Decoding Draghi
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All posts tagged: cars
Trump Reportedly Planning to Let Self-Driving Cars Loose
Now that Trump is in the White House, Musk could fast-track the Cybercab. Green Light President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration is expected to attempt to widen the rules governing self-driving cars — news that has sent Tesla’s stock soaring by almost more than five percent on Monday. Loosening regulations surrounding the rules of driverless vehicles could be a boon for Tesla CEO Elon Musk, as Bloomberg reports, who has been trying his darndest to cozy up to Trump. Musk has bet his EV maker’s fate on the eventual rollout of an AI-enabled “robotaxi” service, designed to rival the likes of Alphabet’s Waymo. And with fewer roadblocks in place, investors are clearly giddy at the prospect of Tesla unleashing its autonomous vehicles on the world. That’s despite some glaring shortcomings with Tesla’s self-driving tech, leading to hundreds of collisions and plenty of terrifying close calls, as well as several investigations by federal regulators. Red Light According to Bloomberg, Trump’s transition team is looking to staff its Transportation Department with employees willing to create a framework surrounding …
Built to Last: How Ancient Roman Bridges Can Still Withstand the Weight of Modern Cars & Trucks
A foreign traveler road-tripping across Europe might well feel a wave of trepidation before driving a fully loaded modern automobile over a more than 2,000-year-old bridge. But it might also be balanced out by the understanding that such a structure has, by definition, stood the test of time — and, for those with a grasp of the history of engineering, that its ancient designers would have ensured its capacity to bear a load far heavier than any that would have crossed it in reality. With no scientific means of modeling stresses, as classical-history Youtuber Garrett Ryan explains in the new Told in Stone video above, they just had to build it tough. Key to that toughness were arches, “made of heavy blocks laid over a falsework frame until the keystone was slotted into place.” From the late first century, stonework was supplemented or replaced by brick and Roman concrete, a substance much-featured here on Open Culture. We’ve also covered the Roman bridges you can still cross today: Spain’s Puente de Alcántara (from the Arabic al-qanţarah, …
.gif?w=1200&resize=1200,0&ssl=1 "Millions of Vehicles Could Be Hacked and Tracked Thanks to a Simple Website Bug")
Millions of Vehicles Could Be Hacked and Tracked Thanks to a Simple Website Bug
In January 2023, they published the initial results of their work, an enormous collection of web vulnerabilities affecting Kia, Honda, Infiniti, Nissan, Acura, Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai, Genesis, BMW, Rolls Royce, and Ferrari—all of which they had reported to the automakers. For at least half a dozen of those companies, the web bugs the group found offered at least some level of control of cars’ connected features, they wrote, just as in their latest Kia hack. Others, they say, allowed unauthorized access to data or the companies’ internal applications. Still others targeted fleet management software for emergency vehicles and could have even prevented those vehicles from starting, they believe—though they didn’t have the means to safely test out that potentially dangerous trick. In June of this year, Curry says, he discovered that Toyota appeared to still have a similar flaw in its web portal that, in combination with a leaked dealer credential he found online, would have allowed remote control of Toyota and Lexus vehicles’ features like tracking, unlocking, honking, and ignition. He reported that vulnerability to …
‘The tranquility frees you’: Bogotá, the city that shuts out cars every week | Environment
Once a week the citizens of Bogotá take back the streets of their city. Every Sunday, between 7am and 2pm, many of the biggest roads are shut to cars and left open to bikes, skates and feet. “Ciclovía is really cool because there is a lot more space for us,” says seven-year-old Oliver Rojas, who is out cycling with his parents and is baffled to hear that this innovative scheme does not exist in the rest of the world. Like many other children in the city, Rojas learned to ride a bike on the roads during the calm of Ciclovía and has been out on them nearly every Sunday since. “Normally it’s really annoying because we don’t get any space with all the cars and motorbikes. It’s really noisy. Sundays though are really fun. I get to see new parts of the city with my family and all my friends are out so I bump into them. We stop at the big parks. And I get to do spins.” Oliver Rojas with his parents. Photograph: …
The Future of Electric Cars Hinges on a Dongle
