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Recharge Wrap-up: Tesla seeks Gigafactory architect, Uber hails carpools

Tesla is looking for an architect to help design its proposed Gigafactory battery manufacturing facility. According to the Palo Alto-based job listing, which is titled "Architect - Gigafactory," the applicant must have, among other qualifications, over five years of experience with "high-tech infrastructure and operational facilities (semiconductor, solar, battery, waste water treatment plants, etc.)." The job also includes being away from home quite a bit, as it the listing states, "This full time role requires the flexibility of traveling when needed (up to 70 percent) and doing whatever it takes to achieve project objectives." Think you've got what it takes? See the listing for yourself, here, or read more at Silicon Valley Business Journal. Tesla has appointed Robyn Denholm of Juniper Networks to its board of directors. Denholm is Executive Vice President, Chief Financial and Operations Officer at Juniper Networks. Denholm replaces Brad Buss as chair of Tesla's Audit Committee and a member of the company's Compensation and Nominating and Corporate Governance committees. Buss will remain a member of Tesla's board as he joins SolarCity as CFO. Denholm is Tesla's first female director. Read more at Bloomberg, or in the press release below. Uber, the company behind the now famous ride-hailing app, is introducing its carpooling service, UberPool. The service matches drivers with (hopefully multiple) passengers going to similar destinations, with users paying just a fraction of the cost of a normal taxi, or even an Uber ride. If a rider can't get matched with a driver, they can enjoy a discounted Uber ride. As the company points out in its blog, "At these price points, Uber really is cost-competitive with owning a car, which is a game-changer for consumers." UberPool is currently running a private beta program, which it plans to expand on August 15. Read more in-depth about the UberPool at Forbes, or learn more at Uber's blog. For a few reasons why this new expansion might run afoul of archaic laws (put there to keep entrenched interests in play), check out Engadget. Plug-in hybrids are encouraging an evolution of transmission technology. Companies like Schaeffler and ZF Friedrichshafen are adapting their transmissions to include electric motors within them for use in plug-in hybrids. For example, the electric motor in ZF's eight-speed powers the transmission when the internal combustion engine is shut off.

Audi RS3 sedan spied testing at the Nurburgring

Although American enthusiasts often miss out on foreign forbidden fruit, we've known for a while that the Audi RS3 will probably make it to the United States in 2017. While there's been no official word, Audi of America CEO Scott Keogh has made it clear he wants to bring the car over. Audi already sells the handsome RS3 Sportback in Europe, but since European hot hatches don't tend to fly here it will most likely come only as a sedan. Now we have spy shots to drool over. View 7 Photos These gallery above shows the 2016 RS3 Sportback that sits at the top of the range in Europe. The RS3's turbocharged five-cylinder engine sends power through Audi's quattro all-wheel drive system, propelling the car to 62 mph in just over four seconds. We can only make an educated guess as to what will power the RS3 sedan. Quattro all-wheel drive is a given, as is turbocharging. The European RS3 Sportback comes with a seven-speed dual-clutch that will probably make it to the US. In that car, the transmission is fed by a 2.5-liter turbocharged inline five-cylinder engine making 362 horsepower and 343 pound-feet of torque. Rumors suggest that Audi will make up for lost time by giving us the 400-hp inline-five that powers the new TT RS. These spy photos show a black RS3 sedan ripping around the Nurburgring, partially covered in camouflage. Through the camo we can see all of the basic hallmarks of Audi's RS line: cues like larger wheels, brakes, and a spoiler. The front has a hexagonal pattern in the grille that's typical of RS models, while the air intakes are larger and the chin spoiler looks to sit lower than the standard car's. From the side we can see different skirts and fixed brake calipers. Around back two large exhaust pipes replace those of the standard car, which may be the biggest indication that the vehicle is in fact the RS3. Models like the S3 and S4 have quad exhaust tips, while RS models feature two large exits like the ones on the 2016 RS3 Sportback. For 2017, Audi has made some changes to the A3 line, but we haven't heard or seen anything official from Audi regarding the 2017 RS3, be it Sportback or sedan. With the A3 and S3, the interior benefits from the company's fantastic virtual cockpit digital gauge cluster. The company also added some driver assistance features and refreshed the car visually with new front and rear facias.

German prosecutors have recorded calls between VW bigwigs talking dieselgate

It's barely possible to believe how poorly Volkswagen continues to handle dieselgate. Depending on which day you catch the news, the German carmaker embodies the corporate venality of "Michael Clayton," the comic blundering of the Coen Brothers' "Burn After Reading," and the every-man-for-himself vengeance of "Reservoir Dogs." Today is Tarantino day, with news that German prosecutors have recordings of phone calls between former Audi and Porsche development boss Wolfgang Hatz, ex-Volkswagen Group executive Matthias Muller, and current Porsche executives Oliver Blume and Michael Steiner. Hatz made the calls to the trio in November 2015, two months after Volkswagen admitted its diesel-particulate sins to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Hatz was still employed at the time, and in his company car. Who recorded the calls? His wife. Hatz and his missus apparently saw the storm coming and started stacking defenses early. Hatz's wife, who can be heard encouraging Hatz during at least one call, sent the recordings to Hatz's attorney from her mobile phone. According to a Google translation of the German newspaper Handelsblatt's report, she included the note, "Here is a very long, but quite informative conversation on the current situation with useful formulations." The report in Handelsblatt said that in Germany it is generally "not allowed" to record a conversation and pass it on to a third party. We don't know how the authorities will handle this matter, since prosecutors found the recordings in e-mail attachments on Mrs. Hatz's mobile phone. Remember, when the diesel scandal broke, VW spent months saying that only a small number of low-level personnel were behind it, and all of the higher-ups had been blindsided. Ex-CEO Martin Winterkorn claimed to be "stunned that misconduct on such a scale was possible in the Volkswagen Group." Winterkorn successor Matthias Muller said, "according to current information, a few developers interfered in the engine management." Former VW USA honcho Michael Horn told a congressional committee that "a couple of software engineers" programmed the software for reasons no one could understand. In the recorded conversations, Hatz apparently called Muller to find out how VW planned to treat him.