Month: August 2024
The 2024 Olympics were a big win for TV of all kinds
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images
The Olympics weren’t just good for streaming — they boosted traditional TV viewership, too. Even though the Games in Paris accounted for just three days of Nielsen’s July 2024 report, they led to a 2.3 percent boost in overall TV viewing compared to June and a 3.5 percent increase compared to the same time last year.
During the month, broadcast TV captured 20.3 percent of all viewership, marking a slight increase from last month. It also accounted for more than 22 percent of TV viewing when the Olympics kicked off in the last week of July. As pointed out by The Hollywood Reporter, it’s rare to see an increase in traditional TV viewership in July, as it’s typically one of the slowest months for broadcast and cable TV.
Image: Nielsen
Streaming similarly drew in more eyeballs, making up 41.4 percent of all TV viewing for the month. According to Nielsen, that allowed streaming to increase its share of TV by over one point, breaking the record set in June. Peacock, which exclusively streamed the Olympic Games, saw a 33 percent jump in viewing — the biggest increase Nielsen has seen since it started publishing its streaming reports in 2020.
Despite this increase, YouTube remained the top-performing streaming platform and became the first service to capture more than 10 percent of all TV viewing. Max, Disney Plus, and Prime Video also had notable boosts in viewing thanks to series like House of the Dragon, Bluey, and The Boys.
If both cable and streaming are seeing such big increases based on just three days of the Olympic Games, we’ll likely see an even bigger jump when Nielsen releases its report for the month of August.
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images
The Olympics weren’t just good for streaming — they boosted traditional TV viewership, too. Even though the Games in Paris accounted for just three days of Nielsen’s July 2024 report, they led to a 2.3 percent boost in overall TV viewing compared to June and a 3.5 percent increase compared to the same time last year.
During the month, broadcast TV captured 20.3 percent of all viewership, marking a slight increase from last month. It also accounted for more than 22 percent of TV viewing when the Olympics kicked off in the last week of July. As pointed out by The Hollywood Reporter, it’s rare to see an increase in traditional TV viewership in July, as it’s typically one of the slowest months for broadcast and cable TV.
Image: Nielsen
Streaming similarly drew in more eyeballs, making up 41.4 percent of all TV viewing for the month. According to Nielsen, that allowed streaming to increase its share of TV by over one point, breaking the record set in June. Peacock, which exclusively streamed the Olympic Games, saw a 33 percent jump in viewing — the biggest increase Nielsen has seen since it started publishing its streaming reports in 2020.
Despite this increase, YouTube remained the top-performing streaming platform and became the first service to capture more than 10 percent of all TV viewing. Max, Disney Plus, and Prime Video also had notable boosts in viewing thanks to series like House of the Dragon, Bluey, and The Boys.
If both cable and streaming are seeing such big increases based on just three days of the Olympic Games, we’ll likely see an even bigger jump when Nielsen releases its report for the month of August.
A frontrunner in Europe’s private launch industry just lost its first rocket
“We were aware of the higher risks attached to this approach.”
Enlarge / RFA’s first stage during a four-engine test-firing in May. (credit: Rocket Factory Augsburg)
The first stage of Rocket Factory Augsburg’s first orbital launcher was destroyed in a fireball during a test-firing Monday evening at a spaceport in Scotland, the company said.
The German launch startup aimed to send its first rocket into space later this year and appeared to be running ahead of several competitors in Europe’s commercial launch industry that are also developing rockets to deploy small satellites in orbit.
Within the last few months, Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) delivered all three stages of its first rocket, named RFA One, to its launch site at SaxaVord Spaceport, located on Unst, one of the Shetland Islands and the northernmost inhabited island in the United Kingdom. The company is based in Augsburg, Germany.
Reimagining the IT help desk experience for “silent sufferers” with AI
How AI can provide better IT support for those who are usually unwilling to ask for help.
Workplaces can benefit from AI when employees who struggle with technology issues hesitate to seek help. With its rise, AI has established itself as a transformative trend. AI can enhance productivity and efficiency while safeguarding against operational downtime and can proactively identify and resolve IT issues, benefiting employees who might not seek help and improving their overall experience.
