© BBC/Disneywprss domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /var/www/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6114wprss domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /var/www/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6114wprss domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /var/www/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6114wprss domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /var/www/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6114wprss domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /var/www/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6114Returning Doctor Who showrunner Russell T. Davies might have pioneered modern Doctor Who holiday specials—Christmassy monsters, high spectacle, an occasional amount of Kylie Minogue—but it’s arguable that it was his successor, Steven Moffat, that really nailed the balancing act of what a good Doctor Who Christmas story should be. The answer, paradoxically, is not really a great sci-fi story all that much—or at least, that’s not as important as a swath of earnest, almost cloying sentimentality about the romance of the season. This year’s offering, Moffat’s first Christmas script since 2017’s Twelfth Doctor send off “Twice Upon a Time,” mostly succeeds in that balancing act with an interestingly time-twisting Doctor Who adventure festooned with festive charm—one that really leans on the latter to help make up for a few missteps in the former.
“Joy to the World,” airing next week on Christmas Day, has a few parallels to Ncuti Gatwa’s full-fledged debut as the 15th Doctor in last year’s holiday episode, “The Church on Ruby Road,” in so much that it relies on an array of charming performances to try and mask when its story doesn’t quite cohesively come together. It trades the fantastical bent of creepy baby-snatching goblins for more traditional sci-fi aesthetics as the Doctor shacks up in a futuristic “Time Hotel” for the holidays, offering temporal gateways to Christmases across human history. It also leans heavy on that seasonal aesthetic too, with plenty of snow, tinsel, and trees, feeling much more of the season rather than simply being any old episode that happens to air near the end of December.
© BBC/Disney
Intrigued by the mystery of a strange suitcase that seems to be fatally swapping between hosts at the hotel, it is in this festively timey-wimey scenario—and via the Time Hotel’s aforementioned gateways—that the Doctor crosses paths with the lonely Joy (Nicola Coughlan), as she checks into a run-down hotel in London during Christmas 2024. The mystery of why Joy becomes so important to the Doctor’s latest adventure is actually put aside for a good chunk of “Joy to the World” as it takes a sideways step into exploring the ramifications of the Time Hotels’ gateways, and the temporal paradoxes that come with them. It’s all perfectly Moffat-y, a blend of laughs, time-twisting story telling, and the almost mandatory melancholy that comes with his best outings as a writer, as the Doctor finds himself thrust into the life of another lonely woman along the way (Steph de Whalley’s Anita, perhaps secretly the breakout star of “Joy to the World”). It’s a killer Doctor Who story idea, one that also deftly touches on the Doctor’s own loneliness after parting ways with Ruby. It just so happens to be appropriately seasonally stuffed inside another Doctor Who episode that is… well, not quite given the time to breathe into something as interesting.
“Joy to the World” makes up for those structural shortcomings with Joy’s storyline by really allowing that element of the episode to be where it goes all out on the sentimentality of the festive season, with a climactic narrative high on heart-tugging emotional drama to make up for the fact that it’s playing a bit fast and loose with the logistical underpinnings, especially contrasted with the plot-within-a-plot the first half of the episode of is devoted to. For the most part it works, thanks to stellar performances from Gatwa and Coughlan, and will particularly strike a bittersweet chord for people going through Christmas without loved ones. But if you find yourself particularly immune to Doctor Who‘s sentimental charm offensives at this time of year, you might find the culmination of it all a little wanting—and wondering just how the episode might have been if it stayed with that initial plot-within-a-plot as its main idea.
© BBC/Disney
But even if you don’t find yourself resonating with the emotion of it all, there’s still at the very least a good chunk of great Doctor Who to be found in “Joy to the World,” even if it’s not the ultimate focus of the episode. There’s enough here to satisfy either anyone looking for a great Doctor Who idea, or someone who just wants something big and Christmassy to swell their heart with seasonal spirit as they sit down with over the festive period—and at this point in Doctor Who‘s long history of holiday specials, that we can still get stories that manage to balance both is a welcome little gift under our collective trees.
Doctor Who returns to Disney+ around the world and on the BBC in the UK and Ireland on Christmas Day, December 25.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
It’s not every day that an actor in a successful live action anime project gets to sit down and interview its creator in their native tongue, but Netflix’s One Piece star Iñaki Godoy did just that ahead of the show’s second season.
