IEN Radio: Recent Episodes
Eric Sorensen
Radio for manufacturing and engineering professionals. New industrial products, news and technical articles.
The Air Force hopes to get another 25 years out of its B-52 Bomber fleet but it’s running into some cost, scheduling and performance challenges.
The B-52 was first introduced in 1955 and the Air Force is hoping that a series of updates can keep the fleet in the air until 2050. It intends to spend $21 billion to improve the engines, radar, communications, software and weapon systems for the more than 70 B-52s still in service.
The Air Force already has the B-1 and B-2 along with the in-development B-21, but it said the B-52 still remains critical to the U.S.’s ability to deploy nuclear capabilities. Plus, it can fly nearly 9,000 miles without refueling and carry up to 70,000 pounds.
However, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the Commercial Engine Replacement Program (CERP), which represents the bulk of modernization costs, has increased by about $3 billion since a 2023 estimate, and initial operational capability has been delayed more than 15 months. While 10 out of the 13 B-52 modernizations experience challenges, the GAO said the Air Force still wants to proceed with engine production before critical flight testing is completed.
B52, #USAirForce, #Defense, #Military, #Aerospace, #MilitaryAviation, #Aircraft, #DefenseIndustry, #Engineering, #Manufacturing, #Government, #GAO, #Aviation, #NationalSecurity, #MilitaryTechnology
A western Ohio glass plant that was slated to close by the end of this year will not only remain open, but also expand its production and add jobs, company and economic development officials said last week.
Vitro, a producer of glass for automotive, architectural and consumer goods companies, announced in the fall of 2024 that it would close its facility in Crestline, Ohio, which makes glass for automotive OEMs.
State officials said that the decision came amid “sharp headwinds” in the industry and was part of a broader plan to reshuffle Vitro’s manufacturing footprint, but over the following months, improving macroeconomic conditions and “new business opportunities” prompted Vitro to weigh other options to meet demand — including, potentially, modernizing, rather than shuttering, the Crestline plant.
State economic development agency JobsOhio, also with other state officials and local economic development groups, said that it lobbied company executives to invest in Crestline instead of its other U.S. facilities, and officials announced last Monday that Vitro would move forward with a project to improve efficiency and bolster production capacity at the Ohio location. The move would retain its current workforce of 265, as well as add another 53 new jobs.
Carlos Bernal, the president of Vitro Automotive Glass, called the announcement “an important step” in strengthening the company’s competitiveness, and that it remains “committed to continuously evaluating opportunities to improve our manufacturing network.”
The Ohio Tax Credit Authority approved an eight-year tax incentive package to support the project, which includes a 1.302% tax credit over that span.
On August 30, 2022, Kawasaki Heavy Industries sued Rorze Corporation for patent infringement. Kawasaki accused Rorze of stealing its patented semiconductor silicon wafer handling and transfer robotic systems technology and — nearly four years later — a jury agreed.
In March 2026, a jury found that Rorze willfully infringed on Kawasaki's patent and awarded $16.65 million in lost profits and $31.7 million on lost royalties. However, the $48.35 million verdict didn't end there as Kawasaki tried to triple the damages to some $145 million due to the willful infringement finding.
Manufacturing, #Robotics, #Semiconductors, #Patent, #PatentInfringement, #Kawasaki, #Rorze, #SemiconductorManufacturing, #IndustrialRobotics, #Automation, #ManufacturingNews, #Technology, #LegalNews, #Innovation, #Engineering
A candy company whose origins pre-date the Great Depression made a disappointing announcement last week.
After 117 years in business, Pearson’s Candy Company will close its Minnesota factory.
According to reports, Pearson’s - operating as St. Paul Candy Company - completed a WARN filing to notify the state that it would be cutting 80 jobs in September because it lacks the funding to continue operating its St. Paul plant.
Pearson’s is perhaps best known for the Salted Nut Roll – a peanut and nougat confection that was invented during the Depression to serve as a sweet treat that was also filling, all for the price of a nickel.
Other favorites produced by the plant over the years include the Nut Goodie, Bun Bar, and Mint Patty.
The company changed hands many times throughout its century-plus in operation, and its been producing its goods from this specific St. Paul plant since 1959.
Most recently, a 2023 merger placed Pearson’s under the Promise Confections umbrella of companies, which means production of these long-standing sweets could be moved to another facility within the group, though it’s unclear at this time what - and whether - that happens.
Former Pearson’s maintenance director Scott Kieland told Minnesota Public Radio that the continuous slate of private equity owners had failed to invest adequately in the aging plant.
Alex Allen, a former Pearson’s VP, added that increasing production and ingredients costs made the closure feel “a little bit… inevitable” and that even the biggest companies in this space were feeling those same pressures.
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An affiliate of a Canadian aerospace manufacturer has filed for bankruptcy protection for its longtime factory in Southwest Ohio, according to a local report.
Magellan Aerospace USA Inc. is seeking Chapter 11 protection for the Magellan plant in Middletown, the Journal-News reports. Documents filed with the court reportedly listed assets of $10 million to $50 million and liabilities of $50 million to $100 million.
The Chapter 11 process typically allows companies to continue operating their assets; the filing would reportedly authorize company officials to pursue a restructuring or reorganization, as well as a sale of the facility or liquidation, if necessary.
Magellan, based in suburban Toronto, makes complex assemblies and systems for aircraft manufacturers, engine makers and space agencies across the globe from production facilities in North America, Europe and India. The company says the Middletown plant manufactures high-temperature, vacuum-brazed honeycomb structures for exhaust systems and control surfaces and offers assembly of titanium- and nickel-based alloy components and aluminum structures.
The facility traces its roots to 1928, when a company eventually known as Aeronca was founded in Cincinnati; it moved to suburban Middletown following a 1937 flood, and was acquired by Magellan predecessor Fleet Aerospace 40 years ago.
Magellan officials indicated in a corporate resolution this month that bankruptcy would be in the best interests of the company along with those of its creditors, employees and other stakeholders. The Journal-News said that the company did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Manufacturing, #Aerospace, #AerospaceManufacturing, #Bankruptcy, #Chapter11, #Ohio, #MagellanAerospace, #Aviation, #SupplyChain, #IndustrialNews, #ManufacturingNews, #Aircraft, #Factory, #BusinessNews, #Industry
Last week, TRISO-X announced tentative plans to create some 1,140 new jobs in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The company hopes to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in equipment to build a new fuel facility and R&D center at Horizon Center Industrial Park, according to the state's Department of Economic and Community Development .
TRISO-X is unique in that it is the first company to receive a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build and operate a commercial-scale facility for producing high-assay low-enriched uranium fuel in the U.S. The company’s parent, Maryland-based X-energy, is trying to make advanced small modular reactors, accelerate commercialization of advanced nuclear technologies and strengthen the U.S. supply chain for critical nuclear fuel.
Founded and based in Oak Ridge, TRISO-X broke ground in 2022 on what was, at the time, North America’s first commercial advanced nuclear fuel facility.
The company said it received an $11 million economic development grant from Tennessee. TRISO-X specified that the funding will support continued development of its current campus in Oak Ridge, as well as a potential second commercial fuel facility and a dedicated R&D center.
If everything goes according to plan, TRISO-X expects to have three facilities designed to establish domestic, commercial-scale manufacturing and research capabilities for the company's proprietary tri-structural isotropic (TRISO) fuel. TRISO particle fuel is considered the most robust nuclear fuel on the planet, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
The first facility, known as the TX-1, is anticipated to be the first purpose-built commercial TRISO fuel fabrication facility in the U.S. TX-1 is currently under construction.
TX-2 will be a second, larger fuel fabrication facility to significantly boost capacity, with enhanced automation and production efficiency based on TX-1 operational experience. This is where the more than 1,000 new jobs would come into play.
Finally, TX-L will be a dedicated fuel fabrication laboratory facility focused on fuel innovation, testing and continuous improvement of the manufacturing processes.
When completed, the campus is expected to establish one of the world’s largest commercial-scale nuclear fuel fabrication campuses, with the capacity to produce enough fuel to support 55 of X-energy’s Xe-100 advanced small modular reactors. That represents nearly 4.5 gigawatts of new advanced nuclear power capacity, or enough to power 3.3 million U.S. households.
NuclearEnergy, #AdvancedNuclear, #SMR, #TRISO, #TRISOFuel, #Manufacturing, #Energy, #NuclearFuel, #CleanEnergy, #OakRidge, #Tennessee, #AdvancedManufacturing, #SupplyChain, #Innovation, #MadeInAmerica
Researchers have been trying to make invisible drones and camouflaged robots for years, before that it was cars and planes. They have used everything from transparent materials to light-bending optical systems or cloaks, but haven't been able to make it happen.
But now, engineers at Northwestern University have created a drone that appears to vanish in plain sight after it takes flight.
The team created the Phantom Twist, a drone that uses a concept called "motion blur" -- the effect that makes fast-spinning fans and propellers look like a ghostly smudge.
The drone spins up to 25 times per second, which is too fast for the human eye to see clearly. While it isn’t completely invisible, it appears to seamlessly blend into the background. The work could lead to drones that monitor wildlife, survey the environment and inspect infrastructure with less visual disruption.
To design the drone, the engineers first used a computational model to generate some 20,000 drone configurations capable of stable flight. Next, they used AI and optimization algorithms to rearrange the drones’ major components, including a motor, propeller, circuit board, counterweight and batteries. It was the algorithms that determined the ideal placement of the drone’s components to minimize its visibility from virtually every viewing angle while allowing for stable flight. Northwestern’s Michael Rubenstein, who led the project, said, "The design process was fully automated ... Then, when we were confident that a drone met all our criteria, we built it."
According to the visibility metric, the optimized drone is about 10 times less visually perceptible than a conventional quadcopter.
The new drone still has several limitations. For example, the propeller still makes noise, and some wires and support rods are still somewhat visible. Next, the team is working on new iterations with more transparent materials or quieter propulsion to make the Phantom Twist truly disappear.
AI, #Drone, #Drones, #Robotics, #Engineering, #Innovation, #NorthwesternUniversity, #ArtificialIntelligence, #Technology, #STEM, #Automation, #Research, #FutureTech, #Aviation, #Manufacturing
Athletic shoe company New Balance is well known for its U.S.-based manufacturing footprint, so when it announced in 2024 that it would be closing its plant in Norridgewock, Maine, many local officials were surprised.
At the time, New Balance leaders said they’d be shifting work from Norridgewock to another Maine plant – in nearby Skowhegan.
The Skowhegan plant, which opened in 2025, was intended to serve as its “Central Maine” operation and support the production that was previously taking place under two roofs. Because of the proximity, New Balance said it would transfer all 230 Norridgewock workers to the new facility.
The biggest impact, then, was to the community of Norridgewock – a small town whose service sector relied heavily on the plant’s workforce for economic activity.
However, in a move that may “make it up” to the community, New Balance later made the offer to donate its factory to the town.
According to the Bangor Daily News, a Skowhegan-based food company called Maine Grains is interested in the former shoe factory site as a production facility for grain-based bars, cereal and other products.
If the town’s residents agree to what’s been proposed among the companies, then New Balance would give the town the factory – at which point, Norridgewock would segment out 50,000 square feet to transfer to Maine Grains for its production expansion.
The other two-thirds of the 170,000 square foot site could be leveraged at the town’s discretion, and local officials say their ownership would open up a lot of new avenues for redevelopment.
As icing on the cake, New Balance has offered to pay to maintain the currently vacant plant for the next two years, meaning Norridgewock would have a little time to get some plans in place for how it can be used profitably.
The town’s board has set a special town meeting for July 20th, where residents can cast ballots on whether the community should be authorized to take the donation – though it doesn’t require them to seal the deal.
The expansion for Maine Grains would create an estimated 15 jobs in Norridgewock, though some officials are remaining cautious as the scenario plays out.
Maine State Sen. and Norridgewock resident Brad Farrin said recently he hopes that “in the fever of trying to move this thing forward” that the town and board “dot our I’s and cross our T’s.”
Yesterday, Miller High Life, a Molson Coors brand, announced an interesting new position. The beermaker is looking for a Mayor of the "Champagne of Beers" region—and that region is oddly specific.
Odd jobs work as PR stunts. Remember when Custom Cones USA offered a $70,000 salary for the "Ultimate Stoner Dream Job,' which was basically a content creator who smoked weed every day—they reportedly had so many applicants that they were overwhelmed by the response.
Well, this one isn't as lucrative, but it would be a banger for the resume. The winner will be the candidate who "best embodies the passion for High Life—and what it means to call the home of Miller High Life your own."
The prize package is ... fine. It includes an exclusive dinner for eight at the Miller Caves, a historic part of the Miller Brewery dating back to 1849. The winner also receives a pair of High Life t-shirts, two hats, and a $2,000 check to basically pay the taxes on the prize. The winner also walks away with two cases of High Life, which seems low. I feel like the Mayor of the Champagne of Beers Region should score a few more than 48 beers.
Furthermore, the winner must also attend an “honorary Mayor Inauguration” at the Miller Visitor’s Center in Milwaukee on September 19, 2026, or the prize will be forfeited in its entirety. All told, the Mayor of the "Champagne of Beers" region will land a salary valued at $6,500.
Molson Coors is technically a sponsor, and Merkle, a company that specializes in digital marketing experiences, is running the show.
To enter, you must live in one of about 86 zip codes, not mine, and be 25 years old—or older.
To win, you must not only be eligible but also submit to a confidential background check. Miller needs to make sure the winner hasn't engaged in any brand-damaging conduct. They certainly don't want to trigger a negative viral response — looking at you, Bud Light.
The contest began yesterday at noon CT and will end on August 23, 2026, at midnight.
Each contestant must include an original essay -- which is loose given that it's 250 words or less -- describing why they should be the mayor of the High Life, as well as a photo of them living the “High Life”. What would that be? Given that it's summer in Wisconsin, I figure it's some sort of tubing or pontoon-related photo. Oh, and it can't be AI-generated, any of it.
Of course, there are a host of rules that you can break with this essay, but they seem straightforward. For example, you can't make any deceptive or unsubstantiated claims about Molson Coors products, you can't mention any brand or trademark not owned by the company, and you can even get DQ'd if you have unauthorized third-party content or art in the background of your photo.
The winner will be chosen by a panel of "qualified judges" who will score each submission based on the following.
- 50%: Passion for High Life
- 25%: Originality (stands out as memorable)
- 25%: Strength of Argument (why you should be picked over everyone else).
Do you have what it takes to be the Mayor of the "Champagne of Beers" region? If so, good luck.
MillerHighLife, #MolsonCoors, #Beer, #Wisconsin, #Milwaukee, #Manufacturing, #FoodManufacturing, #Marketing, #Branding, #Contest, #Jobs, #PRStunt, #Brewery, #MadeInWisconsin, #ChampagneOfBeers
A few years ago, food manufacturer Land O'Lakes had a radical idea: What if it let part-time employees pick their own schedule?
In early 2022, coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Arden Hills, Minnesota-based maker of dairy products and animal feeds noticed a sea change in employee priorities: people wanted flexibility.
So, the company rolled out the Flex Work program for employees working 16-30 hours per week. Workers set the hours they can work, and Land O'Lakes figures out how that fits into production. Most of these positions are in operations and supply chain roles at the company's factories, but they also have positions in housekeeping, office clerking and sanitation—and no previous experience is required.
The pilot project debuted at the Land O'Lakes facility in St. Joseph, Missouri, and the company said the response was "overwhelming," with more than 100 applicants in the first few days. The roles are ideal for parents being pulled in 100 different directions, college students looking to pay rent or retirees looking to stay busy. According to the company, some employees who started in Flex Work have even transitioned to full-time roles.
Current positions available in the program include a Flex Production Operator in Neosho, Missouri; a Flex Housekeeper in Hillsboro, Wisconsin; a Maintenance Technician in Saint Joseph, Missouri;and a Warehouse Operator in Black River Falls, Wisconsin.
According to a report in Fortune, it was a now-retired chief supply chain officer who championed the concept. Basically, the exec said the company needed to move beyond the mentality of "that can't happen in manufacturing environments."
The company has some 60 manufacturing facilities in the U.S. , but plans to roll the initiative out across all 140 of its domestic locations.
Land O’Lakes said that views and applications for flex roles are about 25% higher than for traditional roles, and turnover is significantly lower. Turnover among flex workers is 12 points lower than among recently hired full-time talent.
While it may not make a career, Flex Work could be a solution for people looking to make a little extra cash and companies looking to fill gaps on the floor.
Manufacturing, #ManufacturingJobs, #Workforce, #Hiring, #FlexibleWork, #FlexWork, #LandOLakes, #SupplyChain, #FactoryJobs, #Operations, #SkilledTrades, #IndustrialJobs, #Careers, #FutureOfWork, #MadeInAmerica
Welcome to another episode of Gen Z in Manufacturing, a podcast that asks young people about their journeys in manufacturing, how they intend to influence the industry and what they are looking for from an employer.
For this episode, I welcome Josiah Bondy, a 29-year-old senior product marketing manager for Miter, a software developer that helps construction and field service contractors manage their workforce and field operations.
Bondy holds degrees in communication & digital arts and business administration and previously spent nearly five years at Fulcrum, where he worked closely with shops to upgrade tech stacks and apply AI.
In this episode, Bondy discusses:
- (2:28) Major disconnects between software companies and manufacturers
- (6:43) How manufacturing ‘storytellers’ can spark more interest in the industry
- (10:49) Gen Z is wired to embrace change as an opportunity
- (12:30) Are tech companies building for manufacturing or forcing manufacturing to adapt to them?
Please make sure to like and share this episode of Gen Z in Manufacturing. To view previous episodes, visit manufacturing.net. If you are a member of Gen Z and would like to discuss your experience in the manufacturing industry, please get in touch with me, Nolan Beilstein, at nolan@ien.com.
Manufacturing, #GenZ, #NextGenManufacturing, #FutureOfWork, #SkilledTrades, #Engineering, #IndustrialAutomation, #STEM, #ManufacturingJobs, #MadeInAmerica, #Industry40, #SmartManufacturing, #TechTok, #CareerTok, #BlueCollar, #FactoryLife, #Automation, #EngineeringLife, #Innovation, #ModernManufacturing
Federal agents conducted an operation at LaFontanella Foods’ facility in Kansas City, with outlets reporting that law enforcement detained up to eight people. The company manufactures food products, including Cascone’s [cas-CONY] pasta sauce.
A spokesperson for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed to IEN that “Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Kansas City conducted a federal criminal search warrant in Kansas City, Missouri July 9,” but declined to provide additional details. Jackson County Sheriff Darryl Forté wrote on Facebook that the operation “was not an immigration raid” and that federal authorities identified a person he described as an unregistered sex offender at the scene. According to Forté, a sheriff’s office detective arrested the individual and transported tchem to the county’s detention center.
However, local media, an immigration support organization and a state representative described additional details about the operation.
State Representative Wick Thomas said they visited the scene and witnessed masked agents in unmarked vehicles detain four people, while also receiving reports that six to seven people were taken into custody. The Kansas City Star reported that agents wearing HSI jackets escorted “at least six people” out of the facility. Meanwhile, NPR member station KCUR and the Advocates for Immigrant Rights and Reconciliation (AIRR) reported that federal authorities detained eight workers.
According to Thomas’ statement, family members attempted to show agents that individuals taken from the facility had work visas and were authorized to be in the country. AIRR said the site’s manager claimed agents presented a warrant for the building, though the organization said it could not confirm the warrant’s existence.
LaFontanella Foods and AIRR have not confirmed to IEN the exact number of people detained or how many of those individuals worked at the facility. Thomas has also not responded to IEN’s request for comment.
AIRR’s statement said the operation lasted from about 10 a.m. to noon. The Star reported that law enforcement escorted people from the facility at approximately 11 a.m. and that additional agents arrived around 11:45 a.m. wearing jackets labeled HSTF (Homeland Security Task Force), a partnership between HSI and the FBI. The publication also reported that agents appeared to remove computers and documents from the facility but declined to disclose what they seized.
Manufacturing, #FoodManufacturing, #ICE, #HSI, #KansasCity, #Missouri, #FederalInvestigation, #FactoryNews, #ManufacturingNews, #SupplyChain, #FoodIndustry, #Workforce, #BusinessNews, #IndustrialNews, #BreakingNews
Sony earlier this month announced plans to end physical game disc production for all new games released on PlayStation consoles beginning January 2028. The consumer electronics giant has already started the transition.
According to an ORF Salzburg report spotted by The Verge, Sony’s disc plant outside of Salzburg, Austria currently makes 600,000 discs every day. But that figure will soon drop significantly. Dietmar Tanzer, head of Sony’s Digital Audio Disc Corporation, said PlayStation discs account for 50% of the plant’s daily volume. He estimated that disc production in 2028 will be at about 10% of where it is today.
The good news is that the 300 workers at the plant won’t be laid off once the PlayStation discs stop rolling off the line. Instead, the facility is transitioning to manufacturing optical microlenses, and it’s already invested 30 million Euros in the equipment needed to produce them. As the report points out, some employees have switched over from disc production, and Sony plans to retrain staff “on a large scale” before launching mass production of optical microlenses as early as 2027.
The bad news is that PlayStation users will no longer have a physical copy of purchased games, a change that’s sparked outrage in the gaming community. Canadian retailer PNP Games started an online petition urging Sony to change its mind, and nearly 300,000 have already signed on in support.
PNP CEO Jade Pearce told IGN that Sony killing PlayStation discs could have far-reaching negative effects beyond just angering gamers.
“Physical games support an entire industry that an all-digital future quietly erases: retailers, distributors, manufacturers, warehousing and logistics, the pre-owned and trade-in market, and the collector and preservation community,” she said.
Sony justified the decision by noting that the “general preference for digital media significantly outpaces physical discs,” but promised to “prioritize our resources to drive innovation in how players can access games and provide choices as to where players prefer to purchase new games, whether that’s at retailers or online.”
PlayStation, #Sony, #Gaming, #VideoGames, #GameIndustry, #DigitalGaming, #PhysicalMedia, #Manufacturing, #ManufacturingNews, #Factory, #Technology, #GamingNews, #Optics, #Microlenses, #PlayStation5
The former chief human resources officer of pharmaceutical manufacturer Nephron filed a lawsuit against the company, alleging it wrongfully terminated her after she raised concerns about illegal conduct.
According to court documents, Nola Grant began working for South Carolina-based Nephron in October 2022. During her employment, she allegedly discovered that the company experienced a loss of fentanyl and failed to report the incident to the DEA or other required authorities. Grant claimed she raised the issue with the company’s chief administrative officer and chief operating officer, but no corrective action was taken and no report was filed.
The lawsuit argued that Grant’s reporting of the fentanyl loss constituted protected whistleblower activity and stated that she faced retaliatory conduct that led to her wrongful termination in April 2025.
In a separate incident, Grant alleged that CEO Lou Kennedy lied to the FDA about Nephron’s use and storage of a company warehouse in Calhoun County. The lawsuit said Grant possesses a recorded conversation in which Nephron’s operations director admitted that the company cleared the warehouse during a “late-night” operation in anticipation of FDA inquiry. Additionally, Grant claimed that two other Nephron employees admitted that the company provided altered surveillance footage when the agency requested to review the preceding 24 hours of video.
EV maker Lucid, for the second time this year, announced a round of job cuts aimed at advancing its “path toward profitability and positive cash flow generation.”
The company said it will reduce its current U.S. workforce by approximately 18 percent, including full-time employees, contractors and hourly production workers in manufacturing. Part of the plan includes eliminating the second shift of production at its AMP-1 factory in Arizona.
The cuts are reaching the C suite, too. Lucid’s Chief Operating Officer, Marc Winterhoff, will be leaving the company after his position was eliminated. But he will receive continued security support and he gets to keep his company vehicle.
Lucid said it expects the restructuring to provide annualized cost savings of approximately $158 million while incurring cash charges of approximately $32 million related to severance, employee benefits and employee transition.
LucidMotors, #Lucid, #ElectricVehicles, #EV, #EVNews, #Automotive, #AutoIndustry, #Manufacturing, #ManufacturingNews, #FactoryJobs, #Layoffs, #BusinessNews, #ArizonaManufacturing, #VehicleProduction, #CleanTech
Ford Motor filed a major lawsuit last week alleging rampant lawsuit abuse and fraud from Quill & Arrow, a law firm that files thousands of Lemon Law cases every year against Ford and other automakers.
The lawsuit accuses Quill & Arrow of "fabricated attorney billing records, unauthorized practice of law, and deliberate obstruction of Ford’s ability to fulfill its warranty obligations." According to the automaker, these actions have damaged Ford’s relationship with its customers and erode future sales.
In the complaint, Quill & Arrow is described as “a fraudulent and illegal billing factory, conceived and constructed to exploit the Lemon Law’s fee-shifting provisions.”
The lawsuit alleges a number of violations under California law, including artificially-inflated attorney fees. The firm is allegedly using unregistered foreign attorneys to practice law in California while billing at California attorney rates for work performed entirely by non-lawyers. The non-lawyers are making as little as $13 per hour, Quill is billing rates of $350 to $950 per hour.
Ford #AutomotiveNews #LemonLaw #ManufacturingNews #AutoIndustry #BusinessNews #IndustrialNews #FordMotorCompany #LegalNews #IndustryNews
Blue Origin, the commercial space exploration company owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, is expanding and possibly moving into the “balloon” factory formerly owned by now-defunct space tourism company Space Perspective.
According to Florida Today, Blue Origin is in negotiations with the current owners of Space Perspective to acquire a 700-foot-long facility located at Space Coast Regional Airport. The 49,000-square-foot fabric-walled factory features two 600-foot-long production tables, ideal for making really big balloons. But now, as the report points out, the site will likely help support “future manufacturing and bulk outdoor storage operations” for Blue Origin.
For Space Perspective, the sale of the facility marks an end to its fairly unique space tourism dream. The company’s space capsule, which was claimed to be the largest human spacecraft outside of the space station, was designed to be carried to the edge of space by a hydrogen balloon, giving passengers views of Earth from miles above. The company had planned to charge passengers $125,000 per trip but had also offered up free trips through a partnership with Oreo.
It would have given ordinary people the chance to fly to the stratosphere without having to endure the rigors of traditional space travel. But the company, which was founded in 2018, earlier this year received an eviction notice after falling behind in rent payments at its Florida facility. It also furloughed most of its 140 employees.
Now it looks like the balloon is officially popped, with Blue Origin stepping in to fill the vacuum.
But things haven’t been all smooth sailing for Bezos and company. Blue Origin last month announced a $600 million production expansion project at its Rocket Park campus at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. Just a few days later, Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket exploded on the launch pad, causing a major setback for the company and raising several concerns from nearby residents.
Last year, Ford recalled a record-breaking 12.9 million vehicles over 153 separate campaigns – an embarrassing fail the automaker is looking to remedy. And like most businesses, it's leaning on cutting edge technology to make improvements.
In a recent interview with Road & Track, Ford’s leadership revealed a new strategy they say is already enhancing the quality of its engines. And it’s about getting back to the basics.
The Ford Essex engine plant in Windsor, Ontario produces multiple engines for Ford’s line, including the Coyote 5-liter V-8 for the F-150 and the Mustang, as well as the Super Duty truck engines in 6.7- and 7.3-liter varieties.
But this story is less about what Essex is building, and more about what it’s taking apart.
Essex plant manager Neil Wilson told Road & Track that the plant has started tearing down one engine every single day and subjecting it to a battery of tests.
Previously, Ford reportedly conducted this intensive engine teardown once every three months, or when there was a suspected issue.
After last year’s recall extravaganza, however, that changed. And Ford’s new frequency is apparently catching things that would have, in the past, slipped through the cracks.
JBS USA plans to close two facilities in Pennsylvania and Tennessee and a portion of another Tennessee site in a move expected to eliminate more than 2,000 jobs.
According to a WARN Notice, the company will lay off 1,485 workers at its beef production facility near Philadelphia. ABC 24 Memphis reported that the closure of the value-added Empire Packing site in Tennessee will affect 208 jobs. Additionally, JBS-owned Pilgrim’s Pride plans to close Chattanooga's harvesting operation and lay off 348 employees, as part of a $75 million expansion in Ellijay, Georgia.
JBS said its nationwide network would absorb production from the Philadelphia and Memphis locations.
Meanwhile, Pilgrim’s said its changes will increase harvesting and portioning capacity in Georgia, enabling the facility to produce a broader mix of boneless chicken products. The company will continue to use Chattanooga’s deboning infrastructure to support the expansion and added that the project would not impact the region’s grower base.
JBS USA said the closures represent a strategy focused on modernization, growth and long-term competitiveness. CEO Wesley Batista Filho [FEEL-oh] stated that the company is “investing where we are growing and making difficult adjustments where needed.”
JBS Beef North America reported an adjusted operating income loss of $279.4 million in its Q1 2026 earnings report, compared to a $158.4 million loss a year ago. The segment said rising live cattle prices outpaced the change in cutout values due to limited cattle availability. It also cited continued restrictions on live cattle imports from Mexico.
JBS, #PilgrimsPride, #FoodManufacturing, #Manufacturing, #ManufacturingNews, #Layoffs, #FactoryClosure, #FoodIndustry, #MeatProcessing, #BeefIndustry, #PoultryIndustry, #SupplyChain, #Workforce, #IndustrialNews, #AmericanManufacturing, #Operations, #BusinessNews, #Production, #FactoryJobs, #IndustryNews
Welcome to another episode of Gen Z in Manufacturing, a podcast that asks young people about their journeys in manufacturing, how they intend to influence the industry and what they are looking for from an employer.
For this episode, I welcome Jerry Klein, a 27-year-old technical support specialist for Artec 3D, a supplier of handheld and portable 3D scanners for multiple industries, including manufacturing, reverse engineering and quality inspection.
Klein’s duties at Artec 3D include one-on-one product training, product development, responding to customer inquiries and contributing to 3D scanning projects worldwide.
In this episode, Klein discusses:
- (:56) A fresh way to save time and money
- (3:19) Where Gen Z is making a difference through 3D scanning
- (5:37) How young people handle training
- (7:40) Where Gen Z sees more opportunities for digitization in manufacturing
Please make sure to like and share this episode of Gen Z in Manufacturing. To view previous episodes, visit manufacturing.net. If you are a member of Gen Z and would like to discuss your experience in the manufacturing industry, please get in touch with me, Nolan Beilstein, at nolan@ien.com.
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On Wednesday, some 1,000 union workers who were on strike at GM supplier Dauch Corporation, formerly American Axle, in Three Rivers, Michigan, reached a tentative deal with the company. The new contract will secure the workers' topline demand of $30 per hour by 2030, a more than 36% increase to the top wage rate over the next four years.
Members of the UAW Local 2093 walked out on strike at midnight on June 1, 2026. The plant makes axles for GM’s GMC Sierra and Chevy Silverado pickup trucks and commercial vans.
In a statement, UAW President Shawn Fain, said, "After 18 years of sacrifice, these workers are finally winning back a big chunk of what was taken from them."
According to the union, American Axle workers made major sacrifices to save the Three Rivers facility from closure during the Great Recession in 2008.
"Many long-time workers who were making as much as $29 an hour in 2008 saw their wages slashed to $14.50," the UAW said.
UAW members hired before May 31, 2012, including those who went from $29 per hour in 2008 to $14, will see an immediate $8 per hour increase once the new contract is ratified. Union workers will also see more paid days off and won't have to make any concessions on their current health care costs. For example, workers won’t experience any healthcare premium cost increases over the next four years. The union also won time off to celebrate Martin Luther King Day and Veteran's Day, as well as more days off for Christmas. Workers with at least one year of seniority will receive an additional nine vacation days per year as well as a $2,000 ratification bonus.
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The robotaxi company Waymo has announced new capabilities that provide benefits completely distinct from its primary business model.
Waymo says that the large, heavy, power-intensive batteries that power its fleet will no longer go to a recycling center at the end of their lives. Instead, they have a new use: supporting the power grid.
Through a new partnership with B2U Storage Solutions, Waymo’s batteries will be repurposed in order to store clean energy. But rather than in one-off implementations, the goal for this effort is to establish grid-scale storage systems.
Adam Lenz, head of Sustainability & Environment at Waymo, “Our shared fleet of EVs provide a massive opportunity to support the growth of clean energy on the electricity grid while expanding the circular economy,” adding it was important to the company that the batteries continue to provide “economic and environmental value” after they were retired from the road.
The plan goes hand in hand with solar power, according to Waymo, who contends that the batteries will primarily be used to store the surplus energy produced during peak hours – namely the middle of the day when the sun is at its highest point. The batteries will then distribute that power during peak demand in the evenings.
They say the process is largely plug-and-play, with batteries coming from cars and capable of being online in this power storage capacity within a matter of days.
The first deployments derived from the partnership will take place in Texas and California – two states who not only have a significant need for electrical grid support but who also happen to already host Waymo fleets.
Fellow automaker GM also recently revealed that it was expanding into different battery cell chemistries for varied uses – notably to increase its vehicle-to-grid capabilities. The automaker hopes to take advantage of the growth in AI data center development and use its batteries to help offset the strain on the nation’s utilities.
Waymo, #Robotaxi, #AutonomousVehicles, #EV, #ElectricVehicles, #BatteryStorage, #EnergyStorage, #RenewableEnergy, #SolarEnergy, #CleanEnergy, #PowerGrid, #BatteryTechnology, #Sustainability, #Manufacturing, #ManufacturingNews
In AI oops, Dodge briefly sells T-shirts featuring what appears to be a Toyota Tacoma.
For all the things AI does well, it’s also known to have its limitations.
These limitations were recently on full display when Dodge RAM enthusiasts discovered what might be considered an odd handful of items on the brand’s online merchandise store.
Among the tumblers, coolers, hats and backpacks featuring the RAM logo, was a product dubbed “2026 RAM PATRIOTIC UNISEX T-SHIRT.” The patriotic part was a red, white and blue illustration of a rippling American flag and the RAM part was a graphic of a pickup truck with the words “RAM POWER” underneath.
It didn’t take web sleuths very long to point out a few unsettling details about this design, however. For one, the American flag featured just 38 stars and the RAM truck – well, it wasn’t even a RAM.
According to a report in Autopia, the truck’s details suggest that it was, in fact, a competitor’s vehicle – a Toyota Tacoma – from model year 2023, at that.
It was this indefensible gaffe that led to speculation that the shirt – as well as a complementary banner on RAM’s site that also featured the Tacoma – was a product of AI, and shortly after the web coverage, both offending products were removed.
Motor1 underscored the punchline by pointing out that Stellantis had another AI swing and a miss back in March when the Dodge brand used its Instagram account to feature “throwback” photos of some of its old models. Unfortunately, it turned out the vehicles were AI-generated, meaning some of the featured models never, in fact, existed.
Perhaps the takeaway here is that, if you’re going to use AI to generate content or designs, make sure you keep enough humans around to check for slop, because anyone who works for Dodge probably could easily tell the difference between their own truck and a Toyota.
As Autopia’s report said, what this t-shirt featured was “definitely not a RAM, even if someone or some algorithm slapped a RAM badge on that distinctive Tacoma grille,” adding that RAM “should be embarrassed.”
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An unlicensed potato chip factory in Australia has been fined after authorities were tipped off by the facility’s grand opening event.
According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Western Australia “Spud King” Tony Galati created the house brand chips Spuddies so he could sell them at his Spudshed stores. He established a facility to manufacture the potato chips and acquired all the necessary equipment including an industrial peeler, blancher, fryer and weight checking system to help with portion control and bagging. He just didn’t get any work approvals.
The “Spud King” may have gotten away with it, at least for a little bit longer, if he hadn’t planned and notified regulators about a grand opening event for the factory. But now the Galati Group has been caught for manufacturing without a license and for dumping “non-oily chip-making waste” without a license. The company has been fined $20,000, equal to about $14,000 in the U.S.
This is not the first time the “Spud King” has gotten salty with regulators. Galati, a well-known potato grower in Western Australia, played a key role in the full deregulation of the state’s potato industry. Even after the Potato Marketing Corporation was cooked, Galati was still found in contempt for purposefully planting more potatoes than allowed.
In 2024, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission hit Galati with more than $60,000 in fines for trading with at least four growers without a horticulture produce agreement in place.
No matter how you slice it, the “Spud King” sounds like a potato man who doesn’t play by anyone else’s potato rules.
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A Washington state manufacturer of tooling and parts for advanced industries plans to establish its third production facility in Montana — and create about 2,000 jobs.
Janicki announced Tuesday that it selected Great Falls, Montana, for the $800 million project, which would complement the company’s existing production facilities in Northwest Washington and suburban Salt Lake City.
The privately-owned engineering and manufacturing company, established in 1993, says it designs and builds tools, parts, assemblies and prototypes for a wide range of industries, including aerospace, defense, architectural and marine applications. It specializes in composite fabrication and precision machining utilizing its proprietary 5-axis mills, which it says are among the largest in the world.
Janicki officials said in a statement that growth in its aerospace and defense programs, in particular, has pushed demand beyond its capacity in Washington and Utah. The Montana plant, they added, will be part of a “multi-state, phased growth strategy.”
The company anticipates building a campus that would add 2 million square feet of production space over the next decade. The project would create about 1,000 jobs within the first five years and more than 2,000 jobs overall once construction is complete — a total that would roughly double its current workforce.
Montana Free Press reported that Janicki would receive a 50% property tax break from the city and county over five years, which would then be gradually phased out over the following five years. The incentives would reportedly be applied separately to each of the project’s four phases of construction.
Janicki expects to begin construction next month and open the first phase of the new facility by the end of next year.
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A manufacturing defect may be to blame for an issue potentially impacting some 88,000 Harley-Davidson motorcycles.
Reports suggest that removing the dipsticks to check the motorcycles’ oil has been linked to a nasty surprise – spraying oil.According to the NHTSA, the issue stems from a design problem where bikes equipped with an airbox baseplate have a breather port that may be blocked.
This allows pressure to build up inside the crankcase with nowhere to go – until the pressure is released after the dipstick is withdrawn. Carscoops described it as “akin to shaking up a bottle of coke and then uncapping the lid.”
The Wisconsin-based company has recalled nine different models for this possible issue and is also reportedly aware of an incident where a dealer technician was injured by spraying oil while working on one of its bikes.
The quickest fix is related to awareness; if technicians and bike owners can release the built up pressure slowly, they can prevent the “coke bottle” effect from occurring. Even better, owners of the motorcycle should bring in their recalled bike for a free repair of the blockage, if necessary.
Carscoops says Harley’s own investigation uncovered 192 reports involving blocked breather ports. Of these, just over a dozen resulted in the oil discharge.
Harley's North American sales rose 14% in Q1 of 2026, with CEO Artie Starrs saying the company was "pleased" with the results. Still, the company's profits plunged 81% year over year, an outcome attributed to tariff costs, higher sales incentives, and unfavorable product mix.
Last month, Harley also unveiled a new strategic plan - "Back to Bricks" - with the goal of adding more affordable models, gaining market share and improving its operating efficiency.
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A new lawsuit accused Sherwin-Williams of releasing “unreasonable noxious odors” from its coatings manufacturing facility in Rochester, Pennsylvania. The complaint alleges damages that exceed $5 million and demands a trial by jury.
Court documents stated the facility makes coatings for packaging materials that it delivers to customers, distributors and blending sites. According to the EPA, coating formulation at plants like this generally involves four major steps, which include preassembly and premix, pigment grinding or milling, product finishing and product filling.
The lawsuit acknowledged that the solvents used in these processes can emit hazardous air pollutants. However, it pointed to a condition in a Sherwin-Williams permit that limits the company’s volatile organic compound emissions. The condition prohibits the malodors from being detectable beyond the property line.
Sherwin-Williams reportedly received notices of violations (NOV) from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Quality regarding the odors in April 2022, April 2023, January 2026 and March 2026. The January NOV said the plant failed to install a thermal oxidizer and did not perform required stack testing on its scrubbers.
One plaintiff complained that she could smell the fumes inside her home even with the windows closed, while another described the odor as a “sweet smell” that leaves an aftertaste. The lawsuit also reported symptoms from putative class members that included upset stomachs and headaches. One putative class member alleged that the odor issue did not exist when Valspar owned the facility. Sherwin-Williams acquired Valspar in 2017.
Sherwin-Williams has not responded to IEN’s request for comment.
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When a custom rubber stamp manufacturer last week made a plea for people to take his factory’s scraps, the responses started bouncing in.
Nic Magnuson, who runs Magnuson Custom Stamps and helps lead operations at Unity Stamp Company in New London, Minnesota, said his companies throw out more than 200 pounds of clean natural rubber scraps each week. He reached out to mulch recyclers, playground surfacing specialists and more about taking the scraps, but no one wanted it. So, he took to Reddit, offering to ship out the rubber scraps to anyone who wanted it, just asking them to cover roughly $1 per pound in shipping costs.
Magnuson said the Reddit post has so far racked up around 6.6 million views and that he’s received hundreds of emails and DMs.
“I've been working through them one by one and I'm still not caught up. The variety of intended uses has been the best part,” he said in an email.
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After a Tesla Cybertruck recall earlier this month warned of wheels potentially falling off vehicles, the latest recall to hit the electric vehicle maker is fairly inconsequential by comparison.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recently released a recall notice potentially impacting 14,575 Tesla Model Y vehicles that might be missing a sticker. Some of those vehicles, model years 2025 and 2026, may not have received a certification label with weight specifications, which the agency warned may lead customers overloading the vehicle, increasing the risk of a crash.
The problem arose in April when Tesla discovered a vehicle with a missing certification label during a routine internal audit of its Fremont factory in California. The company figured out that its automated vision-scanning tool that verifies the presence of a “properly affixed” certification label wasn’t doing its job very well.
The Fremont factory team fixed the automated scanning tool and implemented additional manual checks, secondary measures that were also adopted at Tesla’s Gigafactory in Texas.
Welcome to another episode of Gen Z in Manufacturing, a podcast where I talk to young people about their journeys in manufacturing, how they intend to influence the industry and what they are looking for from an employer.
For this episode, I welcome Cooper Maddas, a 26-year-old laser operator at Manufacturing Corporation of America’s MetalPeak facility, which offers broad-spectrum cutting of various metals and thicknesses for multiple industries, including automotive, medical and oil & gas.
Maddas got his start in manufacturing in high school and has been working in the industry ever since. At MetalPeak, he operates sheet laser machinery and helps train newer employees.
In this episode, Maddas discusses:
- (1:09) How Gen Z weighs their options in high school
- (4:49) The real reason people have a negative attitude toward manufacturing
- (11:15) Why a company’s pitch to the younger generation falls flat
- (13:43) Gen Z’s non-traditional work preferences
Please make sure to like and share this episode of Gen Z in Manufacturing. To view previous episodes, visit manufacturing.net. If you are a member of Gen Z and would like to discuss your experience in the manufacturing industry, please get in touch with me, Nolan Beilstein, at nolan@ien.com.
Last Thursday, North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson said, "VinFast agreed to build a factory and create jobs for North Carolinians — it didn't do either."
The statement accompanied a lawsuit against the EV maker for promises made, but not kept.
Jackson filed the lawsuit against VinFast on behalf of the North Carolina Department of Commerce, alleging that the company breached agreements to develop an EV and battery manufacturing facility in Chatham County. Now, the state is trying to reclaim the property so it can find a new partner.
About four years ago, the state's Economic Investment Committee awarded a Job Development Investment Grant to VinFast Manufacturing US, LLC. The company promised to create 7,500 jobs and invest more than $3 billion in an EV manufacturing facility. To help make it happen, the North Carolina General Assembly earmarked $450 million to prepare the site and improve transportation, as well as water and sewer infrastructure in the area.
Manufacturing #EV #ElectricVehicles #VinFast #NorthCarolina #FactoryNews #IndustrialNews #ManufacturingNow #Automotive #EconomicDevelopment #BatteryFactory #MadeInAmerica #AutoIndustry #SupplyChain #BusinessNews #ManufacturingIndustry #EVManufacturing #Jobs #IndustryNews #AutomotiveNews
And the owner wants you to “steal” his template.
This week, rapid custom manufacturer SendCutSend reached a valuation of $1.01 billion after a $110 million investment from Sequoia, Paradigm, and Patrick and John Collison—the guys who co-founded Stripe.
The Reno, Nevada-based company is using the funds to launch a five-year plan to strengthen its American industrial base, which includes a $1 billion commitment to creating new U.S. manufacturing jobs and to domestically produced materials.
The company also earmarked more than $250 million to expand existing facilities and establish new manufacturing hubs throughout the country. By merging software-first logic with high-speed domestic production, SendCutSend provides laser cutting, CNC machining, and finishing services with instant-buy access. The company wants to be America's "anything factory," delivering parts in as little as 24 hours.
SendCutSend has spent the last eight years working on developing a model that allows users to get an instant quote and quickly begin production.
The company said it has been largely bootstrapped until now, primarily funded by $6 million from friends and family. Company founder Jim Belosic believes the time is right to accept investment to meet the speed and volume requirements of a rapidly reindustrializing American economy.
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Ohio-based Toledo Mold & Die – a manufacturer of automotive trim and other plastic parts – has become unavoidably ensnared in the unraveling of parent company First Brands.
And while it may look like one small component of a big conglomerate, for Ford and Stellantis, it’s a lifeline.
When massive auto industry supplier First Brands filed for bankruptcy, the ensuing fallout created gaps in the supply chains of some of the nation’s largest OEMs.
Two of those were Ford and Stellantis.
As first reported by Plastic News, after unsuccessfully seeking a buyer for the components maker, First Brands said in April that it would begin laying off Toledo Mold & Die’s 600 employees.
That is, until a Hail Mary was thrown.
At the 11th hour, First Brands revealed that it had found a suitable buyer – TNJ Ohio LLC – but, said Ford Authority, they “needed to keep the lights on long enough to close that deal.”
In swooped Ford and Stellantis, who are said to be writing weekly checks to keep the company afloat and retain its workers.
But, of course, these automakers aren’t just providing “incremental funding support on a week-to-week basis” out of the goodness of their hearts.
These actions speak to how critical some suppliers can be in an automotive supply chain, and why these carmakers can’t afford to just watch from a distance as the lights go out.
First Brands is continuing to sell off its assets – the second act in a protracted wind-down process that included closing 17 facilities and laying off 4,000 workers. For its part, Ford is said to have been “paying for parts in advance, in cash, and also funding certain administrative expenses.”
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A processing facility has reached a nearly $1 million settlement with neighbors who filed a class-action lawsuit to formally complain about the smells and noises coming from the factory.
Prestige Feed Products, which opened in Mount Prospect, Illinois in 2019, uses a process that involves dehydrating raw cheese and soy to make ingredients for animal feed, according to the Daily Herald. One of the company’s products is known as “Cheese Supreme,” which doesn’t sound so bad if you’re talking about a pizza, but much less appetizing when it’s livestock fodder.
Nearby residents, businesses and schools said Prestige emitted a “burned cheese” smell, which one plaintiff said made it nearly impossible to enjoy walks, sitting outside or having the windows open. Neighbors also said the facility’s loud industrial fans made it difficult to sleep at night.
After hundreds of complaints since 2021, Prestige finally settled with nearby municipalities and shut down last year. And now it has reached a deal with local residents. But the company is still facing a separate lawsuit from the state of Illinois and that one could go to trial.
Mary Beth Stillmaker, a plaintiff in the class-action suit, told the publication, “The main thing is that they're gone. A lot of us believe that if we didn't file this class-action lawsuit, they would still be operating and we would all still be suffering.”
Prestige Feed Products was incorporated in 2018 and is based in the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago. The company said it makes products for the swine, cattle and pet food markets. It currently carries a two-star rating on Google Reviews, with many reviews saying the company is “evil and detestable” and the facility “smells like dog crap.”
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Two leading manufacturers of bearings plan to merge next year in a deal that would create a new top company in that segment.
Japanese companies NSK and NTN said this week that they would be combined under a joint holding company next fall — effectively linking the world’s no. 3 and 4 bearing makers and, according to a report from Nikkei, taking their overall market share past the current top bearing manufacturer, SKF of Sweden.
NSK and NTN officials said that combining their businesses would provide additional scale and, in turn, reduce procurement and production costs at a time of rising prices for steel and other materials. Japan’s bearing industry, the report added, is also dealing with sluggish demand from automakers and other industries, and growing competition from China.
NSK’s president said that after evaluating potential restructuring or spinoffs, company officials determined that remaining competitive globally would require "realignment in the domestic industry.”
An official agreement is slated to be signed in approximately six months’ time; that would go before company shareholders next June, subject to reviews by antitrust regulators both in Japan and abroad. If approved, the new holding company would be established next October.
NSK will pick the new company’s president and NTN will select its chair; how they will share ownership of the holding company has not been decided, Nikkei reported.
Company officials indicated that following the merger, the combined business will focus its efforts on high-growth markets, such as drone, robot and space applications.
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According to the Fayetteville-Cumberland Economic Development Corporation, the plant employed more than 2,100 workers as of February of last year, making it the fifth largest employer in the county.
Unfortunately these workers may be coming to the end of the line at Goodyear, as the company revealed that is looking to wind down the facility.
According to the Fayetteville Observer, Goodyear is in talks with the United Steelworkers Union on a plan to close the factory by the end of 2027. A company spokesperson said that, despite “extensive efforts” to make the facility competitive, this action is “necessary to strengthen Goodyear’s ability to compete.”
Goodyear CEO Mark Stewart, in reporting the company’s dismal Q1 performance early this month, said its $249 million net loss “reflected a challenging environment, marked by weak consumer industry demand.” The business pointed to lower rates of OEM purchasing as well as fewer consumers replacing their tires.
Stewart added that “increased pressure on industry demand and higher raw material costs stemming from the conflict in the Middle East” meant the company would “take meaningful actions to strengthen [its] cost structure."
CityViewNC described the Fayetteville Goodyear plant as “a relatively rare manufacturing operation in a community with an economy dominated by lower-wage retail, rental, real estate, and service businesses that cater to the military families and defense workers of Fort Bragg, one of the largest military bases in the world.”
The facility in Fayetteville is heavily represented by the United Steelworkers, though the union has yet to comment.
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Farmers in Central California have grown peaches for Del Monte for generations. But the nearly 140-year-old company recently initiated bankruptcy proceedings and closed two of its processing plants in the state, leaving cultivators with a whole lot of fruit they can’t sell.
According to the Independent, the cannery closures in Modesto and Hughson caused hundreds of farm workers to lose work and growing operations to lose lengthy contracts with Del Monte. The impacted farms stand to lose significant revenue, but lawmakers are stepping in to help mitigate the financial burden.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers said the USDA has granted their request for aid and will make up to $9 million available to fund the removal of up to 420,000 clingstone peach trees — approximately 3,000 acres — prior to the 2026 harvest season. They said based on USDA’s analysis, removing 50,000 tons of peaches from production could save growers roughly $30 million in projected losses.
It sounds like a drastic step to destroy so many peach trees when selling them to wholesale food distributors seems like an obvious solution. But clingstone peaches are typically reserved for canning or making jelly since they are sweet and juicy but very stuck to their pits. Their relatively firm flesh is better equipped to deal with heat and machine processing. Freestone peaches, with flesh that separates much more easily from their pits, are the types of fruit often found in produce sections.
Nevertheless, it’s a shocking number of trees to destroy. But, according to the Associated Press, it’s an effect of consumer preferences moving away from canned fruits and vegetables, and toward fresher options. That shift has caused sales to lag for Del Monte’s signature products and forced the company to restructure and pursue a sale of its assets.
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Porsche announced plans to shut down three German-based subsidiaries tied to battery technology, e-bikes and software development. The affected businesses include Cellforce Group, Porsche eBike Performance and Cetitech. The luxury automaker said the moves will affect more than 500 jobs.
Porsche Executive Board Chairman Michael Leiters described the actions as an “indispensable foundation for a successful strategic realignment.”
Cellforce develops lithium-ion pouch cells. However, Porsche said the division no longer offers a “sufficiently viable long-term perspective” under its revised strategy. The automaker expects about 50 workers to lose their jobs.
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SpaceX could invest as much as $119 billion to build its Terafab, a proposed semiconductor manufacturing and computing fabrication facility in Texas, according to local documents tied to a tax abatement request. The Commissioners Court of Grimes County will hold a public hearing on June 3 to consider the deal.
The notice states that SpaceX would locate the multi-phase, vertically integrated Terafab at the Gibbons Creek Reservoir and surrounding areas between Austin and Houston. The project’s initial phases could involve up to $55 billion in investment, with total spending potentially reaching $119 billion if additional phases move forward.
The project represents a collaboration between SpaceX, Tesla and xAI, all companies in which Elon Musk serves as CEO. According to a social media post shared by Tesla, the Terafab would manufacture 1 terawatt of chip output per year, which the company claimed would exceed the combined output of all global chipmakers.
Neither the companies nor local officials announced a timeframe.
SpaceX revealed Terafab in March and described it as “the next step towards becoming a galactic civilization.” The company said the plant would make chips for Tesla’s electric vehicles and Optimus humanoid robots, as well as SpaceX spacecraft.
Tesla designed the bipedal, autonomous Optimus robot to perform dangerous, repetitive and boring tasks. According to CBS News, Musk said the automaker could begin selling the robot in 2027.
As for space travel, the Terafab aligns with SpaceX's broader plans involving solar-powered AI satellites and future space operations.
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he world’s largest producer of cane sugar is planning its largest-ever capital expenditure to overhaul a historic — and timeworn — refinery near New Orleans.
American Sugar Refining this week broke ground on the first phase of what the company said would be a $785 million project to modernize the — the largest sugar processing plant in the Western Hemisphere.
Initial construction, which is already underway, will build a new $200 million process building by 2028; state and company officials said that modernizing the overall campus’ refining capabilities would allow it to meet future demand, improve reliability, and reduce both water and energy use.
Additional phases, officials said, would build on those process improvements, but the announcement did not outline the next steps of the overall project — or a timetable for starting them.
ASR said that it anticipates adding 15 jobs to its current workforce of 500. NOLA.com reports that the state’s incentive package for the project included a 80% property tax abatement over 10 years.
The Chalmette Refinery began operations at the campus along the Mississippi River in 1909, and it wears the scars of a 117-year history that has included hurricanes, fires and dramatic changes in the sugar market. Its 32 production lines can reportedly produce some 6 million pounds of sugar per day across dozens of product platforms.
manufacturing, #foodsupply, #sugarindustry, #refinery, #infrastructure, #capitalinvestment, #industrialupgrade, #madeinusa, #supplychain, #foodmanufacturing, #energyefficiency, #sustainability, #industrialnews, #businessnews, #louisiana, #economicdevelopment, #manufacturingjobs, #plantmodernization, #operations, #industryupdates
This morning, Corning and NVIDIA announced a multiyear commercial and technology partnership to significantly scale U.S.-based optical connectivity manufacturing and fiber production.
To meet accelerating demand for new AI factory buildouts (data centers), Corning will increase optical connectivity capacity by 10x and boost U.S. fiber production by more than 50%. These are the components NVIDIA needs to power next-generation AI infrastructure.
To make it happen, Corning will build three new advanced manufacturing facilities in North Carolina and Texas, which are expected to create more than 3,000 new jobs.
Corning will manufacture the optical connectivity new hyperscale data centers will use to deploy accelerated computing at scale. Modern AI workloads require thousands of NVIDIA GPUs which in turn demands unprecedented volumes of high-performance optical fiber, connectivity and photonics to move data at extraordinary speed and scale, according to the companies.
manufacturing, #AI, #datacenters, #opticalfiber, #photonics, #NVIDIA, #Corning, #advancedmanufacturing, #supplychain, #semiconductors, #infrastructure, #madeinusa, #factorybuildout, #techmanufacturing, #innovation, #industry40, #automation, #engineering, #futureofwork, #digitalinfrastructure
Hyundai placed a big bet on the future of humanoid robotics within its automotive manufacturing operations and it’s reportedly starting to get impatient with the results so far.
In 2021, Hyundai acquired a majority stake in Boston Dynamics for $1.1 billion in a deal designed to “leverage each other’s respective strengths in manufacturing, logistics, construction and automation.” The plan was to create a robotics value chain, from robot component manufacturing to smart logistics solutions while supporting Boston Dynamics’ continued product expansion.
Last year, Hyundai promised to make a $21 billion investment in U.S. manufacturing, a capital layout that would be used in part to purchase "tens of thousands of robots" from Boston Dynamics.
But according to a new report from Semafor, the robot maker is still only making about four of its Atlas humanoid robots per month. At that rate, it would take more than 200 years to hit the 10,000 robot goal.
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On Friday, Bridgestone Golf, a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Bridgestone Sports, announced plans to close its golf ball manufacturing and testing facility in Covington, Georgia.
The closure will be abrupt, with the facility about 45 minutes east of Atlanta closing on June 30, 2026.
The plant made up to a billion balls a year, but according to the company, it must optimize its global supply chain to strengthen the foundation of its golf business.
Some 86 employees in manufacturing roles will be out of work. Bridgestone Golf will work with local partners to provide access to employment resources.
In a statement, the company said, the decision comes after "a thorough assessment of the increasing volatility in global markets and evolving challenges related to supply chain, operational efficiency, and cost management."
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Ford Motor announced its Q1 financial results on Wednesday, and while the automaker experienced a 6% uptick in revenue to $43.3 billion, it also recorded a one-time swing from tariff refunds. Ford's Q1 results include a $1.3 billion one-time IEEPA tariff benefit for tariffs paid from March 2025 to February 2026.
Still, challenges remain, like the fallout from the Novelis fire in September. Sherry House, Ford's chief financial officer, provided an update on efforts to get the key aluminum supplier back online.
The massive fire at the Novelis plant in New York leveled the plant’s hot mill last year, the facility’s primary aluminum sheet production area. Ford stood to withstand significant losses, and the fire threatened F-150 production.
House said Ford will incur $1.5 billion to $2 billion in costs to secure alternatively-sourced aluminum until the Novelis facility is operating at full throughput later this year.
House said F-Series sales remain healthy as inventory recovers from the Novelis supply disruption—and the company will have a richer product mix as Novelis ramps production.
Chief Operating Officer Kumar Galhotra said Ford still expects the Novelis hot mill to restart and begin to ramp in May. If the relaunch doesn't go according to plan, Ford has contingency plans in place, including additional aluminum supply to make sure production schedules aren't interrupted through the end of the year.
Ford's global revenue grew by more than 6% despite a 4% decline in volume, which the automaker expected as it exited low-margin products like the Escape in North America and Focus in Europe.
In the U.S., Ford had the highest Q1 revenue share in five years, driven by large utilities and trucks. House also said that Ford's balance sheet remains "strong," with some $22 billion in cash and $43 billion in liquidity.
The company raised its full-year adjusted EBIT guidance to $8.5 billion to $10.5 billion, up from $8 billion to $10 billion. However, the guidance does not address the potential impact of sustained conflict in the Middle East or a significant downturn in the U.S. economy, which House said could materially affect industry demand.
Ford also expects commodity headwinds of $2 billion, $1 billion higher than previous estimates, largely due to higher aluminum pricing driven by global supply constraints. That figure doesn’t even include Novelis-related aluminum costs.
Finally, the impact of ongoing tariffs at Ford remains unchanged, at about $1 billion and is now a part of the automaker's run-rate costs.
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Auto parts supplier First Brands will retain 345 employees previously slated for layoffs at its TMD Tiffin facility in Ohio. The company announced in February that it would close the site and cut 407 workers on April 30. It now plans to keep 345 of them through May 31, with the remaining employees losing their jobs as scheduled.
The February WARN notice listed impacted employees, which included press operators, production handlers, engineers, maintenance workers and quality control staff.
First Brands said the postponement stems from ongoing attempts to sell certain U.S. facilities. These efforts followed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in September 2025, when the company reported more than $10 billion in debt. In January, it launched a process to sell all or parts of the business, including brands such as Autolite spark plugs, Anco windshield wiper blades and FRAM filters.
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Last September, Gerresheimer's stock plunged after German regulators announced an investigation into potential accounting rule violations and compliance irregularities.
The packaging maker's issues started when BaFin, Germany’s federal financial authority, began looking into a potential bill-and-hold scandal. The company may have recognized €35 million in inflated revenues for some contracts before the revenue was actually realized.
In February, as the German manufacturer hired a second auditing firm to review accounting irregularities, the company also announced plans to cut costs, including the sale of Centor, its U.S. subsidiary in Ohio which makes packaging systems for dispensing prescription drugs.
Gerresheimer also announced plans to close a glass factory in Chicago Heights, Illinois, laying off 172 workers and offshoring production to factories in Italy and India. The layoffs at Gerresheimer Moulded Glass Chicago will take place on September 30, 2026, according to a local report.
A company spokesperson told IEN, "The planned closing of our facility in Chicago Heights is one of the measures of our comprehensive transformation program. It is a global program aimed at reducing costs and improving performance, including an optimized utilization of our global production network."
After rejecting a takeover bid from U.S. rival Silgan earlier this month, the manufacturer faces heightened scrutiny. According to German financial media company Aktiencheck, BaFin has expanded its investigation even further as it looks into possible misstatements of millions in leasing liabilities, a review of supposed development costs and potentially inaccurate valuations of other company divisions.
Still, the company expects to make up to €2.4 billion euros in 2026 fiscal year.
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Welcome to another episode of Gen Z in Manufacturing, a podcast that asks young people about their journeys in manufacturing, how they intend to influence the industry and what they are looking for from an employer.
For this episode, I welcome Xavier Gonzalez and Jesse Tabango, two HVAC students at Texas State Technical College. We recorded the conversation live at Fluke’s Thought Leadership Day during the company’s Xcelerate conference in Austin, Texas.
In this episode, Gonzalez and Tabando discuss:
• (:55) Aspects of skilled trades that attract young people
• (5:01) What surprises Gen Z at their first manufacturing job
• (7:12) How the Gen Z workforce wants to be trained
• (13:16) How young workers view growth and where they find a sense of purpose
Please make sure to like and share this episode of Gen Z in Manufacturing. To view previous episodes, visit manufacturing.net. If you are a member of Gen Z and would like to discuss your experience in the manufacturing industry, please get in touch with me, Nolan Beilstein, at nolan@ien.com.
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A U.S. refrigerator factory will lay off 1,500 employees later this year ahead of a planned production change to laundry appliances including washing machines and dryers.
Electrolux, a home appliance manufacturer based in Sweden, announced a retooling at its South Carolina plant as part of a new joint venture agreement with the Midea Group, which will own 45% of the facility. Food preservation production will be phased out by July 2026 and fabric care is expected to start in the first half of 2027.
The JV is expected to hire up to approximately 1,200 employees gradually across 2027 and 2028 as laundry appliance production ramps up. According to WYFF, all the laid off employees will be offered severance packages and will be invited back to work in the retooled facility.
Electrolux called the shutdown temporary, but said “we recognize the impact this decision will have on our valued employees. We are working closely with state and local agencies to support our employees and, where feasible, assist with placement in alternative roles within the Anderson community.”
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JST Corp. is a Japanese company that makes electronic connectors found in nearly every industry, from the automotive and medical markets to robotics, gaming and even amusement. The company’s plant in Guntersville made every cable assembly used in The Las Vegas Sphere.
