Critical considerations pertinent to connected autonomous vehicles, such as ethics, liability, privacy, and cybersecurity, do not share the same spotlight as the CAVs’ benefits. Although CAVs’ abilities to reduce the number of fatal accidents and to consume less fuel receive most of the attention, the vehicles’ challenges are equally worthy of discussion. In a trio… Continue reading What You Might Not Know About Connected Autonomous Vehicles
Author: IEEE_Spectrum
11 Intriguing Engineering Milestones to Look for in 2024
This story is part of our Top Tech 2024 special report. Journey to the Center of the Earth To unlock the terawatt potential of geothermal energy, MIT startup Quaise Energy is testing a deep-drilling rig in 2024 that will use high-power millimeter waves to melt a column of rock down as far as 10 to… Continue reading 11 Intriguing Engineering Milestones to Look for in 2024
An Electric Train You Can Pedal
E-bikes have, over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, become staples for businesses and independent gig workers who earn money transporting small, lightweight items like food deliveries. If the item can fit in a basket mounted on the handlebars or behind the rider’s seat, it can be dropped off just about anywhere. But as the… Continue reading An Electric Train You Can Pedal
From Cleaning Offices to Designing EV Charging Stations
Greta Bekerytė started out cleaning offices and ended up designing electronics for EV charging stations. It’s amazing what you can accomplish in your career when you follow your dreams. It wasn’t easy. Bekerytė moved from her native Lithuania to Norway in 2010 to take advantage of the country’s free university tuition, but first she had… Continue reading From Cleaning Offices to Designing EV Charging Stations
Neural Reactions to Fear Make AI Drive More Safely
This article is part of our exclusive IEEE Journal Watch series in partnership with IEEE Xplore. Driving in the winter, say, or in stormy conditions can induce feelings of fear—and inspire more caution. So could some of the same hallmarks of fear and defensive driving be somehow programmed into a self-driving car? New research suggests… Continue reading Neural Reactions to Fear Make AI Drive More Safely
Autonomous Subs Use AI to Wayfind Without GPS
This article is part of our exclusive IEEE Journal Watch series in partnership with IEEE Xplore. Uncrewed underwater vehicles (UUVs) are underwater robots that operate without humans inside. Early use cases for the vehicles have included jobs like deep-sea exploration and the disabling of underwater mines. However, UUVs suffer from poor communication and navigation control… Continue reading Autonomous Subs Use AI to Wayfind Without GPS
Q-Dot Display Ups the Screen Arms Race—on the Dashboard
Colorful, plus-sized display screens are proliferating in modern cars, turning them into rolling man caves: Driver instrument panels swiftly reconfigure to show maps or other data. Ferrari and Stellantis offer front shotgun passengers an interactive screen to futz with. BMW and other brands dangle lavish multimedia streaming systems for the back. Now Hyundai Mobis—the parts… Continue reading Q-Dot Display Ups the Screen Arms Race—on the Dashboard
The “Trolley Problem” Doesn’t Work for Self-Driving Cars
If you were the conductor of a trolley barreling toward two human beings, each one on either end of a fork in the track, could you choose which life to spare? This problem, one of the most famous thought experiments in all of philosophy, was proposed by British philosopher Phillipa Foot in 1967 as a… Continue reading The “Trolley Problem” Doesn’t Work for Self-Driving Cars
Extinguishing the EV Battery Fire Hype
Cars catch fire. Electric vehicles are no exception. In the U.S., according to a 2023 study citing recent data from the National Transportation Safety Board and the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, gasoline-powered, internal-combustion engine (ICE) cars were involved in about 1,530 fires per every 100,000 sold. On the other hand, pure electric vehicles (meaning those… Continue reading Extinguishing the EV Battery Fire Hype
Lucid Floats the Gravity: A Hail Mary in SUV Form
The Lucid Air breezed to a world record for EV driving range, but sales of the pricey sedan have failed to soar. The California-based Lucid Motors unveiled a hoped-for savior Thursday at AutoMobility LA: The Lucid Gravity, a handsomely wrought luxury SUV with seating for up to seven passengers, and a love letter to car… Continue reading Lucid Floats the Gravity: A Hail Mary in SUV Form