The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced the Clean School Bus Program rebate awards have been doubled up to $1 billion. Last May, the EPA announced $500 million in rewards, but US school districts showed so much interest in the program, the US government has decided to double the amount of funding available.

Replacing a single diesel school bus can greatly help the environment, reducing greenhouse emissions by a whopping 54,000 pounds per year, according to Dominion Energy. In addition, toxic diesel fumes emitted by the bus while it idles find ways inside the cabin, putting the health of the passengers at risk.

School districts also have a keen interest in reducing the cost of fuel and repair costs through the operating life of each bus.

Microsoft has filed a formal merger proposal in Europe concerning its desired buyout of Activision-Blizzard's shares.

Regulators around the globe are currently scrutinizing Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision-Blizzard. The deal is valued at $68.7 billion and is the largest in gaming history by a long shot; it's over 5 times more valuable than Take-Two's recent acquisition of Zynga for $12.7 billion.

Microsoft corporate executives are confident the deal with will go through despite Sony's direct and public opposition. The billion-dollar tech firm has filed its merger proposal with worldwide markets including the United States and now Europe. Microsoft's merger proposal has been officially filed in the European Commission's competition database and has been assigned a provisional deadline of November 8, 2022.

Subaru recently announced starting prices for its 2023 Forester SUV, one of the Japanese automaker's most popular models based on overall sales figures.

Subaru will also offer the 2023 Forester in six different trim levels starting in December: Base, Premium, Sport, Wilderness, Limited, and Touring.

All models will include the EyeSight Driver Assist Technology, an active safety system, along with Automatic Emergency Steering, Blind-Spot Detection with Lane Keep Assist and Rear Cross-Traffic Alert.

Researchers from the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) have developed the NAO Robot, a humanoid that is skilled at Tai Chi.

As noted by Zhi Zheng, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the RIT Kate Gleason College of Engineering, in a press statement:

"We don't have to build our own robot hardware because there are good commercial platforms available. How it behaves solely depends on how we design the control programs. The central part of our research is how we control the robots to do the cognitive and physical instruction properly. "The robot does not really know how to behave coming out of the box. We teach it how to function."

Although it's a positive sign that more drivers are purchasing electric vehicles, the long stretches of US highways without proper EV charging infrastructure tend to be a rather worrisome sign. In the future, the goal will be to see EV chargers replace traditional gas stations, which have existed over a century in the US.

Major metropolitan areas have made greater strides in EV charging than states with smaller populations, such as Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota, according to a recent study from CNN. There are 6,500 public fast-charging stations spread across the US, but more work must be done to cover sparsely covered remote areas, as EV sales continue to increase in the future.

Both California and New York plan to restrict gas-powered vehicle sales by 2035, with other states also considering similar bans as there is a push to go electric. Infrastructure to support all these new EVs is ongoing, with 500,000 new chargers set for installation across the United States by 2030.

Kodiak Robotics and Werner Enterprises announced they are collaborating to create autonomous trucking lanes for use by driverless big rigs. The two companies want to put the spotlight on the effectiveness of truckport transfer hubs.

During the initial pilot, Kodiak had 100% on-time delivery over 152 hours of total driving time. Trailers were available at both end hubs for the autonomous trucks to pickup and drop-off, with local drivers responsible for first mile and last-mile deliveries. The average speed of the 7,957-mile pilot had an average speed of 65 mph.

As noted by Don Burnette, Founder and CEO of Kodiak, in a press statement:

"Werner's vision for incorporating autonomous trucks into their future operations demonstrates a fundamental understanding of where autonomous technology fits within the trucking industry. The Kodiak Driver is designed to do the often-undesirable highway portions of long-haul routes, allowing drivers to handle the deliveries that let them sleep in their own beds at night. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with Werner and introducing new permanent lanes together."

Well, concept cars are meant to be groundbreaking, and Citroen has something that is both unique and eco-friendly, with the Oli cardboard all-electric vehicle.

The company worked alongside German chemical specialist BASF to develop the car that with a top speed of 68 miles per hour - and 20% to 80% charging takes only 23 minutes. The vehicle weighs a metric ton and has almost a range near 250 miles. Citroen wanted to keep the weight down and show that it's possible to make a quality vehicle and "more can be achieved with less."

Oli owners can make use of vehicle parts that are "reused or recycled" throughout the lifetime of the vehicle, and has a "flat bonnet, roof and pick-up bed panels" made of custom cardboard.

Intel has finally detailed its new Arc A770 and Arc A750 graphics cards with everything we need to know: full specs, pricing, launch dates, the works.

The company has confirmed it will be offering its Arc A770 in both 8GB and 16GB variants, with Intel offering the Arc A770 with 8GB of GDDR6 memory starting at $329, while the Arc A770 with 16GB will cost $349. Intel will be offering its Arc A770 Limited Edition graphics card with 16GB of memory for the $349 price.

Intel provided some more details on its new Arc A750 graphics card, which will cost $289 -- $30 cheaper than the Arc A770 -- but maintains its 8GB of GDDR6 memory. The company will be launching its Arc A770 Limited Edition and Arc A750 Limited Edition graphics cards through retail partners at launch -- on October 12, the same day the RTX 4090 launches -- what a day!

Google has made all of its Stadia videos private, and the official Stadia YouTube channel is now a ghost town.

Google plans to shut down Stadia, its fledgling game streaming service, in January 2023. The service had largely missed its market and failed to gain traction, losing Google untold millions in the process. Now history repeats itself as Google shuts down the service as it has many other products before.

What's most interesting about Stadia is that Google has effectively scrubbed all traces of the service from its official YouTube account. All videos uploaded by the Stadia YouTube account have been made private and the following message pops up: "This channel doesn't have any content."

Google cancelled a Death Stranding sequel that could've helped Stadia take off.

Years ago when Google established Stadia Games and Entertainment, Google had opened collaborations with famed Metal Gear Solid developer Hideo Kojima. Rumors had circulated that Kojima would make an episodic horror game for Stadia (which may have evolved into his latest game, Overdose) but the reality was the auteur was laying out concepts for a new Death Stranding game for Google's ill-fated streaming service.

Sources have told 9 to 5 Google that Hideo Kojima's new game would have been a successor to the popular cinematic Death Stranding game released in 2019 on PS4. The project was to be singleplayer-only, however, which is something that Google disagreed with. Stadia's third-party dealmakers cancelled the collaboration in the middle of 2020 after Kojima Productions had delivered game assets.