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Category: transportation

But could it actually work?

Lighter-than-air spacecraft might one day help explore the clouds of Venus and investigate signs of ancient life on the planet.

Proposed in 2014 by Northrop Grumman, the Venus Atmospheric Maneuverability Platform (VAMP) project would deploy crewed inflatable aircraft from space to skim Venus’ upper atmosphere.

Now, a press release from West Virginia University reveals that engineers are developing software to allow spacecraft similar to these to navigate Venus’ atmosphere autonomously.

Could we send humans to Venus? The statement, brought to our attention by Universe Today says the main goal of the new project is to “propose a software solution that will allow hybrid aerobots to explore the atmosphere of Venus.” The researchers claim that their software would optimize flight paths while accounting for strong winds and sunlight intensity, allowing it to plan the crafts flights for the longest periods possible.

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Tesla has launched Free Holiday Supercharging during off-peak hours for the Holiday Season. From December 23 to December 26, Tesla will offer free Supercharging in various locations across the U.S. when charging before 10 AM or after 7 PM.

Tesla will offer the free off-peak Supercharging in eleven states across the U.S.: California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma, Florida, and Pennsylvania. All four of Tesla’s vehicles will be eligible for the free Supercharging promotion. 75 Supercharging stations will be online for free Supercharging during the off-peak times.

“Avoid the rush this holiday season and charge for free during off-peak hours at Superchargers along select travel routes in the United States,” Tesla wrote on their website. Charging during off-peak hours is usually a less expensive experience, to begin with, because it puts less stress on the grid. However, the Holidays are a high travel time. Despite Tesla’s expansive Supercharger network with over 25,000 locations globally, things will still get pretty congested, especially as AAA estimates that 109.5 million travelers will hit the road to celebrate the Holidays with family this year.

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Electric-vehicle and battery startups have turned to an elite group of lawyers to ward off regulatory scrutiny while raising capital. Meet them here.

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As the electric car revolution ramps up, so does the need for critical minerals used in batteries, such as graphite. According to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, there will be a global graphite deficit starting in 2022, and demand from the battery sector is expected to rise 30% annually until 2030. The US has no manufacturing plants that can supply automotive-grade graphite at scale. Meanwhile, China controls 84% of the global supply. Electrek spoke with Don Baxter, CEO of Ceylon Graphite, about how graphite is used in EVs, the supply chain issue, and how EV battery manufacturers can successfully source the vital mineral.

Electrek: How is graphite used in battery electric vehicles?

Don Baxter: Processed graphite comprises 95% of the anode (negative electrode) of lithium-ion batteries that power EVs, whereas the cathode (positive electrode) is made up of various materials such as nickel and cobalt.

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Between a supply chain full of holes, labor shortages across various sectors of the economy, and rising inflation, it’s shaping up to be a somewhat chaotic holiday season. Technology can’t fix all of these problems—or even most of them—but it can help get holiday shipments from point A to point B faster, cheaper, and without as many humans involved. Waymo’s partnership with UPS could mean some of your holiday gifts will be spending time in an autonomous truck on their way to you.

Waymo (which started out as the Google Self-Driving Car Project in 2009 and is still held by Alphabet, but raised $2.5 billion in its first outside funding round in March of 2020) first announced a partnership with UPS in January 2020, in which Waymo Driver was used to help move packages between UPS stores in Phoenix and the UPS hub in Tempe. Waymo’s Chrysler Pacifica minivans drove autonomously, but trained operators were on board to monitor the vehicles.

Last week the two companies announced an expansion of their existing partnership, saying they’ll start autonomous trial runs using Class 8 trucks equipped with the fifth-generation Waymo Driver. They’ll do deliveries for UPS’s North American Air Freight unit between facilities in Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston. Waymo’s initial route for its driverless cargo shipments also ran between Houston and Fort Worth, which the company said is one of the most highly utilized freight corridors in the country. The route is around 260 miles long, much of that a straight shot on Interstate 45.

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AI chips, which are semiconductors designed to accelerate machine learning, have many applications. One of the promising use cases, according to Albert Liu, is using AI chips in autonomous driving vehicles.

That’s why Liu’s AI chipmaking startup Kneron has been quietly racking up investments to march into smart transportation. It recently closed a new round of $25 million funding led by Lite-On Technology, a Taiwanese optoelectronic pioneer, which was a strategic investor in the round. Other investors included Alltek, PalPilot, Sand Hill Angels and Gaingels.

The new proceeds lifted Kneron’s total funding to over $125 million since its inception in 2015. The San Diego-and Taipei-based company has assembled a list of renowned investors, including Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-Shing’s Horizon Ventures, Alibaba, Qualcomm, Sequoia and Foxconn, the world’s largest electronics manufacturer and Apple’s supplier.

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SAIC-GM-Wuling uses cheap parts but makes them easy to replace.

TOKYO — At 28,800 yuan ($4,500), the Hongguang Mini EV has become a big seller in certain Chinese cities and villages. In Japan, a Nagoya University professor disassembled the electric vehicle to discover what kind of alchemy the manufacturer used to set such a low price.

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