The Code Is the Car Now. Someone Still Has to Live In the Cabin.

Look at today's five stories side by side and a single thread pulls them together: the most interesting thing about a new electric vehicle is increasingly the code, not the metal. Four of the five lead with software. The fifth is what happens when that philosophy runs into the limits of a real, physical cabin.

Start with the Zeekr 7 GT. The numbers everyone repeats are 646 horsepower and a 3.3 second sprint, but the actual pitch in Electrifying's first drive is the 800V charging platform and a head-up display that paints traffic and navigation onto the road. The handsome estate body is almost the supporting act. The ALSO TM-B takes the idea to its logical extreme: a Rivian-spinoff e-bike with no mechanical link between the pedals and the rear wheel at all, where assist, gear feel and routing are all decided in software.

The clearest proof, though, is the Rivian R1S after a year of ownership. The owner says charging, thermal management and even the stereo all got better after he took delivery, through updates he never paid extra for. And his single biggest unmet want is also software: the point-to-point autonomy Rivian has promised but not shipped. The car he bought and the car he has today are not quite the same vehicle. Even a mainstream hatchback now follows the pattern, with the facelifted Renault Megane E-Tech running a Google-powered brain and a camera that recognizes your face.

Which is what makes the Tesla accessories tour the sharpest story of the lot, because it is the counterweight. When a car is designed screen-first and stripped of buttons, owners quietly spend their own money bolting the physical world back on: storage trays, phone mounts, floor mats, protection. The software-first cabin is elegant on a spec sheet and a to-do list in the driveway. Over the next six months, as Zeekr lands in Europe and Rivian's autonomy deadline approaches, the question is whether buyers reward the platform promise or start punishing the gaps it leaves behind.

Bottom line: Software is what sells the modern EV, but you still live in the hardware. The brands that win the next year will be the ones who remember that a feature you can update is no substitute for a place to put your phone.

Editorial commentary drawing on third-party videos covered today. Figures and claims are as presented in those sources and have not been independently verified. Spotted an error? Tell us and we will correct it.