Today’s Big Story

Disposable Cars

Why even mildly crashed cars are increasingly totaled out

I was rear-ended a few years ago, while waiting at a red light on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. A newly-licensed kid was texting and didn’t have enough time to stop. I heard tires screech just before his BMW rammed into me and pushed my car into the one in front of me—but everyone was okay. No airbags were deployed and yet my year-old car was totaled out by my insurance company. And this is happening more and more these days.

The rocketing cost of repairing crashed cars means that more than 27% of wrecks now result in a vehicle being totaled by insurance firms. That’s up from 19% in 2018 and a full, five-fold increase versus 1980, according to LexisNexis Risk Solutions data compiled for Axios. And some experts think that number could jump even higher as cars become even more complex.

Vehicles are stuffed with a lot of electronics these days—and even if they don't need to be replaced or repaired after a collision, the electronics need to be addressed. Ironically, it’s the same ADAS driver aids designed to save us from having an accident in the first place that are being blamed for the rise in write-offs. The tech that goes into those systems is so expensive that insurers are finding that it’s not worth sanctioning a repair. Replacing the multitude of sensors and cameras required to make an ADAS kit like automatic braking and lane keeping assistance function, and then calibrating those systems to make them work correctly, can add thousands of dollars to the cost of a repair, a report by Bloomberg citing data from CCC Intelligent Solutions, says.

Pandemic-era trends also accelerated the percentage of vehicles that are declared a total loss, for multiple reasons. The cost of replacement parts spiked, for one. The amount of time needed to get repairs increased, which also increased the amount of time that insurers had to provide loaners to car owners. And the cost of loaners soared as car prices skyrocketed, when the chips shortage created production delays.

What’s worse, is that roughly a third of people who financed their vehicles have negative equity on their auto loans, according to the Wall Street Journal, which means their loan is larger than the value of their car. Which means if that car is totaled, you’re still on the hook for any remaining loan payments to make up the difference.

Combative Trump Vows to Press ‘Unrelenting’ Agenda

The president addresses congress, highlighting the actions his administration has taken over the last six weeks

President Trump took a defiant victory lap in the House chamber on Tuesday night, using his address to a joint session of Congress to promote the flurry of drastic changes to domestic and foreign policy that his administration has unleashed in just the first six weeks. And he had a lot to say. "America is back … we have accomplished more in 43 days than most administrations accomplished in four years or eight years, and we are just getting started.”

At one hour and 40 minutes, it was the longest speech a president has ever delivered to Congress. NBC News called the address “a mix of culture-war red meat, grievance-settling, name-calling and outright falsehoods.” It was the first time the full complement of lawmakers has heard directly from Trump since he embarked on a mission to expand the powers of his office at the expense of congressional prerogatives. Of course, Trump has fired thousands of federal workers, shut down programs authorized and funded by Congress, and paused spending lawmakers approved to help Ukraine fend off Russia's three-year-old invasion. But those federal employees did not get a single mention Tuesday night, and Trump spent comparatively little time on Ukraine, even though it has dominated the White House's agenda in recent days.

Shortly after beginning his speech, Trump was interrupted by Rep. Al Green (the Democrat from Texas), who stood and shouted that Trump didn't have a mandate. House Speaker Mike Johnson, ordered Green escorted from the House chamber. After Green's exit, Trump continued his remarks, railing against Democratic lawmakers who he said wouldn't be happy with anything he did. Despite the stock market tumbling as a result of his newly imposed tariffs, Trump doubled down on his plans for reciprocal tariffs and made clear that he was unrestrained by any rising Democratic resistance or signs of economic trouble. “We are just getting started,” he said, adding later, “Our country will be woke no longer.”

Scientists Just Created a ‘Woolly Mouse’

The genetically engineered mice have thick hair like the extinct woolly mammoth

Colossal said its woolly mouse would enable its scientists to test hypotheses about the link between specific DNA sequences and physical traits that enabled the mammoth, which went extinct around 4,000 years ago, to adapt to life in cold climates. “This is exciting to us because it confirms that the genes and gene families that we identified using our comparative genomics approach really do cause an animal to have a woolly coat and a golden coat and longer hairs,” Beth Shapiro, Colossal’s chief science officer, told NPR. “And this is the way that we're going to create mammoths for the future.”

Why recreate them, you might ask? The goal, the company says, is to one day help populate the Arctic with hairy, genetically modified elephants and help stop the planet warming. Their research concluded that the mammoths’ grazing habits would encourage grasslands to flourish and reduce the amount of carbon dioxide being released from melting permafrost.

Ready for a Robo-Housekeeper?

Figure’s humanoid robot will do your chores with voice commands

It’s the constant promise of the future, right? Robots that will do all the dirty work you don’t like doing. Figure’s latest AI system, Helix, could be the key to making this promise a reality. The company says it’s changing the game for humanoid robots by allowing them to perform complex tasks through simple voice commands—no training required.

In a new demo, two robots successfully put away groceries by scanning their environment, adapting in real time, and even working together to complete the job. CEO Brett Adcock says his cutting-edge AI is the first to combine vision, language, and action in a humanoid robot, allowing it to understand its surroundings, process speech, interact with the environment, and learn a variety of tasks. With plans for “alpha home testing later this year and new updates improving precision and reliability,” Figure is pushing humanoid robots closer to practical, everyday use.

But TechCrunch says it’s a difficult path. In addition to pricing questions, homes vary a good deal from one to the next. People leave messes, and homes have uneven lighting, various floor surfaces, stairs, and often pets and small humans running around. Figure’s plans aren’t entirely clear yet, but “alpha” certainly implies that home testing will remain in the very early stages for the remainder of the year.

Your March Reading List

From personal, real-life stories to a dream about utopia

As we spoke about yesterday, men need to be reading more. If you’re looking for suggestions on what you should be picking up, this month has some really good options. From personal, real-life stories set in restaurants and an exploration of one’s true self to the NPR origin story and a dream about utopia, there’s something for everyone. Take your pick.

Focus on the good stuff.