Lifeboat Foundation

DETROIT — Electric vehicle startup Rivian Automotive got a big boost from one of its investors on Thursday when Amazon.com announced it was ordering 100,000 electric delivery vans.

Before Rivian has even begun commercial production at its factory in Normal, Illinois, the Amazon order rocketed it to the forefront of electric vehicle makers.

Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos said in Washington that as part of the online retailer’s plan to be carbon neutral by 2040 it would order the electric vans from Rivian, with deliveries starting in 2021. The goal is to deploy all the vehicles by 2024.

A bit old news.

As the fast charging infrastructure progresses towards 150–350 kW power levels (for passenger cars and beyond in case of bigger vehicles), also plug/connector suppliers try to keep pace with change.

Here we see one of the ITT Cannon DC fast charging plugs, presented at the eMove360° fairs in Munich, Germany.

Continue reading “ITT Cannon Presents Liquid-Cooled HPC Plug For 500A At 1,000V” »

Solid-state batteries are the holy grail of battery technology for automakers, but it’ll be a while before they reach production.

Such a system would give China the ability to rapidly and unpredictably access space with a reusable orbiter.

Virgin Galactic lifted the curtain Wednesday (Oct 16) on its new line of Under Amour “spacewear” for passengers on suborbital trips aboard its SpaceShipTwo vehicles.

Tesla is rolling out more Model Y prototypes for testing and we are getting to see the new electric crossover in new colors, including now a beautiful new bright red prototype spotted at Gigafactory 1.

Earlier this month, a Model Y prototype was spotted being tested around Tesla’s headquarters in Palo Alto and since then, there has been a more steady stream of Model Y sightings.

Continue reading “Tesla Model Y: beautiful new bright red prototype spotted at Gigafactory 1” »

The only in-flight beverages on the 11-seat private jet were bottled water and a genetically modified bacterial slurry designed to prevent the worst effects of hangovers.

A handful of passengers on the short evening flight from Hawthorne to the edge of the Mojave — venture capitalists, a man with a mushroom-based manufacturing company and this reporter — downed the mixture. The pilot, along with two senior SpaceX engineers, politely declined.

At the Apple Valley Airport, a helicopter waited to take us beyond a far ridge, farther from civilization. Miles from paved roads were two tents, a ring of shipping containers and an “H” painted on the dirt marking a makeshift helipad.

Elon Musk took to his Instagram to show off the elevator that could bring your car under LA traffic as a part of The Boring Company. See it in action.

The newest update to Musk’s “Boring Company,” which wants to transport your car in tunnels under LA traffic.

Tesla’s air filtration system with “Bioweapon Defense Mode” is proving useful for the owners affected by the current wildfires in California.

Watch an owner using the system while going through a hellish-looking road with scary air quality.

Continue reading “Watch Tesla with ‘Bioweapon Defense’ air system drive through scary wildfires” »