Over the last 20 or so years, contributing editor Robert N. “Bob” Charette has written about some of the thorniest issues facing the planet at large and engineers in particular. For IEEE Spectrum, he’s dug into software reliability and maintenance, the so-called STEM crisis, and the automation paradox, examining those complex topics through the eyes… Continue reading The Staggering Scale of the EV Transition
Author: IEEE_Spectrum
Lightning Eyes 10-Minute Charging for Its Motorbikes
Lightning Motorcycles is already known for record-setting speeds. In 2011, the company’s LS-218 SuperBike set a land speed record for production electric motorcycles at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, with a 347.55 kilometer-per-hour (215.91 mile-per-hour) average run and a 351 km/h (218 mph) peak. That SuperBike topped every internal combustion engine motorcycle en route… Continue reading Lightning Eyes 10-Minute Charging for Its Motorbikes
The EV Transition Is Harder Than Anyone Thinks
Volvo Cars CEO Jim Rowan boldly proclaims that electric vehicles will reach price parity with internal-combustion-engine (ICE) vehicles by 2025. Not likely, counter Mercedes-Benz’s chief technology officer Markus Schäfer and Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo. The International Energy Agencypredicts that EVs will make up more than 60 percent of vehicles sold globally by 2030.… Continue reading The EV Transition Is Harder Than Anyone Thinks
What is Tesla’s Mystery Magnet?
Tesla’s investor day on 1 March began with a rambling, detailed discourse on energy and the environment before transitioning into a series of mostly predictable announcements and boasts. And then, out of nowhere, came an absolute bombshell: “We have designed our next drive unit, which uses a permanent-magnet motor, to not use any rare-earth elements… Continue reading What is Tesla’s Mystery Magnet?
Zipline Adds Rappelling Droid to Delivery Drones
This morning, drone-delivery company Zipline announced a new drone-delivery system offering nearly silent, precise delivery that’s intended to expand the company’s capabilities into home delivery. This requires a much different approach from what Zipline has been doing for the past eight years. In order to make home deliveries that are quiet and precise, Zipline has… Continue reading Zipline Adds Rappelling Droid to Delivery Drones
How C-V2X Is Bolstering Automotive Safety
Register For Your Free Live Webinar: “How C-V2X Is Bolstering Automotive Safety” Wednesday, 29 March 2023, 2pm ETView full description > Or Connect with Email or LinkedIn Get Started Welcome Back, ().atHas your work information changed? WelcomePlease review the fields below for completeness and accuracy prior to submitting. Welcome Back, ().Has your work information changed?… Continue reading How C-V2X Is Bolstering Automotive Safety
The EV Battery Wish List
Electric cars barely existed in 2010, when the Tesla Model S was still a glint in Elon Musk’s eye. Now more than 20 million EVs girdle the globe, according to BloombergNEF—and that count is expected to nearly quadruple to 77 million by 2025. A battery will be the high-voltage heart of each of those 77… Continue reading The EV Battery Wish List
False Starts: The Story of Vehicle-to-Grid Power
In 2001, a team of engineers at a then-obscure R&D company called AC Propulsion quietly began a groundbreaking experiment. They wanted to see whether an electric vehicle could feed electricity back to the grid. The experiment seemed to prove the feasibility of the technology. The company’s president, Tom Gage, dubbed the system “vehicle to grid”… Continue reading False Starts: The Story of Vehicle-to-Grid Power
Reimagined Jet Ski Brings EVs to the Beach
Cars aren’t the only conveyances being transformed by electricity. Along with electric motorcycles and snowmobiles, personal watercraft are floating better ways to coexist with nature and neighbors. This new breed of machines brings requisite thrills to the Great Outdoors, but without fouling the atmosphere or disturbing the peace with an internal-combustion racket. The latest comes… Continue reading Reimagined Jet Ski Brings EVs to the Beach
How High Precision GNSS Enables New Automotive Applications
The typical positional accuracy provided by standalone GNSS is 3-10 meters, which is suitable for automotive applications such as navigation and emergency call. With the emergence of high precision GNSS, able to mitigate the influence of errors, sub-decimeter positional accuracy is possible and it becomes usable for more advanced applications such as C-V2X and autonomous… Continue reading How High Precision GNSS Enables New Automotive Applications