These “silent sufferers” could be putting up with malfunctions and connectivity issues but are reluctant to ask for support. Instead, they might try to fix problems themselves, which could lead to further complications, either immediately or later, especially if they exacerbate the original problem. Even worse, they might keep ignoring the issues entirely. If that happens, the problems they were tolerating — most of which IT could have resolved — will undoubtedly lead to those silent sufferers being far less productive and unhappy at work.
So, how can IT support those silent sufferers? First, they need understand why these end users are remaining silent. Often silent sufferers don’t report an issue to IT because they don’t want to have further productivity impact while IT is troubleshooting the issue or go through the 20 questions the IT team ask when they don’t have visibility to see the issue. Others might have misguided intentions, such as not causing a fuss or drawing attention, or they may think they can handle the issues themselves. Whatever their reasons, their silence can cost businesses significant time and resources.
From a technology point of view, IT departments need to gather data to identify who these employees are and what issues they are having. Armed with this information, IT teams gain a complete view of their IT estate and then can apply AI to realize efficiencies.
Indeed, advances in AI are changing how employees interact with the IT help desk. AI technology can enhance support for silent sufferers, IT staff, and the organization as a whole in three ways.
Proactive and predictive issue identification and resolution
A common frustration in IT is not knowing what impact any changes made might have. AI can process large datasets to identify correlations and predict potential conflicts, preventing many digital disruptions that cost time and money. This capability allows IT teams to address issues proactively.
For example, one organization I work with received two tickets about a slow network. While the IT team started working on these two tickets as isolated issues, AI analyzed the full IT estate to identify any similar issues. AI was able to provide the engineers the broader picture of the magnitude of the impact and revealed that 800 users experienced the same issue but hadn’t reported it to IT. The team used AI to be proactive instead of waiting on employees who may or may not have called the service desk about the issue. AI-driven technology can identify these unreported problems, allowing for a timely resolution that can be rolled out to all affected users.
Think of AI as a tool that quickly highlights anomalies within a tech environment. An AI-based anomaly detection platform continuously scans systems, comparing current and historical data to provide unprecedented visibility. This proactive approach helps prevent less critical issues affecting silent sufferers and large-scale problems that may otherwise escalate to late-night calls to the CIO.
Indeed, for larger issues, like an IT outage, many organizations resort to a reactive approach: waiting for an outage, assembling a war room, and working late into the night often times with a lot of finger pointing to the network team, to the apps team, to the desktop team, to the security team, and so on. To prevent this, organizations should proactively collect essential data in advance. By using AI and ML (machine learning) trained on this IT data, companies can instead swiftly identify and prevent issues, ensuring business continuity.
Empowering all employees, particularly silent sufferers, with automated self-service
Silent sufferers often prefer to solve problems on their own, and with the generational shift in the workforce, this trend is likely to continue. Tech-native generations are have grown up fixing their own issues on their own devices, and they want to do this too on their enterprise devices as well. While changing this mindset might be challenging, you can provide them with automated, tech-based solutions. For example, AI-driven tools can combine real-time device insights with automation, enabling users to resolve recurring issues without needing to approach the help desk. One multinational bank, for instance, automated a solution for a frequently requested recovery key, reducing service desk calls by an estimated 800 per month.
The rise of “self-healing” IT tools means issues can be addressed proactively. Automated testing tools identify and prevent challenges stemming from constantly changing user interfaces, web applications, and other popular platforms and systems. When a problem is detected and the right fix is already known, it can be implemented immediately rather than waiting for users to report it.
This automated resolution approach is ideal for silent sufferers who prefer to avoid IT interactions altogether, as the self-healing tool can resolve issues autonomously without manual intervention. Well-scripted IT solutions can also be rapidly scaled, providing employees immediate assistance, which in turn only helps to lighten the load for already overworked IT teams.
