Lifeboat Foundation

In the latest sign of growing interest in the flying taxi sector, United Airlines and air mobility startup Archer Aviation have announced an upcoming service for hops between downtown Chicago and O’Hare International Airport.

The service will offer a sustainable, low-noise, and cost-competitive alternative to ground transportation for folks traveling to and from the airport, United and Archer said in a release.

Remarkably, the storm has rapidly intensified six times.

Rapid intensification describes an uptick in winds of 35 mph or greater in 24 hours. Research has shown rapid intensification increasing in frequency in many ocean basins because of rising ocean temperatures linked to human-caused climate change.

Ford said Friday that its $5.6 billion BlueOval City complex outside of Memphis, Tennessee will include a truck plant capable of producing 500,000 electric vehicles a year.

The first vehicle to come off the line will be a next-gen electric truck, code named Project T3, in 2025.

Construction at BlueOval City, the epicenter for its future EV and battery cell manufacturing and a key component toward its goal to sell 2 million EVs annually by late 2026, began last fall.

A few select users will now be able to enjoy Google Maps’ immersive view, according to a blog by the company published last month. The new feature is meant to allow users to reimagine how they explore and navigate, while helping them make more sustainable choices.

“Immersive view is an entirely new way to explore a place — letting you feel like you’re right there, even before you visit. Using advances in AI and computer vision, immersive view fuses billions of Street View and aerial images to create a rich, digital model of the world. And it layers helpful information on top like the weather, traffic, and how busy a place is,” said Chris Phillips, VP & General Manager, Geo, in the blog.

Engineering researchers at the University of Arkansas marked a significant advancement in their field by completing a successful test flight of an electric motor drive on a hybrid electric aircraft, according to a university release.

The project may have a substantial impact on the aeronautics sector and have enormously positive effects on environmental quality.

Food tech startup Farther Farms has developed a process that keeps foods that would normally need to be refrigerated or frozen fresh at room temperature — and their first product is a bag of shelf-stable French fries.

The cold chain: Microorganisms are a major cause of food spoilage, and they thrive at room temperature. By keeping some foods cold, we can slow the growth of these microbes, extending the life of the food.

To do that, the foods must be prepared, shipped, and stored along a temperature-controlled supply chain (a “cold chain”). If the cold chain is broken at any point along the way, the food may quickly become unsafe to eat.

Built Robotics has introduced an autonomous pile driving robot that will help build utility-scale solar farms in a faster, safer, more cost-effective way, and make solar viable in even the most remote locations. Called the RPD 35, or Robotic Pile Driver 35, the robot can survey the site, determine the distribution of piles, drive piles, and inspect them at a rate of up to 300 piles per day with a two-person crew. Traditional methods today typically can complete around 100 piles per day using manual labor.

The RPD 35 was unveiled today at CONEXPO-CON/AGG in Las Vegas, the largest construction trade show in North America and held every three years.

The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act “Building a Clean Energy Economy” section includes a goal to install 950 million solar panels by 2030. With solar farms requiring tens of thousands of 12-to 16-foot-long piles installed eight feet deep with less than an inch tolerance, piles are a critical component of meeting that target.

Elon Musk’s Boring Company is doubling down on its Vegas bet, with a proposal that would expand its underground transport system to 65 miles of tunnels below the streets of Sin City.

The proposed network map, which was recently filed with the city of Las Vegas and not previously reported, depicts dozens of tunnels criss-crossing the city to reach more casinos, retail zones, the University of Nevada Las Vegas campus and, for the first time, even residential areas. The proposed transit system is comprised of 69 stations and 65 miles of tunnels, according to planning documents, plus an unknown number of Tesla vehicles.

If successful, a Loop station would be located within a few blocks of almost anywhere in central Las Vegas. Five stations would serve the University of Nevada; and Allegiant Stadium — home to the Raiders NFL team — would get extra links to the west of the city. Harry Reid International Airport would have several stations surrounding it, although none actually serving the passenger terminal.

One of the oldest tools in computational physics — a 200-year-old mathematical technique known as Fourier analysis — can reveal crucial information about how a form of artificial intelligence called a deep neural network learns to perform tasks involving complex physics like climate and turbulence modeling, according to a new study.

The discovery by mechanical engineering researchers at Rice University is described in an open-access study published in the journal PNAS Nexus, a sister publication of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“This is the first rigorous framework to explain and guide the use of deep neural networks for complex dynamical systems such as climate,” said study corresponding author Pedram Hassanzadeh. “It could substantially accelerate the use of scientific deep learning in climate science, and lead to much more reliable climate change projections.”