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Ford said Friday that its $5.6 billion BlueOval City complex outside of Memphis, Tennessee will include a truck plant capable of producing 500,000 electric vehicles a year.

The first vehicle to come off the line will be a next-gen electric truck, code named Project T3, in 2025.

Construction at BlueOval City, the epicenter for its future EV and battery cell manufacturing and a key component toward its goal to sell 2 million EVs annually by late 2026, began last fall.

During a tense opening weekend at SXSW, following the sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank which banked nearly half of US venture-backed startups, billionaire investor Mark Cuban sat down with me to discuss options for entrepreneurs trying to secure funds in the midst of unprecedented economic chaos.

“I would encourage people to do their homework,” he said. “This is a learning experience. It’s been a learning experience for me.”


With credit tightening and banks failing, many startups are having a hard time accessing the private equity markets. But fortunately, capital is available from a variety of sources without having to give up equity. Interviews with Mark Cuban and others highlight funds awarding big bucks.

Following this trial, the bank will offer this service to its larger base of US merchant clients.

JP Morgan has announced plans to pilot biometric-based payments at select US retailers. It is one of the world’s largest payment-processing companies.

Pilot program roll-out.


Prostock-Studio/iStock.

A team of researchers at UT Wein in Austria have developed an innovative oxygen-ion battery that is cleaner and safer than lithium-ion.

Researchers at Technische Universität Wien (TU Wien) in Vienna, Austria, have made an oxygen-ion battery that could be used in large energy storage systems instead of lithium-ion batteries. Even though the energy density of an oxygen-ion battery is not quite as high as that of a lithium-ion battery, it has some important advantages.

Unlike lithium-ion batteries, the storage capacity of the oxygen-ion battery does not decrease over time, as it can be regenerated. This could enable an extremely long service life for the battery.


Developers can also deploy their own version of the plug-in and register it with ChatGPT, says OpenAI.

A major upgrade to ChatGPT’s functionality has given the chatbot access to live web data for the first time, expanding OpenAI’s impact exponentially.

“Users have been asking for plug-ins” to “unlock a vast range of possible use cases,” said OpenAI’s blog.


OpenAI/IE

A few select users will now be able to enjoy Google Maps’ immersive view, according to a blog by the company published last month. The new feature is meant to allow users to reimagine how they explore and navigate, while helping them make more sustainable choices.

“Immersive view is an entirely new way to explore a place — letting you feel like you’re right there, even before you visit. Using advances in AI and computer vision, immersive view fuses billions of Street View and aerial images to create a rich, digital model of the world. And it layers helpful information on top like the weather, traffic, and how busy a place is,” said Chris Phillips, VP & General Manager, Geo, in the blog.

The Hubble Space Telescope’s remarkable observations shed light on the seasonal shifts and atmospheric conditions of Jupiter and Uranus.

The Hubble Space Telescope has been fundamental in unraveling the mysteries of our solar system. The telescope is a celestial weather observer that studies the changing atmosphere of giant gaseous planets. By observing climatic variations, scientists are unlocking new understanding about the dynamic weather systems of these gas giants, paving the way for a deeper understanding of our solar system.

Recently, it disclosed exquisite details about the changing weather patterns and seasonal shifts on Jupiter and Uranus.


NASA, ESA, STScI, Amy Simon, and Michael H. Wong, Joseph DePasquale.

The researchers observed it stimulated light emission, which Einstein predicted in 1916, in single photons for the first time.

A team of researchers from the University of Basel and the University of Sydney accomplished a groundbreaking feat by demonstrating the capability to manipulate and identify small numbers of interacting packets of light energy or photons with high correlation for the first time.

The achievement, published in Nature Physics, marks a significant milestone in developing quantum technologies. The researchers observed it stimulated light emission, which Einstein predicted in 1916, in single photons for the first time.