Bridging knowledge gaps
Employees, especially silent sufferers, often spend time searching for IT solutions. They might search online, browse the intranet, or ask colleagues if they can find an answer more quickly than calling the help desk. However, each consumes valuable work time to avoid the help desk and skip the wait for IT support. An AI-driven help desk can dramatically reduce this wait time by providing instant answers to IT agents’ queries. With high-quality data, AI can significantly expand the IT support knowledge base, making it accessible to a broader audience.
Enhancing IT support across the entire organization
By rolling out AI to transform the IT help desk experience, self-service support can be automated, providing better answers quicker and preventing problems from occurring. And that’s something everyone can appreciate. Using AI in help desk management means businesses can streamline operations and improve agent productivity. This allows the IT team to focus on providing high-value support where human expertise is needed and leave less complex issues to AI when it is not.
So, rather than having an IT help desk that might not be as effective for all employees, by implementing a smart AI solution to work alongside the IT team, silent sufferers could become happier and more engaged employees.
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Lamborghini reveals its Huracán supercar replacement – and woah, it’s a hybrid
Lamborghini has lifted the lid on its long-awaited Huracán replacement, with the 2025 Temerario ushering in a new hybrid system for massive performance.
Italian supercar manufacturer Lamborghini has retired its revered 5.2-liter V10 petrol engine in favor of a plug-in hybrid set-up with its upcoming Huracán replacement.
The latest model, badged the Temerario and due in 2025, will instead feature a smaller capacity 4.0-liter twin-turbocharged V8 petrol engine that is accompanied by three electric motors for a total output of 907bhp, making it significantly more powerful than any outgoing Huracán iteration.
In order to placate Lambo fans, the upcoming car will be capable of a 0-62mph sprint time of just 2.7 seconds and a top speed of 211mph, while emitting the sort of raucous engine note that attracts all of the attention.
However, while the Italian marque will wax lyrical about the performance benefits of offering electric motors and battery packs, the marque also has to appease the increasingly strict emissions regulations that are facing all modern manufacturers – even those of very expensive super cars.
Lamborghini hasn’t quoted an all-electric range for the Temerario, but it shares much of its EV technology with the hybrid Revuelto, and that manages around six miles before those batteries run dry. The 3.8kWh battery can be charged by an AC device at rates of up to 7kW – so yep, you can plug it in.
(Image credit: Lamborghini)
It it highly unlikely that owners will ever use pure electric mode, aside from silent starts where the bark of a V8 is frowned upon. But instead, the electric motors are chiefly used to fill gaps in torque delivery at lower rev ranges, rather than relying on petrol-sapping turbochargers to do all the heavy lifting.
What’s more, the use of electric motors and regenerative braking has afforded Lambo engineers greater control over torque vectoring and traction control systems.
As a result, this will be the first car with a Raging Bull badge to offer a proper ‘Drift Mode’, where clever electronics assist in maintaining the perfect slip angle for big, rubber-burning skids.
A more mature Lamborghini
(Image credit: Lamborghini)
Alongside the modern hybrid powertrain, which looks set to deliver potent performance to Italian super car fans, the Lamborghini Temerario has also grown more sensible in its overall design and the levels of comfort it promises.
An all-new aluminum spaceframe, built to house all of the fresh electronic parts, offers more headroom for taller drivers, as well as additional stowage space for luggage.
What’s more, the seats have been made more comfortable (and more adjustable), while the latest infotainment system, which consists of a 12.3in digital instrument cluster for the driver, a 9.1in display for the passenger and a central 8.4in display, provides the digital user experience luxury car owners demand.
Shockingly, Lamborghini has even programmed its gear changes to be much smoother in its most comfortable Strada mode and the suspension now has more travel so there is a tangible difference between ride comfort in the various performance modes.
We’re not sure what’s more surprising, the promise of a comfortable Lamborghini or one that can be plugged in and charged. Times are, indeed, changing.
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HyperX has upgraded the recording quality of its USB gaming mics
The HyperX QuadCast 2 S features 100 RGB lights that can be controlled through its Ngenuity software. | Image: HyperX
HyperX announced new versions of its QuadCast USB gaming microphones today. The QuadCast 2 and QuadCast 2 S now include a streamlined multifunction control dial and welcome upgrades to their recording quality.
