The Vergecast - Hotline: Folding phones in cars, EVs in Mexico

Episode Date: September 23, 2026

Transportation editor Andrew Hawkins is here to answer your questions about the confluence of cars and gadgets. Could a folding phone replace a dashboard display? What to do about the iPhone Pro Max not fitting the Tesla's built-in wireless charger? And we hear from a listener who -- shockingly -- doesn't care about CarPlay. Further reading: The car of the future is an EV golf cart Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed. We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to [e-mail] or call us at 866-VERGE11. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I'm one of the producers of the show, Travis Larchuk, and today we've got a very fun hotline episode for you. The Verges Transportation Editor, Andrew Hawkins, is going to join us to answer some of your questions that we've been saving up about cars. Before we get to it, you should know that we did tape this before the iPhone duo was announced. The first question we talk about hits on folding phones. We specifically talk about the Z Fold 8. We obviously would have brought up the D-Fold. if we had taped this after. We do not have time machine technology at the verge yet.

We are working on it. Before we get to that, here's what else is happening on the verge today. I'm Josh Kahas and this is 90 seconds on the verge for Wednesday, September 23rd, 2026. Meta is expected to announce new smart glasses tonight. Its MetaConnect event starts at 7 p.m. Eastern and we'll be live blogging it here at the Verge. The big question, can you forget how you feel about meta? Mark Zuckerberg would probably like it if you did. Meta has found itself at the center of high-profile lawsuits, negative press, and public

backlash against its products and technologies. And its Reality Labs division also took over $80 billion in operating losses over the last five years. Let's see if these new pervert glasses can write the ship. Meanwhile, Discord will now automatically estimate your age. Starting today, Discord will automatically assign users to an estimated age group based on multiple account signals, such as account age and history, and connected communities, servers, and games. Back in February, Discord received criticism for its botched age verification

rollout. That resulted in a data breach that exposed user info and scanned photo IDs. With this new system, the company is anticipating that 90% of its users won't be asked to confirm their age, and aims to use less intrusive options that don't require sensitive personal data. With this new system, the company is anticipating that 90% of its users won't be asked to confirm their age, and aims to use less intrusive options that don't require sensitive personal data. And finally, if you're looking for another place to see advertisements, great news. According to a report from Bloomberg, McDonald's is launching a limited pilot program for displaying ads from other brands on its drive-through menus while customers wait for

their meals. A McDonald's spokesperson told Bloomberg that this test allows the company to explore ways to share post-purchase content that customers may find helpful, relevant, or interesting. In other words, people aren't buying enough 20-beast McNuggets, so can we please sell you some meta-a-i-glasses on the side? You can read more at the verge.com. That's 90 seconds on the verge for Wednesday, September 23rd, 2026. Okay, when I sell my business, I want the best tax and investment advice. I want to help my kids, and I want to give back to the community. Ooh, then it's the vacation of a lifetime.

I wonder if my out of office has a forever setting. An IG private wealth advisor creates the clarity you need with plans that harmonize your business, your family, and your dreams. Get financial advice that puts you at the center. Find your advisor at IDPrivatewealth.com. Support for the show comes from Horizon 3. You know that feeling when you can tell you're being watched? That's a primal instinct that took millennia to develop.

Unfortunately, we don't have anything like that in our digital lives, so we need tools that can help us know when we're in harm's way before the worst-case scenario. They say that in cybersecurity, the scariest thing isn't the attack you see coming. It's the attack path you didn't know existed. Horizon 3 is a proactive AI-native security platform that wants to change that. Here's how it works. Horizon 3's Node-Zero is an autonomous AI hacker that continuously attacks your own environment at machine speed, the same way a real attacker would, finding all the areas that are vulnerable.

To see exactly what an attacker would find in your environment before they do, go to Horizon3.aI. slash Vergecast and request your free Node-Zo demo. That's Horizon3.com.A.I. slash Vergecast. Birchcast. Again, that's Horizon3.aI slash birchcast. No commitment required. Results in hours, not weeks. Andrew, let's talk cars. Let's do it. I'm down. All right. First of all, you're the transportation editor. I am. What is your favorite form of transportation? Bicycle. Yes. Hands down, bicycle. It's the most efficient. It's the one that will leave you feeling better about your life and your choice. choices. Everyone should ride a bike. And if you can't ride a bike, I'm sorry, but I hope that there's a variety of mobility devices that are close to, close enough to a bike that I feel like everyone has the potential to get on a bike. And I very much encourage everyone to do that.