This week, JST announced a new project, a $500 million expansion effort in North Alabama. The move will create 80 new jobs and add 540,000 square feet. The component maker is familiar with expansion projects—it now has more than 70 facilities in 17 countries—but in some cases it has design aspirations that are particular.
For example, renderings of JST’s project in Guntersville are striking—the factory looks like rolling hills with a few loading docks. The connector maker wants the new site to incorporate a “natural setting” on the 240-acre property at Conners Island Business Park. More of a peninsula, Conners Island is about 40 minutes southeast of Huntsville.
JST said the location is strategic given its proximity to Alabama’s auto manufacturing industry. However, Kevin Lauret, plant manager for the new facility, said the type of property also played a key role.
The architectural design is meant to reflect and protect the natural setting adjacent to Lake Guntersville. The company’s development philosophy is heavily influenced by Japanese beliefs that view land and nature as sacred.
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It’s clear that the goal of the United States tariffs on automobiles was to give American production a leg up. Adding costs to imports would - theoretically - encourage buyers to favor American-made vehicles, and encourage automakers to, perhaps, reshore their globally produced models.
But as with many complex economic questions, the reality is a bit less straightforward – as evidenced by GM’s latest announcement.
The Detroit-based automaker, who has long operated three factories in South Korea, revealed last month that it would be investing in Korea further. The goal for GM is to increase production capacity for vehicles that would be exported to U.S. buyers.
GM’s Chevrolet Trax and Trailblazer, as well as the Buick Envista and Encore GX are currently produced across three factories in Korea which employ some 12,000 workers and churn out about 460,000 vehicles annually.
Tariffs #ManufacturingNews #AutoIndustry #GeneralMotors #GlobalManufacturing #SupplyChain #Reshoring #Economics #TradePolicy #AutomotiveNews #BusinessStrategy #GlobalTrade #FactoryProduction #IndustryTrends #CostAnalysis #AutoManufacturing #USManufacturing #KoreaManufacturing #MarketForces #EconomicReality
Senior defense officials in the Trump administration approached General Motors and Ford about supporting the U.S. military equipment supply chain, a source told the Detroit Free Press. The anonymous source said the separate conversations with CEOs Mary Barra and Jim Farley took place as early as last year.
*Original Post: https://www.ien.com/supply-chain/video/22965095/gm-ford-asked-to-support-us-weapons-supply-chain-as-wars-drain-inventory *
The Pentagon reportedly wants to use the automakers’ workforce and facility capacity to boost weapons production as wars in Ukraine and Iran have strained U.S. inventory. The Wall Street Journal first reported the discussions, noting that officials described the request as a “matter of national security.”
The Journal also reported that German manufacturing is shifting toward defense production as the automotive sector combats a slump in demand and growing competition from China, with the government pushing to convert struggling operations into defense contractors.
According to the Detroit Free Press, GM and Ford would likely not directly produce weapons but instead make structural components for subcontracting to weapons manufacturers. Relevant capabilities could include casting, stamping, forging and working with plastics and other composites.
The conversations remain exploratory with no defined details.
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An attorney preparing to file a federal lawsuit against a Tennessee explosives manufacturer over a deadly 2025 blast alleged this week that the company pushed its production beyond a safe level in an effort to fulfill a Pentagon contract.
Darren Richie, who represents the families of two of the 16 people killed in the October explosion at Accurate Energetic Systems, said during a Friday news conference that AES neglected safety hazards to increase production for the $120 million federal contract, the Tennessean reported. He indicated the families intend to file their lawsuit this month and will seek $150 million in damages.
The statement came about a week after Tennessee's OSHA (TOSHA) department concluded a six-month investigation into the explosion and cited AES with 100 violations totaling over $3.1 million in penalties. The cited hazards included explosive dust buildup on equipment and workers spraying flammable paint near hot equipment without proper safeguards. The agency said the penalty is the largest in its history.
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BMW will pull the iX, the automaker’s first dedicated electric SUV, from its U.S. lineup as it shifts focus to a next-generation electric vehicle platform, BMWBlog reported. A spokesperson stated that the company will prioritize upcoming Neue Klasse models, beginning with the iX3 SUV.
BMW announced the iX in 2021 and began sales in 2022. The vehicle features an estimated range of up to 364 miles, a bodyshell that includes carbon fiber-reinforced polymer and a starting MSRP of about $75,000.
The iX drew mixed reactions, particularly over its interior design, which featured the high-resolution Curved Display, a hexagonal steering wheel and the option to integrate speakers into the seat. Jalopnik reported that BMW sold nearly 51,000 iXs from 2022 to 2025, while BMWBlog noted that the vehicle functioned as both a technological proof-of-concept and a production vehicle.
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The owner of a New Hampshire mustard company has been sentenced to prison for orchestrating a years-long scheme to send polluted water from his facility into a nearby river.
Charles Santich, owner of the Old Dutch Mustard Company, was given an 18-month prison sentence while his company is being forced to pay $1.5 million for violating the Clean Water Act.
The Greenville, New Hampshire facility, which makes Old Dutch brand vinegar and mustard products, generates acidic wastewater and stormwater. Without the necessary permit to discharge the polluted water, Old Dutch was required to store it in tanks and have a trucking company haul it away.
Instead, Santich in 2015 hired an excavation company to bury a pipe from the Old Dutch Mustard facility to discharge the acidic water in the general direction of the Souhegan River near an abandoned railroad bed. He made sure the discharge point was downstream of continuous environmental monitoring required by the EPA and state of New Hampshire, according to a Justice Department complaint.
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Volkswagen of America released its sales figures for Q1 2026 and the results were mixed.
Last week the automaker announced that it was going to stop assembling the ID.4 electric SUV in Chattanooga, Tennessee and retool to focus on the next-generation Atlas for model year 2027. Well, now, it's pretty clear why.
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According to VW's sales figures, the company sold 7,663 ID.4s in Q1 2025. Last quarter told a different tale, with a mere 338 ID.4s sold—a drop of 95.6%.
Across the board, sales dipped 16.1% year-over-year, but there were some wins. The Tiguan LWB saw an increase of 55.2% and the Golf R sedan increased 4.7%, though the volumes were so low it was just a 36-unit increase.
Volkswagen #EVNews #ElectricVehicles #AutoIndustry #CarSales #ManufacturingNews #EVMarket #AutomotiveTrends #ID4 #IDBuzz #Atlas #CarMarket #AutoSales #IndustryNews #FutureOfCars #EVTransition #BusinessNews #SupplyChain #AutoIndustryNews #MarketTrends
Yesterday, Volkswagen announced plans to stop assembling the ID.4 electric SUV at its plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, as the EV market continues to "challenge the industry."
Assembly will end quickly. VW says it will stop putting together the ID.4 in mid-April and that's (checks watch) five days away.
The automaker will retool to focus on "higher-volume" models and launch the second-generation Atlas for model year 2027. The hope is to have production up and running this summer with vehicles in dealerships by fall.
The Atlas is vital to the company's U.S. strategy. It's the automaker's second-best selling model for the past three years.
The headwinds facing the EV industry, including the $7,500 federal EV tax credit that expired on September 30, 2025, have forced VW to make "measured decisions throughout the last few years to navigate this unpredictability."
Volkswagen #EVNews #ElectricVehicles #AutoIndustry #ManufacturingNews #EVMarket #SupplyChain #AutoProduction #Chattanooga #TennesseeManufacturing #AutomotiveNews #FutureOfCars #EVTransition #CarManufacturing #IndustryTrends #BusinessStrategy #AutoJobs #FactoryNews #VehicleProduction #Mobility
Firefighters in Ontario, California descended on a massive blaze just after midnight on Tuesday, when a distribution center erupted in flames.
Local reports described an “orange glow” as the 1.2 million square foot warehouse burned for hours in a location the size of 11 city blocks, with smoke and flames reportedly visible for miles.
The site is owned and operated by supply chain management company NFI Industries, but the warehouse had been leased by CPG giant Kimberly-Clark. It was stocked with paper products like Kleenex, toilet paper and diapers – ready fuel after the building became engulfed.
Local law enforcement confirmed that the fire had been deemed “suspicious” due to its rapid spread and apparent evidence that suggested there may have been more than one point of origin.
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Brighton Central School District near Rochester, New York, halted construction on athletic fields after its contractor uncovered undocumented historical fill beneath the topsoil. The school district said the material likely dates back to 1830, when a brick manufacturer reportedly occupied the land.
Materials found during early site preparation in January included ash, cinders, brick, glass, ceramic and metal at depths ranging from 2.5 to 7 feet. Once Brighton realized certain compounds exceeded regulatory thresholds, it contacted the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) and Department of Health. The DEC classified the site as a spill.
Brighton noted that historical fills exist across New York, citing that no regulations prohibited this type of disposal at the time. During a March Board of Education meeting, the district reported that Abner M. Buckland of Buckland Brick owned the area from 1830 to the 1920s and mined clay there to manufacture bricks. The school district purchased the property in 1925.
ConstructionNews #EnvironmentalSafety #SoilContamination #HistoricalFill #Infrastructure #PublicSafety #SchoolConstruction #EnvironmentalImpact #SiteCleanup #Regulations #Engineering #UrbanDevelopment #Excavation #ManufacturingHistory #IndustrialPast #SafetyFirst #CommunityImpact #Brownfield #NYSDEC #ConstructionDelay
Last week, following a four-week trial, an Alabama jury handed boat repairman Mark Griffin a $70 million victory after he contracted a flesh-eating bacteria in 2019. According to Griffin's lawsuit, Tyson and industrial plumbing contractor Hydraservice were responsible for a large wastewater spill that led to his infection.
In June 2019, Tyson’s River Valley Ingredients facility in Hanceville discharged an estimated 220,000 gallons of partially treated wastewater into Mulberry Fork, a major tributary of the Black Warrior River. The spill was caused by a "mechanical failure" traced to some temporary piping work installed by Hydraservice.
According to a report from AL.com, Griffin lives some 30 miles from the plant. Given his profession, he has spent most of his life on the Black Warrior River, but he became severely ill after coming into contact with bacteria in the water.
Griffin contracted necrotizing fasciitis and had to undergo multiple surgeries. Some seven years later, he still has an open wound and a bone infection in his hips and pelvis.
The jury awarded $25 million in compensatory damages and $45 million in punitive damages.
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Luxury vehicle makers have a way of upping the ante, with features that seem more and more unique, opulent and, perhaps, unnecessary.
When INFINITI recently unveiled its newest QX65 SUV, it led with the vehicle’s unorthodox paint color: dubbed Sunfire Red, this coating is described by the company as “something people will remember.”
That’s because the rich paint hue, inspired by a "fiery morning sunrise” is said to be “infused with real gold-coated glass flecks.”
INFINITI’s design team described the requirements of working with this very special paint, noting that INFINITI’s supplier must use armored trucks when transporting the gold that’s used in the making of Sunfire Red.
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A member of the Senate’s transportation oversight committee said this week that he hopes to effectively “seal off” the U.S. from vehicles made by Chinese automakers.
U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, said during remarks ahead of the New York Auto Show that he would introduce a bill in the coming weeks to strengthen an existing ban on Chinese vehicles, Reuters reported.
Rules finalized under the Biden administration early last year sought to prohibit Chinese automakers from selling passenger vehicles in the U.S., citing data privacy and national security concerns, but Moreno indicated that his measure will go further, incorporating not just vehicle imports but “hardware” and “software,” as well as partnerships between Chinese vehicle makers and other companies.
Moreno told the Automotive Forum event that he aims for a framework in which “there's never a scenario where a Chinese automobile will enter our market.”
He also said that he hopes governments in other nations would make similar efforts, from Canada and Mexico to the rest of Latin America and Europe. Chinese cars, however, are already sold in many of those markets.
U.S. automakers and other industry groups, meanwhile, recently called on the government to prevent Chinese cars from entering the domestic market altogether ahead of a planned visit to China next month by President Trump. Trump, Reuters noted, had suggested during an event in Detroit earlier this year that he would be open to a Chinese auto plant in the U.S.
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Most people look at the abandoned former General Motors plant site in Janesville, Wisconsin and see a fenced-off, 250-acre plot contaminated with heavy metals and “forever chemicals” after decades of automotive manufacturing. But some just see a nice new home for an AI data center complex.
According to Politico, the site, which has sat idle for years, could now be snapped up by a Colorado-based investment group. It’s promising to cover the $30 million bill to clean up the land and place an $8 billion data center campus where a busy factory once stood.
GM’s Samson Tractor Division first started building tractors at the Janesville site in 1919 and vehicle production continued until 2008. About 10 years later, the factory was demolished. In the years since, the city sought to buy the brownfield site and redevelop it.
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The plan is to move into factory fastening by combining Makita’s battery and motor technologies with Panasonic's fastening and IoT tech.
Power tool maker Makita announced Tuesday that it plans to acquire the power tool business of fellow Japanese manufacturer Panasonic.
Panasonic created a new division, known as Electric Works Company, to house its power tool business prior to the sale. Under the agreement, Panasonic will transfer all shares of the power tool business to Electric Works, then transfer those shares to Makita Corporation.
Pending regulatory approval, Makita will acquire all product development, manufacturing and sales of Panasonic’s power tool products business, including factory and construction fastening equipment and factory‑related IoT solutions. The segment includes some 31,000 employees.
Transaction details were not disclosed.
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Welcome to another episode of Gen Z in Manufacturing, a podcast where I talk to young people about their journeys in manufacturing, how they intend to influence the industry and what they are looking for from an employer.
For this episode, I welcome Adam Zaouague, a 21-year-old automation and data specialist for Reata Engineering & Machine Works, an industrial machinery manufacturer for various sectors such as aerospace, medical, semiconductor and capital equipment.
Zaouague originally got into CNC as he pursued aerospace engineering. He joined Reata as a machinist and transitioned into an engineering and software role. His recent duties include managing engineering and programming and overseeing quality. He has also spent time around AI companies and experimented how to apply these tools in a manufacturing environment.
In this episode, Zaouague discusses:
- (1:18) The true issue with the manufacturing industry
- (5:44) Why young workers like to ask ‘Why?’
- (10:49) Interest in machining is dying, but something can still be done
- (15:19) The best way to implement new technology and where Gen Z will make the biggest impact
Please make sure to like and share this episode of Gen Z in Manufacturing. To view previous episodes, visit manufacturing.net. If you are a member of Gen Z and would like to discuss your experience in the manufacturing industry, please get in touch with me, Nolan Beilstein, at nolan@ien.com.
Ferraris go pretty fast. It’s crucial that drivers be able to see out the windows when they’re doing 200 MPH. But that’s just not the case with a recent batch of luxury sports cars the Italian automaker built for the U.S. So, they’re being recalled.
The company sent out an alert for 80 12Cilindri models, which retail for around $500,000, because the windows are too tinted. Earlier this month, Ferrari said it was alerted to the issue with the black rear and side windows on certain units, which feature more tint than what’s allowed in some parts of the U.S.
As the automaker pointed out in its recall, automobile glazing with less than 70% light transmittance can impair the driver’s visibility and lead to a crash.
According to Tint Wiz, many U.S. states are totally fine with tint levels with less than 70% light transmittance. But markets like Florida and Illinois set their legal window tint levels much lower.
Ferrari #Recall #LuxuryCars #Supercar #CarRecall #AutoNews #Automotive #SportsCars #CarProblems #FastCars #CarCulture #LuxuryLifestyle #ExoticCars #Driving #CarEnthusiast #VehicleSafety #CarTech #Speed #HighPerformance #AutoIndustry #Engineering #Innovation #CarNews #USRegulations #CarLife
General Motors Flint Assembly plant has been operating for 80 years, and it's the automaker’s longest operating site in North America.
And while it’s pushed a vast quantity of vehicles off its lines in that time, you might not believe just how big that number is: GM announced this month that Flint has just produced its 16 millionth vehicle.
This milestone achievement took the form of a Lakeshore Blue Metallic Chevrolet Silverado 2500 Crew Cab LTZ – a heavy duty truck that rolled off the assembly line to a cheering crowd of Flint workers, along with its new owner.
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Harley-Davidson notified an undisclosed number of workers that it would reduce its global workforce, Wisconsin Public Radio reported. A company spokesperson confirmed the layoffs but did not specify the number of impacted workers or where they work.
WPR cited the sub-district director of the United Steelworkers District 7, who stated that none of the union’s 500-plus members at Harley-Davidson facilities in Milwaukee or Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, will be affected by the job cuts.
The motorcycle manufacturer recently reported a 26% drop in profits from 2024 and an operating loss of $29 million in 2025. It added that new or increased tariffs cost the company $67 million in 2025 and posted a fourth-quarter gross profit loss of $30 million, compared to a $3 million loss in the same period in 2024, which it partially attributed to rising tariff costs. The company estimates that tariffs will cost it between $75 million and $105 million in 2026.
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Sofidel is one of the largest manufacturers of paper products in the world, but it’s primarily known in Europe, specifically in Italy, where the company is based. However, the toilet tissue and paper towel producer is making major moves in the U.S., where market leaders like Kimberly-Clark, Procter & Gamble, and Georgia-Pacific dominate.
Last October, Sofidel announced plans for a major U.S. expansion to meet growing demand, particularly in the south. The company knew it was going to expand capacity at one of its 14 production sites in the U.S.— it just didn't know which one.
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It’s a fresh example of the potential dystopian future of work.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that a factory in South Carolina has deployed a new humanoid robot to its assembly line.
The bot, called Digit, is operating in a stamping press area at a Schaeffler auto parts plant, repetitively moving baskets of parts to a conveyor line. And while this type of robotics is a bit emerging in manufacturing, that’s not the unusual part: Wall Street Journal says the factory is paying humans to watch it.
Entry level roles at Schaeffler start at $20 per hour and this one is referred to as an “Agility contractor.” More appropriately, it’s a glorified babysitter that observes Digit while it operates within its own plexiglass enclosure for 8 hours a day..
And while this scenario is a bit unsettling, its future is, perhaps, moreso.
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Jeff Bezos is looking to raise $100 billion dollars for a new fund. According to the Wall Street Journal, the idea is to buy manufacturing companies and use AI to ramp automation.
Described as a "manufacturing transformation vehicle," Bezos, who has a net worth of approximately $250 billion as of late last year, is reportedly reaching out to major financial players in the Middle East and Singapore to raise money.
Bezos is reportedly looking to target large industries, including aerospace, chipmaking and defense.
Last year, The New York Times reported that Bezos would return to an operational role for the first time since 2021, when he stepped down as Amazon CEO. He’ll serve as co-CEO of a new startup called Project Prometheus. Prometheus launched with some $6.2 billion in funding and a focus on using AI to engineer and manufacture hard goods, like cars, planes and computers.
Project Prometheus reportedly built a staff of nearly 100 employees, including recruits from OpenAI, DeepMind, and Meta, to work on physical AI, machine learning systems that source real-world data to make decisions in real-time.
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Helium is a critical element for chipmaking, medical diagnostics, quantum computing and cryogenics. It could also kickstart fusion energy, which has the potential to deliver reliable, carbon-free power to hundreds of millions of people. However, it’s fairly scarce on Earth, where much of it comes from the decay of nuclear materials.
Adding to the limited supply chain is potential disruptions due to the conflict in the Middle East. According to Reuters, chipmakers in Malaysia are still operating as normal but they’re monitoring the situation as helium prices rise. Helium is also a crucial part of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), so any supply chain disruptions have the potential to harm patients waiting for critical care.
However, the U.S. Department of Energy has a plan to tap the reserves of Earth’s nearest neighbor. The DOE Isotope Program recently signed a supply contract with Black Moon Energy, a lunar development company that’s come up with a possible means for mining helium on the Moon and then transporting it back to Earth.
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Hyundai has issued a stop-sale of certain 2026 Palisade SUV models in the U.S. and Canada due to an issue with the second and third-row power seats.
The automaker is halting sales of the vehicles while it works on a recall after a young child died in an incident involving a Palisade. Hyundai said that it “does not yet have the full details and the incident is still under investigation” but that it “extends its deepest sympathies to her family.”
Hyundai said in some situations the rear seats may not adequately detect contact with an occupant or object, particularly during power‑folding operations, as well as during use of the second-row one‑touch tilt‑and‑slide function.
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Ferrari is on the eve of introducing its first electric vehicle to the market, but not everything about it is new.
Ferrari recently announced the name of its upcoming EV – the Luce. But there’s just one problem: the Luce is a name that’s already been used by another automaker, Mazda, who marketed its own Luce for decades.
According to Carscoops, the original Luce was Mazda’s flagship sedan between the 1960s and the 1990s. The badge carries so much heritage with the brand that the automaker reportedly referenced it as recently as 2017, saying its Vision Coupe concept paid tribute to the 1969 Luce Rotary Coupe.
Another indication that Mazda still carries a torch for the Luce is recent evidence of a potentially brewing patent battle.
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Honda has decided to cancel the development and market launch of three electric vehicle models that had been planned for production in North America.
Honda 0 SUV, Honda 0 Saloon, and Acura RSX were all scheduled to enter production at the automaker’s EV hub in Ohio. The vehicles first rolled out as concept prototypes at CES 2025, where Honda touted them as “near-production designs.” But now, the company has determined that starting production and sales of these three models in the current business environment where the demand for EVs is declining significantly would likely result in further losses over the long term.
In the near term, though, the losses will be huge. Honda is expecting to take a $15.7 billion hit. As Reuters points out, the charges will drive Honda to its first annual loss in the nearly 70 years it's spent as a listed company.
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Yamaha Motor's U.S. subsidiary plans to relocate its headquarters from Southern California to suburban Atlanta.
The maker of motorcycles, robotics and marine and power products said late last month that the move will begin at the end of this year and be completed by the end of 2028.
Yamaha Motor U.S. intends to sell all fixed assets owned by the company in Cypress, California, including land, offices and warehouses. The Japanese company expects the move to help combat tariffs by improving efficiency and profitability in the U.S. market.
Yamaha has maintained a corporate headquarters in California for nearly 50 years; it acquired the land in 1978 and opened its offices one year later. Twenty years later, however, Yamaha moved its marine business to Kennesaw, Georgia, and its motorsports division relocated to the state in 2019. It currently employs thousands of people in Georgia, including a 1.3-million-square-foot plant in Newnan with about 2,000 employees.
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A group of wholesale steel distributors will pay more than $3.3 million to settle allegations that they made false statements in order to secure federal loans during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The seven corporations in question, each part of Georgia-based steel company Allied Crawford, are incorporated across seven separate states, including Virginia, where federal prosecutors investigated the matter.
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According to the Justice Department, they received more than $2.7 million combined in loans under the Paycheck Protection Program, which was designed to ensure that businesses could keep their doors open and continue paying their employees amid the pandemic.
The companies, however, were actually ineligible to receive those loans, prosecutors claimed. They said company officials falsely certified that they were eligible for the loans — both on their initial applications, and on subsequent filings for the forgiveness of the loans in 2021.
The case began with a lawsuit filed by a whistleblower under the provisions of the federal False Claims Act; that whistleblower will receive a 10% share of the settlement.
The U.S. government reportedly allocated nearly $6 trillion in emergency spending during the pandemic, and although experts broadly agreed that the funding helped keep the economy afloat, it also created opportunities for fraud — investigations of which persist some six years later.
Prosecutors noted that the settlement does not include a determination of civil liability.
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Last week, Taiwanese auto supplier Minth announced plans to invest some $430 million to breathe new life into a century-old steel mill site in Alabama.
The Minth Group is a massive company with nearly 28,000 global employees spanning 78 plants, making trim and structural automotive parts. The company says it is the largest supplier of battery enclosures and body structure components in the world, making parts for more than 80 automotive brands, including Chevrolet, Ford, GMC, Jeep, and Lucid.
The Minth Group bought the former Republic Steel 400-acre brownfield site in Gadsden, Alabama, about 60 miles northeast of Birmingham.
The project will become Minth's largest campus and is expected to create 1,325 jobs. Initially, the plant should bring a few hundred jobs, but new roles will be added as operations grow. The facility will produce plastic and aluminum components for Hyundai in Montgomery, Alabama, and for Kia in West Point, Georgia.
Minth said the new location will help serve North American customers, including those transitioning to electric and advanced vehicles.
Minth’s U.S. operations are part of Minth North America, with regional headquarters in Wixom, Michigan, and two other locations in Michigan and Tennessee.
The Gadsden site is expected to be a flagship U.S. facility with nearly 1 million square feet of manufacturing space. The company plans to renovate and expand the site. The new jobs will average $49,000 in annual wages.
When the steel plant shuttered in August 2000, some 1,800 workers lost their jobs. The Gulf States Steel plant had been in operation since 1903 and was acquired by Republic Steel in 1937.
In a statement, William Chin, the son of Minth’s founder and the company’s chief strategy officer, said, “From rubble to renewal, from depression to prosperity – this site, once a reminder of jobs that moved overseas, now represents a bright future ... It’s not rubber and steel anymore; it’s plastic and aluminum.”
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A leading global food manufacturer has reportedly overhauled its employee bonus program as part of a broader effort to revamp its corporate culture.
Under the new structure at Nestlé, people familiar with the move recently told Bloomberg, workers deemed “exemplary” could get bonuses of up to 150% of company targets, while those at the other end of the spectrum, or “unsatisfactory,” would get a maximum of 50% of the target — or no bonus at all.
The top bonuses were previously capped at 130%, but more importantly, according to the report, the changes represented a dramatic shift from a culture in which nearly all 271,000 employees tended to get bonuses of at least 80% of company targets.
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Swiss agricultural manufacturer Syngenta announced it will end global production of paraquat, an herbicide used to control weeds in farming operations, by the end of June. The company plans to phase out production at its facility in Huddersfield, UK, its only manufacturing site for the ingredient.
Syngenta cited significant competition from global producers, which put pressure on the company’s competitiveness, as the reason for the decision.
The release, however, did not mention ongoing legal challenges involving paraquat, including a multidistrict litigation (MDL) in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois that named Syngenta as a defendant and consolidated over 5,000 plaintiffs who alleged they developed Parkinson’s disease due to paraquat exposure.
The MDL references expert witness Martin Wells, who conducted a meta-analysis of seven epidemiological studies that measured a potential association between paraquat and Parkinson’s disease. According to the document, Wells determined that there was a “near tripling of [Parkinson’s] occurrence in [study] participants occupationally exposed to paraquat.”
Syngenta previously rejected the claims of a causal link between paraquat and Parkinson’s, stating that the herbicide is “safe when used in line with registered label instructions.” In its announcement on ending production, the company mentioned that paraquat supports conservation practices such as no-till farming and added that the herbicide is registered for sale by more than 750 companies.
Over 70 countries have banned or discontinued the use of paraquat. This includes the EU, which withdrew the herbicide from its market in 2007, as well as China, Brazil and Canada. In 2024, nearly 50 members of the U.S. Congress signed a letter to the EPA asking the agency to ban paraquat.
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Stanley Black & Decker plans to close its last manufacturing facility in New Britain, Connecticut, the city home to the company’s headquarters. Connecticut Public Radio reported that the action will impact nearly 300 workers at the factory, which primarily makes single-sided tape measures.
Company spokesperson Debora Raymond told CPR that the facility’s products “are becoming obsolete” as more people rely on electronic devices to measure distance. The Hartford Courant reported that New Britain Mayor Bobby Sanchez blamed the decision on “ongoing uncertainty at the federal level, including shifting trade policies and tariffs that have driven up material and production costs.”
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Officers from a UK medicine regulator raided two sites in February during an ongoing investigation into a criminal network that manufactures and distributes unlicensed weight-loss medicines, also known as “skinny jabs.”
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) stated that the operation, which targeted farm and residential properties in Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire, resulted in the seizure of nearly 2,000 doses of unauthorized weight-loss medicines, including retatrutide, tirzepatide and peptide products. The agency added that officers also confiscated manufacturing equipment, suspected pharmaceutical ingredients, packaging and commercial vehicles.
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Big 3 auto workers tend to rely on annual profit-sharing checks as a part of the compensation plans negotiated through the United Autoworkers Union.
This year, Ford employees are taking home just shy of $7,000. GM’s union workers were just awarded $10,500.
So how does Stellantis - the other piece of this Detroit auto trifecta – stack up when it comes to these bonus payouts? They’re not even on the board.
Stellantis reported a significant annual loss for its 2025 fiscal year, which meant it fell below the minimum profit-sharing threshold spelled out in its 2023 contract with the UAW. And since there were no profits, the company’s employees received no bonus.
According to the Detroit Free Press, this is the first year in history that Stellantis has failed to award the profit-sharing checks.
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Mexico’s largest cement producer — and one of the leading building materials manufacturers globally — hopes that a newly announced acquisition will bolster its position in the U.S. construction market.
Cemex said Thursday that it reached an agreement to buy Omega Products International, a top provider of stucco in the western U.S.
Omega, based in Southern California, operates four production facilities across California, Colorado and Nevada, and serves both residential and commercial construction. Cemex officials said that the company offers “significant synergies” with its existing U.S. business and aligns with its broader growth efforts north of the border.
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Eight months after PepsiCo relegated a longtime Frito-Lay plant in Southern California to a distribution hub, the food and beverage giant is now reportedly closing the campus entirely — and laying off hundreds of workers.
Frito-Lay halted snacks production at the Rancho Cucamonga plant last summer — one of several closures across the country as PepsiCo dealt with sluggish demand and rising costs — but left its warehouse and distribution operations in place.
Earlier this month, however, the company informed California officials that it would close the warehouse in June and lay off 247 workers, the Los Angeles Times reports.
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On October 10, 2024, at around 4:23 p.m., some 27,000 pounds of toxic hydrogen sulfide gas were released during a maintenance activity at the PEMEX Deer Park Refinery in Deer Park, Texas. The refinery makes more than a quarter of a million barrels per day of motor fuels, like gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel, that are exported to the U.S., Mexico, and Latin America. The toxic release fatally injured a pair of contract workers and injured several others. So, what happened?
Instead of opening a pipe flange on empty piping, contract workers from industrial service company Repcon, Inc. -- which specializes in welding, pipe fabrication, and maintenance -- mistakenly opened identical piping about five feet away that contained hydrogen sulfide gas. The pipe released pressurized hydrogen sulfide gas and fatally injured one of the Repcon workers.
The hydrogen sulfide traveled downwind, where a worker from ISC Constructors, an industrial engineering and construction company, inhaled the toxic hydrogen sulfide and was also fatally injured.
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U.S. consumers looking for the least expensive new vehicle option are facing both bad and good news.
The bad news is that the U.S. market no longer has a new vehicle with an average MSRP below $20,000. According to Kelley Blue Book, the all-but-gone Mitsubishi Mirage was the last hope.
The good news is that the new cheapest car, the Nissan Versa, carries a fairly reasonable MSRP of $22,315. But the other bad news is that the Versa is dead.
As Kelley points out, Nissan reportedly ended production of the Versa in December. Josh Clifton, senior product communications manager for the automaker, revealed to The Drive that the Versa died so Nissan’s product strategy could live.
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Nearly two years after its workers voted to establish one of the first unions at an auto factory in the South, employees at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, have approved their first contract.
The United Auto Workers union announced Thursday that 96% of workers at the Chattanooga plant voted in favor of the deal, which was hashed out over months of often slow-moving talks between the union and the German automaker. It reportedly includes immediate bonuses of more than $6,500, a 20% wage increase over the life of the four-year contract, job security benefits, and cuts of at least 20% in health care premiums.
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Welcome to another episode of Gen Z in Manufacturing, a podcast where I talk to young people about their journeys in manufacturing, how they intend to influence the industry and what they are looking for from an employer.
For this episode, I welcome Colton Harnar, a 29-year-old CNC programmer for SendCutSend, an on-demand, custom sheet metal and CNC machining manufacturing company.
Harnar has been in the machining industry for 10 years and CNC programming for five years. He started as an entry level CNC operator in a shop at a foundry, gained experience with more involved and complicated setup work and later learned how to program. His current position consists of CNC programming for mainly 5-axis milling machines, implementing and improving processes and dialing in new tools and machines.
In this episode, Harnar discusses:
- (1:05) Why Gen Z’s main priority is not a paycheck
- (5:36) How to make a good impression on young workers
- (10:26) The secret method to retaining employees
- (14:33) What Gen Z will tell their kids about manufacturing as a career
One of the nation’s largest brewers says it expects tariffs on the aluminum used in its cans to dent its profits this year.
Molson Coors said in its latest financial results that an 8.1% jump in its average cost of goods sold in the quarter, in part, reflected increases in the U.S. Midwest aluminum premium, and noted that commodity inflation would continue to affect profitability this year. Company officials estimated at an industry conference Wednesday that aluminum costs would impact profit by about $125 million, Reuters reported.
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The State of Texas filed a lawsuit against Darling Ingredients, accusing the company of illegally emitting odors and air contaminants from its rendering facility near Austin, Texas. The complaint noted that the smells can be detected up to 10 miles away, with some described as resembling “boiling blood and death.”
Founded in 1882 and based in Irving, Texas, Darling Ingredients converts materials from animal agriculture and food industries into ingredients for animal and human consumption, crop fertilization and aviation fuel. The company operates over 260 facilities across more than 15 countries.
The facility targeted in the lawsuit processes used cooking grease and chicken byproducts like meat, fat, bone and feathers. The site consists of two buildings: a processing plant and a feather plant.
According to the suit, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has received nearly 1,440 complaints regarding Darling Ingredients’ facility since May 2024, with hundreds coming in the last three months. Reported health effects include nausea, headaches, vomiting and burning throats and eyes. One resident described the smell as “festering dog vomit on fire” and indicated that they would rather smell burning tires.
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Last month, Conn-Selmer – a manufacturer that’s said to be the last to produce brass musical instruments in the United States – announced that it would be closing its plant in Eastlake, Ohio.
And while it’s not exactly an unfamiliar story, this situation has a bit of an interesting twist: the production is reportedly going to a Conn-Selmer plant in China, and the company’s owner, John Paulson, has been an outspoken critic of offshoring.
On the line are 150 union jobs and Conn-Selmer workers, members of UAW Local 2359, are predicted to lose their positions at the end of June. According to the union, they’d planned to bargain a new contract last month when, instead, they were told the plant would close. Leaders called it “a slap in the face.”
A recent report by the BBC cited union workers who claimed Conn-Selmer has had a plan in the works for a while. They said the company opened a new facility in China last year and the Ohio plant’s workload gradually began to shift overseas – even though workers were allegedly told that the China plant would not have an impact on the U.S. factory’s workload.
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The U.S. Army’s Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona is filled with all manner of things that can seriously hurt or kill a person. And the U.S. military would really appreciate it if people would stop trespassing there.
The giant desert training facility, which was formed by General George S. Patton during World War II, is used as a test center for just about every piece of equipment used in ground combat. The 1,300-square-mile facility is well marked with warning signs about trespassing but Sgt. Gregory Harper of the YPG Conservation Law Enforcement Agency said that doesn’t always stop hikers and other desert wanderers.
He said, “There are a good handful of people that I run into out there that are genuinely good people. They are cooperative and their intent isn’t bad, but that won’t protect them from the hazards on our ranges.”
Those hazards include environmental factors like desert heat and potentially dangerous wildlife as well as limited infrastructure, making cell calls difficult if trouble arises.
USArmy, #YumaProvingGround, #MilitaryNews, #DefenseNews, #ArmyTraining, #MilitaryTesting, #UnexplodedOrdnance, #PublicSafety, #DesertHazards, #Arizona, #NationalSecurity, #MilitaryTechnology, #RangeSafety, #Trespassing, #CombatTesting, #Artillery, #MilitaryRange, #LaserTechnology, #DefenseIndustry, #GovernmentNews, #MilitaryWarning
The State of Texas filed a lawsuit against industrial waste recycler Global Fiberglass Solutions for illegally compiling approximately 3,000 wind turbine blades and parts at two disposal sites in Sweetwater, Texas. The lawsuit claims that Global and other entities violated the Texas Solid Waste Disposal Act and Texas Water Code.
Court documents state that Global, a Texas corporation with a principal place of business in Washington, is hired by companies to break down, transport and recycle turbine blades. However, the company allegedly failed to properly dispose of the waste and instead created a stockpile of nearly 487,000 cubic yards of solid waste.
Texas, #WindEnergy, #WindTurbines, #RenewableEnergy, #RecyclingIndustry, #EnvironmentalCompliance, #TCEQ, #SolidWaste, #IndustrialWaste, #Lawsuit, #EnvironmentalLaw, #Sustainability, #EnergyIndustry, #ManufacturingNews, #RegulatoryNews, #CleanEnergy, #WasteManagement, #WaterCode, #GreenEnergy, #EnvironmentalInvestigation, #GlobalFiberglassSolutions
Cargill says it plans to shut down its beef plant in Milwaukee and lay off more than 200 workers amid turmoil in the U.S. beef industry.
Reuters reports that the agribusiness giant notified Wisconsin officials that it intends to halt production at the facility in mid-April and close it entirely at the end of May. The move would affect 221 workers, although some could shift to a nearby plant in suburban Butler, Wisconsin — one of seven other Cargill facilities in the Badger State.
Cargill indicated in the filing that shutting the plant would “better align” its portfolio with demand, as well as prioritize the company’s investments.
Cargill, #BeefIndustry, #MeatProcessing, #FoodManufacturing, #Agribusiness, #ManufacturingNews, #PlantClosure, #Layoffs, #Wisconsin, #Milwaukee, #SupplyChain, #FoodIndustry, #GroundBeef, #USManufacturing, #AgricultureNews, #BeefPrices, #CattleIndustry, #DroughtImpact, #JBS, #TysonFoods, #IndustryNews, #ManufacturingNow
The world’s second-largest brewer says it plans to combat a sluggish beer market by using technology to make its operations more efficient — and, in turn, slash thousands of jobs.
Heineken, which announced its latest financial results Wednesday, said that it expects to cut between 5,000 and 6,000 jobs over the next two years — amounting to up to 7% of the Dutch brewer’s global workforce.
Company officials indicated that some of the cuts would stem from previously announced cost-cutting efforts in its main office, regional operations and supply chain, while others, Reuters reported, would focus on Europe and “non-priority markets” that have lower growth prospects for the company.
The company’s top executive told CNBC that Heineken aims to achieve up to $600 million in annual savings, and that “technology digitization in general, and AI specifically,” would be an important component of those efforts.
Heineken and other leading brewers have faced growing challenges to demand on a number of fronts in recent years, from the rise of other beverage categories to increasing health concerns about alcohol to, of late, tightened consumer spending.
Heineken indicated that beer volumes were down 2.4% last year, although its adjusted operating profit rose by a better-than-expected 4.4%. The company expects profit growth of between 2% and 6% this year.
The announcement also comes as Heineken seeks a new chief executive: Dolf van den Brink announced unexpectedly last month that he would step down after nearly six years at the helm.
The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) has opened an investigation into a fatal chemical release at Woodland Pulp in Baileyville, Maine.
On January 27, 2026, 20-year old intern Kasie Malcolm, a chemical engineering student at the University of Maine, was killed and nine other workers were injured when a highly toxic gas was released into the facility. Two employees were also seriously hurt, one still remains hospitalized, according to the CSB.
Based on initial information Woodland Pulp sent to the CSB, the industrial accident may have involved concentrated sulfuric acid mixing with sulfurous compounds in an enclosed process sewer. The mix likely created the hydrogen sulfide, which was released into the bleach plant area of the mill.
The race for the first viable driverless taxi fleet is still moving forward at a rapid pace, with players like Tesla and Waymo generating regular headlines highlighting the good and the bad.
And though the vision is there, the technology that’s being tested now in a handful of American cities is not perfect just yet.
Recent reports point to comments made by Waymo’s chief safety officer, Mauricio Peña, regarding the degree of independence his company’s autonomous vehicles really offer.
In an early February Congressional hearing, lawmakers grilled Waymo and Tesla executives on the future of autonomous vehicles.
During the meeting, Waymo’s Peña was pressed on the firm’s use of foreign workers and technology, and the extent to which Waymo was using foreign assistance came as a bit of a surprise: the company is apparently using workers in the Philippines to remotely “fix” stumped autonomous vehicles on their routes.
Peña stressed that the humans in question do not remotely operate the vehicles fully, rather they “provide guidance” – a clarification that didn’t quell the concerns of some lawmakers, including Massachusetts senator Ed Markey, who said “having people overseas influencing American vehicles is a safety issue.” Additional concerns raised in the hearing were those of cybersecurity and, of course, the offshoring of jobs.
Markey added, “It’s one thing when a taxi is replaced by an Uber or a Lyft. It’s another thing when the jobs just go completely overseas.”
AutonomousVehicles, #DriverlessCars, #Robotaxi, #Waymo, #Tesla, #SelfDriving, #AI, #ArtificialIntelligence, #TechNews, #TransportationTech, #FutureOfTransportation, #Mobility, #AVSafety, #Cybersecurity, #RemoteWork, #Offshoring, #USCongress, #TechPolicy, #Regulation, #StartupNews, #VentureCapital, #SmartCities
A proposed merger between two of the largest packaged ice companies in the U.S. has been met with a list of divestiture requirements from the U.S. Justice Department’s Antitrust Division.
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-requires-reddy-ice-divest-assets-proceed-proposed-acquisition-arctic
Reddy Ice, the biggest bagged ice manufacturer in the U.S., is looking to acquire Arctic Glacier, the country’s third largest packaged ice maker, for $126 million. The two companies combined sell ice across more than half of U.S. states and generate more than $800 million in combined annual revenue.
It’s a mammoth deal with the potential to create a bagged ice monopoly. So, the DOJ is stepping in with stipulations, largely focused on ice sold to retail chains in Oregon, Washington and parts of southern California, along with packaged ice sold to airlines and airline caterers in the Boston and New York City metropolitan areas.
Antitrust, #DOJ, #JusticeDepartment, #MergerNews, #Acquisition, #ManufacturingNews, #FoodIndustry, #PackagedIce, #ReddyIce, #ArcticGlacier, #Monopoly, #CompetitionLaw, #BusinessNews, #IndustryNews, #SupplyChain, #RetailIndustry, #AirlineCatering, #ConsumerPrices, #Regulation, #CorporateNews, #USManufacturing, #MergersAndAcquisitions
It’s hard out there for any automaker dealing with tariffs, development costs, consumer sentiment and a muted shift to electric vehicles – and luxury carmakers are not exempt.
A new report suggests that Porsche’s cost cutting efforts may be so aggressive that the luxury automaker could kill two brand new models before they’ve even left the building.
At issue are the all-electric Cayman and 718 Boxer, models that Carscoops says were “meant to define Porsche’s future” but might soon fall victim to soaring costs and shifting market dynamics.
In 2022, under the oversight of then-CEO Oliver Blume, Porsche announced an ambitious goal: 80% or more of its new vehicles would be all-electric by 2030.
As we know, in a few short years a lot has changed. And while Porsche was sunsetting the ICE versions of the 718 Boxer and Cayman and developing the new electric ones, it began struggling with mounting costs and delays.
https://www.ien.com/product-development/video/22959886/porsche-may-kill-these-2-models-before-they-even-hit-the-market
Porsche, #PorscheEV, #ElectricVehicles, #EVNews, #AutoIndustry, #LuxuryCars, #CarNews, #AutomotiveNews, #ElectricCars, #Cayman, #718Boxster, #PorscheCayman, #Porsche718, #EVMarket, #AutoTariffs, #CarManufacturing, #SupplyChain, #BatteryShortage, #Northvolt, #FutureOfCars, #EVTransition, #AutoBusiness, #Bloomberg, #Carscoops
Forty-nine workers are set to lose their jobs when The Campbell’s Company closes a plant in the Massachusetts town of Hyannis this spring.
And with it, the region will lose production of the snack staple that bears its name – the
Cape Cod chips have been made at the Hyannis plant since 1985 though, over time, the factory volume of this location has declined to just 4% of the overall output of these potato chips for Campbell’s.
CampbellsCompany, #CapeCodChips, #ManufacturingNews, #PlantClosure, #FactoryShutdown, #JobLosses, #FoodManufacturing, #SnackIndustry, #USManufacturing, #Massachusetts, #HyannisMA, #EconomicImpact, #ManufacturingJobs, #SupplyChain, #CorporateNews
Many have tried, but no one has quite perfected the solar car.
The average vehicle spends most – or all – of its time outside, either in use or parked, and with more than 6 million electric vehicles now present on American roads, many auto companies have been captivated by the prospect of capturing the energy of the sun to provide a boost in range.
One of those is Nissan, which recently unveiled a concept that pairs its all-electric Ariya model with solar panels. Nissan says the project hopes to target the ambitious question that many have posed over the years: what if electric vehicles could charge themselves?
Unveiled in time for Clean Energy Day in January, the concept features an array of flat photovoltaic panels on the Ariya’s hood, liftgate and roof – visible to the eye, but not adding bulk.
Nissan, #ElectricVehicles, #SolarCar, #EVTechnology, #CleanEnergy, #RenewableEnergy, #AutomotiveInnovation, #FutureOfMobility, #SustainableTransportation, #EVCharging, #SolarPanels, #GreenTechnology, #AutoIndustry, #ConceptCars, #EVAdoption, #EnergyEfficiency, #ClimateTech, #IndustryTrends
John Deere announced that it would recall 99 laid-off employees to its facilities in eastern Iowa. The workers will report to the machinery manufacturer’s Davenport and Dubuque Works sites starting in mid-February.
The decision came one day after President Donald Trump announced in Clive, Iowa, that John Deere planned to establish a parts distribution center near Hebron, Indiana, and add an excavator factory to its campus in Kernersville, North Carolina. Scheduled to open next year, the company expects the projects to create hundreds of jobs.
JohnDeere, #ManufacturingJobs, #FactoryRecall, #USManufacturing, #IowaManufacturing, #HeavyEquipment, #ConstructionEquipment, #ForestryEquipment, #IndustrialNews, #ManufacturingNews, #Workforce, #SkilledTrades, #JobGrowth, #EquipmentManufacturing, #SupplyChain, #MidwestManufacturing, #EconomicImpact, #IndustryTrends
https://www.ien.com/video/video/22959460/honda-gm-to-end-us-manufacturing-joint-venture-this-year
Honda said earlier this month that it reached a decision with General Motors to discontinue their Fuel Cell System Manufacturing (FCSM) joint venture by the end of 2026, bringing nearly a decade of collaboration to a close.
The Japanese company’s announcement comes a few months after GM said the joint venture would stop producing hydrogen fuel cells for data centers and power generation. While the American automaker acknowledged hydrogen’s potential for high-demand industrial applications, it called the path to a sustainable fuel cell business “long and uncertain”—citing high costs and limited U.S. infrastructure that hinder consumer adoption of fuel cell-powered vehicles.
https://www.ien.com/video/video/22959340/volkswagen-chief-puts-plans-for-us-audi-factory-on-ice
In spring of 2025, after a flurry of tariffs were announced, foreign automakers were in crisis mode. Among them was Volkswagen, a German company with a substantial US footprint for some brands, such as VW, but a non-existent one for others, like Audi.
Specifically, Audi vehicles have thus far been produced at plants in both Germany and Mexico. Due to the April tariffs proposed on foreign-made vehicles, VW suggested at the time that perhaps an Audi production base on US soil was in the cards.
It was never certain whether this US-made Audi would mean a new factory or simply adding production capabilities at an existing plant: this could be VW’s Tennessee manufacturing compound or a new factory currently being built in South Carolina to manufacture the Scout line.
A June report even suggested that Audi was considering building a greenfield site in the south with a price tag north of $4 billion, though the company didn’t confirm these details, choosing to say, instead, that it was continuing to evaluate its options.
But right now, none of these options are looking good. VW CEO Oliver Blume recently told German media outlet Handelsblatt that plans for a potential US factory for Audi are not progressing.
Blume said the prospect is too expensive based on the added cost burden Volkswagen has taken on with tariffs – a shift that has cost the automaker a reported $2.5 billion in the first three quarters of 2025.
Talks between VW and local officials were also said to have been unsuccessful – meaning no additional financial incentives for a potential factory project or expansion had been established.
Said Blume, “Given an unchanged tariff burden, large additional investment cannot be funded,” adding: “Reduction of costs in the short term and reliable business conditions in the long term are what we need.”
Blume believes VW can still grow its U.S. business, but as evidence of its changing expectations, the company walked back a previously stated goal of capturing 10% market share in the United States, and will instead pursue more gradual progress.
Volkswagen, #Audi, #AutoIndustry, #AutomotiveNews, #ManufacturingNews, #Tariffs, #USTradePolicy, #ForeignAutomakers, #USManufacturing, #AutoManufacturing, #ElectricVehicles, #GlobalSupplyChain, #FactoryExpansion, #GreenfieldProject, #EconomicImpact, #AutomotiveMarket, #OEMs, #IndustryTrends
Welcome to another episode of Gen Z in Manufacturing, a podcast where I talk to young people about their journeys in manufacturing, how they intend to influence the industry and what they are looking for from an employer.
For this episode, I welcome Bailey Olmschenk, a 27-year-old director of solutions engineering at Prometheus Group, a company that develops AI-powered EAM software for plants and facilities.
Olmschenk’s career began with a series of engineering internships and over two years as a process engineer at consulting firm Stantec. In 2023, she joined Prometheus as a solutions engineer and was recently promoted to her current leadership position, where she focuses on making AI accessible to workers who do not traditionally rely on the technology.
In this episode, Olmschenk discusses:
- (:59) Why Gen Z chooses where they want to live before they choose where they want to work
- (4:57) Green flags young people look for when it comes to technology
- (8:03) How Gen Z can fill knowledge gaps for maintenance
- (10:45) Upskilling workers with AI tools
Last October, Polaris announced the sale of its Indian Motorcycle business to a California-based private equity firm.
The Minnesota-based company has owned the nearly 125-year-old motorcycle maker since 2011 and has given it a new lease on life. When Polaris struck a deal with Carolwood LP, CEO Mike Speetzen said both Polaris, which will hold onto a small stake in the company, and Indian stood to benefit from the deal.
According to the Minnesota Star Tribune, the sale is expected in Q1, and Polaris has been forced to make some tough choices as a result.
Gathr Outdoors announced plans to permanently close its Pride Manufacturing production and support facilities in Maine, according to a release sent to IEN by attorney Peter Bennett. A WARN Notice showed the shutdown at the factory, which makes Lincoln Logs, cigar tips and golf tees, will eliminate 115 jobs.
The release stated that the closure results from a “significant shift in customer demand” that rendered the facility “economically unsustainable.” The Portland Press Herald reported that Pride paid roughly $200,000 in annual taxes, primarily driven by property and equipment, according to Burnham Select Board member Rick Basford.
The New York Post cited the facility’s owner, Centre Partners Management, which said the impending closure stems from a cigar maker moving its sourcing for cigar tips. The firm stated that the lost contract left the site “financially unviable.”
The next time you board a flight, it will be with the knowledge that a humanoid robot may have helped build the airplane.
Airbus, Boeing’s primary rival in producing passenger aircraft, has reached a deal with China-based robotics company UBTech. According to Bloomberg, the aerospace company wants to have UBTech’s Walker S2 bots, which stand about 5’ 9” tall, integrated into production lines.
UBTech says the Walker S2 is specifically designed for applications like industrial manufacturing and warehouse and logistics. The bot comes with lots of fairly common features like dexterous hands, flexible design, and enhanced perception and awareness. But what sets the Walker S2 apart from its humanoid contemporaries is its battery-swapping ability. The bot can walk over to a charging station when it’s low on juice and pop in a fresh battery in a matter of minutes, resulting in very little production downtime.
A salsa and hot sauce company in Iowa has sued a contract manufacturer over a series of alleged quality control issues in recent years — including hot sauce bottles that reportedly exploded.
Lola’s Fine Sauces, which began at farmer’s markets and now sells in many of the nation’s top grocery chains, partnered with Canadian manufacturer EcoIdeas Innovation in 2023 for production of "mini bottles” of salsa, the Iowa Capital Dispatch reported.
ManufacturingNow, #foodmanufacturing , #hotsauce , #foodsafety , #qualitycontrol , #productrecall , #supplychain , #contractmanufacturing , #CPGNews, #foodindustry , #lawsuit , #manufacturingnews , #retailnews , #WalmartNews #canada #walmart #hotsauce
A pair of drivers filed a class action lawsuit against Nissan, alleging that its Rogue vehicle’s rear windshields can spontaneously explode while parked and in motion, causing shards of glass to fly through the cars. The complaint claimed that Nissan knew about the defect in 2021 to 2025 Rogue vehicles but failed to notify owners or initiate a recall.
The lawsuit states that the rear windshields can fail before the end of the expected lifespan and within the vehicles’ three-year, 36,000-mile warranty. However, multiple drivers said Nissan refuses to cover repairs, claiming the damage results from ordinary wear and tear.
A Massachusetts-based concrete company has agreed to pay a large fine after multiple safety standard violations resulted in a worker being crushed to death.
According to the U.S. Justice Department, John Oliveira & Sons Stamp Concrete was using a large soil screener with a tail conveyer that could be placed in a vertical closed position or opened to an approximate 45-degree angle. The complaint alleges that on several occasions, the conveyor closed unexpectedly, resulting in a ruptured hydraulic pressure line.
A year ago, the deadly Eaton wildfire spread through Southern California, destroying more than 9,000 buildings in its path. Among them was the family home of Grammy-nominated artist Aloe Blacc and about 6,000 others just in Altadena.
When it came time to rebuild, Blacc worked with LiveLarge Home, a California-based company that makes factory-built, single-family homes designed to survive wildfires. Prefab homes can shorten construction timelines and prioritize structural resilience. Blacc was able to wake up just five months after beginning the project to a new home in Altadena.
An investigation into a Chinese factory that manufactures the popular Labubu toys alleged several labor rights violations, including underage employment, blank contracts, overtime schedules above legal limits and “unrealistic” production targets.
China Labor Watch (CLW), an independent U.S.-based civil and social organization, conducted the investigation at a Shunjia Toys facility that makes Labubu toys for Chinese designer toy company Pop Mart. The probe featured interviews with 51 employees, including workers from the assembly, machine sewing, hand sewing and injection molding departments.
The automaker will phase out its plug-in program with model year 2026, killing not only the Wrangler but also the Jeep Cherokee 4xe and the Chrysler Pacifica PHEV.
Despite this change, Stellantis says it will still be focused on electrification, rather, more competitive offerings. These include, according to the company, non plug-in hybrids and “range-extended” electrics – which are still in development.
New Hampshire’s House of Representatives voted to pass a bill that would make “hard labor” a sentencing option for certain prisoners. According to the legislation, such labor would include manufacturing or assembling work that requires “significant physical exertion,” intended to serve as “punitive retribution and societal deterrence.”
The bill stated that the sentence would apply in the case of a conviction involving capital murder and serious sexual assaults on children. It requires an affirmative vote of at least nine jurors in a 12-person jury. If imposed, the defendant would face life imprisonment at hard labor without parole.
Semitrailer and truck body manufacturer Wabash National Corporation announced plans to idle two facilities in Little Falls, Minnesota, and Goshen, Indiana. The company expects the actions to result in approximately 270 layoffs.
A Wabash SEC filing mentioned 56 job cuts in Minnesota and 214 in Indiana. WARN Notices revealed that impacted positions will include maintenance and production coordinators, machine operators, assemblers and welders — with the latter two accounting for 83 of the affected employees in Indiana. The Minnesota WARN Notice did not disclose the number of workers by role.
https://www.ien.com/operations/video/22957901/aerospace-firm-pays-15m-for-pushing-shoddy-ejection-seat-parts
Teledyne Electronic Safety Products (Teledyne ESP), an aerospace and defense electronics company based in Chatsworth, California, has agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle allegations it sold parts to the Department of Defense that were not up to contract specifications.
The firm’s False Claims Act violations can be traced back to the manufacture of Digital Recovery Sequencer (DRS) units used in ejection seat systems. The devices, which were developed to replace the Analog Recovery Sequencer used in similar systems on F-15, F-16, F-22, A10, B-1B and B-2 aircraft, are critical. They precisely sequence functions including pilot escape, seat stabilization and parachute deployment.
U.S. Steel faces a lawsuit from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) after the company allegedly took unlawful action against a pregnant worker who suffered a miscarriage after months of work assignments inconsistent with her doctor’s restrictions. The complaint claims that U.S. Steel violated the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act by failing to provide the employee with “reasonable accommodations.”
The commission noted that the individual began working for U.S. Steel in 2012 and, since about 2018, had worked as a mobile equipment operator at the company’s Minntac mine near Mountain Iron, Minnesota. The suit added that she typically operated a cleanup loader and served as a “fill-in” team lead leading up to her pregnancy around August 2023.
The worker informed her immediate coworkers about her pregnancy around August and, later, her shift manager in October. She provided a doctor’s note that said she could not operate heavy machinery, tracked vehicles or production trucks for the rest of the pregnancy. U.S. Steel allegedly responded by placing her on short-term sickness and accident leave for about a month without consulting her, while work within her restrictions reportedly remained available.
On Christmas morning in 2023, the cargo vessel Genius Star XI was on its way from Vietnam to California, navigating through heavy weather in the North Pacific Ocean while carrying massive lithium-ion batteries, when a fire broke out in the cargo hold.
The crew put out the fire, but then, three days later, as the ship sought refuge at the nearest port in Dutch Harbor, Alaska, another fire started in a second cargo hold. The crew was able to fight the fire, and it was put out the next day. No one was injured, but the incidents aboard the 410-foot-long Genius Star XI caused some $3.8 million in property damage. According to a recent NTSB report, the probable cause of the two fires was improperly secured lashing belts.
Low earth orbit is a vast place, but that doesn’t mean it’s empty.
And as countries across the globe are increasingly using this space for connectivity and research, satellite populations are skyrocketing – and we may witness some close calls.
It was recently revealed that a SpaceX satellite nearly collided with another, unexpected satellite, the source of which is still not fully understood.
According to SpaceX VP of engineering Michael Nicholls, a SpaceX satellite encountered another satellite that had been launched sometime in the previous 48 hours from China’s CAS Space.
Nicholls said “no coordination or deconfliction with existing satellites operating in space was performed” by CAS Space and that the two spacecraft came within 200 meters of one another. As tech reporter Nicholas Werner pointed out, “in space terms, they basically high-fived.”
Welcome to another episode of Gen Z in Manufacturing, a podcast where I talk to young people about their journeys in manufacturing, how they intend to influence the industry and what they are looking for from an employer.
For this episode, I welcome Gabe Schulze, a 25-year-old industrial engineer at Path Machining + Automation.
Schulze holds a bachelor’s and master’s in industrial engineering and has worked for Path Machining for just over one year. At the company, Schulze leads initiatives to optimize CNC machining operations, implement standardized processes and improve unattended shift performance. His role includes CNC programming, process capability studies, tooling strategy and data-driven problem solving.
In this episode, Schulze discusses:
- (2:01) The value of work having a real-world impact
- (4:28) Will Gen Z stay at their first job or do they plan to move on after a few years
- (7:14) Gen Z’s working hour preferences
- (9:21) What Gen Z can teach older generations about AI
Another community filed a lawsuit against a group of fire truck manufacturers, alleging a price-fixing conspiracy that forced cities and fire departments to overpay for their vehicles. The latest legal action comes from the city of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and targets REV Group, Oshkosh Corporation, Pierce Manufacturing (owned by Oshkosh) and Rosenbauer America.
The city of La Crosse, Wisconsin, filed the first lawsuit in August, claiming that the aforementioned companies conspired to restrict supply and drive up fire truck prices and that inflation alone does not explain the increases. Other entities with cases include Onalaska, Wisconsin, and fire departments in Pennsylvania, Maine and New York.
Ann Arbor’s filing claims that the companies control up to 80% of the fire truck market and that their alleged conspiracy contributed to prices doubling over the past decade, while also extending delivery times from 18 months to four years. The argument echoed La Crosse’s case from August, which stated that a fire truck priced at $500,000 in the mid-2010s now costs about $1 million, while specialized units that once sold for $900,000 now exceed $2 million.
Earlier this week, Ford scrapped the fully-electric F-150 Lightning and pivoted away from aggressive EV plans after losing $13 billion on the category since 2023.
As consumer demand wanes and the company plans to take another $19.5 billion hit in Q4, Ford is shifting gears toward extended-range gas-powered vehicles and hybrids.
The ripple effects throughout the supply chain will be far-reaching, including its $6.5 billion deal with LG Energy Solutions to make some 500,000 batteries per year. According to recent regulatory filings, that deal has been scrapped.
About two weeks ago, I was on a plane in Minneapolis that touched down a bit later than scheduled. As soon as that seat belt light turned off, a line of anxious passengers with tight, some impossible, connections, smashed into the center aisle. Some would make it, some would not, and maybe if this odd Mazda concept from the 1990s made it to market, everyone would have made their flights.
Volkswagen announced that it plans to establish a research hub at its Transparent Factory in Dresden, Germany. The company noted that this realignment will phase out vehicle production at the site by the end of the year — marking the automaker’s first plant closure in Germany, according to the New York Times.
Transparent Factory Dresden, famous for its glass walls, opened in 2001 and began producing Volkswagen’s ID.3 electric vehicles in 2021. The company plans to dismantle the ID.3 production line in January, with the first joint research projects with the Technical University of Dresden beginning in mid-2026 and regular operations scheduled for 2027.
Anhueser-Busch’s U.S. brewing footprint will soon be reduced by three facilities in moves that will impact more than 400 workers, according to reports.
The brewer of Bud Light and Michelob Ultra has sold its plant in Newark, New Jersey, to property developer the Goodman Group, and will close down other breweries in Merrimack, New Hampshire, and Fairfield, California, early next year.
A company spokesman said that the production at those plants will be moved to its other U.S. breweries, and that the moves would allow it to “invest even more” in its remaining operations. The brewer has touted a $300 million dollar spending push at its U.S. facilities in recent months, including updates at hubs in Georgia, upstate New York, Houston and its flagship St. Louis brewery, among others.
The some 475 workers at the affected plants will be offered full-time positions at other Anheuser-Busch facilities, the company said, along with relocation stipends and training.
Each of the facilities set for closure, however, date back decades in their respective cities. The Fairfield and Merrimack breweries were established 49 and 54 years ago, respectively, while the Newark brewery, established in 1951, is Anheuser-Busch’s oldest outside St. Louis.
On Monday, OSHA announced more than $986,000 in safety violations for the largest transformer manufacturer in North America.
According to the U.S. Labor Department, OSHA inspectors visited Virginia Transformer Corp.'s (VTC) plant in Pocatello, Idaho, in June 2025. The visit was a follow-up after a pair of inspections last year found cranes used to handle heavy loads with faulty brakes and switches.
A former plant worker received an eight-year prison sentence for committing wire fraud and cheating his employer out of nearly $500,000, the Department of Justice announced.
The perpetrator, 57-year-old John Laakso — who also went by John Trebesch — reportedly worked as a contractor and later became an engineering manager at GAF Materials Corporation’s roofing factory in Savannah, Georgia. His responsibilities included securing equipment and services for the facility, which makes products for residential and commercial roofing applications.
