Tesla Motors, run by PayPal founder Elon Musk, and backed by Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, is now taking orders for what it says will be the world's first mass-produced, highway-ready electric sedan.

Electric cars have several advantages over petrol, and some that you might not expect.

Booking a hotel continues to get more hi-tech – a website has added a new advanced map feature that allows travellers to compare hotel prices and locations at the same time.

Cheaperthanhotels.com says the feature combines dynamic pricing technology with the Google Maps API (Application Programming Interface).

This means site users can search for accommodation using a variety of criteria then view a display of appropriate hotels on a Google area map alongside average prices.

Motorola, Nokia and Sony-Ericsson phones running the Symbian S60 OS can now access the local version of Google's Street View. The new service is also now available for Windows Mobile handsets.

Last week, Google launched desktop version of its street-level photo service, plus support for iPhones and BlackBerries.

TradeMe's realestate section went live with Google Street Views this morning, capping a move from SMAPs to Google Maps.

SMAPs ran on a back-end created by Wellington company Project X, and a front-end developed by an inhouse TradeMe team.