Well, now that we've said that, let's talk about cars. Damn it. All right. We've got our first question. This is from Brandon. And this is kind of a curveball to start us off. It's actually about the Galaxy Z-Fold. Something I know a lot about. And it does relate to cars. So here we go. This is Brandon. I've been listening to your podcast for a while, big fan, and all the discussion about the new Galaxy Z-Fold

and how you kind of don't need a phone that opens up, I know there's not much of a case for it, but I was wondering if there might be a case made by, weirdly enough, the Slate Truck, because I can see a market where you have a phone, that you then unfold and set up as like your console in your car or if you're a drone pilot you open it up and you use that as your control system obviously it's not going to be much use for the average person you just open it up watch videos nobody's really going to do that but for utility uses the z fold and these foldable phones might have more use as long as they have like as a control system and I just want to know what you're a thought are on that. Is that a good enough case for them? So first of all, can you remind us what the Slate Truck is and why this question might make

out? Yeah, I just want to, we'll set to see. The Slate Truck is a new electric truck that is in production right now. And the whole concept of it is like, you know, strip out everything that you possibly can strip out from an electric vehicle except for, you know, all the basics. And that is the way to sort of bring down the cost, right? because that's been sort of like this persistent problem in the EV market today is that they're just too expensive. And a lot of that has to do with the battery and supply chains.

But essentially, Slate's philosophy is like if we just stripped everything away, if we start get rid of all the features, all the fancy stuff. I mean, they really did. I mean, they got rid of the power windows. They got rid of the internal screen. There's no radio. There's not, you know, I mean, there's HVAC and there's a steering wheel. And that's basically it. So, you know, the idea of like a manual crank for,

for your windows, I think, would probably shock a lot of people in our modern days today. But I think that that is sort of what they're trying to get at. You can add a lot of stuff. You can sort of speck your slate truck and build it as you would like to see it. But the bare bones blank slate has basically very little. So I think what this guy is getting at is, you know, there's no screen in the car. There's no infotainment system. There's no way to sort of get, you know, sort of the standard things that we all not kind of like live to expect these days, whether it's navigation or.

or media, music, podcast, whatnot, this podcast. So I love this question so much because it could only spring from the bind of a Vergecast listener in some ways, right? Because it shows that you're like listening to all the stuff that we're talking about. And I really appreciate that. I think that that's amazing.

And yeah, I do think that there is a case to be made that a foldable phone slash tablet like the Z-fold could have a use case in the slate truck because it is sort of like the ultimate it B-Y-O electric vehicle. Like you bring your own phone, and you can add a mount to the dashboard, and you can just have your phone sort of mounted in there much in the way that a lot of people do with their phones, a lot of Uber drivers, for example.

And so the idea of having just like your skinny little iPhone or Android phone, maybe that's not appealing to a lot of people. Maybe they want something that's a little bit bigger. So they could possibly have, you know, bring their foldable in, and that could serve that purpose, I think very well. I feel like this feels like a challenge to me personally. Once we get the Slate truck to test out,

and I feel like I got to bring a Z-fold with me in order to do this. So Brandon, if you're out there, I'm going to make this happen. I don't know how or when it's going to happen or if the slate is ultimately going to be a successful product or not, but I'm going to try my best to make this happen for you.

Yeah, that's just the, it gets to the ongoing, you know, where is the computer question. I can't wait for the article where we go through what foldable form factors to put it to your slate truck. Well, this next question is related to this. This comes from Maxwell, who writes in, I drive a Tesla that has a built-in wireless charger,

and I really liked it when I got it. Handy place to put the phone, no cords, neat. until I upgraded to a 17 Pro Max last year, and now my phone won't charge because the massive camera bump lifts it too high off of the charger. This is such a problem that you can find aftermarket MagSafe replacements

that go in the same spot, but personally I have just started using a cord again. Yeah. This is like a tale as old of time with built-in technology and cars, right? Like you've got a bunch of USBA ports now all over the place. Right. And if there's anything that can really

show sort of like how fast technology is moving and how quickly old technology becomes obsolete. It's the car, right? Because that is the, you know, sort of the piece of technology or the product that people tend to keep around the longest, right? Like, you know, if they're not, maybe, you know, maybe they don't have like a three-year lease. Maybe they, you know, they're, they're paying off their car or what have you. It's something that they want to keep for a long time and they want to get a lot of use out of it. So it is, I can understand the frustration when wireless technology and obviously phone technology is sort of not keeping a pace with what you got in your car. Yeah, it's a, it's a, I mean, like, you know, it's a first world problem, but it's a problem

nonetheless. And it's something that I did a little digging after. I read this question and saw that there's a lot of people who are experiencing this problem, especially because, I mean, this is something that people, you know, have been complaining about wireless charging in their cars for a long time. If you don't have Chi charging in your car, it's a fair bet. I don't have it in my car, for example, and the wireless charging pad sucks. Every time I take the phone out, it feels like it has less power than it went in, and it's, like, really hot to the touch.