Next month, Mecum Auctions hopes to cash in with a 1995 Corvette ZR1 Phase 5 engine still sealed in its original crate. The engine will go up for sale at Mecum's Kissimmee (kuh-si-mee) 2026 sale.
The factory‑sealed LT5 crate engine underscores a growing demand for standalone powerplants as collectibles. Mecum has seen a surge in “component collectibles” as enthusiasts are increasingly bidding on rare transmissions, engines, and even factory tools. The auction listing emphasizes the engine’s untouched condition, complete with original packaging and documentation.
Recent sales of LT5 engines have fetched up to $50,000.
Jaguar’s longtime design chief Gerry McGovern – and designer of the 00 – has reportedly been fired this past week.
Last Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Labor announced that Taylor Farms New Jersey, a vegetable processing subsidiary of bagged salad maker Taylor Farms, faces more than $1 million in fines following an inspection triggered by a workplace fatality in Swedesboro, New Jersey.
The investigation began in May 2025 after a worker was killed while cleaning a machine, and OSHA inspectors found 16 willful and repeated safety violations related to a lack of lockout/tagout procedures and training during sanitation activities. The safety agency proposed $1,125,484 in citations.
OSHA also hit PL Solutions Group, which does business as People Logistics, with three serious violations and penalties of $33,100. The on-site temporary employment agency was fined for failing to implement or train workers on lockout/tagout procedures.
Within the studio’s ‘Invent and Integrate’ design approach, Mask Architects has unveiled a fully self-chargeable solar motorcycle named Solaris. At its core, Solaris looks a little bit like any other bike, but upon charging, retractable photovoltaic wings unfold, collecting rich sunlight to supply energy to the bike’s lithium storage unit.
The project serves as an exploration of autonomous mobility, focusing on vehicles capable of generating their own power without relying on fuel, charging networks, or electrical grids. When parked, Solaris effectively becomes its own charging station, operating independently and supporting site-free energy use. This technical foundation is paired with a distinctive biomimetic design philosophy.
Welcome to another episode of Gen Z in Manufacturing, a podcast where I talk to young people about their journeys in manufacturing, how they intend to influence the industry and what they are looking for from an employer.
For this episode, I welcome 23-year-old Roman Andrew, an applications engineer at Fristam Pumps USA.
Andrew spent nearly two years interning at Fristam Pumps while in college, gaining experience in design engineering and quality assurance. During that time, he worked on pump assemblies and part design, collaborated with machinists on the shop floor and performed gauge calibrations and part inspections.
In his current role, Andrew configures and quotes pump systems, helps with repairs and diagnosing failure points and offers technical support to customers.
In this episode, Andrew discusses:
- How to keep interns coming back and eventually join full-time (1:14)
- Do young workers lack communication skills (3:00)
- What career growth means to Gen Z (8:15)
- Signs that your company is driving away young talent (12:44)
Please make sure to like and share this episode of Gen Z in Manufacturing. To view previous episodes, visit manufacturing.net. If you are a member of Gen Z and would like to discuss your experience in the manufacturing industry, please get in touch with me, Nolan Beilstein, at nolan@ien.com.
Last Friday, Able Groupe pleaded guilty to a pair of felony charges for smuggling illegal baby formula into the United States.
According to the Justice Department, the company, which also did business as Little Bundle and Huggable, sold European infant formula to U.S. consumers beginning in the spring of 2019 on LittleBundle.com.
https://www.ien.com/food-beverage/video/22955484/guilty-pleas-follow-scheme-to-smuggle-illegal-baby-formula-into-us
InfantFormula, #BabyFormulaRecall, #FDA, #FoodSafety, #Smuggling, #JusticeDepartment, #DOJ, #FDCA, #PublicHealth, #InfantHealth, #FormulaShortage, #BotulismOutbreak, #ConsumerSafety, #ImportAlerts, #NewsUpdate
Aluminum manufacturer Novelis suffered a third fire in two months at its plant in Oswego, New York. The company announced on its website that the fire began around 8:45 a.m. on Nov. 20 and that multiple local fire departments extinguished it by 3:25 p.m. The company added that all workers safely evacuated.
The Wall Street Journal cited anonymous sources who said the incident appeared to occur in the same area as the first blaze in September. Novelis has not disclosed any details regarding damage.
In March 2024, a nearly 1,000-foot-long container ship lost power and crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, causing the structure to collapse. Six highway workers were killed in the accident and estimates for replacing the bridge are as high as $5.2 billion.
And now it looks like the whole tragic accident was caused by a single loose wire.
Ford has revealed a new sales strategy that’s incorporating the biggest e-commerce seller in America.
The automaker recently announced that, starting this week, buyers can purchase pre-owned Ford vehicles on Amazon.
California Governor Gavin Newsom yesterday announced nearly $100 million in tax credits spread across nine different companies to create new jobs and strengthen manufacturing in the Golden State.
The Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development awarded $99.9 million in California Competes Tax Credits to support some 2,752 new jobs with an average weighted annual salary of $139,000. According to Governor Newsom, the investment will fetch more than $370 million in new private money.
Tesla is asking suppliers to remove all Chinese components used in the manufacturing of its cars for the U.S. market.
According to a new report from the Wall Street Journal, the company had previously stopped using Chinese suppliers for automobiles destined for the U.S. market, and now it's asking suppliers to do the same.
Tesla yesterday issued a recall for its Tesla Powerwall 2 AC Battery Power Systems. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the lithium-ion battery cells in about 10,500 Powerwall 2 systems can cause the unit to stop functioning during normal use.
The systems are overheating. Tesla has already received 22 reports of malfunctioning devices, including six in which the unit started smoking and five fires that resulted in minor property damage. As of press time, no injuries have been reported.
On the heels of securing an $89 million U.S. Army modernization contract and introducing a new family of multi-mission autonomous vehicles, Oshkosh Defense is making headlines again; this time for workforce reductions.
Following a $52.8 million decline in third-quarter sales, the company announced plans to lay off 160 employees at its Oregon Street plant in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, effective January. The decision was confirmed by both Alexandra Hittle, Oshkosh Corporation’s Director of Global Marketing and Communications, and Bob Lynk, President of Auto Workers Local 578. According to both, the layoffs come after all other options were considered.
Honda has issued a massive recall impacting hundreds of thousands of Civic models and the root cause is, you guessed it, a mixup with a fence in Italy.
The automaker warned that 18-inch aluminum alloy wheels that were sold as accessories could detach from the vehicle due to a manufacturing error. As the company points out, having the wheels fly off your car can result in “a loss of control, increasing the risk of a crash or injury.”
A fascinating feat of automotive engineering is set to be auctioned later this month. The 'Beast' is a 19-foot long, two-door station wagon made in 1972 by British engineer John Dodd, and combines an aircraft-derived engine in a custom chassis. Station wagons are typically 15 feet to 16 feet long.
According to Historics Auctioneers, which will set the Beast free to the highest bidder on November 29, 2025, the unique car traces back to engineer Paul Jameson. In the late 1960s, Jameson made a custom chassis big enough to hold a Rolls-Royce Meteor, an engine initially developed to power tanks in the second world war.
The Boring Company, a tunneling firm founded by Elon Musk, received a fine of about $500,000 for dumping wastewater at two sites across its Las Vegas project, Fortune reported.
Musk’s company wants to build a network of tunnels beneath cities to decrease traffic congestion. The company’s website mentions that it has received approval for 68 miles of tunnel and 104 stations for its Vegas Loop.
However, Clark County Water Reclamation District (CCWRD) reportedly caught the company dumping fluids and spoils into two manholes and two on-site cleanouts. A notice of violation cited by Fortune stated that the actions led to “substantial damage” and required water agency crews to clean 12 cubic yards of mud, spoils and solid waste from a sewage treatment facility.
Novelis announced in its latest quarterly report that it plans to restart a hot mill damaged by a fire at its Oswego, New York plant. The metal manufacturer expects operations to resume in December.
A McAdenville, North Carolina carpet factory will be closing its doors, with layoffs set to begin just two days after Christmas.
Mannington Mills is a fifth generation family-owned business based in Salem, NJ that’s produced flooring products for 110 years. On its website, the company claims to have more than 3,500 associates and multiple locations globally.
But those figures will be shifting measurably near the end of the year, according to a WARN notice filed with two states.
One of those filings details 296 job cuts at the McAdenville facility – a plant the company purchased from yarnmaker Pharr in 2020 when Mannington first entered the residential carpet industry.
Last month, Andersen Corporation, a leading manufacturer of windows and doors, sued automation company ATS Corporation, for allegedly failing to deliver equipment for a multi-million dollar factory project at its Iowa subsidiary, Eagle Window and Door Manufacturing, Inc.
Andersen claims it poured millions into the facility to increase production of its high-end E-Series windows for the custom homebuilding market.
Andersen claimed ATS missed deadlines, demanded millions in additional payments, and halted work on the project altogether, citing “poor project management” that made the equipment 860 days late.
Well, late last week, ATS filed an answer and counterclaim as well as a motion to dismiss against Andersen Corporation and Eagle Window and Door.
Swedish engineering company Sandvik says the global transition to sustainability faces a major challenge: while technologies such as electric vehicles, wind turbines, and solar panels depend on “clean” minerals, the demand for materials like copper, nickel, and lithium is rapidly outpacing supply.
To draw attention to the source of these essential resources, Sandvik has introduced the eNimon, or Nomine car. More than 90 percent of an average EV’s components originate from mined materials, but the eNimon is built entirely without metal or minerals—if you didn’t catch it eNimon is “no mine” spelled backwards.
Welcome to another episode of Gen Z in Manufacturing, a podcast where I interview young people about their journeys in manufacturing, how they intend to influence the industry and what they are looking for from an employer.
For this episode, I welcome Kyle Walter, a 24-year-old analyst at Deloitte.
Walter graduated from Wichita State University, where he studied mechanical engineering and worked at Smart Factory by Deloitte @ Wichita, which is located on the university’s Innovation Campus.
Walter became a student team lead at The Factory and was eventually hired by Deloitte full-time. His passions include drones, robotics and the Internet of Things.
In this episode, Walter discusses:
- What surprises a young worker at their first job (:51)
- What goes through a Gen Z’s mind when deciding between a university and a trade school (4:40)
- How manufacturers can reach those who don’t pick trade schools (11:07)
- How to encourage Gen Z workers to share ideas (16:32)
Please make sure to like and share this episode of Gen Z in Manufacturing. To view previous episodes, visit manufacturing.net. If you are a member of Gen Z and would like to discuss your experience in the manufacturing industry, please get in touch with me, Nolan Beilstein, at nolan@ien.com.
Electric vehicle maker Rivian plans to lay off approximately 4% of its workforce, according to the Wall Street Journal. The report stated that the development would impact over 600 employees. However, the company has not provided further details.
The news comes after a WSJ report in September that Rivian would cut about 1.5% of its workforce. A company spokesperson said that the previous layoffs impacted the commercial team as the automaker worked to “improve operational efficiency” for its upcoming R2 model, planned for launch in 2026.
Some marketing efforts are just simple PR stunts, while others are truly revolutionary feats of engineering. But when a gamer and a hip-hop artist take to the skies to play a video game on a giant screen suspended from a helicopter while flying in a different helicopter, why can't both be true?
Even a fairly straightforward pizza delivery still requires at least 30 minutes to bake the pie, throw it in a car and drive it to your door. But Inversion, an aerospace and defense technology company, is raising the stakes by promising to deliver cargo from space to just about anywhere on Earth within one hour.
The goal of Project Artemis has been characterized as a journey to the Moon “for scientific discovery, technology advancement, and to learn how to live and work on another world as we prepare for human missions to Mars.”
Researchers from University College London and Moorfields Eye Hospital recently announced the results of a trial for a new device that helps the blind not just see again, but read again.
The Prima device is a novel wireless subretinal photovoltaic implant paired with specialized glasses that project near-infrared light to the implant, which acts like a miniature solar panel. The device is being developed by Science Corporation, which specializes in brain-computer interfaces and neural engineering. So, how does it work?
The Austin American-Statesman reported that battery manufacturing startup Base Power moved into the newspaper’s former downtown Austin building. Founded in 2023, the startup makes residential batteries and plans to use the publication’s previous site temporarily.
In the heart of Chillicothe, Ohio, a 175-year-old paper mill, long considered an unofficial symbol of the community, was forced to end production in August. Once a cornerstone of the town of 22,000, demand for the specialty paper it produced steadily declined, leading to its closure. First announced in April, the shutdown affected roughly 750 employees, who were notified months in advance. As Pixelle Specialty Solutions, the plant’s owner, prepared to relocate operations, workers were left facing difficult choices about their futures.
An engineering brand synonymous with bots will divest its robotics division.
ABB has announced that it is selling this business to SoftBank – a Japanese financial holding company with a heavy emphasis in technology.
SoftBank owns significant stakes in major companies like Nvidia and T-Mobile, and recent reports have suggested that the firm is carving out a strategic growth plan specific to AI.
And that’s likely where ABB comes in.
The Ford F-150 has been a top-selling pickup truck in America for many years running, but a recent disaster at the plant of one of the automaker’s key suppliers speaks to the precarious nature of even the most valuable supply chains.
On September 16th, a fire took place at the Oswego, New York factory of metal manufacturer Novelis – an event that reportedly leveled the plant’s hot mill, which is the facility’s primary aluminum sheet production area.
The owner, identified as Li Xiaoshuang, parked his SU7 outside of a store, and what happened next was captured on a surveillance camera: while Li and another person conducted some business in the store, the blue vehicle began to drive away. Aware within moments, Li rushed outside to chase down the vehicle, which was reportedly stopped before any damage was done to people or surroundings.
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has restarted manufacturing and is working with suppliers to keep them in business as the U.K. automaker works to recover from a cyberattack that crippled production for more than a month.
The company announced that its phased manufacturing restart will begin Wednesday, when a pair of plants in the West Midlands — the Electric Propulsion Manufacturing Center, where JLR builds engines, and the Battery Assembly Center — come back online.
Employees will also return to work at the company's stamping operations in Castle Bromwich, Halewood and Solihull. The company is also recalling workers to its body shop and paint shop in Solihull, as well as its Logistics Operations Center, which distributes parts to global manufacturing sites.
Another day, another update on fledgling electric carmaker, Faraday Future.
Recent reports point to an incident in a satellite building to the company’s Los Angeles headquarters, in which a vehicle prototype allegedly caught fire.
https://www.ien.com/safety/video/22951814/ev-prototype-explodes-damages-company-hq
A federal grand jury charged two Colorado companies and some of their executives with conspiring to avoid paying tariffs on forklifts imported from China into the U.S.
Court documents accused the companies, Octane Forklifts, Inc. and Endless Sales, Inc., which does business as Discount Forklifts, of selling the machines to federal government agencies as “Made in America,” disguising their Chinese origin. Individuals mentioned in the indictment include current executives Brian Firkins and Jeffrey Blasdel, as well as former executive J.R. Antczak.
A manufacturer of agricultural equipment is citing tariffs in its decisions about its operations in the U.S.
But rather than expanding its U.S. production, it will instead shift some work overseas.
A former production operator and production technician filed a lawsuit against electric vehicle battery maker BlueOval SK, a joint venture created by Ford and Korean manufacturer SK On. The lead plaintiffs, Sean O’Brien and Randall Moore, allege that the company violated the Fair Labor Standards Act and Kentucky Wage and Hour Laws, Western Kentucky University Public Radio reported.
Sandro Dias is a 50-year-old Brazilian skateboarding legend; he's a six-time vert world champion. Well, he recently made history once again when he dropped in from the curved facade of a 22-story building in Brazil.
Until now, the Centro Administrativo Fernando Ferrari (CAFF) building in Porto Alegre, standing 88.91 meters high, has been a white whale in the skateboarding community, which has dubbed the unique structure the "ultimate skate ramp." — Dias himself says he has dreamed of riding CAFF for some 13 years.
For this episode, I welcome Marco Ristano, a 28-year-old senior industrial engineering and planning specialist at machinery manufacturer Caracol.
Ristano joined Caracol after a contact in the investment sector recommended the company. After nearly four years with the company, his duties include collecting and analyzing data, interaction with a range of teams, troubleshooting analysis and digitalization and management of internal information flows.
Ristano hopes to grow into a strategic role where he not only analyzes data and suggests operational improvements, but also contributes to high-level strategic decision-making.
In this episode, Ristano discusses:
- How large Italian companies use a startup model to attract Gen Z (1:03)
- What being valued at a job means to Gen Z (7:57)
- Why Gen Z likes the startup culture (11:55)
- How companies can keep a startup identity as they grow (14:50)
Please make sure to like and share this episode. To view previous episodes, visit manufacturing.net. If you are a member of Gen Z and would like to discuss your experience in the manufacturing industry, please contact Nolan Beilstein at nolan@ien.com.
Last Thursday, a former employee of a multinational DVD and Blu-ray manufacturer and distributor was sentenced to 57 months in prison, nearly five years, for stealing DVDs and Blu-rays of "blockbuster movies" and selling them before their release dates.
According to the Justice Department, 38-year-old Steven R. Hale of Memphis, Tennessee, worked for the DVD manufacturer. From February 2021 to March 2022, Hale stole more than 1,000 discs that were being prepped for commercial distribution in the U.S.
Boeing Defense and the machinists union have reached a tentative deal, ending a five-week-long strike in St. Louis.
An official vote on the new five-year contract is scheduled for Friday, September 12.
Neenah Foundry, a maker of manhole covers and other iron castings, announced that it plans to close its plant in Lincoln, Nebraska, by the end of the year. Nebraska Public Media reported that the company intends to reopen the closed manufacturing facility as a distribution center on January 1, 2026.
Neenah Foundry notified the state labor department that 103 workers would lose their jobs as a result of the permanent shutdown and noted that the non-union facility would not offer bumping rights. It did not disclose how many people the distribution center will employ.
A fire at a Pennsylvania plant owned by hardwood lumber producer Weaber broke out on the night of September 8, reportedly requiring more than 1 million gallons of water to contain.
Fox43 reported that firefighters arrived at the 84-year-old company’s headquarters in Lebanon around 9:10 p.m. The station later noted that all first responders had left the scene by 8:45 a.m. the following morning, with the building still under a controlled burn.
Serta Simmons is saying goodnight to a 122,000-square-foot factory in Jamestown, New York – a move the company says will take place in the next few months and impact 84 employees.
According to Furniture Today, the plant closure is the second one that’s been initiated by Serta Simmons so far this year. The company announced in May that it would shutter a Moreno Valley, California plant that employed 180 workers – a site that was built during an expansion push and has only been operational since 2018.
Last Tuesday, Tyson Foods announced that Brady Stewart, group president of prepared foods, beef and pork and the company's chief supply chain officer, was leaving the food company immediately. Stewart took "certain actions" that violated the company's code of conduct, the company said in a statement, though it didn't provide further details.
Last month, more than 3,200 union workers at three Boeing plants in the St. Louis area went on strike. The employees, who make U.S. fighter jets and advanced weapons systems, rejected a "landmark" contract.
The deal reportedly gave workers a 40% bump over the next four years as well as better medical benefits, pensions, overtime and work-life balance. But the union's members rejected that proposal.
Well, it's been a month, and since Boeing's best aren't willing to budge, the company is looking for a Plan B. Yesterday, the New York Times reported that the new plan includes hiring permanent replacement workers.
This week, Ontario premier Doug Ford responded angrily to reports that the spirits company would be closing the Amherstburg Crown Royal bottling plant, killing 180 jobs in the process.
Ford recently declared that he had a message “to [the company’s] CEO in France: You hurt my people, I’m going to hurt you” adding that Diageo leaders were “dumb as a bag of hammers.”
Jaguar Land Rover announced Tuesday that the company has been targeted by a cyberattack that has "severely disrupted" its production activities.
The British carmaker, which officially rebranded as JLR about two years ago, said it "took immediate action to mitigate its impact by proactively shutting down" its systems. The company says it is trying to restart its global applications in a "controlled manner."
John Deere announced its acquisition of autonomous orchard sprayer GUSS Automation. Founded in 2018 and standing for Global Unmanned Spray System, GUSS expects its machines to act as a solution to the agricultural labor shortage.
According to a search warrant, the employee works at the company's new $30 million corporate office it announced in May 2021. The worker allegedly created and deleted some 115 orders from March 2024 to March 2025. Of those orders, 109 shipments, valued at $1,086,263.85, were delivered.
The employee may have flown under the radar for a year, but then he got greedy and sent about 9,000 pounds of tools to his nearby apartment.
Although FedEx confirmed the layoffs are not related to the company’s ‘Network 2.0’ plan for streamlining its package network, this is the company’s second layoff this year. The state’s labor department filed notice that 217 employees were previously laid off in Middle Tennessee in March.
Welcome to another episode of Gen Z in Manufacturing, a podcast that asks young people about their journeys in manufacturing, how they intend to influence the industry and what they are looking for from an employer.
For this episode, I welcome Hannah Dannecker, a 26-year-old managing partner at Better Together Group, a collection of companies that focus on supplying support and tools to staffing companies. Additionally, Dannecker serves as a board member for the Women’s Trucking Federation of Canada.
In this episode, Dannecker discusses:
- A fact about Gen Z that always surprises older generations (1:07)
- How to gain young workers’ trust (5:18)
- Helping Gen Z get over imposter syndrome (9:12)
- The ideal age to begin engaging young talent (15:26)
Please make sure to like and share this episode. To view previous episodes, visit manufacturing.net. If you are a member of Gen Z and would like to discuss your experience in the manufacturing industry, please contact Nolan Beilstein at nolan@ien.com.
AirBorn, a designer and manufacturer of interconnect solutions for industrial, defense, aerospace and medical applications, announced plans to close its facility in Taunton, Massachusetts.
The company filed its WARN report on August 20, which stated that the closure would affect 86 workers beginning at the end of 2025 and continuing through 2026.
This morning, Toto USA opened a $224 million manufacturing facility in Morrow, Georgia, reshoring production of high-end, one-piece toilets from the Toto Group's plants in Asia. Toto USA is the Japanese manufacturer's Americas division based in Morrow, Georgia.
The company, one of the largest plumbing manufacturers in the world that does more than $5.34 billion in annual sales, says it made the move to increase U.S. luxury one-piece toilet production capacity by 150% to meet rising demand.
Bioengineers at Harvard have created a soft, wearable robot that looks more like a smart jacket, designed to help stroke patients and individuals with neurodegenerative diseases, such as ALS, regain a bit of normalcy.
The team has been working on the technology for years, and the most recent version deploys sensors, balloons, machine learning and a physics-based model to learn each patient's unique movements to help them accomplish daily activities, such as eating, drinking or grooming. The device provides personalized movement assistance—right now, just for the upper body.
The future of warfare is autonomous. To compete with China, particularly in the Taiwan Straight, the U.S. Department of Defense has been ramping up development of autonomous boats, but, according to an exclusive Reuters report, things could be better.
The U.S. Navy recently conducted a test of autonomous drone boats off the California coast—it was meant to promote the Pentagon's prowess.
During the test, one of the vessels stalled. As the team worked to fix a software bug, another vessel T-boned the stalled vehicle. Reuters actually managed to get their hands on footage of the accident.
On Friday, GM unveiled a pair of futuristic Corvette concepts, the CX and the CX.R Vision Gran Turismo, and they have a canopy that opens like a fighter jet.
A nearly century-old golf course in western Michigan could be turned into an industrial, commercial and residential complex under a proposal from its potential new owner.
Residents living near Riverside Golf Club & Banquet Center in Battle Creek were invited to an informational meeting Wednesday about the project, WWMT-TV reports. Interstate Capital Investments, which has a tentative agreement in place to buy the course after some two years on the market, would dedicate about half of the property for industrial space, with the other half split between residential areas and commercial and office space.
T1 Energy and Corning today announced a new partnership to boost the U.S. solar supply chain. T1 will source hyper-pure polysilicon and solar wafers made by Corning at its plant in Michigan. Starting later next year, Corning wafers will be delivered to T1's G2_Austin solar cell facility, which is currently under development. The cells will then be used to make solar modules at T1's operational G1_Dallas site.
T1's G2_Austin 5 GW Solar Cell Facility is an $850 million project. According to the company, the project is enabled by the Trump Administration's tariffs and other policies that support American manufacturing. The facility is expected to begin producing cells by the end of 2026 and create up to 1,800 full-time jobs.
The Trump Administration’s moving-target import tariffs have had significant impacts on the U.S. supply chain and manufacturing industry. While the full impact is still unfolding, it’s beginning to look like the trade deal tactics could do the unthinkable: raise the price of AriZona Iced Tea.
AriZona Iced Tea has been a shining beacon in the cooler sections of gas stations and grocery stores across the country for decades. Since 1997, the company has sold its tallboys for 99 cents, a price point that’s so set it’s actually printed right on the can. But according to the New York Times, the iconic cost could be in jeopardy.
A “massive and unpredictable” swarm of jellyfish has caused one of the largest nuclear power plants in France to completely shut down.
According to the Guardian, the jellyfish swam into water intake systems at the Gravelines facility in Northern France. The resulting clog in the filters caused four of the plant's six pumping stations to cease operation. The other two were already shut down for maintenance, leaving the systems needed to cool the reactors completely offline.
Last August, Sana Biotechnology opened a new 80,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in an old AT&T call center in Bothell, Washington. The Seattle-based startup, which manufactures engineered cells used as medicines for cancer, diabetes, and autoimmune disease patients, had been working on the project for more than a year. The facility was expected to create hundreds of new jobs and bring manufacturing in-house.
Tesla’s Cybertruck has sparked some interesting debates around aesthetics and utility versus novelty, but the U.S. military just wants a few of them to blow up.
The Air Force Test Center submitted a procurement request for 33 towable target vehicles to be used as targets for live missile fire testing. The request mostly focuses on sedans of various colors, trucks, SUVs and “Bongos,” which appears to be the term they used for a Japanese Kei truck.
But the list mentions the Cybertruck specifically, noting that the vehicle could appeal to enemies since they don’t seem to take the same amount of damage expected upon major impact.
The NHL’s newest team announced a lawsuit against a bag manufacturer over a trademark dispute. The controversy involves the Utah Mammoth hockey team and a hockey equipment bag maker named Mammoth Hockey, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.
Cosmic Building, a construction technology company, uses AI-driven end-to-end software to run mobile robotic microfactories. At the heart of its newest microfactory in Pacific Palisades are ABB’s IRB 6710 robots and RobotStudio digital twin software. Both of which are integrated into Cosmic’s Workstation Cell and AI-driven Building Information Model (BIM).
ai #california #wildfire #losangeles #robot #fire
When it comes to global logistics, it seems no news is good news. If a transoceanic journey of goods goes without a hitch, you never hear about it.
But when things go wrong, they can go very wrong – and we’ve seen that play out in several dramatic fires in the past few years that have resulted in high profile tales of doomed cargo ships.
Most recently, an incident involving the cargo carrier Morning Midas led to millions in losses after a fire broke out and the ship sank off the coast of Alaska with more than 3,000 vehicles on board. At issue was concern over the electric and hybrid electric vehicles, and suggestions that the fire broke out on the deck with the EVs.
Tesla's brand loyalty has suffered some notable setbacks.
According to an exclusive Reutersreport, Tesla did more repeat business with U.S. autobuyers than any other major car brand. But then, CEO Elon Musk backed Donald Trump’s reelection efforts and customer loyalty suffered as a result.
S&P Global Mobility reports that Tesla customer loyalty reached an all-time high in June 2024, when 73% of households that already owned a Tesla and were in the market for a new car purchased another Tesla.
About a week ago, a team of engineers and fishing enthusiasts debuted a new product on Kickstarter with modest expectations. It's understandable; a little more than 40% of projects launched on the crowdfunding platform reach their funding goals, and about 15% fail to raise a single dollar.
In January of 2022, Intel unveiled plans to invest $28 billion in building two new chip factories in Licking County, Ohio, to boost production of its advanced semiconductors to serve both Intel projects and other end customers.
A lot has happened since – and for Intel, the past few years have brought sluggish sales, layoffs, and a new CEO.
With that, the last several updates on Intel’s Ohio project have pretty much centered on the same theme – delays.
Welcome to another episode of Gen Z in Manufacturing, a podcast that asks young people about their journeys in manufacturing, how they intend to influence the industry and what they are looking for from an employer.
For this episode, I welcome Maggie Blaney, a 26-year-old solutions engineer at Epicor.
In this episode, Blaney discusses:
- Why her early interest in manufacturing didn’t immediately translate into pursuing a career (1:01)
- How to promote growth within a company (6:21)
- Which parts of a shop floor attract Gen Z (10:59)
- How Gen Z expects a company to use technology (12:57)
Please make sure to like and share this episode. To view previous episodes, visit manufacturing.net. If you are a member of Gen Z and would like to discuss your experience in the manufacturing industry, please contact Nolan Beilstein at nolan@ien.com.
Hertha Metals, a clean steel production startup, says it has successfully demonstrated its single-step process for turning low-grade iron ore into molten steel or high-purity iron. The company built a pilot plant in Texas and it’s been churning out one ton of steel per day for months now. Next year, the company plans to build a new facility capable of 9,000 tons per year and soon after, it anticipates scaling to 500,000 tons per year, on par with what commercial U.S. steelmaking micro mills are producing today.
According to Reuters, toy makers are looking for ways to further cut costs to cushion the blow from a 30% blanket tariff on Chinese goods, and it has translated to product and packaging redesigns.
The first to go, which may rile the "back in my day" members of the crowd, are batteries.
In 2024, IBM identified the manufacturing sector as the industry most attacked by cyber criminals for the third straight year – which is why we see even the biggest brands being impacted by the work of hackers.
Bleach maker Clorox is coming clean about the details surrounding a recent ransomware attack but the fingerpointing extends past the gang of perpetrators and all the way to the company’s IT provider.
And Clorox believes that the IT firm's faults in this situation were so egregious that it has filed a lawsuit.
Big 3 pillar Stellantis issued a rather shocking warning this week when it reported preliminary financial figures that estimate a $2.7 billion first half loss.
And as the auto company gets focused on the poor financials – impacted largely by tariff costs and related production losses – it’s also unveiled some strategic changes relating to R&D.
Stellantis said it will suspend its development program and - with it - will discontinue the hydrogen powered commercial vans that it had previously planned to begin making this year.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and multiple vendors announced a recall of nearly 5 million swimming pools that the agency believes are linked to nine child drownings.
According to the CPSC, the 48-inch and taller above-ground pools were manufactured in China and have been sold by Bestway, Intex and Polygroup since 2002. Retail locations that sold the recalled pools include Walmart, Target, Lowe’s, Home Depot and Costco, as well as online at Amazon.
In celebration of Disneyland Resort’s 70th anniversary, the ‘Happiest Place on Earth’ has unveiled a new attraction; “Walt Disney - A Magical Life.” Debuting at the Main Street Opera House, a cinematic presentation takes you through Walt Disney’s journey, featuring a pre-show tribute video, as well as a visit to a rendition of his office.
The family of a man who died in a crash involving a Tesla Cybertruck filed a lawsuit against the automaker, alleging a defective design and other claims.
The lawsuit, filed in Harris County district court in Texas, stated that in August 2024, 47-year-old Michael Sheehan’s Cybertruck veered off the road, hit a culvert and caught fire, trapping Sheehan inside a blaze that allegedly reached 5,000 degrees Fahrenhei
Italian Designer Andrea Marazzi recently chopped up a 1993 Fiat Panda to create the world's narrowest EV, a historic feat that yielded a fully-drivable car that's only 50 cm (less than 20 inches) wide.
Marazzi started with the chassis of an old Fiat Panda, cutting it vertically, and sandwiching the parts together to make a single seat EV from recycled components. Marazzi used his family's auto recycling business and workshop to make about 99 percent of the car from original parts.
Reports from Forbes and Bloomberg suggest that one of Tesla’s executive officers has left the company.
Forbes reported Thursday morning that CEO Elon Musk fired Omead Afshar, the head of operations in Europe and North America. Bloomberg rep orted later that day that Afshar “left the company.”
Factory tours commonly come to mind for tourists looking to experience local landmarks. Boeing, Jelly Belly and Louisville Slugger all offer popular behind-the-scenes outings. But it’s doubtful any of those are as popular as what Xiaomi is offering in China.
The consumer electronics giant has recently broken into the automotive space. It currently offers the SU7 full-size sedan and it’s working on the YU7 mid-size. It sold just 135,000 vehicles in 2024, though it expects to more than double that this year. But its factory tours have already become so popular that Xiaomi had to introduce a lottery.
Blue Diamond has announced plans to wind down operations at its plant in Sacramento, California, cutting some 600 jobs in the process.
The company says it was founded in 1910 to "ensure the long-term success of small, multigenerational almond farmers and their families in California."
To keep that mission on track, the company must shutter its plant in midtown Sacramento, transferring most manufacturing operations from its 53-acre-site to facilities in Turlock and Salida, California.
The company says a former employee took proprietary recipes and other information to his new job.
Welcome to another episode of Gen Z in Manufacturing, a podcast that asks young people about their journeys in manufacturing, how they intend to influence the industry and what they are looking for from an employer.
For this episode, I welcome Thomas Lesueur, a 26-year-old student pursuing a Ph.D. in microelectronics at the University of Sherbrooke in Canada, in partnership with IBM.
Lesueur said he first became interested in manufacturing during a one-week internship with a company that specialized in composite materials, where his father worked as an R&D director. His education includes a bachelor’s degree in physics and chemistry and a master’s in nanophysics and microelectronics.
His current research involves self-alignment of silicon bridges for high-performance electronics and focuses on leveraging the capillary forces of solder paste to achieve precise alignment of the bridges during the reflow process.
Lesueur presented some of the work at this year’s Electronic Components and Technology Conference.
In this episode, Lesueur discusses:
- How students pursue education and employment in France versus the U.S (1:13)
- The best advice a manufacturing mentor can give (8:01)
- The work-life balance Gen Z searches for (10:06)
- How to find a generational middle ground regarding dependence on technology (13:31)
- Top ways to pique Gen Z interest (17:36)
Please make sure to like and share this episode. To view previous episodes, visit manufacturing.net. If you are a member of Gen Z and would like to discuss your experience in the manufacturing industry, please contact Nolan Beilstein at nolan@ien.com.
British rock band Coldplay plans to re-release its albums on 140-gram EcoRecords made from recycled plastic bottles and produced through injection molding technology.
According to Warner Music Group, manufacturers make each EcoRecord from 100% recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a type of plastic engineered for circular reuse and used by U.S. beverage companies to make bottles. Warner Music Group expects the EcoRecord manufacturing process to cut carbon emissions by 85% compared to conventional vinyl production.
The Oregonian reported that chipmaker Intel plans to lay off up to 20% of its factory workforce, citing an internal email the publication says was verified by four employees. According to the report, Intel informed its employees that the cuts would begin taking effect in July and would impact factories worldwide.
Intel reportedly employed about 109,000 workers at the end of 2024, but it remains unclear how many work in Intel Foundry, the company’s factory division. The unit’s roles range from factory floor technicians to specialized researchers.
Intel eliminated approximately 15,000 jobs last year through attrition, buyouts, early retirement offers and layoffs. However, according to The Oregonian, Chief Technology and Operations Officer Naga Chandrasekaran stated in the email that this round of job cuts will involve eliminating specific roles and levels, assessing skills for remaining positions and “some hard decisions around our project investments.”
At Home is a retailer that was first established way back in 1979 and has grown significantly since. The brand was acquired a few years back by a private equity firm for $2.8 billion and operates more than 260 stores with 7,000+ employees.
So why is At Home filing Chapter 11?
Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers on Friday announced Yaskawa [Yusk-AH-wah] America Inc. will invest some $180 million to expand its footprint in the Badger State, including a new location for its North American headquarters that will create more than 700 new jobs.
The company plans to expand its current facility in Franklin, Wisconsin, about 15 miles southwest of Milwaukee, and a little more than 40 miles north of the company's current operations in Waukegan, Illinois. The project is expected to be completed in the next eight to 10 years.
The Wall Street Journal is calling it “the first big casualty of the tariff war.”
Marelli – the auto parts giant and supplier to big names like Stellantis and Nissan – has filed for bankruptcy protection.
Frito-Lay has been making salty snacks at its Rancho Cucamonga facility in California since 1970. It's the birthplace of the Flamin' Hot Cheeto, allegedly.
PepsiCo Foods U.S. this morning confirmed to Food Manufacturing that the company will shut down manufacturing operations at the Rancho Cucamonga site. However, the warehouse, distribution, fleet and transportation teams will continue to operate at the location. Still, hundreds of workers will be impacted.
Green Charter Township has been locked in a legal battle with Gotion, a Chinese battery manufacturer, for more than a year now. At one time, Gotion was set to build a $2.6 billion electric vehicle battery factory near the central Michigan town.
A labor union filed an unfair labor practice charge against an insulated cable products manufacturer, alleging the company cut off the health care coverage for over 160 employees after the workers rejected a contract offer.
Teamsters Local 986 stated that Okonite, headquartered in New Jersey, terminated the health benefits for workers at the company’s plant in Santa Maria, California, on May 19, one day before a strike began.
For this episode, I welcome Ethan Schaefer, a 21-year-old student at Purdue University participating in a co-op with Fluke Reliability. Schaefer said his interest in engineering dates back to middle school, which led to him pursuing a degree in electrical engineering at Purdue.
In this episode, Schaefer discusses:
- How a company can improve its “vibe” (2:54)
- How to build a workplace where asking questions feels like a strength instead of a weakness (6:32)
- How young people view factory work (10:31)
- Why small manufacturers appeal to Gen Z and what those companies can do to capitalize (15:48)
- Saying, “That’s the way we’ve always done it,” is one of the quickest ways to lose Gen Z talent (18:03)
Please make sure to like and share this episode. To view previous episodes, visit manufacturing.net. If you are a member of Gen Z and would like to discuss your experience in the manufacturing industry, please contact Nolan Beilstein at nolan@ien.com.
For many buyers, the concept of the Lemon Law is a good one: when a consumer purchases a product that repeatedly fails to meet generally expected quality standards, they are provided with a legal remedy to pursue a refund.
And while many automakers find themselves involved in Lemon Law cases, this next instance is a bit unique. For Ford Motor Company, instead of facing off in lawsuits over defective products it is filing a suit against a group of Lemon Law attorneys alleging widespread fraud.
Companies who are found in breach of Lemon Law are often on the hook for the legal fees of the customer, which means there are certain law firms that specialize in – and seek out – these specific types of consumer protection cases. In Ford’s instance, the automaker claims that a group of nine attorneys have been presenting them with inflated bills for Lemon Law-pursuing customers, to the tune of millions of dollars.
The US Attorney’s Office in Central California recently issued a press release detailing the activities of a crime syndicate that targeted one of the country’s largest retailers – Amazon – in a scheme that involved A LOT of stolen goods.
Officers in Florida and California are said to have arrested 13 alleged members and associates of Armenian organized crime syndicates.
A factory in Shepherdsville, Kentucky, reliant on automation, looks to help a shoe manufacturer navigate tariffs and labor shortages.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Keen Footwear recently closed its facility in Portland, Oregon, with plans to relocate production to a 60,000-square-foot site in the Bluegrass State, scheduled to open next month. The company expects the new location to nearly double its domestic output and credits that growth to increased automation.
From Q1 2017 through the second quarter of 2021, Valdez and Olson allegedly withheld taxes from employee wages but didn't pay the IRS or report them on quarterly tax forms. During that time, according to LinkedIn, both worked for Stella Technology, which is based in Milpitas, a San Jose suburb. Stella specializes in healthcare technology services, primarily custom software development. According to their LinkedIn profiles, both Valdez and Olsen still work for Stella.
Philips has announced a new strategy to enable its customers to produce spare parts for their trimmers at home using a 3D printer.
The 2024 Cybertruck AWD Foundation Series sold for $100,000. As reported by Electreck, Tesla is offering just $65,400 in trade-in value—a depreciation of nearly 35% in a year. Pickup trucks typically depreciate around 20% in the first year.
On March 28, 2024, at about 12:18 am, the American Mariner was traveling up the St. Marys River about 25 miles south of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, when a steering failure caused the bulk carrier to strike the Munuscong Channel Junction Light, a 31-foot-diameter cylindrical fixed concrete structure with a giant light on top. The vessel took on water, but the crew stabilized it using pumps, and none of the 18 aboard were injured. Still, the American Mariner sustained more than $800,000 in damage, and the light suffered an estimated $1.25 million in damage.
It seems it’s been a while where EV maker Faraday Future has been hanging by a thread.
In the past year or so, the company has barely avoided bankruptcy and being evicted from its California headquarters. Following a cash infusion, the company has worked hard to stay afloat, even showing off two prototype mules and announcing plans to ultimately offer a sub-$30,000 electric van early this year.
So how has it been going since?
Another electric vehicle maker appears to be on the brink of collapse, the latest in a growing trend of EV startups failing to break through in a crowded marketplace.
This time it's Bollinger Motors, a commercial EV company founded nearly 10 years ago. According to The Detroit News, the company, which was acquired by Mullen Automotive in 2022, has been struggling to pay employees, contribute to 401(k) accounts and cover debts. Those debts include a $10 million loan from founder Robert Bollinger, who earlier this year filed a lawsuit against the company, claiming it was broke and that production had stopped.
A leading global manufacturer of ammunition plans to spend $300 million to establish a new plant in Oklahoma, state and company officials announced Monday.
CBC Global Ammunition, a Brazilian company that also owns the Magtech, MEN and Sinterfire brands of small-caliber ammunition, will establish what would be its third U.S. facility at the MidAmerica Industrial Park in the state’s northeastern corner.
It so happens that occasionally a worker gets busted for theft that takes place in the workplace, but it’s the scale of this next incident that makes it an eye-popping scenario.
Four individuals have been charged in a theft ring that allegedly saw millions in car parts lifted from several Michigan Ford factories, and one of them was a Ford employee.
Dearborn police say they’ve uncovered a scheme involving Ford-manufactured parts and accessories. After a monthslong investigation, authorities arrested the men for allegedly stealing Ford vehicle parts – and it wasn’t something easily snuck out of a building.
Koenigsegg is a Swedish manufacturer of high-performance sports cars that has been credited with some of the most exciting designs to hit automotive since its founding in 1994.
And its latest does not disappoint.New reports claim that a recent test of the Koenigsegg Jesko actually resulted in a world record.
The vehicle was already known for being one of the fastest production cars of all time – but not THE fastest. That’s because the vehicle’s zero to 60 has been outpaced by others, specifically the Rimac Nevera which Carscoops says has the Jesko beat from a standstill
LEGO Group and Formula 1 unveiled 10 fully-drivable F1 cars in Miami on Sunday. The effort was the fruit of a partnership with all 10 teams on the grid and they made their debut at the Miami Grand Prix Driver's Parade.
Each vehicle is made of some 400,000 bricks and weighs a little more than 3,300 pounds—2,200 of that is just the bricks. The average F1 car weighs only 1,759 pounds, including the driver but no fuel, and typically consists of zero LEGO bricks. The vehicles have a bit of a speed differential as well, the average F1 car tops out at 233 mph and their LEGO counterparts bury the needle at 12 mph, but hey they're twice as heavy.
Back in February, President Donald Trump said Boeing's progress on the new Air Force One was taking too long, and he threatened to go another way, maybe even dipping into the used aircraft market to find something to convert.
Well, it appears that the president has reached the end of his patience and is now repurposing a used Qatari plane to become the new Air Force One, and he’s tasked one of Boeing’s contractors to get it done.
A new recall, spotted by Electrek, is targeting the ID.Buzz for having too much space for passengers in the third row. The vehicle was designed to have two designated seating positions in the back row, so the bench seat is logically equipped with just two seatbelts. But, as the NHTSA puts it, the calculated seating surface width of the third-row rear bench exceeds the maximum value allowed by federal motor vehicle safety standards. In other words, it’s too comfortable, making it too easy to squeeze in a third passenger who’d be left without a seatbelt.
From the inventor of the Jetson ONE hoverbike comes a new innovation in an open-air concept. Designed in stealth, Tomasz Patan gave zero updates on his latest project before the bike's unveiling on May 1st. As part of the announcement, Patan released a video in which he can be seen gliding around a forest and through a valley on his newest creation, which he claims to be a ‘breakthrough in personal air mobility.’
For many automakers the current market is clear as mud.
Production shifts are being proposed as tariffs are hitting their supply chains, and pricing and buyer behavior are such a question mark that some have withdrawn their full year forecasts.
But one EV brand may have had the foresight to get ahead of the drama.
Carscoops recently reported that Rivian has been quietly amassing a “secret stockpile” of key components since before the 2024 election.
They say that, because of this “refreshingly proactive strategy,” the California-based company is now sitting on a sizable stockpile of batteries.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced a new lawsuit against body armor manufacturer ShotStop Ballistics from Stow, Ohio, for allegedly importing Chinese-produced plates and labeling them as “made in Ohio” and compliant with standards from the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), the Department of Justice’s testing arm.
The lawsuit stated that the alleged actions by ShotStop, its Vallmar Studios affiliate and owner Vall Iliev violated the Consumer Sales Practices Act (CSPA).
Based in Columbus, Ohio, Abitec makes ingredients used in the pharmaceutical, nutritional and specialty chemical industries. Specifically, the company manufactures functional lipids, products used in everything from making sure CBD stays evenly mixed in beverages to those used in suppositories to make sure they melt appropriately.
The company operates a pair of manufacturing sites: a factory in Paris, Illinois that specializes in flaking, blending, and spray chilling, and another in Janesville, Wisconsin that does esterification, surfactants and specialty blending. But the plant in Janesville is old; it dates back to 1907, and Abitec is looking to modernize.
The company joins an increasing number of tech giants making significant U.S. investment plans.
Welcome to another episode of Gen Z in Manufacturing, a podcast that asks young people about their journeys in manufacturing, how they intend to influence the industry and what they are looking for from an employer.
For this episode, I welcome Adam Saleh, the 24-year-old CEO and founder of Presq, a design services company that helps consumers launch foot products.
Saleh started Presq in 2019 during his engineering design fellowship with The 1881 Institute of Technology in collaboration with NASA. Shortened from “presque vu,” a French term that roughly translates to “tip of the tongue,” Presq blends a prompt-to-product workflow, 3D printing technology from Carbon 3D and cultural intelligence to spotlight localized production stories.
With the shift to remote and hybrid work came what Microsoft calls “productivity paranoia”
While many employers seek out the best ways to keep employees productive and on track, there can certainly be drawbacks to the most aggressive strategies.
“Christmas is in danger,” according to Toy Association CEO and president Greg Ahearn. In a report by NBC News, Ahearn said U.S. President Donald Trump’s increasing tariffs are disrupting manufacturing in China, where the Toy Association estimated 80% of toys sold in the U.S. are sourced.
Amazon’s Project Kuiper is an ambitious project and could eventually be a serious competitor to SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service. But that’s only if Amazon can start building its satellites a little faster.
According to Bloomberg, Project Kuiper has run into production delays. It’s on a government deadline to have about 1,600 satellites in orbit by next summer, but so far it’s only managed to churn out a few dozen of the spacecraft. The company will need to quadruple its production capacity if it still plans to meet that deadline.
On October 9, 2023, the Ocean Navigator passenger vessel owned by Victory Cruise Lines began a 10-night cruise from Montreal, Canada, to Boston, Massachusetts, with 128 passengers and 82 crewmembers aboard. Nine days later, at about 7:00 am, the vessel was docked in Portland, Maine, when a fire broke out in the engine room.
The NTSB released a report this week that traced the fire to debris in the engine's lube oil system, which led to a catastrophic mechanical failure in the no. 2 auxiliary diesel generator engine. The fire injured a crewmember, but it self-extinguished after the crew ventilated the engine room. Still, the incident caused some $2.4 million in damage.
While the ramp-up of autonomous driving tools has been years in the making, China appears to be tapping the breaks on this emerging tech – or at least how it’s being portrayed.
Recent reports say China has instituted a ban on certain words being used in advertising vehicles and their automated features. Such descriptions include the terms “smart,” “self-driving” and “autonomous driving.”
But it doesn’t appear to end there. Reuters cited a meeting between Chinese government officials and auto industry leaders that points to new rules about technology rollouts.
Mack Trucks plans to lay off up to 450 workers at two facilities in Pennsylvania and Maryland, the company’s director of public relations, Kim Pupillo, confirmed.
The medium and heavy-duty truck manufacturer’s job cuts will take place at the Lehigh Valley Operations center in Macungie [Muh-CUN-jee], Pennsylvania, and the Powertrain Development and Production plant in Hagerstown [HAY-guhrs-town], Maryland.
The plaintiff in the lawsuit said he bought a used 2020 Model Y Tesla vehicle with 36,772 miles on it. He said he started to notice "peculiar patterns” in mileage while the vehicle was continually having problems with its suspension. He claimed his daily driving habits should have amounted to about 20 miles per day, but his Tesla’s odometer was registering an average of 72 miles per day. As a result, he said Basic Warranty expired way ahead of schedule.
The automaker wants 90% of all cars sold in the U.S. to be made in the U.S.
In March, Honda became one of the first tariff dominos to fall when the company scrapped plans to make the Civic Hybrid in Mexico and moved production to Indiana. Now, according to Reuters, the automaker is looking to increase U.S. production by some 30% over the next two-to-three years.
The 300+ workers supply Pyrex glass – a product line owned by Instant Brands until a 2023 bankruptcy led to the sale of its housewares division to a company called Centre Lane Partners, owner of glass company Anchor Hocking.
The Trump administration reportedly plans to end funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) program, a public-private partnership that supports small and medium-sized manufacturers, which represent nearly 98% of firms in the U.S.
While the Department of Commerce did not officially announce a funding cut, U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) issued a statement that said the Trump administration would halt funding for 10 MEP centers.
A stealthy EV startup with financial backing from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is reportedly building a $25,000 electric truck.
According to TechCrunch, Slate has been up and running since 2022 and quietly assembling a team of automotive experts from companies like Ford, General Motors, Stellantis and Harley-Davidson. Drawing inspiration from the Model T Ford and Volkswagen Beetle, the company hopes to introduce a two-seat EV pickup with a significantly lower price point than many of its competitors.
Late last year, Michigan-based Grede LLC told workers at its 50-year-old foundry in Brewton, Alabama, that the company planned to shutter all manufacturing operations by the end of 2025.
On April 1, the company issued a WARN notice with the state that says the wind down will begin on May 22, 2025, and some 160 employees will be affected. But it turns out many more will be out of work.
GM yesterday unveiled a Chevrolet Corvette concept car with a 3D printed body. Not only is the body lighter, but additive manufacturing would allow GM to reduce the part count.
According to GM Authority, the carmaker sold a little more than 33,000 Corvettes in the U.S. last year, and advancements in additive manufacturing can already suit applications with volumes in the low tens of thousands—and this one is in the future, so who knows what will be possible then, or, if there will be one.
GM's UK team created the concept as part of an advanced design study that includes multiple studios currently preparing to reveal additional Corvette concepts throughout the year.
Appliance manufacturer Whirlpool has announced that it will lay off 651 workers from its plant in Amana, Iowa.
The company said that the layoffs, effective June 1, are “necessary adjustments to production” in response to consumer demand for the specific products being manufactured in Amana. These include French door and column refrigerators.
While the company has said that tariffs are not a factor in this move, the decision nonetheless triggered a political backlash of a different kind.
Last week, Hyundai Motor Group announced a $21 billion investment in U.S. operations from 2025 to 2028, including some $6 billion earmarked for strategic partnerships with U.S. companies.
As part of this new investment, Hyundai will purchase "tens of thousands of robots" from Boston Dynamics, according to the robot maker. As part of the partnership, the carmaker plans to help Boston Dynamics scale over the course of the next few years by integrating its manufacturing capabilities. Together, the two hope to create one of the biggest manufacturers of advanced mobile robots in the world.
Reuters is reporting that Toyota’s hybrid models are in such high demand that parts shortages have led to monthslong delays – or worse.
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology researchers have developed a 3D printing food solution that combines the use of graphene heaters and starch-based printing material with generative AI, all in a single 3D printer.
Traditional 3D printing food technologies typically require postprocessing steps that lead to imperfect shapes, use unappealing ingredients or even face microbial contamination. Using graphene heaters surrounding the extrusion head, the researchers cook the food as it is printed at a constant, controlled temperature. By heating the material as it is printed, the foods keep their intended quality and shape.
Situated just northwest of Oklahoma City, the Bethany-Warr Acres Water Treatment Plant was recently the scene of a crime – that is, according to Oklahoma County District Attorney Vicki Behenna who has filed charges against two former employees.
The water treatment plant handles three million gallons of raw sewage a day, and the County alleges that 55-year-old Anthony Menzie and 63-year-old Glenn Brentnell committed multiple felonies in willfully allowing waste to leak into a nearby creek
When the Dali containership struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, the deadly collapse triggered an NTSB investigation into U.S. infrastructure. The safety agency wanted to see if other bridges could be susceptible to similar strikes.
About two weeks ago, the NTSB identified 68 bridges across 19 states that should conduct a vulnerability assessment.
Law enforcement stormed a flooring manufacturer in Cartersville, Georgia in connection with what the FBI described as an “active, ongoing labor trafficking investigation.”
According to a news release, agents from the FBI, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other law enforcement partners entered the Wellmade Industries building to execute federal search warrants, alleging the company of using fraud and coercion to persuade Chinese nationals and other immigrants to work. The agents also carried out search warrants at multiple residences in the area.
After a challenging year of sales declines and a failed potential merger with Honda, Nissan wants to make it clear that it’s not going anywhere.
And based on the most recent announcements from the Japanese automaker, it appears Nissan is pinning its comeback hopes on an array of new and redesigned models, all due to hit the market by 2027.
There are ten in fact, and the company says these new entries will span both the Nissan brand and its higher-end counterpart, Infiniti.
In a move that says just as much about the state of the steel industry as the automotive industry, Cleveland-Cliffs has confirmed that it will lay off 600 workers from its Dearborn Works facility in Michigan.
Cleveland-Cliffs is the 4th largest steel maker in the United States, and shipped out record volumes to automotive in 2023.
One bearing company has found a way to optimize the design of a time-tested product that’s used single every day: the wheel.
The results are in after a yearlong trial of Spanish company Fersa’s take on the wheel hub, and they say they’ve proven their new and efficient design.
This fuel efficient wheel hub has been designed to reduce both friction and rolling resistance. According to reports, it uses a combination of high load capacity, advanced materials, optimized lubrication and "microgeometric enhancements for optimized surface geometry."
training for students seeking careers in various skilled trades. Her passion for motorsport led her to a UTI division called NASCAR Technical Institute.
Ahmed’s other professional experience includes working as a CNC and CNC Swiss lead operator at Victory 1 Performance and Trend Performance, which are owned by racing parts maker Race Winning Brands.
Ahmed also hosts NextGenMFG, a podcast that features guests working in skilled trades and pursuing education in STEM fields. The podcast aims to elevate careers, teach younger audiences and their families about trades and inform business owners and employers about what the younger generation is looking for.
In this episode, Ahmed discusses:
- How to engage young people with no connection to skilled trades (1:19)
- How manufacturers can use social media to find young talent (6:58)
- Which social media platforms companies should use (12:27)
- What a company needs to attract Gen Z (15:05)
- Upcoming episodes and guests on the NextGenMFG podcast (18:40)
Please make sure to like and share this episode. To view previous episodes, visit Manufacturing.net. If you are a member of Gen Z and would like to discuss your experience in the manufacturing industry, please contact Nolan Beilstein at nolan@ien.com.
EV maker Longbow is taking two sleek new models to market – and analysts say the competition might be taking note.
That’s because Longbow’s latest entries have more going for them than your average electric car.
This UK-based startup is supported by a strong pedigree, including ex-employees from EV leaders like BYD, Tesla and Lucid.
Tesla Cybertrucks have run into a spot of trouble, a defect that has forced the automaker to recall every truck it's ever sold. Luckily, that is only 46,096 vehicles, but unfortunately this one can't be fixed with an over-the-air update.
The EV maker recently received several reports of pieces of the roof falling off while the vehicle was on the road. Specifically, the cant rail, the bit of electrocoated stainless steel trim above the doors that runs from the base of the windshield to the back door. Tesla says its part of the Cybertruck's "cosmetic applique" and, according to the recall, the assembly is affixed to the vehicle with fasteners. The panel is delaminating at the adhesive joint, causing it to separate from the vehicle.
Although it doesn’t compete directly with major manufacturers like Michelin, Bridgestone and Goodyear, LEGO is still the world’s largest tire maker. At least in terms of volume, not size.
According to Guinness World Records, LEGO has been pumping out about 306 million rubber tires each year since 2006. The company peaked in 2010 when the total reached 381 million tires, way more than the nearly 200 million tires Michelin produced in 2024.
Digital manufacturing platform Fictiv today announced the results of its "10th Annual State of Manufacturing & Supply Chain Report."
The company surveyed 254 senior manufacturing and supply chain leaders to glean insight into mounting concerns regarding evolving U.S. trade policies, preventing supply chain disruptions, and scaling innovation, AI, and sustainability.
According to the report, some 96% of respondents have concerns over the impact President Donald Trump's trade policies will have on supply chains. The chief among them is the potential toll tariffs will have on costs and profitability (57% of respondents), followed by the administration's renewed emphasis on bringing manufacturing back to the U.S. (53%).
A fire that struck a factory critical to the aerospace industry could threaten Boeing’s recovery plan as the plane maker looks for an alternative supplier of fasteners.
Of course we all love to buy products that are tailored to our specific wants and needs, but the idea of a truly one-of-a-kind vehicle seems almost impossible.
But British automaker Bentley is going bespoke to the point of excess, and the automaker has recently announced that it can now offer enough configurations to create a uniquely custom Bentley for every person on earth. And then, every person on earth again. Then, again.
Volkswagen in recent years has been shifting in-vehicle controls to touchscreen and haptic feedback, which sounds very futuristic, but in reality can be annoying in the best-case scenario and a safety hazard in the worst.
The automaker has obviously heard the complaints about turning its products into smartphones on wheels and it’s doing something about it. Autocar recently spoke with Andreas Mindt, VW’s design chief, and he said the company is bringing back physical buttons for the five most important functions in every vehicle it makes, starting with the ID 2all due out next year.
A California court announced a lawsuit that targets a “material safety defect” in tens of thousands of Ford’s Mustang Mach-E.
The vehicles mentioned in the lawsuit all contain electronically latched doors called E-Latch, which Ford markets as a feature. However, the complaint argues they are actually a defect because battery failure or loss of power forces owners to jump-start the vehicle and battery to open the doors from the outside.
A Mach-E does not have traditional door handles or a keyhole on its exterior. Instead, owners can unlock the doors by pressing a button on the door while carrying the vehicle’s key fob or using a connected smartphone.
The trade war between the U.S. and Canada is heating up as leaders from both countries trade 25% tariffs and other regulatory threats.
At the center of the tariff tiff is booze, with Canadian stores stripping shelves of all U.S. alcohol in an act of patriotic solidarity. Brown-Forman, the producer of Jack Daniel’s, said such boycotts will be “worse than a tariff,” when it comes to the impact on the bottom line.
Automotive startup Aptera Motors announced that it conducted tests on its first production-intent validation solar electric vehicle in the Mojave Desert to evaluate its aerodynamics and energy efficiency. The development marks a significant milestone for the company, which has about 50,000 pre-order reservation holders.
CNBC says that increasingly luxurious first-class seats are holding up airplane deliveries.
The “big 2” in commercial airliners held earnings calls in late February and both illustrated similar issues.
Honda has scrapped production plans for its Civic Hybrid in Mexico, shifting production to an Indiana facility.
Japan’s second-largest automaker makes the shift with tariffs and trade wars in mind—President Donald Trump has imposed 25% tariffs on Mexican-made products. About 80% of Honda’s Mexican exports wind up in the United States, selling 1.4 million cars and trucks in the U.S. last year. Furthermore, about 40% of Honda’s U.S. sales are imported from Mexico and Canada. Honda may still face retaliatory tariffs as the automaker exports some 60,000 U.S.-made cars to Mexico and Canada.
The automaker just recalled vehicles that were recalled last year to fix a problem that occurred during the previous recall.
One down, one to go.
A little more than two weeks ago, reports surfaced regarding Boeing’s refocused effort on closing the plane maker’s shadow factories, sites where some of the company’s top talent fix, maintain, and update planes instead of building new ones.
The company had two sites still working on some 115 aircraft, one that services 737 MAX jets in Moses Lake and one that was working on 787 Dreamliners in Everett, Washington.
On Friday, The Seattle Times reported that Boeing is already closing up shop in Everett.
Volvo buyers in China got an unwelcome surprise recently when they discovered some irregularities in a standard component.
According to Chinese media outlet Sohu, as reported by Carscoops, several owners posted concerns on social media about the speakers installed in their S60 sedans.
One customer reported that his upgraded, premium quality speakers from the brand Bowers & Wilkins weren’t there – instead, was a set labeled “Bowers & VVilkins” – with the second word starting with two capital Vs instead of the W.
ABB Robotics recently partnered with UK construction technology company Automated Architecture (AUAR) to build ConstrucThor, a new research facility in Belgium, to showcase the future of sustainable construction.
On January 8, 2024, a fire broke out in the engine room aboard the 598-foot-long Stride cargo vessel while it was refueling at the Barbours Cut Marine Terminal in La Porte, Texas, about 25 miles east of Houston. Crewmembers cut all ventilation to the engine room to extinguish the fire, but not before two crewmembers, a chief engineer and a third engineer, lost their lives. Another worker was seriously injured in the incident as well.
The vessel was declared a total loss valued at $12 million, and the operating company, Danaos Shipping Company, which is based in Greece, scrapped the entire ship.
While no vehicle is entirely theft-proof, Ford is so confident in its ability to prevent your F-150 from being stolen that it’s willing to put its money where its mouth is.
The company was slated to receive $7 billion in funding to help develop six U.S. hydrogen hubs.
Welcome to another episode of Gen Z in Manufacturing, a podcast that asks young people about their journeys in manufacturing, how they intend to influence the industry and what they are looking for from an employer.
This episode welcomes Emily Molstad, a 27-year-old CEO and co-founder at VALIS Insights, a startup and member of Manufacturing USA Institute REMADE that develops AI-powered software designed to close the loop on a circular economy for metal fabrication.
Molstad co-founded VALIS after spending over five years at Solvus Global, a technology-solution provider that specializes in additive manufacturing, machine learning and sustainable materials processing. The concept for VALIS originated at Solvus and was eventually entrusted to Molstad and a co-founder by one of her mentors in 2022.
Molstad was also named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 North America 2024 edition for manufacturing and industry.
RBW EV is a UK-based manufacturer of hand-crafted electric sports cars. It's a nearly eight-year-old family business, and family is important to founder Peter Swain. For example, the company's name, RBW, actually represents the first letter of each name of Swain's children, Rose, Becky and Wesley. The EV, well, you know what that means.
For years, RBW has hand built its GT and Roadster models overseas, including a little more than a year in its state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Lichfield, England, which opened in late 2023.
