Car Theft In Canada Is F$#king Crazy

Meanwhile, In Canada, Car Theft Is F$#king Crazy

Canada, known for its beautiful landscapes, losing the NHL playoffs, maple syrup, Justin Bieber, and unnecessary politeness, has a new level of notoriety.

Well documented since COVID, car theft in Canada is off the fucking charts. A vehicle is now stolen every six minutes in the great white north. That makes for about 46,000 cars stolen so far in 2024. nationalpost.com, cbc.ca

Thieves are not deterred by much. Add a bollard to your driveway; they drive through or around it. Add a club; they remove the steering wheel. Worse off are owners of Honda CR-Vs, RAM 1500s, and Ford F-150s, the favourites among vehicle thieves. equiteassociation.com, macleans.ca

The rest of the world is noticing. Earlier this year, Interpol put Canada in the top 10 countries for car theft. globalnews.ca, interpol.int

The BBC reported that “Interpol says it has detected more than 1,500 cars around the world that have been stolen from Canada since February, and around 200 more continue to be identified each week, usually at ports in other countries.” bbc.com

As bad as the “car theft crisis” in Canada is and as shitty as it might be to have your vehicle stolen, current theft rates put us on par with the US and are still better than Italy. wikipedia.org

Also, what the actual fuck is up with car theft in New Zealand? Where Canada’s current rate of thefts is around 262 per 100,000 people, New Zealand’s was over 1,000 per 100,000 people in 2018. More recent data suggests New Zealand’s rate dropped to just over 300 vehicle thefts per 100,000 around 2022. Although still not great, that’s a 3X drop. Maybe that was just a blip or insufficient data. Or maybe Canadian authorities need to ask them how they did it. statista.com, insurancebusinessmag.com

Ford Releases The Volkswagen Polestar 2 In Europe

That’s a confusing headline.

However, the newly released Volkswagen-built Ford Capri looks suspiciously like the Polestar 2. Successfully disappointing legacy Capri fans and confusing people who wonder why Ford can’t find new names for vehicles. motor1.com, theverge.com, heautopian.com, thetruthaboutcars.com

The resemblance to the Polestar 2 is so stark that Polestar’s CEO, Thomas Ingenlath, took to Instagram to trash-talk Ford about it. insideevs.com

Ingenlath’s comments aside, the vehicle looks great, has a respectable range and fits nicely between the EV Explorer and the EV Mustang Mach-E for people who want something sportier but not too sporty. That said, we’re not likely to see this rebirthed ID.5 with a Ford badge in North America any time soon. autoblog.com

China’s Automotive Expansion

Xpeng plans to build the "world's first large-scale flying car factory." autoevolution.com

Xpeng drops LIDAR and goes camera-vision-only like Tesla on new driverless tech. cnevpost.com

BYD has a new longer-range Dolphin EV with the same $14,000 price tag. electrek.co

CATL wants to raise $1.5 billion to expand its international battery supply chain. cnevpost.com

Shanghai now lets residents book free rides in robotaxis. wsj.com

Chinese OEMs show up dressed to impress at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. europe.autonews.com

Are Chinese vehicles well-built? For most segments, Chinese vehicles beat or match overall segment defect averages. J.D. Power notes that Chinese vehicle complaints include weird smells and poor sound insulation. carexpert.com.au

Alixpartners believes that of the 137 current OEMs manufacturing in China today, fewer than 20 will be in business at the end of the decade. Consolidation, mergers and insolvency are likely between competing brands. Alixpartners went on to say, “China is the industry’s new disruptor – capable of creating must-have vehicles that are faster to market, cheaper to buy, advanced on tech and design, and more efficient to build. For traditional OEMs, keeping pace with China’s strongest brands will require more than a course correction.” bnnbloomberg.ca, europe.autonews.com, alixpartners.com

Must Know Musk News

Elon endorses Trump after shooting incident. wsj.com, axios.com, autonews.com, x.com

Elon shares on Twitter (X) that there have been two attempts on his life in the last eight months. x.com