In a recent video from Netflix’s Still Watching YouTube Channel, Monkey D. Luffy actor Godoy sat down with Eiichiro Oda on the set of One Piece’s Cape Town location in South Africa to discuss what lies ahead on the Grand Line in season two, and how Luffy became a beloved character.
“I got to see some actual filming, and especially the props, massive sets, special effects, the making of the wigs and costumes, the stunts,” Oda said. ” I saw so many things and was truly touched by everyone’s dedication.”
When Godoy giddily asked Oda if he thought the acting was good, Oda responded in kind saying, “It was.” Naturally, Godoy exploded in infectious giggles, making Oda chuckle in return. Godoy’s subsequent question, posed in remarkably fluent Japanese despite only beginning to learn the language in January, inquired of Oda why he made the events in season two so challenging to adapt, given that the Straw Hat’s first season was already an immense undertaking. Another question, mind you, that made Oda chuckle when Godoy remarked on how “huge and crazy” their adventure was before making it to the Grand Line.
“It’s tough. I’m very tired,” Godoy said.
“In that universe, the Grand Line is the harshest of the seas. We need to shock audiences. That’s why there are giants, and, of course, lots of bounty hunters,” Oda replied, teasing the adventures that lie in wait in the upcoming season. “This needs to be a season full of new, surprising elements. That’s why it’s more challenging.”
Godoy’s final question asked Oda how he came up with Luffy and made him such a depth-filled and endearing character, despite seeming like a simple fellow upon first blush.
“Luffy is an ideal child for me. When you become an adult and join a company, you can’t always do what you want. Entering society often means losing freedom. Luffy has a child’s heart, so he does whatever he wants,” Oda said. “That aspect is probably, for adults already toiling in society, and to children about to enter society, what makes Luffy so appealing.”
Oda wasn’t remiss in throwing a compliment Godoy’s way congratulating him on bringing Luffy to life and energizing audiences worldwide. The two then share a loving embrace. It’s very sweet.
© Netflix
Alongside Godoy, returning cast members on the voyage of Netflix’s One Piece live-action series include Mackenyu as Zoro, Emily Rudd as Nami, Jacob Romero as Usopp, Taz Skylar as Sanji, Ilia Isorelys Paulino as Alvida, Jeff Ward as Buggy, and Michael Dorman as Gold Roger.
One Piece‘s second season will also see a crop of new faces from the anime make the jump to live action. Key among the new faces along the journey (and the actors who will be bringing them to life) are:
Maintaining their usual secrecy, Netflix and Tomorrow Studios have not yet disclosed the actor who will bring the Straw Hat pirates’ doctor, Tony Tony Chopper, to live. All we’ve seen of the hard working reindeer is a shot of him from behind, confirming—to some fans’ dismay—that he won’t be a muppet but a little CGI dude. Hopefully the next One Piece sit-down (or teaser trailer) will show off Chopper in all of his cute glory.
© Netflix
In io9’s review of season one, we lauded the Netflix show for not requiring viewers to have invested in the anime to appreciate it, writing, “The show was clean. It was slick. Everything fit together, and at the end of the season, despite Luffy yelling again, I wanted a second season.”
In tandem with a second live-action season, Netflix also has plans in motion for a remake of the anime, titled The One Piece, animated by WIT Studio. In short, now’s as good a time as any to get into One Piece—be it through the manga, live action show, the ongoing anime, or its upcoming remake.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
pCloud is famous for its all-aroundness. It’s fast and secure but also easy to use and privacy-focused. This Holiday season, pCloud has dropped its prices massively, letting you save up to 60%. To be frank, this is the cheapest pCloud offer we’ve seen in years!
If you’re seeking highly secure storage that won’t compromise on transfer speed at an “approachable” price, pay attention to these pCloud limited-time deals.
pCloud is all about securing your files for a lifetime, so you won’t have to pay each month or year. Instead, the Holiday sale focuses on these two plans:
Both plans are titled “Family” because they’re suited to FIVE users. Moreover, both plans allow you to allocate a specific amount of storage to each family member for added convenience.
pCloud’s Family plans are backed by features like:
To claim pCloud’s 55% off deal, simply use one of the buttons in this article, sign up, and set up pCloud on your devices. We strongly recommend the 10 TB option because of its MASSIVE price drop.
