The Innovation Report
Consumer Reports Pummels EV Reliability, Praises Hybrids
Electric vehicles may be the future, but in some ways they look a lot like the past. Particularly reliability. That’s the bottom line from Consumer Reports’ eagerly anticipated annual reliability survey, which sounds like an ‘80s tribute act: the top tier, brands...
Missouri Universities Win Grants To Help Agricultural Workers Harness New Technologies
The U.S. Department of Agriculture projects a shortage of agricultural workers able to use new technologies and plans to help two Missouri universities better train them. Lincoln University in Jefferson City and Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla...
Senators Embrace AI On The Farm, Eye Provisions In Farm Bill
Artificial intelligence is already a workhorse in the technology that allows tractors to identify weeds and tailor herbicide spraying, determine when a crop is ready to harvest and weave together satellite and soil data to make efficient use of fertilizer. But Senate...
Police Could Use Military-Grade Drones To Track Criminals
Police helicopters could be replaced with military-grade drones as part of a major tech upgrade across some forces in England and Wales. Chairwoman of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners Donna Jones revealed chiefs have been “pushing strongly”...
How To 3D Print Fully-Formed Robots
3D printers are capable of producing complex shapes, but making functioning objects from multiple materials in a single print-run has proved challenging. To overcome this, a team has combined inkjet printing with an error-correction system guided by machine vision, to...
Hydrogen Fuel Gaining Traction With Truckers
Jim Gillis is making a big bet on hydrogen-powered big rigs. Gillis, president of the Pacific region for Collierville, Tenn.-based IMC, will take delivery in the coming weeks of his first hydrogen electric fuel-cell Nikola trucks long before the technology is proven...
Fact Check: Diesel Charger Works With Solar
An Oct. 25 Instagram video (link) shows an Australian electric vehicle charging station that includes a large blue diesel generator. “Look! It’s an electric charger for an electric car, and right there that is a diesel-powered generator to run your electric charging...
Could Solid-State Batteries Supercharge EVs?
In September, car manufacturer Toyota published a battery technology roadmap, outlining their research focus and their goals for producing a diverse, all-electric fleet in the next decade. This alone is not that surprising – the electrification of the automotive...
Vatican In Deal With VW For All-Electric Car Fleet By 2030
The Vatican on Wednesday signed an agreement with German carmaker Volkswagen to replace the city-state's entire car fleet with electric vehicles by 2030. The governor's office of the world's smallest state gave no financial details of the deal in a statement but said...
Cruise Taking All Vehicles Off Public Roads Amid Expanded Safety Probe
Cruise, General Motors' embattled driverless car unit, said Tuesday it will pause all public road operations — both supervised and manual — in an expansion of last month's pause of driverless operations. "This orderly pause is a further step to rebuild public trust...
