Articles by Kyle Stock

Texas Is Ground Zero for the US Battery Boom

“Drill, baby, drill” may be Texas’s unofficial motto, but “store, baby, store” is becoming more accurate. The Lone Star State may be the heart of America’s oil and gas map, but it’s quickly becoming the biggest installer of a technology …

Thieves Hunting for Copper Are Vandalizing American EV Chargers

Rick Wilmer spends most of his work days at the office. But every so often, the chief executive officer of ChargePoint Holdings Inc. will make his way to the company’s laboratory in San Jose, California, where he dons safety glasses …

The Next Challenge for the US Charging Network: Congestion

In Fernley, Nevada, east of Reno, there are 16 cords that rapidly charge electric vehicles — not bad for a city of just 24,000 people. This weekend, that ratio will be upended. Roughly 30,000 vehicles are expected to roll through …

US Wildfire Fighters Are Hitting a Pay Cliff at the Worst Time

In Fairbanks, Alaska, the US Forest Service is looking to hire a smokejumper, a person who parachutes out of a rickety airplane to wrangle wildfires that break out far from roads or rivers. Little experience is necessary; the pay starts …

Insurance Scion Who’s Out to Save Human Driving

McKeel Hagerty’s parents were into wooden boats and saw an unmet need to underwrite them. Hagerty, however, has been a car nut from day one. When the family’s marine insurance business finally began to offer auto policies in 1991, he …

Getting Americans to Stop Using Phones While Driving

The distracted driving report by Zendrive, a traffic-data startup, makes it clearer and clearer each year that millions of Americans can’t stop themselves from talking, texting and livestreaming—yes, even using FaceTime—while driving. The results have been increasingly unsettling, showing that …

How States Are Battling Distracted Driving

Like many diligent public servants, Georgia state Representative Ed Setzler enjoys crowing about a nice, tidy highway project. In a Sept. 8 Facebook video, the Republican appeared to be doing just that from behind the wheel of a car. This …

Pricing Insurance to Reflect Distracted Driving Risk

Insurance companies are finally putting a price on the risk of distracted driving, and it’s relatively cheap. Last year, a ticket for using a mobile phone while driving added $226 to the average insurance policy, an increase of 16 percent, …

State-by-State Study Shows Drivers Are Texting More Despite Bans

If you’re driving right now, it’s far more likely you are reading this on your phone than you would have been a year ago. Despite a harrowing surge in traffic fatalities, American drivers appear to be getting worse at avoiding …

Why Driverless Delivery of Goods Is Likely to Arrive Before Passengers

In the wait for self-driving technology, cell-phone toting tech bros may have to cede their spot in line to pizzas, Craigslist couches and the mounting ephemera of e-commerce. The future—at least in the near-term—will not only be driverless, but sans …