Outside this time-limited deal, pCloud’s 10 TB plan is much closer to $2,000. Now, it’s only about $1,050, making it the most affordable cloud storage for a lifetime.
If you need more than storage, pCloud has this 3-in-1 bundle that consists of:
Essentially, you’re getting 5 TB of storage with zero-knowledge encryption and a password manager. Like before, pCloud allows the plan to be enjoyed by 5 users.
However, the bundle is 60% off and costs only $799 – a one-time payment.
Beware that this bundle isn’t pCloud’s “standard” plan, so it won’t be there forever. The end of the Holiday season will mark the termination of both offers and return to “normal.”
Get pCloud 3-in-1 Family Bundle At 60% Off
With the three discounted plans, pCloud has positioned itself highly on the totem pole.
Compared to its rivals, this company went out of its way to honor us with Lifetime deals that don’t cost a fortune. Best of all, pCloud is risk-free and offers a 14-day refund policy.
You can test its premium version, see how you like it, and be refunded if need be.
Alternatively, pCloud offers the best free cloud storage with up to 10 GB of space. Being fast, reliable, and still impressively secure, this one won’t disappoint you either.
Still here? Don’t be too hesitant; the clock is ticking. Board the hype train.
If you’ve been creeping around Shudder looking for something to add a little fright to your seasonal viewing, you might have noticed The Haunted Season—a brand new anthology series from showrunner Kier-La Janisse, a genre expert whose many works include standout film-theory book House of Psychotic Women and recent folk-horror documentary Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched.
The first entry, To Fire You Come at Last, is written and directed by Sean Hogan; it’s about a group of men carrying a coffin to be buried who’re haunted (literally) by past misdeeds while making the journey. To learn more about The Haunted Season, which will bring one new entry to Shudder over the next several years, we talked with Janisse over video chat.
Cheryl Eddy, io9: I have read your book Yuletide Terror: Christmas Horror on Film and Television, which gives a wonderful history of the genre and the traditions behind it. But for people who might not have read it, I’ll borrow one of the chapter titles and ask: “Why the ghost story at Christmas”?
Kier-La Janisse: It’s interesting because Derek Johnston, who wrote that chapter, years ago wrote a book called Haunted Seasons, which my title is completely ripped from [laughs]. When I was doing the Yuletide Terror book, there’s hundreds of films in it, but most of them are very obviously connected to Christmas in some way. They’re either about Christmas or they take place at Christmas, or there’s visible Christmas decorations so that you could justify it as a Christmas movie.
But a lot of the BBC’s A Ghost Story for Christmas [episodes] of the 1970s had nothing to do with Christmas. And so when I was including them in the book, I thought, North American audiences are not going to understand why these films are here because they’re like, “What do they have to do with Christmas?” I asked Derek if he would write a chapter talking about where this tradition comes from, of telling ghost stories of Christmas and the idea of Christmas programming—not necessarily the programming itself, but the fact that it’s chosen to be programmed at that time.
It goes back centuries—it comes from the older tradition of telling winter’s tales. [When] people gathered around the hearth or around the fire, and they would come up with entertainment to pass the time while they were trying to keep warm. Winter’s tales were what they were called because they’d be these spooky tales that they would tell [when] the days are so short and [the season is] turning over into a new year. There’s this idea of liminal boundaries between one state of being and another. They would tell these ghost stories and then over time, once we started having written literature, you would start to see references to them in [places like the works of] Shakespeare and Marlowe.
Then of course in the Victorian era, you have Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, which was massively important, not only for the idea of the Christmas ghost story, but just for Christmas in general. It was part of Queen Victoria’s mandate to repopularize Christmas. Charles Dickens writing that story when he did was a big part of not only cementing this idea that Christmas is the time when we tell ghost stories, but that this is the time of year we have Christmas—because before Queen Victoria, it had kind of fallen out as a popular holiday. A Christmas Carol became important for creating a lot of these ideas and mythologies we have around Christmas—Christmas tree decorations and all these accouterments that we associate with Christmas that came from that period.
