Electric Vehicles & Cars - Page 20

Ukrainian military personnel have been spotted since the start of the Russian invasion getting about on electric bikes.

Soldiers have been using electric bikes from both Delfast and ELEEK, two Ukrainian companies. In recent images posted to Telegram, electric bikes from Delfast can be seen rigged up to carry next-generation light anti-tank weapons (NLAWS). Using electric bikes allows soldiers to cover ground quickly but significantly more quietly than motorbikes or other vehicles would allow.

The CEO of Delfast, Daniel Tonkopi, is also Ukrainian and took to Facebook to provide more information about the Ukrainian military using his company's bikes. Delfast gave away the bikes to the frontline personnel, which have since reported back with stellar reviews. In addition to now moving around heavier weaponry, it has been previously reported that e-bikes in Ukraine have been used to transport snipers around and deliver medical supplies.

Argo AI is now testing fully driverless vehicles in major US cities, including Miami, Florida, and Austin, Texas -- the first company to do driverless testing in two cities simultaneously.

The self-driving startup is backed by auto giants Ford and Volkswagen, with Argo AI announcing last week that it was testing fully driverless vehicles in Florida and Texas. An Argo staffer will be riding passenger in the vehicle, testing out the AI-powered vehicle before the service goes live to the public.

Argo will be launching an autonomous micro-transit and delivery service in Germany, powered by its fifth-generation autonomous technology, rolling out in 2025. Meanwhile, on US soil the company is tapping its fourth-generation autonomous technology: in Miami, Austin, Washington DC, Pittsburgh, Detroit, and California.

The world's first unmanned seaborne drone carrier was unveiled and launched by China on May 18th, 2022.

The ship is named the Zhu Hai Yun, and construction for it began in the Huangpu Wenchong Shipyard in Guangzhou, China, in July 2021. The vessel is 88.5 meters (290 feet) long, 14 meters (46 feet) wide, weighs 2,000 tonnes, and can travel with a top speed of 18 knots (20.7 miles per hour, 33.3 kilometers per hour).

The ship can carry over fifty autonomous systems, "including unmanned boats, drones and underwater vehicles," according to Dake Chen, the director of the Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory. The ship and its onboard drone systems will be used to undertake marine scientific research and ocean observation.

A man has reportedly become trapped inside of his Tesla Model Y 2021 after it lost all power and began to randomly catch on fire.

According to reports from CTV News, Jamil Jutha told reporters that on May 20, he was traveling towards Mountain Highway in North Vancouver at 10 am when suddenly his Tesla Model Y lost all power causing the car to come to a stop. Jutha can be heard recounting the events where he said that the Tesla was saying "error" repeatedly and that none of the electronics to any of the doors were working. "The doors wouldn't open. The windows wouldn't go down," said Jutha.

Smoke began to pour into the vehicle's interior and started to suffocate Jutha, who quickly decided his only chance of survival was to break a window to escape. Jutha said that he quickly broke a window, crawled out, and called 911. At the moment, the cause of the fire is known, but firefighters are set to examine the burnt-out vehicle on May 24. Furthermore, Jutha used his burning vehicle as an opportunity to remind all Tesla drivers that there is a mechanical level that opens up the door under the window switch control.

Hyundai has announced a gigantic new set of faciltiies that will manufacture electric vehicles (EVs) as well as batteries, with a new home to be built in Savannah, Georgia.

The company will be spending $5.5 billion on the new facilities in Georgia, while taking in another $1 billion in investment from its suppliers. Hyundai says construction on the new facilities will begin in early 2023, with the first EVs made in Georgia set to roll off the production belts in the first half of 2025.

We don't know which EVs that Hyundai will be making in the USA, with the South Korean giant saying that it will be building a "wide range" of electric cars in Georgia. The same mystery surrounds its battery-building facility, but Hyundai does say it "will be established through a strategic partnership".

A group of researchers from NCC Group in the UK has demonstrated a new way to break into Tesla vehicles.

The researchers explain that the security vulnerability can be pinpointed to the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology that is used to enter Tesla vehicles. The technology allows the driver to be authenticated when their key fob or app comes within a certain proximity of the car. The current system already comes with various safeguards, but NCC Group researchers have developed a new tool that is capable of bypassing these safeguards and remotely unlocking vehicles.

In a recent blog post by Sultan Qasim Khan, a senior security consultant at NCC Group, it's explained the researchers were able to successfully remotely unlock a 2020 Tesla Model 3 using an iPhone 13 mini that was running an outdated version of the Tesla app. The researchers explain that the iPhone was placed 27 yards away from the car, and two "relaying devices" were placed between the iPhone and the car. Combining the tool developed by the researchers and the relaying devices, they were able to successfully unlock the Tesla from a decent distance.

