Weird Alibaba: You can literally buy a 10 ft. long rideable electric dinosaur
This one is a bit out there, even for me. But stick with me here, because there’s just something about a giant ride-on electric dinosaur powered by a mystery electric motor that feels perfectly fitting for the Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week column.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is perhaps one of the least useful yet most fun-looking Chinese EVs I’ve featured yet in this exploratory column.
I can think of absolutely zero utility for this ride-on dinosaur, other than separating parents from their money at amusement parks. Not that there’s anything wrong with that; it’s a fine use indeed.
And if there was ever a truly awesome parental money separator, this would be it. I’m not even a kid and I want to beg someone to pay for me to ride this thing.
There’s a coin collector or card swipe option (I’m really curious where they put that swipe – do you lift the tail?), and then it’s off to the dinosaur races!
Of course no one will be moving very fast on their triceratops or brontosaurus. The speed is rated at 50 meters per minute, which Google kindly informs me is around 3 km/h or 1.8 mph.
Controls are mounted on the dinosaur itself, but there is also a remote control that an operator can use to take over driving responsibility. I assume the kid offers up one of those pilot-style “You have the dinosaur,” “I have the dinosaur” hand-off moments like in the movies.
And if you’re wondering just how complicated the controls could be, you might be surprised.
There’s more than just forward and reverse here. In addition to standard dinosaur walking, there are also functions to open and close the mouth, blink the eyes, raise and lower the head, swing the tail, and engage the “light effects.” I don’t remember any of the animals in Jurassic Park coming with their own Laser Floyd show, but perhaps I need to rewatch the originals.
Power comes from a 700W motor (nearly one whole horsepower!) and is provided by a pair of rechargeable batteries. There’s no word on what those batteries are, but I’m guessing it’s more than a couple AA Duracells. The vendor says a single charge is good for six hours, which seems like a surprisingly long time. You’d be lucky to get half of that from an electric bicycle under continuous use.
But then again a triceratops is significantly larger than an e-bike, and I assume that means more room for batteries, so perhaps I should have seen that coming.
One of my favorite features of the walking electric dinosaur (there’s a sentence I never thought I’d say) is the 150 kg weight limit, meaning riders up to 330 lbs. can go for a spin. This ain’t no kids toy, this is fun for the whole family!
And I haven’t even gotten to the coolest part yet – the way it walks! Based on the pictures, I assumed it was just a rigid model with little hoverboard wheels mounted in the bottom of the feet. The wheel part is probably correct, but you can see from the video below that the legs actually walk. There’s another motor that seems to move them back and forth. I don’t think it actually provides any walking power (it seems the two non-walking feet still roll forwards), but it sure gives the illusion that it is walking instead of rolling.
So what does something like this cost? From the looks of the sales page, it will set you back $3,500.
I’m not even sure if that’s a good deal or not. What’s the going rate on a walking electric dinosaur? Is there a Kelly Bluebook value I can refer to?
Since I can’t really tell if I’m getting ripped off or not, I think I’ll sit this one out. I’ve bought a bunch of weird EVs in the last few months, so I think my wife deserves a break from my stupidity.
But hey, if your partner yells at you for buying the kids (or yourself) a walking electric dinosaur, don’t come complaining to me!
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Enphase Energy just launched a new off-grid system that lets homeowners power their homes without a utility connection – even for extended periods. The California-based Enphase says the off-grid setup delivers a seamless way to live independently from the grid while still using solar, batteries, and a standby AC generator.
A full off-grid setup
The new system combines Enphase’s IQ Battery 5P with embedded grid-forming microinverters, IQ8 Series Microinverters with Sunlight JumpStart, and a third-party standby AC generator. The components work together to supply power to a home and automatically manage energy sources to maximize efficiency and reliability.
If the batteries are drained and the generator runs out of fuel, the Sunlight JumpStart feature can automatically recharge the batteries the next morning once the sun comes up.