The original versions of the HyperX QuadCast mics delivered a lot of functionality at a sub-$200 price point, including multiple pickup patterns and programmable LED lighting. But recording quality maxed out at 16-bit/48kHz. The new QuadCast 2 boosts recording quality up to 24-bit/96 kHz, while the QuadCast 2 S goes even higher, maxing out at 32-bit/192kHz.
The new versions are still priced under $200, although each has received a price bump. The QuadCast 2 is now $149.99 instead of $139.99, while the QuadCast 2 S is $199.99, up from $159.99.
Image: HyperX
The QuadCast 2 is still limited to just red LEDs that turn off when the mic is muted.
Both mics now feature USB-C ports (the original QuadCast was microUSB), and while the previous versions featured separate knobs for changing pickup patterns and adjusting gain, the QuadCast 2 and QuadCast 2 S have a single multifunction dial on the front that handles “gain adjustment, volume control, mic monitoring, and polar pattern selection.”
HyperX has also redesigned the shock mounts on the new models, making the microphones easier to remove without having to unscrew or disassemble anything.
The new mics carry over the LED lighting of their predecessors. The QuadCast 2 is still limited to red LEDs that turn off when the mic is muted, while the QuadCast 2 S features 100 multicolor addressable LEDs that can be controlled using HyperX’s Ngenuity desktop software to match a gaming room’s aesthetic.
The QuadCast S is due to become available today, but the more capable QuadCast S 2 is expected to be released sometime in November.
The HyperX QuadCast 2 S features 100 RGB lights that can be controlled through its Ngenuity software. | Image: HyperX
HyperX announced new versions of its QuadCast USB gaming microphones today. The QuadCast 2 and QuadCast 2 S now include a streamlined multifunction control dial and welcome upgrades to their recording quality.
The original versions of the HyperX QuadCast mics delivered a lot of functionality at a sub-$200 price point, including multiple pickup patterns and programmable LED lighting. But recording quality maxed out at 16-bit/48kHz. The new QuadCast 2 boosts recording quality up to 24-bit/96 kHz, while the QuadCast 2 S goes even higher, maxing out at 32-bit/192kHz.
The new versions are still priced under $200, although each has received a price bump. The QuadCast 2 is now $149.99 instead of $139.99, while the QuadCast 2 S is $199.99, up from $159.99.
Image: HyperX
The QuadCast 2 is still limited to just red LEDs that turn off when the mic is muted.
Both mics now feature USB-C ports (the original QuadCast was microUSB), and while the previous versions featured separate knobs for changing pickup patterns and adjusting gain, the QuadCast 2 and QuadCast 2 S have a single multifunction dial on the front that handles “gain adjustment, volume control, mic monitoring, and polar pattern selection.”
HyperX has also redesigned the shock mounts on the new models, making the microphones easier to remove without having to unscrew or disassemble anything.
The new mics carry over the LED lighting of their predecessors. The QuadCast 2 is still limited to red LEDs that turn off when the mic is muted, while the QuadCast 2 S features 100 multicolor addressable LEDs that can be controlled using HyperX’s Ngenuity desktop software to match a gaming room’s aesthetic.
The QuadCast S is due to become available today, but the more capable QuadCast S 2 is expected to be released sometime in November.
National Public Data says “only” 1.3 million users at risk, but that it leaked its own password
A new report filed with the Maine Attorney General puts the number of affected people at 1.3 million.
The data breach at National Public Data may fortunately have been a lot smaller than initially thought, according to a new report filed by the company with the Maine Attorney General’s Office detailing the incident.
Initially, it was reported that an estimated 2.9 billion records were circulating on the dark web since April 2024, with compromised information including names, Social Security numbers, email addresses, home addresses, and phone numbers for individuals living in the US, Canada, and the UK.
Now, in the filing submitted to the Maine Attorney General, the data broker claims “just” 1.3 million people were actually affected by the leak.
Passwords leaked, too
The data spans over 30 years, and includes address histories and family connections. Furthermore, Troy Hunt of HaveIBeenPwned? said the leak included 134 million unique email addresses and 272 million Social Security Numbers. The average age for the affected individuals is 70 (meaning some of the people affected by the leak are 120+ years old and long deceased).
