To back up the decision, Waymo pointed to its safety record and history building and operating self-driving trucks on highways. (The company shuttered its self-driving truck project last year to focus on taxis.) Including highways should also decrease route times for riders—especially from the airport—with some rides taking half the time.
Although highways are simpler to navigate than city streets—where cars contend with twists, turns, signs, stoplights, pedestrians, and pets—the stakes are higher. A crash at 10 or 20 miles per hour is less likely to cause major injury than one at highway speeds. And while it’s relatively straightforward (if less than ideal) for a malfunctioning robotaxi to stop or pull to the side of the road and await human help in the city, such tactics won’t do on the highway, where it’s dangerous for cars to suddenly slow or stop.
But learning to drive on the highway will be a necessary step if robotaxis are to become an appealing, widely used product. After years of testing, the question of whether companies can build a sustainable business out of all that investment is increasingly pressing.
How can the increased threat of drought and drier conditions from climate change impact groundwater (aquifer) usage, and ultimately, food production? This is what a recent study partially funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and published in Nature Water hopes to address as a team of researchers led by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln investigated how decreasing aquifer levels result in irrigation challenges for farmers now only in the United States but throughout the world.
This study holds the potential to help scientists, farmers, and policymakers better understand the appropriate steps to manage irrigation levels as climate change continues to lead to increased drought and drier environmental conditions across the globe.
“In terms of things that let you address food security under extreme conditions — in particular, drought and climate change — we really can’t do without irrigation,” said Dr. Nick Brozović, who is a professor of agricultural economics at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and a co-author on the study. “If we want to feed the world with high-quality, nutritious food and a stable food supply, we need to irrigate.”
Japanese chip maker Rohm is collaborating with venture company Quanmatic to improve electrical die sorting (EDS) in what appears to be the first use of quantum computing to optimize a commercial-scale manufacturing process on semiconductor production lines.
After a year of effort, the two companies have announced that full-scale implementation of the probe test technology can begin in April in Rohm’s factories in Japan and overseas. Testing and validation of the prototype indicate that EDS performance can be improved by several percentage points, improving significantly productivity and profitability.
Headquartered in Kyoto, Rohm produces integrated circuits (ICs), discrete semiconductors and other electronic components. It is one of the world’s leading suppliers of silicon carbide wafers and power management devices used in electric vehicles (EVs) and various industrial applications.
Hyperion, a California-based company, has unveiled a hydrogen-powered supercar the company hopes will change the way people view hydrogen fuel cell technology.
The Hyperion XP-1 will be able to drive for up to 1,000 miles on one tank of compressed hydrogen gas and its electric motors will generate more than 1,000 horsepower, according to the company. The all-wheel-drive car can go from zero to 60 miles per hour in a little over two seconds, the company said.
Hydrogen fuel cell cars are electric cars that use hydrogen to generate power inside the car rather than using batteries to store energy. The XP-1 doesn’t combust hydrogen but uses it in fuel cells that combine hydrogen with oxygen from the air in a process that creates water, the vehicle’s only emission, and a stream of electricity to power the car.
Carbon dioxide electroreduction in acidic environments has been suboptimal. Here, the authors addressed this issue by designing a gas diffusion electrode with a special metal structure, which achieves efficient electroreduction while conducting a systematic investigation of the underlying mechanism.
We are already living in the era of the fourth industrial revolution, but in the near future we will be facing another one that could really change everything. We are talking about the revolution of humanoid robots — versatile, intelligent and dexterous machines that can not only help, but also replace humans in tight places. In this video, we’ll tell you about the top 10 newest and most advanced humanoid robots in the world, and what technologies will make them truly versatile! Onward to a brighter future)
0:00 A breakthrough in humanoid robots. 1:17 What technologies could make robots as dexterous as humans? 3:46 Digit, the first commercial humanoid robot from Agility Robotics. 5:18 New humanoid robot from Singapore. 6:45 What kind of humanoid robot has OpenAI invested in? 7:34 New Apollo robot from Apptronik. 9:00 CyberOne humanoid robot project from Xiaomi. 10:20 Unitree’s H1 robot. 11:07 XPENG’s agile and stable robot PX5 12:05 Sanctuary AI’s most agile robot Phoenix. 13:13 The world’s most advanced humanoid robot by Figure AI 15:18 Tesla Bot: Ilon Musk’s Humanoid Robot. 16:15 The world’s most advanced humanoid robot from Boston Dynamics.
Boston Dynamics Atlas. If you’ve been following robotics, you’ve likely seen this humanoid robot in action. Atlas is a pinnacle of robotic achievement, showcasing impressive mobility and coordination. Its advanced control system allows it to perform backflips, handstands, and navigate complex environments with ease. Atlas is not just a demonstration of technological prowess; it’s a glimpse into the future of robotics assisting in real-world scenarios.
Moving on to the Valkyrie robot from NASA. Initially designed for space exploration, Valkyrie boasts a humanoid form with an emphasis on strength and adaptability. Its design includes 44 degrees of freedom, making it highly flexible and capable of mimicking human movements. While initially intended for space missions, Valkyrie’s applications extend to disaster response and exploration of challenging terrains.
Now, let’s talk about the Tesla Bot. Yes, you heard it right, Tesla is venturing into humanoid robotics. Elon Musk unveiled the Tesla Bot with a vision to eliminate dangerous, repetitive, and boring tasks performed by humans. While specific details are still emerging, the idea is to create a humanoid robot using Tesla’s expertise in electric vehicles and AI. The Tesla Bot aims to be a general-purpose, capable machine for a variety of everyday tasks.
Artificial intelligence can accelerate the process of finding and testing new materials, and now researchers have used that ability to develop a battery that is less dependent on the costly mineral lithium.
Lithium-ion batteries power many devices that we use every day as well as electric vehicles. They would also be a necessary part of a green electric grid, as batteries are required to store renewable energy from wind turbines and solar panels. But lithium is expensive and mining it damages the environment. Finding a replacement for this crucial metal could be costly and time-consuming, requiring researchers to develop and test millions of candidates over the course of years. Using AI, Nathan Baker at Microsoft and his colleagues accomplished the task in months. They designed and built a battery that uses up to 70 per cent less lithium than some competing designs.
LG is already one of the most prolific EV battery manufacturers in the US, but it wants to build the devices that charge them, too. The company just opened just opened its first EV charger manufacturing facility in the US, a 59,000 square foot plant in in Fort Worth, Texas capable of manufacturing 10,000 units per year.
The company has already started to assemble 11kW home-style chargers there and will begin producing 175kW fast chargers in the first half of 2024. It plans to built 350kW ultra-fast chargers at some point this year designed for “commercial travel and long-distance transportation,” LG wrote.
The Korean company said it chose Texas as it had existing facilities there and because the state offers “excellent logistics and transportation networks and is home to major operations for companies in industries ranging from automobile manufacturing to finance” (GM, Toyota and Tesla all have vehicle assembly plants in the state).
Scientists have unveiled a roadmap for bringing perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells to market, paving the way for a future powered by abundant, inexpensive clean energy in Saudi Arabia and the world.
The authors of the article, published in Science, include Prof. Stefaan De Wolf and his research team at King Abdullah University of Science (KAUST) and Technology Solar Center. The team is working on improving solar efficiency to meet Saudi Arabia’ solar targets.
Perovskite/silicon tandem technology combines the strengths of two materials— perovskite’s efficient light absorption and silicon’s long-term stability—to achieve record-breaking efficiency. In 2023, the De Wolf laboratory reported two world records for power conversion efficiency, with five achieved globally in the same year, showing rapid progress in perovskite/silicon tandem technology.
