General Motors (GM) announced Thursday that it will lay off 680 employees at its Fairfax assembly plant in Kansas City, Kansas, as it phases out production of the Chevrolet Malibu sedan. The layoffs will begin on November 18, following earlier notifications to staff about the upcoming changes.

The move comes as GM invests approximately $390 million into the Fairfax facility to facilitate the production of the new Chevrolet Bolt EV. “To install new tooling, employees will be placed on a temporary layoff until production resumes in mid-2025,” said GM spokesman Kevin Kelly. The affected workers will receive support from the UAW-GM agreement.

The Chevrolet Malibu has a long history, initially launched in 1964 and briefly discontinued in 1983, before being revived in 1997. Over the years, GM sold millions of Malibus, including variants for police use. However, GM announced the end of Malibu production in May to make room for the next generation of Bolt EVs, which CEO Mary Barra indicated would likely debut in 2025.

With the discontinuation of the Malibu, the only remaining gasoline-powered vehicle in Chevrolet’s lineup is the Corvette, following the cessation of Camaro production last year. Earlier this year, GM introduced a hybrid version of the Corvette known as the E-Ray.

In addition to the Malibu, the Fairfax plant currently produces the Cadillac XT4 SUV. However, XT4 production will also pause in January, leading to further temporary layoffs for the remaining workers. Fairfax Assembly has a total workforce of 2,275 employees, and GM plans to resume XT4 production after retooling is complete.

The new Bolt EV will utilize GM’s Ultium propulsion system, while the previous generation was manufactured at the Orion Assembly plant in Orion Township. That facility is currently undergoing retooling to produce the Chevrolet Silverado EV, which is made at Factory Zero in Detroit. Production at Orion is not expected to commence until mid-2026.

HTC has unveiled the HTC Vive Vision — an upgrade to the Vive Focus 3 with core elements that are sure to appeal to the business community. I got to try out the new headset at the recent Shift Medical, an XR medical conference in Heidelberg, Germany, where we were on hand to share our expertise.

As mentioned at the beginning, this headset is not for XR enthusiasts. Even if HTC advertises it differently and wants to grab a piece of the consumer market, I see these VR headsets being used primarily in the business sector with customer contact.

They are rugged, easy to use, and designed for continuous use. I think the evolution from Focus 3 to Focus Vision with better pass-through, more stable processing in critical areas and permanent eye tracking is a good decision.

The use of the 3 year old XR2 instead of the current XR2 Gen 2 is a shame, but I think HTC knows its numbers and knows that its target audience is either using highly customized entertainment software anyway, or will switch to PC streaming in a heartbeat. Both are true for my customers who might be interested in this device.

The technical capabilities of the XR2 are rarely pushed to their limits in research projects or education. If it is, it is usually due to poor optimization or unfinished applications. Even an XR2 Gen 2 would not change that.

I think it's great that HTC is another consistent manufacturer in this market and is consciously trying to differentiate itself from other devices to find its niche within the niche. I wish them good luck because this is precisely what the VR market needs.

The fast approaching Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is landing on PC and Xbox consoles November 19th. While it wasn’t clear at its initial unveiling last summer whether Asobo’s next-gen flight sim would include VR support, the studio says it’s definitely coming, and even showed it off in action.

Asobo confirmed in a developer Q&A earlier this year that VR support was indeed coming, and that, in Executive Producer Martial Bossard’s words, it would be “spectacular.”

And while you still won’t find mention of VR support buried anywhere in the marketing material, the studio showed off VR support in action during the MFS 2024 Preview event, letting press and creators fly around using a Pimax Crystal Light headset.

Reddit user Vast_Front259 posted a recording of the Peacock running on their phone that they say they took with their laptop webcam because the streaming service's DRM prevents screen recording. It's a Quest 3 ad we've seen before, but at the end a render is shown of it alongside Quest 3S, Meta's repeatedly leaked next headset, alongside the text "Starting at $299.99".

The smallprint below the renders reads "Meta Quest 3S 128GB is $299.99. Content sold separately." below an Amazon logo. Listing the storage suggests that like Quest 3 and Quest 2, multiple storage variants of Quest 3S will be offered.