So it just feels like it's not working. So I've actually been plugging it in with the regular old USBC for a long time as well. And it's fine. It works a lot better that way, I think. Because, yeah, it's like with that camera bump, you're just making the charging pad have to work all that much harder to get the charge into your phone, which you don't want to do. That's what really heats up the phone too. So I can see the problem there, and I think that's the solution, while in elegant, is just plug it in. I have a question.

Are there any cars that have figured out a good place? Like, if you've plugged your phone in, a good place to put your phone when it's plugged in? Because I've been in so many cars where it's like, okay, because I can like jam this into a place that was like made for coins or like put it upside down into the cup holder. Have you been in any cars that have figured this out? They are trying, they had their best minds working on, Travis. And I feel like they are still struggling. I've been in a lot of cars, and I've seen all variety of little drawers and slots and cubbies and weird sort of like all sorts of manners of things that they're trying to find a way where people can put their phones so that it doesn't fall in that dreaded place, the space between your seat and the center console where everything goes to die and nothing. never comes out again.

So, yeah, it is, it is a constant problem. I haven't really seen anyone quite figure it out yet. I feel like Tesla has a good solution. It's just like, it's at an angle and it like just goes there really well, although now with the camera bump, but it's, it's a little bit less of a flat, perfect fit for a lot of them. I mean, yeah, I don't know. It's, it's, you know, because phones are changing and the sizes are so different.

It's like, how do you design a solution, right? right, when everyone's got something different, right? Maybe you have a Z-fold and you want to like unfold it and have that chart. You know, it's sort of like I can sympathize with the automakers who are just like trying to engineer a solution to like a constantly shifting problem. All right. This is our last question along this theme. It is from a listener who has not identified themselves. Can I just say that I don't care about Apple CarPlay and all that.

Like all my cars have it and I want it. But the reality is the only reason I'm, I actually want it deep down. If I had to strip away all the features and you're like, what's the one thing you can have? It's for the maps. I drive a Toyota Land Cruiser now, like the new one, and I have to pay a subscription for the map to tell me what wrote them on,

to tell me the north, south, east, west, anything. And the map sucks. They gave me the free trial. It was terrible. So CarPlay, I don't care. Good maps, I do care. We found the one person who doesn't care about CarPlay. Was that person's name N. Patel?

No. That's probably not. No. You know, it's a lot of people disagree with that statement. A lot of people care about Apple CarPlay. As we find amongst our readers and surveys done, you know, that it is the number one thing that people care about in their cars. And I think, like, automakers are figuring out that maps are kind of like a sneaky way

of getting around having to sort of bend over backwards for Apple or for Google. And the way they figured it out is to bend over backwards for Apple and Google by just integrating their own, those tech companies mapping products into directly into the software of their vehicle. So you've got GM right now who uses Google built-in, you know, a variety of other automakers do as well, Volvo Polestar, a bunch of others. Ford just announced that it's going to be directly integrating Apple Maps into its future vehicles, which has sneakily become, like, I think, a lot better in some ways than Google Maps.

It really is. I made the switch recently, and I'm, like, enjoying it a lot more. But, yeah, I think that that's sort of like what you're seeing from the automakers is that they're realizing that their own navigation systems suck terribly. And while they would love to keep, you know, their customers within their own sort of, like software ecosystem. I think they're realizing that that's not what they want. The customers want Apple CarPlay.

They want Android Auto. They want their own maps with their own saved places and their own routes and everything that's like, you know, sort of perfectly curated to the way that they want it to be. So the way to do that is to sort of just have it be a native app on the infotainment. And I think that that's what we're sort of seeing the trend now. What is the advantage of that as opposed to just CarPlay or Android Auto? Well, yeah, I think the, especially if you have an electric vehicle, there's ways in which, you know, you can bring in vehicle data into your, into the map and into the navigation that a lot of electric vehicle owners will find very useful. So, like, for example, like if you're navigating, you know, on a road trip and you want to see how much charge you have left when you get to your destination, you know, a native system would be able to see that better than a phone mirrored system or projected system. And there's also a lot of other things, too, about sort of, sort of. like ways in which they can better merge sort of the data of the vehicle itself,

the driving data, fuel levels, all that kind of stuff into the map. So make it, you know, just a better experience for people. Cool. I have a comment about maps in cars. Yes. I think if I'm on, and there might be a way to do this, I think if I'm on a road trip where I'm going like five hours or something, I need to be able to hide how much time is left in the trip.

