The Federal EV Tax Credit is Gone — But No One Told Google AI

President Trump nixed the federal $7,500 EV tax credit, but Google’s AI search summary has yet to catch on to that fact, according to a Jalopnik piece by Andy Kalmowitz.

As Kalmowitz explains, the search bot can correctly identify the criteria for the now-defunct credit, but “seems pretty much unaware of the fact that the credit has now been dead and gone for well over a month.” 

But this isn’t just an annoying glitch. The misinformation could lead people to make irreversible decisions about buying cars using incorrect information about tax credits. “Taking the strangeness up a notch, Google clearly knows what cars didn't qualify for the credit when it was killed off, so if you look up whether or not the Mustang Mach-E qualifies, it'll correctly identify that it doesn't. However, it says it doesn't because of a battery sourcing issue (which was true back in September). The search engine makes no mention of the credits being discontinued.”

Earlier this year, Jalopnik debunked another piece of misinformation in Google’s AI results, a widespread myth that Ford’s early use of uncleaned Spanish moss in its Model T cars led to bug infestations.