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For nine years, the Tesla Semi has been the electric vehicle equivalent of a rumor everyone half-believed. Unveiled in 2017, originally promised for production in 2019, delayed again and again — it became something of a running joke in the EV world, mentioned in the same breath as the Cybertruck’s endless wait or Full Self-Driving’s … Read more

For years, “Made in Canada” has meant parts, not finished cars. Canada builds more auto components than almost anywhere on Earth, but the country hasn’t had its own car brand in decades. That’s the story a group of Canadian engineers just tried to rewrite — and the vehicle they unveiled has automakers around the world … Read more

Italian surnames feel unmistakable. Ending in a vowel, they sound like pasta, opera, and Renaissance art. But look closely at the history and a surprising number of them are not Italian in origin at all. They began as Germanic, Greek, Arabic, Norman, Albanian, Slavic, or Jewish names, and they became Italian because the people who … Read more

If your family name is Irish, there is a good chance it was not always spelled the way you see it today. Over roughly seven centuries, thousands of Irish surnames were shortened, translated into English, or reshaped by officials who could not spell the Gaelic original. Some changes were forced by law. Others were choices … Read more

Most new cars look more alike every year. Smooth shapes, thin headlights and glossy screens dominate showrooms from Vienna to Vancouver. In the coastal city of Toyama, one small Japanese company has built a loyal following by doing the opposite. It takes ordinary Toyotas, Mazdas and Nissans and turns them into cars that look as … Read more

Most years, a country is lucky to produce one genuine technological breakthrough that changes an entire industry. In 2026, China has produced seven — across space, transportation, telecommunications, energy, medicine, and manufacturing, often years ahead of schedule. None of these are concept videos or lab demos still waiting for funding. Every one of them is … Read more

Long before the United States declared independence in 1776, families were already moving into the valleys and ridges of the Appalachian Mountains. They came from Scotland, Ulster, England, Wales, Germany, Switzerland and France, carrying little more than tools, seeds and their family names. Those names are still common today in Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee … Read more

For most of the world, “flying cars” still means a sci-fi movie prop or a tech demo that never leaves the test track. In China, that’s no longer true. Pilotless air taxis are already flying paying passengers over real cities, a modular flying car has completed a manned test flight through downtown traffic, and the … Read more

Your last name is one of the oldest pieces of history you carry with you. For millions of people in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Austria, an Irish surname is the only visible link to ancestors who lived in Ireland generations ago. Yet most of us have never asked what that name … Read more

CHINA JUST BECAME ONLY THE SECOND COUNTRY ON EARTH TO LAND A ROCKET BOOSTER For almost a decade, exactly one company on the planet has known how to send a rocket to space and then land that same rocket back on solid ground in one piece: SpaceX. Every other space program on Earth — including … Read more