Bloomberg reported that the co-founder of modular home manufacturer Samara plans to donate $15 million to an initiative that aims to provide prefabricated homes to victims of the wildfires that struck Los Angeles. The donation will come from Joe Gebbia [Jebbia], who also co-founded Airbnb and serves as a board member of Tesla
Motor Authority has pointed out a Stellantis patent published in January by the United States Patent and Trademark Office that takes the form of the iconic Ram’s head hood ornament, originally featured on the Dodge brand trucks, though notably modernized.
Boeing admitted that its production cannot keep up with its aircraft sales. However, the aircraft manufacturer aims to restore jet production to the pre-crisis levels it achieved before deadly crashes in 2018 and 2019 and last year’s midflight door plug detachment.
To accomplish this, the Wall Street Journal reported that Boeing wants to empty the aircraft stored in its shadow factories. The company defines a shadow factory as a production line where mechanics and engineers fix, maintain, and update planes rather than build new ones.
Toyota has issued a fairly substantial recall for its Tacoma pickup truck and the problem is a particularly dirty one.
According to the recall filed with the NHTSA, the affected 4-wheel drive vehicles are equipped with 16-inch brake systems with hoses that transfer brake fluid under hydraulic pressure to the calipers for braking. The positioning of the components, paired with 17-inch wheels, means that mud and dirt can build up on the interior of the wheels and possibly come into contact with the brake hoses. Over time, Toyota warns, this may damage and wear through the brake hoses, causing a brake fluid leak, which could lead to a reduction of brake performance, an increase in brake stopping distance, and an increased risk of a crash.
The headlines these days are awash with cost-cutting news, and it appears that one big name in oil & gas is jumping head-first into slashing its overhead.
Chevron revealed Wednesday that it plans to cut a significant number of jobs in order to shore up as much as $3 billion in cost savings.
The cuts are projected to include between 15% and 20% of Chevron’s global workforce. They will reportedly start now and will conclude before the end of next year.
Stark Future, a Spanish motor vehicle manufacturer with Swedish roots, launched in 2020, began sales and production in 2023 and reported in 2024 that it expected to eventually reach an annual revenue of more than $93 million.
However, Stark’s latest development did not involve the electric Stark Varg, the company’s flagship electric motocross bike. Instead, Stark revealed the Klinga Sabre, a sword manufactured with 3D-printed titanium.
Brand Communications Director Benjamin Cobb told IEN that the Klinga Sabre’s design process involved blending 3D printing technology, the form language of the Stark Varg and a sculpture of a moose, which functions as a bottle opener.
Is the Artemis program doomed?
When the first Trump administration announced a pledge to reestablish America’s human presence on the Moon, the goal was to create a permanent base on the lunar surface, which could be used to help facilitate missions to Mars.
In 2019, the cost estimate for the program – dubbed Project Artemis – was suggested by NASA to be between $20 and $30 billion. And while that’s a big number, it actually pales in comparison to the revised figure that came two years later when the agency’s Office of Inspector General suggested the true cost would be $93 billion – and that was just through 2025.
Speaking of 2025, here we are – and the updates taking place over the past few weeks don’t seem to bode well for Project Artemis.
More than a year ago, the U.S. Air Force took on the unique task of taking two wrecked aircraft and Frankensteining them together into one operational F-35A Lightning II. Now, after a whole lot of weird science, it’s alive!
In late 2023, the F-35 Joint Program Office assembled a “dream team” consisting of the 388th Fighter Wing, the Ogden Air Logistics Complex and Lockheed Martin. The mission: rebuild an AF-211 that lost its nose cone in 2021 using the front end of an F-35 that suffered a severe engine fire in 2014. The endeavor was affectionately called the “Franken-bird” project.
Minnesota-based H.B. Fuller Company provides adhesives, sealants and specialty chemicals to customers in a wide range of industries – everything from medical and hygiene products to transportation, energy and construction.
Despite the diversity of its end markets, H.B. Fuller’s leaders recently expressed disappointment in its Q4 earnings statement, pointing to sluggish customer behavior, pricing volatility, high material costs and tight margins.
CEO Celeste Mastin said the company must now in order to improve its profitability. She says it also plans to continue with an existing strategic plan that involves aggressively consolidating the company’s footprint.
Sometimes the simplest solutions produce the most significant results. And the U.S. Air Force is close to implementing a very basic feature that could end up saving millions.
The C-17 Globemaster III is a flexible aircraft used to carry troops and all types of cargo from point A to point B. It’s also a massive plane and not particularly fuel efficient. But a small 3D-printed device could help with that. The Air Force Operational Energy and Air Mobility Command said it’s in the final phase of testing for Microvane drag reduction technology, which is a thin blade measuring about 4 x 16 inches, or roughly the size of two Costco hot dogs.
When about a dozen Microvanes are glued to the rear of the C-17’s exterior, it results in a 1% reduction in drag compared to a C-17 with no Microvanes.
One of the world’s largest cosmetics firms is in trouble.
In the Fall of 2024, Estee Lauder – parent company to major brands like Clinique and MAC lipstick – announced a planned turnaround after declining sales led the company to withdraw its forecasts and reduce its dividend.
At the time, the company – which employs around 62,000 – said it would cut 3,000 jobs to reduce millions in costs.
**A resurrected, electrified automotive brand is preparing to begin selling the SUVs made at its forthcoming South Carolina factory in two years’ time.
But barring a change in state law, residents of the Palmetto State won’t be among its customers — at least directly.
CarScoops noted recently that South Carolina is one of the some 20 states that contin ue to restrict direct-to-consumer vehicle sales. Those policies, which require cars to be sold by dealerships, date back to mid-century legislative efforts to protect dealers from auto industry giants.**
According to AutoInsurance.com, carmakers issued an average of 21 recalls each in 2024.
And while auto manufacturers are on the hook for these repair costs – representing a multi-million-dollar hit to their bottom line – vehicle buyers play a role, too: they must actually bring their vehicles in to have the service performed.
It’s been well documented that many of them don’t, and a recent study by Carfax illustrates just how many that is.
"This year, Spangler shifted away from the no-label lifestyle with its "Commitment Hearts," which feature artificial intelligence scanning technology that lets consumers express their desire for cohabitation, symbolic headstones and even matrimony.
The new candies read "MOVE IN?", "MARRY ME" and "4EVER EVER?". After buying these new sweethearts, customers can visit sweetheartcandies.com, where they will find a button that says "Commit to your Sweetheart." Clicking the link brings up a page that lets them scan their candies with a webcam.
Alleima is a Swedish steelmaker that makes products out of advanced stainless steel and special alloys. The company, formerly Sandvik Materials Technology, was officially spun out of Sandvik in 2022 and has more than 900 active alloy recipes. The company typically makes seamless steel tubes for the energy, chemical and aerospace industries, precision strip steel for white goods and even ultra-fine wires for medical and micro-electronic devices.
The company recently found itself facing a unique challenge: the crumbling remains of a nearly 400-year-old ship. On August 10, 1628, the Vasa cast off from below Tre Kronor castle in Stockholm and left the harbor. She was a mighty ship with three masts that could carry ten sails, measuring 52 meters from tip to keel and 69 meters long, it weighed 1,200 tons. The Vasa was hit with a mighty gust from the gods that caused her to capsize. Water poured in through open gun ports, the Vasa sank to the floor of the sea, and at least 30 of the 150 or so people aboard perished.
Last week, Panasonic and Mitsubishi Materials recently provided an update on a joint effort more than ten years in the making to operate and expand a product-material-product (PMP) loop. Since 2011, the collaboration has strived to reuse gold, silver, and copper recovered from waste circuit boards, primarily from old Panasonic home appliances. So far, it has been a smashing success.
According to the companies, the PMP loop is the industry's first to achieve consistent resource recycling. As of December 2024, the partners have recovered 1.1 tons of gold, 33 tons of silver, and 8,100 tons of copper.
Welcome to another episode of Gen Z in Manufacturing, a podcast that asks young people about their journeys in manufacturing, how they intend to influence the industry and what they are looking for from an employer.
This episode welcomes 22-year-old Oscar Ramirez, a quality control microbiology technician at life sciences company MilliporeSigma.
Ramirez was introduced to the pharma industry as a senior in high school when he enrolled in BIO+, a dual-enrollment course provided by Kansas City Kansas Community College. After graduating high school, Ramirez decided to pursue a career in the biomanufacturing field and earned his first job as a Dry Powder Media Formulator at MilliporeSigma.
Ramirez was later promoted to a quality control microbiology technician, where he currently completes auxiliary functions and assists scientists with various work, including preparation, laboratory cleaning and biohazard removal.
- The pros and cons of dual-enrollment courses (1:19)
- How Gen Z looks for a job (4:40)
- Challenging the biomanufacturing industry’s definition of “qualified” (7:48)
- How to help Gen Z workers gain more skillsets (10:01)
- Supporting workers who are also attending school (12:56)
- How companies can reach talent in low-income areas (15:27)
- What employers need to know about Gen Z’s priorities (17:12)
Please make sure to like and share this episode. To view previous episodes, visit Manufacturing.net. If you are a member of Gen Z and would like to discuss your experience in the manufacturing industry, please contact Nolan Beilstein at nolan@ien.com.
Every major automaker, at this point, has some sort of driver assistance features on their vehicles, they tend to offer varying degrees of sophistication.
And while Tesla has been most forthcoming about its goals to, at least eventually, make full self-driving a reality, one competitor - Rivian - is suggesting they’ve made some major progress as well.
Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe recently shared an update on the EV maker’s driverless tech ambitions, revealing plans for what’s in store. These include, according to Scaringe, a hands-free feature set to hit the market this year as well as an “eyes-off” system by 2026.
Space Perspective, a Titusville, Florida company founded in 2018, was developed with the objective of selling trips to the stratosphere.
And in a world of heavy investment in space exploration, it’s the method that’s unique: Space Perspective plans to use a craft called “Spaceship Neptune,” described as a crewed, pressurized gondola propelled by hydrogen.
In the second half of 2024, the firm appeared to be on a positive trajectory. In September, the company completed its first uncrewed test. Funding from British billionaire and space enthusiast Richard Branson was revealed in October – as well as the fact that he would co-pilot the first crewed mission in 2025.
In late December, when TechCrunch reported that EV startup Canoo had just $700K in the bank and was putting its staff on a “mandatory unpaid break,” it felt like there’s never been clearer writing on any wall in history.
That’s why it surprised few when, this week, Canoo announced that it would be ceasing operations and filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
In the real world, we’re too often deemed not worthy of fictional gadgets. None of us are getting a proton pack or a flux capacitor any time soon. But if you’re looking for a car roof-mounted licorice dispenser like the one featured in “Wayne’s World,” that can be arranged.
Candy Phelps, a web designer based in Madison, Wisconsin, wanted that licorice dispenser as soon as she saw it in the 1992 movie. But no one was selling it, which was both bogus and sad. More than 30 years later, she’s finally filled that empty space in the market with a real-world version of the contraption, which she sells online through her company called Motormouth.
Late last year, automakers Nissan and Honda revealed that they were in negotiations over a possible merger, made necessary by the fact that - after a horrible 2024 - Nissan is in survival mode.
And while talks continue, more of Honda’s seemingly non-negotiables are being revealed, including some that seem like such high bars they lead to questions over whether this could go through at all.
Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) is a fairly common feature in production vehicles from the Honda Civic to the Ford F-150. It’s shown to have a material impact on preventing impacts. But according to new research, some AEB systems may contain worrisome blind spots.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) just released findings from its recent research into the effects of high-visibility clothing – like the reflective gear worn by construction workers and runners – on AEB systems. While reflective clothing can substantially help human drivers spot people on or near the road, especially while driving at night, it seems to have the opposite effect on some AEB systems.
Auto parts maker Tenneco announced that it would cease operations and permanently close a 55-year-old plant in Paragould, Arkansas, local television station K8 News reported.
The company informed the facility’s workers of their impending layoffs on January 14. Online news source NEAReport.com obtained a letter to the employees that said the company will conduct the closure and permanent layoffs in three phases around March 31, April 15 and April 30, with no bumping rights currently in place.
For those of you keeping track of the handful of EV startups still standing, you may not have thought Faraday Future was one of them.
The California company, established in 2014, made news in February when it was revealed that the automaker had been served with an eviction notice from its Gardena headquarters – one it narrowly evaded in the end after making some payments and agreeing to some fresh terms.
In May, Faraday warned investors it could potentially file for bankruptcy – AND, that it was at risk of being de-listed by the Nasdaq.
On September 27, 2024, Hurricane Helene slammed into Impact Plastics in Erwin, Tennessee, and the subsequent flooding claimed six victims who were among the employees working at the plant despite a state of emergency issued by the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency the previous day.
Impact Plastics is facing lawsuits from at least one family following claims that workers were not allowed to leave despite worsening conditions, allegations the company denies.
PFAs, or “forever chemicals” as they’re often called, have persisted their way into water, air, fish, soil, people and animals all over the country. They’ve been linked to several serious health problems including cancer. It’s a widespread problem that’s led many states to pursue legislation that would block their continued use.
Minnesota’s Amara’s Law, which was passed in 2023 and took effect at the beginning of 2025, is one of the most aggressive examples of pushing back against PFAs. The law bans all non-essential use of PFAs and requires manufacturers to disclose if PFAs are present in any products they plan on selling in Minnesota.
Pabst Brewing Company has announced a new brewing contract agreement with Anheuser-Busch InBev. The contract comes after a two-decade long contract agreement with Molson Coors came to an end in December 2024.
Beginning in the first quarter of 2025, Pabst will begin production using several AB InBev facilities.
Since the closing of Pabst’s Milwaukee brewery in 1996, the company has relied on third-party plants to brew legacy brands like Pabst Blue Ribbon, Old Style, and Old Milwaukee. Now, AB InBev will give Pabst the space for greater supply, as well as the potential to grow its portfolio as the consumer market shifts.
Toyota Opening Experimental Futuristic City This Fall
At CES 2020, Toyota announced an interesting new concept. Toyota Woven City is a "test course for mobility" and part of the company's efforts to evolve into a mobility company. The city is being developed in collaboration with Woven by Toyota, a subsidiary formerly known as the Toyota Research Institute for Advanced Development, focused on software-driven technology, like automated driving and advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS).
For a company like Kia, whose reliability ratings have been steadily improving over time, there’s no joy in ringing in the New Year with a recall.
The NHTSA recently made public a recall issued by South Korean automaker Kia, noting an absence of critical fasteners on certain vehicles.
Welcome to another episode of Gen Z in Manufacturing, a podcast where I interview young people about their journeys in manufacturing, how they intend to influence the industry and what they are looking for from an employer.
For this episode, I welcome William Stewart, a 25-year-old Licensed Excellerate Electrician at Faith Technologies Incorporated (FTI).
Stewart is a licensed journeyman in Wisconsin and a graduate of FTI’s apprenticeship program. At the FTI Excellerate facility, Stewart is responsible for electrical assemblies and installations, troubleshooting and maintenance.
Some of his additional key responsibilities include maintaining current licensing and training requirements, ensuring projects are built to specifications, following workplace safety procedures and leading a crew effectively. He also mentors and develops others and participates in hiring referrals.
This week, Mary Ann Bliesner, the 83-year-old former president and primary owner of Valley Processing Inc. (VPI) pleaded guilty to charges related to the manufacture and sale of tainted fruit juice products in violation of federal food safety laws. Bliesner operated a now-shuttered fruit juice facility in Sunnyside, Washington.
During an FDA inspection in May 2018, VPI employees used caution tape to prevent investigators from entering a room at Bliesner's Grape Road Facility in Washington that held concrete storage vats. The workers told FDA investigators that the facility was unsafe to enter and contained no juice or juice products. Not only did that room store juice, but it was often old unsold grape juice concentrate, sometimes held for years in large concrete vats that were not properly covered or cooled, according to the Department of Justice.
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Digital twins are making an incredible impact on the manufacturing industry. By simulating the factory using real-time data from sensors and other IoT technology, manufacturers can iterate faster during the product design, improve efficiency, forecast potential equipment failures and even help train new workers in virtual environments. And now, one major toothpaste player is testing new products on digital twins of customers, i.e., virtual people.
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Honda and Nissan represent the second and third largest Japanese automobile companies – behind only Toyota in global sales volume.
Still, Nissan has notably lost its footing in the past year. Last month, the automaker reported a net earnings decline of more than 90% for the first half. In turn, Nissan cut its profit forecasts significantly and axed thousands of jobs.
Meanwhile, despite posting a disappointing second quarter, Honda increased its guidance in a sign of strength for the full fiscal year.
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According to estimates, Americans eat 46 million turkeys each year on Thanksgiving alone – about a fifth of the birds raised annually.
But less than a week after the holiday wrapped this year, Butterball held a town hall meeting at its Jonesboro, Arkansas facility – and it wasn’t to celebrate.
According to recent reports, Butterball announced on December 4th that it would be closing its Jonesboro facility, and laying off its 180 workers.
Butterball completed a WARN filing in response to the scenario, and says the workers will receive compensation and medical benefits if they continue to work until their “end-of-service” date.
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OSHA concluded an inspection into a fatal accident at Stellantis’ Jeep Toledo Assembly Complex in Ohio and cited the automaker with a “serious” violation and a fine of $16,101.
The incident took place in August when 53-year-old Antonio Gaston died on the facility’s Gladiator line. The Detroit Free Press reported that Gaston was tightening undercarriage bolts when he became trapped beneath a vehicle on the assembly line.
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Earlier this year, a real estate development group announced plans to build what will be the country’s tallest skyscraper in an unlikely location. But the project is now facing delays and warnings about its potential risks to air travel.
Matteson Capital partnered with architecture firm AO on a project that would place a more than 1,900-foot tower in Oklahoma City, far away from the towering peaks associated with the skylines of New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago. Work on the development was tentatively scheduled to begin in October but now it’s pushed back to 2025.
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Emerging American defense contractor Anduril and U.S.-based eVTOL startup Archer Aviation this morning announced an exclusive new partnership to jointly develop a hybrid VTOL aircraft for critical defense applications, targeting a potential program of record from the DOD. Those are programs that Congress not only intends to fund but has appropriated funding for them in the Future Years Defense Program.
The partners hope to bring together Anduril's expertise in AI and systems integration and Archer's ability to rapidly develop advanced VTOL aircraft using existing commercial parts and supply chains in a combined effort to accelerate time-to-market at a fraction of the cost of more traditional alternatives.
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A carbon monoxide poisoning incident at a Utah meatpacking plant sent 11 people to the hospital. Salt Lake City television station KUTV reported that an improperly vented appliance caused the issue.
The West Jordan Fire Department arrived at the Otto & Sons location following reports of an unconscious woman. Crews removed the woman from the facility, where they detected carbon monoxide levels that exceeded 800 parts per million.
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The holiday season means a boost in orders for online e-commerce giants like Amazon, a firm that’s doing its best to maintain its Prime pledge of delivery within two or three days.
It’s difficult to imagine that the company has ambitions to trim its delivery time, at least in some locations, by an astonishing amount.
Just how tight will the turn be? Bloomberg has reported that Amazon is testing 15 minute deliveries in Bangalore, India.
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Established in 1938, Stoli Vodka has long been a fixture on the liquor market, though it appears it will need more than its legacy to carry it into the next generation.
Stoli Group has revealed that its U.S. subsidiaries, Stoli Group USA and Kentucky Owl, have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and while the reasons behind the decision are diverse, one stands out: Stoli USA says a ransomware attack played a role.
A November filing contends that an August attack on the firm prevented the U.S. subsidiaries from complying with their lenders’ reporting requirements. According to the CyberRisk Alliance, the attack was “not widely reported and has not been claimed by or attributed to any specific ransomware group.”
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It was just July of last year when Illinois governor JB Pritzker cut the ribbon at the Lion Electric EV bus plant in Joliet.
At the time, the company touted plans to produce 20,000 electric buses annually – claims that hit noticeable snags almost immediately. Within little more than a year of opening Joliet, Lion had announced four rounds of layoffs company-wide.
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A longtime manufacturer of workwear and other apparel is relocating its headquarters from Texas to California — reversing a highly publicized trend of companies moving in the opposite direction in recent years.
The parent company of Dickies and a series of other footwear and clothing brands announced a plan to consolidate its footprint in Southern California, which would see the brand — established in Fort Worth more than 100 years ago — head 1,400 miles west to Orange County, where it will join with the operations of sister company and famed California shoe brand Vans at a campus in Costa Mesa early next year.
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In 2023, Coca-Cola was named the top plastic polluter in the world by environmental organization Break Free From Plastic.
Unfortunately for Coke, this distinction wasn’t new; they’d earned the label for six years straight – one the group says is based on a study of the most commonly discarded plastic items found in public places like parks or beaches.
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Cargill has revealed that it plans to cut 5% of its global workforce – most of which will take place in the coming year. It’s a move that will result in the elimination of some 8,000 jobs.
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While driverless systems are often capable of reacting to scenarios more safely than a human driver would, sometimes the opposite is true – as evidenced by crashes over the years where a vehicle in autonomous mode has missed a seemingly obvious hazard.
A new study may have pinpointed one of the reasons behind the gap in these results.
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The Detroit Free Press reported that a tank used for storing an oil and brine solution exploded at General Motors’ Milford Proving Ground in Michigan. The incident reportedly damaged two nearby homes but did not cause any injuries.
Brighton Fire Authority Chief Michael O’Brian stated that the explosion occurred in a leased section of the proving ground, which houses multiple wells and tanks for crude oil production and crude oil, brine and natural gas storage
One tank reportedly suffered a catastrophic failure, leading to an explosion. Texas-based White Rock Oil & Gas owns and operates the affected tank but had begun the process to transfer ownership to Colorado-based T2 Operating Corp.
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Although there appear to be few easy answers to the problem, researchers from the University of the West Indies believe one possible solution could be using sargassum to power cars.
The BBC reports that UWI scientists recently unveiled one of the first vehicles powered by what is known as bio-compressed natural gas.
The project began as an effort to slash Barbados’ overall emissions, and initially used sugarcane as its biofuel. When that crop proved insufficient, however, a student floated the idea of turning to sargassum.
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Welcome to another episode of Gen Z in Manufacturing, a podcast that asks young people about their journeys in manufacturing, how they intend to influence the industry and what they are looking for from an employer.
For this episode, I welcome Chloe Doherty, a 22-year-old Industry 4.0 tech center engineer for machinery manufacturer Zoller Inc.
Doherty’s interest in manufacturing started as a student in FIRST Robotics and PLTW, a nonprofit organization that develops STEM curriculum. Through FIRST Robotics, Doherty was introduced to a mechatronics CTE class where she studied many disciplines in manufacturing. She then discovered Zoller at a career fair and went on to earn a mechatronics apprenticeship.
Doherty became a full-time Zoller employee in the spring of 2023 where she has been responsible for ensuring that the machines in the showroom are up to date and working properly, training new employees and customers, helping the technical support team with customer inquiries and doing live or online demonstrations.
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Tom’s of Maine is a personal care brand well known for its use of natural ingredients, though a recent FDA report has identified some very undesirable contents they say are in the company’s products.
The FDA sent a warning letter dated November 5th, detailing data that suggests some of Tom’s toothpastes were contaminated with bacteria – a discovery that the FDA based on reported internal testing as well as an agency inspection in May of the company’s manufacturing plant in Sanford, Maine.
Specifically, the FDA points to several of Tom’s toothpaste formulas where they say water used for processing contains multiple types of bacteria, including those linked to infections of the blood, lungs and eyes.
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The four companies that produce the overwhelming majority of the U.S.’s frozen potato products conspired to fix prices in recent years, according to a series of newly filed lawsuits.
Five antitrust suits, the Washington Post reports, were filed in an Illinois federal court in recent days against Lamb Weston, J.R. Simplot, McCain Foods and Cavendish Farms. Combined, those companies control more than 95% of the market for french fries and other frozen potato products.
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In January, Ford announced that it would be cutting back on production of its EV pickup, the F-150 Lightning. But the automaker had a plan to make up some ground: a large group of workers from the Lightning plant would move to plants producing the Ranger and Bronco – two models for which Ford boosted manufacturing targets.
Now that’s about to change. Crain’s Detroit Business is reporting that Ford will begin scaling back its Bronco production amid rising inventories and lower sales. The move will bring with it the need to relocate some 400 production workers from the Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne to other facilities, though reports say none are being laid off.
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About two weeks ago, thieves targeted a major Santo Spirits shipment as it crossed the border into the United States. The tequila company is co-owned by celebrity chef Guy Fieri and musician Sammy Hagar.
First reported by People, thieves hijacked a pair of Santo trucks carrying an estimated $1 million in spirits in an incredible caper that continues to unfold as the investigation continues. The cargo included 4,040 cases of tequila, nearly 25,000 bottles. Some bottles included a special aged añejo that took 39 months to produce.
The trucks had just crossed into Laredo, Texas, and were headed to distributors in California and Pennsylvania. Neither made it and Santo's logistics partner, Johanson, was thrown off by some sophisticated technology.
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Last month, Colorado Rockies third baseman Kris Bryant awaited the imminent delivery of a $300,000 Lamborghini Huracan to his home in Las Vegas … but it never came.
Bryant, who was having the vehicle transported for the offseason from Denver, where he plays ball, enlisted a transport company to do the job. But what happens next sounds almost too strange to be true.
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NIST reported that these fires can produce a jet of flame that reaches up to 2,012° Fahrenheit, nearly the heat of a blowtorch, in approximately one second. This hazard differs from traditional residential fires that start more slowly, which allows for smoke to reach a smoke alarm before the fire spreads.
During the research, NIST mechanical engineer Andy Tam said he noticed that a battery’s safety valve would break right before the fire started and make a small “click-hiss” sound that resembled opening a bottle of soda. Lithium-ion battery manufacturers design this safety valve to break when internal pressure builds up and can no longer expand due to the battery’s hard casing.
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Chalk this one up to either dumb luck or stupid-mistake resistance design, but a commercial jet just managed to fly the equivalent of almost two weeks with a tool stuck in one of its engines.
A newly published report from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau details the adventures of the Airbus A380 that picked up the stowaway on December 7, 2023 after maintenance engineers forgot about the lost tool procedure sending the aircraft back into service. The Qantas Airways jet was in Los Angeles while undergoing an inspection on the left outboard engine’s intermediate-pressure compressor. One of the engineers who had checked out the tool, a roughly four-foot nylon rod, headed out early for a medical appointment and left the remainder of the inspection to the other engineer. When the work was finished, the subsequent inspections failed to see the tool still stuck in the engine compressor.
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Stanley Black & Decker indicated in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that proposed increases in tariffs under the forthcoming Trump administration could affect its pre-tax operating income by some $200 million on an annual basis.
That figure would equate to 12.5% of the company’s projected 2025 operating income of $1.6 billion, according to a compilation of estimates cited by the Wall Street Journal.
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One state’s highway patrol is perhaps the most famous nationwide – and that’s California’s, a unit that inspired the 1970’s cop drama CHiPS.
And anyone who’s viewed it knows that CHiPS was associated with motorcycles – specifically classic Kawasakis that were common on police forces at the time.
Well, today’s California Highway Patrol might look a lot different. Carscoops is reporting that the California Highway Patrol is testing an EV – the Lucid Air, to be specific.
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The FDA announced a recall for about 79,200 pounds of Costco butter. The reason: the product’s packaging failed to mention that it contains milk.
The recall covers 1,300 cases, or 46,800 pounds, of Kirkland Signature Unsalted Sweet Cream Butter and 900 cases, or 32,400 pounds, of the salted version. According to an FDA document, the butter lists the word “cream” but may have omitted the ever-so-important “contains milk” statement.
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Based in San Diego, Natilus is an aerospace startup developing a portfolio of efficient blended-wing-body aircraft that could transport passengers and cargo more sustainably.
According to the company, compared to the traditional tube-and-wing aircraft we use today, these designs could reduce fuel consumption by 30% while increasing payload capability by 40%.
Natilus recently unveiled Horizon, the company's first passenger aircraft that could compete with the popular Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 narrowbody aircraft. Horizon is in the same payload class with the ability to transport 200 passengers with cargo along intercontinental and transatlantic routes.
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On Monday, Boeing's union machinists voted to accept the company's contract offer and end a strike that stretched for more than seven weeks. As the troubled plane maker gets back to business, the deal couldn't have come at a more crucial time for suppliers—and it's possible it didn't come quickly enough for one key partner.
On Tuesday, Spirit AeroSystems raised flags when it said the company faced "substantial doubt" over its ability to continue operating.
The Boeing strike forced Spirit, which makes fuselages for Boeing's 737 Max aircraft, to burn through cash reserve
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In a statement obtained by WTMJ, Molson Coors Chief Supply Chain Officer Brian Erhardt said the decision to shutter the historic brewery comes at the end of a large contract brewing agreement and amid an ongoing canning line investment project at the company’s Milwaukee brewery. He said the company is closing two of its smaller brewing operations in Wisconsin. According to WTMJ, the other facility impacted is the Leinenkugel’s 10th Street brewery in Milwaukee.
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Digital payment solutions have become so commonplace that some consumers now regularly leave the house without the one key item that was once indispensable – a wallet.
And while it’s convenient to leverage apps like Apple Pay and flash your phone at the checkout, ideas are simmering as to which other form factors might serve as future ways to settle a tab.
A recent survey explores Americans’ comfort level with the prospect of using their vehicle as a digital wallet and, surprisingly, a small majority like this idea.
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Kade is a small German village about an hour west of Berlin. The area reportedly has quite the pest problem, but rather than tossing them in the trash, one entrepreneur found a more sustainable solution: eat'em.
Raccoons were brought to Germany in the 1920s and used on fur farms. The trash pandas were first released into the wild in 1934, and now the country is reportedly overrun by some 2 million raccoons. They are an invasive species, negatively impacting local habitats, species and ecosystems. So, local officials had few options; the raccoons had to die. However, one local butcher, Michael Reiss, wanted to do it in the most sustainable way possible, and he wound up making raccoon meatballs, jarred meat, salami, bratwurst and liver sausage, among other products, at Wildererhütte, his butcher shop.
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The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS) announced that it received permission from a court to kill approximately 1.3 million broiler chickens previously owned by a Minnesota poultry processor. The department added that it concluded depopulation on October 25.
The decision comes after the chickens’ previous owner, Pure Prairie Poultry, filed for bankruptcy at the end of September, attributing their position to pandemic-influenced supply chain issues and low chicken prices. Minnesota and Iowa station KIMT News 3 reported that the company owed debtors between $100 million and $500 million.
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Many automakers have been shifting toward touchscreens embedded in their vehicles’ dashboards and away from dedicated physical buttons. While it may enable more potential features, it could also make driving less safe and possibly more annoying. But one company makes it sound like touchscreens are here to stay, at least until the industry moves onto the new thing.
Wassym Bensaid, chief software officer at EV maker Rivian, spoke this week at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 and addressed in-vehicle buttons, calling them an “anomaly.”
“It’s a bug. It’s not a feature,” he told the crowd. “Ideally, you would want to interact with your car through voice. The problem today is that most voice assistants are just broken.”
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It’s not a common configuration, but sometimes you just need to push the envelope.
That was the thought of Ferrari engineers when they dabbled with the idea of designing the new F80 with just one seat.
In a recent interview with Ferrari marketing head Enrico Galliera, Top Gear unveiled the development behind the F80, a supercar Forbes describes as Ferrari's “fiercest ever.”
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While Boeing's past in the space industry is undeniable, it's the company's present and future that's the problem. Most notably, the aerospace giant's cash issues have the company looking to raise $19 billion in a stock offering while still pursuing other sources of revenue. The companylost $6 billion in the third quarter and has already begunselling off assets, like the deal that sent small defense subsidiary, Digital Receiver Technology, to Thales Defense & Security last week.
Following the mixed success that saw Boeing's Starliner capsule reach the International Space Station, butreturn empty, the Wall Street Journalreports that the company's entire space division might be on the block.
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Welcome to another episode of Gen Z in Manufacturing, a podcast where I interview young people about their journeys in manufacturing, how they intend to influence the industry and what they are looking for from an employer.
For this episode, I welcome Jacob Sanchez, a 25-year-old employee for Industry Solutions and Community Development at igus Inc.
Sanchez is an industry awareness and next generation advocate for skilled trades and manufacturing. With 10-plus years of hands-on experience in manufacturing and automation sectors, he works to revolutionize how manufacturers showcase their companies to the world, and how to generate employee autonomy.
Sanchez also hosts “HOW TO,” a metalworking series on YouTube.
Sanchez aims to create a community of solution driven professionals that want to utilize low cost automation to stay competitive and move ever closer to Industry 4.0 and says his main focus is always on the inclusion of new talent, no matter their backgrounds.
German eVTOL jet maker Lilium announced that it is ceasing operations for its two subsidiaries, citing a lack of funding and an inability to pay its existing debts. As a result, the company plans to file for insolvency and will apply for self-administration proceedings.
The development comes seven years after Lilium’s first test flight and two years before it planned to begin deliveries. The company had already compiled a list of potential customers, including Saudi Arabia with an order for up to 100 jets and American advanced air mobility company UrbanLink with an order for 20 aircraft.
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Way back in September 2020, Tesla CEO Elon Musk planted the idea of a “compelling” $25,000 electric vehicle. The promise came as the company worked to reduce the cost and boost the range for its EV batteries.
That attractive price point has been a lingering idea for Tesla in the years since Musk threw out the figure during a “Battery Day” event. But this week, during the company’s third quarter earnings call, Musk called a regular $25,000 Tesla model “pointless” and “silly.”
“Like, it'll be completely at odds with what we believe,” he told investors.
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The shift from handcrafted to machine-made products is a recurring story, and a musical instrument with a 600-year history is no exception.
According to French international news agency AFP, mass-produced bagpipes have become the standard. However, one artisan maker in Edinburgh, Scotland, named Kilberry Bagpipes, continues to maintain the handcrafting tradition of bagpipes.
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The leadership team at Stellantis has faced an onslaught of scrutiny after the automaker’s lackluster performance so far this year – underscored most recently by a 20% Q3 drop in U.S. sales.
And as one part of its strategy to cut costs and improve margins, Stellantis will reportedly sell off a facility in Yucca, Arizona.
Getting the ax is the company’s Arizona Proving Grounds, a 4,000-acre site Stellantis uses for testing. Purchased in 2007 from Ford Motor Company, the grounds include areas to review and assess vehicle dynamics, durability, noise, vibration and thermal limits, and includes 100 lane miles of road surface.
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Boeing hasn't made an annual profit since 2018 and has lost some $25 billion in the process. Last week, Boeing announced intentions to raise up to $25 billion in new stock and debt to rein in its balance sheet. The company plans to raise the cash over the next three years but isn't wasting any time.
According to Reuters, the plane maker has wrapped up a deal to sell Digital Receiver Technology, the company's small defense subsidiary in Maryland that makes surveillance equipment for the U.S. military. According to the company's website, DRT designs and manufactures complex Software Defined Radio (SDR) systems used by the intelligence, defense and homeland security communities to gather, analyze and share signals intelligence.
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A French startup developer of hybrid-electric aircraft plans to build a 500,000-square-foot airplane factory along Florida’s Atlantic Coast — its first facility in the U.S.
Aura Aero on Thursday announced its pick of Daytona Beach International Airport as its U.S. headquarters, including a new $172 million production and assembly plant that is expected to eventually create around 1,000 jobs.
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Once again, General Motors has made history. The 2025 Chevy Corvette ZR1 recently became the fastest car ever built by a U.S. auto manufacturer—and the driver was none other than GM President Mark Reuss.
The GM team traveled to Germany's High-Speed Oval Track at ATP Automotive Testing facility in Papenburg and reached a two-way average speed of 233 mph—they clock you going both ways and take the average to account for wind. Papenburg provides ideal conditions for a high-speed test, like temperature and air density.
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The limited-edition, a successor to the original Stroppe Baja Bronco from the 1960s and 1970s, is designed to pair the original's desert-racing spirit with modern off-road capabilities.
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It’s been an ongoing trend to see the average price of a new vehicle edge upward. In 2023, that figure was around $47,000 for a light vehicle – about $10,000 above what we saw pre-pandemic.
But recent data suggests that lower priced new vehicles are experiencing a bit of a renaissance. Or, perhaps more accurately, price conscious consumers are snapping them up before they’re gone forever.
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UP.FIT, a division of exterior and interior upgrader Unplugged Performance, announced that it deployed a Tesla Cybertruck upfitted for law enforcement in California. The project was completed in collaboration with the Irvine Police Department and Tesla and will be used as part of the department’s Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program.
The Cybertruck joins the DARE program’s list of unique vehicles, which includes other pick-ups and a PT Cruiser with IPD decals.
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Boat crashes can happen for any number of reasons. Sometimes it’s a missed rock on the charts. Other times a failed propeller blade is to blame. Sometimes the whole ship sinks because of an autopilot mishap. Or it could be as simple as falling asleep at the wheel.
According to new findings released by the National Transportation Safety Board, sleepiness was indeed the culprit in a 2023 towing vessel crash that ended up causing about $6 million in damages.
A deckhand aboard the Cindy B was at the helm on Nov. 12, 2023 as the towing vessel pushed the deck barge St. John up the Columbia River North of Portland, Oregon. According to the report, the deckhand fell asleep during the end of his scheduled night watch, which started at midnight and ended at 6 a.m., and the vessel drifted out of the channel and struck a dock.
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It’s no secret that retail workers are under a significant amount of stress.
Contending with everything from understaffed stores and long hours on their feet to rude customer behavior, and it's no wonder that some companies are finding it necessary to focus on new methods for employee retention.
In an effort “to stay connected to the core of [its] business,” Home Depot will begin requiring its corporate workforce to work shifts in its retail stores.
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Electric vehicle sales in the U.S. have slowed down. In August, J.D. Power said EVs would account for 9% of U.S. automotive sales this year, a fairly major adjustment to its previous forecast of 12%.
It’s a market reality that’s forcing large automakers like Ford and Toyota to adjust their plans. It’s also forcing smaller EV makers like Lordstown and Fisker to throw in the towel all together. And in Fisker’s case, it looks like it got out as fast as it could.
In June, Fisker filed for bankruptcy protection and shortly after filed a legal motion to get out of the lease at its former headquarters in California. That potential arrangement could be in jeopardy now based on a new filing spotted by TechCrunch in which Fisker’s landlord, Shamrock, describes the state of the company’s abandoned headquarters as “complete disarray.”
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Last Thursday, UAW members at the automaker's Los Angeles Parts Distribution Center voted to request strike authorization if the company and union can’t come to terms. While several UAW locals have filed grievances against the company since August, L.A. is the first to take it to the next level. The union says Stellantis has violated product and investment commitments ad threatened more strike authorization votes.
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Toyota has delayed its plans to build a three-row electric SUV in the U.S.
According to a Nikkei report, the automaker had originally intended to begin building the vehicles in 2025 at its plant in Kentucky, where it invested another $1.3 billion earlier this year. But now it looks like that won’t happen until 2026, a development that could be blamed on slowing U.S. demand.
Toyota confirmed the delay to Reuters, with a spokesperson saying, “We've always said it would be late 2025 and it could creep into 2026 and it does look like it's going to creep into 2026."
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Dockworkers at east and Gulf coast ports from Maine to Texas began walking picket lines on October 1, and reports suggest that the strike could cause price increases and shortages for large and small retailers.
The height of the COVID-19 pandemic may have been four years ago, but people apparently still remember the toilet paper shortage that befell U.S. consumers.
According to multiple news outlets, including CNN and a local station in Houston, shoppers are once again flocking to stores to panic buy the product. However, those same reports indicate that this very act is more likely to cause empty shelves than the dockworkers’ strike.
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Sinton Dairy, a company that was established in Colorado Springs in 1880, revealed plans to close its 9-acre manufacturing facility at the end of the year. As a result, 64 workers, including manufacturing supervisors and hourly workers and front-office staff, will lose their jobs.
According to Colorado Springs Gazette, Sinton’s owner, LALA U.S., announced that the plant is set to close on December 30, putting an end to the facility that had annually produced 3 million pounds of sour cream, 9 million pounds of cottage cheese, and 220 million pounds of milk.
However, The Gazette noted that those figures were last reported in 2011, and the plant no longer makes Sinton-branded products. Instead, it manufactures and distributes chocolate and strawberry flavored milk, as well as seasonal eggnog, under LALA’s Promised Land Dairy brand.
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Once a highly regarded executive credited with a successful run at the helm of the Renault-Nissan Alliance, Ghosn was arrested in Japan in 2018 and accused of misappropriating company funds and violating securities laws. After posting bail and being put under house arrest, he famously escaped Japan in a wooden box, fleeing to the relative safety of Lebanon, where he is a citizen and unlikely to be extradited.
Still, Ghosn isn’t entirely insulated from the long arm of the law. Recent reports detail what Nissan says are efforts it has undertaken to “recover damages suffered due to Carlos Ghosn’s misconduct” and in the latest case, it appears the company can claw back a luxury yacht.
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Hailiang (Hai-lee-ahng) Copper Texas is a subsidiary of China Hailiang Group, one of the largest manufacturers of copper and copper alloy products in the world. According to the Labor Department, the company has more than 20,000 workers across 80 subsidiaries, including one location in Sealy, Texas.
In March, an employee in Sealy suffered severe arm injuries while trying to clear debris. The worker's right hand became caught between a conveyor belt and a rack holding 15 one-ton copper coils. The injuries were extensive and resulted in a partial arm amputation.
The accident triggered an OSHA investigation that found a failure to install required machine guards or locking devices at the plant, which exposed workers to hazardous contact with moving machine parts.
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General Motors yesterday recognized the 100-year anniversary of the oldest test site in the automotive industry, the Milford Proving Ground.
After a century in operation, the proving ground, strategically placed between GM's hubs in Flint, Detroit, Lansing and Pontiac, Michigan, still plays a crucial role in GM's testing and R&D operations.
GM bought the 1,125-acre site in 1923 for about $100,000. Originally called "The Bluff," the site provided 5.5 miles of test roads on rugged terrain with 267 feet of elevation change. The grounds now have more than 4,000 acres and 150 miles of roads.
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Researchers from the University of Washington want to improve the pipe. Specifically, they are developing a flexible pipe with an interior helical structure that makes fluid flow one way and not the other. In the latest example of nature-inspired biomimicry, the team turned to shark intestines and their new prototypes stand to make a significant impact on everything from medicine to engineering.
When it comes to getting fluid to flow in one direction, designs like those found in engines have traditionally leaned on flaps. And while human intestines are more or less hollow tubes, shark guts have a network of spirals surrounding an interior passageway. Previous work has suggested that this unique structure promotes one-way fluid flow or flow asymmetry.
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You may own a Ford vehicle and travel across the border but that doesn’t necessarily mean you want to smuggle illegal drugs. And the automaker wants to make sure you don’t accidentally participate in narcotics trafficking.
Ford recently filed a patent, spotted by Motor1, for an "unknown cargo detection and evidence collection system" that can use a vehicle’s various cameras and sensors to prevent the driver from becoming a “blind mule,” or someone who carries illegal drugs across the border without their knowledge.
The system is designed to detect suspicious activity by monitoring for fluctuations in the vehicle's weight, listening to any activity around the vehicle that seems out of norm, and scanning for unfamiliar GPS signals, since that’s the most likely way a drug smuggler would track a vehicle and retrieve their cargo after it crosses the border. As the report points out, if the system does think something fishy is going down, it can turn on the cameras, make recordings, and store the footage so it can be used as evidence later.
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Welcome to another episode of Gen Z in Manufacturing, a podcast where I interview young people about their journeys in manufacturing, how they intend to influence the industry and what they are looking for from an employer.
For this episode, I welcome Erin Sorensen, a 27-year-old director of the Innovation Hub, or iHub, at Northeast Community College in Nebraska.
Sorensen’s professional experience includes time with Kawasaki and working in food manufacturing before transitioning to her current position, where she looks to promote innovation and manufacturing careers and provide skilled training through partnerships with existing businesses.
In this episode, Sorensen discusses:
- Getting kids into manufacturing at a young age
- Why the industry is failing to gather interest
- Using the Innovation Hub (iHub) to create a lifelong learner
- The biggest disconnects between Gen Z and older generations
- Values held by Gen Z that older workforces overlook
- How Gen Z negotiates and their dealbreakers
- How employers can manage Gen Z’s tendency to seek new job opportunities
Please make sure to like and share this episode of Gen Z in Manufacturing. To view previous episodes, visit manufacturing.net. If you are a member of Gen Z and would like to discuss your experience in the manufacturing industry, please get in touch with Nolan Beilstein at nolan@ien.com.
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Volkswagen has issued a stop-sale and stop-production order for the ID.4, its electric SUV, while it sorts out an issue with the door handles.
The automaker’s actions come after it recalled nearly 100,000 of the EVs due to an issue that can cause the doors to open unexpectedly. The impacted vehicles include 2021-2024 models made at VW’s manufacturing facilities in Germany and Tennessee.
In a statement obtained by Green Car Reports, Volkswagen spokesperson Mark Gillies said his company is temporarily suspending production at the Volkswagen Chattanooga plant. During the work stoppage, he said approximately 200 employees will be furloughed beginning today, but VW will supplement unemployment from the state of Tennessee so workers still receive 80 percent of their base compensation and still receive current benefits. The company is also looking for ways to do right by dealers it searches for a fix.
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Throughout recent history, automakers have found themselves the targets of federal requirements pertaining to everything from fuel efficiency to safety equipment.
But this might be a new one.
Reports have surfaced regarding a lawmaker in Brazil who has proposed a bill that would add another mandate to the country’s auto industry: it wants to force automakers to sell amphibious cars.
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If you’re in London this fall and you hear a faint buzzing noise overhead, that may be the sound of one of Google’s Wing drones carrying a load of fresh blood.
The company just announced that it’s partnering with the U.K.’s National Health Service and medical drone network provider Apian to run a trial that will see drones flying blood samples between two central London hospitals, Guy’s and St Thomas.
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Automotive manufacturer Lotus announced the Theory 1, a concept car that the company expects to set the stage for its smart performance vehicles. Built on a new design manifesto called The Lotus Theory, the automaker stated that the Theory 1 will “harmoniously [fit] around the driver and adapt based on their needs.”
Lotus designed the Theory 1 with 10 main A-surface materials, including recycled chopped carbon fiber, polyester, rubber and aluminum. The nearly 3,500-pound vehicle can accelerate from 0 to 62 miles per hour in less than 2.5 seconds and features a top speed of about 198 miles per hour. Other specs include a 70-kilowatt-hour battery capacity and a WLTP combined range of 250 miles.
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The 163-year-old British shipmaker that built the Titanic said that it’s insolvent after failing to acquire the funding needed to stay afloat.
Harland & Wolff, a Belfast company that specializes in ship repair, shipbuilding and offshore construction, said the rejection of its request for a $264 million facility from UK Export finance has left the loss-making company in a difficult financial position.
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When London's Crystal Palace was constructed in 1851, it was the world's largest building. However, the project's greatest mystery was how the structure was completed in just 190 days.
A new study from Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, England, published in The International Journal for the History of Engineering & Technology, has discovered that the Crystal Palace was the first building known to use a standard screw thread.
The Crystal Palace is the earliest known building to use Whitworth screw threads, later known as British Standard Whitworth (BSW), the first national screw thread standard in the world.
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In July, British supercar manufacturer McLaren Automotive unveiled the fruits of an audacious collaboration with the LEGO Group. The LEGO Technic McLaren P1 was a 1:8 scale, 3,893-piece LEGO set that paid homage to "the best driver's car in the world on both road and track."
But like many a toy, the small replica left many fans curious as to whether this box of bricks, once fully assembled, could manage a lap on the track, much less match the performance of its elite engineering inspiration.
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The two slowest-selling are models produced by the same automaker.
Even the most seasoned automakers don’t always get inventory right. For multiple reasons, from production rates to market response, this formula can fall into disarray, leaving dealers and automakers with an excess – sometimes a big one.
CarEdge recently crunched the numbers, measuring the number of days it would take to sell out all the available inventory of a vehicle based on daily sales rates. This effort attempts to look at which vehicles are currently selling the fastest and the slowest, and the report yielded some interesting results.
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Last month, Stellantis created headlines after comments suggesting it could lay off as many as 2,450 of the 3,700 union workers employed at a truck plant just outside of Detroit.
The automaker warned that these measures would hit the Stellantis Warren Truck Plant, a Michigan factory that has been producing an older version of the Tradesman pickup that’s been replaced with a redesign. The new models will be produced in a different plant in Sterling Heights, Mich.
The announcement led to angry reactions from the UAW and while the conversation is still far from over, new developments are being added to the mix that forecast the company’s investment strategy.
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Steel pipe manufacturer Wheatland Tube is closing its plant on the south side of Chicago and laying off more than 230 employees.
According to the Chicago Tribune, the layoffs will begin on November 1 and continue throughout next year. Wheatland did not provide an anticipated date for the factory’s closure.
The company, which is a subsidiary of the nearly 150-year-old Zekelman Industries, is headquartered in both Illinois and Wheatland, Pennsylvania, and operates additional plants in Ohio, Alabama and Missouri. In a statement obtained by the Chicago Tribune, Wheatland said it has no plans to shutter any of its other factories.
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Jony Ive spent 27 years at Apple, including as its senior VP of industrial design and chief design officer, before leaving in 2018 to start his own design firm. His efforts were considered key to the success of the iPhone and now he’s bringing his skills to an entirely new area – apparel.
Ive’s firm LoveFrom has teamed up with fashion brand Montcler to produce a new jacket, but don’t expect a rehash of the status quo: this jacket spent four years in development, and features multiple, swappable layers that range from a down vest to a parka or a hooded poncho. The layers are mostly built with a single, uncut piece of recycled nylon that eliminates the seams.
But it’s the tiniest part that Fast Company calls “the star of the show.”
In an effort he calls a “very gentle, humble e-xploration,” Ive has created a modern new design for the most forgettable of components – the button.
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The Japan Times reported that the country’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism raided a plant operated by Kawasaki Heavy Industries after the company admitted to misconduct that involved two-stroke diesel engines used in commercial marine vessels.
The day before the raid, Kawasaki Heavy released a notice that revealed wrongdoing in nitrogen oxide emissions verification tests for its ship engines. The notice stemmed from an internal investigation that found data had been altered for 673 two-stroke diesel engines manufactured from 2000 onward.
Kawasaki Heavy’s investigation determined that the company had manipulated testing equipment to alter shop trial fuel consumption rates. These actions made sure the figures met the permissible range of customer specifications and minimized data inconsistencies.
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Amazon goes to great lengths to ensure that its massive network of delivery drivers stay safe when they’re on the road. Recent reports suggest the company may have gone a little too far.
A Reddit user last week posted on the AmazonDSP subreddit about a new topic that arose during his company’s regular safety briefing. In the post, spotted by Freight Waves, the user said their team was reportedly told that Amazon is cracking down on distracted driving, so they can't be “singing along to the radio because the camera will ding you for distracted driving." When the drivers became upset, they were told that a lot of mouth movement would set off the camera so they "needed to keep mouth movement to a minimum.”
A few other Reddit users said they had heard the same thing and that it applied to other activities like hands-free phone conversations.
But Amazon Spokesperson Steve Kelly refuted the report and called the post completely inaccurate. He said, “Amazon has never issued guidance or communications to Delivery Service Partners (DSP) that prohibits singing in the vehicle.”
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Earlier this summer, General Motors settled a yearslong class action lawsuit where plaintiffs alleged that GM’s Duramax diesel engines contained faulty fuel pumps
Unfortunately for the automaker, the ink will barely dry on the Duramax agreement before the company will find itself in court once again.
A three judge panel has ruled that GM must face a class action lawsuit relating to an entirely different issue – its transmissions.
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Researchers have created a new variable-stiffness morphing wheel that can not only roll over giant stones and other rough terrain, but they can even climb stairs. The wheels adjust stiffness in real time and could soon find themselves in a wide range of applications, from wheelchairs to mobile robots.
Developed by the Advanced Robotics Research Center of the Korea Institute of Machinery & Materials’ Research Institute of AI Robotics, the wheels are inspired by the surface tension of a drop of liquid.
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Lego provided an update in its efforts to move away from fossil fuels in its bricks. According to Reuters, the toymaker said it is on pace to switch to a pricier recycled and renewable plastic by 2032, having secured long-term agreements with producers.
The company has already evaluated more than 600 materials in an effort to replace oil in its bricks by 2030. Previously, Lego attempted to substitute its plastic with a material derived from recycled plastic bottles.
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A former military helicopter crash that killed six people two years ago is now being blamed on a lack of oversight by the FAA and the resulting inadequate inspections of the aircraft.
On June 22, 2022, MARPAT Aviation, a flight school based in West Virginia, was holding its annual Huey Reunion, an event that offered members of the public the opportunity to fly a Bell Helicopter UH-1B (or “Huey”) with a safety pilot. Members of the public could also ride aboard the helicopter for a smaller payment.
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Is vehicle heat resiliency falling behind the pace of climate change?
Recent events in Death Valley suggest that might be the case. According to reports, the last month has seen multiple vehicles essentially burst into flames in America’s hottest geographic location.
This National Park is famous for its triple digit temperatures and even boasts the somewhat controversial claim of reaching the highest temperature recorded on earth – 134 degrees – in the year 1913.
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Based in Lincoln, Nebraska, BinMaster designs and manufactures measurement sensors that are used to measure grain bins, silo levels and monitor tanks. On April 26, 2024, a tornado outbreak hit Nebraska and Iowa, with several tornados decimating homes and businesses throughout the region.
According to the National Weather Service, these were the strongest tornadoes to hit the area in nearly ten years and in their path stood BinMaster's 115,000-square-foot factory. In less than 20 seconds, an F3 tornado obliterated the plant, and remarkably, the footage was captured by a dashcam in the parking lot.
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Welcome to another episode of Gen Z in Manufacturing, a podcast that asks young people about their journeys in manufacturing, how they intend to influence the industry and what they are looking for from an employer.
For this episode, I welcome Aleigha Schulke, a 27-year-old applications engineer for ANCA CNC Machines.
Schulke’s interest in manufacturing began in high school when a paperwork mixup enrolled her in metal machining classes at a technical education center. Schulke previously worked for an aerospace and defense company that used ANCA cutter grinders and admitted to only briefly knowing about the company.
A recruiter reached out to her about a position at ANCA, and after what she calls a “marathon of an interview,” Schulke began working at ANCA as an applications engineer where her duties consist of completing time studies for customers and potential customers, performing machine demonstrations, and teaching basic and advanced cutter grinder courses.
In this episode, Schulke discusses:
- Why companies are losing Gen Z workers
- How to interview Gen Z
- Valuing quality of life over a paycheck
- Embracing non-traditional gender roles
- Behaviors and comments that seem good-natured, but actually deter women from going into manufacturing
- Where manufacturing fails to set a boundary between work life and personal life
Please make sure to like and share this episode of Gen Z in Manufacturing. To view previous episodes, visit manufacturing.net. If you are a member of Gen Z and would like to discuss your experience in the manufacturing industry, please get in touch Nolan Beilstein, at nolan@ien.com.
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NASA announced that the Boeing Starliner, which transported astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore to the International Space Station in early June, will finally return to Earth. However, when the spacecraft returns, Williams and Wilmore will not be on it.
During the Starliner’s trip to the ISS, Boeing and NASA discovered helium leaks and problems with the spacecraft reaction control thrusters. These issues extended the astronauts’ originally scheduled eight-day mission, and their return has been postponed to next year.
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Yesterday, a federal grand jury in Kansas indicted seven individuals, including five current and former high-level officers of the Boilermakers Union for alleged roles in a $20 million embezzlement scheme that spanned 15 years.
The defendants, led by 71-year-old former union president Newton Jones and 76-year-old former secretary-treasurer William Creeden are charged with widespread embezzlement of union funds.
Over the last 15 years, the pair led a scheme that included more than $5 million in unnecessary luxury international travel and more than $2 million in salary and benefits to Kateryna Jones and Cullen Jones for no-show jobs. They weren't required to work and 32-year-old Kateryna Jones was paid two years of salary while living in Ukraine and dating Newton Jones. The union also paid for hundreds of fraudulent restaurant charges for the couple.
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Ford first teased the idea of a four door Mustang back in 1965, the only hint at changing the setup for this iconic vehicle which has, historically, been a 2-door coupe.
But according to recent reports, it's possible we might see that concept take shape once again. Ford CEO Jim Farley said in 2022 that the company had considered a 4-door option, and even produced sketches. Last week, reports surfaced that Farley was now calling the 4-door option for this classic car "credible" and that dealers were even shown renderings.
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Tensions are rising between the United Auto Workers and Stellantis after the union accused the automaker of violating last year’s collective bargaining agreement. As a result, multiple UAW locals have begun a grievance process that could lead to a strike across multiple facilities.
In 2023, a standoff between the UAW and Ford, General Motors and Stellantis resulted in about 46,000 workers walking off the job. After about six weeks, the parties reached a new agreement.
The agreement between the UAW and Stellantis featured provisions regarding the automaker’s assembly plant in Belvidere, Illinois. The company idled the facility in February 2023 but agreed to conditions that looked to resume operations.
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Harley-Davidson announced revisions to its diversity and progressive policies following criticism from conservative activists.
The company issued a statement on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, saying the changes are a result of an internal stakeholder review that sought to “better align company activities to the needs of both [its] business and community.”
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For a $3 million hypercar prototype with an experimental aerodynamics package, it’s not enough to test on a regular road.
So when performance vehicle maker Hennessey set out to prove its latest development, it went with the king of all practice strips: the 15,000 foot space shuttle runway at the Kennedy Space Center.
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A giant black smoke ring floating in the sky over your city never feels great. If you’ve seen movies like Independence Day or Nope, the sight could be downright terrifying. But a recent example of the phenomenon may come with a fairly run-of-the-mill explanation.
WAVY TV 10 news in Virginia this week reported on a smoke ring hovering above the Hampton Roads area. The report features several user submitted photos of the floating object. It was a beautiful day when the smoke ring appeared so it really stands out against the clear blue sky.
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While many automakers have been aggressively developing all-electric vehicle models, Toyota has been taking it slow.
Despite being the pioneer of the model first synonymous with hybrid-electrics – the Prius – Toyota has barely dipped a toe in the EV market, releasing just one model in North America, the bZ4X. Instead the Japanese automaker has focused on what it refers to on its website as “the power of choice.” This adds hybrids, plug-in hybrids, fuel cell EVs and, of course, traditional internal combustion options.
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Jaguar – who had previously announced a plan to phase out ICE vehicles in favor of a full line of EVs – is doing just that. It’s the timing that doesn’t quite nest. While its gas cars will be discontinued in its native UK in 2025, the company’s electrics won’t be ready to replace them. And with Jaguar expecting to not have its new EVs until 2026, that means almost a year without new cars in dealer showrooms.
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Figure has unveiled the Figure 02, a second-generation humanoid that the AI robotics company hopes to complete jobs in commercial applications and, perhaps someday, households.
The 5-foot-6, 154-pound robot can move at approximately 2.6 miles per hour and includes various technologies, including actuators, sensors, batteries, electronics, artificial intelligence and computer vision.
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M&H Crates is an employee-owned pallet manufacturer based in Jacksonville, Texas. The company has been in business since 1968. While the company makes a wide range of pallets, it also has a history of workplace safety violations.
A U.S. Department of Labor follow-up inspection recently found that, despite receiving warnings and citations for more than 10 years, M&H continues exposing workers to amputation hazards.
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On January 5, 2024, a door plug blew out of an Alaska Airlines flight some 16,000 feet above Oregon, causing chaos among the crew and incredible fear for the passengers. The problem was traced back to quality issues after the plane departed Boeing's factory in Renton, Washington, missing the four bolts that hold the door plug in place.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has released some 3,000 pages of documents about the accident, but questions remained about what happened on the manufacturing floor. Boeing blamed supplier incompetence and pointed fingers at Spirit AeroSystems, which it has since acquired for some $8.3 billion. Still, the incident was just another straw on Boeing's back, causing what has been called a "crisis of competence."
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Saudi Arabia wants to host the 2034 FIFA World Cup, and the country is looking to catch eyes with a bid that mentions building a stadium more than 1,000 feet above the ground in a desert city that does not exist yet.
According to the official bid, Saudi Arabia plans to construct the stadium in a linear city called THE LINE, which is projected to measure 1,640 feet high, 656 feet wide and 105 miles long.
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About two years ago, DigiKey, a distributor of electronic, automation and control components, unveiled the company's new 1 million square foot facility in Thief River Falls, Minnesota. The warehouse has 2.2 million usable square feet, making it one of the largest warehouses in North America. The warehouse is so big you could lay down the Empire State Building inside of it, and it's so technologically advanced that some employees say it's like working on the Death Star--logistically, not ideologically.
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Is Dodge preparing to create a pickup truck that does everything?
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Welcome to another episode of Gen Z in Manufacturing, a podcast where I interview young people about their journeys in manufacturing, how they intend to influence the industry and what they are looking for from an employer.
Thank you to our sponsor QAD Redzone. Empower your frontline while growing your bottom line. QAD Redzone is the #1 Connected Workforce Solution for plants of all sizes. It's time for manufacturers to start engaging their frontline employees - resulting in reduced turnover and increased productivity. Redzone enables you to stop analyzing yesterday and start solving today’s problems now. For the first time ever, production, maintenance, and quality teams are following the same play book! Request a Demo Today
For this episode, I welcome Alexandra Bryant-Boose, a 27-year-old manufacturing automation engineer at Merck. Bryant-Boose became fascinated with manufacturing as she attended career fairs during undergrad at NC State. After earning a degree in chemical engineering with a concentration in biomolecular engineering and a double minor in microbiology and biotechnology, Bryant-Boose worked at Redbud Labs, a startup that develops microfluidic technologies.
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Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares has never been one to shy away from candid and sometimes uncomfortable statements about the company’s market position. And his response to the company’s latest earnings report – in which it saw a net profit plunge of 48% – is no exception.
The automaker’s chief executive indicates there may be some tough decisions ahead as he looks to right the ship, among them reducing production rates to deal with high inventory rates in North America.
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A recent quarterly earnings report from Tesla resulted in a lot -of media coverage surrounding the company's financials and, frankly, its role in the future of the electric vehicle industry.
But Tesla has a lot of irons in the fire and CEO Elon Musk has been stressing the importance of the company’s ambitions when it comes to autonomous vehicles and other technologies – including AI.
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When General Motors paid nearly $1 billion for autonomous driving startup Cruise in 2017, it had grand plans for self-driving taxis. The automaker has made a lot of progress since then but things are still not coming together like it had surely hoped they would.
The latest setback from Cruise came this week when GM CEO Mary Barra told shareholders in a letter that the company’s autonomous driving segment would simplify its path to scale by focusing on the next generation of the Chevy Bolt instead of the Origin, the six-person driverless shuttle bus debuted in 2020.
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The Racer is optimized for a cruise speed of more than 400 km/h (250 mph), which is impressive when you consider that a civilian helicopter's cruising speed typically ranges from 110 to 160 mph—military choppers can average around 200 mph. However, the Racer wants speed but with cost-efficiency and mission performance. For example, Airbus says the Racer's unique engine and aerodynamic optimization could realize a fuel consumption reduction of around 20% compared to current helicopters in the same weight category.