© Shudder
The ghost story for Christmas came to be associated very strongly with that period—an also, there were so many ghost story writers in the Victorian era … there’s just tons and tons of them. And so when radio came in, they started doing radio adaptations of A Christmas Carol and other types of ghost stories around the holiday. Then, that transformed into television.
So the BBC was kind of always active and doing ghost stories for Christmas in some form or another. In the 1970s, Lawrence Gordon Clark, who was a director, proposed this idea of—he didn’t foresee it being a series. He proposed one film doing an adaptation of M.R. James’ story The Stalls of Barchester. He used a previous adaptation of an M.R. James story as proof that this could be popular; Jonathan Miller had made an adaptation called Whistle and I’ll Come to You in the late ‘60s, which is fantastic. And it was not made for Christmas. It was made for a different time of year, a different program.
But Lawrence Gordon Clark took that to them and said, “Look how good this is, and imagine if we could do something like this for Christmas.” So he made The Stalls of Barchester. It was a big hit, so then he got permission every year to keep making another one. And so it became a series; all through the ‘70s, there would be a different episode.
And so that is what my series The Haunted Season is based on—this idea of an annual ghost story film that premieres every year. And I know for North American audiences, using the word “series” to describe something that only has one episode for a year is weird, but it is based on that tradition. It’s basically a Christmas special that’s ongoing, where there’s a new installment every year. That tradition still exists in the UK. So this series is just part of that bigger tradition.
io9: How did you decide on To Fire You Come at Last as the first entry? How did writer-director Sean Hogan get involved?
Janisse: Sean Hogan is a filmmaker, a writer of books, a playwright—he does all kinds of all kinds of things. He’s incredibly talented, really great with period dialogue. And so I proposed to him—and he can do a lot with a little, which is important because we have very low budgets for these things—if he would make a short film originally for Severin Films’ folk horror box set. We were doing our new box set, All the Haunts Be Ours Volume Two. The first box set had my documentary [Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched] on it—it had a new film on it. And we were like, “We don’t have an equivalent of that for the second box set.” So we asked Sean if he would make a film for that.
I gave him a couple of prompts for it. The idea of it being set on a corpse road was something that came from one of the prompts that I gave him.
© Shudder
But before he even finished the film, I sort of flashed back to this idea that Sam Zimmerman from Shudder and I had over a decade ago when we used to work together for Fangoria magazine. Back then we were trying to get Fangoria to do a ghost story for Christmas that we could premiere on the website, and the publisher wouldn’t go for it. But we had wanted Sean Hogan to make that film.
So when Sean was making this film for me, before he was even done, I said to [Severin Films’] David Gregory, “What if we can pitch this to Shudder about being part of an ongoing series of ghost stories for Christmas?” And David was like, “Sure, go for it.”
And so Sam and I had a conversation, and it was amazing because it was this idea that we had that was not approved years and years ago. We were so excited about it, like, “Let’s do it now!” And so that was really how it happened. It was in some ways a very long-gestating project, but then it just was like everything clicked, where it was like, all of this could actually work, you know? I’m just super glad that Sean Hogan made the first one because he was the filmmaker we were talking about doing the Fangoria one all those years ago.
I love the film. It turned out so well. He made it with a small team in the UK and—you can’t tell from watching the film, but it was freezing and raining while they were making it. They were in very adverse conditions, but I think it turned out really well.
io9: To Fire You Come at Last is very traditional, very much in the style of the older films. Is that something we’ll be seeing as the series continues?
Janisse: I don’t know that they’ll be in black and white, but they will all be period. They won’t necessarily be that same period, but they are supposed to engage with the past in some way. The guidelines that I’ve given the filmmakers is that definitely nothing after, like, 1960. You can go back to the Middle Ages if you want, or you can go up to the ‘50s, you know, but it has to feel [like a period piece]. That was what the tradition always was.
It’s interesting, when A Ghost Story for Christmas first played in the ‘70s, the last two episodes, they made modern stories—they did not adapt like older Victorian ghost stories. They made new stories, modern stories set in modern settings. And the audience at the time revolted—a lot of them got bad reviews. Now people love those episodes because now they’re vintage, now they’re period pieces. But at the time when they were new, people were like, “You’re ruining the tradition!” So I decided that I was going to keep the parameters. It’s [a pretty broad time frame], but they will still be period pieces of some sort.
io9: Can you tease anything about any of the other entries?
