Perhaps you’ve heard: In many places, it’s really very cold out. Deep freezes hit wide bands of the US this week; snow and freezing rain have swept across northern Europe. This is all less than ideal for electric vehicles, which historically have not loved the cold. A handful of Chicago Tesla Supercharger stations made headlines this week after some EVs affected by the temperatures completely ran out of battery and had to be towed.
Electric vehicles have a hard time in cold weather for two reasons. One is chemical: Lithium-ion batteries, the kind that make electric cars (and phones) go, rely on lithium ions moving from their negatively charged conductors (cathodes) to the positively charged ones (anodes). Cold makes the ions move more slowly to the anode, meaning it’s harder to charge a chilly battery than a toasty one. The other reason is more practical: Cold weather means car occupants are more likely to turn on the heat, and the heaters used to warm up a car draw power from the electric battery. This reduces range, sometimes significantly. Tests by AAA, Consumer Reports, and the EV battery data company Recurrent have found that freezing temperatures reduce vehicles’ ranges by somewhere between 16 and 46 percent. (Very cold weather also reduces gas-powered vehicles’ mileage, by between 15 and 24 percent.)
But in the past few years, a climate change hero technology has made its way into electric vehicles, one that has improved—but not solved—their cold weather issues: heat pumps. Heat pumps transfer heat from outside the car to help keep passengers warm, and so avoid sucking too much power away from the battery. And yes, heat pumps can still bring warm air into the car even if it’s freezing outside, albeit with mixed success. As counterintuitive as it sounds, there is still a good amount of heat that can be drawn from air that’s, say, 10 degrees Fahrenheit.
Today, heat pumps come in many, but not all, new electric vehicles. Teslas have come with a proprietary heat pump tech since 2021. Jaguar’s I-Pace has one built in, as does BMW’s latest i-series cars, Hyundai’s Ioniq 5, Audi’s newest e-Tron, and Kia’s new electrified flagship, the EV9.
“Any electric vehicle that comes out right now and doesn’t have a heat pump is a dinosaur already,” says John Kelly, an automotive technology professor and instructor focusing on hybrid and electric vehicle technology at Weber State University.
Heat pumps are ultra-efficient because they transfer heat from existing sources instead of creating it. So in a home, if you’re using a furnace, you’re burning planet-warming gas to generate new heat that’s then blown around the structure. A heat pump instead extracts warmth from outdoor air and pumps it inside.
It’s the same principle for heat pumps in EVs. An internal-combustion car burns gasoline to power the vehicle, but in doing so it produces a whole lot of waste heat, which is then pumped into the cabin. Electric vehicles are way more efficient, with more than three-quarters of their electricity going towards moving the wheels, according to US federal data. That means there’s less waste heat to capture and warm the passengers. With a heat pump, an EV can extract warmth from outdoor air—again, even if it’s bitterly cold out—to warm the interior and even its battery, increasing the vehicle’s efficiency in cold weather.
If Vision Pro is mostly meant to be used from a couch cushion or desk chair, the external battery pack may not factor in as much. As I pointed out last spring, it’s an unusual choice for a consumer tech company that has, over the past two decades, created products that we transport with us, literally everywhere we go.
Some industry experts are split on the external battery design. Bailenson, for one, believes that headset computing should be optimized for shorter durations. “After 30 minutes, it’s probably time to take off the headset and go about your day and touch some walls and drink some water,” he says. “So in this instance there really shouldn’t be a need for an external battery pack, in my opinion, because most experiences are short.”
Sam Cole, the cofounder and chief executive of FitXR, a fitness app popular on the Meta Quest, says that, “controversially,” he doesn’t believe the Vision Pro battery pack will be “as much of a factor for fitness apps as it will be for sitting and working for hours.”
By the way, here’s what it looks like.
Photograph: Philip Pacheco/Getty Images
“Even when headsets are bulkier, our users tend to forget about the cable, forget about the battery pack, because you’re so focused on punches being thrown at you,” Cole says. “The weight distribution and the accessories become much more topical when you’re thinking about working on a headset or sitting on calls for four hours.”
