Beep Beep!

Buying a car in Dallas just got way easier and — dare we say — fun

I could barely concentrate on anything else the day it was supposed to be delivered. My new car, an electric Nissan Leaf, was expected to arrive sometime between 1 and 4 pm, and I could hardly contain my excitement.

Finally, there she was, rolling up on a one-car trailer pulled by Peter of Beepi.com, who was hand-delivering my newly purchased auto. Not only was buying this car the easiest, most hassle-free way I have ever purchased a car, but it was actually — dare I say it? — fun.

I stumbled across Beepi by accident. I had been thinking about buying a Nissan Leaf for a number of months. I was letting my daughter use my previous car while I was car-sharing with a friend and getting around on my bike or scooter. If I were going to buy another car, it had to be a hybrid, at the very least. But I really had my eye on an all-electric.

I was already a fan of Nissan's, as my previous car was a Versa, so I test drove a Leaf at the dealership. I spent months looking at used cars — on the Nissan website and Craigslist, and through general Internet searches. That was how I came across the Beepi.com listing for the car I eventually bought.

It was a 2012 Leaf, ruby red in color, located in California, with a little more than 15,000 miles and still a lot of warranty left. Best of all, the price was just under $11,000 — a great deal, especially considering they sell for more than $35,000 brand-new.

I'd never heard of Beepi before, although I had come across other online car sales and, of course, was familiar with Ebay Motors. In fact, I once had a very, very bad experience purchasing a car through Ebay, and I had even gone to Fort Worth from my home in Austin to view in person before buying.

I looked at the Beepi website quite a bit, including FAQs, process and guarantee. Basically, this is how it works: It's a peer-to-peer marketplace in which individual sellers list their car for sale with the website, retaining physical ownership of the car until a potential buyer puts a deposit on it.

Before the car is listed, Beepi sends out company-employed automotive inspector specialists who give the car a 185-point detailed inspection and report. They accept only top-notch cars.

As a buyer, when you see a car you like on the website, you can put down a $500 deposit, and Beepi will deliver the car to your doorstep for free, at which point you can jump in it for the first time. If you decide you don't want to proceed with that particular car at all, your $500 will be fully refunded or can be applied to any other Beepi car purchase.

If you do want to buy the car, you take care of payment on the site with the Beepi representative (more on that in a minute), at which point you have 10 full days to drive the car and make certain you are entirely happy with it. If not, Beepi will take the vehicle back and give you a 100-percent refund, provided you have not driven the car more than 1,000 miles, or you haven't added on or taken away anything from the car.

For me this was really important, both because I was buying a car sight unseen and because I wanted to make sure an electric car would really fit into my lifestyle, because, like most people, I've never owned one before.

The entire process was easy, and I was impressed with the customer service I received. Before I ever plunked down my deposit, I emailed numerous questions to Beepi, about the car itself and the process. Every team member responded quickly, with complete information about what I asked (such as additional photos, including one of the charger), and they were all very polite and never seemed tired of my numerous questions.

Once I had put the car purchase in motion, the representatives were communicative every step of the way, letting me know exactly what was going on during the 10 days it took for them to retrieve the car from the seller, have it transported to Texas and detailed, then delivered to me at my home. In fact, the day before delivery, I received an email informing me that the front bumper of the car had received a few small scratches during transport, and that Beepi had these repaired. But if I wasn't 100-percent satisfied with the touch-up, they would repaint the entire car for me. Everything was forthright and professional.

Beepi also includes a three-month/3,000-mile, bumper-to-bumper warranty on every car, in addition to any manufacturer's warranty left. The company started in California and has since expanded to Texas, among other states. The market launch provides residents with local inventory, vehicle inspectors and customer service resources to support its secure online car buying and selling platform in Dallas and Austin and, soon, Houston and San Antonio.