But not everyone thinks NPD’s logic is particularly sound. The Register, for example, stresses in its report HaveIBeenPwned listed a hundred times as many unique email addresses as NPD says there were affected people.
“So, unless every one of the 1.3 million affected people had 100 email addresses, which is pretty unlikely, there is a chance that more people are affected than what NPD told Maine’s AG,” the publication argues.
To make matters worse, NPD also seems to have had its own passwords leaked. According to KrebsOnSecurity, a sister NPD property called recordscheck.net was hosting an archive that included usernames and passwords for the site’s administrator. The archive was available from the Records Check website earlier this week, and it includes the source code and plain text usernames and passwords for different components of recordscheck.net, which is visually similar to nationalpublicdata.com and features identical login pages, Krebs concluded.
Whatever the case, the leak is enormous, and it will probably take a lot more time until we know for certain how many people had their data stolen. In the meantime, some people went with a class-action lawsuit, claiming the leaked data poses a significant risk for both identity theft, and fraud.
Those who are affected by the incident are warned to keep a close eye on their financial accounts, especially for suspicious transactions and purchases. Also, they should expect an increase in phishing emails and social media interaction.
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Western Digital reveals a new 8TB PS5 SSD – and it costs about as much as two PS5s
A new 8TB WD Black SN850P SSD is available now, but it doesn’t come cheap.
Western Digital has just launched a new 8TB model of its officially licensed WD Black SN850P SSD for PlayStation 5, but it certainly doesn’t come cheap.
The drive is available now via the Western Digital store and costs $999 / £718.99. That’s even more than the price of two brand new PS5 consoles, which would come to $999.98 / £959.98 (or $899.98 / £779.98 for the digital edition). It’s a lot to pay for any storage drive, but not actually unreasonable when you consider the high cost of other 8TB NVME SSDs.
According to the manufacturer, the WD Black SN850P offers a sequential write performance of 6,600MB/s and a sequential read performance of 7,300MB/s, which is well above the specifications recommended by Sony. This drive also comes fitted with an out-of-the-box heatsink, making for a very straightforward installation process.
The WD Black SN850P first launched back in 2023 in 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB capacities. Although the 2TB and 4TB models will still likely offer more than enough storage space for the vast majority of gamers, even more choice can only be a good thing.
Susan Park, the vice president of consumer products and strategic partnerships at Western Digital, said that the company was “proud to expand the WD Black SN850P lineup for the PlayStation 5 console to meet the capacity needs of today’s gamers.”
“With the officially licensed WD Black SN850P now available in an 8TB capacity,” she continued, “players can now store even more and continue to play with confidence knowing that their gaming experience will not be interrupted by latency issues.”
Each purchase includes a free month of PlayStation Plus Premium membership, giving access to the service’s expansive game catalog right out of the box. The drive will also become available at select physical and online retailers later this month
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Lost Highway
In 2004, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced plans for a “hydrogen highway.” It called for a new kind of fuel station, built to support a new kind of electric vehicle. Cars powered by hydrogen fuel cells could help clean up the air and free the US from foreign oil — and California could lead the way.
That’s not what happened. Twenty years later, the American auto industry is shifting overwhelmingly to electric vehicles… but they run on batteries, not hydrogen. The hydrogen highway is littered with shortages, high prices, and faulty equipment. Thousands of drivers across the state are left wondering whether they bet on the wrong future.
We wanted to find out what happened to California’s hydrogen dream.
So, we hit the road.
Our mission: a roughly 450-mile trip across California in a Toyota Mirai, the most popular hydrogen-powered car on the market today. We planned to drive around the Bay Area, down through Central California, and into Los Angeles, visiting as many stations and meeting as many drivers as possible along the way.
Bay Area
Milpitas
We rented a Mirai on Turo — it was one of only two available hydrogen-powered cars on the platform in the Bay Area. The car’s owner, Salman, told us he was concerned about our itinerary.
