Transportation
From autonomous EVs to electric planes, from hydrogen trains to biofuel transportation, check out the most recent developments on how we’re moving transportation towards a more sustainable future in the good news section below.
Germany legalizes self-driving car tests
German automakers won't have to bring their experimental autonomous cars to California for testing anymore. The country has just approved a law allowing companies to test their self-driving cars on its roads, so long as they follow a set of conditions. Perhaps the most important requirement is that Read More...
Toyota 'backs flying car project' in Japan
Japanese carmaker Toyota has announced its backing for a group of engineers who are developing a flying car. It will give 50 million yen (£274, 000) to the Cartivator group that operates outside Toyota city in central Japan. The Nikkei Asian Review reports Toyota and its group companies have Read More...
Experiments show that a few self-driving cars can dramatically improve traffic flow
The presence of just a few autonomous vehicles can eliminate the stop-and-go driving of the human drivers in traffic, along with the accident risk and fuel inefficiency it causes, according to new research. The finding indicates that self-driving cars and related technology may be even closer to Read More...
South Korea says it’s building the world’s largest test site for self-driving cars
Now that we have self-driving cars, the next big challenge is figuring out where to test them. Most experts agree that the best places to do that are giant, government-run, fenced-off fake cities that mimic all the real conditions of the road. To that end, South Korea’s government is building Read More...
Mapped: The top 263 companies racing toward self-driving cars
Forget dot coms and social networks. The hotspot for research and investment in Silicon Valley right now is the future of transport. Convince the valley you have a new way to create a brain for a self-driving car, help people find parking, detect a drowsy driver, or build a personal electric Read More...
Study: By 2030, self-driving cars could cut car ownership by 80 percent
Stop us if you've heard this one before: someone's published a study on self-driving cars and the effect they'll have on transportation. In the past year alone, we've seen plenty of those studies. Some show that people are afraid of self-driving vehicles (even though they're totally onboard with Read More...
Self-repairing roads could also charge your electric car
Potholes are bad enough for the jarring rides, car damage and safety hazards they create, but it's also problematic to fix them. You're looking at lane and road closures that can last for days, assuming the city can even spare the resources. However, Dutch researchers might have a solution that not Read More...
India's green car plan prioritizes electric vehicles over hybrids
India's most influential government think-tank has recommended lowering taxes and interest rates for loans on electric vehicles, while capping sales of conventional cars, signaling a dramatic shift in policy in one of the world's fastest growing auto markets. A draft of the 90-page blueprint, seen Read More...
7 companies steering the self-driving car craze
In 2009, the first photos started to trickle out of a Toyota Prius outfitted with a bizarre-looking metal contraption on the roof cruising the highways around Silicon Valley. The concept seemed far-fetched at the time, but Google’s early self-driving car went on to blaze a trail for the current Read More...
Designing the next car battery with a 600-mile range
The average electric car can drive 100 miles on a charge. That’s the main stumbling block preventing the wide scale acceptance of these clean cars. Better, longer-lasting batteries are a critical component of the clean energy economy. Now, German engineers are working on improving battery design. Read More...