Waymo’s Autonomous Cars Become UPS’ Newest Delivery Drivers
UPS uses hundreds of planes and thousands of trucks to deliver about 20 million packages a day and will start getting some help doing all that work from some self-driving minivans.
The delivery giant has teamed up with Waymo to test its fleet of autonomous vehicles to move packages. Waymo minivans will start driving residential and business shipments dropped off at UPS Stores around Phoenix and drive them to a nearby UPS sorting building for processing.
The vehicles will drive themselves, though a driver will be on board to keep tabs on things. The self-driving cars are expected to get packages into UPS' network faster and more frequently, helping speed up deliveries.
Read the article at Road Show.
EVs at ‘The Tipping Point’
Key obstacles, such as EV range and price are rapidly fading away, meaning pure battery-electric vehicles could reach a “tipping point,” with prices reaching parity with gas-powered vehicles by as early as 2023.
With EVs expected to become less and less expensive to own and operate, fewer motorists will be willing to give up the freedom and flexibility of having a car in the driveway and always at the ready.
In its 2018 EV study, the Boston Consulting Group estimated about 48% of U.S. vehicles would use some form of electric propulsion, with an emphasis on mild, conventional and plug-in hybrids. The latest survey raises the figure to 51 percent.
Read the article at The Detroit Bureau.
TRUCE Software and Wireless Business Consultants Launch Partnership
TRUCE Software and Wireless Business Consultants announced the launch of their partnership to provide wireless business customers with the industry-leading solution to optimize mobile usage across their workplace, and eliminate the distractions associated with mobile device misuse.
“The business impact to our wireless customers from mobile device distraction has become impossible to ignore,” said Dennis Sheaffer, vice president, Wireless Business Consultants. “WBC chose to partner with TRUCE because of the solution’s differentiating intelligence, which enables customers to enforce their mobile usage policies without compromising safe and productive use of their mobile network.”
FMW Talks with Lukas Neckermann About ‘Being Driven’ Study Results
By Mark Boada
Since 2013, Lukas Neckermann has been one of the most visible proponents of shared, electric, self-driving vehicles as the means to achieving the three “zeroes”: zero roadway accidents, zero tailpipe emissions and zero private ownership of cars.
Managing Director of the London, UK-based Neckermann Strategic Advisors, he is the author of three books on what’s widely called the “mobility revolution,” and has appeared as a keynote speaker at a number of fleet industry conferences. Neckermann is also an adjunct instructor at New York University and includes OEMs, government agencies and mobility startups worldwide among his clients.
In his latest report, “Being Driven,” Neckermann and his colleague Frederic John sound a first cautionary note for the high-tech and auto industry companies that are continuing to invest billions in the development of those kinds of cars. Subtitled, “A Study on Human Adoption and Ownership of Autonomous Vehicles,” the 71-page report, containing original research and released late last year, documents that many consumers aren’t as ready to buy in as quickly as the autonomous vehicle community would like or need them to.
Plasma Ignition Sparks Higher Fuel Economy And Cleaner Emissions
A California start-up has produced a vehicle ignition system it says reduces harmful emissions and raises fuel economy, while tossing aside century-old science still being used today, as the world awaits greater consumer acceptance of electric vehicles.
The system developed by Transient Plasma Systems (TPS) of Torrance, Calif. substitutes low-temperature plasma for the traditional spark and also does away with ignition coils.
Running an extremely lean mixture, meaning having a lot more air than fuel, you can burn at lower temperature which is going to produce less NOX and you’re going to have a more efficient engine because there’s less heat losses burning at a lower temperature
Read the article at Forbes.
