If there’s one automotive niche that’s suffered in the 21st century, it’s “people’s cars,” vehicles designed as basic, reliable transportation for the masses.
Compare a new MINI Cooper or Volkswagen Beetle to its ancestor, and its apparent how far these cars have come from that ideal. Yet there’s a new company that hopes to get back to basics.
Kenya’s Mobius Motors has secured $50 million in funding from the Pan-African Investment Company to build the Mobius II, a no-nonsense SUV it’s had on the drawing boards for the past two years.
This is a vehicle that makes a Land Rover Defender look like a Rolls-Royce. Its unadorned bodywork does without windows, and there’s no air conditioning for the eight-seat interior.
Under the hood is a 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine that produces a mere 86 horsepower and 94 pound-feet of torque, enough to get the 2,805-pound Mobius II up to 75 mph. However, the tubular-framed SUV does have nine inches of ground clearance, and a cargo capacity of 1,375 pounds.
All of this will cost around $10,000 when the Mobius II goes into production. In Kenya, that’s about one-third the price of a new Toyota Corolla.
The recent investment will cover an initial production run of 50 vehicles and help Mobius set up a distribution network in its home country. The company plans to launch a successor model, the Mobius III, in 2016.
Apple won the PC market’s worst quarter, but that’s not the entire story. It won the race by stumbling less than everyone else.
PC makers shipped just 57 million computers worldwide in Q3, which might look good, but it’s a 21% year-over-year plunge (via Counterpoint Research). And despite Apple’s Mac shipments falling by 11%, to 5.6 million, its market share rose from 8.7% to 9.8%. How did that happen?
Update (October 22 23:54 PT): In response to our query, GM clarified that offline recording support is already available on eligible vehicles. Like Tesla's Sentry Mode, it requires owners to connect a USB drive to save incident recordings, which can be viewed on the vehicle's infotainment screen. The upcoming Connected Cameras feature will build on this by giving owners remote access to these recordings via the revamped OnStar app, allowing them to check footage without walking out to their car.
General Motors has announced plans to add a new Connected Cameras feature to its OnStar service starting next year, giving drivers a way to monitor parked vehicles remotely and capture footage of certain incidents.
Missing out on the self-driving future is a tough pill to swallow, especially as a car enthusiast. But that is what Tesla handed us on Wednesday, without a hint of mercy.
During its October 21, 2026 earnings call, Elon Musk told investors the Cybercab is meant mainly as a ride service. Further, nearly all of them will be owned and managed by Tesla.