Because I look at that like maybe every two minutes. I'm like, oh, my God. I need to do the exact same thing, but only because I have a petulant eight-year-old in my backseat usually who's like seized the map and sees the amount of time. It is constantly giving me a headache about how much, how much. Literally, if it takes more than five minutes to get to any destination, he's pissed off. So, yes, I agree with you. We need to find a way to hide the amount of time left. You hear that Apple?

Yes. You hear that Google? Please find it for Andy and Travis are asking you specifically to hide that. Let us swipe it away. Visit BetMGM Casino and check out the newest exclusive. The Price is Right Fortune Pick. BetMGM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly. 19 plus to wager.

Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2,600 to speak to an advisor. Free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. New from Nespresso. Blend wellness into your coffee routine with the coffee plus range, infused with functional benefits.

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Oh, yeah, that was fun. Yeah, it was great. And this question is related to that. Hey, Vergecast, this is Jason from Nova Scotia. I've been taking a lot after hearing the EV golf cart episode. And I've been thinking a lot about Fisker and the downfall of Fisker 2.0. I think there's a lot to learn there. And I guess my question is like, why haven't we seen a company that essentially takes as many existing off-the-shelf pieces and builds a reasonable car?

One of the things that I see, like the downfall of Fisker was that they really tried to do in-house software that was bad. I think one of the things that they really did right was partner with Magna for manufacturing and engineering, because they took a company that knows how to build and manufacture a car. And a lot of these startup companies try and do everything and reinvent the wheel themselves. So like new batteries, new motors in-house, software in-house, all of these vertical integration like Tesla, and they try and copy that model. But I wonder, like we're at a point now where Rivian provides automotive software, Google provides automotive software. We can buy off-the-shelf batteries.

You can buy Bosch motors that are really good. You can partner with Magna. I'm just wondering, like, why we have, I don't think there's a car company that I'm aware of that's like just taking as many off the shelf pieces and just putting together a really good car. Just curious if you have any thoughts on that and like whether there's just kind of a missed opportunity there and we're just yet to see it. So first, can we can we define some terms here? Can you remind us Fisker, who they are? What is the, the failure that is being referred to here? Absolutely. So Fisker was a, a car company. that went bankrupt a few years ago. Henrik Fisker was the founder of that company.

Their idea was to build. And they did. They built one car, one car only called The Ocean. And if you live in New York City, you'll probably see a lot of them out on the street right now because they're being used by Uber drivers, almost exclusively.

But this was, you know, he's sort of like this famed auto automotive designer who had like a long story career and wanted to start his own thing, fashioned himself a bit of a, you know, as like another Elon Musk type. And it just didn't work out.

You know, it's, you know, for, I think, a variety of reasons. You had the pandemic. You had chip shortages and supply chain disruptions and all sorts of things. And he tried to go, you know, tried to sort of navigate through those turbulent waters and didn't end up happening. It was one of many EV companies, EV-only companies, sort of in those exuberant pandemic and post-pandemic years that did not pan out. And I think, yeah, I think that this, that Jason has. has the right idea that they tried to do too much, right? And you're seeing some of those companies, it's working out for them, right?

For Rivian, it's working out. They are also sort of taking the Tesla path of vertically integrating, designing their own software, designing their own chips, building their own motors. But at the same time, no company is completely 100% vertically integrated, right? Like they're sourcing their battery cells from China. they have to, you know, while they are designing their own autonomous driving software chips, the chips will have to be built and produced at a chip fab by an outside chip manufacturer. So I think that there are companies that are more vertically integrated than others.

I'm no expert in this at all, but I do talk to a lot of these companies and ask them, you know, why are you spending so much up front to do all of this stuff when you could just do what Jason is suggesting, by, by the Nvidia chips off the shelf, by you know, the motors from Bosch or buy, you know, the sales from, from Panasonic or whomever. And the answers they always give to me is,

you know, the upfront cost is for, you know, in the future, we'll be able to reap all of those benefits from that, all the revenue, all the profits. And they don't have to then turn around and sink those profits into the, you know, more suppliers who, you know, they don't have control of the suppliers. They could raise the prices,