Cupertino
Manideep and Rupesh were the first fuel cell drivers we met. They’ve been driving their Mirai for about four months, and while they love the car, the fuel situation is wearing on them. They also had some advice for our road trip.
Sunnyvale
All the hydrogen pumps we saw were co-located at traditional gas stations; the hydrogen distributor leases the space from station owners. At some stations, hydrogen pumps were sandwiched between gas pumps.
Palo Alto
One pump we visited in Palo Alto has been offline for two years. The pump’s operator, FirstElement Fuel, told us that it took the pump over from a different hydrogen supplier but that systems issues have prevented it from bringing the station online.
South San Francisco
Earlier this year, Shell closed nearly all of its hydrogen stations across the state; there are no longer any active stations in the city of San Francisco. It’s put additional strain on the remaining Bay Area stations.
Oakland
Another Mirai driver we met, Rebecca, was committed to her car and more optimistic about the future of hydrogen.
San Jose
We needed to top off the tank before leaving the Bay Area. The final station we visited was online — but actually getting fuel was another story.
Along the I-5 corridor between San Francisco and Los Angeles, there are hundreds of battery EV charging plugs — and one hydrogen pump. It’s at a place called Harris Ranch, a rest stop deep in California’s Central Valley. Since our Mirai wasn’t likely to make it all the way to SoCal on one tank, we stopped at Harris Ranch to refuel and see whether other hydrogen road trippers showed up.
Harris Ranch
Harris Ranch Resort
The Harris Ranch Resort is massive. In addition to a Shell gas station, Tesla Superchargers, and a hydrogen pump, it also boasts a Spanish hacienda-style hotel, multiple restaurants, and a gift shop with its own butcher counter.
Tesla Supercharger
The Harris Ranch Supercharger station is reportedly the largest bank of chargers ever built by Tesla. While waiting for hydrogen cars to show up, we wandered over and asked Tesla drivers about life with their battery-electric cars.
James Sweet Bonsai
James Kim has been selling bonsai trees for 23 years. His van is parked just across the street from the exit to Harris Ranch, and he says he gets customers from all over. His largest trees are more than 30 years old.
Hydrogen Fuel Station
After four hours of waiting, another Mirai finally showed up. Billy Chen has made the trip between LA and San Francisco several times — he’s the only driver we found who has.
Since September of 2023, 13 hydrogen stations in the Los Angeles area have been largely offline due to problems with a regional fuel supplier. The shortage has been a major headache for fuel cell drivers in LA — and there are more here than anywhere else in the state.
Los Angeles
San Fernando
The first station we reached in Southern California had four fuel pumps and was unaffected by the hydrogen shortage. Unsurprisingly, it was the busiest station we visited.
Sherman Oaks
There’s a concentration of hydrogen-powered cars here in LA, but the ecosystem is still exceptionally niche. In the first half of 2024, about 322 fuel cell cars were sold in California. At many stations, Mirai sightings were rare.
Burbank
We heard a similar story from lots of drivers: they were considering a battery-electric car but were talked into a Mirai. Many regretted the choice.
Studio City
Like in the Bay Area, there are very few stations in Southern California outside of Greater Los Angeles. So, road trips farther afield are risky.
Hollywood
As of publication, there is no estimate for when the hydrogen supply shortage in Southern California will be resolved, leaving stations like this one offline indefinitely. The shortage will hit the one-year mark in September.
Even if California’s hydrogen highway falls apart, fuel cell technology may still find its niche in a decarbonizing world. The Verge’s Andrew Hawkins dove into the world of hydrogen-powered trucks, boats, planes, and a lot more.
In 2004, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced plans for a “hydrogen highway.” It called for a new kind of fuel station, built to support a new kind of electric vehicle. Cars powered by hydrogen fuel cells could help clean up the air and free the US from foreign oil — and California could lead the way.
That’s not what happened. Twenty years later, the American auto industry is shifting overwhelmingly to electric vehicles… but they run on batteries, not hydrogen. The hydrogen highway is littered with shortages, high prices, and faulty equipment. Thousands of drivers across the state are left wondering whether they bet on the wrong future.
We wanted to find out what happened to California’s hydrogen dream.
