Showing posts with label transportation technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label transportation technology. Show all posts

Thursday, August 06, 2026

Electric air taxis to begin real-world tests in US, cargo before passengers

Good news! Waymo move over! Lift me up! Exciting times! 😊

"Electric air taxis are closer to reality as companies such as Joby Aviation, Archer Aviation and Beta Technologies prepare for real-world tests under the Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing and Advanced Air Mobility Integration Pilot Program. Joby, backed by Toyota, Uber and Delta Air Lines, plans to start with cargo transport before moving to passenger tests, while Archer aims to begin commercial operations by the 2028 Summer Olympics."

IEEE-USA SmartBrief





Thursday, July 30, 2026

Electric flying VTOL taxis near reality, but US infrastructure lags

Good news!

"Electric air taxis are set to debut in select US cities through a government pilot program, but infrastructure is lagging, experts say.
Archer Aviation, the official air taxi provider for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, is advancing toward Federal Aviation Administration certification with its Midnight air taxi, but the main challenge remains the development of vertiports and charging stations."

"... This new dual-use autonomous VTOL aircraft platform, highlighted by its Halo (commercial) and Thunder (defense) variants, builds on eight years of eVTOL development and flight testing by Archer. It features a clean-sheet design, bringing the commercial VTOL sector's rapid innovation in electric propulsion and rotor design directly into a performance-optimized configuration. ..."

VTOL = vertical take off and landing

IEEE-USA SmartBrief




Archer Aviation's Midnight air taxi is nearing completed certification from the FAA.


Tuesday, July 28, 2026

US Lyft and Chinese Baidu enter London's robotaxi battleground

Good news! Competition is good, more competition is better!

Where is Waymo? "Waymo robotaxis are currently testing on public roads in London, but they are not yet open for commercial public rides." (Google Search)

Do I still need to own my car?

"Chinese tech giant Baidu has started testing autonomous vehicles in London as part of its partnership with Lyft and Freenow, the German taxi and multi-mobility app that Lyft now owns. Baidu is the latest in a string of companies to test self-driving technology in the U.K. ahead of commercial robotaxi deployments. ..."

Lyft and Baidu enter London's robotaxi battleground as testing begins | TechCrunch

E-bikes, e-scooters are a burgeoning pediatric public health emergency

Given the fact how fast some of the Ebikes and escooters are this is no surprise!

Besides, they are often parked in public spaces to obstruct pedestrians!

Global Health NOW: Hope and Headwinds in the HIV Fight; and Unlocking the Medical Potential of Menstrual Blood

E-bikes, e-scooters are a burgeoning pediatric public health emergency (behind paywall) "Accidents with severe, life-threatening injuries are on the rise"

Sunday, March 08, 2026

Aurora Innovation, a self-driving truck company, has expanded its network to 10 routes in Texas and Arizona

 Good news!

"Aurora Innovation, a self-driving truck company, has expanded its network to 10 routes, including a 1,000-mile circuit between Fort Worth, Texas, and Phoenix, Arizona. On such long routes, the company says its trucks can cut transit times in half by avoiding regulations that limit the number of hours a human trucker can drive continuously."

Doomslayer: Progress Roundup

Friday, February 13, 2026

Aurora's driverless trucks can now travel farther distances faster than human drivers

Good news!

"Aurora’s self-driving trucks can now travel nonstop on a 1,000-mile route between Fort Worth and Phoenix — exceeding what a human driver can legally accomplish.

The distance, and the time it takes to travel it, offers up positive financial implications for Aurora — and any other company hoping to commercialize self-driving semitrucks.

It takes Aurora about 15 hours to carry freight in its driverless trucks on the 1,000-mile journey, according to the company.  ..."

Aurora's driverless trucks can now travel farther distances faster than human drivers | TechCrunch






Wednesday, December 31, 2025

China's maglev test reaches 435 mph (700 kmh) in under two seconds

Amazing stuff!

