https://techxplore.com/automotive-news/ en-us Tech Xplore covers the latest in car tech A proposed high-speed rail line linking Los Angeles with the US gambling and entertainment capital Las Vegas moved closer to reality Tuesday with the announcement of a $3 billion government grant. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-12-high-rail-la-las-vegas.html Business Wed, 06 Dec 2023 05:10:24 EST news621061822 As Jason Steffen will tell you, the job of an astrophysicist is never done. It just keeps expanding—much like the universe. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-12-qa-code-holiday-steffen-method.html Business Tue, 05 Dec 2023 16:00:00 EST news621014396 California regulators are alleging a San Francisco robotaxi service owned by General Motors covered up the severity of an accident involving one of its driverless cars, raising the specter they may add a fine to the recent suspension of its California license. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-12-gm-cruise-robotaxi-fine-alleged.html Automotive Tue, 05 Dec 2023 04:12:09 EST news620971925 Electric-powered vehicles do not inspire much enthusiasm in Texas, according to a survey released on Nov. 30 by University of Houston and Texas Southern University. Results in the new study reflect only a few shifts in opinions from those voiced by Texans in a similar survey from 2021. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-12-electric-vehicles-tough-texas-survey.html Business Mon, 04 Dec 2023 15:19:04 EST news620925541 Do electric bikes (e-bikes) improve the overall quality of mobility for certain groups in a region? Do they provide a similar level of time-, cost-, and energy-efficient access to opportunities as cars? https://techxplore.com/news/2023-12-explore-impacts-e-bikes-sustainable-equitable.html Energy & Green Tech Mon, 04 Dec 2023 13:18:41 EST news620918318 BMW is recalling a small number of SUVs in the U.S. because the driver's air bag inflators can blow apart in a crash, hurling metal shrapnel and possibly injuring or killing people in the vehicles. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-12-bmw-recalls-suvs-takata-air.html Automotive Sun, 03 Dec 2023 05:43:56 EST news620804632 Researchers have developed a new experiment to better understand what people view as moral and immoral decisions related to driving vehicles, with the goal of collecting data to train autonomous vehicles how to make "good" decisions. The work is designed to capture a more realistic array of moral challenges in traffic than the widely discussed life-and-death scenario inspired by the so-called "trolley problem." https://techxplore.com/news/2023-12-autonomous-vehicles-moral-decisions-ditch.html Automotive Fri, 01 Dec 2023 11:37:03 EST news620653021 When one of the world's largest container ships crashed into the bank of the Suez Canal in 2021, a major gateway for global trade became blocked with an estimated $9.6 billion in daily commerce being held up. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-12-disasters-sea-trigger-ship-safety-advances.html Engineering Fri, 01 Dec 2023 08:51:03 EST news620643061 With manufacturing kinks still to be worked out, Tesla delivered the first dozen or so of its futuristic Cybertruck pickups to customers Thursday, two years behind the original schedule amid uncertainty over when large-scale production will begin. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-12-tesla-dozen-stainless-steel-cybertruck.html Automotive Fri, 01 Dec 2023 02:40:27 EST news620620821 What would the streets look like if a city took half its traffic space and gave it to cycling and e-biking? Would city dwellers use their bikes more often? Might the concept of an "E-Bike City" even be a way to help reduce transport-related CO2 emissions? https://techxplore.com/news/2023-11-zurich-roads-e-bikes-cars.html Engineering Thu, 30 Nov 2023 15:46:04 EST news620581562 A six-week United Auto Workers strike at Ford cut sales by about 100,000 vehicles and cost the company $1.7 billion in lost profits this year, the automaker said Thursday. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-11-autoworkers-ford-sales-vehicles-company.html Automotive Thu, 30 Nov 2023 13:14:27 EST news620572465 Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs) are used around the world to conduct difficult environmental, remote, oceanic, defense and rescue missions in often unpredictable and harsh conditions. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-11-ai-approach.html Automotive Thu, 30 Nov 2023 12:13:03 EST news620568781 Four years after startling the car world with designs for the Cybertruck, Elon Musk is set Thursday to mark the arrival of Tesla's iconoclastic take on the American pickup. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-11-musk-latest-gamble-tesla-cybertruck.html Automotive Thu, 30 Nov 2023 03:03:27 EST news620535804 Crews have installed what's billed as the nation's first wireless-charging public roadway for electric vehicles beneath a street just west of downtown Detroit. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-11-technology-beneath-detroit-street-electric.html Energy & Green Tech Wed, 29 Nov 2023 15:57:04 EST news620495807 General Motors announced hefty new initiatives Wednesday to return billions of dollars to shareholders, lifting its stock price as it estimated the recent labor strike hit at $1.1 billion. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-11-auto-gm-big-buybacks.html Business Wed, 29 Nov 2023 10:35:17 EST news620476514 Electric vehicles have proved far less reliable, on average, than gasoline-powered cars, trucks and SUVs, according to the latest survey by Consumer Reports, which found that EVs from the 2021 through 2023 model years encountered nearly 80% more problems than did vehicles propelled by internal combustion engines. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-11-consumer-electric-vehicles-reliable-average.html Automotive Wed, 29 Nov 2023 10:34:56 EST news620476493 Toyota is selling a part of its stake in components maker Denso to raise cash for its drive toward electric vehicles and other innovations, Japan's top automaker said Wednesday. