Whoa, Nellie: With three electric motors and 625 kilowatts (850 horsepower), the 2025 Rivian R1S that I’m driving storms to 100 kilometers per hour in about 2.9 seconds. The Illinois-built SUV handles more like a sport sedan than the 3,100 kilogram (6,800-pound) brute that it is. Move off-road, and an adaptive air suspension can hoist… Continue reading Rivian Flexes Software Power: What VW Gets for $5.7B
Author: IEEE_Spectrum
Gyroscope-on-a-Chip Targets GPS’s Dominance
This year, two companies—Santa Clara, California-based Anello Photonics and Montreal-based One Silicon Chip Photonics (OSCP)—have introduced new gyroscope-on-a-chip navigation systems, allowing for precise heading and distance tracking without satellite signals. Such inertial navigation is increasingly important today, because GPS is susceptible to jamming and spoofing, which can disrupt navigation or provide misleading location data. These… Continue reading Gyroscope-on-a-Chip Targets GPS’s Dominance
Advanced Magnet Manufacturing Begins in the United States
In mid-January, a top United States materials company announced that it had started to manufacture rare earth magnets. It was important news—there are no large U.S. makers of the neodymium magnets that underpin huge and vitally important commercial and defense industries, including electric vehicles. But it created barely a ripple during a particularly loud and… Continue reading Advanced Magnet Manufacturing Begins in the United States
Supersonic Passenger Jet Prototype Surpasses Mach 1
Boom Supersonic’s prototype passenger jet, the XB-1, has officially gone supersonic. The human-piloted demonstrator hit Mach 1.122 (or 1,385 kilometers per hour) at a 10.7-kilometer altitude over the Mojave Desert on 28 January—marking a major step in Boom’s plans to market commercial aircraft flying roughly twice as fast as today’s subsonic airliners by 2030. In… Continue reading Supersonic Passenger Jet Prototype Surpasses Mach 1
The Starting Line for Self-Driving Cars
The 2004 DARPA Grand Challenge was a spectacular failure. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency had offered a US $1 million prize for the team that could design an autonomous ground vehicle capable of completing an off-road course through sometimes flat, sometimes winding and mountainous desert terrain. As IEEE Spectrumreported at the time, it was “the… Continue reading The Starting Line for Self-Driving Cars
EV Batteries Last Way Longer Than Expected
The rhythms of real-world driving enable EV batteries to live far beyond the predictions of laboratory tests, according to a new study from Stanford University. Thereport, published in December inNature Energy, suggests that EV batteries could last 38 percent longer than previous lab-based estimates. That means drivers could get as much as 314,000 kilometers (195,000 miles) more out… Continue reading EV Batteries Last Way Longer Than Expected
Driverless Buses Provide New Routes for Robotaxi Tech
In the race to develop autonomous vehicle technology, some companies are steering away from robotaxis to explore a different avenue: driverless buses. With an anticipated shortage of qualified bus drivers looming and concerns growing about the relative inefficiency of robotaxis, companies are opting to equip city buses with advanced levels of autonomy. This a far… Continue reading Driverless Buses Provide New Routes for Robotaxi Tech
China’s GWM Bids for World’s Top Motorcycle With the Souo S2000
CES, as its critics are wont to complain, is getting harder and harder to distinguish from a car show. And this year was no exception. In the Las Vegas Convention Center’s West Hall, where mobility was the theme, the spectacular collection of vehicles on display made it clear that the revolutions in electricity, autonomy, or… Continue reading China’s GWM Bids for World’s Top Motorcycle With the Souo S2000
The Toyota Prius Transformed the Auto Industry
In the early 1990s, Toyota saw that environmental awareness and tighter emissions regulations would shape the future of the automotive industry. The company aimed to create an eco-friendly, efficient vehicle that would meet future standards. In 1997 Toyota introduced the Prius to the Japanese market. The car was the world’s first mass-produced hybrid vehicle that… Continue reading The Toyota Prius Transformed the Auto Industry
More EVs Migrate to Tesla’s Chargers, With Some Bumps
It’s a replay of the VHS versus Betamax war, but with higher stakes for a warming planet: A battle over EV charging standards finds Tesla winning decisively, as major automakers abandon their Combined Charging System (CCS) plugs in favor of Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS). It’s another black eye for a CCS infrastructure that’s… Continue reading More EVs Migrate to Tesla’s Chargers, With Some Bumps