Axel Automotive Brief — Tesla Robotaxi updates, Rivian R2 configurator live, and Fisker owners rebuild from open source

The story that should be a business-school case study: per Electrek, when Fisker Inc. filed Chapter 11 in June 2024, ~11,000 Ocean SUV owners were left with vehicles costing $40,000-$70,000 that were rapidly losing the software brains that made them work. No more OTA updates. No more connected services. No warranty. The manufacturer was dead. What happened next — owners building an open-source car company from the ashes — is what Electrek calls one of the most remarkable stories in EV history. The structural lesson: software-defined vehicles create a third-party-obligation surface that traditional automotive franchise law never contemplated. Watch for legislation in California and EU around right-to-repair and software-continuity guarantees for SDV ownership. On the cycle's biggest products: per the Electrek Podcast, Tesla Robotaxi got new updates this week, Rivian's R2 configurator went live (the long-promised lower-priced SUV is now buildable on the website), and China continues taki