause “digital epileptic seizures” in image-based automated driving systems, potentially risking wrecks.

In the Western world, some automated driving features seem to have fallen out of favor. Not true in China—and the reasons why offer a preview of auto industry changes to come.