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The company is also working on the Mk-II Aurora spaceplane, a demonstrator aircraft that combines the performance of a rocket with the quick turnaround of an aircraft. While Mk-II is a tech demonstrator, it will also be used as a suborbital vehicle for climate and scientific payloads. In the long term, Mk-II will inform the design of Dawn's Mk-III, the company's orbital vehicle for launching satellites.
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According to the DOJ release, 52-year-old Maxim Marchenko and two unnamed Russian co-conspirators operated an international smuggling network that fraudulently procured dual-use, military-grade OLED micro-displays. This network supplied Russian entities with the microelectronics, which can be used in weapons systems, including night vision goggles, thermal optics and rifle scopes.
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A tugboat and barge, operating together as an articulated tug and barge (ATB), last year ran aground near Marmot Bay off the coast of Alaska. More specifically, the ATB hit a submerged rock while approaching the entrance to a cove, causing about $1.4 million in damages to the barge. The tugboat was fine, none of the six crewmembers aboard were hurt, and there was no pollution as a result of the accident. But there’s still a massive bill for repairing the barge.
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Last January, the Qualifier 105, a small passenger boat, was stored at the Northern Enterprises Boat Yard in Homer, Alaska. The vessel was ashore and on blocks for the winter, but when it was in the water, it was used for everything from marine survey and oceanographic research to environmental clean-up.
Welders were aboard the 100-foot-long vessel performing some aluminum hot work, cleaning up the area around a fuel tank that was repaired and tested the day prior, when a fire broke out in a stateroom below the main deck.
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A Department of Labor investigation revealed that flooring and surfaces manufacturer Ecore International Inc. had committed over a dozen health and safety violations at its plant in Mexia, Texas.
The department told IEN that the investigation was triggered by a complaint that mentioned, "hazards associated with fire, electrical, egress and powered industrial vehicles."
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Canada is officially looking for defense manufacturing partners to help it significantly expand its submarine fleet as the country looks to secure future shipping routes.
Canada’s Department of National Defence said it’s in the market for up to 12 submarines, an order that would potentially quadruple the country’s current fleet of four. The ministry said that the current fleet of submersibles is getting outdated and costly to maintain, so it wants new conventionally powered submarines that can travel under the ice.
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A 2021 report by the Wall Street Journal revealed that multiple power plants were being repurposed for mining. But not for coal, gold or iron. Instead, these facilities were gearing up for mining Bitcoin.
The article mentioned idled and struggling coal plants in New York and Montana that were scaling up to mine for cryptocurrency. After all, fossil fuel plants have been shutting down as renewable energy rises in popularity, and Bitcoin Magazine recently reported that the Bitcoin mining business generated more than $2 billion in transaction fees and block rewards last March.
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American Rounds, an automated ammunition dispenser company, has installed what is being described as “ammo vending machines” at multiple grocery store locations in Alabama and Oklahoma. The machines reportedly sell a variety of shotgun, rifle and handgun rounds, according to KOCO 5 News in Oklahoma City.
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It seemed the DVD met its match in 2006 when Blu-Ray discs hit the media market with better audio quality and much more storage capacity. And while streaming services soon after became the content platform of choice, Blu-Ray discs have maintained a presence nonetheless.
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Aerojet Rocketdyne recently completed work on the four RS-25 engines that will help power NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket on the Artemis IV mission. Artemis IV is the ambitious plan that will see astronauts live and work in Gateway, the first lunar space station in history. The mission will help prep future human missions to Mars and will include multiple launches and spacecraft dockings in lunar orbit, including the debut of NASA's larger, more powerful SLS rocket.
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Last month, Mitsubishi Electric set a new Guinness World Record. The young team outfitted a robot with high-speed, high-precision factory automation equipment and control technology, and made it the fastest robot ever to solve a puzzle cube, more commonly referred to as a Rubik's cube. If you want to see it, don't blink.
The video of the achievement was recorded on May 7, 2024, and the precision is notable because, as many observers have noted, it's impressive that the robot could rotate the cube's layers so fast without shattering the toy.
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A new study out of the University of Wisconsin has uncovered the truly alarming consequences of a recent rail disaster - an incident with toxic implications well beyond what researchers were expecting.
In 2023, a Norfolk Southern train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in the Ohio town of East Palestine. Across the nation, transfixed observers watched in horror as officials deemed the best course of action to be intentionally burning off the excess chemicals and sending plumes of black smoke into the air, or risk the rail cars exploding.
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Warroad, Minnesota, is about as north as you can go in the continental United States. The city of about 2,000 people is nicknamed Hockeytown USA due to its ability to consistently produce Olympians. But, in addition to supplying the U.S. national teams with talent, the small town has also been providing doors and windows for over 100 years.
The windows and doors come from Marvin and its manufacturing buildings that occupy 2.2 million square feet. However, a report by the Wall Street Journal explained that the $1.5 billion company is struggling to fill jobs at its Warroad factory.
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Welcome to another episode of Gen Z in Manufacturing, a podcast where I interview young people about their journeys in manufacturing, how they intend to influence the industry and what they are looking for from an employer.
Thank you to our sponsor QAD Redzone. Empower your frontline while growing your bottom line. QAD Redzone is the #1 Connected Workforce Solution for plants of all sizes. It's time for manufacturers to start engaging their frontline employees - resulting in reduced turnover and increased productivity. Redzone enables you to stop analyzing yesterday and start solving today’s problems now. For the first time ever, production, maintenance, and quality teams are following the same play book! Request a Demo Today
For this episode, I welcome Nolan Westrope, a 21-year-old mechanical engineering student at the University of Texas at Dallas.
Westrope was introduced to the manufacturing process when he was a child helping his father work on a 1971 Chevelle Super Sport. By the time he was 15, Westrope was tearing apart two broken down Chevy’s in an attempt to assemble his own truck, which he completed at 17.
Prior to college, Westrope’s education included architecture and TIG welding courses at his high school’s Career Center. In addition to pursuing a master’s degree, Westrope is also the Manufacturing Lead for UT Dallas’ Formula SAE team, Dallas Formula Racing.
Luxury carmaker Koenigsegg has issued a stop-drive after an issue with one of its vehicles resulted in a disaster of epic proportions.
And while typical recalls numbers in the thousands of vehicles – sometimes the millions – this one is on a much, much smaller scale: just 28 vehicles are being recalled.
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A German and Canadian national residing in China named Klaus Pflugbeil has pleaded guilty to stealing a U.S. electric vehicle company’s trade secrets and using them to build a China-based business. The Department of Justice release did not disclose the name of the American EV maker, but a New York Times article that reported Pflugbeil’s arrest in March named the mystery company as Tesla.
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Ford has bet on electric vehicles to help drive future growth and like a lot of other automakers, it’s zeroed in on price point as one of the catalysts for driving consumer adoption.
The automaker has seen some limited success so far with its F-150 Lightning and Mustang Mach-E. But those vehicles’ most basic packages start at about $40,000 and $50,000 respectively. Ford has seemingly understood for a while that a lower entry point will be necessary to get more drivers to switch from internal combustion engines, since the company formed a skunkworks team more than two years ago to work on a low-cost EV platform.
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NASA just scared the heck out of a lot of International Space Station (ISS) followers when it accidentally aired an emergency medical drill during a livestream.
According to CNBC, the livestream on Wednesday evening was abruptly interrupted by a speaker announcing that an astronaut on board the ISS was suffering extreme compression sickness and may need to be placed inside a spacesuit filled with pure oxygen. The voice reportedly advised ISS crew members to check the astronaut’s pulse one more time before proceeding and warned that the oxygen suit was only a “best effort treatment.” It said the astronaut’s prognosis was “relatively tenuous.”
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A group of Republican lawmakers has accused the Chinese company behind a proposed $2 billion electric vehicle battery plant in the Midwest of using forced labor — and urged the Biden administration to blacklist it from the country altogether.
Rep. Darin LaHood, who represents a district spanning central and northern Illinois, said in a statement that an investigation by the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party found that Gotion’s supply chains and business relationships are entangled in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region — including the sourcing of lithium, aluminum foil, and other materials from companies or state-affiliated operators with known or suspected links to forced labor.
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John Deere employs around 70,000 people worldwide, but the year 2024 has brought recurring announcements regarding workforce reductions – in fact, so many that keeping up can be a challenge.
The latest cuts are in Moline, Illinois, where the company has informed workers in its Seeding and Cylinder operations that 120 employees would be placed on “indefinite layoff” effective June 28th.
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The supply of available homes is historically low. Land is expensive, material costs are high, and the market conditions have a particularly dramatic impact on smaller homes less than 1,800 square feet. However, modern manufacturing techniques have shown the potential to cut costs and build times significantly. While the world's largest 3D printer is quicklybuilding modest homes layer by layer in Maine, modern offsite manufacturing techniques are making it possible for "stick-built homes" to be made more sustainably and efficiently.
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The Department of Labor announced that John Deere has agreed to pay over $1.1 million to job applicants after facing allegations of systemic hiring discrimination that affected Black and Hispanic applicants.
According to the Department of Labor, routine evaluations by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs found hiring imbalances at three of the company’s facilities in Milan, Illinois, and Waterloo and Ankeny, Iowa.
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A Toyota subsidiary will shut down its largest auto parts plant in the U.S. over concerns about a difficult path to “sustainable profitability.”
Hino Motors Manufacturing U.S.A. opened the facility in Marion, Arkansas, in 2006, making truck frames and axles for Hino commercial vehicles as well as for its Toyota parent. It is by far the U.S. division’s largest operation, accounting for about 70% of its workforce in the country.
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Electric vehicles may be good for the environment, but there is an unwanted side effect that’s been bad for the budgets of many states that rely on the gas tax.
And while some are finding ways around it via supersized registration fees for electrics, the state of California is exploring another way to beef up its highway funds – and it intends to treat all vehicle types equally.
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Boat and engine maker . has announced a mass layoff for its facility in Sturtevant, Wisconsin. The company stated in a Notice of Workforce Reduction that the move affected 298 employees at the factory, citing “adverse market and economic conditions.”
According to the notice, BRP laid off the first 150 workers on March 21, then 148 more on May 23. The layoffs include new and low-hour employees and there are no bumping or recall rights for any positions. All impacted workers will receive pay in lieu of notice.
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In the age of uber-expensive vehicles, the CEO of Stellantis is making a bold pledge.
In March of this year, the average sale price of a new vehicle was more than $47,000 – a sum that’s out of reach for many Americans. And if you’re in the market for a new electric, that figure balloons another 10%, says CarEdge.
With that in mind, automakers have explored ways to drive down costs of new EVs and they’re making some tangible progress. And it appears Stellantis, an OEM that’s been slow to bring EVs to market stateside, is preparing to leapfrog the competition on price.
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The biggest name in canned soup – Campbell’s – has announced that it will be making some big cuts to its operations in an effort to eliminate what it refers to as “inefficient” sites.
One of these is a plant in Tualatin, Oregon – a location Campbell’s acquired in when it purchased organic soup company Pacific Foods in 2017. The 250,000 square foot operation will be closed in phases, says Campbell’s, fully ceasing to operate by 2026. In the meantime, the plant – which currently employs some 330 workers – will see phase 1 of the closure process begin in August of this year, impacting 120 employees.
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The Hershey Company is facing a federal class action lawsuit because at least four customers feel duped by the company's specialty Reese's product packaging. According to the lawsuit, the packaging contains "a false and deceptive representation of an artistic carving contained on said product." For example, a new product designed as a tie-in for the upcoming summer Olympics in Paris, France, depicts a chocolate-shaped metal with a simple carving of a circle for the medal and a V-shape to represent the ribbon.
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For this episode, I welcome Bogdan Malynovskyy, a 26-year-old director of advanced projects and large-scale robotics engineer at Hacksmith Industries.
Hacksmith, an entertainment company with about 14.7 million YouTube subscribers, is dedicated to bringing to life fictional concepts from movies, video games and comics through the creation of functional prototypes. The company’s projects include Captain America’s shield, the Power Loader from Aliens and a lightsaber, with Malynovskyy serving as the lead engineer on the latter project.
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Boeing subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences has wrapped up the conceptual design review for a new high-speed X-plane that can liftoff vertically. So far, the development has been a success, and the concept has been chosen to continue work on a preliminary design review.
The X-plane is being developed for DARPA's SPRINT program, which stands for Speed and Runway Independent Technologies. The project aims to design, build and fly an aircraft that is fast and doesn't rely on a runway for takeoff and landing.
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A Pennsylvania teenager is suing Panera after a cardiac arrest episode that followed consuming the fast casual chain’s Charged Lemonade, claiming defective design, manufacturing and inadequate warnings regarding the beverage.
According to the lawsuit, the incident took place on March 9 when 18-year-old Luke Adams drank a large Mango Yuzu Citrus Charged Lemonade. Later that day, at a movie theater, Adams went into cardiac arrest, which medical examination linked to ventricular fibrillation, a type of heart arrhythmia that can be triggered by caffeine.
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Airbus this week unveiled to the public the Racer, its new one-off demonstrator aircraft that’s half helicopter, half plane and built to fly fast.
According to Reuters, Airbus this week gathered a crowd of industry executives, politicians and European Union representatives at its base in France to show off the Racer, its $217 million successor to the X3, which debuted in 2010. The company said the Racer is capable of a cruising speed of about 250 miles per hour, nearly 100 miles per hour faster than a traditional helicopter.
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A former salesman at a manufacturer and distributor of football helmets and other sports equipment is facing prison time and a seven-figure fine after conspiring to rig bids for sports equipment contracts. According to a Department of Justice release detailing an FBI investigation, at least 100 schools in Mississippi and other locations were victims of the schemes.
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Researchers at Southern Illinois University Carbondale have come up with a way to make 3D-printed food out of plastic waste. They call them µBites (microbites), and they could be the innovative answer to global problems over waste plastic and food scarcity.
The process is fairly straightforward. The team mixes waste biomass and plastic, which is processed into slurry. A special yeast converts the slurry to proteins that are 3D-printed into various forms, like cookies.
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Another year, another potential shortage of Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce. Consumers, distributors and retailers have faced this dilemma before, but this time it has less to do with supply and more to do with color.
USA Today obtained a letter sent to wholesalers by Huy Fong Foods, the company that makes Sriracha, the well-known hot sauce with the rooster on the label. It said that it would be halting production of the popular hot sauce until after Labor Day because red jalapeno peppers it uses to make sriracha are not red enough.
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After the initial launch for Boeing’s Starliner was scrapped last week due to a leaky valve, NASA could be looking to give it another go later this week. But one contractor is surprisingly and publicly asking the agency to reconsider the launch, which it warned could end in catastrophe.
ValveTech, a company that designs and manufactures valves and other components for aerospace and military applications, issued a press release stating that a second attempt could result in a disaster occurring on the launchpad. ValveTech President Erin Faville urged NASA to re-double safety checks and re-examine safety protocols to make sure the Starliner is safe before something catastrophic happens to the astronauts and to the people on the ground.
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On Thursday, 71-year-old Curtiss E. Jackson was convicted of a long-running scheme that bilked investors out of millions over a fraudulent boatbuilding and cruise business.
Jackson and his wife, Jamey Jackson, owned Semisub Inc, a shipbuilding firm in Hawaii. Both sought investment in the company and for more than ten years told financial backers that the prototype vessel, the Semisub One, was just months, even weeks away from starting operations.
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In early March, Rivian paused construction of a planned $5 billion electric truck plant in Georgia. The cost-cutting measure hoped to speed production, particularly of the company's midsize SUV, the R2, which will now be made at its existing plant in Normal, Illinois.
To help make it happen, Rivian last Tuesday announced an incentive package worth $827 million from the State of Illinois Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity. The funds will help expand operations in Normal, improve public infrastructure and boost job training programs for Rivian's workforce. All in an effort to help get R2 production up and running and get the electric SUV on the market.
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The Department of Justice announced on May 8 that a Florida woman pleaded guilty to a scheme that involved fraudulently procuring government contracts to supply critical military components to the Department of Defense.
The woman, Yuksel Senbol, pleaded guilty to 25 felony counts, including violating the Arms Export Control Act and the Export Control Reform Act, money laundering and wire fraud.
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U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) last month issued a Withhold Release Order for products made by Shanghai Select Safety Products Company Limited and two of its Chinese subsidiaries, Select Safety Products and Select Protective Technology Limited. CBP officers were instructed to detain any work gloves made by the companies and deny them entry into the country.
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Tyson is one of the largest meat producers in the world, with 123 processing plants and 124,000 employees just in the U.S. The company did about $52.94 billion in revenue last year, but the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) says it came at a hefty environmental cost.
A new report from UCS, a nonprofit organization made up of scientists, analysts and policy experts, says Tyson Foods has released billions of gallons of wastewater into U.S. waterways that have been filled with some heinous substances, including nitrogen and phosphorus, which can deplete the oxygen in water, animal body parts and byproducts, like blood and feces, and pathogens and microorganisms, including E. coli.
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The Department of Labor yesterday announced one of the largest wage violation settlements ever reached for U.S. poultry workers. A federal court ordered a network of California poultry processors and distributors to pay $4.8 million in back wages and damages to 476 workers. They must also pay $221,919 in penalties.
Under the terms of the settlement, the employers must also forfeit $1 million in profits earned from the sale of hot goods tainted by oppressive child labor and pay penalties of $171,919 for child labor violations. The companies were under a temporary restraining order and an injunction that prevented them from shipping hot goods and required them to lose all profits related to tainted sales.
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A brewery in Wisconsin has residents foaming at the mouth. Unfortunately, it's not after enjoying a pint.
For the better part of nine years, a leak in a containment vessel in the City Brewing Company's bioreactor has been belching hydrogen sulfide into the air. As a result, the community in La Crosse, Wisconsin, has been subjected to a smell akin to rotten eggs.
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Heineken is a huge multinational corporation and it’s affected by market realities like supply and demand just like any other company. But when the answer to those issues is destroying an apple orchard, it’s hard to see it as just business.
Heineken owns Penrhos Orchard, a 300-acre site in Wales that was planted in 1997. The company said last year that it wants to sell that land because demand for cider has declined and left it with a “surplus of apples.” It said the apples grown in the orchard are bittersweet, meaning they have no use besides making cider. So Heineken, in line with the Wildlife Act, uprooted the entire orchard, which was the size of 140 football pitches (or soccer fields) and shredded all the wood for biomass.
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The Department of Justice announced an unsealed indictment accusing a pair of Chinese nationals of engaging in criminal activities linked to a plot to export U.S. technology to restricted end users in China.
According to the DOJ, 44-year-old Han Li and 64-year-old Lin Chen sought to export semiconductor manufacturing technology, including a machine for processing silicon wafer microchips made by a California-based company. The alleged actions violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and Export Administration Regulations.
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The U.S. Air Force has chosen two companies that it will continue to fund as part of its Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program, and the decision leaves out some major defense contractors.
The Air Force this week said Anduril and General Atomics will continue on with the program to supply detailed designs, manufacture, and testing of production test aircraft.
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The shift toward electric has touched nearly every corner of the automotive industry and now it’s extended its reach into Disneyland.
The amusement park earlier this month confirmed with the Los Angeles Times that the gas-powered vehicles of the Autopia ride within the Tomorrowland attraction will be swapped out for electric vehicles. Disneyland spokesperson Jessica Good said that means fully electric, not hybrid, engines will be up and running on the Autopia track within the next two to three years. The exact timeline isn’t clear, as is what the change will mean for park infrastructure and maintenance, but it’s definitely happening.
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Just last month, Intel announced plans to spend some $36 billion to expand and modernize operations in Hillsboro, Oregon, partly funded by awards from the Biden Administration's Chips & Science Act.
Just a month later, the Oregon plant is facing some decidedly less positive news.
The Oregonian has reported that Intel is being sued by a contractor who alleges exposure while working at Hillsboro caused him to lose both his sense of taste and smell.
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On Saturday evening, an incident at a southeastern Wisconsin substation caused the grid to go dark for some 16,000 people. According to We Energies, a Wisconsin utility company that provides electricity to more than 1 million customers, the culprit was a raccoon.
According to a spokesperson, a raccoon touched two pieces of equipment simultaneously, which knocked out the power, and likely made for one really unhappy trash panda.
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A traditional cast with an outer layer made from plaster or fiberglass is more than sufficient for a human with a broken bone. But for a gorilla, which is about 10 times stronger than a human being and less likely to put up with some discomfort, that type of cast doesn’t stand a chance.
Gladys, an 11-year-old gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, recently fractured her humerus while fighting with two younger females in her troop. Victoria McGee, Cincinnati Zoo’s Zoological Manager of Primates, said it’s pretty common for gorillas to engage in minor squabbles. She said, “She must have fallen in just the wrong way to break her arm, but the result was a complete, oblique fracture of her distal humerus.”
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Mercedes-Benz yesterday announced a new logistics concept: a demonstrator that combines eSprinter vans with e-cargo bikes to sustainably solve the last-mile riddle.
The Sustaineer (sustainability pioneer) tech demonstrator promises a look at delivery transport of the future. So, what does that look like?
The electric van is based on the automaker's eSprinter. Mercedes already has fully electric versions of every commercial and private van, and the company expects them to make up more than half of total sales by 2030.
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Humanoid robots are still a long way from full-scale rollouts across industrial, commercial and other settings. But if this week’s arrivals tell us anything, it’s that the pace of development may be speeding up.
Boston Dynamics earlier this week made news when it bid a fond farewell to Atlas, the hydraulic robot it’s been tinkering with for nearly a decade. The company even assembled a send-off video full of clips of Atlas falling down. However, Boston Dynamics wasted almost no time in introducing its new all-electric version of Atlas.
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Last October, a 26-year-old employee at Faurecia Emissions Control Systems in Franklin, Ohio, was fatally crushed. According to OSHA, the worker had been on the job for about a year and was placing cardboard under a machine that bends vehicle exhaust pipes at the time of the accident.
The company is a subsidiary of Faurecia North America which, in 2022, combined with Hella to form Forvia, one of the world’s largest automotive suppliers with more than 150,000 workers across more than 40 countries. Faurecia North America operates 29 factories in the U.S.
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Food company Conagra Brands announced that it would cease production operations and close its facility in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. The company claimed in a letter to the Bureau of Workforce Training that the move is designed to improve the effectiveness and efficiencies in its supply chain network.
Conagra added in the letter that the closure, which is expected to be permanent, would affect all employment, including 25 management and administrative roles and 227 production and production support jobs. The employees have no union representation or bumping rights but will be offered severance benefits.
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The push towards electrics means changes in the automotive industry are impacting every OEM – even those tailor made for it.
Elektrek first reported that EV leader Tesla is cutting “more than 10%” of its workers. Citing an internal memo, the company is reportedly looking at “cost reductions and increasing productivity” and will target its global workforce. While no hard number was released, 10% of Tesla’s worldwide staff would amount to 14,000 job cuts or more.
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U.S. retailer Walmart is turning to robots for help as it works to keep pace with e-commerce rivals like Amazon.
The company said it will roll out 19 Class 1 electric, autonomous forklifts across four of its distribution centers, with the possibility of a wider deployment in the future. Walmart associates are currently being trained to operate the FoxBot, which is designed to handle a lot of the manual labor needed at the warehouse loading dock.
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In January 2024, the FDA issued a warning about dietary supplements purchased on popular e-commerce websites like Amazon and Etsy that were made with toxic ingredients. Tejocote root, part of the hawthorn family, is a Mexican root supplement marketed for weight loss.
An FDA analysis found that these dietary supplements, labeled as tejocote root or Brazil seed, are adulterated. Instead of tejocote, they were substituted with yellow oleander, a poisonous plant native to Mexico and Central America.
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The GMC Hummer has had an interesting evolution by anyone’s standards. What started as a gas guzzling monster SUV back in the 1990s and early aughts fell victim to the economic crunch and high gas prices of the Great Recession. But a decade or so after killing the model, GMC revealed that it would have new life in the form of an all-electric.
That said, a lot has changed since the 2020 announcement, and as automakers have expanded their electric portfolios, they’ve just as quickly scaled them back. And while GMC had plans for several trims of the Hummer – including an entry version called the EV2 that was due out this spring – this is reportedly being adjusted, with GM Authority reporting the $86,000 base model is no longer in the works.
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Last month, Boeing and its subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences sued Virgin Galactic, accusing Richard Branson’s space venture of skipping on bills and holding onto trade secrets. Now, Virgin has returned fire.
The company last week countersued Boeing and Aurora, accusing the struggling aerospace company of “shoddy and incomplete work.” According to Reuters, Virgin Galactic said Boeing is breaching its contract and attempting to unlawfully force the return of intellectual property.
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The manufacturing industry has received a boost from recent legislation such as the CHIPS and Science Act, but industrial facilities still experience hundreds of hours of downtime annually. As the industrial landscape evolves and expands, the need for skilled maintenance workers becomes more paramount.
Fluke Reliability, a division of electronic test tool manufacturer Fluke Corporation, provides a range of technologies such as eMaint and Prüftechnik, which are helping manufacturers do more with less resources. The addition of Azima DLI, an AI-powered vibration analytics and remote condition monitoring solution, looks to be the next big thing in machine maintenance.
Hear from Fluke Corporation President Jason Waxman, Fluke Reliability Director of Product Management Michael DeMaria and Fluke Reliability President Ankush Malhotra as they discuss the capabilities of AI in industrial maintenance.
It’s been a staple in Danville, Illinois, since 1969, but on June 8, the Quaker Oats plant will close its doors.
Last week, Quaker informed more than 500 workers in Danville they will be laid off but, perhaps, the writing was on the wall.
Back in December, Quaker – a PepsiCo brand – paused production at the facility while it sorted out a product recall. Unfortunately, it wasn’t buttoned up quickly; what started with concerns of contamination risk in its granola soon ballooned into other products, ultimately requiring Quaker to recall some five dozen products – many of which are still not back on store shelves today.
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Canoo, like many other electric vehicle startups, is struggling to survive. And as is often the case in the early days of a company, expenditures exceed revenue. But one cost in particular stood out in Canoo’s latest earnings report.
TechCrunch spotted an item near the bottom of a 10-K the company recently filed with the SEC and it details just how much Canoo is reimbursing CEO Tony Aquila for the use of his personal aircraft. The company said it helps cover certain costs and third-party payments, excluding certain incidental fees and expenses, and that it resulted in Canoo incurring approximately $1.7 million last year and $1.3 million in 2022.
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The Department of Justice announced that two Russian nationals who are Florida residents pleaded guilty to conspiring to acquire and illegally export controlled aviation technology to Russia without a license, violating the Export Control Reform Act.
According to the DOJ, Oleg Sergeyevhich Patsulya and Vasilii Sergeyevich Besedin conspired to secure orders for aircraft components and parts from Russian buyers, the majority of which were commercial airline companies. The pair looked to obtain the parts, which included a Boeing 737’s carbon disc brake system, from U.S. suppliers and export them to Russia.
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The Department of Justice announced that a California man pleaded guilty to a scheme that involved selling more than $3.5 million worth of deceptive fan assemblies to the Department of Defense’s Defense Logistics Agency (DLA).
According to the DOJ, the defendant, 63-year-old Steve H.S. Kim, controlled an unnamed company that sold fan assemblies to the DLA. But the fan assemblies were either counterfeit or misrepresented to be new. The DOJ added that some of the counterfeit fans went on to be installed, or were planned to be installed, with electrical components on an aircraft’s laser system, a nuclear submarine and a surface-to-air missile system.
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Freirich Foods has been in the meat business since 1921, when it was founded by young German sausage maker Julian Freirich on Long Island. The company, now based in Salisbury, North Carolina, makes a lot of meat, from pastrami and roast beef to other specialty items. However, the company is perhaps most known for corned beef. The family-owned business says it controls more than 40% of the New York Metro and New England markets.
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Tyson Foods is looking to refugees and immigrants to fill some of its factory jobs that handle duties such as placing cuts into trays, inspections for bones and washing meat, Bloomberg reported.
The food processor employs some 100,000 people in these positions, and according to associate director of human resources Garrett Dolan, the company anticipates an annual departure of approximately 40% of those workers. As a result, Dolan said the company is looking to hire 52,000 people in 2024 to fill these positions.
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Offshore wind power projects set up shop in the water because it’s often too much of a logistical nightmare to transport their massive turbine blades inland. But that could change in the future if one startup is successful in building the world’s largest plane.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, offshore wind turbines can be as much as one-and-a-half times the height of the Washington Monument and feature blades the length of a football field. That’s specifically why Mark Lundstrom, an aerospace engineer, and his company, Radia, is building the WindRunner, a massive plane that’s also the length of a football field. If completed, the WindRunner will be the largest plane in the world in terms of length and cargo capacity.
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For this episode, I welcome Daniel Huang, an 18-year-old student in Florida. Huang is the creator of his high school’s 3D printing club that finished runner-up in SME’s 2023 Digital Manufacturing Challenge with their proposal to use 3D printing to create fully customizable pills for medical distribution.
Huang has done research at the University of Florida Materials Science Lab, worked at Georgia Tech’s Advanced Manufacturing Pilot Facility and was recently recognized by SME as a 2023 “30 Under 30” honoree.
Last week, the EPA recognized the 103 U.S. factories to earn Energy Star certification in 2023. The award recognizes manufacturing plants in the top 25% of energy efficiency in their sector.
According to the EPA, these plants prevented more than 8 million metric tons of CO2 emissions—that's the equivalent to the emissions from electricity used by more than 1.5 million homes.
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The Department of Justice announced that Ford Motor Company agreed to pay the U.S. government $365 million to resolve allegations of Tariff Act of 1930 violations. According to the DOJ, the American automaker misclassified and understated the value of hundreds of thousands of its Transit Connect cargo vans.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) official Troy A. Miller called the settlement one of the largest customs penalties in recent history.
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Robotics company Figure and ChatGPT maker OpenAI are only two weeks into their partnership but the collaboration is already producing some astounding and slightly unsettling results.
Figure this week shared an update on Figure 01’s progress and said it can now have full conversations with people after connecting to a large pre-trained multimodal model. The company said its robot can now describe its visual experience, plan future actions and use common sense reasoning, reflect on its memory and explain its reasoning verbally.
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When a driver gets a speeding ticket or is involved in an accident, their car insurance rates are expected to increase. However, most drivers would not expect to see their rates increase for every instance of speeding, rapid acceleration or forceful braking. But that is what the New York Times reported is happening to people who drive cars made by General Motors.
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The Chinese EV market is a wild west of innovation. Well, maybe it's more like throwing everything against the wall to see what sticks in their own version of a lagging EV market. According to an article from Fortune, new EVs have some ambitious offerings, and this is in addition to the karaoke systems and built-in refrigerators already available.
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At the end of February, chemical company and the maker of Teflon, Chemours, made headlines when the company’s board of directors placed its CEO, CFO and controller and principal accounting officer on administrative leave. As part of the announcement, Chemours added that its audit committee would oversee an internal review of the company’s financial reporting following an anonymous report to the company’s ethics hotline.
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Airbus today unveiled the prototype of its fully electric CityAirbus NextGen, an electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicle (eVTOL) designed to operate in major cities. With its first flight scheduled for later this year, the two metric-ton class CityAirbus has a wing span of approximately 12 meters and will have about a 50-mile (80 km) range with a cruising speed of about 75 mph (120 km/h).
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Tosh Pork is the largest pork producer in Tennessee, and with 38,000 sows in 2022, it was the 25th largest pork producer in the U.S., according to a report from Genesus and Swineweb. Based in Henry, Tennessee, the company uses the H-2A agricultural guest worker program to employ people from foreign countries to work the farm. The company's products are typically sold to JBS USA, Kroger and Costco.
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EV startup Polestar was recently flirting with bankruptcy. The company, which started as an engineering team modifying Volvos for racing in the late 2000s, was spun out of Volvo in October 2017 as a standalone brand focusing on electric cars.
Last November, Polestar was looking at a $1.3 billion shortfall when Geely Holding and Volvo Cars stepped up to fill the gap and keep the company above water until 2025. During that time, it hoped to get the Polestar 3 and 4, crossover models with higher margins, out the door.
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Toyota Practically Giving Away its Hydrogen Vehicles
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On Tuesday, Apple cut bait on the long rumored, but never delivered electric vehicle project after about ten years of development. And Elon “production is hard’ Musk, didn't exactly dance on the grave, at least not just on the project's grave. Instead, he offered the following on X, "The natural state of a car company is dead."
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Small mistakes can sometimes have big consequences. That’s the lesson one maintenance team is likely taking away from a recent mishap that caused millions in damages to an F-35, a U.S. military fighter jet that costs about $110 million to manufacture.
According to an aircraft accident investigation report released by the U.S. Air Force, a handheld flashlight left in the engine of an F-35 caused nearly $4 million in damage and created a situation that could not be repaired locally.
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Stellantis – the automaker formerly known as Fiat Chrysler – posted record revenues and profits in 2023. At the time of the reporting, CEO Carlos Tavares said he wanted to “warmly thank” the Stellantis team for “contributing greatly to [the company’s] growth story, even in the strongest of headwinds.”
It appears the Board at Stellantis has found a way to also warmly thank Tavares himself and it takes the form of a massive pay hike.
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Eventually, NASA wants to send humans to Mars. But before the space agency can send astronauts on the 140 million-mile trek to the red planet, they must conduct some serious testing.
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AI is still in its infancy, but workers shouldn't wait to get familiar with the technology.
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A joint effort that included the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.K. National Crime Agency's (NCA) Cyber Division, the FBI, and other international law enforcement partners announced today that they have disrupted one of the most active ransomware groups in the world, LockBit.
The task force seized several websites used by the outfit to connect to the organization's infrastructure. Authorities also seized control of servers used by LockBit administrators, which should disrupt the bad actors' ability to attack and encrypt networks and extort victims by threatening to publish stolen data.
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Welcome to another episode of Gen Z in Manufacturing, a podcast where I interview young people about their journeys in the manufacturing industry.
For this episode, I welcome Bryce Walters, a 26-year-old manufacturing robotics engineer for Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire control.
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Eight months is a long time to be stuck in orbit but Varda Space Industries’ flying pharmaceutical factory has finally been given clearance to come home.
In September 2023, the U.S. Air Force denied Varda’s request for permission to land a capsule at a Utah training facility. According to TechCrunch, the Air Force said it couldn’t grant the request due to the “overall safety, risk and impact analysis.”
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A 32-year-old Canadian national pleaded guilty yesterday for her role in a multimillion-dollar scheme to ship components for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), guided missile systems and other weapons to sanctioned entities in Russia. Shipping the parts is a violation of export control and sanctions laws, and the components were actually found in Russian weapons platforms and intelligence equipment on the battlefield in Ukraine. It has been nearly two years since Russia invaded the country.
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You know, sometimes these things just don't work out. The Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) program was meant to create the U.S. Army's new weaponized scout helicopter. The Army had even held a design competition to find the replacement for the Vietnam-era OH-58 chopper once it was retired. In the interim, Apache attack helicopters and Shadow drones were filling in.
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The Wall Street Journal has reported that Intel plans to delay the opening of a chip plant that’s been described as “the first of its kind.”
Originally set to be online by late 2025, the $20 billion Ohio project was set to bring 3,000 jobs to the region but now won’t hit its target for several reasons.
The Wall Street Journal says the factory is being postponed because of “market challenges” – a nod towards the general consensus that the market for semiconductors may be cooling in the near term.
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Ford’s best-selling electric vehicle so far is the full-size F-150 Lightning. But the company just revealed secret plans for developing smaller, less expensive EVs.
During the automaker’s fourth-quarter earnings call this week, CEO Jim Farley said his company “made a bet in silence two years ago.”
“We developed a super-talented skunkworks team to create a low-cost EV platform. It was a small group, small team, some of the best EV engineers in the world, and it was separate from the Ford mothership. It was a start-up,” Farley said.
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It has been over a month since one of Boeing's 737 Max 9 aircraft, operated by Alaska Airlines, suffered a structural blowout mid-flight. Between aircraft groundings, inspections and increased FAA scrutiny, Boeing is still trying to recover from the incident.
Now, the aircraft manufacturer is facing another challenge from the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), the company's largest union, which is still irked over a deal that barely received approval in 2014.
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Boeing’s reputation has taken a beating over the past few months as design and manufacturing issues have increasingly caused serious problems for the company’s jet liners. Now the head of a major international airline has warned that Boeing doesn’t have much runway left.
Sir Tim Clark, president of Emirates Airline, told the Financial Times that Boeing is in the “last chance saloon.” His comments came as his company’s engineers are planning to personally overlook Boeing’s manufacturing operations, which Clark said have deteriorated as the company has put profits ahead of “engineering excellence.”
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While it appeared as though EV battery technology was anointed the clear successor to industrial combustion engines, we have seen a resurgence of hydrogen fuel projects, particularly in the automotive industry. The chief concern over EV batteries is infrastructure and the necessary improvements needed to make the transition work—and yet the tech seems lightyears ahead of hydrogen.
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With the end of 2023 came the demise of Hyperloop One and, for some, the end of the futuristic tech's potential to disrupt commercial high-speed travel. However, many players remain in the game, including Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HyperloopTT).
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Kubota North America is facing a $2 million civil penalty after misrepresenting the origins of some of its replacement parts for tractors and other agricultural equipment, per a Department of Justice court order.
The civil penalty follows a complaint by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which alleged that, since at least 2021, Kubota falsely labeled thousands of wholly imported replacement parts as “Made in USA.” The agency also accused Kubota of not updating product labels that included recently outsourced parts.
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A California firm will soon begin staffing BMW factories with talent, but the kind that comes encased in metal and operates with a computer chip.
The difference between traditional automation and what tech company Figure provides is that its robotics embody a 5 foot 6 inch, 130-pound humanoid form, fully powered by electricity.
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Welcome to another episode of Gen Z in Manufacturing, a podcast where I interview young people about their journeys in the manufacturing industry.
For this episode, I welcome Ava Raugust, a 17-year-old bilingual agriscientist and engineer. Raugust is currently a high school senior in California, where she is the president and co-founder of her high school’s robotics team.
Raugust’s experience and accomplishments include an internship with DPR Construction, a first place finish in the high school division of the SME Digital Manufacturing Challenge and, most recently, recognition by SME as one of the 2023 “30 Under 30” honorees
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Elon Musk’s brain implant company is facing scrutiny from, of all federal agencies, the Department of Transportation.
Reuters revealed in an exclusive report that Neuralink – a medtech firm that hopes to one day offer implantable devices that help humans dealing with paralysis or other debilitating conditions – will be fined by the U.S. DOT after recent inspections raised some concerns.
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When a franchise like the Detroit Lions, that’s been an NFL punching bag for decades, finally finds itself back on the brink of a Super Bowl, fans are going to watch the game no matter what. But General Motors is cool with it.
The automaker is delaying a shift at one of its factories in Michigan so employees can watch the Lions play the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship. According to the Detroit Free Press, GM is pushing back the start of the third shift at a Flint assembly plant by one hour on Sunday. It’s a nice gesture to the employees and it’s significant considering the plant builds the Chevy Silverado and the GMC Sierra, two of the top 10 selling vehicles in the U.S.
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The Department of Justice announced that a regulatory affairs specialist for a medical device manufacturer was sentenced to prison for his role in distributing devices that lacked FDA clearance.
The actions led to the illegal sale of two medical devices in the U.S., amounting to tens of thousands of dollars.
The sentence follows last year’s guilty plea by the individual, Peter Stoll III, to one felony count of violating the Federal, Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. He had been charged with causing the introduction of misbranded and adulterated medical devices into interstate commerce.
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The Apple Car has been a mirage on the automotive industry horizon for about 10 years. Rumors have swirled ever since the consumer electronic giant's Project Titan leaked, leading aspiring designers and creative types around the world to speculate as to just what Apple had cooking under the hood. My personal favorite thus far came from Vanarama, a car leasing operation in the U.K. that used existing Apple patents to come up with a futuristic design.
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Sierra Space is building a modular space station and the full-scale version of it just passed a significant testing milestone. But it didn’t blow up in the process so the company, just like anyone else who likes explosions, went back and retested to make sure the habitat blew up real good this time.
The LIFE Habitat, which stands for Large Integrated Flexible Environment, is constructed from woven materials that stay rigid once the environment is inflated. The company has worked its way up to testing full-scale, 20-foot units now and its latest version exceeded NASA’s recommended safety levels by 27%.
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While battery-powered cars are seen as good for the environment, they still face issues over range anxiety and the emissions-heavy process inherent in mining lithium. So, the Electric Vehicle Team at MIT turned to hydrogen-powered vehicles as a cleaner alternative, one in which vehicles could be refilled like gas-powered cars.
The Electric Vehicle Team is building a hydrogen-powered electric motorcycle. Using a fuel cell system, the team says the open-source platform will serve as a testbed for new hydrogen-based transportation. The team hopes the project and those building off its foundation will accelerate demand for hydrogen vehicles and push infrastructure investment.
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The shine on the new UAW contracts with the Detroit 3 has barely worn off before conflict arises once more.
Fresh off the hugs and handshakes, the Detroit Free Press is calling attention to some harsh words issued this week from UAW president Shawn Fain – and they’re directed at Stellantis.
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Last week Tesla appeared to bow to pressure from a trend that’s been rippling through the auto industry.
Recent wins by the United Autoworkers Union have sent wages up for plant workers within the Detroit 3, a boost that encouraged several competitors to follow suit including Toyota, Volkwagen and Hyundai.
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The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited a Georgia-based poultry processor after the facility’s poor safety standards led to a second worker death in two years.
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Getting your hands on Tesla’s Cybertruck is going to be difficult for the foreseeable future. But soon you may be able to pick up a Cybertruck-inspired gym hammer.
Electrek this week found a trademark application from Tesla for a “Cyberhammer.” It’s filed under the fitness equipment category. So, there’s a good chance it will be a fitness hammer shaped like a Cybertruck on a stick. And the publication said the timing of the trademark application suggests the Cyberhammer could show up soon in Tesla’s store.
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For this episode, I welcome Ankur Verma, a 26-year-old Ph.D. candidate in industrial and manufacturing engineering at Penn State University. Verma is also the co-founder and CEO of Lightscline, a company that offers AI-based data-reduction software.
Verma said his interest in manufacturing began in high school in Western India and cited his father’s background as a professor of mechanical engineering. Verma has held internships with GM and Tata Technologies, was awarded a National Science Foundation Innovation-Corps national and mini grant, is a recipient of the Diefenderfer Graduate Fellowship in Entrepreneurship and, most recently, was recognized by SME as one of the 2023 “30 Under 30” honorees.
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Engineers at the University of Glasgow have designed, developed and fired Ouroborous-3 (ear-uh-bore-us), the first unsupported "autophage" (aa-taa-fuh-j) rocket engine that eats parts of its own body for fuel.
The concept seems futuristic, but the idea is actually nearly 100 years old. The hope is the rocket engine can fly far beyond the Earth's atmosphere and make the United Kingdom a larger player in the space industry.
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Last week, Boeing subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences started work on phase three of a DARPA project to make a full-scale X-plane, the X-65, which could change aircraft design as we know it.
Well, the X-65 isn't the only experimental aircraft under Boeing's wing. This week, the airplane maker started modifying an MD-90 aircraft, including removing the engines and taking 3D scans. The project is part of the X-66 design collaboration with NASA.
After extensive modification, the MD-90 will become the X-66 Sustainable Flight Demonstrator (SFD). The X-66 is NASA's first experimental plane project focused on moving the U.S. towards net-zero aviation greenhouse gas emissions.
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An investigation into a sea vessel collision, which caused more than $6 million in damages, has determined the accident was caused by some untimely maintenance and lack of a proper lookout.
The National Transportation Safety Board this week revealed its findings after looking into the 2022 collision involving a containership and a fishing vessel. In October of that year, the MSC Rita was traveling southbound in the Atlantic when the Tremont slammed into it. The resulting damage to the Tremont’s hull caused the fishing vessel to sink. There were no injuries involved but the 13 people on board were forced to abandon ship. They were rescued by good samaritan ships and a Coast Guard helicopter.
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Hyperloop One, a transportation technology startup that focused on commercializing high-speed travel through tube-encased lines, has reportedly shut down.
Bloomberg cited an anonymous source familiar with the situation who claimed that Hyperloop had laid off most of its employees and is attempting to sell its remaining assets, including machinery and a test track. The report added that the startup closed its office in Los Angeles and set December 31 as the last date of employment for its remaining workers.
According to Bloomberg’s source, Hyperloop will transfer its intellectual property to DP World, a logistics company with a majority stake in the startup.
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When Wilbur and Orville Wright successfully flew the first controllable aircraft in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the 12-second flight was achieved using wind warping, a system of movable, external control surfaces that nearly every aircraft has used for flight control since. The CRANE project from DARPA and Aurora Flight Sciences could change everything we know about modern flight.
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In March, Stellantis idled its plant in Belvidere, Illinois, as part of a transition from internal combustion to EVs. At the time, CEO Brad Tavares said Stellantis needed to "adapt to this new world," and some 1,350 workers were laid off indefinitely.
Well, about seven days before Christmas, some 165 Stellantis employees came back to work. This week, the workers returned to full-time positions, supporting operations for the company's parts and service division, Mopar.
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A joint investigation into a meat processing and packaging plant in Elk Grove, Illinois, has uncovered $3 million in back wages, damages and interest for 283 workers following violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Illinois Minimum Wage Law.
The Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division and the Illinois Office of the Attorney General discovered that deli products manufacturer Greenridge Farms Inc. paid workers a single rate for their hours worked from at least 2013 to 2022. However, the company is legally obligated to compensate its employees at a rate of time and a half for any hours over 40 in a work week.
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As the Russian war in Ukraine continues to drag on, collateral damage persists, impacting land, people and the business community.
The latest corporate victim in this saga is multinational automaker, Hyundai, who announced this week that it will sell its plant in Russia for a tremendous loss.
The Hyundai factory in St. Petersberg, which suspended operations back in March of 2022, is believed to be worth some $219 million. Company officials said they will sell it to a Russian firm for 10,000 rubles – the equivalent of about $77 U.S. dollars.
Reuters says that Hyundai is including a buyback option in the sales contract, verbiage that may enable Hyundai to return to Russia in the future.
The report adds that other foreign companies have included similar language in their deals as they’ve vacated their claim on assets in Russia.
Reuters says that Hyundai and partner brand Kia were among the top three selling auto brands in Russia before the start of the war.
Since then, as they and other global players have pulled out of the war-torn country, Chinese brands have come in to replace them.
The deal is expected to close before the end of this year.
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The International Brotherhood of Teamsters announced that members at Anheuser-Busch have voted to authorize a strike if the brewing company does not meet demands for a new contract. The vote received 99% approval.
Should the labor union and Anheuser-Busch fail to agree on a new contract by the upcoming Leap Day (February 29th), up to 5,000 workers across the company’s 12 breweries in the U.S. could go on strike.
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On Friday, the Justice Department announced a new complaint against Insect Shield and the company's late founder, Richard Lane, under the False Claims Act for allegedly submitting fake claims to the Department of Defense regarding contracts to provide Army combat uniforms. Insect Shield manufactures insect-repellent clothing technology that gives apparel invisible and odorless protection against mosquitoes, ticks, ants, flies, chiggers, and midges through 70 launderings.
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The EPA revealed that it would begin the process of prioritizing toxic chemicals used to manufacture and process plastics under the Toxic Substances Control Act.
The statutory process will last a year, during which the agency could designate the chemicals as high-priority substances. If they receive the designation, it would spark risk evaluations that could result in restrictions or outright bans.
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In yet another instance of the cost of catastrophic failure likely outweighing the cost of maintenance, a rope has racked up millions in damages after failing.
In July 2022, cargo ship Thorco Basilisk was offloading part of a wind turbine at Greensport Terminal on the Houston Ship Channel in Houston. In the process, a hoisting rope broke on the ship-mounted crane. When it did, it caused the component to fall onto the ship’s cargo tween deck, causing between $3 million and $5 million in damages to the ship and the wind turbine part.
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The last few weeks have been packed with news on electric pickups – from the delivery of the first handful of Tesla Cybertrucks to – now – news from Ford that it will be scaling back its electric version of the F-150.
Automotive News is reporting that Ford plans to reduce production of its Lightning full EV pickup by 50% starting in January. They cite a document allegedly sent to a Ford supplier expressing that the automaker will scale back its run rate from 3,200 trucks to about 1,600 trucks per week.
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Energy harvesting is a novel way to keep devices charged, primarily in remote and harsh environments. Well, it doesn't get more harsh or remote than aerial warfare, which makes a new deal between Raytheon and DARPA, the Department of Defense’s arm that invests in breakthrough technologies for national security, all the more intriguing.
Raytheon recently received a $10 million contract from the agency to design and develop "energy webs," a wireless airborne relay system that can deliver energy in contested environments.
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Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, California medical device company Decision Diagnostics (DECN) was in trouble. Keith Berman, the 70-year-old CEO of the manufacturer of low-cost home testing devices and test strips, said his company needed a "new story."
According to internal emails, he said the company needed a new narrative to "raise millions." So, he got creative, a little too creative and from February to December 2020, Berman went on a "publicity blitz," falsely claiming his company developed a 15-second test to detect COVID-19 with a finger prick sample of blood. As investors bought into the GenViro! COVID-19 Screen, Berman knew the blood-based test never existed.
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Bi-drectional charging is one of those concepts that sound really good in theory. When your power goes out, an electric vehicle with a full battery could send power back to your home, eliminating the need to waste the contents of a full refrigerator.
Up to this point, automakers have been dabbling with these capabilities and, while it isn’t exactly mainstream just yet, Volkswagen just announced some developments towards this closed loop for homeowners and EV owners alike.
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Welcome to another episode of Gen Z in Manufacturing, a podcast where I interview young workers about their jobs in the manufacturing industry and what they look for from an employer.
For this episode, I welcome Davis Latham, a 24-year-old vice president of operations at CADmore, a design and engineering company that helps customers with a range of services related to manufacturing and product development.
Latham was not specifically looking to work in the design and engineering field after graduating college. However, he ended up working for nearly three years at ZVerse, a developer of software applications that enables digital manufacturing, and served as special projects coordinator, senior manager of operations and director of business development.
Latham became vice president of operations at CADmore after it acquired and rebranded the ZVerse design business. He currently oversees all the day-to-day operations of the business, including about 30 designers and a three-person project management team. He also acts as an intermediary between the design team, the project managers and customers.
Before we hear from Latham, please make sure to like and share this episode of Gen Z in Manufacturing. If you are a member of Gen Z and would like to discuss your experience in the manufacturing industry, please contact me, Nolan Beilstein, at nolan@ien.com.
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A 69-year-old facility manager has been sentenced to 42 months in federal prison following a guilty plea for a kickback scheme that defrauded his employer of over $20 million.
According to a Department of Justice press release, Elliott Dennis Kleinman and fellow facility manager Eugene DiNoto used their management positions to launch a fraudulent billing scheme at their workplace, dubbed "Company 1" in the DOJ release.
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RemArms, the gun maker behind the Remington brand, has decided to shut down its manufacturing facility in Ilion, New York.
RemArms anticipates the plant will close in March 2024, according to a letter sent to union officials that was obtained by the Observer-Dispatch. The closure will bring to end a long relationship between Remington and the small upstate New York town. The company has been making firearms in Ilion since 1816 and, according to Fox 5, the factory has been around in some form since 1828.
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On April 29, 2022, the 600-foot-long chemical tanker, the Endo Breeze, was in the Raritan Bay between New York and New Jersey when oil spray from a fuel injector pump on the starboard main engine ignited off nearby hot surfaces and caused a fire. The crew successfully stopped the fire from spreading by removing fuel and oxygen sources and activating the vessel's fixed fire extinguishing system. However, while no pollution or injuries were reported, the blaze still caused some $1.2 million in damage.
Last week, the NTSB traced the root cause to a maintenance error. Investigators found a slight offset on the banjo tube assembly on the engine's no. 1 cylinder fuel injector pump. According to the NTSB, the engineer performing maintenance likely failed to correctly follow the manufacturer's procedure for fuel injector pump reassembly when performing maintenance a day before the fire.
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The FDA sent a warning letter to a Wisconsin chemical company, accusing it of manufacturing hand sanitizer with the same equipment used to produce automotive brake parts cleaner. The FDA contends that Brenntag Great Lakes’ actions violated Current Good Manufacturing Practice (CGMP) regulations.
The issue dates back to inspections, when the FDA alleged that Brenntag used the same equipment to make hand sanitizer and industrial chemicals. The agency asserted in its warning letter that the company stated it would stop using non-dedicated blending tank equipment to make its over-the-counter drug products. However, the FDA said the most recent inspection of the company’s facility in Menomonee Falls revealed that such a change never occurred.
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Back in September, U.S. Steel announced that it would be temporarily idling a blast furnace in Granite City, Illinois and pointed the finger at the UAW. At the time, leadership at the plant called the shutdown “risk mitigation” as the strike softened demand for steel from automotive customers.
Fast forward a few months, and the strike has been resolved but things for U.S. Steel’s Granite City facility haven’t. Recently it was revealed that the company has issued a WARN notice, citing plans to shutter steelmaking indefinitely and putting hundreds of jobs on the chopping block.
Some 265 workers were laid off when the temporary shutdown took place and now another 600 are expected to lose their jobs in January, blowing a massive hole in the workforce of 1,450 at the Granite City compound.
U.S. Steel has faced challenges in recent years, and the future of the Granite City facility, particularly, has been up in the air. The company has previously made public its interest in selling blast furnaces and was even the target of a bidding war as it struggled to gain a competitive foothold.
Because of the drama surrounding it, the stated reasoning for the initial idling of the Granite City facility back in September was met with skepticism. United Steelworkers Local 1899 President Dan Simmons reportedly said that the plant wasn’t yet feeling the effects of the auto strike, and that it would take more time and more striking workers before it would.
Likewise, local congresswoman Nikki Budzinki suggested the strike was a mere excuse for U.S. Steel, calling the effort to blame the UAW “a shameful attempt to pit working people against one another."
This week, U.S. Steel Senior Vice President & Chief Manufacturing Officer Scott Buckiso reportedly said that demand from the idled operation would be taken on at other facilities and that rolling and finishing would still take place at Granite City, using slabs sourced from other sites.
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In June 2021, firearms maker Dark Storm Industries announced plans to relocate manufacturing from New York to Titusville, Florida. The company intended to build a new 25,000-square-foot headquarters and manufacturing plant in the Sunshine State, foreseeing a capital investment of approximately $3.2 million and 87 new jobs.
However, Florida Today has reported that the company, which caters specifically to the AR platform modern sporting rifles, elected not to build a new facility and, as a result, will lose over $1 million in financial incentives.
The report cited a 300% increase in the facility’s construction costs and a “dramatic” rise in financing costs since the project’s initiation, according to Dark Storm managing partner Edward Newman. In a letter to a local government economic program, Newman explained that these factors rendered the project “no longer economically viable.”
Dark Storm planned to build the new plant on 9.8 acres that the company bought for $362,600 in 2021 at Spaceport Commerce Park. Dark Storm expected the facility to house manufacturing, warehousing and shipping operations and create 50 direct jobs with an average salary of $50,000.
However, following higher construction costs, permit delays and increased interest rates on commercial loans, Dark Storm decided not to construct the new facility. Instead, the company opted to lease manufacturing space on nearby Merritt Island. The company will use the space until it finds a “suitable existing facility.”
The county commission voted to repurchase the undeveloped area from Dark Storm for the original price and will now offer the land to other tenants.
While Dark Storm got the money back spent on the land, it will still have to forfeit $1.08 million in economic incentives. The company will also lose a 10-year deal for a 100% break on county property taxes and a seven-year deal for a 70% break on city property taxes.
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On November 13, 2022, at about 3:30 pm, a fire broke out on the bridge of the S-Trust, an oil tanker that was docked in Baton Rouge. While no one was injured, the accident caused some $3 million in damage.
According to the NTSB, the fire was traced to the thermal runaway of a cell in an ultra-high-frequency handheld radio's lithium-ion battery.
The batteries and chargers for the radios were placed on a communications table on the bridge. Luckily, the vessel's crew was able to extinguish the fire before it spread, but the S-Trust's navigation, communication and alarm systems were damaged beyond repair.
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Based in Willoughby, Ohio, Advanced RV isn't your typical small manufacturer. The company makes luxury custom motorhomes out of Mercedes cargo vans.
Last year, the company was one of some 200 companies that took part in a trial to see if a global four-day workweek was possible. Not only was it possible, but according to a recent NPR interview, the company has no intention of ever going back to the old way of doing business.
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Residents of an Irvine, California neighborhood are breathing a sigh of relief after finally reaching a conclusion to years of contentious debate over a factory.
All American Asphalt set up shop in 1993 in an area described by local news organization Voice of OC as having “nothing around it.” But as the years went by and more of the adjacent land was developed with housing, along with it came controversy.
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Gigacasting is changing the automotive industry. The technology was pioneered by Tesla and gave the EV maker a substantial lead in the EV market by cutting out several components and processes with a single press by a massive 9,000-ton machine.
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Last year, GE Appliances and Einride successfully completed a pair of pilots that employed a heavy-duty, autonomous, electric vehicle from Einride driven on public roads to move finished goods from a Monogram Refrigeration plant to a nearby warehouse in Selmer, TN. Monogram Refrigeration is a subsidiary of GE Appliances, which is owned by Chinese multinational Haier.
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After years of anticipation, Cybertruck delivery day is almost here. But anyone thinking about flipping their new electric truck for a profit better check the fine print on Tesla’s order agreement.
The automaker added some Cybertruck-only provisions to the document and they’re designed to ensure owners can’t resell their vehicles right away. The new terms forbid Cybertruck owners from selling their futuristic rides within the first year following the vehicle’s delivery date.
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In April, supermarket company Southeastern Grocers (SEG) announced a collaboration with a Canadian startup called Relocalize. The collaboration focused on a pilot ice manufacturing project that would place one of the startup’s autonomous ice for micro-factories at SEG's Jacksonville Distribution Center.
Wayne McIntyre, co-founder and CEO of Relocalize, said the startup was formed to introduce hyper-local production to food systems. It began with the concept of producing food in a container, similar to vertical farming. But after exploring various applications, McIntyre discovered that his initial concepts were not economically viable.
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An Indian factory stands accused of being the source of contaminated eye drops that have consumers on edge.
The US Food and Drug Administration recently released an alert, claiming that more than two dozen over the counter eye drop products posed potential risk to consumers.
The FDA pointed to 26 products being sold at major retailers including Target, Rite Aid and CVS, warning that it was possible these products were not, in fact, sterile. They say that applying these remedies via the eye means they can “bypass some of the body’s natural defenses.” In this case, potential bacterial contamination, the FDA says, could lead to blindness in users.
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Elon Musk’s brain implant startup Neuralink has attracted lots of criticism and skepticism but it also seems to have generated a lot of optimism for the thousands of potential patients interested in human trials.
The company earlier this year got FDA approval to begin human trials and began recruiting shortly thereafter. According to a lengthy Bloomberg profile on Neuralink, the ambitions for human brain implants start slow with 11 surgeries planned for next year, but they expand to more than 22,000 a year by 2030.
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In February 2022, a 63-year-old worker was killed at a 3M (NYSE: MMM) plant in Alexandria, Minnesota. The worker became entangled with a machine during the overnight shift.
A few months after the accident, the company assessed its equipment at U.S. and Canadian plants. According to OSHA Regional Administrator Bill Donovan, after 3M completed its investigation, it "determined powered rollers were hazards in need of safety improvement."
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There was a time when the world was heavy with anticipation for COVID vaccines and boosters — to the point where desperate consumers were lining up for their chance for an inoculation that was tantamount, for many, to a “get out of quarantine free card.”
But three years past the initial panic of the COVID-19 pandemic, and two years into mass vaccinations, things have stabilized. And while most of it is good for humankind, pharma companies at the forefront of these solutions are now facing some sluggish demand.
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Welcome to another episode of Gen Z in Manufacturing, a podcast where I interview young workers about their jobs in the manufacturing industry and what they look for from an employer.
For this episode, I welcome Max Fisher, a 25-year-old product manager at Infor, a company that provides business cloud software products specialized by industry.
Fisher began working for Infor in 2021 after graduating from Furman and Clemson. While in college, Fisher collected three bachelor’s degrees, two master’s degrees and won an ACC Championship as a member of the Clemson Tigers men’s soccer team.
Fisher has held three roles at Infor and currently manages Infor’s newly launched Enterprise Automation solution and Innovation Showcase program. In this role, Fisher combines his technical, organizational, communication and business skills to bring a product to market and grow the Infor OS business.
Much of Fisher's time is spent with other Gen Z-aged workers. He helps manage an intern program and his direct team features three recent college graduates. Communicating with workers his own age comes easily, but Fisher stressed the importance of receiving guidance, mentorship and challenges from more experienced colleagues.
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Electric vehicles are still an emerging market and price is one of the major factors still tripping up wider spread adoption. But Tesla may have a plan in place to build a much more affordable EV.
According to a report from Reuters, the U.S.-based automaker is planning production for a 25,000-euro electric vehicle at its factory near Berlin. That price would put it at just less than $27,000, considerably lower than the current average going rate.
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FN Herstal’s new Smart ProtectoR 303-T is being positioned as a less-lethal option for use by law enforcement for crowd control, riots and day-to-day patrols when avoiding lethal force is crucial. It’s designed to be accurate enough to single out individuals and built to shoot projectiles that the company said break up on impact and deliver a “highly dissuasive impact similar to a baton strike.”
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Workforce number took a hit last week when announced that it would be winding down its tire making operations in Ardmore, Oklahoma, eliminating 1,400 jobs with it.
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Marines with the Tactical Training and Exercise Control Group (TTECG), along with the Marine Air Ground Task Force Training Command (MCAGCC) and the Office of Naval Research (ONR), recently tested a quadruped robotic platform referred to as the “robotic goat.” Though it bears a slight resemblance to a goat, particularly in terms of movement, it’s actually a remote-controlled device built for multiple mission applications.
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Olin Corp, is a Clayton, Missouri-based manufacturer of chemicals, epoxy and small arms and ammunition. The company, which was founded in 1892, acquired Winchester Repeating Arms in 1931 and has grown to become a top global producer and the leading U.S. manufacturer of ammunition.
Olin supplies the Air Force and other federal agencies with small arms ammunition and, in a recent routine compliance investigation, the Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs found that from Dec. 9, 2017, through Dec. 9, 2019, the company was in violation of Executive Order 11246, which prohibits federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or national origin.
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Editor's Note: This description has been updated to reflect the fact that Cleveland-Cliffs has already spent $100 million on a new electrostatic precipitator (ESP) for its facility in Dearborn, Michigan.
Steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs faced costly modifications to an eight-year-old consent decree that was supposed to address air emissions at the company’s manufacturing plant in Dearborn, Michigan.
The consent decree involved the U.S. government, the state of Michigan and AK Steel, which Cleveland-Cliffs acquired in 2020. It required AK Steel to implement specific measures to tackle the plant’s visible air emissions. However, these actions did not elevate the plant to full Clean Air Act compliance.