"Researchers ... have accelerated a one-ton vehicle from a dead stop to 435 mph (700 km/h) in under two seconds – then back to zero mph on about a 1/4 mile (1,312 ft / 400 meter) magnetic levitation test track. ... That makes it the quickest superconducting maglev acceleration ever demonstrated. ...

But NUDT isn't stopping there. The eventual goal is to hit the 621 mph (1,000 km/h) mark, surpassing the typical 550-580 mph (885-933 km/h) that passenger planes generally cruise at. ...

Though called "high-temperature superconductors (HTS)," it actually operates using liquid nitrogen, closer to -321 °F (–196 °C) ..."

China's maglev test reaches 435 mph in under two seconds

China’s record-smashing maglev achieves 0-700km/h acceleration in less than 2 seconds "Feat seen to catapult China into global top tier of ultra-high-speed maglev technology and unlock new possibilities for hyperloop transport"

Thursday, September 18, 2025

If We Want Bigger Wind Turbines, then new, giant aircraft may have to transport them. Really!

What an insane, windy argument (non sequitur)! What a folly! Qui bono?

Wind power is so unreliable and intermittent. Large wind power farms may negatively impact local weather and climate and they are an eyesore. We need other energy supply sources like nuclear, hydrogen etc.

Why did our ancestors give up wind power (e.g. wind mills)?

"... Called WindRunner, and expected by 2030, it’ll haul just one thing: massive wind-turbine blades. In most parts of the world, onshore wind-turbine blades can be built to a length of 70 meters, max. This size constraint comes not from the limits of blade engineering or physics; it’s transportation. Any larger and the blades couldn’t be moved over land, since they wouldn’t fit through tunnels or overpasses, or be able to accommodate some of the sharper curves of roads and rails. ..."

Wind Turbine Blade Transport by Giant Aircraft - IEEE Spectrum










Sunday, June 15, 2025

Uber Brings Forward Trialling Driverless Taxis in UK next Spring

Good news! British/London cabs will never be the same again, but are still on display in museums! London calling!

Where is Waymo? Finding Wayve! 😊

Would this have happened were the UK still a member of the EU (aka Brexit)? Maybe not or very different!

"Uber will trial robotaxis - autonomous cars with no human safety driver at the wheel - in London next spring.

The ride-hailing app will work with the UK artificial intelligence (AI) firm Wayve, which has been testing out the technology on the city's streets with human oversight, in line with current legislation.

The announcement comes after the UK government changed its rules about the driverless cars once again.

It was originally aiming for the tech to come to British roads in 2026, then the date was changed to the second half of 2027. ..."

"Wayve and Uber ... today [6/10/2025] announced a first-ever plan to develop and launch public-road trials of Level 4 (L4) fully autonomous vehicles in London. This announcement marks the UK as the largest market where Uber has announced an intention to pilot autonomous vehicles. These trials will combine Wayve’s industry-leading Embodied AI platform with Uber’s global mobility network, marking a significant step forward in bringing autonomous vehicles to the streets of Europe at scale.  ..."

Uber Brings Forward Trialling Driverless Taxis in UK - Human Progress


Wayve and Uber Partner to Launch L4 Autonomy Trials in the UK (original news release) "Wayve and Uber announce a first-ever plan to develop and launch public-road trials of fully autonomous vehicles in the UK."


Looks almost like a Waymo! Can they not be a little bit more creative with their designs! Just kidding!


Nostalgic London cab


Monday, February 17, 2025

Uber Eats sues DoorDash in California, alleging anti-competitive tactics

Let the fight over food (delivery) begin! 😋 Who will swallow who? 😊 Spice it up!

Hopefully, at the end, the consumer will win!

Uber sues DoorDash, alleging anti-competitive tactics | TechCrunch "Ride-share giant Uber filed a lawsuit Friday against DoorDash, accusing the delivery outfit of stifling competition by intimidating restaurant owners into exclusive deals."




Thursday, February 13, 2025

Is the age of individually owned non-commercial vehicles for surface transportation coming to an end?

The 20th century was dominated by the desire and advantage for households/individuals to own their vehicle for personal transportation (at least in rich countries).

