Lora Kolodny
Lora Kolodny is a tech reporter at CNBC’s digital operation whose coverage centers on Tesla, SpaceX, new vehicle technology and climate-focused transportation. She approaches the automobile beat through the lens of technology, safety, regulation and environmental impact, with a particular focus on companies led by Elon Musk. Her reporting combines detailed scrutiny of products and manufacturing with close tracking of how corporate decisions and government oversight affect drivers and investors.
Tesla, safety and regulatory scrutiny
Kolodny’s core work follows Tesla as a business, a manufacturer and a focal point for regulatory attention. She covers accidents, product defects and investigations, including federal scrutiny following a Model 3 crash into a home in Texas that killed a 76-year-old resident, and she situates those stories within broader questions about automation, driver-assistance and corporate accountability.
Her Tesla coverage extends to production targets, factory expansion, recalls and legal disputes, and she treats safety and compliance as central themes rather than occasional angles. She also reports on strategic moves around Musk’s companies, such as speculation about merging Tesla and SpaceX, using these stories to examine governance, capital needs and the risks of concentrating multiple critical technologies under one leader.
In broadcast and live formats she is called on to explain complex Tesla news for general audiences, breaking down technical issues and regulatory developments in plain terms.
Electric vehicles, SpaceX and climate technology
Beyond Tesla, Kolodny covers the wider electric-vehicle market, new vehicle platforms and climate technology as part of an integrated beat. Her stories follow how automakers and startups bring battery-powered vehicles, charging infrastructure and related hardware to market, and how these efforts intersect with emissions policy and climate goals. SpaceX features in her portfolio as a major technology and transportation company, and she reports on its launches, business ambitions and relationship to Tesla, treating the Musk ecosystem as a connected set of risks and opportunities for investors and regulators.
Climate tech firms, from storage and grid technologies to low-carbon transport solutions, appear in her work as both standalone businesses and as suppliers or competitors to dominant automakers, which keeps her coverage tied to the industrial and environmental context of the automobile beat.
Big tech workforce and emerging AI
Kolodny’s reporting also reaches into the broader technology sector, particularly when workforce changes and emerging technologies affect major platforms and their users. She has covered layoffs at large technology companies, including a planned cut of around 10% of Meta’s workforce, focusing on how restructuring and cost-cutting shape product roadmaps, morale and market perceptions. Her inclusion in roundups of leading AI reporters reflects work on artificial intelligence and automation as they relate to transportation, climate tech and the business of software, tying new tools back to practical impacts on jobs and corporate strategy.
She contributes reporting to CNBC’s programming as well as its digital coverage, and she often brings technical and labor dimensions into stories that could otherwise read as purely financial updates.
Long-standing focus on startups, venture capital and climate publications
Kolodny has a long record of covering startups and the venture capital industry, including previous roles focused on tech entrepreneurs and private financing. Earlier in her career she reported on emerging companies and investors at major business and technology publications such as TechCrunch and The Wall Street Journal, building expertise in how young firms scale and how capital flows into new markets.
She has also written for general-interest and environmental outlets including The Guardian, Grist, The Nation and Orion, which brought climate and sustainability perspectives into her technology reporting. That background informs her current work: she treats Tesla, climate tech and big-platform stories as part of a larger narrative about innovation, funding, regulation and environmental stakes rather than as isolated product news.
4 more automobile journalists.
Aarian Marshall
Aarian Marshall is a staff writer at WIRED who stands out for covering how cars, software, and policy collide. She writes on transportation systems and cities, from the auto industry to broader mobility systems. Before WIRED, she reported on cities and urban policy for The Atlantic’s CityLab. Her beat runs from electric vehicles, fuel prices, tariffs, and car-buying decisions to autonomous vehicles, robotaxis, and software-defined cars. She reports with a systems view, linking policy shifts, technical failures, and urban life to what happens on streets, in repair shops, and at the pump.
Abby Smith
Abby Smith’s most distinctive work combines motorsports coverage with live digital and radio reporting. She is Digital Director at KRDO13 and covers the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, including race updates, weather shifts, breaking developments and ways to follow the action. Her beat also includes automotive news, crime, public safety, politics, city government and community life. Notable work includes coverage of homicide arrests, a major drug bust, a presidential address about the war with Iran, a family’s effort to bring Stephen Hubbard home, a state governor candidate and a city security ordinance. She also reports on fitness, school spirit and station staff. Smith writes in a concise, factual style shaped by investigative documentary experience. She turns live events, official announcements and daily developments into clear coverage across digital and radio platforms.
Adele Peters
Adele Peters covers climate solutions and other structural problems as design and policy questions, focusing on what can work in practice. She is a senior writer at Fast Company, where she reports on energy, transportation, housing, materials, agriculture, corporate sustainability, and social impact. Her stories examine climate technologies, grid resilience, electric vehicles, renewable energy, modular construction, homelessness, affordable housing, compostable materials, regenerative agriculture, and ecosystem restoration. She looks at whether projects can scale, their real-world constraints, and their measurable effects. She interviews political and philanthropic leaders, startup founders, and climate tech entrepreneurs, anchoring stories in what is being built and tested. She has written more than 3,000 stories and contributed to Worldchanging: A User’s Guide for the 21st Century and State of Housing Design 2023.
Adrian Leung
Adrian Leung writes engineering-led coverage of Chinese electric vehicles and performance cars for CarNewsChina. He focuses on new energy vehicles, battery systems, powertrains, electric platforms, high-end domestic brands, and track-ready models, and he explains technical details in plain language for non-specialist readers. His reporting treats new models as hardware and systems stories, with precise figures on range, battery capacity, chassis layout, motor outputs, weight, and acceleration. He also covers the Chinese auto industry’s finances and technology roadmap, including sector profits, vehicle volumes, and solid-state battery timelines. His background in Electrical and Computer Engineering shows in the way he writes about vehicle electronics and battery management.