they could, you know, there are constraints, there are shortages, you know, they're selling to other people as well. You know, there's a lot of complication and supplier, you know, sort of tier one supplier and OEM relationships. And I think that, you know, these companies, in order to sort of position themselves, what they see as the best success for the future is to sort of vertically integrate as much as possible. Now, I think what he's saying with with regard to these golf car, low speed electric vehicle companies that we're starting to see come out, companies like Amble and Chip and some others, they are kind of going that route. They are, you know, Amble, for example,

which is building this really cool looking golf cart, is contracting with Magna. And I'm sure, like, a lot of the parts are coming from suppliers. Magna is a European-based contract manufacturer. So basically, you know, other car companies will work with them to just do, like, sort of the basic, you know, process of assembling and building their cars. So they're one of several, but they're kind of like one of the top in the field in terms of contract manufacturing. And so, you know, while the design and sort of the, you know, the core technology might be in-house, most of the stuff that they're going to be getting is coming from outside because they can't just like, you know, a company like this small startup, which has the aspirations to become like the biggest, you know, golf cart company in the world, which, you know, there's still like a hard ceiling on that aspiration.

is not going to build its own, like, huge vehicle manufacturing factory in the same way that, like, for example, Rivian was able to do. So I think you see a lot of diversity out there. I think that there's something to be said for Jason's idea of just, like, cobbling together like a Frankenstein car from, like, all of these outside, you know, suppliers. I think that that would be kind of cool. But I don't know if the math on the sort of the business side really works necessarily in that way.

All right, we got one more. All right. Okay, this is from Claudio. Here we go. Hey, Andrew, specifically addressed to you. Wow. I, Claudio. I see you, I hear you. Thank you.

Hey, Andrew, listen to the Vergecast episode about how B.YD beat Tesla. If Neli won't expense a trip to China for you and David to drive cars unavailable in the U.S. Come on, Neelai. Let's do it. I would like to go too, if possible.

A cheaper option is to take a short flight to Mexico City. You should look at the Mexican car market. It could provide good insight into what could come to the U.S. soon. The car market in Mexico is highly competitive, and new Chinese brands have quickly grabbed a significant share. Even American brands like Chevrolet are now rebadging Chinese models as theirs. If you like the BID Seagull, you need to check out the Chevrolet Spark EUV. BYD even launched its first pickup truck, the BYD shark in Mexico before it did in China.

Yeah. What do you think? Well, first I just want to say the reason why I've not been to China yet to drive any of their electric vehicles is because the Verge pays its own way. Many other outlets and influencers and content creators accept paid travel from these companies. So they're flying on, you know, BYD's dime. The Verge doesn't do that. We don't accept money or anything of value from the companies we cover. That's just the price we pay for having ethics in this bankrupt world of ours.

But yes, no, Claudio is actually. Absolutely right. Mexico is increasing in a place where you're going to see a lot of these Chinese vehicles. Canada as well. Canada just started importing several thousand electric vehicles for the very first time. We are now going to be sandwiched in between two countries in which there's going to be plenty of electric vehicles. There are a lot of, you know, sort of sneaky electric vehicles in the United States. We have our volvos. We have our Polestar. Polestar just recently, they ruled against them, and they're not going to be allowed to sell in the United States anymore, unfortunately. But there are vehicles that are made Lincoln's, for example, your grandfather's Lincoln might have come from China because a lot of those Lincolns are built and made in China. But because it has the Lincoln brand on it, somehow it's okay. So we had this policy in place that disallows some brands, but not others. I happen to think that eventually we will get some Chinese electric vehicles with some pretty strict limitations on, like, like who and what and where and how.

But I think Claudio is absolutely right. Claudio, if you want to put me up in Mexico, I don't know if you live there, but I would happy to, I can couch crash in your couch. And I'd love to go and test out some of the Chinese vehicles that they have there. Yeah, and any listeners in China,

if you want to put us up in your apartment, we're available. We're very neat, we're clean. Yeah. We tidy up after ourselves. Neil, I open up the budget. Come on. It'll be a fun hang.

Let us go to China. I promise. All right. Thank you, Andrew. This is great. This was a lot of fun. I love hearing these questions, and I would be happy to do it again. And anytime you want me to do it.

Well, keep sending us your questions. You can email us, Vergecast at theverge.com. You can call the hotline 866 Verge 1-1. And you know what? We haven't asked about this for a while. But why not give us a review on your podcast? Five stars. Sure.

I don't know. Just think about it. We love it. Yeah. It's not going to hurt you. And if you. If you want to support everything that we do here and get ad-free podcast, subscribe to the Verge. Do it. The Vergecast is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. We are produced by the best team in podcasting,

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