Electric vehicles are about to take over American roadways, which means there’s a prime opportunity to replace gas station signs with something better.
Category: transportation – Page 334
Amazon Patented a New Delivery System That Could Have Your Block Crawling With Robots
Last week, Amazon patented a delivery system involving self driving trucks carrying several small robots that deliver packages to homes.
Once all the small delivery bots are back on board, the truck (which would have a human driver in the near future but likely be autonomous in the less-near future) drives off to the next block—its fleet of mini-me’s restocking with new packages en route—and the scene repeats itself.
Cool/creepy? Good/bad? Depends on your perspective. On the one hand, employing fewer humans would bring Amazon more cost savings in the long run, which it would ideally pass on to customers and re-invest in other parts of the business, leading to hiring more people in a virtuous circle.
But on the other hand, it’s not hard to imagine the secondary vehicles going awry; there would be plenty of obstacles for them to get around (dogs, bikes, sprinklers, and children are just a few that come to mind), and given how hard it’s been to bring self-driving cars to market, Amazon may be underestimating the challenge of maneuvering the small delivery vehicles even 100 feet from truck to doorstep.
A Plane in Utah Lets the Fish Fly
Sorry, we’re having trouble playing this video.
Learn More.
The New York Times.
The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources said that last week it used planes to stock fish in about 200 lakes that are inaccessible by vehicle. The division said it has aerial-stocked fish since the 1950s and that they have a high survival rate.
A widely shared video shows fish bursting out of a small plane, highlighting a method the state has used for more than a half-century to restock lakes.
TSMC Expects Auto-Chip Shortage to Abate This Quarter
The world’s largest contract chip maker said it expects the chip shortage that has hampered car makers to start easing in the next few months after it ramped up its production of auto chips.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world’s largest contract chip maker, said it expects the chip shortage that has hampered car makers to start easing in the next few months after it ramped up its production of auto chips.
The company is on track to increase output of microcontrollers used in cars by about 60% this year compared with last, Chief Executive C.C. Wei said in an earnings call on Thursday. However, he said, the broader semiconductor shortage could persist until 2022.
A dearth of semiconductors, used in products including home appliances and smartphones, has stymied manufacturing activity, notably in the auto industry. That shortfall should be greatly reduced for TSMC customers in the current quarter, Mr. Wei said.
Tesla has Powerwall backlog of 80,000 orders worth over $500 million
Elon Musk confirmed that Tesla currently has a Powerwall backlog of 80000 orders, which is worth over $500 million, but it can’t ramp up production to meet that due to the global chip shortage.
Tesla has been production constrained with the Powerwall for a long time.
The demand has been strong in several markets, like the US and Australia, but production hasn’t been to catch up despite significant ramp-ups.
China launches first commercial onshore small reactor project
SMRs are cheaper and quicker to build than traditional reactors, and can also be deployed in remote regions and on ships and aircraft. Their “modular” format means they can be shipped by container from the factory and installed relatively quickly on any proposed site.
SHANGHAI, July 13 (Reuters) — China has started construction of the first commercial onshore nuclear project using its homegrown “Linglong One” small modular reactor (SMR) design, the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) said on Tuesday, about four years later than planned.
CNNC originally aimed to start building the project at the Changjiang nuclear reactor complex on the island province of Hainan in 2017, but it has been subject to regulatory delays.
The “Linglong One”, also known as the ACP100, was the first SMR to be approved by the International Atomic Energy Agency in 2016. Each unit has power generating capacity of 125 megawatts (MW).
DARPA Announces Researchers to Exploit Infrared Spectrum for Understanding 3D Scenes
DARPA announced the selection of four research teams to drive it home with no headlights on our Invisible Headlights program, which seeks to determine if it’s possible for autonomous vehicles to navigate in complete darkness using only passive sensors:
https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/uk-may-ban-boi…feel-pain/ More
DARPA has selected four industry and university research teams for the Invisible Headlights program, which seeks to determine if it’s possible for autonomous vehicles to navigate in complete darkness using only passive sensors.