Weekly output: USPS NGDV, spectrum policy, Pixel Drop, Uber’s robotaxi hopes, AI + cybersecurity, Tesla Files, Cerebras, New Glenn launch and landing, Cory Doctorow

Friday afternoon’s landing at Dulles and subsequent Metro ride home put this year’s business travel in the books–unless somebody else is prepared to pay for an additional work trip in 2025, and not even I want that to happen.

11/10/2025: I Took America’s Goofiest-Looking EV for a Spin. It Might Swing by Your Mailbox Soon, PCMag

My mid-October trip to Wisconsin (with Oshkosh Corp. paying for the airfare and lodging) yielded this report about the U.S. Postal Service’s NextGen Delivery Vehicle that I have yet to see in operation near me.

11/11/2025: It’s easy to reassign spectrum if you’re not the one using it, Light Reading

I rounded out this recap of a spectrum-policy conference I’d attended at the end of October with some quotes from a broadband expert whose insight I’ve been borrowing for the last 15 years or so.

11/11/2025: Google’s Latest Pixel Drop Adds Messaging Tricks And Tweaks, PCMag

The time-zone spread between the 2 p.m. Eastern embargo time for this item and my Western European local time for most of last week made this easy to file between other Web Summit schedule commitments.

11/12/2025: Cybersecurity at the pace of AI, Web Summit

The first of three panels I moderated at this conference in Lisbon had me quizzing Rob Daly, CTO of the security-training firm SoSafe, about how AI has complicated the work of people like him. As in previous years, Web Summit’s organizers paid for my lodging and are reimbursing me for my airfare.

11/12/2025: The Tesla Files: Leaks, power, and control, Web Summit

Later that Wednesday, I interviewed Sönke Iwersen, head of investigative research at Handelsblatt, about that German newspaper’s groundbreaking reporting on Tesla’s secretive and often careless approach to safety. Iwersen brought up a part of this story that hadn’t emerged in my pre-conference banter over e-mail with him: the steep personal price the paper’s informant has paid.

11/13/2025: The startups taking on Nvidia, Web Summit

Where my onstage interview of Cerebras CEO Andrew Feldman at Web Summit Qatar in February had me running out of questions in my hand-written outline, this chat Thursday afternoon with that AI-processor startup’s chief strategy officer Andy Hock required me to cross out some queries in my notes because he answered the others at such length.

11/13/2025: Uber COO on Robotaxis: The Economics Don’t Work…Yet, PCMag

This panel happened late Tuesday afternoon, right before a crowded evening schedule; having to moderate two panels of my own on Wednesday pushed my filing time to Wednesday afternoon.

11/14/2025: Blue Origin Lands Its Giant Rocket’s Booster for the First Time, PCMag

A hold late in the countdown pushed the second launch of New Glenn to around dinnertime in Lisbon. So I didn’t get to watch any part of this mission on a screen larger than my phone’s until after I got back to my hotel–with fewer hours left than I would have liked before I had to head to Lisbon’s airport to fly back to the States.

11/14/2025: Cory Doctorow’s Plan for a Better Internet: Legalize Jailbreaking, Modding, and Tinkering, PCMag

I did not plan on my Web Summit coverage giving me a chance to put the neologism “enshittogenic” into the opening paragraphs of a story, but sometimes life comes at you fast.

 

#AIProcessors #AndroidUpdate #antiCircumventionLaws #BlueOrigin #Cerebras #CoryDoctor #Handelsblatt #jailbreaking #NewGlenn #newspace #NGDV #Nvidia #Oshkosh #PixelDrop #SoSafe #SpectrumAmericas #spectrumAuction #sprectrumReallocation #TeslaFiles #UberRobotaxi #UberWaymo #USPSElectricTruck #whistleblowing

A ride decades in the making: Metro from Dulles

Arriving at Washington Dulles International Airport early Saturday morning was nothing like any of the dozens, maybe hundreds of times I’ve landed at IAD over the past 30 years and change: I …

Rob Pegoraro

@blogoklahoma
Canoo production highlights: 3 NASA vehicles, 3 for Oklahoma, 6 for United States Postal Service

Imagine if Canoo, Arrival, Workhorse, Mullen, Telo, Lightning eMotors, perhaps others, could have pooled resources, bid on #USPS #LLV-replacement #NGDV contract, maybe also Canada Post…

Yes, It ‘Looks Like a Duck,’ but Carriers Like the New Mail Truck

The electric trucks have a side cargo door, more space and, critically, air-conditioning, promising some long-overdue relief for carriers, who haven’t had an upgrade since the 1980s.

The New York Times

I saw one of the new postal delivery vans today! They were testing the electric version here in town. It's not a pretty truck, but it looked less ridiculous in person.

#Oshkosh #NGDV

@TechCrunch Might a #Canoo Arrival project have produced a serious, competitive prototype for #USPS #NGDV LLV-replacement RFP - and taken the contract from Oshkosh Defense? The Arrival UK UPS vans I saw on Fully Charged and other YouTube channels seemed quite promising.
@EnthusiasticTechie
Such a shame that #USPS #Grumman #LLV #NGDV transition RFP, ordering came before #Rivian delivery van became available (and no longer Amazon-exclusive)
#USPS expects to exclusively buy electric delivery vehicles "Next Generation Delivery Vehicles" or #NGDV starting in 2026
The agency expects to deploy at least 66,000 #EV by the end of 2028.
Making One of the Largest #ElectricVehicle Fleets in the Nation https…
USPS sued over new gas-powered delivery vehicles by UAW & states

https://www.teslarati.com/usps-lawsuit-gas-ngdv-fleet/

#electricdeliveryvan #Featured #News #NGDV #USPA
USPS sued over new gas-powered delivery vehicles by UAW & states

The United Auto Workers union, sixteen states, and four environmental groups recently filed lawsuits against the United States Postal Service (USPS). The groups aim to stop the Postal Service’s plan to purchase and produce gas-powered delivery vehicles to update its fleet.  Background The USPS announced it would spend up to $11.3 billion on up to …

TESLARATI
USPS Inspector General asked to investigate agency’s decision favoring gas delivery vans over EVs

https://www.teslarati.com/usps-next-generation-delivery-vehicles-investigation/

#USPostalService #Featured #News #NGDV #USPS
USPS Inspector General asked to investigate agency's decision favoring gas delivery vans over EVs

A group of U.S. lawmakers in the House Oversight Committee sent a letter to the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) Inspector General (IG), requesting an investigation into the agency’s order for Next Generation Delivery Vehicles (NGDV).  In a letter dated Monday, March 14, Democrats in the House Oversight Committee asked IG Tammy L. Whitcomb to investigate …

TESLARATI
The New USPS Trucks Would Probably Be Illegal If They Weighed One Pound Less

Manufacturer Oshkosh Defense is exploiting a long-standing loophole that incentivizes bigger, heavier vehicles that can pollute more.