EV Geek Podcast

For years, we've asked who will win the self-driving car race: Tesla? Waymo? Mercedes? But what if the real winner isn't a car company at all? This is the story of how Nvidia, the company famous for powering your video games, is positioning itself to become the universal "brain" inside almost every autonomous vehicle. While companies like Tesla build closed, vertically-integrated systems for their own cars, and Waymo focuses on geofenced robotaxis, Nvidia is taking a different approach. At CES 2026, Nvidia unveiled Alpamayo, a new, open platform for autonomous driving. The goal isn't to build a single car, but to arm every other automaker—from Mercedes-Benz to JLR and Lucid—with the AI firepower to compete. Alpamayo shifts from just "seeing" the road to "reasoning" about it, allowing the car to explain its decisions and navigate unpredictable "edge cases" that have stalled the industry for years. This sets up the ultimate platform war. On one side is Tesla's closed ecosystem, learning from billions of miles of data from its own fleet. On the other is Nvidia's open ecosystem, aiming to become the "Android of Autonomy" that powers hundreds of different car models. The first car to feature this new brain, the 2026 Mercedes-Benz CLA, is just the beginning. The race for the future of driving is no longer about which car will win. It's about who will build the mind that powers them all.

On today's episode, Joel and Sebastian drive a 2025 Chevrolet Equinox EV RS, courtesy of Everett Chevrolet (everettchevyauto.com). Questions? Comments? Interested in being a guest? Email us at [email protected]

On today's episode of The Friday Charge, Sebastian dives into the following: -Volvo has started teasing it's upcoming EX60 -NVIDIA unveils it's new AI Autonomy Stack -VW pulls the wraps off the ID.Polo -Chinese EVs are Inevitable Questions? Comments? Interested in being a guest? Email us at [email protected]

In this mini-charge episode, we break down General Motors’ electric vehicle performance in 2025 and what it means for the future of EV adoption in the U.S. You’ll hear a deep dive into: How GM secured the #2 position in U.S. EV sales, trailing only Tesla Why Cadillac emerged as a luxury EV leader with models like the Lyriq and Escalade IQ How the Chevy Equinox EV surged toward 58,000 sales, becoming one of GM’s top-selling electric vehicles What’s happening with GM’s electric trucks, including Silverado EV, Sierra EV, and Hummer EV — and why EV pickups remain one of the toughest segments to crack We also explore how the expiration of federal EV incentives affected late-year sales, how legacy automakers are adapting to a rapidly changing market, and what GM’s strategy tells us about where the EV industry is headed next. Whether you’re an EV enthusiast, a GM fan, or just curious about the future of electric transportation, this episode gives you the numbers, the context, and the insights behind one of the most important EV stories of the year.

Humanoid robots are coming to the factory floor — and Hyundai is leading the charge. In this episode, we explore how Boston Dynamics’ Atlas robot and cutting-edge AI could soon be working alongside humans to build electric vehicles in the U.S. We unpack what Hyundai announced at CES, how these robots learn, what jobs they’ll do first, and what it all means for the future of work, manufacturing, and the EV industry.