This apparent leak comes less than a week before Meta Connect, the company's annual conference where it's expected to launch Quest 3S.

An Austin-based startup best known for its VR and mixed reality workspace software for other companies’ headsets now has hardware of its own. The Immersed Visor appears to sit somewhere between a Vision Pro Lite and Xreal Plus: a lightweight head-worn device that creates a high-resolution spatial computing environment on the cheap (well, relatively speaking).

Teased to death for months, Immersed founder Renji Bijoy finally unveiled the Visor at an Austin event on Thursday. The device, a bit more than glasses but much less than a full headset, gives each eye the equivalent of a 4K OLED screen. It has a solid 100-degree field of view. It supports 6DoF tracking (meaning it responds to motion on different axes, not just simple head rotations), and it offers hand and eye tracking and support for over five screens in a virtual or mixed reality environment.

In the presentation, Bijoy revealed that the Immersed Visor only weighs 186g, slightly less than an iPhone 16 Pro. It’s 64 percent lighter than the Meta Quest 3 (515g) and around 70 percent lighter than the Apple Vision Pro (600 to 650g). Weight and ergonomics have been drawbacks for many early adopters of VR and mixed-reality tech. (That includes some customers of the $3,500 Vision Pro.) So, trimming the Visor’s weight to about the same as a high-end smartphone could, in theory, help it succeed where competitors struggled. Part of that comes from (in borrowing a trick from Apple) a wired battery pack you stash in your pocket.

But unlike those devices, the Immersed Visor doesn’t include an app store or onboard experiences like games. Instead, it’s tailored for work: link it to your Windows, macOS or Linux computer (wirelessly or wired), and get stuff done on its immersive array of virtual screens. Its 6DoF tracking means you can stand up, lean or twist, and the virtual screens will remain planted where you put them, rather than awkwardly following you through space.

Like the company’s workspace app for Meta Quest and Vision Pro, you can operate either in a passthrough view of your space or an entirely virtual one. (It includes pleasant virtual environments like a mountaintop ski resort by a cozy fire.) You can also work with others in a shared space.

The device runs on the Qualcomm XR2+ Gen 2 chip, which debuted at CES 2024. The chip supports up to 4.3K per-eye resolution and can handle content up to 90fps.

Hands-On Visor Demos @ Immersed IRL 2024 Sept 19 @ Zach Theatre, Austin, TX (shipping starts right after)

Today sees the launch of the new VR MMORPG Freeland for Meta Quest 3, Quest 2, Quest Pro and SteamVR. The free-to-play multiplayer adventure will initially launch in Early Access and aims to be one of the largest open-world VR adventures. In Freeland, you explore a vast online galaxy threatened by the villainous Ventax. You must forge alliances, fight battles, and uncover secrets to save Freeland. The game features open world exploration, dynamic combat, social interaction, dungeons and PvP combat. You can race cars on tracks, complete quests such as wingsuit flights between skyscrapers, customize your avatar and explore four planets. Additional worlds will be unlocked over time.

Let’s start this one with some good news: the transition toward clean freight is picking up speed. Over the past few years, we’ve started to see more and more zero-emission commercial trucks, delivery vans, and buses hit the road. The much-needed evolution of our on-road freight system to one that’s cleaner and more equitable is gaining momentum — and not a moment too soon.

Medium- and heavy-duty vehicles (MHDVs), like the big rigs on our highways and the vans that deliver our packages, make up just over 1 in 10 of the vehicles on our roads, but are responsible for over half of ozone-forming nitrogen oxide pollution and lung-damaging fine particulate pollution from on-road vehicles. They are also disproportionately responsible for climate-warming emissions, representing around 30 percent of greenhouse gas pollution from vehicles on our roads and highways. Zero-emission trucks and buses eliminate tailpipe emissions and significantly reduce life-cycle pollution.

One indicator of this progress is the growing share of zero-emission truck and bus registrations. This tells us which fleets are deploying electric vehicles, which types of these vehicles are being deployed, and where. Information like this is vital to understanding how the market is developing, but I think it’s equally important to investigate the why as well — this way, we can better understand what’s working and what’s not. After all, these trucks aren’t going to electrify themselves (although this does kind of sound like a superhero blockbuster plot). Such a paradigm shift within our nation’s $400 billion on-road freight industry demands both regulatory forces and economic upsides to be successful and lasting.

