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.
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.
Al Pefley
Al Pefley is a television news reporter for CBS12 News whose work centers on how laws, law enforcement and local decisions shape everyday life for drivers and other residents. He reports in a general assignment role but returns often to transportation, public safety and pocketbook issues, treating driving as a point where policy, disability and policing intersect. His coverage includes driver-focused laws, fuel and tax policy, crime, policing and internal affairs findings, with a consistent focus on accountability and concrete consequences for people’s wallets, safety and trust in institutions. He explains county gas tax debates, campaign positions on teacher pay, property crime and retail theft in short, clear segments. Pefley works primarily on the scene, using live or recorded field reporting and interview-driven pieces to show what happened, why it matters and what comes next.
Aliza Savira
Aliza Savira focuses on the hidden financial costs of owning modern cars, especially how insurance can undermine expected savings. She writes about automobiles for MSN, looking at new technology and electric vehicles through everyday ownership rather than showroom appeal. Her work highlights the gap between promises of cheaper running costs and the full financial picture of owning a vehicle. In electric vehicle coverage, she treats insurance premiums as a key ownership problem that can erode long-term value. She stays close to practical questions drivers face, such as which recurring costs matter most after purchase. She reports on how insurance structures and premium levels interact with new automotive technology. Her beat is consumer-focused automobile reporting, with a clear, utilitarian lens on ownership experience, recurring expenses, and risk, rather than lifestyle or performance.