The Innovation Report
Australia Announces Policy to Boost EV Sales
Australia’s prime minister on Tuesday announced plans to encourage people to buy electric vehicles weeks after his government was accused at a U.N. conference in Scotland of being a laggard in fighting climate change. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the price of...
Rivian Automotive Goes Public
Rivian Automotive, the electric vehicle maker backed by e-commerce giant Amazon.com and Ford Motor, debuted on the Nasdaq Tuesday. The Tesla competitor Rivian began trading at $106, up 36% from its offering price of $78 a share. The all-electric truck and SUV maker...
Plans Unveiled for High-tech ’10-Minute City’ in Seoul
The idea of a "15-minute city," in which residents can all reach work and leisure facilities within a quarter-hour walk -- or cycle -- of their homes, has gained significant traction among urban planners during the Covid-19 pandemic. Now, a group of architects is...
Artificial Intelligence Learns to Talk Back
A long-term fallout of the Covid crisis has been the rise of the contactless enterprise, in which customers, and likely employees, interact with systems to get what they need or request. This means a pronounced role for artificial intelligence and machine...
AT&T Powering Unique IoT System: Cows Connected with Smart Sensors
AT&T is using its 5G network to power a unique type of connected device designed specifically for dairy farmers. The hardware comes from smaXtec, which describes it as a small smart sensor that cows physically swallow. The sensor stays in the cow’s first stomach...
Industry 4.0 Gets Its First Unicorn
Augury, an industrial AI + IoT company—with customers such as Colgate, Hershey's and Pepsi – has raised $180M in Series E funding. The round,led by Baker Hughes, launches the company to unicorn status and makes it an important bellwether for Industry 4.0 transitions....
Waymo to Start AV Testing in Most Difficult Location Yet
Waymo will begin testing in NYC, as shared by The Verge, to improve its coverage map of cities that have the driverless taxi service. To start out, the Waymo vehicles will not be autonomous. There will be two employees in the car, driving it around to map out the...
Night Vision and Artificial Intelligence Reveal Secrets of Spider Webs
Even people who aren’t fans of spiders can appreciate the intricate beauty of their webs. It’s even more fascinating when you consider the fact that the arachnids have tiny brains, yet somehow can build these geometrically precise creations. Now, scientists at Johns...
Access to EVs is an Environmental Justice Issue
The shift to electrified transport represents a societal and technological change on par with the industrial revolution, the New Deal and the more recent digitalization of everything. The effects will have lasting impacts on our economy and built environment. The...
Water-Absorbing Material Inspired by Plant Roots Could Power Robots
Plants may have no muscles, but they can grow upwards against the strain of gravity and their roots can even shift soil and rocks – because their cells can absorb water to form strong structures. Now an artificial material which mimics this ability could help to...