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-11-toyota-denso-stake-cash-electric.html Automotive Wed, 29 Nov 2023 10:34:32 EST news620476469 While fully automated vehicles are still a ways off, the stepping stone of hands-free driving technology has become prevalent in the past few years. These assist systems allow drivers to take their hands off the steering wheel in certain situations. Combined with automated braking and acceleration, the feature can help make driving long distances or in congested traffic easier and less fatiguing. To better explain what's available, the automotive experts at Edmunds put four hands-free drive systems to the test: Ford's BlueCruise, General Motors' Super Cruise, Tesla's AutoPilot with Full Self-Driving Beta and BMW's Driving Assistant Plus. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-11-automotive-hands-free.html Automotive Wed, 29 Nov 2023 10:34:17 EST news620476453 Self-driving cars are both fascinating and fear-inducing, as they must accurately assess and navigate the rapidly changing environment. Computer vision, which uses computation to extract information from imagery, is an important aspect of autonomous driving, with tasks ranging from low level, such as determining how far away a given location is from the vehicle, to higher level, such as determining if there is a pedestrian in the road. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-11-co-learning-autonomous.html Automotive Tue, 28 Nov 2023 17:38:02 EST news620415481 E-scooter riders are less likely to ride dangerously or illegally if they know the rules and regulations, according to a new research report by Nottingham Trent University (NTU) that calls for better access to training programs to reduce collisions. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-11-unsafe-illegal-e-scooter-linked-lack.html Automotive Tue, 28 Nov 2023 16:36:03 EST news620411761 Combustors that drive propulsion systems are often volumetric in nature, typically in the form of cylinders, and convert chemical to thermal and mechanical energy through oxidation of fuels. This deflagrating combustion approach is now beginning to be challenged by detonation-based combustion that utilizes shock waves to accelerate the oxidation of fuel-air mixture. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-11-detonation-based-device-propulsion-applications.html Engineering Tue, 28 Nov 2023 16:19:03 EST news620410742 In 2019, Tesla was in the happy position of being a high-volume, premium-priced leader in the global electric vehicle (EV) market. Deliveries of 367,500 cars represented 50% growth over 2018. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-11-tesla-futuristic-cybertruck-arriveshere-company.html Energy & Green Tech Tue, 28 Nov 2023 12:18:04 EST news620396282 A Boeing 787 Dreamliner is set to take off from Heathrow on November 28 and head for JFK airport in New York, powered by so-called sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). According to its operator, Virgin Atlantic, the world's "first 100% SAF flight" will mark "a historic moment in aviation's roadmap to decarbonization". https://techxplore.com/news/2023-11-world-flight-powered-sustainable-aviation.html Energy & Green Tech Tue, 28 Nov 2023 10:40:01 EST news620390179 Electric carmaker Tesla on Monday filed a lawsuit against the Swedish state over a strike by postal workers blocking deliveries of license plates for its new cars—and received a first favorable decision the same day. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-11-tesla-sues-swedish-state-fallout.html Business Tue, 28 Nov 2023 04:33:45 EST news620368423 German car giant Volkswagen on Monday said that it was considering staff reductions, possibly in the form of early retirement, to help it meet vital cost-cutting targets imposed in its sputtering transition to electromobility. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-11-vw-staff-reductions-electric-shift.html Automotive Mon, 27 Nov 2023 14:01:42 EST news620316100 A new form of wave devouring propulsion (WDP) could power ships and help to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the maritime industry. Academics from Cranfield University have worked on the concept of using wave energy for propulsion and designed an inventive method of achieving greater thrust from the power of the waves by harnessing a vessel's submerged flapping foils in an innovative way. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-11-devouring-propulsion-green-technology-maritime.html Energy & Green Tech Fri, 24 Nov 2023 14:03:02 EST news620056981 The E-fuel project of VTT and partners has developed a concept for producing electrofuel from green hydrogen and carbon dioxide using a combination of different methods. On Nov. 21, this paraffinic E-fuel was tested for the first time in Finland on a diesel-powered tractor at AGCO Power's Linnavuori factory in Nokia. The new electrofuel is also suitable for vehicles that are difficult to electrify, and is therefore an important step in the development of sustainable fuel solutions. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-11-electrofuel-green-hydrogen-carbon-dioxide.html Energy & Green Tech Fri, 24 Nov 2023 13:54:03 EST news620056442 Before airplanes even reach the runway, pilots must file a plan to inform air traffic controllers where they're going and the path they are going to take. When planes are in the air, however, that plan often changes. From turbulence causing passenger discomfort and additional fuel use to unexpected weather patterns blocking the original path, pilots have to think on the fly and inform air traffic controllers of any modifications to their routes. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-11-digital-winglets-real-time-flight-paths.html Software Fri, 24 Nov 2023 13:49:04 EST news620056141 Nissan will invest $1.4 billion to update its factory in northeast England to make electric versions of its two best-selling cars, a boost for the British government as it tries to revive the country's ailing economy. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-11-nissan-invest-billion-ev-versions.html Automotive Fri, 24 Nov 2023 10:14:47 EST news620043279 Tesla chief executive Elon Musk broke his silence Thursday on a strike against his company in Sweden, saying it was "insane" that it may block new car deliveries. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-11-tesla-musk-fallout-sweden-insane.html Automotive Thu, 23 Nov 2023 12:35:41 EST news619965339