Google is constantly releasing new Android Auto updates, but new features often feel few and far between. What’s on the roadmap? In this post, we’ll break down new features coming to Android Auto.
Timeline: More news at Google I/O
Officially confirmed by Google itself, Gemini is on its way to Android Auto.
Passenger aircraft doors are still primarily manufactured by hand. A particularly time-consuming aspect is assembling the door structures using screws and rivets. Numerous intermediate steps are required to prevent direct contact between different materials—which would otherwise lead to corrosion.
However, replacing aluminum, titanium, and thermosets with primarily thermoplastic carbon fiber composites (CFRP), which can be welded together automatically without separating layers, makes the process much faster. Manufacturing time for the door structure drops from 110 hours to 4. The TAVieDA project by Fraunhofer IWU, Fraunhofer LBF, Trelleborg, and Airbus Helicopters has shown this clearly.
Another key factor in shortening assembly times is the modular design for different aircraft door variants. The project team specifically looked for components across various door models that could be standardized—and found success, for example, with the crossbeam. The researchers designed a fully automated assembly line for the most common models and developed fixtures and clamping elements suitable for resistance and ultrasonic welding technologies.
Hyundai Motor Group is taking a bold step into the future of factory automation with plans to deploy Atlas humanoid robots at its Metaplant America facility in Georgia.
These advanced bipedal robots, developed by Boston Dynamics are designed to perform tasks traditionally carried out by humans.
As per a report on Nikkei Asia, Atlas will automate up to 40 percent of vehicle assembly work at the facility by the end of this year.
Increasingly stricter regulations on emissions from lean-burn engines, such as the Euro 7 standard, are approaching. This requires the development of catalytic materials that can reduce the toxic nitrogen oxides efficiently at low temperatures. Researchers at the Department of Physics at Chalmers University of Technology, together with industrial partner Umicore, now present a study showing how machine learning could help engines run cleaner.
Catalytic converters reduce the amount of toxic pollutants emitted into the air from a vehicle’s exhaust system. Stricter regulations on emissions standards within the coming years, such as the European Union’s proposed Euro 7, aim at further reducing air pollution from vehicles. Therefore, improved catalysts are needed to limit the emissions of harmful pollutants.
The main technology of selective catalytic reduction of nitrogen oxides uses ammonia as a reducing agent. Thus, the catalytic material should promote the formation of a nitrogen–nitrogen bond between nitrogen oxides and ammonia in an oxygen-rich environment and prevent unwanted reactions, which include the oxidation of ammonia to even more nitrogen oxides or nitrous oxide.
Featuring the Electro-Mechanical Brake and by-wire technology on the rear brakes, the project will also include ZF’s Integrated Brake Control and traditional front calipers, creating a ‘hybrid’ braking system of by-wire and hydraulics that offers increased flexibility to the manufacturer. The agreement will also provide significant steering technology with ZF’s Electric Recirculating Ball Steering Gear. This cutting-edge braking technology combined with traditional braking systems and innovative steering tools further solidifies ZF’s position as the industry leader in providing complete chassis solutions to its customers while providing a major customer win.
“We are all proud to see ZF’s technology leadership in the Chassis segment providing tangible value for our customers. Our goal when combining our steering, braking, dampers and actuators as well as corresponding software businesses into a single division was to create the world’s most comprehensive Chassis Solutions product and system offering,” said Peter Holdmann, Board of Management member at ZF and head of Division Chassis Solutions. “This combined center of expertise allows us to offer comprehensive solutions that integrate advanced engineering, innovative design, and cutting-edge technology to deliver unparalleled performance and safety.”
The road to the software-defined vehicle With the Electro-Mechanical Brake (EMB) as a key component of the brake-by-wire technology, ZF lays the foundation for the software-defined vehicle that will lead to new functions and features, many that emphasize safety as much as driving comfort. One such feature being explored with by-wire technology is the ability for the vehicle to autonomously brake and steer in a crash situation.
ZF’s Electro-Mechanical Brake provides premium performance for automatic emergency braking, full energy recuperation and redundant fallback options up to full automated driving for passenger car and light truck segments.
AUSTIN, Texas — A more efficient and environmentally friendly approach to extracting rare earth elements that power everything from electric vehicle
Jeff Bezos is funding a secretive EV startup based in Michigan called Slate Auto that could start production as soon as next year, according to multiple sources and documents that link the billionaire’s family office to the startup.
Driverless trucks are officially running their first regular long-haul routes, making roundtrips between Dallas and Houston.
A new study published in Nature Communications shows, for the first time, how heat moves—or rather, doesn’t—between materials in a high-energy-density plasma state.
The work is expected to provide a better understanding of inertial confinement fusion experiments, which aim to reliably achieve fusion ignition on Earth using lasers. How heat flows between a hot plasma and a material’s surface is also important in other technologies, including semiconductor etching and vehicles that fly at hypersonic speeds.
High-energy-density plasmas are produced only at extreme pressures and temperatures. The study shows that interfacial thermal resistance, a phenomenon known to impede heat transfer in less extreme conditions, also prevents heat flow between different materials in a dense, super–hot plasma state.
