Self-driving Uber car to be tested in U.S. this year
Ride-hailing service Uber has committed to test a self-driving car on the roads of Pittsburgh, Illinois, this year, says technology business website Venture Beat. The car in question will be a Ford Fusion hybrid fitted with sensors, scanners, radars and high-resolution cameras; it initially will be used to collate map and location data and to test the autonomous car’s traffic “smarts.” A human will be in the driver’s seat “as a backup to ensure things don’t go awry.” The news comes about a year after the Uber Advanced Technologies research-anddevelopment facility opened in Pittsburgh in conjunction with Carnegie Mellon University. Mayor William Peduto reckons autonomous cars can help improve road conditions in the region. Possible battery breakthrough a chance find: Engineers at the Toyota Research Institute of North America in Ann Arbor, Michigan, think they’ve overcome an impediment to the use of magnesium in rechargeable batteries. The chemical element would replace lithium as a safer, more energy dense option in rechargeable batteries, not just for cars but most applications requiring rechargeable batteries. The breakthrough results from a chance discovery made during research into hydrogen fuel cells, reports emerging technologies website Gizmag.com. But don’t expect magnesium-based batteries anytime soon; in a paper outlining the discovery, researchers estimate it could be 20 years before such batteries go mainstream. Unlike lithium, magnesium is stable in the atmosphere and potentially more energy dense than lithium in terms of storage. “Sustainable” foams and plastics are Ford’s goal: To alleviate the “dirty” manufacture of foams and plastics used throughout the cabin of an average automobile, Ford is trying to tackle the problem by using carbon dioxide-based foams, displacing significant amounts of raw oil in the process. Fully half of the compounds in Ford’s new foam are carbon dioxide-based, meaning much less oil is used in their production. The automaker plans to use the foam in seats and under car hoods, potentially saving up to 270 million kilograms of petroleum per year. Carbon dioxide-derived foam will further reduce the use of fossil fuels in Ford vehicles and increase the presence of sustainable foam in its global lineup, the company said in a statement. The Chinese love their EVs: Electric-vehicle sales are exceeding expectations in China, reports lifestyles website Autos Cheat Sheet. EV sales topped 30,000 units in April, “doubling the numbers year over year in parts of the segment,” according to official state numbers.