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Category: transportation – Page 280

Nigerian immigrant begins manufacturing first-ever Black-owned fleet of self-driving pods

A Black-owned tech firm based in Miami, Florida, has begun manufacturing self-driving vehicles called JéGO Pods. The firm will start releasing the pods in late 2022 and will be used to mobilize healthcare services.

JéGO Technologies Inc is founded by Frederick Akphoghene, a Nigerian immigrant, who started his career in tech as early as 16. Since he started his journey, he has built and partnered with hundreds of companies and startups including Abovav Technologies and Oddio Tribe Holdings.

According to Akphoghene, the purpose of his company is to use its mobile platform to connect users with businesses that provide on-demand services like Flu Testing, COVID testing, IV therapy and other services which can be brought directly to customers using driverless JéGO pods.

Tesla’s Elon Musk donates over 5 million TSLA shares to charity, reveals SEC filings

Tesla CEO Elon Musk donated over 5 million TSLA shares to an undisclosed charity, according to a SEC Form 5 filed on Monday, February 14, 2022.

The filing reveals that Elon Musk donated approximately 5,044,000 TSLA shares worth about $4.42 billion, considering that Tesla stock is priced at $875.76 as of this writing. Based on the SEC filing, Elon Musk started donating the stocks on November 19, 2021, a time when over 5 million TSLA shares were worth roughly $5.74 billion.

The transaction code for the stock was filed under “G,” which stands for “Gift of securities by or to the insider” or “Bonafide gift.” Under “Explanation of Responses,” the filing reads: “Represent a bona fide gift of the Issuer’s common stock by the Reporting Person to charity.” The charity Elon Musk donated to was not revealed.

Tesla plans to build new design center in Beijing this year, Chinese government says

Tesla is planning to build its new design center in Beijing later this year, according to a new document released by the Chinese government.

Shortly after announcing Gigafactory Shanghai, Tesla made it clear that it not only wants to tap into China’s incredible capacity in manufacturing, but it also wants to take advantage of the country’s incredible engineering and design talent.

In early 2020, Tesla announced plans to establish a new R&D center and a new design center in China to build “a Chinese-style” electric car.

Big Breakthrough for “Massless” Energy Storage: Structural Battery That Performs 10x Better Than All Previous Versions

Researchers from Chalmers University of Technology have produced a structural battery that performs ten times better than all previous versions. It contains carbon fiber that serves simultaneously as an electrode, conductor, and load-bearing material. Their latest research breakthrough paves the way for essentially ’massless’ energy storage in vehicles and other technology.

The batteries in today’s electric cars constitute a large part of the vehicles’ weight, without fulfilling any load-bearing function. A structural battery, on the other hand, is one that works as both a power source and as part of the structure – for example, in a car body. This is termed ‘massless’ energy storage, because in essence the battery’s weight vanishes when it becomes part of the load-bearing structure. Calculations show that this type of multifunctional battery could greatly reduce the weight of an electric vehicle.

The development of structural batteries at Chalmers University of Technology has proceeded through many years of research, including previous discoveries involving certain types of carbon fiber. In addition to being stiff and strong, they also have a good ability to store electrical energy chemically. This work was named by Physics World as one of 2018’s ten biggest scientific breakthroughs.

Nissan tests an EV motor-magnet recycling breakthrough

Circa 2021

Nissan and Waseda University in Tokyo have been working together since 2017, and today, they announced that they are starting the testing of a recycling process that recovers high-purity, rare-earth compounds from electric vehicle motor magnets.

First, they heat a used motor to 2,552F (1,400C) to melt it down. Then iron oxide is added to oxidize the rare-earth elements (REEs).

Next, a small amount of borate-based flux, which can dissolve rare-earth oxides and recover REEs efficiently, is added to the molten mixture.

The World’s Largest Aircraft Engine Is Underway

We’re big fans of this big fan.

There’s a new, more fuel-efficient airliner engine on the scene, as Rolls-Royce has started work on its UltraFan aero engine. The gigantic fan engine gets 25 percent better mileage compared with its predecessor, and Rolls-Royce says it will revolutionize passenger and cargo flight around the world.

The first demonstrator engine will be finished by the end of 2021. Rolls-Royce revealed more details in a statement:

“As engine build starts, other key parts are already coming together for delivery to Derby. Work is underway on UltraFan’s carbon titanium fan system in Bristol, UK, and its 50MW Power Gearbox, which is powerful enough to run 500 family cars, in Dahlewitz, Germany.”

Tesla releases sneak peek of its Gigafactory Berlin’s ‘most advanced paint shop’ enabling new colors

Tesla has released a quick sneak peek of the paint shop inside Gigafactory Berlin, which the automaker has been taunting as “its most advanced paint shop” yet – and it should enable new colors.

It’s literally has been years since Tesla has launched a new vehicle paint color.

Back in the early days of the Model S, Tesla used to offer a variety of colors, but the automaker decided to streamline options, and it now offers only a handful of color options that have remained the same for the last few years.

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