One of the best parts to me was the payment options, which are varied. The site has an online process to apply for financing, which seems pretty straightforward. For paying cash, Beepi will take any combination of cashier's check, wire transfer and credit card payments; you can even spread out the payment among multiple cards. Beepi also accepts Bitcoin.

I used four different credit cards to buy my Nissan and received major reward points from each. In the end, not only did I get the new-to-me electric car I'd been dreaming of, but I also will end up with about 100,000 in airline miles and other credit card bonus rewards.

There are a few things that could make the online interface better. I wish there was an option for saving car listings, so you can go back and easily find the cars you are interested in. It also would be nice to have a feature that allows potential buyers to sign up to receive notifications about new cars that become available that match their criteria.

I've been driving my Leaf for about a month now, and I love it. I've nicknamed her "Ruby," and we are having a blast tooling around Austin without gas, ever. The best part is, I didn't get a migraine buying a car.

The author's Nissan Leaf getting delivered.

Photo by Shelley Seale

The author's Nissan Leaf getting delivered.

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Innovation Station

8 big inventions with Dallas-Fort Worth ties make Time's best of 2026

Photo courtesy of Colossal Biosciences

Colossal Biosciences has built an artificial egg.

Some of the year’s most buzzworthy innovations have a North Texas connection. Eight inventions tied to Dallas-Fort Worth — including a phone that blocks nosy neighbors, a self-driving 18-wheeler, and a lab-made egg — have landed on Time magazine’s list of the 300 best inventions of 2026.

Here’s a look at the DFW-connected winners, starting with the ones you might find in your own home.

Samsung
Plano-based Samsung Electronics America pulled off a hat trick this year, with three products making Time’s list.

First up is the Galaxy S26 Ultra smartphone. It packs a more powerful camera, Galaxy AI features, and pro-level content creation tools. But Time singled out its new built-in privacy display as the phone’s “biggest selling point.” The feature dims the screen when viewed from an angle, making it “nearly impossible” for the person next to you on the plane to read your texts.

Samsung S26 Ultra smartphone Samsung's Galaxy S26 Ultra smartphone is recognized for its new built-in privacy display.Photo courtesy of Samsung Electronics America/PR Newswire

Samsung’s Bespoke AI Family Hub refrigerator also got smarter. When AI first came to the Family Hub in 2024, it could recognize some fresh foods, but you still had to log packaged items by hand, Time noted. Now, with Google Gemini built in, the fridge can identify more than 2,000 packaged foods, read handwritten labels, and warn you when food is about to expire. It then uses what’s inside to build grocery lists and suggest recipes, so that half-used jar of pesto might finally see the light of day.

And for gamers, there’s the Odyssey G8 monitor. Its 6K resolution leapfrogs the 4K standard, delivering what Samsung calls “exceptional visual clarity and detail” on a screen big enough for gaming and multitasking.

OxeFit
Plano-based OxeFit’s XS1 Peak is about the size of a treadmill but works like an entire gym. It can be set up for strength training, simulated skiing or kayaking, Pilates, or rowing.

What makes it stand out is a built-in virtual spotter. According to Time, the machine “uses AI, computer vision and sensors to correct the user’s form, change resistance in the middle of a rep and reduce the weight when the user is struggling, much like a human spotter.”

When the workout’s done, it folds up against the wall like a Murphy bed. Fair warning: The XS1 Peak retails for more than $6,000.

EssilorLuxottica
Parents of nearsighted kids, take note. EssilorLuxottica, the French eyewear giant whose U.S. headquarters is in Farmers Branch, makes Essilor Stellest lenses. The lenses correct nearsightedness while also slowing the eye growth that makes it worse over time.

Stellest is the first and only eyeglass lens authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to control myopia, Time said. The lenses look like regular glasses but contain 1,021 tiny lenslets. In a U.S. trial of kids ages 6-12, myopia progression slowed by an average of 71 percent over two years compared with standard lenses.

Helpany
If you have a parent or grandparent in senior living, this one may hit home.