So, we hit the road.
Our mission: a roughly 450-mile trip across California in a Toyota Mirai, the most popular hydrogen-powered car on the market today. We planned to drive around the Bay Area, down through Central California, and into Los Angeles, visiting as many stations and meeting as many drivers as possible along the way.
Bay Area
Milpitas
We rented a Mirai on Turo — it was one of only two available hydrogen-powered cars on the platform in the Bay Area. The car’s owner, Salman, told us he was concerned about our itinerary.
Cupertino
Manideep and Rupesh were the first fuel cell drivers we met. They’ve been driving their Mirai for about four months, and while they love the car, the fuel situation is wearing on them. They also had some advice for our road trip.
Sunnyvale
All the hydrogen pumps we saw were co-located at traditional gas stations; the hydrogen distributor leases the space from station owners. At some stations, hydrogen pumps were sandwiched between gas pumps.
Palo Alto
One pump we visited in Palo Alto has been offline for two years. The pump’s operator, FirstElement Fuel, told us that it took the pump over from a different hydrogen supplier but that systems issues have prevented it from bringing the station online.
South San Francisco
Earlier this year, Shell closed nearly all of its hydrogen stations across the state; there are no longer any active stations in the city of San Francisco. It’s put additional strain on the remaining Bay Area stations.
Oakland
Another Mirai driver we met, Rebecca, was committed to her car and more optimistic about the future of hydrogen.
San Jose
We needed to top off the tank before leaving the Bay Area. The final station we visited was online — but actually getting fuel was another story.
Along the I-5 corridor between San Francisco and Los Angeles, there are hundreds of battery EV charging plugs — and one hydrogen pump. It’s at a place called Harris Ranch, a rest stop deep in California’s Central Valley. Since our Mirai wasn’t likely to make it all the way to SoCal on one tank, we stopped at Harris Ranch to refuel and see whether other hydrogen road trippers showed up.
Harris Ranch
Harris Ranch Resort
The Harris Ranch Resort is massive. In addition to a Shell gas station, Tesla Superchargers, and a hydrogen pump, it also boasts a Spanish hacienda-style hotel, multiple restaurants, and a gift shop with its own butcher counter.
Tesla Supercharger
The Harris Ranch Supercharger station is reportedly the largest bank of chargers ever built by Tesla. While waiting for hydrogen cars to show up, we wandered over and asked Tesla drivers about life with their battery-electric cars.
James Sweet Bonsai
James Kim has been selling bonsai trees for 23 years. His van is parked just across the street from the exit to Harris Ranch, and he says he gets customers from all over. His largest trees are more than 30 years old.
Hydrogen Fuel Station
After four hours of waiting, another Mirai finally showed up. Billy Chen has made the trip between LA and San Francisco several times — he’s the only driver we found who has.
Since September of 2023, 13 hydrogen stations in the Los Angeles area have been largely offline due to problems with a regional fuel supplier. The shortage has been a major headache for fuel cell drivers in LA — and there are more here than anywhere else in the state.
Los Angeles
San Fernando
The first station we reached in Southern California had four fuel pumps and was unaffected by the hydrogen shortage. Unsurprisingly, it was the busiest station we visited.
Sherman Oaks
There’s a concentration of hydrogen-powered cars here in LA, but the ecosystem is still exceptionally niche. In the first half of 2024, about 322 fuel cell cars were sold in California. At many stations, Mirai sightings were rare.
Burbank
We heard a similar story from lots of drivers: they were considering a battery-electric car but were talked into a Mirai. Many regretted the choice.
Studio City
Like in the Bay Area, there are very few stations in Southern California outside of Greater Los Angeles. So, road trips farther afield are risky.
Hollywood
As of publication, there is no estimate for when the hydrogen supply shortage in Southern California will be resolved, leaving stations like this one offline indefinitely. The shortage will hit the one-year mark in September.
Even if California’s hydrogen highway falls apart, fuel cell technology may still find its niche in a decarbonizing world. The Verge’s Andrew Hawkins dove into the world of hydrogen-powered trucks, boats, planes, and a lot more.