Janisse: The only thing I can tease is that I’m doing one of them [as my first narrative film]. I have asked other people, they’re writing their scripts now—I’ll tease [more] when the time gets closer.
© Shudder
io9: I am a big fan of Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched, your folk horror documentary. Are these Christmas ghost stories part of the folk horror tradition?
Janisse: It definitely crosses over because of that oral tradition aspect of it. Like a lot of the BBC ghost stories for Christmas, you probably call them more like gothic horror than folklore, but it depends. Something like A Warning to the Curious and Whistle and I’ll Come to You you could call folklore because they’re definitely digging up an artifact from the past that is carrying all this baggage with it. There’s definitely folk horror elements to some of them, but some of them are definitely more in the gothic realm. But I think that Christmas ghost stories, just because of the fact that they’re tied to this oral tradition, that makes it a bit more connected to folklore.
io9: And you’ve mentioned a couple of titles, but for people who watch the first episode of The Haunted Season and want to see more in that vein, what do you recommend they seek out?
Janisse: Well, Shudder has licensed Jonathan Miller’s Whistle and I’ll Come to You. Absolutely start with that. And they’ve licensed Lawrence Gordon Clark’s A Ghost Story for Christmas from the 1970s. Those are the ones that my series is referencing, so I would recommend taking in all of those—there’s like nine different choices of what they can watch. I don’t know if they have The Stone Tape on Shudder [editor’s note: they do!] but The Stone Tape was broadcast for Christmas. It doesn’t have anything to do with Christmas, but it was broadcast as part of the Christmas programing, as a Christmas ghost story. And that’s a great one, too.
Watch To Fire You Come at Last, the first episode of The Haunted Season, on Shudder now.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
A new app called Tapestry promising to unify social media, news, and RSS in one place, is nearing completion. Designed by Iconfactory, the same team that created the third-party Twitter client Twitterific back in the day, Tapestry was unveiled at the beginning of the year as a tool that could better organize today’s fragmented online media, allowing users to track their favorite blogs, news sites, and social networks from a single app. This week, the company announced an update on Tapestry’s progress, saying that it planned to officially launch the app to the public in “early 2025.”
“Obviously the sooner the better, but there’s still some important work to be done and bugs to be squashed,” the update on the project’s Patreon page noted.
Instead of raising from outside investors, Iconfactory has been crowdfunding Tapestry’s development. To date, over 3360 backers pledged north of $177,800 to bring the app to life.
The app will appeal to people who are tired of trying to keep up with multiple sites, blogs, and social media services by constantly opening new browser tabs and switching apps. It also capitalizes users being frustrated that there are now too many Twitter clones.
Following Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, now called X, there has been an explosion of interest in new Twitter-like services, including apps like Mastodon and Bluesky, built on open protocols, and Meta’s Threads, which is working to integrate with ActivityPub, the same protocol powering Mastodon. (Other smaller apps like T2/Pebble, Post, and Cohost, have since shut down.)
As a result of these experiments in a more open social web, there’s potential for new user experiences designed to browse these different services, app developers believe.
Just this week Flipboard launched its own take on what a browser for the open web should look like, with the launch of an app called Surf that lets you track RSS, Bluesky, and Mastodon content in a single app.
It’s not the only company thinking about this.
Besides Iconfactory, the developer behind the popular Mac and iOS newsreader Reeder, Silvio Rizzi, reinvented his app to expand beyond RSS to include support for other social services, like Mastodon, Bluesky, YouTube, Reddit, and others. Another indie app called Feeeed also expanded this year to allow users to track RSS, newsletters, Mastodon, Tumblr, Reddit, and others. And this week, Feeeed added support for Bluesky, too. Plus, an app called Openvibe lets you browse Mastodon, Bluesky, and Threads in one place.
Despite their similar premises, each app offers a different user interface and experience. While Reeder still look and feels much like an RSS reader, others seem more like social experiences of their own.
Tapestry is interesting as it tries to straddle both worlds, allowing users to track their favorite websites and blogs, or even import RSS feeds en masse via an OPML file, while also connecting to a variety of social sources. Today, the beta version of the app supports Mastodon and Bluesky, as well as webcomics, social apps like Reddit, Tumblr, and YouTube as well as sources for weather and earthquake alerts — events X is still often used to track.