The IQ Battery 5P delivers 3.84 kVA of power per 5 kWh of capacity, and systems can be scaled up to 40 kWh and 15.4 kVA. That’s enough power to start big household appliances like HVAC systems or water pumps. The IQ System Controller 3G provides the backbone, managing solar, batteries, and generator inputs to deliver up to 46 kVA of off-grid power.
Smarter control and connectivity
Each system connects to the cloud through Enphase’s IQ Combiner 5C HDK, which bundles solar interconnection, communications, and metering into one box. For homes without reliable broadband, the built-in 4G LTE Cat 4 modem keeps the system online for monitoring, firmware updates, and remote support.
Homeowners can manage everything from the Enphase App – from solar generation and battery status to generator integration and load control.
Why it matters
As grid outages become more common and homeowners look for ways to gain energy independence, off-grid systems like this are becoming more appealing.
“With the launch of our off-grid solution, we are giving homeowners a reliable path to complete energy independence,” said Nitish Mathur, Enphase’s SVP of customer experience. Enphase says over 100 homes are already operating entirely off-grid using its technology. The company plans to expand availability beyond the US in 2026.
Read more: Battery boom: 5.6 GW of US energy storage added in Q2
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Global offshore wind targets are still strong enough to triple global capacity by 2030, despite the US’s offshore wind stagnation under Trump. A new analysis from energy think tank Ember and the Global Offshore Wind Alliance (GOWA) shows that the rest of the world is charging forward, underscoring confidence in offshore wind as a cornerstone of future clean energy systems.
Based on the latest NHTSA report, Tesla’s ‘Robotaxis’ keep crashing in Austin, Texas, despite ‘safety monitors’ preventing an unknown number of crashes.
Under an NHTSA Standing General Order SGO, automakers are required to report crashes involving their autonomous driving (ADS) and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) within five days of being notified of them.
For years, Tesla was only reporting ADAS crashes, since, despite the names of its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving systems, they are only considered level 2 driver assistance systems.
Since the launch of the Robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, where Tesla moved the supervisor from the driver’s seat to the passenger seat, it has now reported its first few crashes under the ADS reporting.
In the first month of operation in July, Tesla reported three crashes with its ‘Robotaxi’ service in Austin.
This week, NHTSA has updated its crash report and revealed a 4th crash that happened in September:
| Report ID | Incident Date | Incident Time (24:00) | Make | Model | Model Year | Automation System Engaged? | Highest Injury Severity Alleged | Crash With | Roadway Type | Weather |
| 13781-11687 | SEP-2025 | 01:25 | TESLA | Model Y | 2026 | ADS | Property Damage. No Injured Reported | Other Fixed Object | Parking Lot | Partly Cloudy |
As we previously highlighted, when it comes to both ADS and ADAS crash reporting, Tesla abuses the redacting capacity and hides most information about its crashes, unlike most of its competitors.
Therefore, we don’t have much information about this new crash, but it reportedly occurred in a parking lot and involved a Tesla Robotaxi crashing into a “fixed object,” resulting in property damage.
What’s most interesting about this crash is that it comes as Tesla released the first bit of data about its Robotaxi program in Austin.
During its earnings call last week, Tesla confirmed that the Robotaxi fleet has traveled 250,000 miles since its launch in late June.
Therefore, Tesla Robotaxi currently crashes at a rate of about once every 62,500 miles. That’s with a safety monitor with a finger on a kill switch, ready to stop the vehicle at all times.
We have no data on how often Tesla’s safety monitors prevent crashes in its robotaxis.
For comparison, the NHTSA report lists 1,267 crashes involving Waymo vehicles. However, Waymo’s robotaxis have covered over 125 million fully driverless miles since inception. That’s a crash every 98,600 miles and without any onboard safety monitor.
Electrek’s Take
That’s the problem with comparing Tesla and Waymo.
At least we can now clearly see that Waymo’s incident rate is much lower than Tesla’s, but that’s with a safety monitor in Tesla robotaxis that prevents an untold number of crashes.
The actual difference could be 10x higher. We simply don’t know. Tesla has always refused to share any data regarding disengagement or intervention rates.
One thing is clear: Tesla is way behind Waymo in autonomous driving safety.
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