AUSTIN (KXAN) — Walking around Austin, you may see something surprising — self-driving cars rolling around the roads.
Earlier this year, autonomous vehicle technology company Argo AI launched its driverless operation in Austin. Argo AI public policy and government relations manager Sly Majid said these cars are key to the future of transport.
“Autonomous vehicle technology is incredible,” he said. “The vehicle is doing the dynamic driving tasks; the vehicle is the driver of the car.”
A combination of cutting-edge hardware, sensor technology, and bespoke machine learning approaches can predict trajectories of vehicles, people, and even animals, as far as 8 seconds into the future.
Circa 2016
A radically new form of lithium-oxygen batteries avoids many of the problems that have prevented the uptake of what is, in theory, the ultimate transportation battery. If the work can be scaled up, it could mark the end of gasoline-powered cars.
The cost, weight, and insufficient lifespan of batteries represents a major obstacle to electric cars replacing internal combustion engines on our roads. There are two paths to address this: One, like Aesop’s tortoise, involves slow incremental improvements in existing lithium-ion batteries, collectively bringing down the cost and extending the range of electric vehicles.
The other path involves a shift to a radically better technology, of which the one with the greatest potential is lithium-oxygen, also known as lithium-air. The announcement in Nature Energy of a very different way of making lithium-oxygen batteries indicates it is not time to write off the hare in this race.
The global rush to recycled batteries is excellent news for automakers, however, there isn’t nearly enough scrap to feed them all.
The wave of new factories poses a significant risk for the recycling industry itself, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.
“Nobody is really looking at each other, and they seem to think there will be a lot of scrap and end-of-life batteries,” Hans Eric Melin, the founder of a UK-based consultancy Circular Energy Storage(CES), told Bloomberg.
The hack created a massive traffic jam in Moscow.
Drivers working for Yandex Taxi, the largest taxi service in Moscow, did not have a good day on Thursday as hackers messed with the company’s app and sent dozens of cars to the same location resulting in a traffic jam that lasted up to three hours, according to Twitter reports.
A co-founder sanctioned for propaganda.
KrimKate/iStock.
The vehicles were all sent to the Kutuzovsky Prospekt, a major avenue in Moscow that is the location for the ‘Hotel Ukraina’ or Hotel Ukraine. It has not yet become clear whether the hack was a protest in favor of Ukraine or whether other reasons were behind it.
Researchers have developed a machine learning algorithm that could help reduce charging times and prolong battery life in electric vehicles by predicting how different driving patterns affect battery performance, improving safety and reliability.
The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, say their algorithm could help drivers, manufacturers and businesses get the most out of the batteries that power electric vehicles by suggesting routes and driving patterns that minimize battery degradation and charging times.
The team developed a non-invasive way to probe batteries and get a holistic view of battery health. These results were then fed into a machine learning algorithm that can predict how different driving patterns will affect the future health of the battery.
Ariel, small British carmaker responsible for the iconic Atom and Nomad, revealed its newest car Thursday, simply called the Hipercar. A big departure from the exoskeleton-like vehicles normally associated with the brand, the Hipercar is an all-electric sports car with a real(-ish) interior and body panels. Even crazier than the absurd bodywork is the option for a turbine range extender.
The 2,600-foot-long experimental rail is located in Southern China. A typical maglev train glides above its track, supported by magnetic repulsion and propelled by a linear motor. This one, however, moves underneath its track at a speed of 50 mph. It operates about 32 feet above the ground and makes no physical contact with the rail.
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After some test runs, local authorities said the line could even increase to 4.7 miles and its top operational speed can reach 75 mph.