Bugatti’s Centodieci, VW’s Electric Dune Buggy, and More Cars News

Faster, pricier, sandier: This week was an exercise in seeing how far the people building and driving vehicles might go. We took close looks at the new Bugatti Centodieci, we climbed aboard the all-electric VW dune buggy, and we examined what it takes to build the ultimate TV-friendly obstacle course for cars (and their daredevil drivers).

Plus, we wondered what happened to all those people who shelled out for vanity license plates that ended up costing way more than they bargained for. It’s been a week. Let’s get you caught up.

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Headlines

Stories you might have missed from WIRED this week

• A brief history of all the vanity license plates that have cost their owners dearly in mistaken fines.
• Honda’s brand new airbag is designed to prevent brain injuries in an all-too-common kind of car crash.
• The Ford-owned scooter company Spin wanted to operate on a university campus, and Virginia Tech researchers wanted to investigate scooters. How an agreement between the two ended up in 50 sensor-laden scooters on the Hokies campus.
• An old Kodak plant, 30 to 60 GoPros, 100 acres of track, and 28 drivers come together to create the ultimate American Ninja Warrior, but for cars.
• Guess how fast the new Bugatti Centodieci superdupercar can go.
• Our ride in the battery-powered VW dune buggy, a nostalgia trip into the electric future.

Transpo-Related Font Controversy of the Week

Asks an eagle-eyed writer for The Verge: Did Apple’s upcoming Morning Show drama, starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, swipe its logo from our other favorite drama, Elon Musk’s Boring Company?

Stat of the Week

86%

The jump in plug-in electric vehicle sales in the US between 2017 and 2018, according to a new report from the advocacy group Environment America. In total, 1,113,310 electric vehicles (including hybrids) were sold between 2011 and 2018. It’s still a small fraction of total vehicle sales, sure, but it’s growing fast.

Required Reading

News from elsewhere on the internet

• Walmart sues Tesla, alleging its solar roofs kept catching on fire. Now, the two companies appear to be working it out.
• VW says it’s not actually taking a stake in Tesla.
• A battery chemistry tweak will give the 2020 Chevy Bolt an added 21 miles of range.
• The White House is trying to prevent more automakers from joining in an agreement with California regulators to adhere to stricter emissions standards.
• Waymo releases its own open data set, a potential boon for academics working on self-driving technologies.
• Starship Technologies says it will deploy even more delivery robots on university campuses.
• An e-scooter that can drive…itself?
• Uber drivers in the UK are fighting for access to their own driving data.

In the Rearview

Essential stories from WIRED’s canon

Speaking of sand: Curl up with this 2015 tale of the deadly global war over the granular stuff, and an excerpt from the brand new book based on that piece.