Washington Post | Infrastructure & Transportation
“By the end of this year, the trucks will for the first time start traveling alone, without human minders like Jenkins, as two major companies – Aurora and Kodiak Robotics – launch fully autonomous trucks in Texas.
The advent of robot trucks could have a massive impact on America’s supply chain, dramatically reducing the time it takes to transport goods from place to place and unbinding the trucking industry from the costs and physical limitations of human labor.”
From Washington Post.
“Alphabet reported Thursday [4/24/25] that Waymo, its autonomous vehicle unit, is now delivering more than 250,000 paid robotaxi rides per week in the U.S.”
From CNBC.
“Volkswagen and Uber announced a long-term strategic partnership to deploy thousands of electric, autonomous ID. Buzz minivans on the ride-hailing network across multiple cities, starting in Los Angeles.
Why it matters: It’s the latest in a series of global autonomous vehicle partnerships for Uber, which aims to blend robotaxis with human-driven vehicles on its network.”
From Axios.
“The Chinese manufacturing giant CATL, the biggest supplier of batteries for the world’s electric cars, said on Monday that it had made technological advances..
The biggest surprise by CATL was an announcement about auxiliary batteries for electric cars. The batteries would share space in the underbody of cars, where there is now only one large battery.
The auxiliary battery would be the first commercially available electric vehicle battery that would not use graphite as one of its poles, CATL said.
Removing costly graphite will eventually make the batteries cheaper, after some initial costs, and will allow 60 percent more electricity to be squeezed in each cubic inch of the battery…
CATL … also said it had made more progress in the speed of charging main batteries. The company said its new system would allow an electric vehicle to be charged enough in five minutes to drive 520 kilometers, or 320 miles.”
From New York Times.
“Singer Katy Perry, CBS anchor Gayle King and other well-known women set off to space on Monday morning in Blue Origin’s 11th human spaceflight mission.
Why it matters: This is the first all-woman space crew in U.S. history.
The flight was led by Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ commercial space company. Minutes after taking off, the crew experienced weightlessness. Then they soon safely returned to Earth.”
From Axios.