Tesla’s biggest sales problem might be Elon. yahoo.com

Tesla delays their robotaxi announcement. Shares down 8% as a result. mashable.com, cnbc.com

The Cybertruck was the US’s best-selling vehicle over $100,000 in June. teslarati.com

Tesla gives special treatment to Elon’s driving data. “Images and video clips from Musk's Teslas received meticulous scrutiny, while data from high-profile drivers like YouTubers received "VIP" treatment in identifying and addressing issues with the Full Self-Driving software.” businessinsider.com

Tesla drops in 2000th Supercharger stall in Norway. teslarati.com, x.com

Starlink satellites are too fucking bright. pcmag.com

Twitter (X) stopped growing. mashable.com

Rise Of The Machines

South Korea announced that it will be the first country in the world to deploy anti-drone lasers. A similar system was demonstrated by the UK military earlier this year. interestingengineering.com, bbc.com

Optimus Robot was a big hit at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai. iotworldtoday.com

DeepMind shows off their new robot using Google Gemini. techcrunch.com

Energy

Oil demand is slowing. reuters.com

Saudi Aramco thinks it has figured out how to sell more oil: centralize internal combustion engine development. ft.com

Lufthansa funds start-up Synhelion to produce synthetic aviation fuel (SAF). flightglobal.com

Canada finds a place to dump its nuclear waste. theglobeandmail.com

An Italian startup built a "CO2 battery" dome that stores excess power from renewables and pushes it back to the grid when needed. newscientist.com

Strathcona Resources and Canada Growth Fund dropped $2 Billion into a new oil sands carbon capture project. calgaryherald.com, globalnews.ca

China’s “artificial sun” hits new milestone. popularmechanics.com

Wind and solar under construction in China is nearly twice as much as what’s being built in the rest of the world. theguardian.com

But Wait, There’s More

Subaru built a sexy 670 hp, race-ready, carbon fibre WRX. motor1.com, driving.ca, forbes.com

Toyota joins the North American Ionna charging network alliance. electrive.com

Ford still hasn’t learned that math is hard. cleantechnica.com

Italy's government is considering offering defunct Stellantis to Chinese companies to encourage them to set up factories in Italy. reuters.com

Does anyone need or want a three-row pickup? RAM thinks, maybe?! thedrive.com

US auto group alleges that Hyundai has been urging dealers to falsely report EV sales in a new lawsuit. Hyundai agrees to investigate. autonews.com

NASCAR unveils prototype electric race car. cnbc.com

Takata airbags still have problems. arstechnica.com

UAW President Shawn Fain is at odds with his members. autonews.com

Also, Shawn Fain supports Biden (sorta). reuters.com

Used electric cars are now cheaper than similar gas cars. theatlantic.com

ICYMI

Schwalbe designed the new industry standard in bicycle tire valves. newatlas.com

A new type of ‘butter’, which is produced without animal products and made using carbon dioxide and hydrogen, tastes just like butter. zmescience.com

The US Heritage Foundation think tank that drafted the Project 2025 document was hacked by "gay furry hackers." Claims, “We weren’t hacked.” Furries say otherwise. The truth may only ever be found on FetLife. futurism.com, theverge.com, dailydot.com, techradar.com, cyberscoop.com

Kick Out The Jams

This was a serious week for pop music, with new tracks from Katy Perry, Paris Hilton, One Direction, Orville Peck & Beck, Nelly Furtado, and Dasha.

Vegas underground rapper TAZ (not to be confused with 19-year-old Ottawa musician named TAZ) says he could be your ‘SPOOKY ISLAND SHAWTY.” youtube.com

Childish Gambino reminds us that nobody gives a fuck. youtube.com

This is a fun cover of ‘Walking On Sunshine’ featured on the 'American Psycho' Comic Series Soundtrack. youtube.com

Deadmau5 collaborated with his own alter ego. Or, as it says in the comments of this video, “I can't believe Joel Zimmerman and Joel Zimmerman did a collab, this is insane.” youtube.com