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Tesla’s upcoming Cybertruck will likely go down in history as one of the more bizarre production vehicles ever to make it to market. From its angular body reminiscent of Nintendo 64 graphics, to its single, absurdly long windshield wiper blade. But before the first Cybertruck rolls off the line, Tesla CEO Elon Musk is making sure to temper investors’ excitement over his company’s latest EV.
During Tesla’s earnings call this week, Musk said there will be “enormous challenges” with scaling production and reaching cash flow positivity with the Cybertruck. He estimated the Cybertruck could take up to a year and a half before it becomes a significant cash flow contributor.
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There’s a saying in manufacturing: a solid business finds ways to work smarter, not harder.
And with the advent of industrial automation – that’s taking place at many levels.
But a recent study published in the scientific journal, "Frontiers in Robotics and AI" suggests there may be some unique gaps in this theory: they say humans who work with robots may actually be more likely to slack off while on the job.
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In late September, Superior Die Set Corporation, a fourth-generation, family-owned manufacturer of steel and aluminum products, notified the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development of its intent to close the company's plant in Oak Creek, WI.
According to Superior Die, the move comes as a result of decreased order volume, and the layoffs could happen soon. By November 20, 2023, 133 employees might be out of work. Workers, their collective bargaining reps and other local officials were notified on September 21.
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Welcome to another episode of Gen Z in Manufacturing, a podcast series in which I interview young workers about their jobs in the manufacturing industry and what they look for from an employer.
For this installment, I welcome Tomas Guillen, a 25-year-old controls engineer at Patti Engineering, a company that integrates automation, robotic and digitalization technologies in industrial facilities.
Guillen began his time at Patti as an intern and became a full-time employee in June 2022. After more than three years with Patti, his duties have grown to handling his own projects, where he is choosing the hardware, drafting the electrical design and making necessary PLC changes for an electrical panel that will be interacting with new equipment on a factory floor.
Guillen, a Texas A&M University graduate, is among a new generation of Aggie alumni in their mid to upper 20s recently hired by Patti. Guillen admitted he initially had no knowledge of controls engineering as a career and thought he needed extensive extensive expertise for first job. However, Patti's emphasis was on adaptability and problem-solving. As a result, Guillen advises manufacturing employers to assure young workers that, while knowledge is valuable, they prioritize their ability to handle challenges.
In this episode, Guillen discusses:
- His journey to becoming a controls engineer. (1:00)
- What drew him to Patti Engineering and what made him want to stay. (2:49)
- The projects and responsibilities that come with his job. (4:18)
- The age range of workers at Patti Engineering. (5:51)
- How Patti Engineering has been able to attract Gen Z talent. (6:31)
- Handling his own project. (7:09)
- Challenges that come with handling a project. (8:16)
- What kind of mentorship and guidance he has received. (8:55)
- Developing administrative skills. (10:01)
- Tension between generations. (10:59)
- How manufacturers can attract and retain Gen Z workers. (11:57)
- How employers can bridge the generational gap. (13:06)
- How Gen Z can contribute to manufacturing and controls engineering. (14:26)
Please make sure to like and share this episode of Gen Z in Manufacturing. If you are a member of Gen Z and would like to discuss your experience in the manufacturing industry, please contact Nolan Beilstein at nolan@ien.com.
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Though Modelo jumped into the top spot as America's best-selling beer, other brands are also seeing explosive growth. The beer rush has caused DG Yuengling & Son to continue selling out, and it's now America's fourth fastest-growing beer brand.
According to a new report from the New York Post, sales have spiked 22% for the company through early last month, and that's with distribution in only half of the country — Yuengling is only sold in 26 states, though it is certainly craved by more.
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Lordstown Motors is back in the headlines as some familiar faces have reentered the picture three months after the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
According to an SEC filing, when Lordstown began voluntary proceedings under Chapter 11 in June, the company’s “selling entities” approved an auction to sell the company’s assets.
The bankruptcy court approved the bidding procedures, and the selling entities received a qualifying bid from a limited liability company called LAS Capital. LAS Capital has no affiliation with Lordstown Motors. It was, however, founded by Lordstown’s founder and former CEO Steve Burns. Former Lordstown CFO Julio Rodriguez is also reportedly involved as the sellers are also considering him an indirect manager of LAS Capital.
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A solar cell manufacturing facility in Georgia that closed its doors several years back has apparently been down this whole time, but not out.
Solar manufacturing company Suniva has announced plans to reopen a facility in Norcross, Georgia it idled in 2017 prior to a bankruptcy filing. The company also closed a Michigan plant during the same period.
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Mansfield Plumbing Products has a 94-year legacy in Perrysville, Ohio. Founded in 1929, the company is the fourth-largest employer in the county and makes toilets and sinks.
According to the Mansfield News Journal, the company recently announced plans to close the factory on December 31, 2023, cutting some 277 employees in the process; about 220 are represented by the Teamsters.
The company says severance and health insurance will be available to impacted employees, though it is based on tenure and seniority. Mansfield Plumbing hopes to offer job replacement services as well.
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According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the U.S. coal industry will see nearly a quarter of its operating plants sunset by the end of the decade – a pace that EIA says is actually slower than the aggressive closure activity of the decade before.
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According to Bloomberg, Tesla – who has been cutting prices incrementally on its electrics for the better part of a year – has reached a new low. And that’s not bad news for customers, who can now buy a Tesla for the same amount, or less than, the average price of a gasoline powered car.
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If you’ve shopped around for a new vehicle lately, you know that prices are crazy. Recent analysis from Kelley Blue Book puts the average new vehicle price in the U.S. at around $48,000. That’s up only $199 from one year ago, but it’s considerably higher than the pre-pandemic average of around $38,000.
Kia has apparently noticed this too and took current consumer costs into consideration when deciding the starting price for its upcoming 2024 Kia EV9, the automaker’s first three-row electric SUV. The EV9 will come standard with DC fast charging, leather interior, 19-inch alloy wheels, heated seats and space for up to seven passengers, starting at $54,900.
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The new car market has been the scene of a ton of drama over the last few years, and when you pair scarcity with demand, the creative solutions tend to flow.
For some high demand vehicle models, that has resulted in an active resale market – so much so that automakers have had to apply preventative measures to stop individuals from reselling new vehicles for a profit.
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Perhaps one of the brand names most associated with its home state of Pennsylvania, Utz potato chips are legendary, therefore the latest company news might make locals feel a little salty – Utz says it plans to close its oldest plant, the Carlisle Street factory in Hannover, PA.
In a bid to “support volume growth and reduce costs,” Utz has announced its lowest volume plant, which currently produces kettle chips for the company’s Utz, Grandma Utz, and Zapp’s brands will close in early 2024 after nearly 75 years.
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Boeing, one of the most recognizable names in the aerospace industry, is out millions and has some egg on its face after it was caught not fully complying with all manufacturing specifications for one if its U.S. Navy contracts.
The company has long held a contract to manufacture the V-22 Osprey, a vertical takeoff and landing military aircraft. According to the U.S. Justice Department, Boeing from 2007 to 2018 failed to adhere to agreed upon standards for the fabrication of composite components.
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The International Space Station launched in 1998 and since then it has served as an important research facility for multiple nations. The old ISS still has some good years left but space agencies are already planning for its demise.
The ISS is scheduled to be deorbited beginning in 2030. Considering it weighs nearly 1 million pounds, it’s a heavy task. As New Atlas points out, the ISS can’t simply be pushed to a higher orbit because it would take too much energy to do so and the process would likely cause the ISS to break apart. It’s also too large and complex to easily disassemble while still in orbit.
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Honda’s latest project sees the automaker partnering with its local dealer associations to produce small, electric ride-on vehicles that will be distributed to children’s hospitals throughout the U.S.
The Shogo, which gets its name from a Japanese phrase meaning “soaring into the future,” is a sleek little battery-powered racer that can cruise through the hallways at speeds between 1 and 5 miles per hour. The company said 60 of these vehicles are being built by Honda Performance Development (HPD), which is the center for Honda's North American racing activities.
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St. Peter, MN – a town of about 12,000 people – is home to the headquarters of one of the oldest operating boat manufacturers in the United States.
While the Alumacraft name is well known on the recreational hunting and fishing scene, the latest news from the company isn’t fun – Alumacraft parent BRP has announced it will lay off 68 workers at its St. Peter plant.
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The Department of Labor has revealed the findings of an OSHA investigation that discovered a concrete pipe manufacturer could have prevented an incident at one of its job sites in Florida.
According to OSHA, in March, two employees of Foley Products Company climbed inside a concrete mixer to remove hardened concrete. But as one of the workers exited the mixer, the machine restarted with the second worker still inside. That worker, whose identity has not been disclosed, was killed.
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Toyota wants to achieve annual electric vehicle sales of 3.5 million by the end of the decade. To accomplish this goal, the automaker is looking to cut its plant investment, production processes, and manufacturing preparation lead time in half.
Recently, reporters were given a glimpse of the company’s technology poised to drive this transformation. According to Nikkei Asia, Toyota unveiled a prototype of its new gigacasting equipment capable of producing a third of a car body in approximately three minutes.
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New challenges are facing an already tenuous market for semiconductors as China is making some changes in the name of national security.
As a key exporter of certain rare earth minerals that are critical to the production of some computer chips and solar panels, China holds the cards to a burgeoning market where semiconductors serve as the base of many electrical and electronic products.
But instead of selling them on the global market, China has pulled back. The country is reportedly responsible for the production of 80% of the world’s gallium and about 60% of germanium, says CNN - who cites the Critical Raw Materials Alliance. But recent curbs in the name of national security meant China exported none of it in the month of August.
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A space factory designed to manufacture pharmaceuticals while in orbit around Earth will now be hanging out off planet a little longer than expected.
That’s because the U.S. Air Force denied Varda Space Industries’ request for re-entry, according to TechCrunch, which said the company asked for permission to land a capsule at a Utah training facility. The report said the Federal Aviation Administration also denied Varda’s application for a commercial space license.
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Agility Robotics yesterday announced plans to open RoboFab, a robot manufacturing facility in Salem, Oregon. The company behind the bipedal Digit isn't just making a few of these things; they plan to produce more than 10,000 robots per year. So, let's see, according to the National Association of Manufacturers, we'll have 2.1 million unfilled jobs by 2030—I'm not sure that we're going to make it.
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The Department of Justice announced that Navmar Applied Sciences Corporation, an engineering and technical services provider, will pay $4.4 million to settle allegations of False Claims Act violations.
Between 2010 and 2012, the Department of the Navy granted contracts to Navmar related to the supply of enhanced intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems, hardware, maintenance technical support services and the development and deployment of various advanced sensors and unmanned aerial systems.
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In July, Tesla announced that its first production Cybertruck electric pickup rolled off the assembly line, nearly four years after its initial unveiling and two years behind the original timetable.
As the long-anticipated vehicle approaches its scheduled delivery expected this quarter, reports have emerged of prototypes spotted charging, what the vehicle’s “frunk” and interior look like and how it fared in a ditch rollover crash test.
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Ford this week unveiled the 2024 F-150 and eagle-eyed observers noticed a subtle change to the automaker’s iconic blue oval that came along with it.
Car and Driver noticed that the new logo removed the smaller silver oval on the inside of the badge. The outer border of the oval and the lettering are also now white instead of chrome. The publication confirmed the changes with Rob Brancheau, who serves as senior designer for colors and materials at Ford.
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In March 2022, an Air Starter Components Inc. worker in Texas suffered a finger amputation. The incident occurred when the worker's hand became caught in a polishing machine that did not have the required machine safety guards.
One year later, OSHA returned to the scene to conduct a follow-up investigation and determine if the manufacturer of air starters and other engine components and parts corrected the safety hazards.
An extreme runner is in a bit of trouble following an ocean voyage. The runner, Reza Baluchi, was trying to traverse the Atlantic Ocean in a structure that resembles an adult-sized hamster wheel when the U.S. Coast Guard spotted him.
According to a criminal complaint, the Coast Guard found Baluchi while transiting the Atlantic Ocean 70 nautical miles off the coast of Georgia in preparation for Hurricane Franklin. The officers saw Baluchi’s “Hydro Pod vessel” and later deemed that Baluchi was conducting a manifestly unsafe voyage when they discovered his vessel was afloat as a result of wiring and buoys.
It turns out a lack of ambition sunk the “Ambition,” a crane barge that was declared a total loss after capsizing in the Gulf of Mexico last year.
The Ambition was being towed when it sank on June 15, 2022 and released nearly 2,000 gallons of oil. The vessel, owned by Rigid Constructors, was a $6.3 million loss. Results from a recent National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation blamed the accident on failure to properly inspect and maintain the barge.
The CEO of EV startup Lucid Motors had a really good year in 2022. A new CEO compensation survey from Automotive News and Equilar says the head of the luxury EV company's compensation package is valued at more than a third of a billion dollars.
Peter Rawlinson's base salary, at $575,000, is reasonable. He also took home $5.5 million in stock options and some $373 million in stock awards. The total tally is about $379 million — not a bad year at all.
Toyota suffered a major production setback last month when it had to shut down all 28 vehicle assembly lines at all 14 of its automotive plants in Japan. The company is now saying that this bad memory was caused by a lack of memory.
According to the Guardian, Toyota said the August 29 production stoppage occurred after “insufficient disk space” caused a system malfunction following a standard maintenance procedure. In a statement, the automaker said “data that had accumulated in the database was deleted and organized, and an error occurred due to insufficient disk space, causing the system to stop.” The data was transferred to a different server with more capacity, allowing production to start back up the next day.
Automatic speaker identification has gained popularity in security applications due to its proficiency in detecting and countering fraudulent attempts to mimic a user’s voice through digital manipulation.
However, digital security engineers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison discovered that these systems have a weakness when facing a novel analog attack. According to the team, speaking through customized PVC pipes can fool machine learning algorithms supporting automatic speaker identification systems.
One of the biggest appliance manufacturers in the country, with nine U.S. factories including five in Ohio, is out millions after mishandling a serious defect with some of its products.
Whirlpool, which is based in Benton Harbor, Michigan, has agreed to pay an $11.5 million civil settlement. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the company failed to immediately report issues with 17 models of its JennAir, KitchenAid, and Whirlpool brand electric radiant heat cooktops. The appliances contained a defect that made them turn on by themselves, creating a serious risk for fire and injury.
The Lanzador features many design aspects that tie back to its legacy but it also differs from many other Lamborghinis by riding higher off the ground – likely making it a lot easier to get in and out of. According to CNN, the Lanzador will offer 1,300 horsepower but since it won’t have a gas engine behind the seats, it can provide optional seating for up to four. The extra seats can also be folded up so the rear space can be used for cargo.
On August 7, Ford CEO Jim Farley announced on LinkedIn that he would take a road trip across the American West in the automaker’s F-150 Lightning.
Farley explained that the purpose of the trip was to visit researchers, businesses, dealers, salespeople, EV conversion shops and EV drivers to gain insights that could advance Ford’s electric vehicle division. Highlights on the tour included stops in Silicon Valley, Los Angeles and Las Vegas and an encounter with actor Dwayne Johnson.
On Tuesday, VinFast went public after merging with a blank check company called Black Spade Acquisition. Motley Fool calls VinFast “a small electric vehicle manufacturer with large ambitions” and it’s just how large and attainable those ambitions are that investors can’t seem to agree on.
Auto News is reporting that Mitsubishi is looking to eliminate the Mirage from its lineup – most notable for being the only vehicle Cox Automotive says transacted for under $20,000 new last month.
With a starting price of just $17,340 – including shipping – the Mirage has offered entry to the new car market during a time period where the average new vehicle sells for a stunning $48,000.
On Monday, Deere & Company announced plans to build a new 115,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in North Carolina. According to the company, the new factory will expand production capacity for Kreisel Electric products, namely battery technology for e-mobility and stationary systems, as well as Level 3 charging solutions. If you recall, John Deere bought a majority ownership stake in the Austrian company in February 2022.
OSHA released its findings from a federal workplace safety investigation into a metal plant explosion that an agency official called "entirely preventable."
The incident at the I. Schumann & Co. foundry in Bedford, Ohio, last February resulted in a maintenance supervisor's death and injured 15 other workers. Now, the company is facing six serious violations and $62,500 in proposed penalties.
A train collision last year that killed four has been blamed on design faults in a railroad crossing.
The National Transportation Safety Board this week released findings from its investigation into a 2022 collision involving an Amtrak train and a dump truck. The truck driver and three train passengers were killed in the accident and another 146 train passengers and crew were injured. The accident caused both of the Amtrak’s engines and all eight of its rail cars to derail.
They’re calling it a “consolidation” but what it amounts to illustrates the massive shift in consumer auto preferences that’s taken place over the last few decades.
Autocar UK is reporting that Volvo has killed sedans and wagons in the UK, as slumping sales in those models have led the Swedish automaker to a crossover- and SUV-only offering.
If you look back at Volvo, it’s fair to say that the company likes to strike when the iron is hot. When its competitors were revealing longer and slower timelines as they dipped a toe into the fully electric market, Volvo went all in: committing to be an electric-only company by 2030.
Sinister Diesel, a California-based truck parts manufacturer, has been slapped with a heavy fine for selling devices that defeat a vehicle’s emissions controls.
For 10 years, Sinister manufactured and sold “delete devices” or “defeat devices” that allow vehicles like diesel trucks to dramatically increase the amount of pollutants they put in the air. The practice, often referred to as “rolling coal,” can cause engines to emit massive black clouds of exhaust fumes.
According to the U.S. Justice Department, Sinister also sold “delete kits” that sometimes came bundled with “delete tunes,” third-party software that can make a vehicle with defeated emissions controls appear to run normally. The company is also accused of advising customers on the deleting process and on how to get around state emissions tests.
Drawing inspiration from Seinfeld’s Kramer and Newman, a family that operated recycling centers in California attempted to capitalize on the state's beverage container recycling program.
According to a statement from the office of California's Attorney General Rob Bonta, during an eight-month period, the eight family members brought some 178 tons of aluminum cans and plastic bottles from Arizona to undocumented lots in Riverside County, California.
The Ohio based EV company recently revealed that a partnership with Foxconn that intended to save it would actually result in bankruptcy.
But it’s how quickly that bankruptcy is permitted to take place that’s now the issue at hand.
After a fumbling Lordstown took a lifeline from Taiwan-based electronics company Foxconn, it was with the plan that two partners would advance the development and production of the Lordstown Endurance pickup truck. Instead, a disagreement between the two sides over funding led to a public spat, some lawsuits and, ultimately, Lordstown’s filing for Chapter 11.
Fuell’s vision for the Fllow was to “put freedom, technology and emotion back into urban travel.” To accomplish this vision, Fuell sought to reinvent a comfortable ride with powerful acceleration in an urban environment with pollution constraints.
According to Fuell, the Fllow has the luggage capacity and practicality of a large scooter but appears and handles more like a mid-size motorcycle.
Electrical features include a patent-pending axially integrated transverse flux motor integrated into the rear wheel, a battery pack integrated into the chassis and the ability to update battery packs for new technologies.
Anheuser-Busch yesterday announced plans to cut hundreds of jobs at the beer maker. Frontline staff won't be impacted, so brewery and warehouse workers as well as field sales and drivers are safe.
According to CNN, the company is laying off less than 2% of employees, primarily corporate staff, in an effort to "simplify" the organization. The company has some 19,000 employees in the U.S., so 2% works out to about 380 jobs.
A NASA employee working within the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is facing charges that he fraudulently obtained COVID-19 relief funds and used the money in part to fund an illegal cannabis growing operation.
Armen Hovanesian, a cost-control and budget-planning resource analyst for the JPL, allegedly submitted three loan applications in 2020 for businesses he controlled. Those funds from the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program are intended to help small businesses, renters, and homeowners in regions affected by declared disasters, like the COVID-19 pandemic.
For this episode, I welcome Kyle Goodman, a 23-year-old project engineer at Buffalo Manufacturing Works, a non-profit R&D organization, operated by engineering consultancy EWI, that helps small and medium manufacturers understand and implement new automation technologies.
In this episode, Kyle and I discuss how his experience with cobots in internships brought him to his current position, why his company’s type of work attracted him to the job and the role Gen Z can play in the development of cobots.
The timeline of the ill-fated Stanley Black & Decker plant in Fort Worth, Texas, once tasked with manufacturing mechanics tools under the Craftsman brand, lasted about six years.
In 2017, Stanley bought the Craftsman brand from Sears for about $900 million. Two years later, the company broke ground on the 425,000-square-foot manufacturing plant.
Efforts on behalf of the federal government to boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing have taken the form of the CHIPS & Science Act, which provides billions in funding to bolster capacity, boost R&D, add regional high-tech hubs and facilitate a larger, more inclusive STEM workforce.
And while this legislation is credited for the wave of greenfield investment in chip plants that’s followed, it hasn’t been able to remove every barrier.
At one point, the Franco-British Concorde provided commercial supersonic air travel. But factors including noise, expense and a fatal crash ultimately led to the aircraft’s retirement in 2003.
The historic plane could move faster than Mach 2 and once traveled from New York City to London in under three hours. Its capabilities still intrigue the aerospace industry today, and NASA and Lockheed Martin are looking to make supersonic flight over land possible once again.
Building on the X-1, the first plane to fly faster than the speed of sound back in 1947, NASA and Lockheed Martin have been constructing the X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology (Quesst) aircraft since 2018.
Earlier this month, the agency released photos of the X-59 near a runway at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale, California, indicating the aircraft has moved from its construction site and is nearing its first flight.
On January 11, 2023, a 21-year-old new employee was being trained at the Missouri Mats sawmill in Brashear, Missouri, when he was caught and pulled into the vertical edger blades of a Hurdle saw. The worker had been on the job less than a month and was fatally injured in the industrial accident. Missouri Mats cuts lumber products that are used in various industries.
According to OSHA, company owner Don Gibson failed to report the fatality, delaying the OSHA investigation an entire week. During the visit, OSHA investigators told Gibson to protect employees from amputation hazards and directed him to report when the safety hazard had been corrected.
The inspectors returned two months later and found that Gibson not only failed to implement new safety measures but had workers operating the saw in the same way that led to the young worker's demise. Inspectors also discovered that Missori Mats knew sawmill operators let the vertical edger continue to spin while inspecting the machine. Still, the company didn't re-train workers to use the machine safely or change the SOP. The machine is large enough to cut full logs.
As a result, OSHA placed an imminent danger notice on the saw, which is only used in extreme safety cases. The posting alerts workers to the threat, and OSHA can also have a federal court order the employer to eliminate the problem. After the notice, the sawmill's owner finally made a change and fixed the safety failure.
OSHA has placed Missouri Mats in the Severe Violator Enforcement Program and cited the company for two willful, 53 serious and two other-than-serious safety and health violations. The company faces $346,954 in proposed penalties for lack of machine guards, inadequate lockout/tagout, fall hazards, insufficient training, exposure to electrical hazards and other safety violations.
During the investigation, OSHA also witnessed underage workers operating heavy-powered industrial trucks.
Unfortunately, this isn't the first time a company helmed by Gibson failed to comply with federal workplace safety laws. In 2012, OSHA investigated a death at a logging site operated by Gibson, as well as a sawmill he owned in Arbela, Missouri.
When you’re dipping into a big bowl of guacamole, you’re likely not thinking about the tedious labor that went into making it. Before you can enjoy an avocado-based dip, someone has to core, peel and slice the actual avocados. Chipotle workers, however, may soon get to hand off that thankless work to an unsuspecting robot.
The fast casual chain is currently testing Autocado, a prototype avocado processing robot that handles the time-consuming prep work before a Chipotle employee mashes the avocados by hand. The machine, which can hold up to 25 pounds of avocados, has the potential to cut in half the amount of time it currently takes Chipotle employees to make a batch of guacamole.
A paint booth is a volatile environment due to all the small, flammable particles that just need a little ignition to start a fire or cause an explosion. Fire hazards, exposed motors or circuitry, and insufficient ventilation can all spark serious events. But ABB’s IRB 5510 paint robot helps make sure that doesn’t happen by being “explosion proof.”
That’s how Israel Garcia, an applications engineer within the Robotics Business Unit at ABB, described it at a recent Formula-e race in Portland, Oregon. ABB, the title sponsor and official charging partner for the all-electric Formula-e racing circuit, set up a large outdoor booth at the event to show off its paint robot.
Garcia said the IRB 5510 earns its explosion-proof designation by maintaining positive pressure inside the robot to ensure that no particles ever get in, and by closing off any open spaces that appear on the company’s other similar robots. It allows the paint robot to slot into a production line in a factory setting and maintain high safety standards.
When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the conflict sparked debate over whether manufacturers caught in the midst of battle should stay, sell or shutter operations.
On Sunday, Russia seized control of a pair of major food manufacturers, including the French yogurt maker Danone subsidiary and a local brewer owned by Danish outfit Carlsberg.
According to Reuters, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree that said foreign-owned stakes in Danone and Baltika Breweries would be put under "temporary management" of the Russian government.
In the debut episode, I spoke to Seyi Oluwashina, a 25-year-old employee of Siemens who discussed what drew him to his company, the mindset of Gen Z-ers in manufacturing and how manufacturers can attract more young workers.
In this episode, I welcome Sevann Bignon, a 23-year-old process improvement specialist at DeAngelo Marine Exhaust in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Bignon admits joining a manufacturing firm was not on his radar as he studied management and business law at the University of Miami.
But after a college mentor told him about a manufacturer that was looking to build a culture that utilized process improvement strategies, Bignon found himself working for a marine metals fabricator, where he spends most of his time on the production floor trying to increase capacity and streamline the company’s process.
According to Bignon, the majority of DeAngelo’s employees are 40 to 60 years old with the exception of a handful under 30, and he said it can be interesting seeing how the different generations interact.
The Charging Interface Initiative (CharIN), which is the industry association driving adoption of the Combined Charging System (CCS) and the Megawatt Charging System (MCS) platforms, has come out in opposition to Ford and Tesla’s recently announced agreement that will open Tesla’s EV charging station network up to Ford’s lineup of EVs.
The deal will allow Ford’s electric vehicles to use Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) Proprietary Network, which CharIN believes could result in market fragmentation.
“CharIN supports global standards and defines the requirements based on the input of its international members. CCS is the global standard and therefore focuses on international interoperability and, unlike NACS, is future-proofed to support many other use cases beyond public DC fast charging,” the association said in a statement. “Early, unconsolidated announcements of changes create uncertainty in the industry and lead to investment obstacles.”
CharIN also lamented the agreement’s need for adaptors, at least early on, which it said could result in a negative impact on the handling of charging equipment and, therefore the user experience, coupled with an increased probability of faults, and effects on the functional safety.
For the time being, Ford EVs will need an adaptor to use Tesla’s chargers. But Ford CEO Jim Farley said his company will switch over to Tesla’s NACS connectors for its second-generation of EVs beginning in 2025.
Ford and Tesla praised their charging pact as a “huge move for our industry and for all electric customers.” Tesla has also been working on opening its charging network to automakers other than Ford.
But CharIN said the industry’s focus should be on CCS.
“Abandoning open standards for proprietary standards will inevitably lead to further consumer confusion and delay EV adoption. CCS has gone through many years of rigorous standardization processes, which is a required activity for any new standard proposal. After a decade of collaborative work, the domestic and international EV industry has aligned around CCS,” the association said.
A 2021 study by Deloitte and The Manufacturing Institute projects the manufacturing skills gap in the U.S. could result in 2.1 million unfilled jobs by 2030.
Fortunately, manufacturing companies can alleviate the issue by drawing from a large pool of talent known as Generation Z, the oldest members of which are turning 26 this year.
However, a gap in age also comes with a gap in mindsets and manufacturers have struggled to accommodate the youngest generation of workers. Combine that with misconceptions about Gen Z, such as, “They don’t want to work hard” or “They just want the easy way out.”
Could it be that they just want to work differently?
In this “Gen Z in Manufacturing” interview, Seyi Oluwashina, a 25-year-old employee at Siemens, discussed his transition from an intern to full-time at Siemens, the aspects of the company that made him want to stay, the mindset of Gen Z-ers in manufacturing and how manufacturers can adapt to attract more talent from the younger demographic.
A Reshoring Initiative report estimates that companies bringing operations back to the U.S. helped to create up to 350,000 new jobs in 2022.
Dr. Matthew Putman, the CEO of Nanotronics, supports reshoring but encourages companies to consider transforming manufacturing.
"If you see a lot of the initiatives right now to bring manufacturing to the U.S., they are $100 billion or $80 billion," Putman said. "These huge proposals are thought to be what's required for NextGen manufacturing. I think that manufacturing could be much less expensive. You can do a lot more distributed, smaller manufacturing because of major advances that have been made in software such as artificial intelligence."
AI has become more creative. Putman cited advancements such as ChatGPT, a chatbot that generates text, and DeepMind, an AI engine that defeated a professional human in Go, an abstract strategy board game.
"What if a manufacturing facility could ask a question of artificial intelligence to win the game of producing the best product?" Putman asked.
Putman stresses that this would not involve brand new technology or engineering.
"This is the real exciting promise because it's completely software," Putman said. "Humans are now the creative force that is trying to optimize for new products that they would like to see in the world, new advances and new technologies rather than those that are doing the laborious tasks. It's just a new way of looking at manufacturing in general."
While portions of AI practices are being used, Putman believes the full realization is still a few years away. But Putman's company, Nanotronics, is already using the capabilities.
Nanotronics is an advanced machines and intelligence company that helps customers solve unique inspection and process control challenges for precision manufacturing.
"We built a factory in nine months that was able to produce everything from medical devices to factory instrumentation by using prefab techniques and our own AI algorithms," Putman said. "We're starting to build these in places in the United States and around the world."
Terms like automation and AI can catch the attention of factory workers concerned about machines replacing their jobs. However, Putman said the technological advancements he promotes would add jobs.
"Factory work now is high tech work," Putman said. "[In] a machine shop, especially a machine shop that uses artificial intelligence, you're spending time at monitors and stations as much as you are actually cutting things physically because you're collaborating with a robot and with an AI.
"There are new skills to be learned, but those skills don't require Ph.D. education. They're skills that can be learned on the job. They're skills that require a new type of training education that companies can provide. Or we can look at a new way of doing trade education."
Putman said Nanotronics proves the effectiveness of AI internally and uses it as an example for its 250 global customers in industries such as biomedical, semiconductor and aerospace.
For example, Nanotronics uses artificial intelligence for manual assembly and has an AI agent guide humans to assemble more precisely.
Additionally, Nanotronics' customers will use AI in their control systems and be able to identify problems. As a result, the company can correct the problems based on predictions instead of issues that have already happened.
"[It's] making the ultimate AI forecasting of what's going to occur rather than what has already occurred," Putman said. "Internally, we use this technology for everything from assembly to machining."
Putman has wanted to implement AI in manufacturing operations for about 11 years. He
Stalled contract talks between railway companies and its workers have been causing concerns over a major rail strike.
Railway companies say halting rail service would cause a $2 billion-per-day economic hit. However, a bill passed by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden that bound workers and rail companies to a proposed settlement avoided an economically devastating strike.
The bill's passing comes after a third of the involved unions rejected the settlement brokered by the Biden administration, which created the possibility of a strike on December 9.
According to Dr. Ethan Karp, President and CEO of business management consulting company Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network (MAGNET), it would not have taken long for the effects to trickle through the economy.
Karp explained how Rust Belt food, fuel, cars and chemicals manufacturers only have a few days' worth of raw materials and space for finished goods and that the effects of a strike would be passed along to their customers.
"For those companies relying on daily shipments, production would have halted," Karp said. "Soon after, all production would have halted because shipping anywhere would become prohibitively expensive."
Most shipping eventually relies on rail, and with freight coming to a halt, the pressure would fall on truckers to pick up the inactivity. However, the trucking industry wouldn’t be able to pick up the slack, especially with the truck driver shortage.
"There aren't enough truck drivers to substitute even if the skyrocketing prices of transport were overcome," Karp said. "This is a major reason there is a law for Congress to intervene and why it happens every time."
Karp is a trained scientist in physics, chemistry and biology and has spent years working to solve complex business problems at McKinsey and Company. For the past eight years, Karp has applied his technical and business experience to building a regional effort to build a preeminent center for manufacturing innovation in Northeast Ohio.
The previous two years have presented several manufacturing disruptions, and Karp sees common trends.
"Each one — COVID shutdowns, Texas freeze of chemical companies, canal blockages, geopolitical uncertainty and disruption — have had the same effect: inflation and delays in production," Karp said. "This strike might have been worse than all of these combined, but not different. Finely tuned manufacturing lines require everything to work perfectly to deliver complex, integrated production perfectly each time."
Every time a disruption occurs, many ask how to prevent it and prepare for future problems. Karp recommends local supply and having stock on hand.
"Both of these come at a cost premium and may not be worth it unless the law changes," Karp said. "The ramifications of stopping trains for any length of time are so incredible; it is a small risk today for the cost. Focusing instead on more North America production is incredibly important because a much more likely scenario is disruption from countries like China, something we have already seen in the last two years with their zero COVID policies."
Former employees of Florida’s only lead smelter allege their workplace exposed them to dangerous levels of lead dust and other toxic chemicals.
Gopher Resource is defending against several lawsuits that involve dozens of former workers and their family members – the most recent of which was filed just last week.
The latest complaint contends that Gopher’s Tampa factory was often so full of lead dust that the accumulated material looked like “piles of dirt.” The workers reportedly say that they took the material into their cars and homes and exposed their children and families to potential neurotoxins.
Workers in the suits add that the company gave them respirators, but they would become loose after wear because of perspiration on workers skin, thus interfering with their effectiveness.
The complaint adds that the workers were not evaluated medically by their employer, nor were they made fully aware of the dangers of the exposures they faced on a daily basis.
A separate complaint alleges workers’ exposure to harmful substances outside of just lead, including arsenic and cadmium. They say the exposure, for some, led to “cancer, kidney damage, high blood pressure, cognitive disorders, memory loss, anemia and breathing problems,” according to the Tampa Bay Times.
The Times embarked on an investigation of allegations at the Gopher Resource plant and alleged that the factory used a ventilation system for years that wasn’t functioning properly. Tampa Bay Times also claims that “air-lead readings inside some parts of the plant were regularly hundreds of times above the federal limit.”
With Tesla, SpaceX and Twitter also on his plate, Elon Musk's The Boring Company is the lesser known of the billionaire's big swings, but one that promised to upend traditional infrastructure. The company was born with a tweet in 2016 when Musk said he was sick of traffic. He bought a tunnel-boring machine and started digging. At the time, it seemed like a publicity stunt, but then he actually did it.
The company has made some splashy news, particularly its unconventional fundraising tactics like selling flamethrowers and perfume that smells like burnt hair. But, according to a new report in the Wall Street Journal, the new perfume isn't the only bit of Boring business that smells funny.
Apparently, the company has a history of making promises it can't keep. The article details a number of times Boring stepped in to play hero to an ailing infrastructure project, only to back out when it came to signing on the dotted line.
For example, in January 2020, officials in Ontario, California, were looking to build a light rail connection from Ontario International Airport to a train station four miles away. The project was looking at a $1 billion price tag. Boring stepped in, unsolicited, and offered to make the connection with an underground tunnel and autonomous EVs for $45 million. But, when it came time to formalize the deal, Boring balked and ghosted the community — the $500 million cost projection as of 2021 may have had something to do with it.
According to the Journal, Boring has done the same in Chicago, L.A. and Maryland. Officials say that part of the problem is that Boring struggles with bureaucracy, like permits and environmental reviews.
The company's lone functioning tunnel is a 1.6-mile loop under the Las Vegas Convention Center that one IEN colleague recently described as a "gimmick."
Still, it's possible that while the tunneling technology isn't there yet, the company's prospects still hold promise. And Boring still has its true believers. In the spring, the company raised some $675 million in funds that valued the company around $5.7 billion, which is nothing to sniff at.
When the Rimac Nevera was first revealed in 2018 at the Geneva Motor Show, the company set a bonkers top speed target for its new hypercar. But now the vehicle has hit its goal by going ridiculously fast.
Rimac just announced that it was able to get the Nevera up to 412 kilometers per hour (or 258 miles per hour) during a recent test run at the Automotive Testing Papenburg track in Germany. Miro Zrnčević, Rimac’s Chief Test and Development Driver, was behind the wheel and accurately described the experience as traveling at one third the speed of sound. Or, to put it in American sports terms, it’s like traveling one football field per second.
To push the car to that limit, the Rimac Nevera was configured in top speed mode, an aerodynamic profile that achieves the suitable mix of drag and downforce. The hypercar also needed Michelin Cup 2R tires, which the company assured were “road legal,” and a test track with four-kilometer straightaways.
The Nevera earns its hypercar status with eye-popping specs like 1,914 horsepower and the ability to go from 0-60 miles per hour in only 1.85 seconds. Rimac is currently manufacturing the Nevera at its facility in Croatia and it has already delivered some to customers.
The bad news for buyers, besides the $2.1 million price tag, is that the Nevera is delivered to customers only capable of a top speed of 218 miles per hour, which is barely fast enough to eat breakfast in New York City and then make it to Los Angeles in time for dinner. However, Rimac said its team would help boost a Nevera to its real top speed during special customer events under controlled conditions if anyone’s interested.
Many of the industry’s titans have announced thousands of layoffs amid a changing economic landscape and some extremely company-specific turbulence: the shifting e-commerce sector affecting Amazon, Facebook’s various metaverse issues, and whatever’s going on at Elon Musk’s Twitter, to name a few.
But although it’s never fun losing a job, on the bright side, there’s certainly no shortage of companies that could use skilled software engineers and other tech experts.
One of those companies went so far as to set up a new website specifically targeting any recently displaced tech workers who might want to try out a new, quite different industry.
Jaguar Land Rover hopes that hundreds of newly jobless tech workers could help it develop and build its new fleet of electric vehicles.
The iconic British automaker, now owned by Indian carmaker Tata, set up a new job portal seeking applicants for 800 jobs across numerous advanced technology positions, including machine learning, data science, electrified powertrains and self-driving systems. The company expects that most of the hires would focus on its data collection efforts.
A Jaguar spokesman told Reuters that the newly available software talent was “fortuitous” both for the automaker and other companies, and that many of the posts it hopes to fill have remained vacant for “quite a long time.”
For any laid-off tech workers in California, however, a new job at Jaguar could require some relocation. Most of the jobs will be in the company’s native U.K., though there are some posts in the U.S. as well as Ireland, Hungary, India and China. Some of the tech companies in question, reports noted, maintain offices in London and Dublin.
A major Chinese automaker marked the opening of its first design studio in Europe with a striking concept vehicle.
But although the sports car is unique, you’d need eye protection to take it on the road.
GAC Group, the fifth-largest automaker in China, surprised attendees at a ceremony to launch its Milan advanced design center with the GAC Barchetta, a maroon electric roadster that the company said combined elements of an earlier GAC concept sedan with an homage to Italian sports cars from the 1970s.
To others, however, it might look more like a large warehouse robot.
The Barchetta’s ultra-minimalist design features a flattened chassis and compact batteries, a sleek exterior made entirely of aluminum, and a simplified interior — with just a steering wheel and a few other components.
The vehicle’s two seats, made from recycled materials, are suspended from a lightweight shell, and Auto Evolution also noted that the car features wheels with a hollow interior and anchored by triangular steel bars.
The concept car is likely most noteworthy, however, for what’s not there: the Barchetta doesn’t have a roof or a windshield. Its interior is instead protected by a panel hidden in the dashboard that slides over the seats while the car isn’t in use.
Because it's just a concept, the automaker didn’t disclose any details on performance or battery range. The company instead said it hopes the project reflects its vision for a greener future that mixes new concepts with conventional car culture.
It also highlights GAC’s ambitions for its Milan design hub: the company wants to foster new engineering talent and ideas while bridging the best ideas from both Europe and China.
Israeli aerospace and defense company Elbit Systems revealed what it calls a versatile drone-based loitering munition. The autonomous drone is named Lanius, and it can be used for short-range operations in urban areas.
Part of the Elbit Systems’ Legion-X robotic and autonomous combat solution, Lanius is a racer quadcopter drone with the ability to perform checks for potential threats, relay the information to Legion-X solutions and reach a top speed of 45 miles per hour.
While Lanius maps out a location, AI algorithms help it to avoid collisions and classify weapons and people; therefore knowing the difference between armed combatants and unarmed civilians.
Lanius especially makes its mark with the lethal and non-lethal payloads it carries while engaging a target.
A promotional video by Elbit Systems shows three drones arriving on a mothership drone during a conflict. The drone autonomously takes off, navigates buildings, travels through doors and locates enemies and weapons.
Elbit Systems said Lanius requires minimal user interaction, and the video shows a human operator watching the drone’s live footage and triggering explosions from a remote device.
Because of the system’s Electronic Safe and Arm feature, Lanius can only engage with a target if the human-in-the-loop initiates the action.
When searching for targets, Lanius can also operate in “ambush mode” while it observes an area. For example, if it locates a closed door, Lanius can wait until the door opens, which it would recognize, and engage the target if deemed necessary by the human operator.
A fire broke out at a Symrise chemical plant in Georgia on Monday morning, and the blaze prompted local authorities to evacuate some 100 homes over toxic smoke and potential explosion concerns.
Employees were evacuated after a fire started around 4:00 am at the plant, which makes fragrance ingredients used in detergents, household cleaners and perfumes.
According to WTOC, the chemical involved in the blast is hydrogen peroxide pinene, a volatile chemical.
According to the AP, more than 12 hours after the fire broke out, firefighters were making progress. Still, emergency crews started evacuating all residents within a one-mile radius of the plant. Those within a three-mile radius were told to shelter in place. The primary concern is the large plume of toxic smoke.
The fire caused three metal tanks to explode and made it a difficult fire to suppress. Firefighters used more than 1 million gallons of water stored in on-site tanks before tanker trucks arrived with additional supplies and fire suppressant foam.
The facility is located outside Brunswick, a port city about 80 miles south of Savannah.
The cause of the fire remains unknown, but an investigation will begin once the fire is put out. Emergency personnel hope the families can be back in the 100 or so households by the night's end.
Symrise is a German company that produces fragrances, flavoring and other ingredients for foods and cosmetics.
Update: According to WTOC, the evacuation orders have been lifted and the fire was extinguished on Monday night.
The phrase “pilot optional” likely strikes fear into the hearts of any autonomous vehicle skeptics but some recent tests showed how a Black Hawk helicopter can successfully fly itself.
Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company, and DARPA last month demonstrated an unmanned flight with a Black Hawk outfitted with an autonomy system. During the test on the Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona, the helicopter delivered a large quantity of blood product without any human crew members on board.
Sikorsky said the Black Hawk was able to fly low and fast above ground level using the terrain to mask its signature. The demonstration included a troop resupply run and a mid-flight rerouting to evacuate a casualty. Specifically, the Black Hawk flew 83 miles while loaded with 400 units of real and simulated blood – totaling 500 pounds – then it descended into a valley as low as 200 feet above ground level at 100 knots.
The helicopter also lifted off with a 2,600-pound external load attached to a 40-foot sling, and flew at 100 knots for 30 minutes toward a designated landing zone.
The demonstration also included a ground operator with a secure radio and tablet taking control of the helicopter, commanding it to release its sling load, and then landing to evacuate a casualty from a nearby location. A manikin was loaded into the Black Hawk and a health monitoring device integrated with the helicopter's communications system relayed the patient's vitals in real-time to a ground-based medical team.
Sikorsky and DARPA envision the autonomous Black Hawk running complex missions to support while putting fewer pilots and crew members at risk.
Ed and Tanya Beaumont founded Beaumont Machine 30 years ago in Cincinnati; the company makes Electrical Discharge Machines (EDM). In 2013, the couple sold their business, but certain circumstances led to the Beaumonts reacquiring the company and reassuming the day-to-day operation of the company.
Beaumont Machine, originally Beaumont Machine Repair, serves aerospace, power generation and electronics production industries. The company started by building Fast Hole EDM in 1997 and has been specializing in EDM technology ever since.
From the standard mill style EDM to machining cells with complete robotic operation to make
large aircraft engines and launch vehicle sections, Beaumont has built machines that featured 8-foot part rotation, a robotic arm with 10-foot reach and machines as small as 36 inches in width. The company even developed a new 7-axis EDM drill.
"Our machine was what you would call a true race car," Ed Beaumont said. "I gave you lots of horsepower. You had 999 microseconds each way. You had up to 65 amps of power. You had capacitance up to 8.0 [μF]. So all these variables had fractions within themselves that you could make changes to; to get what you wanted."
Past projects include machines for a SpaceX rocket, Lockheed Martin, Pratt Whitney and General Electric. The company has also been called upon to complete work involving "dark projects" and carbides.
The work also involved rhenium, one of the rarest metals on Earth, used as an additive to tungsten and molybdenum-based alloys, and single crystals, which are materials where the entire sample has a continuous and unbroken crystal lattice to the edges of the sample with no grain boundaries.
Beaumont Machine also made its mark in the EDM industry with a series of patents. One was opening up the opportunity at Pratt Whitney to put a hole over a hole, which involves shooting a metering hole and putting a diffuser shape on top.
When it came time to sell Beaumont Machine, Ed and his wife, Tanya, didn't just want to cash out but see their company thrive under new ownership. According to Ed, repurchasing the company was never a part of the plan.
But their vision never materialized.
"The vision they had for the company was opposite of what we had accomplished," Ed Beaumont said. "We [did] everything pretty much in-house that we could possibly do. That helped keep a thumb on the process itself and also the availability of components and parts and delivery for their customers. [The new owners] were trying to farm things out and it didn't go so well. It affected the outcome."
Ed added that an ill-advised change in location hurt staff numbers and that the company had only placed one advertisement to sell equipment since 2013.
When Beaumont Machine was born, the goal was to be a resource for machine rebuild, retrofit service and custom machines. But the issues accumulated and the Beaumonts watched as the company they grew from the back of a pickup truck to a 21,000-square-foot shop declined.
Now, the Beaumonts have regained control of the company and moved operations to a larger location outside Cincinnati to increase production and expand service capabilities.
Returning to original form starts with getting word out that the Beaumonts are in charge and connecting with customers in a way that had been lost during their absence.
"I look back through my notes from 2010 and 2012 and see how much communication went on with possible customers," Beaumont said. "We need to get that back."
Ed Beaumont said, at its peak, the company employed 21 workers, but that number had decreased
The release of a group of toxic chemicals called PFAS, or perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, which are used in firefighting foam, has resulted in separate lawsuits on opposite ends of the U.S.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports a town in Wisconsin named Peshtigo filed a lawsuit against Tyco Fire Products and over 100 other companies involved in manufacturing and designing PFAS compounds because of contamination of drinking water, property and natural resources.
Also, Fox 8 reported lawsuits filed by North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein that target makers of Aqueous Film Forming Foam and the companies that manufacture AFFF components with PFAS. 3M, Chemours and DuPont were listed.
Peshtigo’s lawsuit claims over 230 of the town’s drinking water wells were contaminated by Tyco and other businesses. Tyco, located in a nearby town, tested firefighting foam with PFAS outdoors from 1962 to 2017. It stopped after finding foam in the soil near the company’s fire training center and a sewer system.
In North Carolina, Stein’s lawsuits center around contamination at Piedmont Triad International (PTI) airport as well as Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune and Marine Corps Air Station New River. Stein alleges the companies were aware of the dangers firefighting foam posed to first responders and natural resources.
The issue dates back to 2019 when the city of Greensboro drafted a $31 million mission plan to resolve the issue that began in Greensboro and made its way to Wilmington, nearly 200 miles away.
On Wednesday, a federal judge approved a settlement for Latino meat processing plant employees in Tennessee who were targeted by an immigration raid in 2018, according to the AP.
According to the Tennessee Lookout, about 100 Southeastern Provision Plant employees stand to share $1.75 million dollars.
The workers who were held as a result of the raid, sued, claiming that the IRS and Department of Homeland Security targeted them illegally. The settlement to the class action lawsuit is scheduled to receive final approval on February 27, 2023.
According to the settlement, each worker is expected to receive between $5,000 and $6,000. The U.S. is also on the hook for an additional $475,000 that will be shared by the seven employees who made excessive force and unlawful arrest claims. About $150,000 will go towards attorneys fees and other expenses for the Southern Poverty Law Center and National Immigration Law Center.
Part of the problem comes down to how the search warrant was obtained. Agents said they were only looking for records regarding a tax evasion case against plant owner James Brantley. However, attorneys showed that the agencies used the search warrant to mount a large-scale workplace immigration raid.
At the time, it was believed to be the largest raid of a workplace in nearly 10 years. According to video of the raid obtained by the Tennessee Lookout, when agents entered the facility, they separated white plant workers from those with brown skin, made fun of the Latino workers and roughed up at least two employees.
Whales are some of the largest mammals on earth and they can likely take care of themselves just fine in many oceanic circumstances. But even the biggest whale doesn’t stand much of a chance against the biggest boats, so now there’s technology to help ensure fewer whales are killed in ship collisions.
According to Reuters, the Blue Boat Initiative has begun installing a network of smart buoys along the western coast of South America. The buoys use software that listens to the sounds of the ocean and, with some help from artificial intelligence, picks out animal noises. Those noises are then used to provide ships with the animal type and exact location.
Blue Boat said its connected buoys rely on a system of hydrophones, oceanographic sensors and transmitters to alert ships to whale activity, which is heavy to the south of Chile. The Initiative said the combination of fjords and sub-Antarctic currents make the area a popular feeding and breeding ground for whales.
By focusing efforts in that region, the Initiative can hopefully help reduce the number of whales killed each year, which has become a massive problem. As Engadget points out, the World Sustainability Organization estimates 18,000 to 25,000 whales are killed in ship collisions each year.
Besides being extremely majestic, whales also do a lot of good for their ecosystems. The Initiative said that whales give off large amounts of nutrients that feed microscopic life, which in turn produce a large percentage of our planet’s oxygen and serve as food for bigger fish. And, as plans accelerate for large-scale CO2 removal operations, it’s worth noting that whales already take a lot of it out of the atmosphere. According to Blue Boat, a whale can put away 33 tons of CO2 over its lifetime, 1500 times what a tree can handle.
On November 9, 2021, at about 7:00 am, a fire broke out on the Capt. Kirby Dupuis, a towing vessel that was pushing 13 loaded dry cargo barges up the Ohio River near Belleview, Kentucky. The six crew members fought the fire but could not put it out. Local firefighters from Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio finally beat back the flames, but not until the fire caused about $1,800,000 in damage.
A new NTSB investigation found that the likely cause of the engine room fire was a missing retaining ring and mounting bracket, which allowed a lube oil tube on the port main engine to vibrate out of joint and spray pressurized oil around the room. The oil hit a hot exhaust surface and ignited.
The vessel was powered by a pair of Caterpillar marine diesel engines. A senior technical service manager from Caterpillar reviewed a video from the engine room and inspected the damaged port engine.
During the inspection, the CAT manager also found a broken O-ring where the missing retaining ring would've connected a tube to the lube oil filter housing. The tube's supporting clips and mounting hardware were also missing, and the bolt that held the clips appeared to be sheared. The NTSB couldn't determine how long the clips and hardware were missing, but the last top-end overhaul on the engine was in May 2018.
Part of the problem, as far as the extent of the damage, was that the crew didn't know how to activate the vessel's fixed fire-extinguishing system, which could have released fire suppression fluid. The crew didn't miss by much as one of the two levers that had to be pulled to activate the system was not fully extended. While the crew conducted regular emergency drills, none of the work included training on the fire system.
Earlier this year, it appeared. Like a mirage, it was here one minute, gone the next. Just the world’s largest cast iron skillet, rolling down the road on a semi trailer. Then it disappeared for months. But now, it’s ready.
Lodge, a manufacturer that’s been making cast iron for more than 125 years, has officially opened the Lodge Museum of Cast Iron in its hometown of South Pittsburg, Tennessee. The museum will feature a recreation of what it’s like to cast iron in a foundry along with exhibits highlighting the history of the company and the culture of cast iron. But the centerpiece is that big ol’ skillet.
The company said the cast iron skillet measures 18 feet from handle to handle and weighs 14,360 pounds, or about seven tons, or roughly the equivalent of one and a half Hummer EVs. Although the skillet is 100% real cast iron and is said to hold about 650 eggs, Lodge said it’s only for looking, not for cooking.
Lodge said it partnered with a foundry in Alabama that specializes in large cast iron pieces to create the piece. But the company’s facilities in Tennessee are more than capable of cranking out lots of regular sized cast iron.
The company–which makes its products using pig iron and recycled steel–was founded as Blacklock Foundry in 1896 by Joseph Lodge. After Blacklock burned down in 1910, the company was rebuilt under the name Lodge Cast Iron. The company currently operates two foundries and said it is the first manufacturer to season its cast iron cookware in the foundry, saving consumers the work of polymerization.
And in case you’re wondering, Lodge said it’s OK to use a little Dawn dish soap to clean a cast iron skillet, despite what you may have heard about caring for the cookware.
A clothing and goods wholesaler from Brooklyn who sold counterfeit U.S. military uniforms and gear from China has received a prison sentence of 40 months after pleading guilty three years ago to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and trafficking in counterfeit goods.
The wholesaler, Ramin Kohanbash, had been directing the development, manufacture and importation of uniforms and equipment for the U.S. military from 2013 to 2018 and accumulated $20 million in proceeds.
The fake goods were made in China and sold to the U.S. government. However, many of the products lacked safety features and did not meet certain specifications. Among the counterfeit products were 13,332 jackets not resistant to enemy night vision goggles and 18,597 non-flame resistant hoods for airmen in the U.S. Air Force to wear or carry.
U.S. laws require products sold to the U.S. military be manufactured domestically. The law allows for other designated countries, but China is not on the list.
In addition to the prison sentence, Kohanbash was ordered to forfeit the $20 million in proceeds and make undetermined restitutions to companies his operation victimized, one of which is a Rhode Island company that reportedly lost over $639,000 in profits. The company also said distributing counterfeit products damaged its relationships with military clients.
The scheme included two other defendants, Bernard Klein and Terry Roe, who collaborated with Kohanbash to provide samples of authentic military uniforms and gear to Chinese manufacturers. The examples included tags and labels with trademarks of 15 companies that produce military products.
Once Kohanbash received the counterfeit products, he sold and shipped them to the military and its suppliers. Kohanbash and Roe also included fake certification letters that claimed the supplies were manufactured in the U.S.
Klein's sentence included 18 months of incarceration, fines and restitution. Roe will be sentenced on October 20.
In late 2020, ExxonMobil fired two computational scientists who the company suspected leaked information to the Wall Street Journal. However, following a federal whistleblower investigation, OSHA concluded that ExxonMobil’s actions were illegal.
The Wall Street Journal published the article in question two years ago and alleged ExxonMobil inflated production estimates and the value of oil and gas wells in the Texas Permian Basin.
Additionally, the Wall Street Journal reported a possible inaccuracy regarding ExxonMobil’s claim from a 2019 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that drilling speed would increase over five years.
But neither of the scientists were named as a source in the article.
When ExxonMobil fired the scientists, the company cited mishandling of proprietary company information, having a “negative attitude,” losing the company management’s confidence and looking for other jobs.
OSHA uncovered that ExxonMobil knew one of the terminated scientists was a relative of a source the Wall Street Journal article used and would have had access to the information featured in the publication.
OSHA also decided the alleged disclosure is protected under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, a federal law that established auditing and financial regulations for public companies. OSHA subsequently ordered ExxonMobil to reinstate the scientists and pay them over $800,000 in back wages, interest and compensatory damages.
Doug Parker, an assistant secretary for Occupational Safety and Health, described ExxonMobil’s actions as “unacceptable” and said, “The integrity of the U.S. financial system relies on companies to report their financial condition and assets accurately.”
U.S. manufacturing is no stranger to fluctuations. The 2008 Great Recession took its toll on the industry, which eventually found its footing only to run into the COVID-19 pandemic.
This time, employers aren’t looking to fill conventional manufacturing jobs. Lucky for them, a mostly untapped demographic can fill the job void in the ever-growing automated environment.
These opportunities are opening the door to more women joining the industry. According to the United States Census Bureau, as of March 2021, women made up 47% of the American workforce, yet only about 30% worked in manufacturing. Furthermore, only 25% of management positions were held by women.
Additionally, the women working in manufacturing made an average of 16% more than the national median annual income for women employed.
The pandemic affected the growth of a diversified workforce, but in 2021, the numbers are starting to climb again. The bureau provides a figure that said there was a .5% increase, between pre-pandemic and 2021, for women ages 55 to 64 who began working manufacturing jobs.
While manufacturing still carries the stigma of a male-dominated industry, attitudes are changing. Companies are discovering gender diversity increases employee morale and retention.
Also, the range for what is considered a manufacturing job is growing as careers in cybersecurity and other high-tech areas are becoming viable options.
Manufacturers are catching on to the trend of women in the industry and have even begun the recruiting process by encouraging young women to study STEM subjects; skills employers are looking for more and more.
On Monday, the U.S. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) filed a complaint against what it calls Exxon Mobil's "unlawful" effort to boot the United Steelworkers union that represented workers at a Texas plant. Some 600 workers at the Exxon refinery in Beaumont were locked out of the refinery and lube oil plant for 10 months, from May 2021 to March 2022.
According to Reuters, among the damages, the NLRB is asking the court to issue back pay to employees, which could cost the company tens of millions of dollars. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, refinery workers average about $73,830 per year as of 2019. Let just say that 600 workers made the average, that works out to about $35 million in back wages.
A hearing is scheduled for January and an Exxon spokesperson says the company acted in accordance with the law.
The sticking point appears to be messages the company sent to locked-out workers. According to the NLRB, the correspondence told employees that they could come back to work as long as they decertified the union.
The union issued a strike notice during contract talks in January 2021. Exxon says it initiated the lockout to prevent supply disruptions at the facility, which processes nearly 370,000 barrels per day. The company kept the plant running with replacement workers and transfers from other facilities.
Despite the company's efforts, in March, workers voted to retain its union representation.
A widely watched case pitting animal welfare advocates against a Fortune 500 company has come to a conclusion and the results could have far-reaching implications in how the courts view the concept of “theft” versus “rescue.”
In 2017, two members of an animal rights group called Direct Action Everywhere (or, DxE) were investigating conditions for pigs being raised for slaughter at Circle Four Farms, a Utah-based factory farm owned by Smithfield Foods.
While on site, the two men – Wayne Hsiung and Paul Picklesimer – reportedly discovered two newborn piglets they determined to be sick and dangerously underweight. They then removed the piglets, took them for veterinary care, and transferred them to an animal sanctuary.
When the incident was discovered, the two men were charged with felony burglary and theft and were facing up to five and half years in prison pending the results of their trial.
In what’s being viewed as a huge victory for opponents of animal cruelty, a jury has unanimously agreed that the two men be acquitted for their actions, with legal experts suggesting this could lay the groundwork for a legal “right to rescue” – establishing a difference between what took place and what would be considered theft.
The pig rescue operation reportedly occurred during an attempt by DxE to verify whether Smithfield had ceased to use highly-criticized “gestation crates” that were too small for pregnant pigs to turn around in. They contend they did find these, despite Smithfield pledging to no longer use them at Circle Four. Throughout the course of this, the men from DxE say they also found dead and sick piglets, including the two in question – who they named Lilly and Lizzie.
General Motors emerged from the third quarter of 2022 in a fortunate position: while competitors like Ford, Honda, Nissan and Toyota all posted year-over-year sales declines, GM reported an increase – and not a small one.
The automaker revealed sales we up 24 percent in the quarter, compared to last year, and added that the bulk of its supply chain problems may be in the rearview mirror.
Unfortunately for GM, this solid start to the month was quickly met with some bad news.
Just one day after the company unveiled its 3rd quarter earnings, the law firm DiCello Levitt issued a press release revealing a massive judgment against the automaker.
According to the release, a trial verdict was handed down after a class action lawsuit alleged that GM concealed a defect in the engines in some of its SUVs and light trucks.
The allegations suggest that GM’s Generation IV Vortec 5300 LC9 engine featured a “defect in the engine’s piston rings that resulted in the vehicles consuming too much oil.” The lawsuit claims that GM was alerted “quickly” to the issue that the excess oil was infiltrating engine parts and causing premature breakdowns. The suit adds that GM offered ineffective solutions and design changes over several years before discontinuing the engine.
The jury in the case determined that GM violated consumer protection regulations in several states and, as such, awarded the automaker to pay $2,700 to the class action suit’s 38,000 plaintiffs – resulting in a judgment of $102.6 million.
Christopher Stombaugh, lead trial counsel in the case, thanked the jury for its “courage” adding it “did the right thing in holding GM responsible for its deceit and half-hearted efforts to address its problems.”
We recently learned that Hyundai and Kia owners may be more likely to suffer from the same undesirable fate: having their vehicles stolen.
Rampant thefts that were first reported in the Milwaukee area two years ago began to spread, along with the knowledge that certain Hyundai and Kia vehicles were deficient in a certain area that made them easier to steal.
Since then, The Highway Loss Data Institute, a unit of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, has revealed that these vehicles were missing an anti-theft device within their keys, resulting in their being stolen at nearly twice the rate of other vehicles.
According to Automotive News, Hyundai believes it has come up with a solution to mitigate the problem, but vehicle owners might not like it. Why? Because the anti-theft kit developed by the automaker is reportedly going to cost interested parties $170.
As published in a follow-up report by Car & Driver, the kit was developed in partnership with Compustar. It contains a kill switch and an alarm and is available at more than 800 dealerships where it will take more than two hours to install. This installation could cost as much as $500, says an attorney representing plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit relating to the scenario.
While Kia is also experiencing this high rate of theft, it is not yet offering any type of anti-theft kit, though it has offered free steering wheel locks to owners.
Hyundai spokesperson Ira Gabriel told Car & Driver that the automaker is working on a software update, “to further secure these targeted vehicles" and it should be available for certain Hyundai vehicles in the first half of 2023 with others to follow.
On Monday, the U.S. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) filed a complaint against what it calls Exxon Mobil's "unlawful" effort to boot the United Steelworkers union that represented workers at a Texas plant. Some 600 workers at the Exxon refinery in Beaumont were locked out of the refinery and lube oil plant for 10 months, from May 2021 to March 2022.
According to Reuters, among the damages, the NLRB is asking the court to issue back pay to employees, which could cost the company tens of millions of dollars. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, refinery workers average about $73,830 per year as of 2019. Let just say that 600 workers made the average, that works out to about $35 million in back wages.
A hearing is scheduled for January and an Exxon spokesperson says the company acted in accordance with the law.
The sticking point appears to be messages the company sent to locked-out workers. According to the NLRB, the correspondence told employees that they could come back to work as long as they decertified the union.
The union issued a strike notice during contract talks in January 2021. Exxon says it initiated the lockout to prevent supply disruptions at the facility, which processes nearly 370,000 barrels per day. The company kept the plant running with replacement workers and transfers from other facilities.
Despite the company's efforts, in March, workers voted to retain its union representation.