Helpany, a startup based in Phoenix that manufactures its devices in DFW, makes Paul, a ceiling-mounted gadget that uses radar and AI to spot subtle changes in how residents move and flag those at higher risk of falling. Helpany says the technology can cut falls by as much as 72 percent.

Aurora Innovation
If you’ve driven I-45 between Dallas and Houston lately, you may have passed a big rig with no one behind the wheel. Last year, Aurora Innovation launched what it calls the country’s first driverless 18-wheeler delivery service on that route.

Aurora driverless trucks Aurora Innovation's driverless 18-wheeler delivery service travels I-45, between Dallas and Houston. Photo courtesy of Aurora

Aurora, based in Pittsburgh with a corporate and operations hub in Coppell, rolled out its second-generation Driver 2 system in July. By September, Driver 2 trucks had logged more than 500,000 driverless miles without a single at-fault crash, Time reported, and the company expects 200 of them on the road by the end of 2026. A proprietary sensor lets the trucks see roughly 10 football fields ahead.

Without a human driver who needs rest, a Fort Worth-to-Phoenix run can take up to 40 percent less time, Time said. “It’s novel. It’s technically extraordinary,” Aurora co-founder and CEO Chris Urmson told Time. “And yet it’s all pretty boring.”

Aurora operates DFW trucking terminals in Aledo and Palmer.

Colossal Biosciences
The list’s most sci-fi DFW entry comes from Dallas-based Colossal Biosciences, the de-extinction company best known for efforts to revive the woolly mammoth and dire wolf.

Colossal built an artificial egg by placing an ultra-thin, transparent silicone membrane inside a rigid 3D-printed cup, letting scientists watch the embryo develop. Twenty-six chickens have already been hatched.

Andrew Pask, Colossal’s chief biology officer, told Time the invention could help critically endangered birds — New Zealand’s kākāpō, for example, a flightless parrot that struggles with low hatching rates.

Elsewhere in Texas
Two companies with ties to the Austin area and one Houston company also landed on the Time list. An Austin company also earned a spot on Time’s “Special Mentions” list.

Cedar Park-based Hyliion landed on Time’s list with its Karno Power Module, a modular generator designed to produce power wherever it’s needed.

The Karno represents a big pivot for the company. Hyliion got its start building electrified powertrains for 18-wheelers before shifting into power generation after acquiring the Karno generator technology from GE Aerospace. Founded in Pittsburgh in 2015, the company relocated to Cedar Park in 2018.

Hyliion recently won a $41.7 million contract from the Office of Naval Research to build 2- and 3-megawatt Karno systems, and trade publication Consulting-Specifying Engineer named the module its 2026 Most Valuable Product.

The other Austin-associated honoree is Moment Energy. As more electric vehicles hit the road, a growing number of their batteries are nearing retirement, while demand for power keeps climbing. Moment Energy found a way to tackle both problems at once, and the innovation landed it on Time’s list.

The company’s Megafactory 1, which opened in Vancouver, Canada, in June, turns old EV batteries into modular energy storage systems for hospitals, factories, data centers, and other big power users. “Our goal is to make sure these batteries don’t end up in landfills,” founder Edward Chiang told Time.

Moment Energy is building a facility in Taylor that will be five times larger, with an opening tentatively set 2028.

In the “Special Mentions” category, Austin-based Renzoe Box gained notice for its refillable custom makeup palette for on-the-go people. Licensed architect René Graham designed the box. She graduated from Houston's Rice University, and was born and raised in Dallas.

In Houston, Utility Global made Time’s list with H2Gen, a system that produces low-cost clean hydrogen from water and industrial off-gases. The company says the process doesn’t require electricity, a notable claim since hydrogen production typically consumes a lot of power.

The startup is on a roll. It has raised $100 million so far in an ongoing Series D round to offer its decarbonization technology at industrial scale around the world.

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