Take a road trip in an electric car, and you’ll quickly realize that gas stations are incredible. Nothing in the world of EVs is as fast and easy as checking highway signs for the nearest Shell or BP, filling up your tank in just a few minutes, and getting on with your day. It’s not just that chargers are still hard to find. They can be dreadfully slow, adding as little as 25 miles of battery life every hour. Plenty of faster ones exist, yes, but there is no guarantee that they will work. A long-distance drive in an EV still requires a lot of planning and a lot of luck. But if you drive a Tesla, the experience is better. The company’s Superchargers are speedy—adding up to 200 miles of charge in just 15 minutes—and simple to use. Set up an account with Tesla and charging initiates automatically after plugging in. There’s no fumbling with screens or swiping a credit card. Superchargers consistently clock in as the most reliable EV chargers in the U.S. …
Electric Cars Are Made by Republicans and Driven by Democrats
Dozens of used electric-vehicle batteries were stacked like cordwood on pallets in a warehouse-style building about 30 miles east of Reno, Nevada, when I visited the site last week. The batteries were bound for an assembly line that would begin the chemical process of recycling up to 95 percent of the lithium, cobalt, and nickel they contain. Eventually, after treatment in two more buildings on the site, the metals will become a high-value, fine black powder called cathode active material that is shipped in vacuum-sealed containers to Toyota and Panasonic for the manufacture of new EV batteries. This cutting-edge recycling process has been developed by a company named Redwood Materials. Founded by J. B. Straubel, a former chief technology officer at Tesla, Redwood has invested about $2 billion in this 300-acre facility located in an industrial park in rural Storey County, not far from where Tesla has built a massive “Gigafactory” manufacturing complex. With about 900 employees now on-site, and a workforce of 1,500 expected when the plant is operating at capacity, Redwood’s Nevada facility …
EV batteries hurt the environment. Gas cars are still worse
Tenke Fungurume Mine, one of the largest copper and cobalt mines in the world, is owned by Chinese company CMOC, in southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Minerals like cobalt are important components of electric vehicle batteries, but mines that produce them can hurt the environment and people nearby. Emmet Livingstone/AFP via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Emmet Livingstone/AFP via Getty Images Tenke Fungurume Mine, one of the largest copper and cobalt mines in the world, is owned by Chinese company CMOC, in southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Minerals like cobalt are important components of electric vehicle batteries, but mines that produce them can hurt the environment and people nearby. Emmet Livingstone/AFP via Getty Images Earlier this year, NPR’s podcast The Sunday Story reached out for listener questions about electric vehicles. You can hear the resulting podcast here. We’re also taking some of the most-asked questions and answering them here on NPR.org. Electric vehicles are sometimes called “zero-emission vehicles.” But the batteries that go into them are not zero-emission at all. In fact, making those …
Best new cars for family road trips: SUVs, hatchbacks and estates
Is there anything better than packing up the car and heading off on an adventure with all the family? Whether it’s a trip to the beach, a visit to an attraction, or a camping expedition, there’s no shortage of amazing places to go. But it isn’t just the destination and stop-offs that make a good road trip, the car you choose is really important too. Comfort is a necessity, so the more space the better. Decent performance, economy and the latest in-car technology are also essential. Here we take a look at some of the many new car options available to suit a whole range of buyers. © SkodaThe 2024 Skoda Kodiaq seven-seater is better than ever Skoda Kodiaq – from £36,645 New for 2024, the second generation of Skoda’s popular seven-seater SUV is better than ever. Offered with a choice of petrol and diesel engines, plus a new plug-in hybrid option capable of 62 miles of electric-only driving, the latest Kodiaq boasts more space and more tech. For the record, luggage space in the …
Ford Europe backtracks on BEVs, may sell ICE cars past 2030
Ford Europe is reportedly flirting with the idea of adjusting its electrification strategy in the region as BEV sales have been slow to take off. Originally, the European arm of Ford Motor Company said it would only sell battery-electric models by 2030, but that commitment could soon change. Ford Europe has followed the lead of its American counterpart in making public commitments to electrification while simultaneously investing big bucks into the transition toward BEV production overseas. The automaker has already completed a $2 billion investment to convert its Cologne, Germany, facility into a BEV production hub. That location will be home to the production of the all-electric Ford Explorer this summer, as well as a second all-electric model based on Volkswagen’s MEB architecture. In addition to the Explorer, Ford currently sells the Mustang Mach-E and E-Transit van in Europe—a mere start in transitioning into a BEV-only brand by 2030. Ford made that promise in 2021 as an ambitious goal, nixing combustion vehicle sales five years before the European Union voted to ban them. With limited …