But Cole also says, battery pack aside, “all of the Vision Pro’s factors put together have led us to believe it’s a really high-quality experience. This is going to be as good as Meta Quest 3 if not better.”
Prior examples might not necessarily help read the battery tea leaves, either. Early versions of the Magic Leap AR goggles had an external “compute pack” that was designed for the wearer’s waistband. Microsoft’s HoloLens, on the other hand, packed what felt like an entire PC on your head. Neither product was successful; the placement of the battery pack was moot.
Apple did not respond to an inquiry as to why journalists and influencers were not able to take their own photos of Vision Pro or if the company plans to share more images of the battery.
With the release of Android 14 creeping closer, Google just announced a makeover for the Android brand, which was last updated in 2019. The logo has been modernized, and the Android mascot, called Bugdroid, has a fresh 3D look. The company also unveiled a handful of new features for Google apps and Android devices, including a Google Assistant-powered widget and the option to store digital versions of library and gym cards in your Google Wallet.
Video: Google
The new look is designed to “reflect Android’s core ethos of being open, iterative, and inclusive.” From now on, it’s Android with a capital “A,” and the Android logo has grown curvier, bringing it closer to the style of the Google logo. The tiny green robot that has long served as Android’s mascot has been rendered in 3D and has a new visual identity, with fresh colors (including a natty rainbow finish), accessories (like a headband and hat), and some playful animations.
Hot on the heels of the Android rebrand comes Google’s quarterly Android feature drop. First up is the Assistant At a Glance widget for your home screen, a revamp of the existing At a Glance widget. It employs machine learning algorithms to offer snippets of relevant information, such as local weather, travel updates for your flights, and handy event reminders.
Video: Google
A new feature called Image Q&A on Google’s Lookout app uses artificial intelligence to generate detailed descriptions of images, so instead of relying on rudimentary alt tags, people who are blind or have low vision can get proper descriptions of an image and even ask follow-up questions to learn more about it. Google has also added another 11 languages to the Lookout app, including Chinese, Korean, and Japanese.
Google Wallet is getting the much-needed ability to import and digitize passes with barcodes or QR codes. That means you can upload a photo of your gym pass or library card and store a secure, digital version of it in Google Wallet, which will come in handy when you forget your actual wallet again.
Android Auto is getting support for Webex and Zoom audio conference calls. Yes, that means you can join meetings on either platform and browse your schedules on your car display. You can mute your mic and end the call through Android Auto. Handy for when you’re running late but really need to join a call. Implementing it into your car’s system hopefully means you won’t use your phone while driving.
The final new feature is tied to Google Assistant—you can add sleep-tracking data from Fitbit or Google Fit into a Google Assistant Routine. Say, “Hey Google, good morning” after you set it up to get a recap of your sleep stats alongside your morning news, including when you fell asleep and how many hours of shuteye you managed to get.
These features are rolling out starting today and do not require an over-the-air system update. Instead, keep an eye out for app updates in the Google Play Store.
The fact that Daniel Craig showed up at a film premiere rocking one with a tailored suit hardly dampened the fervor. The Neptune is thought to have been back on sale in recent months, though it appears to remain scarce—while MoonSwatch resale prices have now largely fallen to levels only marginally more expensive than as-new, the Neptune continues to carry a premium, with prices on the Chrono24 marketplace starting at around £800 ($1,000).
A brand-new version, however, available for one day only at $300, may command an even higher premium. This year Swatch fell upon a novel method for keeping the hype train moving around the MoonSwatch: Rather than announce any all-new models, since March it has launched a series of limited edition versions of the gray Mission to the Moon model (the closest to the original Speedmaster), distinguished only by a chronograph second hand coated in various styles of Moonshine Gold, an alloy used by Omega; these have each been available for one day only, with each sale date falling on a full moon. And sure enough, the queues have been showing up at Swatch stores once more, though not quite with the drama of the original launch.