Tesla announced the Semi in 2017, and finally, five years down the line, the company is taking a step towards getting the electric truck out on the road.

A new report from CNET has revealed that Tesla has started accepting reservations for the Semi, which are reportedly priced at a $20,000 wire transfer deposit. Since its announcement in 2017, companies such as PepsiCo and Walmart have been able to place bulk orders for the Semi, but this is the first time smaller reservations have been seen.

Notably, Tesla has already delayed the Semi a few times, with the latest problem being the overall microchip and battery shortages caused by the pandemic. Furthermore, Tesla hasn't confirmed an official launch date for the Semi, and production is expected to begin in 2023. For those that don't know, the Tesla Semi is expected to have a 500-mile range, a fast "megacharger", and a 20-second 0-60 mph carrying 80,000 pounds. It features a price tag of $150,000.

German YouTubers The Real Life Guys have effectively turned a Tesla Model 3 into a tank over a four-week project.

The project began with cutting and welding together two giant steel constructions around which they wrapped chain tracks, each weighing 1.3 tons. The group also added twelve suspension springs to each side's structure to make them suitable for offroad use.

The group then raised the Model 3 off the ground to match the height of the rather tall finished chain tracks, and took off all of its wheels in preparation for mounting the tracks to the vehicle. The final result has the Tesla, dubbed the Model T (presumably for "tank"), sitting 80 centimeters (2.6 feet) off the ground, weighing in at 6 tons altogether.

The passenger Darren Harrison from Lakeland, Florida, was caught in a sticky situation when his pilot had a medical emergency while he was flying over the ocean.

Harrison can be heard over radio communicating to air traffic controllers and informing them that "I've got a serious situation here" and the "pilot is incoherent, he's out". Immediately air traffic controllers can be heard asking Harrison if he knows where he is, and he responds with, "I have no idea. I can see the coast of Florida in front of me, and I have no idea". The air traffic controller spoke very calmly to Harrison and instructed him to keep the wings of the plane level and to try to follow the coast while officials located the plane.

The passenger gave the air traffic controllers his cellphone number as communications via radio were fading out. Once located, Robert Morgan, a 20-year veteran air traffic controller, and flight instructor, guided Harrison back to Palm Beach International Airport, talking him through every step of the landing process using a photograph of the cockpit inside the model of the plane Harrison was flying. Harrison was able to make it back on the ground safely and actually impressed air traffic controllers with his near-perfect landing.

Hyundai is building a new Research, Development and Lab Center in Bozeman, Montana, to develop the vehicles.

The lab is being built by a unit of Hyundai called the New Horizons Studio (NHS), which focuses on developing Ultimate Mobility Vehicles (UMVs). The all-new Bozeman lab represents a $20 million investment in Hyundai's Progress for Humanity vision, will serve as the NHS headquarters, and where UMVs will be prototyped and field tested.

The NHS mission is to create vehicles that can traverse over any terrain, including those that are "challenging for conventional ground vehicles." These vehicles would be suited to applications such as natural resource management, disaster management, logistics, construction, mining, and space.

Stratolaunch's Roc aircraft is currently the world's largest flying aircraft in terms of wingspan.

The Roc's wingspan measures 385 feet (117 meters), dwarfing that of the world's heaviest plane, the Antonov An-225 cargo plane, which had 290 feet (88 meters) of wingspan before it was sadly destroyed during the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. The Roc has six Boeing 747 engines, and the newly installed pylon on the center wing will be used to carry and launch Talon-A hypersonic test vehicles.

The Roc recently completed its fifth test flight in the Mojave Desert, debuting the pylon and flying for 4 hours and 58 minutes and reaching an altitude of 22,500 feet (6,858 meters). The Talon-A vehicles carried by the pylon are rocket-powered, autonomous, reusable testbeds that can carry customizable payloads at speeds greater than Mach 5. The Talon-A vehicles provide streamlined access to a hypersonic flight environment for scientific research and technological development.

Tesla has rolled out a new Model S with an upgraded, factory-equipped, motorized, swiveling center screen... all inside of a Model S and posted on Twitter. Check it out:

The infotainment display at the center of the Model S has received a small, yet significant quality-of-life improvement from Tesla. The display is usually static and can't be moved, but now it can be tweaked so that the driver can more easily see, the passenger to their side, or people sitting in the back (especially if the car was parked).