The dream of owning a jumbo jet is often squashed for most people when they see the cost. The Airbus A380’s $450 million price tag, and the fact that they don’t make them anymore, likely puts the aircraft out of reach. But with some luck and persistence, you could own a small piece of the plane.
Airbus recently announced an auction that will see the aerospace company dismantle an A380 and sell a lot of random pieces of it. According to the auction lots posted online, the parts will include seats, drink carts, inflatable life vests, propulsion systems and the full bar from the business cabin. The auction will also feature some specialty items like a surfboard made from recycled A380 composite material and multiple parts like engine blades that have been turned into original art pieces.
According to CNN, there are 380 lots with more than 500 items in all and they’ll all be up for auction live in France and online from October 13th through the 15th. The A380 that’s being taken apart was first flown by Air Emirates in 2008 before being scrapped in 2021.
Airbus said that most of the proceeds from the auction will go toward the Airbus Foundation and help with the organization’s ongoing humanitarian efforts.
Tarmac Aerosave said that when Airbus first approached them about the project, it was motivated to be extra precise in the recycling process to maintain all the pieces that would be auctioned off. Normally, when a jet is retired, about 90 percent of it is recycled. In this case, Tarmac was careful to collect the “good pieces” from the aircraft.
Some of the pieces will be fairly affordable, like emergency exit light panels expected to go for around $80. Others, like a faux marble wash basin from a first class restroom, could fetch as much as $3,500. But who knows, if you manage to buy enough of these pieces, you might be able to assemble something that roughly resembles an A380.
On July 12, 2021 at about 3:23 a.m., the Jalma Topic, a bulk carrier with 20 people aboard was moving up the Lower Mississippi River, headed to a grain terminal near New Orleans. The vessel suddenly lost the ability to steer and crashed into a stationary barge that was being used for office space. No injuries were reported in the accident, but it caused more than $6 million in damages.
The Jalma Topic was headed upriver at about 9.1 knots (about 10.5 mph) when the pilot noticed that the rudder was stuck at 10 degrees port and not responding. He did what he could to warn the three people aboard the office barge and slow down the vessel, but he was unable to prevent the crash.
A pair of dispatchers, one line handler and one for tugs, and a cleaner were aboard the barge at the time. The Jalma Topic's pilot previously worked for the tug company and knew that people were working on the vessel, and not monitoring the necessary frequencies to hear the distress call. He called the New Orleans Vessel Traffic Center urging them to help get the workers out.
One of the dispatchers was able to get up from his desk but only made it a few steps before the ship struck the barge. Still, no one was injured when the Jalma Topic hit the barge at going 6.2 knots (7.1 mph).
The Jalma Topic's bow only sustained some $215,000 in damages, which was good news for the vessel valued at $14.7 million. The office barge saw the worst of the damage. The superstructure and hull were damaged. The electrical, plumbing and communications systems were severed. The HVAC and mooring systems and all gangways and catwalks were damaged or destroyed. After everything was assessed, the damage tally reached $6 million.
Riding in the car can be extremely conducive to sleep for people, sometimes even when they’re driving. Falling asleep while driving though is not recommended. However, in Volkswagen’s new autonomous, self-driving prototype, there’s no driving necessary and the vehicle is actually designed to help you nod off.
The company’s recently unveiled prototype, GEN.TRAVEL, is less like a car you drive and more like an airplane that stays on the ground and doesn’t need a pilot. Volkswagen envisions the vehicle as a step toward mobility-as-a-service and a replacement for short flights. And the modular interior is designed so sleeping in the car will be much more comfortable than resting your head against a rattling window.
The GEN.TRAVEL has a modular interior concept that can be customized to overnight settings that include two fully reclining seats. The vehicle even includes a passenger restraint system to keep you safe even when lying down and a lighting system that “influences melatonin production to help passengers fall asleep and wake up naturally.” Basically, it’s a four-wheeled version of the gummies I eat before bedtime.
The GEN.TRAVEL isn’t just for moving sleeping people around. Volkswagen sees it being used for business trips, with a conference setup with four seats and a large table in the middle, and for family trips, with front seats that can be configured to entertain the children using augmented reality.
In case the thought of doing a lot of stuff other than driving in a moving vehicle makes you feel queasy, Volkswagen promises that the prototype’s dynamic lighting will help minimize the effects of motion sickness. GEN.TRAVEL also includes a technology called electric Active Body Control that calculates actions like acceleration, braking or cornering before they happen and adjusts the driving style and trajectory accordingly.
If the GEN.TRAVEL prototype can really evolve into a viable alternative to short flights, just imagine how much nicer it will be to have a car pick you up and let you sleep all the way to your destination instead of ever setting foot in an airport again.
Ford Motor Company, like the rest of the global auto industry, has been dealing with problems in the automotive supply chain for more than two years now.
First, it was computer chips, when electronics companies decided it would be better to allocate chips for work-from-home technologies than for cars during COVID lockdowns.
The problems subsequently expanded to other parts — so much so that Ford recently disclosed that it has made some 45,000 vehicles with parts missing.
Some of those to-be-completed vehicles, it turns out, could be missing Ford’s brand name — literally.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Ford has delayed deliveries of some vehicles because the company ran low on the ubiquitous blue oval logos that adorn most Ford vehicles.
People familiar with the matter told the paper that the issue impacted Ford badges as well as vehicle model name plates, particularly for its best-selling, highly profitable F-Series pickups.
The report also noted that a company that has produced Ford logos in the past, Tribar Technologies of Howell, Michigan, was forced to reduce its operations last month after it reported discharging industrial chemicals into local sewers.
Both Ford and Tribar did not comment about whether the issues were related; Tribar told the Journal that wastewater systems captured the chemicals before they reached a local waterway, and that it is back up and running at full capacity.
Ford, meanwhile, weighed other potential solutions. The company reportedly considered 3D-printing the badges before officials ultimately decided against it amid concerns about their quality.
For now, the company said it is retrofitting vehicles that are missing the logos before delivering them to dealers.
Ford last week also announced a reshuffling of its executive team, including its supply chain operations. CFO John Lawler will begin reworking the automaker’s supply lines until it hires a new executive to lead the supply chain.
This is IEN Now.z
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is not hyperbole. It’s not just some small island composed of plastic bottles. It’s more than 220 million pounds of trash and it’s three times the size of France. It’s a pretty big mess but a non-profit organization is continuing to advance plans to clean it up.
The Ocean Cleanup, the benevolent minds behind the Trashfence, just released a new video detailing the latest iteration of their strategy for making the Garbage Patch go away. The organization has already successfully tested its System 2 operation but it began transitioning away from System 2 in July and plans to keep gradually increasing the size and capacity of its garbage collection operation. That, in turn, will make cleaning up the Garbage Patch a more cost-efficient process.
System 3 is three times the size of its predecessor, with a span of about a mile and a half between the two lead vessels pulling a massive net to catch the trash. That plastic waste funnels back toward a retention zone that can hold up to 55,000 pounds of garbage. Once it’s full, a third vessel pulls the retention zone out of the water and loads the trash into shipping containers that are dropped off back on shore.
To optimize trash collection, System 3 uses drones to patrol the areas around the vessels and pinpoint garbage hotspots within the Patch. The organization said it also uses computational modeling to help predict the location of trash hotspots, which are formed by the ocean’s circulating currents.
In the cutthroat quest for talent, companies worldwide have been upping pay and dispensing with cash bonuses and other incentives, to entice new workers and motivate existing ones to stay.
But Honda Motor Company appears to have hit a snag with its latest attempts at variable pay. According to Fortune.com, workers at Honda’s Marysville factory in Ohio were awarded bonuses earlier this month only to find out later that there was a problem.
Fortune cites a memo that was issued, alerting certain Maryville employees that their bonuses had been miscounted and they were on the hook to return any overpayments.
Workers were given the option of paying funds back upfront or allowing the company to take the cash back from future checks. For some employees, this will amount to hundreds of dollars. They were reportedly given nine days to respond with Honda saying that failure to respond would mean the money would be taken from their pay automatically.
Fortune says it’s unclear as to why these overpayments took place, but that they did receive confirmation from Honda that it was true, and that they were trying to claw back the money.
According to a statement they reportedly provided, Honda said that “Issues related to compensation are a sensitive matter” and that it was “working quickly on this item to minimize any potential impact to (its) associates.”
The spouse of one Marysville employee – who wished to remain anonymous – told Fortune that the amount Honda was seeking from her husband was 10 percent of his overall bonus and amounted to half of their mortgage payment.
The COVID-19 pandemic almost instantly threw a multi-year wrench into global supply chains — and highlighted the advantages of more compact logistics operations.
For many U.S. companies, that has meant reshoring manufacturing operations from lower-wage nations back to the States.
But for manufacturers in China who want to keep a foothold in the North American market, it means finding a way to get its operations closer to their end-markets.
And if it also means getting around U.S. tariffs, all the better.
Bloomberg recently detailed the trend of Chinese manufacturers sending both operations and personnel to new facilities in Mexico, where — under a revamped North American trade pact — products aren’t subject to the tariffs imposed on Chinese-made goods.
Chinese investment in Mexico was already on the rise, growing from $154 million in 2016 to more than $270 million in 2017 amid heightened trade tensions between the U.S. and China. By last year, persistent supply-chain headaches and a tech crackdown by Chinese officials fueled an increase to nearly $500 million.
Bloomberg noted that materials and labor in Mexico are more expensive than China, but that gap is closing — just as tariffs and logistics costs take their toll.
The article particularly looked at Hofusan Industrial Park, a former cattle ranch outside Monterrey about 100 miles from the border. The site housed one facility three years ago; today, there’s 11, including electronics company Hisense and auto-parts maker Hangzhou XZB.
Officials expect 35 facilities and some 15,000 workers in the industrial park in coming years — about 10% of which would be managers from China.
Plenty of watercraft like boats and jet skis are attainable on even fairly modest incomes. But a personal submarine still exceeds most people’s budgets. Until now!
The U-Boat Worx NEMO submersible series includes an upcoming pair of single- and two-passenger submarines that start at just 545,000 Euros, or about the same in U.S. dollars. That’s still a lot, more than many houses or exotic sports cars. But compared to the average price for a personal submarine, which the New York Times puts between $2.5 million and $3.5 million, it’s somewhat affordable.
The NEMO 1 and the Nemo 2 can both dive up to 100 meters or 330 feet below the surface and both can clock up to 3 knots under the water, but the Nemo 2 lets you bring along a friend to check out the deep blue sea. The company said that alongside a qualified NEMO pilot, anyone can take over steering the submarine via the company’s MANTA controller.
To make things even more attainable, you don’t need a yacht or similarly large ocean-faring vessel to launch the NEMO. The craft is relatively small and lightweight so it can be deployed from beach launchers and smaller boats along with being towed on a trailer behind a car.
According to Powerboat World, the NEMO is entering production and should be available in stock models as early as next year. U-Boat Worx has set a goal of having 1,000 submarines in operation by 2030.
"We set out on a mission to introduce safe and effortless access to the underwater world to as many people as possible,” said U-Boat Worx Founder and Chairman, Bert Houtman.
Automakers around the world are pouring billions of dollars into developing and building vehicles that don't emit greenhouse gases while on the road.
But what if your car could do one better: actually removing carbon from the atmosphere as it drives?
That’s the goal of the team of researchers from the Netherlands behind the ZEM, which stands for zero-emission mobility.
The developers of the sporty two-door sedan, who are currently showcasing it at stops across the U.S., told Reuters that it is powered by a lithium-ion battery pack — just like a conventional electric vehicle.
But the ZEM also includes a pair of filters that can capture more than four pounds of carbon dioxide from the air across some 20,000 miles of driving.
The result is a car that isn’t just zero-emission; it actually removes more carbon than it emits.
The technology won’t mitigate carbon emissions on the scale scientists say is needed to combat climate change, but it could make EVs even more environmentally friendly. Although they don’t emit carbon on the highway, the process of manufacturing and charging EVs can produce it — meaning that they may need to travel thousands of miles before becoming a net-positive for the environment.
Eindhoven researchers hope to create a truly carbon-neutral vehicle from production to recycling. Many of its parts are made from 3D-printed plastic, and, one day, its CO2 filters could be emptied while the vehicle is charging for additional carbon-capture.
The car is far from the first groundbreaking, environmentally friendly vehicle made by Eindhoven students: about a year ago, another group took a solar-powered camper on a road trip to Portugal.
DARPA has a new program, Ancillary, and they hope it will develop and demonstrate new technologies that promise to leap VTOLs, vertical takeoff and landing vehicles, forward.
Ancillary, which stands for AdvaNced airCraft Infrastructure-Less Launch And RecoverY X-Plane program (it's a loose acronym) wants to build a plane that can launch from any environment or ship flight deck, in any weather conditions, without any launch or recovery equipment, like the typical ground support equipment aircraft typically require.
I think it’s fair to say that the lifestyle of a farmer is equal parts challenge and reward. Along with the independence of running your own business and embracing the role as society’s kitchen, are the difficulties of dealing with rising fuel, feed and pesticide costs, as well as volatile weather pattens and crop prices.
All of these factors have led to a number of technological enhancements meant to assist the agricultural community. From autonomous, electric tractors to the use of sensors and data-driven software to ensure the ideal management of fields and irrigation resources, the digital age is offering solutions as relevant to the server farm as the vineyard.
Among the challenges that technology hopes to address is the negative impact of birds. Farmers in California have seen our feathered friends account for up to $4,000 dollars in annual damage per acre.
It seems the days of the scarecrow are numbered, with a possible replacement being the AVIX Autonomic Mark II autonomous laser system. And before you get PETA on the line, no, we not talking about frying birds as they attempt to swipe a couple berries or nibble on some corn.
Rather, the system transmits a 3B green laser light. This means it operates on a frequency that the birds see as a solid object. So, when the laser is fired, they fly away in anticipation of being swatted by the equivalent of the Incredible Hulk’s backhand.
The reality of course is that it is just a highly sustainable light that can be programmed with 150 unique patterns, 2,400 individual waypoints and 20 different time periods, with each pattern and waypoint potentially assigned a different time slot for continuous bird repulsion activities.
According to the system’s manufacturer, Bird Control Group, it can reduce bird damage by more than 70 percent without causing any harm to the birds or the environment. It’s also programmed and monitored by a mobile app.
The individual lasers can be installed and working within hours, with a range, depending on weather conditions, of up to 1,600 yards.
The biggest obstacle is probably not going to be embracing a new technology or saying goodbye to our straw-stuffed crop guardians. Most farms will need to utilize multiple lasers to realize the optimal benefit, and each unit carries a price tag of over $10,000.
More than one year after Microsoft and the U.S. Army shifted their Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) program from prototype to production phase, the military will finally get the new augmented reality goggles for soldiers.
The devices, which are based on Microsoft HoloLens and use the company’s Azure cloud computing platform, will allow soldiers to see through smoke and around corners, use holographic imagery for training and have 3D terrain maps projected onto their field of vision. They also allow commanders to place important information into the field of vision of ground troops. Ultimately, the headsets could allow soldiers to train in more realistic environments.
According to Bloomberg, an initial order for 5,000 of the special HoloLens headsets was placed last year but was paused for more testing after concerns were raised about the device’s performance. But increased testing now has the Army confident in the program.
The devices have gone through several design iterations that had to take into account things like a soldier’s need to brace a weapon against their cheek. The original device also included dial controls that soldiers attached to their chests, but those controls easily broke off when soldiers dropped down to crawl on the ground.
But now that most of the kinks have been worked out, the shipments are on the way. The deal could see the Army spend up to $21.9 billion. Besides the headsets, the military may also explore using the IVAS program to install similar mixed-reality displays inside of vehicles.
Tesla's Full Self-Driving might be facing trouble when it comes to a specific western state. The misleading term is being challenged by California lawmakers, who recently passed a bill in the Senate that could ban the software's name.
According to the LA Times, the California Department of Motor Vehicles’ rules don’t allow the advertisement of cars as “self-driving” if they do not have the capability. This legislation would make such regulation a state law.
The bill, sponsored by Senate Transportation Committee Chair Lena Gonzalez, will go to Governor Gavin Newsom for a signature.
But don't expect the legislation, if signed, to immediately forbid Tesla from using the term "Full Self-Driving” in California. The DMV, which has not commented on the bill, will still need to enforce it.
However, when the bill was gaining momentum in July, the DMV did file an administrative action against Tesla on false advertising.
Last month, the DMV told the LA Times it would request Tesla be required to educate drivers about full self-driving capabilities. The DMV did not comment on whether Tesla would be able to continue using the term.
Tesla's website mentions Autopilot, Enhanced Autopilot and Full Self-Driving capabilities. Full Self-Driving features a traffic and stop sign control beta and plans to have auto steering on city streets some time in the future.
But, Tesla includes a sentence that says the features "require active driver supervision and do not make the vehicle autonomous." Tesla goes on to say, "Full autonomy will be dependent on achieving reliability far in excess of human drivers as demonstrated by billions of miles of experience."
A second Hyundai Motor supplier has been accused of violating child labor laws. On Monday, the Department of Labor accused SL Alabama of employing underage workers at a factory in Alexander City, Alabama.
The company, a subsidiary of SL Corp, a South Korean company, makes headlights, rear lights and other parts for Hyundai and Kia, a Hyundai Motor Group-controlled company.
According to Reuters, which reviewed the federal court filings, SL Alabama has repeatedly violated labor laws since last November. The DOL accused the company of "employing oppressive child labor" and minors under 16 years old.
The company admitted that children worked at the factory in a statement to Reuters. However, SL blamed an outside labor recruitment firm for hiring minors.
In July, SMART Alabama, a majority-owned unit of Hyundai, was accused of employing children as young as 12 years old at a stamping plant.
In a statement, Hyundai said illegal employment practices are not tolerated by any of its entities.
A proposed settlement is already in the works. As part of the agreement, SL will stop hiring minors, punish any managers who knew about the practice and temporarily cut ties with any recruiters that hire underage employees. It's unknown how many SL employees were minors or their roles at the company.
There’s now officially a new standard for the world’s longest flight by a drone after a more-than-two month voyage came to an abrupt end late last week.
The Zephyr, a solar-powered drone developed by Airbus and undergoing testing by the U.S. military, took off on its latest journey in mid-June and broke its own record for longest drone flight nearly 26 days later.
Last July Stellantis announced a plan to invest over $35 billion in the development of electric vehicles through 2025. And while the announcement blended in with similar declarations throughout the automotive sector, it had to stand out for those still attached to iconic gasoline-powered brands … like, maybe Dodge.
Well, if the writing was on the wall last summer, it’s now on screens and desks throughout the Auburn Hills, Michigan-based automaker. Earlier this week Dodge announced it will unveil seven special edition Charger and Challenger models in 2023 as a goodbye to the muscle cars that put it on the map in the late 1960s.
According to a release from the company, “The Dodge Charger and Dodge Challenger, in current form, are coming to an end.”
But they’ll be going out in style.
Next year, Dodge will produce seven gas-powered commemorative models that the company is describing as "heritage-influenced" to “celebrate in true, over-the-top Dodge style." There’s no word on whether the company’s Chief Donut Office will be involved.
While Dodge is talking about the end of an era in retiring the Charger and Challenger, some reports indicate that Dodge could follow the path of Ford’s latest Mustang, with electric versions of both models potentially appearing down the road.
In fact, earlier this week an electric concept of the Charger was unveiled.
The gas-powered Challenger and Charger both outsold the Mustang last year, with just over 78k Chargers being sold, followed by 54k Challengers, along with just over 52k Mustangs.
While no preliminary designs have been released for the grand farewell, Dodge is touting the return of several colors from the vehicle’s past, as well as an expansion of the popular SRT Jailbreak options that allow buyers to customize the paint color, and other aesthetics like pinstriping, model badges, brake caliper colors, tires, wheel designs and interior features like the seats and steering wheel.
A commemorative brushed aluminum "Last Call" plaque will also be placed under the vehicle’s hoods.
More details on six of the models will be released later this year, with the final vehicle being unveiled at the 2022 Specialty Equipment Market Association, or SEMA show in early November.
The cars will be offered on a first-come, first-serve basis at Dodge’s top-selling dealerships.
Vehicle subscription service Autonomy just placed a massive order for about 23,000 electric vehicles, valued at approximately $1.2 billion. The company said the order represents about 1.2% of the U.S. total EV production through the end of next year. In all, 17 automakers are represented in the order and it’s a good chance for all of them to put sales numbers on the board. But not all of them made out equally in the deal.
When a commercial pilot posted a picture of eerie, glowing red lights over the Pacific Ocean, it got the internet buzzing. Guesses included the apocalypse, UFOs and the Upside Down from “Stranger Things,” but the reality was much fishier.
Neil Jacobs, a weather modeling expert, confirmed to CNN that the red glow, which can actually be seen from outer space, was from massive LED light rigs on commercial fishing boats. And it turns out, the LEDs are a significant upgrade from how these boats used to operate.
Squid and Pacific saury, a long, narrow fish, are big game for fishing operations in the Northern Pacific Ocean. These boats use elaborate fishing lamps to draw the creatures to the surface.
But according to Delta Electronics, traditional fishing lamps, which hold a lot of glass light bulbs, use a ton of energy and drive up fuel costs for fishing vessels. They are also hazardous to fishing crews because they emit high amounts of UV and infrared, which can cause eyesight problems and skin damage. Plus, h-aving a bunch of breakable glass over your head on a ship swaying in the sea doesn’t sound fun.
The company touts its LED fishing lamps as a solution to those problems that can also boost catch yields. The LED lights also don’t require time to warm up like traditional fishing lamps and they feature optical design with a spectrum of light ideal for catching both squid and saury.
The red LED lights do indeed look spooky when viewed from above through a cloud cover but it turns out the phenomenon can be easily explained.
Last week, Kentucky landed yet another electric-vehicle investment. LOTTE Aluminum Materials USA will build a $238.7 million aluminum foil manufacturing operation in Elizabethtown that will create 122 new jobs.
According to Governor Andy Beshear, who made the announcement, the deal is the latest in a string of EV suppliers drawn to the region by the EV ecosystem Beshear hopes will "last for generations to come."
In a joint venture with LOTTE Aluminum, LOTTE Chemical will build a manufacturing facility to produce 36,000 tons of cathode foil, an ultra-thin aluminum foil that is a core material used in EV batteries.
The company anticipates demand for the material to increase by an average of 32% annually by 2030. The plant will be the company's first aluminum foil facility on U.S. soil and will be operational by 2025.
The two companies in the venture are subsidiaries of LOTTE Group, one of the largest conglomerates in South Korea. It employs more than 80,000 people across many different industries.
Since June 2020, Kentucky has seen more than $8.5 billion in EV-related investments, with well over 8,000 full-time jobs announced.
In September 2021, Ford and SK Innovation announced a $5.8 billion investment that will create 5,000 jobs in Hardin County. In April 2022, Envision AESC announced a $2 billion investment that will create 2,000 jobs in Warren County.
The deal comes with an incentive package from the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority that can provide up to $3.3 million as long as the company maintains the nearly $240 million investment and hits some annual targets, including creating and keeping 122 Kentucky-resident, full-time jobs across ten years; and paying an average hourly wage of $23.35 including benefits across those jobs.
The company can also receive $1 million in tax incentives through the Kentucky Enterprise Initiative Act (KEIA), which allows companies to recoup sales and use tax on construction costs, building fixtures, equipment used in R&D and electronic processing.
Auto prices are borderline out of control, but there are lots of variables that need to fall into place before we see any widespread relief.
And outside of parts and worker shortages, there’s another issue that’s been impacting consumers in need of a new ride – markups.
While some dealers are adding in a layer of fat on top of the manufacturer’s recommended price, they’re not the only ones: apparently automakers are finding that some vehicles in high demand are being quickly re-sold by their initial buyers at markups described as “exorbitant.”
According to Automotive News, General Motors has a plan in place that may help stabilize prices on its hottest vehicles and it specifically targets consumers.
GM has sent a letter to dealers that details a plan to penalize consumers who try to flip their vehicles. The automaker says that buyers of certain high-demand vehicles who resell those models within 12 months of their initial purchase will now face the consequence of being barred from placing future orders or reservations. Auto news says GM will also place limits on the transfers of certain warranties.
So far, the policy is only intended to apply to those vehicles that are most in-demand for GM and include the 2023 Cadillac Escalade-V, Chevrolet Corvette Z06 and GMC Hummer EV pickup and SUV.
The report quotes Steve Carlisle, president of GM North America, who reportedly said in the dealer letter that "When vehicles are quickly resold, particularly by unauthorized dealers or other resellers that do not adhere to GM's standards, the customer experience suffers and GM's brands are damaged.”
Plant-based meat company, Beyond Meat, has had a tough go of it lately. Sales dropped late last year and revenue fell along with restaurant demand earlier this year. As a result, the company slashed prices and sold 12% more product in Q1, but revenue still fell 10%. Now, as the company prepares to share its second quarter results today, analysts predict the company to continue to falter.
Part of the problem is poor product tests at restaurants and fads that faded to mediocre reviews. I mean, we gave the Beyond KFC Nuggets a shot.
Analyst John Baumgartner, in a recent Reuters report, said part of the problem is product adoption. Cultural tastes won't change overnight. Now that the excitement has passed, Beyond needs more product innovation and better tasting products. Like those nuggets.
Beyond has had product tests at McDonald's, KFC, Taco Bell and Panda Express that didn't evolve into a broader launch. And Dunkin, Hardee's and A&W have already discontinued lines. The company's jerky line has also faltered.
Inflation and supply chain problems are also posing threats, but hopefully the company can weather the storm and rebound before the plant-based meat company becomes just another flash in the pan.
It’s been a difficult couple of months for Rivian.
After years of vehicle development and production ramp-ups, the electric vehicle maker is finally delivering its high-end electric SUVs and pickups to customers, but it has also had to deal with supply chain headaches, layoffs, and speculation about its long-term prospects.
Now, the company says legislation moving through Congress is poised to deliver another blow.
Senate Democrats last week announced a surprising breakthrough on sweeping legislation that aims to combat climate change and rising healthcare costs, among other issues.
One provision of the bill would also extend the nation’s long-standing $7,500 credit designed to encourage purchases of EVs — but with a catch.
The Wall Street Journal reports that vehicles sold for more than $80,000 would no longer be eligible for the subsidy. Nor would buyers with household incomes of either $150,000 or $300,000 for married couples.
Although Rivian’s debut vehicles start below that mark, added features would quickly push most sales beyond that threshold, the company said.
The changes would also reportedly help Rivian’s rivals. The subsidy currently expires after an automaker sells its 200,000th EV, but the Senate bill would eliminate that cap, making Tesla and General Motors EVs thousands of dollars cheaper to their buyers.
Rivian executives argued that electric vehicle technology remains relatively new in the auto market and warned that the changes could dissuade some buyers from going electric. It called for a two-year transition to the new credit program.
Rivian eventually plans to offer a more affordable model that would qualify for the rebate at a second factory in Georgia — but the company said it needs continued growth to ensure it can make those investments.
The bill itself, meanwhile, still faces a narrow path to passage. Proponents aim to get it to the president’s desk in coming weeks.
As the business world roils in response to geopolitical tensions and supply chain challenges, Stellantis is making some changes related to its global footprint.
According to Bloomberg, the automaker has concerns about its operations in China, with Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares revealing recently that the company plans to transition to a strategy he referred to as “asset light.”
With this, the company has closed its only Jeep plant on Chinese soil.
Tavares suggested that the plant, which was producing Jeep Cherokee, Renegade, Compass and Grand Commander models for the Chinese market, was collateral damage from ongoing trade spats.
He indicated he was fearful that “political interference” could mean the plant could fall victim to “cross-sanctions” – perhaps the type that are hitting Russia in the event China were to act on rising tensions with Taiwan.
But this doesn’t appear to be the only reason Stellantis is terminating its 12-year partnership with China’s state-owned Guangzhou Automobile Group. Tavares cites “a major shift” in the Chinese market that’s causing foreign vehicle sales to fall, due at least in part to the Chinese Communist Party’s policies that support domestic automakers. He also alluded to “broken trust” between Stellantis and its Chinese partners.
The following day, Guangzhou Automobile Group fired back, with Bloomberg reporting that the auto group called Tavares’ comments “unbelievable” and said that the real reason Stellantis was abandoning the venture was because it “failed”… due to “a lack of respect for customers in the Chinese automobile market.”
In 2017, Lost Valley Farm opened the second-largest dairy in Boardman, Oregon with big ambitions. It was supposed to have 30,000 cows, but instead it was a disaster with more than 200 wastewater violations and bankruptcy in less than a year.
Then in February 2019, Cody Easterday bought the farm for $66.7 million. Easterday is a fourth generation farmer who heads Easterday Farms, an operation out of Washington state. He was confident that better management and some investment to finish the incomplete wastewater treatment system would do the trick for the farm that would be smaller with a mix of beef production cows and dairy cattle.
Well, things in Oregon haven't gone according to plan and it looks like Easterday might be ready to bail.
The farm has continued to be cited for an inability to bring nitrate levels in the water under control, and they don't even have cattle yet.
Easterday recently filed a multimillion lawsuit against the farm's former owners, claiming breach of contract and blaming them for the failed cleanup. Easterday wants some $14.5 million from Fall Line Capital and Canyon farm, who bought the mega dairy after Lost Valley went into bankruptcy. Or, Easterday just wants out of the purchase agreement.
Now, if Cody Easterday sounds familiar, it's because he's the man behind the $244 million "ghost cattle" scam to defraud Tyson Foods. His farm in Washington charged Tyson and another company to purchase and feed 200,000 cattle that didn't exist. So, he is amidst a much larger bankruptcy lawsuit to the north.
According to The Tri-City Herald, Easterday's son is now trying to restart operations in Oregon, but agriculture officials have denied the permits until the nitrates come down within safe levels.
At least it looks like the Easterdays has been trying to get the nitrates in check. After repeated failures, they finally got things compliant by December 2021, but then the Department of Agriculture wanted nine straight months of acceptable water samples. The lawsuit blames the previous owners as well as the farm next door on the nitrate problem. Even if Easterday gets out of the farm, or his son can take it over, the nitrate problem needs to be addressed because the aquifer is at a high risk for contamination.
Trash is everywhere. It’s on land, where it sometimes piles so high it becomes a smoldering mountain. It’s in space, where it breaks down differently while moving at blistering speeds and being pummeled by solar radiation. And it’s in our water, where it sometimes forms huge garbage waves.
The Ocean Cleanup, a nonprofit environmental engineering organization, has identified one river where the trash waves seem to be continually breaking. The group said the Rio Motagua basin in Guatemala is particularly messy, sending an estimated 20,000 tons of plastic into the Caribbean Sea on an annual basis. That means this one river is responsible for 2% of the plastic that entered the oceans worldwide.
To push back against the rush of rubbish, Ocean Cleanup has developed the eight-meter-tall Interceptor Trashfence. It looks like a big, metal volleyball net and it’s designed to contain trash upstream before it can hit the ocean and disperse. It’s an upgraded version of the Interceptor Original, whose 10,000 kilogram capacity wouldn’t hold up long against the annual Motagua floods.
The Interceptor Trashfence uses technology common in avalanche and landslide protection systems. With the reinforced model in place on the river bed, the idea is to catch the trash and then wait for water levels to recede before moving the garbage pile with excavators.
In a video showing the Interceptor Trashfence in action earlier this year, a shocking amount of garbage rages down the Rio Motagua before it’s trapped by the fence. Unfortunately, the Trashfence eventually springs a leak because the force of the river erodes the river base below the fence. Fortunately, Ocean Cleanup engineers don’t seem discouraged.
For now, the organization is at work optimizing the design and figuring out just how many Trashfences it will take to keep all or most of the plastic from making it to the sea.
The sad truth is that conflict has a long history of breeding innovation. It’s safe to say that many of the advancements in aerospace, electronics, medical treatments and transportation are in fact the byproducts of war.
Entering this time-honored and dubious collective is an uncrewed ground vehicle, or UGV, from Ukraine-based Termerland. Dubbed the GNOM, the two-square-foot, all-terrain, remote-controlled, lithium-ion battery-powered unit is being used to support ground troops in the war with Russia.
While the unit can be embedded with a GPS system that allows for autonomous operation, the GNOM’s notoriety has grown from not being as susceptible to the frequency jamming countermeasures that have impacted drone use during the Russian invasion. This stems from the spool of wear-resistant fiber optic cable it spools out behind it, enabling more reliable control and communication.
The 110-pound GNOMs offer a number of applications, including the ability to deliver ammunition and supplies, as well as collecting and sharing data via a survey camera mounted to a telescopic mast that can record images from up to 3 miles away.
It can also be used to boost communication transmission capabilities and work as a sort of ground-based satellite in sharing and dispersing information from larger weapons systems or networks.
However, the application that’s getting the most attention, of course, is the mounting of a 7.62 mm machine gun. While remote controls for guns or wheeled devices are not new, the combination of the two in a combat environment is, well, innovative.
The biggest concern, and area of interest to military leaders around the globe, is how to utilize these armed UGVs alongside troops. There’s also the need to dedicate personnel to operating the device and properly fire its weapon.
Ironically enough, according to a recent post on TaskandPurpose.com, Russia has historically been a pioneer in robotic war vehicles.
Although not very successful, their military experimented with robotic tanks before World War II. And in 2018 the Russian military claimed to have deployed robotic tanks in Syria, although a high-level researcher later stated that the vehicles were unable to match the operations of manned tanks.
Ideally, the lessons learned in Ukraine can one day be utilized in providing support for law enforcement, disaster relief, and transporting medical supplies.
Chipotle plans to grow like crazy and eventually have 7,000 restaurants in North America. To get there, the company will have to make a whole lot of burritos so to help its employees with the volume, it’s turning to robots.
The company this week announced an investment in Hyphen, a California-based company specializing in food production robotics. Hyphen’s first product is called the Makeline and it’s an automated system that uses advanced robotics and a customized operating system to fulfill food orders. The Makeline can handle all digital orders under the counter, out of view of the customers, while staff continue to assemble in-house orders on top of the counter.
Hyphen features thousands of sensors and uses artificial intelligence to make sure orders are put together correctly. No beef when you ordered chicken and no unwieldy globs of guacamole that overpower your burrito bowl. The machine also prints customers’ names and orders directly on the packaging to further ensure there are no mixups. Hyphen also lets employees know when it’s running low on ingredients and it rotates plates so every dish looks neat and tidy when it pops out.
For Chipotle, this partnership advances its use of robotics to improve efficiency and the overall experience for customers and employees. It’s also not the first time Chipotle has turned to robots for their fast casual dining expertise. The company’s Chippy cranks out tortilla chips complete with little imperfections so they don’t feel so machine-made.
For Hyphen, the Chipotle investment will allow it to accelerate hiring plans, pour more money into R&D and scale their operations.
For all of us, it means more robot chefs, which are obviously one of the coolest things the future has to offer.
There are places where the use of child labor is commonplace, even in factories rife with potential danger, but typically not in the United States where child labor laws have existed for many years.
But a recent exclusive report published by Reuters accuses a major automaker’s subsidiary of flouting these laws by employing children as young as 12 years old right here on U.S. soil.
A majority owned unit of Hyundai Motor Company called SMART Alabama LLC sits near the company’s flagship production facility in Montgomery and produces stamped metal parts and assemblies.
According to the Reuters report, local authorities learned of the plant’s practice of employing underage workers after a Guatemalan migrant child went briefly missing in February. It was later discovered that the girl, who was 13 at the time, had been working at SMART along with her 12 and 15 year old brothers.
Reuters says the siblings were “among a larger cohort of underage workers who found jobs at the Hyundai-owned supplier over the past few years” and cites interviews with “a dozen former and current plant employees and labor recruiters.”
The report adds that the facility has a history of safety violations and amputation hazards and that many of these child workers were forgoing school to work long shifts.
SMART provided a statement to Reuters, in which it denies allegations it, "knowingly employed anyone who is ineligible for employment."
In a separate statement, Hyundai said it "does not tolerate illegal employment practices at any Hyundai entity.” Reuters sources confirmed that many of the minors were hired through recruitment agencies with one former worker claiming there were about 50 underage workers across different shifts when he worked there.
The nearby police force who had initially uncovered the underage workers doesn’t have jurisdiction to investigate labor law violations and has reportedly alerted the state’s district attorney.
Reuters adds that federal and state law prohibits those under the age of 18 to work in metal stamping and pressing plants and Alabama state law also requires children 17 and under to attend school.
The news agency shared their report with David Michaels, the former U.S. assistant secretary of labor for OSHA who responded that "Consumers should be outraged.”
Elon Musk and SpaceX have made it abundantly clear that they’re going to Mars. The company is at work on Starship, which it says will be the world’s most powerful launch vehicle, capable of taking a full crew and lots of cargo to the red planet. But they may not get there first.
Relativity Space and Impulse Space have teamed up for a trip to Mars and, if everything goes as planned, they might be heading there very soon. The companies said that in 2024, Impulse’s Mars cruise vehicle and Mars lander will hitch a ride on Relativity’s fully reusable and entirely 3D-printed rocket. The companies said it will mark the first commercial mission to Mars.
However, Relativity hasn’t done much actual space travel yet, the type of experience that would make such an optimistic timeline for making it to Mars seem a little more realistic. The New York Times said Relativity still hasn’t launched its Terran 1 rocket, though it may finally get the chance soon from Cape Canaveral. But it will be the larger Terran R rocket flying to Mars, and that spacecraft won’t be ready to go for a few years.
But Relativity’s partner Impulse could help inspire confidence in this audacious mission given that its founder, Thomas Mueller, worked at SpaceX since the beginning and helped build the rockets that power the Falcon 9.
Relativity and Impulse will have their work cut out for them. Once the Terran R takes Impulse’s lander and vehicle into space, they’ll detach and travel for nine months to Mars. Once they get there, they’ll need to make sure they don’t melt while going 12,000 miles per hour through the atmosphere before sticking the landing.
If Relativity and Impulse can make it to Mars, they’ll open up a lucrative business sending cargo to the red planet for willing customers. The company already has five customers for Terran R for a total booking of $1.2 billion, including a multi-launch agreement with OneWeb, a satellite communications company.
Only 111 million miles stand between them and their goal.
By the time prepared vegetarian and organic food had a place at the table in terms of food industry market share, brands like Amy’s Kitchen already had an established legacy.
The California-based company was first established in 1987 and since then has expanded to reach more than 30 countries, producing a million meals per day using organic and non-GMO ingredients.
But the road, at times, has been rocky for the company, which is still run by its original founders, Rachel and Andy Berliner. The working conditions at Amy’s factories have been subject to criticism in recent years, including by former workers who have claimed that the plant’s line speeds are too fast to allow for bathroom breaks and that injured workers are routinely fired.
While Amy’s has denied these claims, the Berliners do contend that demand is high and the company is making more meals than ever before.
But how much growth is too much? We may have learned the breaking point, as it was announced this week that Amy’s will be closing its San Jose frozen foods plant and sending 300 workers packing.
The plant was opened a mere 11 months ago and was developed to focus on Amy’s fast-growing frozen pizza line. Instead, says the Bay Area News Group, its been costing Amy’s a million dollars a month.
Fred Scarpulla, COO of Amy’s, told the Bay Area News Group that recent inflation caused massive spikes in material costs and supply chain issues meant critical equipment delays. Further, Scarpulla said there was a significant issue with staff turnover and worker shortages.
But others speculated the Amy’s may have overexpanded to meet pandemic demand that was temporary, as homebound customers began pursuing expanded food options like restaurants meals. Another theory is that the ongoing claims over tough working conditions were having a tangible impact, as a 2022 boycott over the allegations resulted in some grocers dropping the company’s products.
In a bombshell revelation, a report published by Bloomberg says that Ford may be making the most significant operational change yet in response to electrics: cutting thousands of jobs.
Bloomberg cites unnamed sources familiar with the matter who says the Blue Oval plans to reduce headcount by 8,000 over the next few weeks. The sources say the cuts intend to target the Ford unit responsible for producing internal combustion engine vehicles, along with those in salaried positions.
The report points out that Ford currently employs around 31,000 salaried workers, the bulk of whom are in the US.
Bloomberg cites a statement from Ford where the automaker’s Chief Communications Officer Mark Truby declined to comment on the cuts, but does say it’s focused on operational strategies with EV growth in mind.
“As part of this,” said Truby, “we have laid out clear targets to lower our cost structure to ensure we are lean and fully competitive with the best in the industry.”
This spring, Ford CEO Jim Farley also unveiled a plan to cut $3 billion in costs from the company, an initiative that followed comments earlier in the year where Farley declared that Ford has “too many people.”
The company also made headlines amid a recent restructuring, where Ford split the company’s ambitions into one focused on EVs – titled Model e – and one dedicated to gas powered vehicles – titled Ford Blue. During a town hall meeting in March detailing the changes, it was reported that executive chairman Bill Ford told an employee concerned about risk that a bigger risk would be to not make a bold change when the world is changing so fast.
As automakers continue to develop and test autonomous vehicle technology, is it safe to assume they’re fully committed to a diligent and safe rollout?
We’d like to think so, however one industry insider hints that there may be some problems hiding under the hood of GM’s Cruise driverless program. Automotive News is reporting that an alleged whistleblower sent a letter to California regulators in advance to the approval of Cruise robotaxis for commercial services in the Bay Area.
The anonymous letter was sent by a person claiming to be a current employee within the Cruise driverless program and allegedly describes circumstances "indicative of a very chaotic environment."
The letter writer went on to say that safety issues weren’t being addressed in a timely fashion and that some were even being hidden from the employees. The letter writer concluded that "employees generally do not believe we are ready to launch to the public, but there is fear of admitting this because of expectations from leadership and investors."
Auto News says the California agency who received the letter hadn’t said whether it had been authenticated, just that they would work to investigate the claims.
As for GM, the report quotes Cruise spokesperson Drew Pusateri, who says "(The company’s) safety record is tracked, reported and published by multiple government agencies … We're proud of it and it speaks for itself."
Still, Automotive News points out that Cruise Robotaxis have been involved in some notable incidents recently, including one where a vehicle blocked the path of a fire engine en route to an emergency. Another was involved in an accident that resulted in injuries to occupants in both vehicles and prompted an investigation.
The letter writer said they believed the company's protocols relating to these types of incidents were not "consistent with a safety-first culture."
Manufacturing on earth has found countless ways to adapt to the environment. But in those rare cases where materials or components need extraordinary circumstances to get made, there’s always outer space.
UK-based startup Space Forge has assembled a plan to send a factory into outer space, where it can take advantage of extreme conditions to build electronic components, metal alloys and pharmaceuticals that would be “impossible to manufacture on Earth.”
The company’s first Forgestar mission will launch later this year, an early step in the company’s mission to build products that need the type of vacuum, microgravity and temperature found in space. Space Forge told Dezeen that it will be able to produce much lighter alloys since there won’t be enough gravity to separate the metal into multiple layers. The company also believes the anti-gravity environment will help with cell growth in biopharmaceutical applications and with avoiding defects in silicon structures used in semiconductors.
Space Forge expects that the vacuum in space, which creates pressure about 10 trillion times lower than on Earth, will eliminate air contamination and allow for the creation of even purer alloys.
Of course, for any of these products to be useful, they actually need to return from space to Earth, where most of the people live. To do that, Space Forge said it is building the world’s first fully returnable and re-launchable satellite. It’s a modular system with an interchangeable microgravity capsule to accommodate autonomous manufacturing before collapsing down for its return.
Space Forge is joined in the space manufacturing push by NASA, Amazon and several other companies. But if the company can perfect its process, it could help build some truly revolutionary products.
Robots can serve so many useful functions and with some hard work and a whole lot of money, unicorn riding could soon join the list of things that robots can provide.
Xpeng Robotics, a division of Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer Xpeng, just raised more than $100 million in Series A funding to realize its vision of helpful robots in the household within the next two years.
Xpeng already has plans for its first product, a quadruped robot with autonomous navigation and a multi-modal emotional interaction function. The company said it can act as a companion with the ability to care, entertain and transport. Or, in other words, it can act as a robot unicorn for the kids to ride on.
The company said its rideable robot unicorn will feature a pony gait, the ability to recognize objects, intelligent driving and target tracking, and the ability to cross multiple types of terrain. Xpeng Robotics said it is employing a “warm tech” design philosophy toward functions like hanging out with the family and giving rides to kids.
XPENG Robotics was established in 2016 and it claims to be one of the earliest companies in the walking robot sector in China. The company specializes in robot powertrains, locomotion control, robot autonomy, robot interaction and artificial intelligence.
Xpeng is not the only EV maker building robots. Tesla has promised to have a working prototype of its humanoid robot later this year. But Xpeng is picturing a future where many smart car manufacturers will also make smart robots, creating synergies greater than the sum of their parts. But really, I just need them to work on a robot unicorn that’s big enough for me to ride.
Employees at an Armorock Polymer Concrete manufacturing plant in Boulder City, Nevada were forced to evacuate following an explosion that injured six people.
The explosion caused a fire at the plant and Deputy Fire Chief Greg Chesser said the worker closest to the blast sustained severe burns. One employee was treated for chemical burns and three others suffered minor concussions. One experienced heat-related injuries.
The plant uses a polymer concrete that is resistant to corrosion and contains volatile chemicals, however, according to KTNV Channel 13 Action News Las Vegas, Nevada OSHA and firefighters have not determined the cause of the incident.
But 13 Investigates reported findings that allege Aromorock’s Boulder City site has a history of safety violations.
According to 13 Investigates, Nevada OSHA tagged the manufacturer with five serious violations in April regarding respiratory protection equipment, proper safety of an abrasive wheel grinder and forklift operation.
Armorock also reportedly had an accident in which an employee’s thumb had to be amputated after a 300-pound steel plate fell and crushed the thumb.
According to 13 Investigates, Armorock’s safety concerns are not limited to the Nevada location.
A January incident involving a worker being struck by a large mold at a plant in Sulphur Springs, Texas led to 25 serious violations and one willful violation. Armorock also reportedly did not have machine guards installed when the incident occurred.
13 Investigates also reported federal investigators determined “poor housekeeping” at the Texas factory resulted in worker exposure to airborne silica.
As for the Nevada site, Chesser described the damage from the explosion and fire by saying, “All the walls are blown out. All the windows are blown out. On the opposite side where the administration section is, the ceiling is down."
Boeing’s 737 Max passenger jets have caused serious problems–including two deadly crashes that grounded the planes worldwide for a year and a half. Now there’s a chance the company’s latest jet won’t make it to production, which could result in a massive loss in sales.
According to Barron’s, Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun hinted in a recent interview that the 737 Max 10 may have to be dropped from production. Melius research analyst Robert Spingarn estimated that the company already has 639 orders for the Max 10 and, if canceled, those customers may turn to Airbus, which could cost Boeing billions in potential sales.
The primary issue for the Max 10, which will be one of the biggest jets in Boeing’s lineup, is commonality on the flight deck. The company wants Congress to extend a deadline for making changes to the Max 10’s flight deck. Otherwise, pilots would need separate training for the Max 10 and that could cause issues for airlines.
According to the report, Boeing officials have expressed confidence that flight deck commonality issues won’t end up derailing Max 10 production. But Calhoun told Aviation Week that his company still has to face the possibility of moving forward without its new jet.
“If you go through the things we’ve been through, the debts that we’ve had to accumulate, our ability to respond, or willingness to see things through even a world without the -10 is not that threatening,” he said.
Despite possible production issues going on in the background, Boeing said the 737 Max 10 would make its international debut this month at the Farnborough International Airshow in the UK. The jet will join Boeing’s 777-9 in the daily flying and static display, and the company said the airplanes will fly to the show on a blend of sustainable aviation fuel.
Boeing is still producing and selling older 737 Max models like the 8 and 9 but the upcoming 10 will give it a major piece for competing with Airbus. Without it, the company and its shareholders will face yet another crisis.
Big patio umbrellas are great. They provide shade on a sunny day and will even protect you from some light rain if you’re not ready to head in yet. But they can’t really do any of that if they're engulfed in flames.
That, along with obvious safety concerns, is why the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said SunVilla is recalling 400,000 Solar LED Market Umbrellas sold only at Costco stores in the U.S. and another 33,000 sold in Canada. The primary issue is the lithium-ion batteries in the umbrella’s solar panels, which power the LED lights and can overheat, posing fire and burn hazards.
The company has received six reports of the lithium-ion batteries overheating that resulted in solar panels catching fire while charging, umbrellas catching fire when the solar panel puck overheated and caught fire while attached, and one instance of smoke inhalation injury.
SunVilla said consumers should immediately stop using the umbrellas, remove the solar panel puck, stop charging it, and store it out of the sun and away from combustible material. The company and Costco have begun notifying all purchasers of the umbrella, and are offering full refunds regardless if consumers return the umbrella and solar panel puck. The umbrellas were sold from December 2020 through May 2022 for between $130 and $160.
On the same day, the CPSC also alerted consumers to a recall for about 1,700 Troy-Bilt SpaceSavr Walk-Behind Self-Propelled Lawn Mowers because it can leak fuel when it is stored in the upright storage position, posing a fire hazard.
If it seems like backyard season is already off to an overly fire hazard-ish start this summer, try not to worry. Just follow the recalls and you should be able to enjoy a fairly flame-free time while shooting off fireworks next to your fire pit.
In April, the Guiness Book of World Records recognized Walter Orthmann. Orthmann didn't have the longest nails or mustache, but what he did have was the longest tenure working for the same company.
As of January 6, 2022, Orthmann worked at ReneauxView for 84 years and nine days. He's 100 years old.
Orthmann's first day at the Brazilian textile company was on January 17, 1938. He was a 15-year-old shipping assistant.
Orthmann started working at a young age to help his family pay the bills. He landed the job at the weaving mill because he could speak German.
He has been promoted up the ladder holding positions in sales and management. While he has seen the world around him change many times, he believes one of the keys to a successful career is adaptability.
He has lived through huge changes in manufacturing. For example, when he started, looms would weave fabrics at a pace of 20-50 meters per day. Today, machines do 400-600 meters of the same fabric.
He credits a calm life and daily exercise for his ability to travel to the office every day. He says the office is his favorite place, and he stresses the importance of working for a good company in a profession that keeps you motivated.
At his age, Orthmann doesn't do much planning. "You need to get busy with the present, not the past or the future," he said. "Here and now is what counts. So, let’s go to work!"
The Century Aluminum plant in Hawesville, Kentucky is shutting down production due to rising energy costs.
In a statement, the company says the plant idling is the "direct result of skyrocketing energy costs," specifically blaming the Russian war in Ukraine for the dramatic increase.
The production stoppage will impact some 628 workers who will be laid off at the second largest employer in the area, according to the Messenger-Inquirer.
The company will close the smelter for nine to 12 months beginning today, until energy prices return to normal levels. The company only gave employees about three days' notice, informing them on the closure last Wednesday.
According to the company, the plant is its largest U.S. smelter and the largest producer of high purity aluminum in North America.
The aluminum is used extensively in the defense industry as well as in aerospace applications. For example, it's used in F16s, naval war vessels, Boeing 747s and even at the International Space Station.
As recently as last week, the company was increasing production and hiring, but power problems brought everything to a halt.
According to Jesse Gary, president and CEO of Century Aluminum, power costs have more than tripled the historical average in a very short period. However, he remains confident that the smelter could reopen once prices stabilize. Still, the company gave no assurance that the plant will reopen after the shutdown.
It’s been nearly six years since Domino’s pushed drone technology to its logical peak by delivering a pizza but now the dream is getting closer to becoming reality.
SkyDrop, the pizza maker’s partner in aerial pizza logistics, said this week that it’s completed building the Domino’s drone fleet and that commercial tests will begin soon in New Zealand. The company said its drones will be able to carry orders like three extra-large pizzas, or two large pizzas with one soda and one side dish (including dipping sauce).
SkyDrop's operational system for drone delivery includes two aircraft, one ground infrastructure platform, and one autonomous control station that the company said allows for a frictionless workflow at the store location.
Besides being totally awesome, pizza delivered by drone offers perks like reducing traffic and CO2 emissions. But with the COVID-19 pandemic still around, it has the added benefit of being contactless.
Back in 2016, Domino’s completed its first drone delivery after flying for about five minutes and dropping two pizzas into a couple’s backyard in New Zealand. At the time, the company said it hoped to expand drone delivery to Australia, Belgium, France, The Netherlands, Japan and Germany.
Since then, SkyDrop has been evolving its technology. The company increased the payload of the SkyDrop drone up to 3.5 kilograms, increased the precision delivery altitude of the drone up to 60 meters and incorporated a parachute system for safety.
And now, the time is right. The world is ready. Let the pizzas fly.
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, New York churned out tons of greenish hand sanitizer that was bottled up and placed in public buildings throughout the state. But now, with the worst of it seemingly past the state, it’s stuck with 700,000 unused gallons of the stuff.
According to Democrat & Chronicle, all the NYS Clean hand sanitizer is sitting on the runway at a state training facility near Utica while the state decides what to do with it. Then-Governor Andrew Cuomo said the bottles cost approximately $6.10 to make so the publication estimates the unused sanitizer carries a cost of about $4.3 million.
New York State Senator Joseph Griffo last week wrote to Governor Kathy Hochul, urging the state to consider all options for disposing of the unused sanitizer. He expressed concerns over potential plans to ship the sanitizer out of state and have it incinerated, stating that it would likely be a costly endeavor.
Griffo suggested alternatives including using waste to energy conversion facilities to transform the sanitizer into heat, electricity and other sources of power. He also said cosmetic companies might buy the sanitizer and use the isopropyl alcohol for manufacturing makeup, lotions and fragrances.
These seem like good ideas but they don’t involve a massive hand sanitizer inferno, which sounds kinda cool.
We know that both shortages and inflation are hitting Americans in the pocketbook, and recently published data confirms that the auto industry is still running hotter than ever – at the expense of the average buyer.
Moody’s Analytics says that the average monthly car payment in the U.S. just hit a record high of $712 – and there are a lot of factors in play.
Moody’s, using Cox Automotive data, says that high demand and low supply has discouraged incentives from manufacturers and dealers, leading to high purchase prices. How high? The firm says vehicles are 26 percent more expensive than before the pandemic and 19 percent more expensive than this time last year. Specifically, in May, new vehicle prices averaged $47,148 and used vehicles were still up 40% from pre-pandemic figures.
But despite the average new vehicle price sitting at its second highest recorded sum, there are other variables adding to the ballooning payments: interest rates. And as the Fed continues to add basis points to tame inflation, these will continue to ramp up and add to the monthly strain.
But the report goes on to stress that while cost increases are everywhere, the demand for luxury vehicles is also weighing against the average with these buyers paying an average of $1,071 above sticker price.
And that’s not the only number going up. So are loan delinquencies, according to Ford CFO, John Lawler, as reported by Automotive News.
Is there any end in sight? Moody’s thinks so, but the consensus seems to vary. As Jalopnik points out in a recent follow up report, automakers may not have an incentive to go back to business as usual.
Elon Musk was recently interviewed in a three-part series by the Tesla Owners Silicon Valley Club. Thus far, only the first two segments have been released. While the interview is far-reaching, Musk made some bold predictions for potential competitors while retelling how touch-and-go things were at the upstart carmaker before the brand took off.
Musk predicts that, unless something changes significantly, Rivian and Lucid will go bankrupt. He admits that the carmakers have an opportunity to change course, but their current trajectories don't look good.
Rivian is backed by Amazon and Ford but has had issues with battery fires. Oh, and it lost about $1.6 billion in the first quarter of 2022. Lucid is backed by partners in Saudi Arabia that have promised billions in investment and up to 100,000 EV orders. Still, Lucid ran into trouble late last year when it disclosed to the SEC that it had been subpoenaed by government regulators.
Musk says, "unless they cut their costs dramatically, they are in deep trouble and will end up in the cemetery like every other car company -- with the exception of Tesla and Ford."
While he admits to Tesla's troubled start, he says the only American car companies that haven't gone bankrupt are Tesla and Ford.
Musk calls GM's bailout "a flat-out donation from taxpayers worth billions of dollars."
While many people attribute Tesla's success to government handouts, Musk says it's a common misconception. Instead, he says Daimler's $50 million investment in 2009 was essential to Tesla's survival.
The investment came as Tesla was trying to figure out how to get the Roadster into volume production in 2008. In 2008, Tesla delivered 20-25 cars, mostly in December 2008, but the drivetrains and most battery packs had to be replaced. Musk says it was a "fumbling mess."
He says it wasn't until the summer of 2009 that the Roadster wasn't "a complete piece of trash." By late 2009/early 2010, it was a decent toy for car enthusiasts.
Around the same time as the Daimler investment, Tesla received a non-binding letter of interest from the Department of Energy for about $500 million in reimbursement loans. Basically, the company had to spend the money and provide invoices to be refunded based on audited expenses. The money couldn't be used as advanced capital but rather as reimbursement.
Musk says that Tesla didn't start receiving the money until early 2010 when the recession had passed. According to Musk, if Tesla had needed that money to survive, it wouldn't have made it to 2010 and gone bankrupt. The DOE loan was helpful as an accelerant but wasn't a lifeline.
After Tesla's IPO in 2010 raised $226.1 million, Musk says Tesla not only paid back the DOE loan but even had to pay an early repayment penalty. Taxpayers made money on Tesla, Musk says.
Daimler sold its remaining 4% stake in Tesla in 2014 for $780 million.
Littering seems like an easy thing not to do but still, the problem persists. It’s right up there with not picking up your dog’s poop or not putting your shopping cart in the corral when you’re done. Still, some people need a little extra incentive to not throw garbage on the ground.
In the Swedish city of Malmö, that incentive now comes in the form of a sultry female voice dishing out sexually suggestive phrases whenever someone deposits trash in the receptacle.
According to CNN, the messages come from two garbage cans situated on a bridge. They offer encouragement for non-litterers like “Oh, right there, yes!", "Come back soon and do that again!" and "Mmm, a bit more to the left next time.”
While it’s definitely a new, more adult-themed manner of speaking for the garbage cans, the bins in Malmö have been talking for years now. The city bought 18 talking trash cans back in 2017 but now only two of them are still speaking. However, those two trash cans are doing all they can to raise awareness about littering in the city.
“The sentences are part of the campaign’s intention to get more people to talk about the dirtiest thing there is: littering. The stuff that ends up in our streets, squares, and sea,” said Marie Persson, who serves as section chief at the city’s roads department. “So please go ahead and feed the bins with more rubbish…yes, just like that.”
Maybe you don’t require any extra passionate pleas to avoid littering. But I’m sure you can agree that there’s nothing wrong with a little dirty talk if it gets people to clean up their acts.
Consumer goods continue to face supply chain issues. By now, nearly everyone has heard of the baby formula shortages. But another group of products is experiencing a significant shortage and a Time article called it the scarcity “no one’s talking about.”
This one involves tampons and pads. This shortage is the result of a combination of factors. CNN Business reports there have been supply constraints regarding materials that go into tampons, such as cotton, rayon, pulp and plastic. These products have been going to medical products like personal protection equipment.
Even the war in Ukraine plays a role. According to The Observatory of Economic Complexity, in 2020, Russia was the world’s top exporter of, which helps to grow cotton, with an export value of $7.6 billion.
Then there’s the drought in Texas. Drought.gov says 65% of the conditions in the Lone Star State currently qualify as a “severe drought.” According to Texas Farm Bureau, 11.4 million acres of upland cotton were harvested in the U.S. in 2019 and 5.25 million came from Texas.
But unlike the toilet paper dearth, a tampon shortage creates a biological demand and women cannot simply wait around for shelves to be restocked. So, naturally, that is being taken advantage of.
The Time article mentioned dozens of women on threads and forums who discussed difficulty finding tampons and added that Amazon’s prices were higher than usual.
Then there’s the opinion of Procter & Gamble, the owner of the popular brand Tampax, pointing attention to Amy Schumer. The actress and comedian began appearing in Tampax advertisements in 2020 and according to P&G spokeswoman Cheri McMaster, “retail sales growth has exploded” and demand is up 7.7% since the campaign started.
Never mind that a pandemic happened to be escalating around that time or that brands such as Playtex and o.b. from Edgewell Personal Care are also having shortage issues.
Thyme Sullivan, the co-founder and CEO of TOP The Organic Project, which makes tampons in Europe, said the gender of people in charge of America and its companies might explain the shortage.
Sullivan said, “We need to bring men into the conversation because in many places, they’re the decision-makers and this wasn’t on their radar.”
TOP The Organic Project, founded by women, added there hadn’t been any shortages of its products since the beginning of the pandemic.
Industrial accidents should always be avoided if possible. But every once in a while, something goes wrong at the factory and it’s actually kind of sweet.
That was the case this week when two people fell into a chocolate tank at the M&M/Mars factory in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania. According to Penn Live, the individuals were unable to escape the chocolate, which was believed to be about waist deep. No injuries have been reported but both people were reportedly taken to the hospital.
According to WHTM, first responders were called to the scene to cut a hole in the side of the tank so the two people could get out. A spokesperson for Mars told the news station that they “are actively managing the situation and our primary focus is supporting emergency teams on site.”
The plant manufactures several confections including M&Ms and Dove chocolates. It’s located just south of Hershey, Pennsylvania.
Amazingly, this is not the first time in the past calendar year that a chocolate factory has played site to a mishap. According to Newsweek, a woman was hospitalized with a head injury and broken tooth after her colleague at the La Laica factory in Arona, Italy last year hit her over the head with a two-pound chocolate bar. The assault reportedly happened after a prolonged argument about chocolate.
There’s no need to sugar coat it; working at a chocolate factory can be dangerous.
Update: The Lancaster Bureau of Police told Today it had not been notified of any injuries and confirmed the trip to the hospital was likely a precautionary measure.
Walmart has become the latest major retailer to drop a coconut milk brand after allegations of forced monkey labor surfaced.
According to Axios, Walmart no longer sells Chaokoh products in stores and online, and the company’s Sam’s Club outlets are also no longer listing the product. Walmart joins other retailers including Target, Costco, Kroger and more in dropping the brand amid pressure from PETA.
In 2019, PETA investigators in Asia surfaced several instances in Thailand of a coconut supplier using chained-up monkeys to pick the fruit for major Thailand-based brands like Chaokoh. A follow-up investigation the next year found that many farms were still using monkey labor as well as operating monkey schools and running coconut-picking competitions with the animals.
PETA’s campaign to get retailers to pull Chaokoh products from shelves has gathered more than 95,000 supporters. The organization is still pushing to get 99 Ranch Market, an Asian supermarket chain with 54 stores across 10 states, to stop carrying the coconut milk brand.
On its website, Chaokoh said it contracted a company to conduct a monkey-free coconut due diligence assessment in 2020. The company said the assessment, which involved site tours and personnel interviews, turned up no evidence of monkeys being used for coconut harvesting.
Regardless, PETA executive vice president Tracy Reiman said, "With one PETA exposé after another confirming cruelty on coconut farms, retailers are dropping Chaokoh left and right.”
Deere & Co. has had enough of the labor market struggles in the U.S. and is moving some production to Mexico.
