Impact

Study: German emissions to grow by largest amount since 1990

Germany is forecast to slip back below the threshold it had set for cutting greenhouse gases by 2020, amid a post-pandemic recovery and unfavorable conditions for renewable energy, according to a report by an environmental think tank Sunday. Berlin-based Agora Energiewende examined data from the first half of 2021 to forecast that total emissions in […]

US probing Autopilot problems on 765,000 Tesla vehicles

The U.S. government has opened a formal investigation into Tesla’s Autopilot partially automated driving system after a series of collisions with parked emergency vehicles. The investigation covers 765,000 vehicles, almost everything that Tesla has sold in the U.S. since the start of the 2014 model year. Of the crashes identified by the National Highway Traffic […]

Energy giant promises more perks in New Mexico utility case

A top executive with global energy giant Iberdrola is promising more perks if local governments and others in New Mexico clear the way for a proposed multibillion-dollar utility merger that could affect the way power is produced and distributed in the state for years to come, Iberdrola’s chief development officer, Pedro Azagra Blázquez, was cross-examined […]

Dating changed during the pandemic; apps are following suit

Early in the coronavirus pandemic, Jennifer Sherlock went out with a few men she met through dating apps. The dates were “weird,” she said, and not just because they were masked, socially distanced and outdoors. One one occasion, a date remained masked while they were out for a stroll, but soon after invited her back […]

Climate bid faces tricky path over money for electric cars

The bipartisan compromise on infrastructure cuts in half President Joe Biden’s call for $15 billion to build 500,000 electric vehicle charging outlets, raising the stakes as the administration seeks to win auto industry cooperation on anti-pollution rules to curb climate change. The Senate legislation provides $7.5 billion in federal grants to build a national network […]

Ford, Argo AI to deploy autonomous vehicles on Lyft network

Ford Motor Co. and a self-driving vehicle company it partly owns will join with the Lyft ride-hailing service to offer autonomous rides on the Lyft network. The service using Ford vehicles and a driving system developed by Pittsburgh-based Argo AI will begin in Miami later this year and start in Austin, Texas, in 2022. It […]

Break them up? 5 ways Congress is trying to rein in Big Tech

Groundbreaking legislation is advancing in Congress that would curb the market power of tech giants Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple and could force them to untie their dominant platforms from their other lines of business. Hostility toward Big Tech has grown in recent years with the belief that its size and swagger have stifled competition, […]

Rembrandt's huge 'Night Watch' gets bigger thanks to AI

One of Rembrandt van Rijn’s biggest paintings just got a bit bigger. A marriage of art and artificial intelligence has enabled Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum to recreate parts of the iconic “Night Watch” painting that were snipped off 70 years after Rembrandt finished it. The printed strips now hang flush to the edges of the 1642 painting […]

Automakers face a threat to EV sales: Slow charging times

If the auto industry is to succeed in its bet that electric vehicles will soon dominate the roads, it will need to overcome a big reason why many people are still avoiding them: fear of running out of juice between Point A and Point B. Automakers have sought to quell those concerns by developing EVs […]

Ford: Electric vehicles to be 40% of global sales by 2030

Ford expects 40% of its global sales to be battery-electric vehicles by 2030 as it adds billions to what it’s spending to develop them. The automaker said in a presentation for investors Wednesday that it will add about $8 billion to its EV development spending from this year to 2025. That brings the total spend […]