This isn't going to shave much weight off of EV's. Typically the engine weight is only 2-5% of the total weight. But it may have a much larger effect on battery efficiency and range.
Interesting that they are going the subscription route and not selling these outright. It works because the comparison with the cost of a human looks so favorable. I'd expect to see this with humanoid robots too as they take over more and more human jobs.
People in Britain have historically been quite averse to ID systems; the country is one of the few in Europe without national ID cards. Something that is standard in many other European countries.
The recent brouhaha about Apple saying AGI is not so imminent after all, disguises a more significant reality. Even without AGI, current AI is continuing along a revolutionary path that will utterly transform society.
Researchers tested Large Reasoning Models on various puzzles. As the puzzles got more difficult the AIs failed more, until at a certain point they all failed completely.
The US President and his formerly favorite South African have had a major falling out. The WH says it may pull all of SpaceX's contracts, the South African says 'go ahead', and he's decommissioning the Dragon crew vehicle, the US's only safe method of getting to and from the ISS.
Diamond prices are down 60% since a 2011 high, and they are still falling. It's not all down to lab-grown diamonds, demand is down too, especially in China.
One of the most persistent biases in commentary on AI is many people's assumption that Silicon Valley VC-funded efforts are its main driver. But all the evidence points to something bigger than them - Open-Source.
Canada is heating up at twice the global average thanks to climate change. The fire seasons of 2023 and 2024 were the worst two years for wildfires in Canadian history - now 2025 looks set to beat their record.
The rocket is quoted as having a cargo capacity of ten tonnes. How much do they think each launch will cost? If it's $1 million, then that is $100 per kg. Is there anyone willing to pay that much money for same day delivery?
Try as we might, we will never escape the limits imposed by Carnot’s logic. The same is true for Newton’s and Einstein’s and that of many others who have worked to describe the universe as it is and not as they want it to be. In that regard, Carnot haunts us. They all haunt us. As our imaginations run wild on fantastical technologies and fantastical futures, the laws of physics will be there to keep us in check.
Space looms large in our futurist thinking. It's important to address what we misjudge to be possible in that realm in order to bring our expectations back down to Earth. Read more on Substack
The paradox of Europe's space efforts is that it has the money and technical expertise to be number 1, but is always playing runner-up, and is now third behind the US and China. ESA - Europe's equivalent of NASA & China's CNSA, has 23 member states - most of which have their own national space agencies too.
This article gives details on the many shortcomings that make the 'golden dome' idea unworkable. These objections have been around since Ronald Reagan proposed the idea in the 1980's, and they are even more true today. The 'golden dome' proposal deals with ICBM-type missiles, but they are already out of date. The 'golden dome' proposal has even less chance against hypersonic missiles that travel at Mach 20.
Most people have the vague sense that we’ll all be flying around on starships in a hundred years, colonizing the planets and the stars. Or… Or… even if they’re not sure what we’ll be doing, they’re certain that technology will have advanced so much that life will be very different for human beings.
"The new analysis for Carbon Brief shows that China’s emissions were down 1.6% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2025 and by 1% in the latest 12 months."
When we start talking about the future, our minds move quickly into the fictional and fantastical, or, oddly, along a different axis, towards “dystopian” or “utopian”.
"According to the New York Federal Reserve, labor conditions for recent college graduates have “deteriorated noticeably” in the past few months, and the unemployment rate now stands at an unusually high 5.8 percent. Even newly minted M.B.A.s from elite programs are struggling to find work."
The 'Big 7' prop up the U.S. stock market, accounting for a third of its value. Their sky-high valuations rely on a 'growth' narrative—if that fades, their stocks could crash.
The new pope's choice of name was deliberate; he chose it to honor Pope Leo XIII who was Pope from 1878 - 1903. Leo XIII is famous for taking a left-wing stance on workers' rights in response to the Industrial Revolution, and calling for state pensions, social security, and other reforms rooted in social democracy.
In an interview this week, Mark Zuckerberg said most Americans have only 3 friends, but they'd like 15. Never fear, he has a solution to how to get 5 times more friends. Meta will create AI friends for you. As it will own them, as befits the world's second largest advertising company, their primary purpose will really be to sell you stuff.
Switching Chinese factory jobs to America has been in the news a lot lately. Many people have pointed out it doesn't make much sense. Do Americans really want sweatshop-wage jobs making sneakers?
NASA's plans are up in the air once again. The latest plans, yet to be approved by Congress, seek to ditch the SLS/Artemis plans for the Moon, and instead focus on sending people to Mars. That suits SpaceX's agenda, and would send NASA's money their way.
Hollywood's love of dystopian sci-fi has a lot to answer for, as it has shaped many people's ideas about the future very negatively. One of the most persistent of those ideas is that robots will only be owned by the 1%, who will use them to subjugate everyone else.
One of the distortions of AI commentary is that so much of its focus is on Venture Capitalism. Because many people are incentivized to talk about where the big money is flowing, they ignore outside their bubble. Meanwhile, often the really significant things happen elsewhere.
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