Hertz to purchase 175,000 General Motors EVs over the next five years

Hertz is once again growing its EV fleet, announcing Tuesday that it has struck a deal with General Motors to purchase 175,000 electric vehicles from the automaker’s Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Cadillac and BrightDrop brands over the next five years. Customers will see the first offerings, namely the Chevrolet Bolt EV and Bolt EUV, arrive on Hertz lots beginning in the first quarter next year. 

The deal, which runs through 2027, will bring a wide variety of models to Hertz’s growing EV herd. Between now and 2027, the rental company expects its customers to drive about 8 billion miles in said EVs, preventing an estimated 3.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from being released. Hertz plans to convert a quarter of its rental fleet to battery electric by 2024. 

This news follows Hertz’s 65,000-vehicle order from Polestar in April, which the performance EV maker has already begun deliveries on. An earlier announcement in 2021 had many believing that Tesla would be supplying the Hertz fleet with 100,000 vehicles, worth an estimated $4.2 billion, was quickly kiboshed by Tesla CEO, Elon Musk. Hertz is already planning to rent 50,000 Tesla EVs to Uber drivers, which now operate in 25 North American cities, there’s no word on whether GM’s vehicles will be offered under similar terms.

For folks who are already in line, having ordered a GM EV and are waiting on delivery, don’t fret. This deal with Hertz shouldn’t impact your existing delivery date. “Our first priority is delivering vehicles to customers holding reservations,” a GM rep told Engadget via email Tuesday. “GM is installing capacity to meet demand from all customers, with annual capacity in North America rising to more than one million units in 2025.”

Rockstar confirms gigantic ‘Grand Theft Auto VI’ leak

That purported Grand Theft Auto VI leak appears to be real. Rockstar Games has confirmed the authenticity of the leak in a tweet, noting that a hacker stole confidential data including “early development footage” of the next Grand Theft Auto title. The firm didn’t foresee any long-term damage to development or live services like GTA Online, but was “extremely disappointed” that details of the future game were shared in this manner,

Rockstar promised another update “soon,” and that creation of GTA VI would continue “as planned.” The game producer didn’t share more. However, Windows Centralnotes parent company Take Two has asked original leak host GTAForums to pull content, which reportedly includes Bully 2 plans and might include code for multiple GTA titles. The hacker’s original Telegram channel has disappeared.

The leak is unprecedented and included 90 videos of a very early build of GTA VI. The clips appear to validate rumors from July that hinted at a return to Vice City (aka Miami) as well as a Bonnie and Clyde-like pair of male and female protagonists. There also appears to be a slew of functional upgrades ranging from improved animations to a robbery system.

The GTA VI material might not do much damage, as the finished product is likely to be much more polished. However, there is a concern that any code for GTA Online could make it easier for hackers to exploit vulnerabilities and otherwise sour the game for other players.

Massive ‘Grand Theft Auto VI’ leak shows off early gameplay footage

A massive trove of footage from the next installment in Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto series has leaked online. On early Sunday morning, a hacker who goes by teapotuberhacker uploaded 90 videos from a test build of Grand Theft Auto VI to GTAForums. Since PCGamer spotted the post, the clips have proliferated across YouTube and social media, and as of the writing of this article, they’re still viewable.

In line with reporting Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier published in July, the footage shows two playable protagonists. One of them is a female character named Lucia, who we see robbing a restaurant in one of the clips. In a separate video, you can see the other playable character riding the “Vice City Metro,” pointing to the fact that GTA VI will take place in a fictionalized version of Miami. According to Schreier, the leaked footage is legitimate.

“Not that there was much doubt, but I’ve confirmed with Rockstar sources that this weekend’s massive Grand Theft Auto VI leak is indeed real. The footage is early and unfinished, of course,” he tweeted. “This is one of the biggest leaks in video game history and a nightmare for Rockstar Games.”

Adding intrigue to an already interesting story, teapotuberhacker claims they’re also responsible for the recent Uber hack. They said they obtained the test build after gaining access to a Rockstar employee’s Slack account and may upload additional data online, including source code and assets from GTA V and GTA VI, as well as the test build itself. It’s unclear how old this version of the game is. Rockstar has reportedly been working on GTA VI since 2014. In July, Schreier reported the studio was at least another two years away from releasing the game to the public.

Grand Theft Auto series publisher Take-Two Interactive did not immediately respond to Engadget’s request for comment.

Update, 9/19/2022, 9:18am ET: Rockstar Games confirmed the leak Monday morning in a tweet:

Ford updates its BlueCruise driver assist with hands-free lane changing and more

BlueCruise, Ford’s intelligent adaptive cruise control system, already offers drivers a number of assistive features such as lane centering, street sign recognition and hands-free highway driving along more than 130,000 miles of US roadways. On Thursda…