However, Tapestry isn’t just about cramming everything into one interface. Its real strength lies in allowing people to create their own custom feeds (or “timelines”) where they can pick and choose which sources — like social sites, websites, blogs, podcasts and more — are included. You can also use tools like “mute” and “muffle,” borrowed from Twitterific, to configure whether or not posts with certain keywords are blocked entirely or collapsed (muffled) when shown.
There are a number of other customization tools that will appeal to power users who like to build feeds, too.
However, one point of confusion with the current build is that Tapestry separates sources (like RSS feeds or social apps) into two sections called “feeds” and “connectors” — the former to fill your timeline with content and the latter to create other feeds to populate your timeline. Some services, like Mastodon and Bluesky, can appear in both sections if you add them. We’d prefer a combined section just called “sources.”
Still, it’s easy to see how you might use Tapestry to keep up with multiple social services alongside breaking news and new posts from your favorite sources, as an alternative to browsing X.
Iconfactory hasn’t yet shared an exact launch date for Tapestry, but the app will generate revenue by way of monthly and annual subscriptions.
Keep reading the article on Tech Crunch
Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. This will be the last newsletter of 2024! But don’t worry, we’ll be back in 2025 — sign up here to get it in your inbox every week. Thank you for reading and your emails. I love to get them. Happy holidays and have a Happy New Year.
I didn’t meet Jean Jennings until long after she had cemented her status as an automotive journalism icon. By then, Jennings (formerly Lindamood) had been editor of Car and Driver and had helped found Automobile Magazine — where she would eventually become editor-in-chief — and launched a website called Jean Knows Cars. Jennings died December 16 at age 70 after living with Alzheimer’s disease.
To say she was well known in the industry is an understatement. To give you an idea of her impact, Ford CEO Jim Farley and Chairman Bill Ford issued an official statement on her death, and Stellantis designer Ralph Gilles and many, many others in the industry have posted their own memorials to Jean on social media.
And for good reason. Jennings lived and breathed cars, first as a mechanic and later as a journalist and editor. Her articles and travels are part of automotive lore. I was just dipping my toe into the automotive press pond when she was emerging from it, but I still knew of Jennings. It wasn’t just her writing, which was witty and delightful. It was the whole energetic package, which sometimes made her a central character in other articles, like Brock Yates’ 1983 Baja Mexico Sedan Torture Test article in C&D.
Of course, once you met her (which I was lucky enough to do), there was no forgetting her. Jean, hat’s off to you.
And before we jump into the rest of the news, check out TechCrunch’s 51 most disruptive startups of 2024 to learn about some interesting tech and companies outside of transportation.
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Got a tip for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com, Sean O’Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com, or Rebecca Bellan at rebecca.bellan@techcrunch.com. Or check out these instructions to learn how to contact us via encrypted messaging apps or SecureDrop.
The Biden administration is racing to approve a number of initiatives before President-elect Donald Trump takes over, including clean energy loans. Recent Department of Energy (DOE) loan recipients include StarPlus Energy (a battery joint venture from Stellantis and Samsung) and Rivian.
This week, it was electric vehicle charging startup EVgo’s turn.
The DOE approved a $1.25 billion loan to EVgo to help the startup install 7,500 public chargers at 1,100 charging stations across the U.S. over the next five years. The first deployments will include 350kW DC fast-charging equipment that can charge two cars at once.
Other deals that got my attention …
Bikmo, a U.K. startup that provides insurance for bikes and cyclists, raised £4.75 million ($5.9 million) in a round led by Puma Growth Partners.
Honda and Nissan are reportedly in merger talks. If that were to come together, the merger, which may also include Mitsubishi, would form the world’s third-largest carmaker. The intrigue around the potential deal became even more interesting when Bloomberg reported that discussions accelerated after Foxconn, the Taiwan-based producer of iPhones, approached Nissan about acquiring a stake in the company.
Nanoramic, a Boston-based advanced battery technology startup, raised $44 million in a round co-led by General Motors Ventures and Catalus Capital, with participation from Samsung Venture Investment Corporation, Top Material, and existing investors, including Fortistar Capital and WindSail Capital Group.