It's not like you couldn't get this before, as you could get an aftermarket mod for your Model S and Model X -- but Tesla also had its website tease the center display with a "left-right" tilt option last year. Now it's finally here, but the web pages were updated -- with those details removed -- unfortunately.

The pop-up airport was built in the heart of the city of Coventry by U.K.-based startup Urban-Air Port Ltd (UAP).

The airport is the world's first urban airport, where electric drones and air taxis, categorized as electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicles, can arrive at and depart. The project is a collaboration between the Coventry City Council and Urban-Air Port Ltd, intending to demonstrate "the potential of urban air mobility to cut congestion and air pollution."

The planned journey will take a Tesla Model 3 over about 15,100 kilometers (~9400 miles) around Australia.

The journey is a part of the Charge Around Australia (CAA) project, which is set to begin in September as the University of Newcastle team behind the project continues testing their printed plastic solar panels in the meantime. The 18-meter (59 feet) long panels are rolled out beside the Model 3 to capture sunlight when it needs to charge.

SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has shared more details on Tesla's upcoming dedicated robotaxi electric car, something the Twitter enthusiast announced earlier this month at Cyber Rodeo.

Tesla will be aiming at the cost per mile, with the electric car maker wanting to hit volume production of the robotaxi in 2024. Musk said that Tesla will be able to provide "by far the lowest cost per that customers have ever experienced".

During Tesla's recent Q1 2022 financial results conference call, Musk talked up Tesla's upcoming robotaxI: "We are also working on a new vehicle that I alluded to at the Giga Texas opening, which is a dedicated robotaxi. It is going to be highly optimized for autonomy - meaning it will not have steering wheel or pedals. There are a number of other innovations around it that I think are quite exciting, but it is fundamentally optimized to achieve the lowest fully considered cost per mile or km when counting everything".

Hyundai has announced that it will be investing $7.4 billion in the US by 2025 to make a "suite" of EVs, upgrade its factories, and develop smart mobility technologies.

Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama (HMMA) announced it will be expanding its SUV production capabilities later this year, with the introduction of a hybrid version of the Santa Fe -- the new Santa Fe Hybrid -- that will join the Elantra sedan, Santa Fe, Tucson SUVs, and Santa Cruz Sport Adventure Vehicle on the Montgomery assembly line.

The company will begin with the electrified Santa Fa Hybrid at its Montgomery, Alabama plant in October which will see a $300 million initial investment, creating 200 jobs. I doubt we'll see the first EV roll off the production line in December 2022 exactly, as with everything these days in the post-pandemic world: delays, delays, delays.

The autonomous vehicle pulled over by police was a Chevy Bolt operated by Cruise.

San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) officers pulled over the Cruise vehicle as it did not have its lights on. The autonomous vehicle responded as expected, pulling over and waiting for the police officer to walk over to it. After unsuccessfully trying to open the door, the officer walks over to his car, which the Cruise vehicle took as a sign to take off, before pulling over again and putting on its hazard lights, allowing officers to approach it once more.

The most expensive aircraft carrier ever made has finally been completed after 13 years.

The USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) is now ready for deployment after construction began in 2009. The usual timeframe for building an aircraft carrier is five years, but the USS Ford was expected to be deployed in 2017, eight years after construction started. However, due to reliability issues with new technologies aboard the carrier, unforeseen delays meant its completion was pushed back by five years.

The event took place at the grand opening of Tesla's new $1.1 billion factory in Austin, Texas.

Tesla aims to produce half a million Model Y annually in Austin and will also be making Cybertrucks when they enter production next year if all goes according to plan. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said during the opening ceremony that turned on its side, the factory would be taller than the world's tallest skyscraper. According to Tesla's calculations, 194 billion hamsters could fit inside it.

Musk announced during the event that two new products are in development at Tesla; the Tesla Optimus (previously known as the Tesla Bot) and a "dedicated robotaxi." The robotaxi doesn't have a defined deadline but will be self-driving, "futuristic-looking," and strictly limited to taxi services. Musk also said that the first version of Optimus will hopefully begin production in 2023.

Canada has plans to ban the sales of new combustion engine vehicles by 2035 as part of its Emissions Reduction Plan.

As a nation, Canada plans to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, which led to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's announcement of a ban on sales of new combustion engine vehicles. The announcement he made in June 2021 mandates that all passenger car models contribute zero emissions by 2035.

The Canadian government has now published its Emissions Reduction Plan, which details how the nation will reach net-zero emissions. It shows Canada wants zero-emission vehicles to make up 20 percent of new vehicle sales by 2026, increasing to 60 percent by 2030.