Quick Shifts: Tesla Halloween Mode

Each week I bring you the top stories in the auto industry along with my commentary or sometimes amusing thoughts about the craziness that goes on in the world of cars.

Stories you’ll find today:

• WAYMO TAKES THE WRONG TURN AFTER A BUCCANEERS GAME
• GM TELLS THE OIL DIPSTICK TO TAKE A HIKE
• MAPQUEST NOW TELLS YOU WHERE THE CAMERAS ARE WATCHING
• TESLA GETS SPOOKY, BUT THERE’S A CATCH

WAYMO TAKES THE WRONG TURN AFTER A BUCCANEERS GAME

A group of University of Tampa students learned that a driverless taxi can make a wrong turn just as effectively as a human, although most human drivers know better than to head straight into oncoming traffic. After the Tampa Bay Buccaneers game on October 4, police temporarily converted every lane of North Himes Avenue near Raymond James Stadium to southbound traffic to clear the crowds. The students' Waymo apparently missed that memo. According to MotorBiscuit, the robotaxi sat waiting to turn for roughly 30 minutes before finally making its move—northbound, directly toward vehicles leaving the stadium. Video recorded by passengers shows other cars swerving around the Waymo before it stopped in the roadway. The students decided they had experienced quite enough futuristic transportation for one evening and got out. They walked part of the way back toward campus and finished the trip in an Uber. Fortunately, no collision was reported. Waymo said the vehicle briefly entered a temporary one-way street, acknowledged the incident and said it was reviewing what happened. The company also refunded the fare. The students reportedly paid about $15 for the Waymo ride instead of an estimated $90 for an Uber, which sounded like a terrific bargain until the car tried to meet stadium traffic head-on. Interestingly, at least one passenger said he'd still ride in a Waymo again, just not around a large crowd. I'm all for saving money on transportation, but I prefer the kind of ride where the passengers don't have to vote on when to abandon ship.

GM TELLS THE OIL DIPSTICK TO TAKE A HIKE

For decades, checking your engine oil has involved opening the hood, pulling out a dipstick, wiping it off, putting it back in and checking the level. General Motors has decided that's apparently too much exercise for some pickup owners. The redesigned 2027 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra will eliminate the traditional engine-oil dipstick on trucks equipped with GM's new 5.7-liter and 6.6-liter V8 engines. Instead, owners will check the oil level through a digital display inside the truck. GM says the electronic system continuously monitors oil level, can warn drivers of a possible oil leak while they're on the road and reduces the opportunity for human error. That's a legitimate advantage over a dipstick, which can't tell you anything until somebody actually pulls it out. Before longtime truck owners start searching for a petition, the change isn't universal. The 2.7-liter four-cylinder and 3.0-liter diesel engines will retain conventional dipsticks. And GM isn't inventing this idea: BMW, Mercedes-Benz and other automakers have used electronic oil-level monitoring for years, while Ram's 3.0-liter Hurricane engine also relies on a digital gauge. Still, I suspect some truck buyers will miss the simple reassurance of looking at the oil themselves, especially when a dashboard display is the only way to know what's happening under the hood. Personally, I appreciate technology that makes ownership easier, but I also understand why some people prefer a piece of metal that doesn't need a software update.

MAPQUEST NOW TELLS YOU WHERE THE CAMERAS ARE WATCHING

Remember MapQuest? Before everybody had a smartphone giving turn-by-turn directions, it was the website that sent us to the printer with a stack of driving instructions. Well, MapQuest is back in the conversation, and this time it's helping motorists see something they might not have realized was watching them. According to Jalopnik, the MapQuest mobile app now offers a Surveillance map layer showing known locations of automated license-plate readers and other surveillance cameras, including systems associated with Flock Safety, Axon and Motorola Solutions. Turn on the layer in the app's map settings and zoom in far enough, and camera locations appear as little eyeball icons. Tapping one can reveal the camera type, coordinates and viewing direction, when that information is available. Some locations even show a red cone indicating where the camera is pointed. MapQuest says this was one of its users' three most-requested features, which tells you something about the growing interest in license-plate surveillance. These cameras can help police investigate crimes, but critics have raised concerns about privacy, misuse and how widely the information can be shared. Jalopnik notes that an open-source project called DeFlock has documented more than 143,000 camera locations, although it's not clear exactly where MapQuest obtains its data. The new feature was reported as available in the mobile app, not the website. I have to admire the comeback. After years of helping us find the quickest way to get somewhere, MapQuest is now helping us see who's keeping track of the trip. Not bad for a company many of us last used when our printers still had paper jams.

TESLA GETS SPOOKY, BUT THERE’S A CATCH

Tesla owners who think their electric cars could use a little more personality have a new Halloween surprise waiting in software update 2026.38.3. Tesla’s Halloween Mode turns compatible Teslas into what the automaker calls a haunted house on wheels, complete with spooky sounds, special screen graphics and lighting tricks. Open the Toybox and you can choose Ghost Costume, which makes the car's on-screen image float around wearing a white sheet with openings for its headlights and taillights. Trick or Treat can play eerie sounds through the exterior speaker and flash lights when someone approaches the parked vehicle. There's also a growling lock sound and a Boombox effect that makes your spoken message sound considerably creepier. On the driving display, nearby cars glow, pedestrians resemble zombies, bicyclists become skeletons and traffic lights look like stacks of pumpkins. Tesla even replaces the familiar turn-signal clicking with an owl hoot. Owners can select Halloween-themed vehicle wraps, use a holiday photo booth and schedule a Fright Show featuring lights, music and moving body panels. But there are two important catches. The features are available only on Teslas equipped with AMD processors, leaving older Intel-powered vehicles out of the Halloween fun. And activating Trick or Treat disables Sentry Mode, the security alarm and walk-away locking, so owners should understand that tradeoff before leaving their cars unattended. I appreciate an automaker having some fun with software, but I have to admit that a car dressing up as a ghost is a new one on me. At least if the battery runs low, it won't be the first time a ghost has disappeared without warning.

Photo: Tesla/X.