Orqa, a Croatian developer of advanced autonomous drone systems, raised 5.8 million euros ($6 million) in a seed round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from Radius Capital, Decisive Point, and existing investor Day One Capital.
Slip Robotics raised $28 million in a Series B funding round led by DCVC and saw participation from existing investors Eve Atlas, Tech Square Ventures, Hyde Park Venture Partners, Overline, and Pathbreaker Ventures. James Hardiman of DCVC has joined the board.
Vaeridion, a German aviation startup developing an electric aircraft for short-haul commercial flights, raised a €14 million Series A funding round led by World Fund, with participation from Project A Ventures, Vsquared Ventures, Andreas Kupke, Schwarz Holding, and InnovationQuarter.
Zingbus, the Indian intercity bus service, raised $9 million from BP Ventures in a Series A funding round.
Waymo continues to step into the spaces where its previous rivals were planning to set up shop. The latest example: Waymo is bringing its robotaxis to Tokyo in 2025 with partners taxi-hailing app GO and taxi company Nihon Kotsu as part of its Japanese “road trip.” History lesson: Cruise was planning on operating in Japan in 2026 through a partnership with Honda.
Waymo may be dominating, but its robotaxis still have challenges. One recently got caught in a roundabout.
Reuters got its hands on a document from the Trump transition team that shows deep interest in ending a federal rule that requires automakers to report crashes when advanced driver-assistance or autonomous driving technology is engaged. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has long opposed the federal crash-reporting rule. The timing of this is notable. If successful, federal safety agencies would lose the ability to investigate and regulate the safety of vehicles with automated-driving systems just as more automation comes to public roads.
Drama at TuSimple continues. This time, co-founder and former CEO Xiaodi Hou is pushing shareholders to change the board and replace it with new members who would support liquidating the company.
Zoox has hired Zheng Gao as director of hardware engineering. Zheng was most recently at Tesla, where he spent eight years and was head of Tesla’s Autopilot hardware engineering team. Prior to Tesla, Zheng was at Apple for nine years.
Canoo is hurting for cash. The EV startup has idled its factory and furloughed workers as it seeks emergency funding.
The Environmental Protection Agency (still under the Biden administration) will allow California to ban most sales of new gas- and diesel-powered cars and light trucks starting in 2035. Keep in mind, though, that this is certain to be reversed by the incoming Trump administration.
Ram delayed its electric truck to 2026 and will instead put the range-extended truck known as the Ramcharger in the front of the queue. Lagging EV demand is behind the decision.
Tesla is bringing back free Supercharging to customers who buy a new Model S. But this appears to be a bit of a shell game, as Tesla also increased the price of the Model S by $5,000.
Rivian released a new software update to its vehicles that brings some long-awaited apps to its in-vehicle experience, including YouTube, Google Cast, and SiriusXM (with a subscription).
Kakao Mobility, the ride-hailing unit of Korean tech firm Kakao, was fined $10.5 million (KRW 15.1 billion) for limiting competitors’ access to its taxi app.
Alphabet’s Wing is expanding its partnership with DoorDash to bring drone delivery to customers in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.
TechCrunch reporter Rebecca Bellan spent time in the 2025 Lucid Air Pure — twice! You can read the whole review here. But for those who want the gist, here it is.
The 2025 Lucid Air Pure is dreamy, sexy, and luxurious — and has some decent tech to boot — even though it is the cheapest trim in the EV maker’s current lineup. As Bellan wrote, “I felt fancy and discerning driving around, but in an understated way — as if I were wearing designer sweatpants.” I guess that means the Lucid Air Pure is the equivalent of expensive athleisure.
Still, did that translate into value? Bellan says yes, but only if Lucid continues to improve its software through over-the-air updates.
As someone who has driven the Lucid Air a few times, I was pleased to learn that some of my biggest complaints, like the vehicle ping-ponging when the lane-centering feature is engaged, have been resolved.
What is “This week’s wheels”? It’s a chance to learn about the different transportation products we’re testing, whether it’s an electric or hybrid car, an e-bike or even a ride in an autonomous vehicle. Future vehicles include the next-gen Rivian R1S and the Volkswagen ID Buzz. Stay tuned.
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