More than a year after legacy automakers announced a transition from the CCS charging port to Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS), GM EV customers are finally able to purchase an approved adapter and gain access to hundreds of thousands of Tesla chargers.

Today’s news has been a long time coming for GM-branded EV drivers. It is another massive step in the American auto industry’s adoption of a truly universal charging plug.

In June 2023, GM was one of the first OEMs to announce a transition from the CCS plug to Tesla’s NACS. It shared that future BEV models will feature the port natively, and existing BEVs could access the charging network via an adapter.

Since then, we’ve seen virtually all automakers adopt NACS and begin sourcing approved Tesla adapters, including Ford, Hyundai, BMW, and Lucid Motors, to name a few.

US charging networks like ChargePoint have also begun rolling out solutions to support EVs of all makes and models, helping increase the versatility of local networks and alleviate some of the stressors EV drivers currently face when they need a charge and don’t have the correct plug or aren’t certified to access a specific charging network.

While we await future GM models with Tesla NACS plugs built in, the American automaker has begun selling an approved adapter that gives its EV drivers immediate access to many Level 2 and DC fast chargers on Tesla’s current network.

Hyundai unveiled the Casper Electric in June at the Busan International Mobility Show in South Korea.

The new low-cost EV stole the show with a compact but still functional design. Despite its small size, Hyundai expects it to have a significant impact with its “potential to accelerate the popularization of electric vehicles.”

Hyundai opened Casper EV pre-orders in its home market with starting prices at just $22,800 (31.5 million won).

With government incentives, Hyundai said the entry-level “Inspiration” model can be bought for as little as $14,500 (20 million won).

The new EV is “the most attractive choice” for many buyers looking to go electric, according to Hyundai. With a 49 kWh battery, Hyundai’s Casper Electric has up to 195 miles (315 km) range on a single charge.

Two months ago, James Rapp was driving home at dusk when a deer appeared out of nowhere, straight into the path of his spanking-new Chevrolet Equinox EV.

The software engineer escaped unharmed and the deer bolted into the woods, but the car wasn't so lucky. His car hit the deer when he was going at about 40 mph, so the impact left the fascia mangled but thankfully without structural or powertrain damage. The EV drove just fine, so Rapp dashed to a Chevy dealership the next morning for repairs.

After the incident, the Chevy dealership in Gaithersburg, Maryland identified 26 parts that needed replacement, including the headlamps, front camera, parts of the grille and the bumper, registration plate brackets and more. Now his Equinox EV 2LT, draped in the Riptide Blue Metallic paint, has been lying idle at the dealer's body shop for over 60 days.

“I had the car only for three weeks," Rapp said. "It had 400 miles on it. Now it’s been out for eight weeks and is [just] sitting there."

In the meantime, Rapp is back behind the wheel of his 2006 gas-powered Equinox. “What should have been a three-day repair, eight weeks later there's no indication when it’ll be done," he said. "It’s frustrating."

Rapp’s case isn’t unique. A number of Equinox EV owners have posted online or told InsideEVs that they are facing similar delays after relatively minor incidents where gas-powered General Motors cars might've been repaired in days or weeks at most. For Equinox EV owners, repairs are dragging on for months.

Several owners told InsideEVs that they have been left in the dark with no official estimated time of arrival for several collision replacement parts. They added that the dealerships had no clue either, as they await a fix from GM.

Good old GM doing their normal shitty job of taking care of EV drivers.

Even with the new 100% tariff on electric vehicles imported from China, BYD would still have the cheapest EV in the US. According to a new report, BYD’s lowest-priced EV would still undercut all US automakers at under $25,000.

After discontinuing the production of vehicles powered entirely by internal combustion engines in March 2022, BYD has been at the forefront of the industry’s shift to EVs.

Honestly in my opinion it is time to remove all tariffs on EVs under 25k and let anyone who wants to fill that slot in. American car manufacturers refuse to fill the market need.