With August 30 being a rare “super blue moon” (the biggest full moon of the year), Swatch is making the Mission to Neptune the subject of the limited edition rather than the Mission to the Moon. Once again, the watch is otherwise identical to the core collection model, except it has a golden chronograph second hand, which Swatch says is made from recycled Moonshine Gold from its own refinery, “produced only during the full moon of August 1.” There’s even a certificate with the watch to confirm that.
Photograph: Swatch
Perhaps more significant than the watch itself (official title: Moonshine Gold—Mission to Neptune) is Swatch’s choice in highlighting the problem child of the MoonSwatch collection in the first place. After all, it’s not the only blue version. The powder-blue Mission to Uranus has proved to be one of the most popular models, riding a wider trend around light-blue/turquoise watches.
But with Swatch having made no official statement on either the Neptune’s withdrawal last year or its return in the past few months, the one-day limited edition is at the very least confirmation of its wider availability, too. But those hoping for an entire new range of color options for the MoonSwatch will have to keep waiting.
While mass production of the HyperSport will happen at a dedicated factory near Damon’s headquarters outside Vancouver, British Columbia, initial production will begin at Damon’s San Rafael, California, engineering facility. The recently acquired space is currently full of placards and carts to visualize the various stages of the assembly process; polished concrete floors and pristine work surfaces wait for parts.
The assembly portion of the shop is on the other side of the wall from where Damon’s engineers churn out 3D-printed prototypes, machine the alloy components going through final development, and crimp together early wiring harnesses.
Industrial-scale stamping, machining, and casting will ultimately replace the hand-built nature of the preproduction bike you see pictured here, but it’ll still carry the bespoke components designed by and for Damon. “Every part on this [bike] is ours. We’ve developed it from scratch,” Dorresteyn claims. That’s not strictly true—industry-standard components such as wheels, brakes, and suspension are the exceptions.
The prototype Damon HyperSport we visited in the workshop isn’t yet road-legal, lacking niceties such as turn signals and functional headlights. With early production scheduled to ramp up in 2024, much of the team at Damon Motors is focused on finalizing all the various hardware prototypes so that proper manufacturing can begin on the HyperSport, which is still set to hit those initial targets of 200 horsepower, 200 mph, and 200 miles of range.
New Bike, New Bikers
The targets for the executive team are a little different during WIRED’s visit. Giraud says the company is in the middle of yet another funding round, this time a $50 million raise to carry Damon through to production.
That’s a significant hurdle to overcome before the company can finally start appeasing the thousands of preorders, many of which came from interested parties who don’t fit into usual motorcycle demographics.
Indeed, some 75 percent of all Damon preorders have come via the company’s Instagram, with an average age of 37. Of the 3,700 paid deposits, a quarter are from people who don’t even own a motorcycle—expanding the market, certainly, but potentially to inexperienced riders that could well require CoPilot’s intervention sooner than they’d like.
Giraud is aiming high with the HyperSport, but he has plans to produce future models (some via partnerships) that are affordable for riders everywhere, including Indonesia, where most bikes cost around $2,000.
“Motorcycling is the largest form of motorized transportation in the world: 1.5 billion people daily. If we’re going to make motorcycling safer, a million a year sounds like maybe putting a dent in it,” Giraud says. “And, from an electrification point of view, it’s not even a drop in the bucket.”
Giraud admits it will take Damon at least a decade to hit that level of production, a timeline that seems optimistic for a company that has yet to deliver a single motorcycle to consumers. But, when you’ve faced death and lived to tell the tale, maybe everything else seems easy.
Finally, the Ride
As Damon’s prototype HyperSport isn’t legal, WIRED’s test ride can’t take place on the road. Instead, Damon loaded up the bike and trucked it out to Thunderhill Raceway Park, another two hours north of San Francisco.
Before heading out onto the track on the only functional Damon prototype motorcycle in the world, I did a few warm-up laps on something a bit more familiar. More familiar, but no less crazy: a BMW S 1000 RR. This is among the fastest sportbikes on the planet, making a tick over 200 horsepower and weighing just 440 pounds. That it’ll do over 100 mph in first gear and sprint to 60 in fewer than three seconds means that this “warm-up” was pretty hot despite a cold track on a chilly, Northern California spring day.