E.g. the ability/feasibility of remote work or work from home plus home delivery of almost anything make owning a car kind of obsolete or anachronistic or even expensive.

Then there is the world population of over 8 billion! Just imagine car ownership in  low income countries were as high as in high income countries.

However, with autonomous vehicles this necessity or advantage may come to an end. Perhaps sharing such vehicles will become more widespread. Or personal transportation as a service.

Please no government mandates or quotas to force the transition! Laissez faire, laissez passer!


Thursday, February 06, 2025

America’s Air-Traffic Control System: An International Disgrace, totally anachronistic and outdated for decades

Recommendable! On average there are about 45,000 flight takeoffs per day in the US.

Trump to the rescue!

"“The (air-traffic control) system will remain mired in mid-twentieth-century technology until it’s run by an independent corporation accountable to regulators but freed from congressional micromanagement, annual budget battles, and the federal bureaucracy’s convoluted hiring and procurement regulations. ..."

"... Long before the Obama and Biden administrations’ quest to diversify staff in control towers, the system was already one of the worst in the developed world. The recent rash of near-collisions is the result of chronic mismanagement that has left the system with too few controllers using absurdly antiquated technology. ...

It was bad enough to see such outdated technology in 2005. But they’re still using those paper flight strips in American towers, and the Federal Aviation Administration’s modernization plans have been delayed so many times that the strips aren’t due to be phased out until 2032. The rest of the system is similarly archaic. The U.S. is way behind Europe in using satellites to guide and monitor planes, forcing pilots and controllers to rely on much less precise readings from radio beacons and ground-based radar.

Overseas controllers use high-resolution cameras and infrared sensors to monitor planes on runways, but many American controllers still have to look out the window—which is why a FedEx cargo plane almost landed on top of another plane two years ago in Austin, Texas. ...

Nearly all  other developed countries sensibly separate these roles, so that a federal aviation agency oversees an independent corporation that operates the control towers and the rest of the system, functioning as a public utility. This independent operator can be a state-owned company (as in Australia, Switzerland, Germany, and Scandinavian countries), a nonprofit corporation (as in Canada), or a company with private investors (as in the United Kingdom and Italy). ..."

America’s Air-Traffic Control System: An International Disgrace "After the Reagan Airport disaster, will we finally reform the FAA?"

Tuesday, February 04, 2025

Waabi and Volvo team up to build self-driving trucks in 2025 at scale in Texas

Good news! Keep on trucking!

The CEO and founder of Waabi is Raquel Urtasun. She is a well known ML & AI researcher with almost 88,000 citations!

"Self-driving truck startup Waabi is partnering with Volvo Autonomous Solutions to jointly develop and deploy autonomous trucks, an important milestone as it gets closer to a commercial launch. 

The tie up also marks Volvo’s second partnership to co-develop self-driving big rigs with a startup partner. In May 2024, Volvo teamed up with Aurora Innovation to reveal the Volvo VNL Autonomous truck. 

Waabi will be using the same truck, but it will have Waabi’s tech on it, including its sensor suite, compute, and the Waabi Driver software. 

“We now have everything we need to scale our product,” Raquel Urtasun, founder and CEO of Waabi ... “We have the next-generation AV 2.0 technology, we have an approach that is much more capital efficient, and a much faster path to market.”

Waabi plans to launch commercial pilots with the Volvo-built trucks in Texas over the next couple of months, with a product-ready driverless demonstration on public roads planned for the end of 2025.  ..."

Waabi and Volvo team up to build self-driving trucks at scale | TechCrunch




Wednesday, January 15, 2025

Sarla Aviation's develops electric air taxis in India

Good news! Just guessing, city street traffic in India is too dense for Waymo! 😊

"... Sarla Aviation launched one year ago with a pitch built for India’s congested streets. The electric air taxi startup, named after India’s first woman pilot, Sarla Thukral ..."

Accel doubles down on Sarla Aviation's ambition to develop electric air taxis in India | TechCrunch



Sarla Thukral: Born in 1914, she earned an aviation pilot license in 1936 at the age of 21 and flew a Gypsy Moth solo.