The Innovation Report
UAW’s Strike Demands Include Job Security As Biden Pushes EV Transition
Thousands of autoworkers walked off the job at three Midwest plants in an unprecedented strike, as the United Automobile Workers (UAW) and Detroit’s three big carmakers (GM, Ford, and Stellantis) remained miles apart on contract talks. Thousands of workers have joined...
EV-Charging Deal: The Future Of Gas Stations
Technology innovations are usually disruptive, but they don’t have to be disasters for legacy players. Adapting is key. That’s what some gas-station operators are doing in the face of an existential threat from electric vehicles. Wednesday, Blink Charging (ticker:...
More Than A Fifth of New EU Car Registrations Are Now Fully Electric
It's the first time the BEV share has exceeded 20%, and is almost double the 11.6% share at the same time last year. Since the start of the year, BEV registrations across the EU more than doubled to 165,165 units, with all countries except for Malta recording...
How Drones Are Helping Scientists Find Meteorites
Meteorites offer tantalizing clues about what the early solar system was like. But finding them is far from rocket science. Often, researchers simply fan out across a landscape and walk for hours while staring at the ground. Now, some scientists are turning to drones...
Autonomous Vehicles: A Safer Road Ahead
Recent data analyses underscore a promising trend: Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are showcasing remarkable safety records, a development that should warrant policymakers’ attention and ease public concern. A Pennsylvania State University study has found that AVs have...
Autonomous Flying Taxis Being Developed In Bay Area
Here on ABC7, we've covered autonomous cars on the roads. But there's another movement happening with autonomous flying taxis. A new company just opened an office in Fremont, where autonomous aircraft are being built. Supernal is an advanced air...
Toyota Is Making AI-Trained Breakfast Bots In A ‘Kindergarten For Robots’
Toyota Research Institute (TRI) used generative AI in a “kindergarten for robots” to teach robots how to make breakfast — or at least, the individual tasks needed to do so — and it didn’t take hundreds of hours of coding and errors and bug fixing. Instead, researchers...
High-Energy-Density Chemical Fuel Powers Bug-Sized Robots To Leap, Lift And Race
Cornell researchers combined soft microactuators with high-energy-density chemical fuel to create an insect-scale quadrupedal robot that is powered by combustion and can outrace, outlift, outflex and outleap its electric-driven competitors. The group's paper,...
Scientists Invent A Bright Way To Upcycle Plastics Into Liquids That Can Store Hydrogen Energy
The new process is very energy-efficient and can be easily powered by renewable energy in the future, unlike other heat-driven recycling processes like pyrolysis. This innovation overcomes the current challenges in recycling plastics such as polypropylene (PP),...
A Big Telescope On The Moon Could Peer Deeper Into The Universe Than James Webb
A robotic telescope on the moon could peer deeper into the universe than the famed James Webb Telescope can and perhaps even help find life on exoplanets, scientists say. Astronomers think that powerful instruments on the moon may open the next frontier in...
