EDITOR'S PICK

Southwest Airlines To Develop Plans for Electric ‘Air Taxi’ Networks

22 Jul 2024 | Synopsis

"Archer Aviation could lead to electric air taxi networks at 14 Golden State airports served by Southwest...Midnight eVTOL aircraft can zip four passengers up to 60 miles away at speeds of up to 150 miles per hour...Designed to transform urban travel, it can turn a trip that would take 60 to 90 minutes by car into short-hop electric air taxi flights of just 10 to 20 minutes."

"With operations at 14 airports across California, Southwest is the largest air carrier in the state."

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California Officials Praise Renewables, Battery Storage for Grid Resilience Amid Heat Wave

22 Jul 2024 | Synopsis

"California's power grid held up against prolonged record temperatures because of new clean energy resources, more battery storage, and enhanced coordination with state government - and the grid was also able to export energy to other states in need during this heat wave...California Governor Gavin Newsom announced record solar power output, which reached 18,933 megawatts on May 13. This was a 20-fold increase compared to 2012."

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Honda Reveals Stunning New Concept For Class 8 Semi Truck: 'Honda Has Started To Accelerate'

22 Jul 2024 | Synopsis

"Commercial vehicles...are a key part of Honda's broad hydrogen business strategy."

"Focused on expanding its sustainable transportation fleet to become more economical, the company designed the concept to apply to medium- and heavy-duty vehicles....the concept had an estimated top speed of 70 mph and a driving range of 400 miles at gross combination weight."

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Hacking EVs And Level 3 Chargers Through 1920s Technology

22 Jul 2024 | Synopsis

"Power line communication (PLC) is a way of sending data through existing power cable...technology has been around since 1922...SwRI exploited vulnerabilities in the PLC layer which granted them access to the network key and the digital addresses of both the chargers and the vehicle using an adversary-in-the-middle (AitM) attack

"Level 3 hacks take everything to another level, giving would-be hackers the potential ability to inject code into the vehicle's firmware..."

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Decades-Old Biology Technique Reveals Key to Prolonging Electric Aircraft Battery Life

22 Jul 2024 | Synopsis

"...it turns out that omics, a field that helped scientists unravel the secrets of the human genome, could also soon play a key role in making carbon-free air travel a reality...Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory...used omics techniques to study the intricate interactions within the anode, cathode, and electrolyte of electric aircraft batteries...the discovery that certain salts mixed into the battery electrolyte formed a protective coating on cathode particles..."

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This US Election Is An EV Referendum

19 Jul 2024 | Synopsis

The GOP Presidential nominee and convicted felon Donald John Trump "capped the tirade off in his speech Thursday, promising to 'end the electric vehicle mandate on day one.'

"EV sales by most automakers are rising, up 36% in the second quarter..A Pew poll last month found that just 29% of Americans would consider an EV for their next vehicle purchase, down from 38% last year.

"Musk’s perspective, slamming the brakes on government support for EVs makes perfect business sense: His competitors need it more than he does."

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Will In-Wheel Motor Tech Go Big In Electric Pickups?

19 Jul 2024 | Synopsis

"Lordstown Motors opted for hub motors licensed from Slovenian firm...it had put about 20,000 development miles on its electric pickup before its release and about 200,000 development miles on the motors

"...in 2023, Ford filed a patent for a system that uses a combination of in-wheel motors and solid axles...Ferrari, McLaren, and others are reportedly considering in-wheel motors for future performance EVs."

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This One Delivery Switch Could Save UPS & Co. Billions - No, Really

19 Jul 2024 | Synopsis

"Household names including UPS and FedEx already include electric cargo bikes as a permanent part of their delivery fleets in cities such as Hamburg, Paris, London, and New York.

"...mixed electric fleets can already bring down costs today, by a range of 1–8 cents per package depending on the bike-van ratio and city layout. That adds up to big potential savings for UPS, up to $445 million per year - in 2024"

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Autonomous Shuttles Debut At This US Airport

19 Jul 2024 | Synopsis

The SAE Level 4 shuttles are able to carry eight passengers, and will serve a route with 15 stops around JFK...the shuttles will feature safety attendants on board who regularly work as bus drivers at the same airport. So the use of these shuttles will not be a job-cutting program, at least not at this particular stage.

"Other potential uses of self-driving shuttle platoons include moving passengers for first-mile/last-mile trips such journeys between an AirTrain station and a distant airport facility such as car rental offices."

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LA Times Column: Who Elected Elon Musk Our Arbiter Of Social Norms?

19 Jul 2024 | Synopsis

"...Musk's corporate activities point to what is often described as a 'whim of iron.' He defends his policies and politics as derived from painstaking consideration based on immutable laws of human behavior...instead, they point to the social dangers of endowing self-interested personalities with the money to buy unaccountable influence in conflict with the public interest.

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Gen Z Doesn't Want Cars

17 Jul 2024 | Synopsis

"Polls, studies and surveys show younger generations are less likely to drive, less likely to have a driver's license, have less access to vehicles, and when they do get behind the wheel, are driving fewer miles...Gen Z is more environmentally conscious than generations past, and many don't want to exacerbate the climate crisis by driving...Young people seem to crave more good-for-the-planet transportation methods..."

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British AA Finds Electric Vehicle Breakdowns From Running Out Of Power At Record Low

17 Jul 2024 | Synopsis

"The percentage of electric vehicle (EV) breakdowns caused by running out of power reached a record low last month, figures suggest. Just 1.4% of the EV callouts the AA received in June were due to their batteries having limited or no charge...Just 1.4% of the EV callouts the AA received in June were due to their batteries having limited or no charge...The company expects the annual figure to ultimately drop to 1%, which would be equivalent to the proportion of petrol or diesel car breakdowns due to running out of fuel."

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