Last Thursday, the ag equipment manufacturer said it is relocating cab production from Waterloo, Iowa to a components plant in Ramos Arizpe, Mexico.
According to Reuters, the relocation could affect some 250 employees and the transfer is scheduled to be finished by 2024. However, according to the Des Moines Register, the total number of employees impacted will depend on production volume and employee attrition over the next two years.
In a statement, the company said the move will help it "balance workforce needs within the tight labor market" and will also open up space to manufacture new products. Deere hasn't mentioned what the new products might be.
Late last year, some 10,000 UAW workers at Deere & Co. plants went on a five-week strike, most of them in Iowa. After rejecting two offers, the employees approved a new six-year deal. According to the Des Moines Register, it was the largest walkout in the state since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking work stoppages in 1991.
Deere & Co. says the strike wasn't a factor in its decision to move.
In February, DeLorean Motor Company teased a comeback during Super Bowl LVI with a 15-second spot. But, in the spirit of teasing, it revealed very little.
The commercial showed text that reads, “The future was never promised,” followed by a shot of a shadowy vehicle with gullwing doors. The ad closed with a link to a website.
Just before Memorial Day, the company released a preview of its all-electric version of the vehicle known for its role in the Back to the Future trilogy.
It’s called the Alpha5 and it will premiere at Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance on August 18 and the Concept Lawn on August 21.
Much like its Super Bowl ad, DeLorean is still leaning towards secrecy, only releasing a few concept images and key specs.
The Alpha5 still sports the signature gullwing doors and rear window louvers. However, this version will be larger than those of the past, with a 196.6-inch length, an 80.4-inch width, a wheelbase of 90.5 inches and a closed-doors height of 53.9 inches.
DeLorean estimates the Alpha5 will possess a range of some 300 miles and a battery pack of about 100 kWh (kilowatt-hours). The company also projects a top speed of 155 miles per hour and a 0-60 time of 2.99 seconds.
Vegemite. You may have heard of it thanks to the Men At Work song, but it’s possible you’ve never tried it. It’s a dark, thick and salty yeast extract spread and a famous Australian delicacy. And it turns out, it gives off such a distinct smell during the manufacturing process that it’s been awarded a special heritage recognition from the city of Melbourne.
According to the Guardian, the city council this week voted unanimously to include the scent in any statement of significance assigned to 1 Vegemite Way in Fishermans Bend, site of the company’s nearly 100-year-old factory. Deputy Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece said the decision doesn’t necessarily mean the smell needs to be protected, but that it “should be acknowledged in any future development of the site.”
The council was somewhat vague in its proclamation, stating only that smell should be interpreted on a plaque or other means when the site is redeveloped. That leaves the door open for future developers to install a Vegemite smell machine, which really would be the right thing to do.
Bega Cheese, which owns the factory after buying the Vegemite brand from Kraft in 2017, is reportedly looking to sell the building. However, even if the company finds a buyer, it would secure a long-term lease so it could continue making Vegemite, meaning the sweet smells will likely keep churning out for years to come.
Last week, Dyson pulled back the curtain on robot prototypes currently in development as part of a presentation at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Philadelphia. And while it boils down to little more than a recruiting tool, some of the projects could stand to make a big impact on our day-to-day lives.
In a video, Dyson's Chief Engineer Jake Dyson showed off some of the secret R&D work at the company's Hullavington Airfield campus in England. Though glimpses, they were intriguing, like robots doing the dishes, setting the table and even cleaning up children's toys. The company is developing robots that will not only be safe in a home environment, but take a beating, because, you know, kids.
Dyson plans to ramp up robotics in a big way in the next few years.
The company typically acts more coy and top secret, but the chief engineer wants to show off some of the cool tech to try and entice engineering talent. Dyson wants to recruit 250 robotics engineers for various disciplines, including computer vision, machine learning, mechatronics and sensors. The company plans to add another 700 over the next five years.
Dyson is undergoing a talent infusion, already hiring some 2,000 people this year, about half of which are engineers, scientists and coders. The company is trying to build the UK's largest, most advanced, robotics hub and bring the technology into our homes by 2029.
The new jobs will be based at Hullavington Airfield, a new lab close to the Dyson Robotics Lab at Imperial College in London and at the company's global headquarters in Singapore. Over the last six months, Dyson has been refitting one of the main aircraft hangars at Hullavington Airfield to prepare for the new hires. The company's robotics makeover is part of a $3.4 billion investment in new technologies, products and facilities; $753 million of which is earmarked for this year.
As a parent, Jake Dyson says he spends half of his life cleaning up after his kids. Jake, you're preaching to the choir. His plan is to have robotics alleviate some of these mundane tasks. Now, about diapers...
It might seem challenging enough to control an 850 Horsepower race car with conventionally abled hands and feet… and for a quadriplegic, perhaps impossible.
Until now. In an effort described as “tremendous,” a student at Miami Dade College has demonstrated the capabilities of new technology enabling him to speed around a track in a NASCAR race car using the power of his mind.
Honduran native German Aldana Zuniga lost the use of his arms and legs after a car crash at age 16 injured his spinal cord. Nine years later, Zuniga is part of a study, spearheaded by the University of Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, that utilizes a brain implant that allows the user to drive using their mind. The BMI – or brain machine interface – functions as a sensor on the brain’s surface. When the user thinks of a task, the brain activates and the sensor picks up the signal to transmit the action.
According to the Miami Herald, the technology allowed Zuniga to control the throttle of the race car with his thoughts. The process was augmented by a device referred to as “sip and puff” that he used to slow down the car, and another person was on hand as a safety precaution.
David McMillan, the director of education and outreach for the Miami Project, says that grading the throttle response was “the primary engineering challenge” but years of trials helped the team develop a response that made the shifts in speed gradual.
Project stakeholders are excited about the possibilities for this technology outside of driving. For example, they describe a “paradigm shift” where this could be applied to everyday tasks, allowing a physically disabled person to turn on their lights or move a cursor on a computer screen.
After the experience, which Zuniga called “an adrenaline rush,” he encouraged people experiencing similar circumstances to hold out hope for increasing capabilities as these types of technologies advance, saying “hopefully one day everyone with a disability can walk again.”
It’s not surprising that no one yet has driven an electric vehicle from the North Pole to the South Pole. It’s a difficult journey and there’s likely long stretches without convenient charging stations. And, given the abundance of oceans, it’s probably a lot simpler to just take a boat.
But next year, British adventurer Chris Ramsey is going for it. He and his team will set out from the magnetic North Pole in a tricked out, all-electric Nissan Ariya e-4ORCE and cross 14 countries over about 17,000 miles. The team plans to travel through North America and South America before crossing over to Antarctica.
Given the variety of terrain and temperatures, ranging from -20 to nearly 90 degrees fahrenheit, Ramsey’s Nissan will be modified with a custom rugged exterior with upgraded wheels, tires and suspension. A second, unmodified Nissan Ariya e-4ORCE will act as a support vehicle throughout the Americas.
This isn’t Ramsey’s first time covering a lot of ground in an electric vehicle. In 2017, he and his wife, Julie, finished the Mongol Rally, a roughly 10,500-mile intercontinental race that starts in London and ends in Russia, in a Nissan Leaf. That took 56 days so it’s reasonable to believe that the Pole-to-Pole expedition could last at least three months.
Ramsey said that his mission with this upcoming adventure is to show that “electric vehicles can tackle the harshest of environments – from the bitter cold of the poles to the hot and humid jungles of South America, and illustrate that they are exhilarating to drive whilst meeting the daily demands of drivers around the world.”
Noticing those vehicle dashboard lights illuminating to indicate an issue might not seem so intimidating after seeing the car troubles this Tesla driver endured.
Jamil Jutha was driving a 2021 Tesla Model Y in North Vancouver when, all of a sudden, the vehicle lost all power to the electronic components and shut down. However, Jutha could not exit the car because the doors would not open and the windows would not go down.
Then the problem got worse.
Jutha noticed smoke coming through the air vents and filling the cabin. With the doors and windows not responding, Jutha decided to force his way out by kicking through a window.
Jutha called 911 immediately after exiting and found some construction workers to help him redirect traffic around the vehicle that began to burn as he was concerned the battery might explode.
The fire department eventually put out the fire after it had entered the car’s interior.
A Model Y’s doors are designed to open electronically at the touch of a button. In emergencies where the car loses power, the section of the door with window control switches acts as a lever that can lift and open the door.
Jutha said the mechanical release is not exactly instinctive in a panic situation and said other Tesla drivers should familiarize themselves with the feature.
Investigators will examine the vehicle in an attempt to discover a cause.
A recent study conducted by Adobe suggests that half of the total workforce wants “complete flexibility” when it comes to how and when they do their jobs. For many manufacturers who have long dealt with a talent shortage, this is an added barrier: how to attract and retain a workforce for onsite roles in factories when workplace culture changes increasingly reject being tethered?
Despite the hurdles inherent in this approach for manufacturers, it hasn’t stopped some from trying to shift their efforts.
In 2021, General Motors unveiled a new policy aimed at capitalizing on the momentum towards worker flexibility. Dubbed “Work Appropriately,” the program applied to white collar workers who were able to transition from pandemic-era work-from-home to a more permanent remote option. The idea was that these employees work where they were most effective, meanwhile it enabled managers the flexibility to oversee things like scheduling and dress codes without the overreach of a corporate policy.
On the heels of the success of “Work Appropriately,” the Detroit Free Press has revealed that GM is exploring a pilot program that could result in the expansion of the program to other sets of workers.
Specifically, GM says it will expand the remote work option to some salaried factory employees. Spokesperson Dan Flores told the Free Press the initiatives “vary from site to site but include working from home, where appropriate, to do administrative tasks, training, online learning" and shift assignments.
But what’s getting the most attention, perhaps, are those who are not included in this opportunity. GM says roles without “work location flexibility” will be excluded, which includes a broad swath of GM workers including those in engineering, vehicle design, vehicle testing and development as well as assembly line and skilled trades in manufacturing.
The Free Press said the effort “doesn’t sit well” with some hourly workers on GM production lines who won’t have this option, quoting one who said “Would I like to do that? Hell yeah, bring 400 cars to me and I’ll work on them in my backyard."
Scott Harwick, shop chairman for UAW Local 22 who represents hourly workers at GM’s Factory ZERO in Detroit called the policy “a double standard” that he didn’t believe members would appreciate.
GM's Fort Wayne Assembly plant in Indiana, UAW Local 2209 Shop Chairman Rich LeTourneau seems to agree, telling the Free Press that if "The people who build trucks can’t work from home, (he doesn't) think anybody should work from home in the auto industry."
When you’re driving, there’s acceleration and there’s testing the very bounds of time, space and human endurance. The upcoming Bentley EV will tilt toward the latter.
In an interview with Automotive News Europe, Bentley CEO Adrian Hallmark promised that his company’s electric vehicle will sport 1,400 horsepower and go from 0-60 mph in a bonkers 1.5 seconds. Most current lists have even the fastest 0-60 mph times hovering around 2 seconds, so yeah, this car will pulverize you.
Hallmark said the current Bentley Continental GT Speed is at 650 horsepower and that the Bentley EV will double that. But he warned of diminishing returns with such rapid acceleration. “The problem is, it's uncomfortable,” he said. “The thrill of 2.4 seconds to 60 mph is great about 10 times. Then it just becomes nauseous."
However, Bentley will leave it up to the driver, who can stick with 0-60 mph in 2.7 seconds or switch it to 1.5 seconds. So, you can decide if you’d like to turn your brains into mashed potatoes. But with a 12-cylinder engine, you’ll probably be going fast no matter how carefully you drive.
Hallmark said though that the “brutality of acceleration” won’t be the defining trait of the Bentley EV, but rather its ability to easily overtake other vehicles due to the huge amount of torque on demand.
The Bentley EV won’t go into production until 2025 and one variant may cost as much as 250,000 Euros, so there’s still time to save your money and prepare your body to endure the physical rigors this insanely powerful vehicle will wreak upon it.
Earlier this year, Ford made headlines after it came to light that the American automotive titan was considering spinning off its rapidly expanding electric-vehicle operations from its conventional, internal-combustion engine ones.
A complete split was quickly ruled out – likely amid opposition from the Ford family – and the company instead announced plans to create two separate businesses — sort of — under the Ford corporate umbrella.
Ford officials said the move would give the company the best of both worlds — the flexibility of a startup and the scale of an established automaker — but analysts continue to wonder how the company will deal with decades-old, legacy operations that run the risk of becoming obsolete as the world pushes car makers to change.
Everyone involved, it seems, could get a look at what might have been from across the pond.
Recent reports indicated that Renault is also exploring the possibility of spinning off its EV operations, complete with its own initial public offering. The company this week acknowledged that it was evaluating a separation and suggested that the individual units could employ 10,000 workers each by next year.
Reuters reported that several working groups were studying two separate legal structures: an EV operation, code-named "Ampere," and "Horse," which would comprise its gas-powered and hybrid cars. The EV jobs would be located in the company’s native France, while the internal combustion operations would be located elsewhere.
Executives are reportedly pressing ahead despite continued uncertainty over the company’s operations in Russia. They plan to present the findings at a company conference this fall.
On Wednesday, Abbott Laboratories said that production at a troubled infant formula plant in Michigan could restart within two weeks.
In February, Abbott recalled baby formulas made at its plant in Sturgis after complaints of bacterial infections in infants who drank specific Similac products. As a result, two infants died, and several babies were hospitalized.
Once the company gets the go-ahead, it will restart EleCare, Alimentum and metabolic formulas first, with Similac and others to follow.
Unfortunately, it could be six to eight weeks before stores start restocking shelves, which won't help a supply chain already failing in many areas of the country, even the daycare my children attend.
On April 20th, when the company had to slash its sales forecast for its nutrition division, Abbott called the recall a "short-term hindrance" and noted that it was working with the FDA on corrective actions.
According to the FDA, the Sturgis facility failed to maintain sanitary conditions and procedures at the plant. Abbott didn't keep surfaces clean and had a history of bacteria contamination.
Overall, the company will be fine after reporting $3.3 billion in COVID-19 test sales last quarter. And while the FDA is trying to work with manufacturers to ease supply chain issues, many are already at or exceeding capacity.
Cannabis use, both recreational and medicinal, has increased dramatically in the United States. As more people incorporate it into their lives, businesses remain concerned about protecting their workforce from impaired employees on the job. To combat cannabis intoxication, some companies have turned to breathalyzers; it's a familiar tech, and they are accurate when testing for the presence of THC.
However, according to Ken Fichtler, CEO and founder of Gaize AI, the problem isn't the presence of THC. He says it all comes down to impairment. Fichtler says that while breathalyzers can detect THC, they don't detect impairment. This is because studies have shown that measuring THC in the body cannot be correlated to a predictable level of impairment.
The baby formula supply problem is not getting better. In fact, it is getting worse. Manufacturers claim production is at full capacity, but it still is not meeting the current demand.
In the first half of 2021, the out-of-stock rate for baby formula sat between 2% and 8%. However, the rate skyrocketed between November 2021 and early April of this year to 31%. CNN Business reports that the number is currently up to 40%.
According to Datasembly, over half of baby formula was completely sold out in Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Missouri and Texas during the week starting April 24.
The data also said 26 states are struggling with supply.
Lordstown Motors has struggled with a moving target of challenges over the past few years, among them multiple lawsuits that accused the EV maker of breach of contract, conspiracy and outright fraud.
It seemed for a moment the company was destined for bankruptcy, when a unique opportunity arose. Foxconn, the global electronics contract manufacturing giant based in Taiwan, handed the company an offer that was tantamount to a lifeline and in September of last year, the two parties came to an agreement…
Foxconn would buy Lordstown’s Ohio factory for $230 million, as well as purchase $50 million in stock, and the companies would parse out a deal for Foxconn to assemble Lordstown’s flagship SUV and build out its own EVs leveraging Lordstown technology.
But since then, the road has been rocky. In March it was revealed that the deal hit a snag as the two parties were reportedly struggling to come to terms on certain conditions. More recently, US regulators have cleared the deal, but Lordstown has confirmed the conditions to close still have not been met and instead of closing on the deadline of April 29th, Foxconn issued a press release.
On April 25, 2022, Urban-Air Port and Supernal unveiled the Air-One in the United Kingdom. The Air-One is a proprietary deployable operations hub that could provide quick multimodal infrastructure for eVTOLS and other passenger travel – think small turnkey airport, or, as they call it, a vertiport. Unfortunately, this one is for viewing purposes only, though they plan to hold drone demos to show potential advanced air mobility (AAM) use case scenarios.
The Air-One is a 17,000 square-foot circular structure built in just 11 weeks and designed to serve four markets: passenger air taxis, autonomous delivery drones, disaster emergency management and defense operations and logistics.
The vertiport has zones to serve these various purposes, so it has a passenger lounge, security screening, café and retail space, as well as a cargo logistics hub, electric and hydrogen-air vehicle hangar, passenger taxi processing and control center. The middle of the vertiport is a 56-foot circular final approach and takeoff platform that raises 19 feet in the sky using a small link-lift system for takeoffs and landings.
Bre Pettis, co-founder of MakerBot and current CEO of Bantam Tools, says the U.S. must bring prototyping and manufacturing back in-house, close the skills gap and build an independent manufacturing workforce.
Cameras on drones is not a new concept but Snapchat’s just announced Pixy offers an interesting take on the product category.
Instead of being controlled by the user, the Pixy flies itself and follows the user like an adorable little creeper. The device, which is about the size of a CD case, pairs with a smartphone and uses its four propellers to take off from and land in a user’s hand. The company says the rechargeable battery supports about five to eight flights for capturing video and images.
Pixy uses different preset flight patterns to make it more user-friendly than a typical drone. Hover lets users take selfies and direct Pixy to pan its camera; Reveal lets the Pixy fly high above users for wide angle views; Follow lets the Pixy just tag along behind the user; and Orbit lets the Pixy fly circles around the user. The device includes a 12 megapixel sensor that can shoot up to 100 videos or 1,000 photos and then store them locally on a 16 gig drive.
When it’s done, Pixy will wirelessly transfer your Snaps to Memories in Snapchat, after which users can edit the videos and add sounds and filter effects.
Even with everything on board, the Pixy still weighs less than a quarter pound.
The Pixy starts at $229 and that means it will be marginally upsetting if it ever malfunctions and flies off into the woods without you. And since it’s so lightweight, the Pixy is not ideal for windy conditions, unless you like to stare wistfully at the horizon while your significant investment flies off into the sunset.
It was hard to look away from the Elon Musk-Twitter chronicles that spanned a few weeks. Musk became the social media platform’s biggest shareholder. Then Musk was set to join Twitter’s board. And then he wasn’t.
Then, it looked like he was set to buy Twitter and take it private, then it didn’t. Then it did again. Now, as Musk and Twitter are looking to close the $44 billion buyout offer, each party has set out terms and conditions.
As reported by Business Insider, these rules are in a new SEC filing and some of them are a bit unique.
One of the details is that if either party leaves the deal, they have to pay the other a $1 billion kill fee. Additionally, Twitter must cease negotiations with other potential buyers and stop actively looking for other buyers.
But if a new buyer appears and intrigues Twitter, the company has to tell Musk, who will have four days to make a better offer. Even if Musk does not change his offer and Twitter elects to go with the other buyer, it still owes Musk the termination fee.
Should Musk fail to get funding to finance the deal or change his mind, he will owe the kill fee.
You may recall that there was a lot going on in 2020. A lot. So in case you missed this one, we’ll offer up a quick recap:
In May of that year, just a scant two months into the U.S. COVID-19 pandemic, Nissan quietly announced that it would be winding down its Datsun brand – a big reveal that may not have registered amid the din, not to mention the fact that Datsun has been down this road before.
The brand, which had its heyday in the 1960s, has actually been around since 1931. In 1986 it was discontinued but received a stay in 2012 after then-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn pledged to revive the brand as a low-cost entry in emerging markets.
A decade later and a lot has changed. Ghosn is history after being accused of white collar crimes in 2019 and then fleeing Japan, leaving Nissan’s new execs to right the ship. This strategy seems to entail a shift where Nissan gets back to focusing on its core brands – Nissan and Infiniti – which left Datsun out of the mix. And while the decision to discontinue the brand was made in 2020, it wasn’t until March of this year that Nissan-Renault has finally ceased output at the car brand’s last remaining plant.
According to Automotive News, that plant – in Chennai, India – has wound down production of the Datsun Redi-GO five-door subcompact.
Wind energy has the potential to dramatically reduce the world’s dependence on carbon-emitting energy sources, and governments across the globe are racing to develop new wind power facilities amid efforts to curb global warming.
But setting up a wind farm isn’t just a matter of putting up a windmill here or there; they can comprise hundreds of turbines across farmland or sea, and the turbines themselves can be hundreds of feet tall — and are likely to only get taller in the future.
The logistics of getting those systems’ components into place present an enormous challenge, but industrial conglomerate GE hopes a newly unveiled facility could provide a solution.
The company says the complex outside Rochester, New York, is the first of its kind in the U.S.: a research and development center that includes the world’s largest 3D concrete printer — three stories tall — capable of churning out more than 10 tons of concrete per hour.
The facility, funded in part by a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, will be staffed by a team of 20 who will work to optimize its printing technology before taking it out into the field, hopefully within five years.
Ultimately, GE wants to be able to take its massive concrete-printing system on the road so that it can print the concrete bases to support wind turbines — up to 65 feet high — on-location, rather than hauling them over hundreds or thousands of miles.
Tesla has continued to absolutely floor it, with revenue in its 2022 first quarter outpacing last year’s by seven times. But according to recent comments by CEO Elon Musk, vehicles might not be Tesla’s chief breadwinner for long.
In an earnings call with investors, Musk referenced an in-development robot that he believes will be worth more than Tesla’s car business as soon as 2023.
The humanoid robot in question stands at 5 foot 8 and is named Optimus. Tesla first unveiled the robot in August of 2021, though the big reveal was largely panned when observers noted the “robot” was actually a person in a spandex suit.
Not to be deterred, Musk says he was “surprised” that nobody understood the scale of the Optimus development project, and hinted at a slate of products coming next year specific to the platform. Musk believes the bot is best designed for boring, repetitive everyday tasks, like grocery shopping, and reportedly runs on Tesla’s neural networks and Dojo advanced supercomputer.
An Amazon warehouse collapsed and six workers died after a tornado struck the facility in Edwardsville, Illinois on Dec. 10. The company is still facing repercussions from decisions that were made that day.
In a press statement, attorneys filed two lawsuits on behalf of victims involved in the deadly disaster. Plaintiffs include four Amazon drivers: Jamarco Hickman, Evan Jensen, Jada Williams and Deontae Yancey.
The mother of DeAndre Morrow, a warehouse worker who died in the collapse, is also a plaintiff in the lawsuit.
The other four drivers survived the collapse, but their lawyers say they suffered physical or mental harm.
The statement said the plaintiffs and Morrow delivered packages the day the tornado hit. It also claims the company received warning from the National Weather Service of possible tornadoes in the area as much as 36 hours before the collapse of the warehouse.
Newark, California-based Lucid Group burst onto the electric vehicle scene with their Air model, which touts an industry-leading 520-mile range. You might also remember the company commencing manufacturing last spring at their recently completed 500-acre production facility in Casa Grande, Arizona.
This time Lucid is turning heads with the most powerful electric vehicle available in North America - their Air Grand Touring Performance. Not to be confused with the Lucid Air Grand Touring vehicle, the Performance model will offer 1,050 horsepower in going 0 to 60 in 2.6 seconds, and hitting a top speed of 168 mph.
The vehicle will feature one of Lucid’s proprietary electric motors at each axle and despite the added power, will still offer an EPA-estimated driving range of 446 miles. While this is less than the Air, it’s still ahead of the nearest competitor for the range title, as Tesla’s dual motor Model S offers a range of between 375 and 405 miles on a single charge.
And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that the Model S Plaid does own the title of quickest EV on the planet, as it sacrifices range for a sub 2-second 0 to 60 time and top speed of 200 mph.
It’s been nearly 20 years since the end of the Concorde put supersonic passenger air travel on hold, but startups and industry giants alike are working on ways to not only fly beyond the sound barrier, but potentially much faster — into the realm of hypersonic travel.
The most ambitious efforts in recent years floated the possibility of flying at Mach 4 or 5, up to five times the speed of sound — fast enough to trim the flight from New York to London down to 90 minutes.
But what if you could go even farther in even less time; say, from Los Angeles to Tokyo in 60 minutes?
A Texas company says its technology could enable flights at speeds of 12 times the speed of sound, or some 9,200 miles per hour.
Venus Aerospace earlier this month announced the completion of a $20 million fundraising round toward its ultimate goal: a zero-carbon spaceplane that could cross the globe in an hour.
Cooking oils are crucial for frying all the foods that make life so worth living. But after they fulfill their destiny and get our jalapeno poppers nice and golden brown, they are also often used as a sustainable fuel. And not just for cars, but also jumbo jets.
Airbus recently flew a three-hour test flight in France using a commercial jet outfitted to run on Sustainable Aviation Fuel or SAF, which is made up primarily of used cooking oil and other waste fats, according to CNN. The test flight, which was run using a single Rolls Royce Trent 900 turbofan engine, was followed by a similar trip to test how SAF was consumed during takeoffs and landings.
Airbus had previously tested SAF with an A350 and an A319neo single-aisle aircraft. But this latest test used an A380, the company’s wide-body passenger jet with two full-length decks with a total area of 550 square meters, or three tennis courts. In other words, it’s a huge gas guzzler.
This might come as a surprise to some of you, but SpaceX is not the only name in privatized space launching services. For example, Long Beach, CA-based Rocket Lab has had 25 successful launches since 2017, and deployed over 100 satellites into orbit for clients that include NASA, DARPA and Canon.
While their scale is smaller than the aforementioned competitor, their focus on innovation is definitely amongst industry leaders. Not only is this evidenced by their Electron rocket, which is described as the only reusable orbital-class small rocket currently in use, but by a recent announcement on how they intend to recover said rocket after its next launch.
The “There and Back Again” mission is scheduled to take place within a 14-day launch window that begins April 19. After launching from their Mahia Peninsula launch complex in New Zealand, the company will attempt a mid-air helicopter capture of the Electron launch vehicle for the first time.
After deploying a payload comprised of satellites, as well as propulsion systems and power generators for satellites, Rocket Lab will employ a customized Sikorsky S-92 helicopter with a large twin engine to capture the returning rocket stage as it returns from space.
Approximately an hour prior to lift-off, the helicopter will move into position about 150 nautical miles off New Zealand’s coast. At two-and-a-half minutes after lift-off, Electron’s first and second stages will separate, per the standard mission protocol.
Electron’s second stage will continue into orbit to deploy the payload, while the first stage will begin its descent back to Earth. As it falls, it will reach speeds of over 5,000 mph and temperatures exceeding 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
After deploying a parachute at 8.3 miles altitude, the main parachute will be extracted at around 3.7 miles in slowing the descent to 22 mph. As the stage enters the capture zone, the helicopter, via a specially-designed hook, will look to snag the parachute and secure the rocket.
According to Rocket Lab founder and CEO, Peter Beck, “We’ve conducted many successful helicopter captures with replica stages, carried out extensive parachute tests, and successfully recovered Electron’s first stage from the ocean during our 16th, 20th, and 22nd missions. Now it’s time to put it all together for the first time and pluck Electron from the skies.”
The U.S. Department of Labor’s investigators and attorneys are working to prevent companies along the United States-Mexico border from exploiting Mexican workers.
Wage and Hour Division investigators recently discovered three San Diego-area customs warehouses were violating the Fair Labor Standards Act.
The employers, OMG Global Logistics, Atlas Freight Forwarding and Columbia Export Group PDSA, were ordered to pay approximately $2 million combined in minimum and overtime back wages to employees.
It turns out the companies were paying wages as low as $2.50 per hour and also used Mexican affiliates to pay employees, making it appear as if they worked in Mexico rather than the United States.
This took place in the San Diego neighborhood of Otay Mesa where some workers were making a daily international commute to work at warehouses.
Columbia Export Group denied workers federal minimum wages and overtime premiums and ended up paying penalties to 60 employees.
Night shift workers at a New Zealand french fry factory were rattled by an unusual discovery last week that ended with a call to the bomb squad.
Richard Teurukura, a worker at the Mr Chips factory in Aukland was reportedly observing the conveyor line when an object caught his eye for being a bit oddly shaped.
100,000 potatoes had just been delivered and were running down the belt when Teurukura saw what he thought was a muddy stone. He retrieved the object before realizing to his horror that it actually looked like a grenade.
After he confirmed his suspicion with some input from a co-worker who had “seen a lot of war movies” he placed the grenade in a cordoned off area and contacted the authorities.
When the bomb squad arrived they confirmed that what they had on thier hands was, in fact, an inert grenade, confirmed as a “Mill bomb” – an 80-year-old grenade used in World Wars 1 and 2.
According to the Guardian, it’s actually not uncommon for grenades to be discovered in potato fields in Europe but it’s very unusual to find them in New Zealand.
The plant’s manager said it was the first weapon discovered on the production line in the facility’s 30 year history and that he took a picture and placed it around the factory “so other workers know what to look out for.” He lauded Teurukura for “keeping his cool about the whole thing.”
Another tough headline is about the last thing Boeing needed.
The entire global aviation sector suffered in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, but Boeing has also faced production issues with its 787 Dreamliner and the grounding of the 737 Max after two deadly crashes.
A crash of a Boeing 737-800 in China last month remains under investigation, and, this week, reports surfaced of a production mishap involving perhaps the company’s most famous plane.
The Wall Street Journal reports that one of Boeing’s two next-generation Air Force Ones could have been damaged when workers attempted to shift the under-construction jet onto jacks.
It’s been a big year of cargo ship disasters, and so we’ll forgive you if you have a short memory for the individual catastrophes which have befallen global shipping in recent months.
If the name Felicity Ace jogs your memory, that’s probably because the horror of watching a ship catch fire and sink over the course of several days was amplified by its content: the ship was carrying millions of dollars in automobiles.
And we’ve learned a bit recently about exactly which vehicles have settled at the bottom of the ocean. Top Gear has found itself in possession of the manifest log from the Felicity Ace and it turns out there was more on board than the widely reported fleet of brand new luxury models from the likes of Audi, Porsche and Lambhorgini.
According to Top Gear, who admits the ship’s log was difficult to read, there were 561 Volkswagens on the ship, 189 Bentleys, 1,117 Porsches and 85 Lamborghinis… but there were also some seemingly random one-offs.
A federal jury convicted a former general electric power engineer of conspiracy to commit economic espionage. The decision followed a four-week jury trial.
The offender, Xiaoqing Zheng, worked at GE Power & Water in Schenectady, New York as an engineer specializing in sealing technology.
Evidence showed Zheng, and others in China, conspired to steal GE’s trade secrets regarding its steam and gas turbine technologies. They intended to benefit from China-based companies that research, manufacture and develop parts for turbines.
The arrest took place in 2018, and when Zheng was indicted in 2019, federal prosecutors called his actions “a textbook example” of industrial espionage.
The indictment featured 14 counts and said Zheng used files to obtain proprietary information and email it to his business partner and nephew, Zhaoxi Zhang. Prosecutors added that the two got financial support from the Chinese government and coordinated with government officials to reach research agreements with state-owned Chinese institutions to develop turbine technologies.
However, the jury acquitted Zheng of two counts of trade secret theft and two counts of economic espionage. The jury could not reach a verdict on seven other counts involving trade secret theft, economic espionage and lying to the FBI.
As far as the impact of Zheng’s actions, Assistant Director Alan E. Kohler Jr. of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division said, “Good paying jobs could be lost and communities can suffer. These actions help China become more of a threat to our national security.”
Zheng's sentencing is scheduled for August 2. He faces up to 15 years in prison, a term of supervised release of up to three years and a fine of up to $5 million.
Last summer, Jeff Bezos spent 11 minutes in space and determined that it would be best for the planet to move all polluting industries to space. Now, we've heard of many theories, everything from 3D printing native materials to using a combination of moon dust, lunar ice and astronaut urine to build bases.
Last week, DARPA kicked off a new program for space-based manufacturing, but it's not focused on manufacturing on mars or the moon. It will, however, use lunar materials to manufacture products on-orbit or in space.
The program is called the "Novel Orbital Moon Manufacturing, Materials, and Mass Efficient Design" (NOM4D) program, and DARPA has chosen eight teams to develop new ways to design and manufacture large structures in space. It comes down to a space problem (no pun intended), as rockets simply don't have enough room to launch large Earth-made systems.
Reports have recently emerged regarding thefts of brand new vehicles from factory storage lots in the Detroit area, and unfortunately it’s not the first time.
In 2018, then-Fiat Chrysler fell victim to a rash of thefts from secure holding areas where robbers made off with brand new Jeeps, Ram pickups and Challenger Hellcats. At the time, local police hadn’t ruled out an “inside job” saying that it appeared the thieves knew where they were going and what they were looking for and that it could have been a current or former employee.
But time has passed and a lot has happened for Fiat Chrysler, including a complete brand and name change.
New name, new me? Not in this case. Fresh off a merger with the French PSA Group and newly minted Stellantis the company is again dealing with strikingly similar thefts.
If Red Bull really does give you wings, then now is the time.
For years, the maker of the energy drink has sponsored an array of the most outrageous stunts in the name of marketing. These have included a world record snowmobile jump of 412 feet, and a racecar ascending winding Pike’s Peak at 87-mile-hour – not to mention an exploit where a snowboarder climbed and then snowboarded down a 3,000 meter run on an active volcano.
The company has another extreme stunt on schedule for next month and this one might be the most daring yet: the beverage maker has announced that – in an event to be livestreamed on Hulu – two skydivers will attempt the impossible.
Red Bull says Luke Aikins and Andy Farrington, two accomplished pilots and skydivers who happen to also be cousins, are planning to take flight in customized, Red Bull branded planes and then switch aircrafts mid-flight.
Aston Martin has revealed the final edition of its V12 Vantage sports car. As the automaker plans to introduce its first fully-electric vehicle in 2025 and offer an electric option in all new car lines beginning in 2026, this new sports car represents the last fossil-fuel version of this line.
In an interview with Reuters, Aston Martin executive chairman and investor Lawrence Stroll said, “This V12 Vantage is really a swan song and it will be the last one we make before we move onto hybridization and electrification.”
The first V12 Vantage RS concept was shown in 2007 and since then, CEO Tobias Moers says the company has been “fitting our biggest engine into our smallest and most sporting model.” He went on to call the new version “the fastest, most powerful and most dynamically capable V12 Vantage ever.”
When it comes to the global supply chain for high-demand semiconductors, if it’s not one thing, it’s another. And it seems just as analysts were hinting at a future reprieve from bottlenecks, there’s been another big hit that could have far reaching implications for the auto industry.
Just before midnight on March 16th, a 7.4 Magnitude earthquake struck near the Fukushima province in northeast Japan. Yes – that Fukushima. The one that sustained an earthquake and subsequent tsunami in 2011 that was severe enough to knock a nuclear power plant offline, a disaster which the region is still recovering from.
In this case, there are several factories who are shutting down, at least in the near term, in response to this quake and unfortunately for the delicately positioned semiconductor market, one of them is a chip plant.
Whenever a Tesla employee gets fired, it seems to make headlines. In this instance, John Bernal, a former Autopilot employee at Tesla, was fired last month because of video reviews he conducted on his YouTube channel.
In a video of his channel, AI Addict, Bernal revealed, “I was fired from Tesla in February with my YouTube being cited as the reason why.” He adds uploads were off company time or property with software he paid for.
On his channel, Bernal drives in his personally owned 2021 Tesla Model 3 using Tesla’s newest released versions of its Full Self-Driving Beta software. However, Tesla has since cut off his access to the FSD Beta system in his vehicle, but he still has Full Self-Driving.
The firing followed a video where Bernal’s drive is disrupted by the car knocking over a bollard with the FSD Beta operating. Bernal said managers informed him that he “broke Tesla policy” and his channel was a “conflict of interest.”
It is possible Tesla took exception to a portion of his channel that CNBC reports featured about 10 videos that show flaws in FSD Beta. In one of the videos, the vehicle experienced several disengagements and Bernal needed to take over and steer manually to avoid danger.
At the height of the Cold War in the 1960s, Soviet officials joined with Italian automaker Fiat to form a state-owned Russian car company.
Over the decades, the brand that came to be known as Lada became a symbol for Russia’s industrial self-sufficiency from its massive factory in the southwest — and its accompanying domestic supply chain.
Today, it’s a much different world, and if it was already clear, recent events in eastern Europe have confirmed that the days of isolated, self-contained supply chains for heavy industry — particularly the auto sector — are over.
The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that Lada shut down its factories and placed thousands of workers on leave last week — the result of economic sanctions imposed by Western nations following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
A rare Toyota sold for $2.535 million at Gooding & Co.’s Amelia Island collector car auction to earn the achievement of the most valuable Japanese car sold at auction, according to CNN Business.
It was a Toyota 2000GT, which is a model that was produced from 1967 to 1971. However, it is not merely a Toyota. This specific vehicle tacked on an additional name making it formally known as a 1967 Toyota-Shelby 2000GT.
Toyota intended to make up to 1,000 2000GTs a year, but only 351 were ever made. Adding to the rarity, the Toyota-Shelby 2000GT is technically a pre-production model with a chassis number of MF10-10001. This indicates it was the first 2000GT to get a serial number.
Last month the Military Health System put out a release that helped justify my father’s reasoning for ignoring my ongoing pleas for a Nintendo Entertainment System during my formative years – video games make you lazy.
Granted, he was also worried about us monopolizing the TV in the living room, but his approach does reinforce the concerns in the release – namely that new recruits are struggling with initial entry training, or boot camp, because their bodies are just too weak.
Quoting the release, “Today’s recruits are coming from a far more sedentary lifestyle, making their skeletons more prone to injuries because they’re not used to the kind of intense activity they will face at basic training.”
Just to clarify, the MHS is targeting Gen Z recruits aged 18-25, so it’s not those ever-aggravating millennials … this time.
The release goes on to quote Army Major Jon-Marc Thibodeau who states that, “The ‘Nintendo Generation’ soldier skeleton is not toughened by activity prior to arrival, so some of them break more easily.”
If movies like Deep Impact and its superior, Armageddon, have taught us anything, it is to be wary of massive pieces of space rock that threaten our very way of life.
Luckily, people much brighter than the masses are paid to figure out ways to thwart extraterrestrial blows. Some of those people are at NASA and are investigating a proposal for a line of defense that could break apart asteroids days or even hours before a potential impact.
The defense method is called Pi - Terminal Defense for Humanity. It was proposed by Philip Lubin, an engineer at the University of California Santa Barbara, and was selected for Phase One of the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts Program.
The company had planned to “conquer” the U.S. market. In early 2019, a Swiss helicopter manufacturer held a press conference to tout its plans to “conquer” the U.S. market from its new factory in southern Louisiana. Three years later, things haven’t exactly gone according to plan — in fact, it turns out the company has pulled the plug on the project altogether. Kopter, a maker of single-turbine helicopters for transportation services, utilities, and first responders, reportedly selected a location in Lafayette, Louisiana, ahead of dozens of potential sites. The company bought out the lease at a former Bell Helicopter facility at the city’s airport and vowed to invest more than $4 million in the complex. The plant was reportedly in line to make a new helicopter for the company, creating more than 120 new jobs — and receiving millions in incentives from the state.
Less than a year later, however, Kopter was acquired by Italian aerospace company Leonardo, whose primary U.S. operations are in Philadelphia and which operated a maintenance facility in nearby Broussard, Louisiana. Although Kopter continued to operate independently, by the following March, the fate of the Lafayette project was apparently already in jeopard
On the night of December 10th, the Mayfield Consumer Products candle plant in Mayfield, Kentucky was demolished by a tornado that reduced it to rubble. Eight workers lost their lives, but the death toll could have been higher if not for one man who pulled victims from the rubble.
On the night of the deadly tornado, Marco Sanchez was an inmate at the Graves County Jail, but on work detail at the factory.
Sanchez was in the factory as it collapsed. When the building came down on him and his co-workers, Sanchez found a small hole in the rubble and crawled out. He then worked feverishly to pull victims from the rubble and provide aid to others who were trapped and injured. And he did all of this despite suffering a broken leg and cracked ribs.
It was miraculous that Sanchez survived as many people died in the area where he crawled out. After he freed himself, he went to find tools and other supplies, and came back looking for survivors. He freed several people, possibly saving their lives.
During the commotion he caught a ride to the emergency room where he received treatment and then turned himself in to a state trooper at the hospital. As you can imagine, the trooper was busy and told Sanchez to do the right thing.
If you’ve worked your way into becoming one of the top arms dealers in Russia, it’s probably fair to say you’ve made your share of enemies over the years.
But it’s not always the ones you expect that you have to watch out for.
Two days after Russian forces launch an invasion of Ukraine, the Lady Anastasia, a 450-foot superyacht reportedly owned by Alexander Mikheev, was docked at a marina on the Spanish resort island of Mallorca.
Mikheev is the head of Rosoboronexport, the military export branch of Russia’s state-owned defense conglomerate, and it turns out that some of the workers on the vessel just happened to be Ukrainian.
When one of them, 55-year-old Taras Ostapchuk, saw footage of Russian forces bombing his native country, he realized that his boss could have supplied those weapons — and decided to take measures into his own hands.
Inside BlackByte and Cobalt Strike, the ransomware group and post-exploitation tool used in a recent high-profile hack — and how both pose new risks to the industrial sector.
While rogue individuals with an agenda and advanced cybersecurity skills are still prevalent, most headline-grabbing hacks are now originating from well-organized, highly talented groups or organizations. Now only does this dynamic provide access to a greater pool of talent, but it makes stopping a multi-faceted attack more difficult.
One of the most notorious of these cyber terrorist groups is BlackByte. The Ransomware-as-a-service group recently made headlines by hacking the National Football League’s San Francisco 49ers right before the league’s biggest weekend – the most recent Super Bowl.
The group was able to exploit a vulnerability in the team’s Microsoft Exchange server and implement a tool called Cobalt Strike. Users were then sent hourly ransom notes via a print bomb to all printers connected to the infected machine.
While the 49ers have downplayed the impact of the hack, it did result in the release of financial documents that BlackByte posted to a site on the dark web. No ransom demands were made public, but the amount of data actually stolen remains unknown.
The growing reach, ability and boldness of these groups should give everyone in the industrial sector pause – regardless of your role or job title. If they can access data from a billion-dollar franchise, your IP and financial data is, at least, just as vulnerable.
The good news is that we have people like Lauren Podber, Principal Intelligence Analyst at Red Canary, to help guide us getting ahead of groups like BlackByte. Lauren and her cohorts at Red Canary specialize in managing cybersecurity endpoint detection, planning and response.
Ford announced it would split its internal combustion and electric vehicle operations into individual businesses with the goal of advancing its adaptation of new technology.
Fresh off its win over Tesla for the EV Top Pick, according to Consumer Reports, the automaker out of Michigan said its transition to an EV company is progressing.
Not only did the Mustang Mach-E decline Tesla’s Model 3 a third consecutive year atop the EV rankings, but Ford’s new name for its electric vehicle business might bring up a sore spot for Tesla regarding the Model 3.
Ford will name its gasoline division Ford Blue and its EV business will be called Ford Model e. It just so happens that Tesla was gunning for that same name almost 10 years ago.
In 2014, Tesla already had Model S and Model X. Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed to CNN Money that the company had ambitions of making the Model E to form, well, you can figure it out.
Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine has targeted major cities, military facilities and airports — including an airfield that was hosting the world’s largest aircraft.
Ukraine’s state-run defense conglomerate reported Friday that Russian forces had destroyed the Antonov-225 Mriya, Bloomberg reports.
The famed six-engine cargo plane was undergoing repairs outside Kyiv. The Mriya is 275 feet long and has a wingspan of nearly 290 feet. It is also the world’s heaviest plane and can carry a maximum payload of 250 tonnes, either within its fuselage or attached on top of the aircraft.
The AN-225 was commissioned while Ukraine was still under Soviet control as officials sought to transport large components for the nation’s space program. The plane made its maiden flight in 1988; in the decades since, it has joined humanitarian missions — including shuttling medical supplies during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic — and frequently drew crowds at air shows and other venues.
Fall of 2020 may be remembered as a bit of a dark time. Many Americans were still being heavily impacted by coronavirus-related shutdowns of businesses and schools and vaccines were nowhere in sight.
In the thick of it was the Fort Wayne, Indiana plant for California-based manufacturer Avery Dennison, who announced in October of that year that it would be shuttering the factory.
The company, which produces a variety of labels and adhesive products, told local officials that the 170 workers would be losing their jobs and the plant’s work relocated to two locations in Ohio. Avery Dennison, at the time, forecast the process to conclude by the end of October of 2021. One local newspaper reported that the company told them the plant was too landlocked and didn’t allow any room for needed expansion.
But oddly enough – in this case, the writing on the wall seems to have been erased. According to The Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly, the company has reversed course and will not, in fact, be closing the plant. Instead, the company will be investing in it.
Additive manufacturing and the auto industry have formed quite the partnership. From prototyping to auto racing to keeping companies afloat despite supply chain issues, the relationship is expected to grow.
A 2019 report by SmartTech Analysis projects the automotive additive manufacturing market to be worth more than $12 billion by 2028, which would be a drastic increase from $1 billion in 2017.
Granted, this estimate was released just before the coronavirus pandemic plagued countless companies and industries. According to Scott Dunham, executive director of research at SmartTech Analysis, short-term impacts were much more pronounced.
3D printing hardware sales were greatly reduced, but in the second half of 2020, and throughout 2021, the industry saw a rebound.
The long term outlook was not affected much from what is seen in the 2019 report, nor was the forecast. Because the pandemic thrusted digital manufacturing and supply chain flexibility trends to the forefront, the predictions might even be more robust.
“The automotive industry, at the time that report came out, it’s use of 3D printing had been increasing in one sense that there were more exploratory projects,” Dunham said. “The industry’s use of 3D printing during that time had been scaling back just a little bit. That was the rapid prototyping side of things where a lot of the technology had been rooted historically. That was mainly auto industry trends; not so much a commentary on the technology.”
Eventually, auto companies will be looking for end-use, direct production applications in larger volumes if possible. This leads to 3D printing companies entering the scene to meet potential requirements.
For now, OEMs are picking what Dunham calls “pet projects” to utilize 3D printing.
“It’s like they pick [a project] specifically for AM because it’s a vehicle that makes sense in the realm of today’s AM technology. It’s something that pushes the brand, but it isn’t going to sell huge units.”
An example of a pet project was covered by Michael Molitch-Hou, the editor-in-chief of 3DPrinting.com. It involves Ford releasing CAD files that grant 2022 Maverick owners the ability to 3D print customized components for the pickup.
Molitch-Hou described it as something that should have happened in 2015 but explained how it could lead to further development.
“At the same time, the 3D printing technology and the industry itself has advanced to the point that we should see end parts in vehicles any day now,” Molitch-Hou said. “Ford itself claims by 2023; it’s going to have metal 3D-printed parts in a popular sedan. I feel like that Maverick story isn’t super indicative of where Ford is even at or where the market is at, but it still feels like a pilot project and they’re going to see if it takes hold.”
Implementing a minor 3D-printed contribution in the automotive industry is nothing new. One of the most prominent examples is 3D printing’s place in auto racing. As Molitch-Hou explains, 3D printing is helpful for one-off, complex parts that would prove too expensive to make with traditional manufacturing methods.
For example, in 2015, BMW announced its 500th water pump wheel to be 3D printed and fitted to a car’s powertrains. The first took place in 2010 when BMW used selective laser melting (SLM) technology to make a single-piece lightweight metal water pump wheel. It replaced multi-pieced water pump wheels, which were assembled with plastic
Stellantis issued a temporary stop sale on some of its 2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee and Grand Cherokee L SUVs after owners complained their key fobs were losing connection to the vehicles and causing them to brick.
The Drive reported owners using a Jeep Garage forum to air their grievances. A few days later, The Drive said Stellantis’ FCA sent a notice to dealers informing them of the stop sale and cited a “radio frequency hub module” can cause communication issues between the key fob and the vehicle.
However, a Jeep spokesperson told The Drive a solution had been identified and the company was expediting appropriate parts to its dealer network. The spokesperson added it affects a limited number of vehicles and would not require a safety recall.
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine brought troops, tanks and airstrikes, which led to civilians using trains and cars to flee to safety. Meanwhile, according to CNN Business, numerous companies have limited manufacturing output in Ukraine while others have suspended production altogether.
Companies include a Swiss Coca-Cola bottling company, Danish brewer Carlsberg, steel manufacturer ArcelorMittal out of Luxembourg, American snack maker Mondelez and Switzerland’s Nestlé. The invasion also affected airlines such as Air France and Lufthansa, which have suspended flights into Ukraine.
Tavares called employees “the heart of Stellantis” and credited their “focus on execution and excellence” for the company’s record year. He even called their commitment “tireless” which is why the sparring between Stallantis and the UAW later that day was so strange.
Company CFO Richard Palmer predicted some upcoming challenges as the company reviewed its reports and cited, not just continued supply problems but also an increase in labor costs due to absenteeism he said was more pronounced in North America.
Tavares added in a media roundtable later that day that absenteeism in US factories outpaces the rest of the world, saying there was a “significant difference” between the U.S. and the rest of the world that Stellantis observed using the same KPIs for all factories
Virgin Group has always been ambitious. The multinational conglomerate recently went multi-planet when it began sending its first flights into space with its Virgin Galactic arm. But the company has also been making strides in developing innovative transportation methods here on earth in the meantime: most notably, Virgin Hyperloop.
The plan for Hyperloop has been to utilize pod-like transportation units to ferry passengers along a track at amazing speeds. Intent on revolutionizing intercontinental travel, Hyperloop’s 670 mile-per-hour speeds made it ten times faster than traditional rail and three times faster than high-speed rail. As an added bonus, the Hyperloop’s creators said that, over its lifetime, it would have a lower environmental impact than virtually any other mode of public transportation.
In an exciting development, The Boring Company wants to make a 6.2-mile underground transit system in Miami. Business Insider reports the Elon Musk-founded infrastructure and tunnel construction services company submitted a proposal for the project.
Its purpose would be to transport Tesla vehicles between stations on State Road 826. The proposal also states the transit system would run between the Golden Glades Transit Center and Sunny Isles Beach at Newport Pier.
The Boring Company projects the system’s cost would range between $185 million to $220 million and take fewer than three years to build with an accelerated permitting process. Initially, the loop would be able to handle 7,500 passengers per hour with the potential to be scaled up to 15,000 per hour.
On Monday, a 43-year-old Navy nuclear engineer pleaded guilty to espionage-related crimes. Jonathan Toebbe was caught trying to provide design data for nuclear-powered warships to a foreign national.
Toebbe was arrested in October 2021 after he left an SD card at a "dead drop" in West Virginia. But more on that in a minute.
Toebbe worked for the Department of the Navy as a nuclear engineer and was assigned to the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program. He had security clearance that gave him access to “restricted data,” which pertains to any information on the design, manufacture or use of atomic weapons or special nuclear material, like naval reactors. Toebbe had access to information on naval nuclear propulsion.
Back in April 2020, Toebbe sent a sample of restricted data to a foreign government with a note that said, “Please forward this letter to your military intelligence agency. I believe this information will be of great value to your nation. This is not a hoax.”
Using an encrypted email, he built a relationship with a person he believed to represent the foreign government, but it turns out that it was an undercover FBI agent. They built a relationship and eventually came to a deal to sell secrets for thousands of dollars in Monero cryptocurrency.
On June 8, 2021, the undercover agent sent $10,000 in cryptocurrency to Toebbe as “good faith” payment. A few weeks later, Toebbe executed a dead drop by placing an SD card holding military secrets on submarine nuclear in half of a peanut butter sandwich. For his efforts, he received another $20,000 in crypto.
Then in August, Toebbe made another dead drop, but this time he used a package of chewing gum to hide the memory card. This time, Toebbe received $70,000 in cryptocurrency. Toebbe and his wife, Diana, were arrested on October 9th, after a final dead drop.
His wife, Diana, was also arrested, but it's unclear her role in the conspiracy beyond serving as a lookout during the dead drops.
Toebbe pleaded guilty to conspiracy to communicate Restricted Data. He faced up to life in prison and a $100,000 fine. As part of the plea deal, Toebbe will serve a minimum of 151 months, or 12 and a half years, in federal prison.
Automotive News is calling it a “talent drain,” as it revealed this week that more executives have left the EV startup, Canoo.
Canoo gained an early foothold in the EV startup race with its unique designs including “lifestyle vehicles.” These electric options, described by Canoo as a “loft on wheels” pair 250 miles of range with configurable interiors that feature wraparound backseats, better-than-average legroom and a bubble-like cockpit. Canoo also offers block-shaped delivery vans and pickups that are set to come after the lifestyle vehicle debuts later this year.
But design chops are only one piece of the puzzle in automotive and in this case, Canoo has struggled with a tumultuous year that’s been highlighted by the abrupt departure of its CEO, an SEC investigation and ongoing volatility with its stock price.
That’s a lot to take for a company that was just formed in 2017… and now there’s more.
Automotive News has reported that Canoo is hemorrhaging talent, citing several “key executives” who have fled the company in recent weeks. Departures, identified by an Auto News source who wished to remain confidential, include vehicle program lead Nicolas Leblanc as well as Richard Walker, who oversaw software controls. The source also said Mike de Jung and Steven Offutt, engineering experts who were some of the company’s earliest employees, are also departing.
The DeLorean has certainly had an interesting life.
What was once the epitome of futuristic car design ultimately became a piece of nostalgia following the DMC DeLorean’s key supporting role in the Back to the Future films.
The company itself saw even more jarring ups and downs, including troubled production and a lukewarm public reception, followed by a rapid corporate demise and founder John DeLorean’s various legal troubles.
Anything with that type of pop culture staying power, however, is bound to turn up again every so often.
In the mid-1990s, a new company dubbed itself the DeLorean Motor Company to repair and rebuild the old company’s original cars. The company made the occasional, ill-fated attempt to resurrect the vehicle over the years, and the latest effort apparently kicked off on Super Bowl Sunday.
On Feb. 9, the American Transportation Research Institute released its annual list of America’s 100 most congested bottlenecks for trucks, and it makes the biggest instigator even more infamous.
Using GPS data from over 1 million freight trucks to analyze congestion, ATRI found that the intersection of I-95 and SR 4 in Fort Lee, New Jersey topped the list for a fourth straight year as the worst truck bottleneck in the U.S.
The intersection — just west of the George Washington Bridge — is where Interstate 95 meets Route 4 along the border of New Jersey and New York. Let’s give it a look and … yeah … it’s disgusting. It looks like a clump of wet spaghetti.
That stretch of roadway is a major logistics corridor for the Ports of New York and New Jersey and general traffic in America’s largest metropolitan area. Port authority data shows that traffic on the nearby George Washington Bridge inceased 17% during the first 11 months of 2021 compared to 2020 as industry and consumer activity picked up coming out of 2020’s pandemic lockdowns.
Early last year, Wisconsin defense contractor Oshkosh Defense secured a multi-billion dollar contract to build the next generation of mail trucks for the U.S. Postal Service.
The program aims to begin replacing the Post Office’s crumbling, 30-year-old vehicle fleet beginning next year, but the Oshkosh effort has come under fire for everything from a relative lack of electrified mail trucks to the bidding process itself.
Now, a new report suggests that the new gas-powered trucks needed some strings to be pulled in order to be considered street-legal at all.
According to a report in Vice, an Environmental Protection Agency review of the process noted that the gas trucks would come in at a total vehicle weight of 8,501 pounds — a figure that combines the truck weight of 5,560 pounds with its estimated payload of 2,941 pounds.
If that seems like an oddly specific cargo weight to you, you’re not alone.
While hackers have been described in numerous ways, they’re not always terrorists, thieves, criminals or heartless bastards, as one colleague refers to them.
For example, there’s Ryan Pickren. He’s a cybersecurity Ph.D. student at Georgia Tech who was recently paid over $100,000 by Apple after discovering and reporting a vulnerability that allows unauthorized users to gain access to cameras and web browsers on Mac PCs.
According to Pickren, and as reported by Digital Trends, the amount is the highest reward Apple has ever doled out to a hacker.
While nearly every automaker has struggled to maintain production after the pandemic-initiated chip shortage, there was one who stood out for having withstood the challenges more than effectively: Tesla.
Breaking from the trend of languishing production, Tesla announced in January that its 2021 deliveries were up by about 87 percent.
And according to CNBC, Tesla had a secret solution that it was using to hit these outsized production goals that is only now being revealed: the company reportedly took chips from one part of its vehicles and used them elsewhere where there was a more pressing need. And while other automakers have made these types of shifts, some analysts suggest it’s not been done quite this way before.
CNBC cites two anonymous Tesla employees who say the company decided to cut a steering component they considered “redundant” in order to reuse the needed chips elsewhere. The chip is considered a backup for a more mechanical process used to steer; in this case, it’s an secondary electronic control unit that would be critical for the kind of self-driving that Tesla doesn’t offer now, but plans to in the future.
A relatively new building used by technology giant Foxconn is soon to be used for the food industry and create over 100 jobs in southeast Wisconsin.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Feb. 4 that natural food coloring maker Oterra has reached development deals with local municipal authorities to take over the former Foxconn Opus building in Mount Pleasant.
The building was built there in 2016 and was the first facility Foxconn occupied when it began developing a massive manufacturing campus. The project originally was to be a $10 billion investment that would create 13,000 jobs when it was announced by President Donald Trump in July 2017. That was eventually scaled all the way down to $672 million and 1,400 jobs by the spring of 2021.
It's always good policy to make sure that before you buy a new couch, double-check that it can fit in your doorway, or to measure to see if that new pickup can fit in your garage.
Well, those sorts of problems don’t appear to matter if you’re one of the world’s richest people. If you, say, order a new yacht that’s too big to get out of the harbor, the locals will apparently just remove sections of their historic bridges, no questions asked.
Reports from the Netherlands indicate that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has commissioned what will be the largest sailing yacht in the world. The 416-foot vessel is under construction by yacht builder Oceano at its shipyard in Alblasserdam, just upriver from the city of Rotterdam and its Koningshavenbrug bridge — which is reportedly too low to accommodate the 131-foot masts.
The average price of a new vehicle in the U.S. continues to rise as automakers add more bells and whistles and – for many models – a larger, heavier footprint.
Add to that a supply shortage that’s caused demand to exceed supply, and it’s harder than ever to find an affordable option if you’re in need of some wheels.
With that in mind, recent news revealed by CarsDirect almost feels like kicking auto buyers when they’re down. That’s because the online vehicle research portal reported that the Chevrolet Spark – a.k.a. the cheapest car in America – is getting the axe.
Citing Chevy spokesperson Kevin Kelly, CarsDirect says production on the Spark will cease this summer before the model will be phased out and officially discontinued.
In another example illustrating just how prevalent the threat of wire fraud is to manufacturing companies, a newly-reported case in Ohio involved a former Verizon employee duping a major industrial distributor out of nearly $1 million in fraudulent purchases.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio reported February 2nd that a 44-year-old Newark, Ohio man was been indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly causing about $1 million in fraud while he was a network engineer at Verizon.
It’s a brand new plant, and it stinks.
That’s the problem Stellantis has been facing, after more than 50 odor complaints have been submitted in reference to the automaker’s one-year-old Jeep plant in Detroit.
What’s that smell? According to Automotive News, the company released the results of a recently completed “odor investigation” and says that they have a solution for the stench that neighbors say is impacting their quality of life.
Remediation efforts will include adding new equipment and ducting that Stellantis said in a news release “will ensure that odors do not reach the neighboring community."
In late December, a Stellantis representative told community members in an open Zoom meeting that the issue, at least partially, had to do with exhaust that was not being routed through emissions control systems and that it would not cause a health risk.
After further modeling, the company now says it will add a "completely new and dedicated regenerative thermal oxidizer" as well as "odor reducing technologies" at specific places in the plant. Some have reported that the intense odors are coming from the automakers paint line.
Stallantis was facing pressure not just from the community but also, regulators, who slapped the company with three air quality violations last year. They declined to provide a timeline or cost calculation for the repairs, though the company did say they were waiting on specifics from suppliers on lead times for the equipment.
The plant was received with much fanfare as the first new auto assembly plant in Detroit in 30 years. Since then, the smell may have dampened that response. Back in October, Detroit’s Fox 2 quoted one neighboring resident who claimed the smells were sending people – including children – to the hospital for breathing issues.
This past year could be charitably described as “mixed” for the automotive industry.
After what turned out to be a relatively brief blip due to the outbreak of COVID-19 the previous year, consumer demand returned with a vengeance in 2021.
But although factories were back up and running, another virus-related hiccup — a shortage of semiconductors — forced most of the world’s top automakers to cut production.
All told, vehicle sales increased last year, but still remained shy of their pre-pandemic numbers.
One very niche subset of the market, however, came out of 2021 stronger than ever.
CNN reports that several ultra-luxury auto brands — whose cars and SUVs sell, at minimum, for the price of your typical three-bedroom suburban home – saw record sales numbers last year.
British automakers Rolls-Royce and Bentley each posted new highs last year, while Italy’s Lamborghini is also poised to report strong sales numbers.
Company officials credited strong consumer demand and continued low interest rates, but those brands also operate on different scales than global automakers who reported less rosy calendar years.
Ultra-luxury vehicles are often tailored specifically to individual customers over weeks or months, and because the extremely expensive cars only appeal to thousands of potential buyers around the world, lineup changes can have a disproportionate effect on sales.
Still, CNN noted, models debuted by Rolls-Royce and Bentley in 2021 could be considered economical for those brands. A redesign of the Rolls-Royce Ghost started at more than $300,000, while Bentley saw sales of its Flying Spur, with an option for a less-expensive V8 engine, nearly double. Bentley also benefited from strong sales of a new hybrid SUV.
Rolls-Royce also reportedly claimed a record-high average vehicle price for 2021, although the Rolls-Royce Boat Tail skewed that number. Only three are being made, and they will cost a reported $25 million.
Let’s all take a moment to thank Amazon, and their Ring doorbell division, for looking at ways to keep us and the packages we purchase from them safe … by profiling people via their eye color, fingerprints, skin texture, gait and possibly odor.
After all, something this well-intentioned could never go wrong, right?
According to a recent report by Business Insider, Ring has filed nearly 20 patents related to the development of a camera network that could capture all of these different traits and combine them in a sort of neighborhood watch database in identifying “suspicious” people.
Going a step further, Ring’s network of doorbell cameras could scan neighborhoods and use advanced facial recognition software, tied to the nearly 2,400 police and fire departments that Ring currently partners with, in matching the retinas, irises, voices and other physical identifiers in spotting troublemakers.
In addition to registering these individual aspects of a person’s appearance, the software could also use the bits and pieces obtained by a number of unique cameras in forming composite images of these bad actors. So, when someone is identified as suspicious by Ring or its users, house locks, alerts and even audible alarms could be triggered.
At the end of the day, the hope is that analyzing all these different traits could help identify and catch porch pirates and thieves who can currently escape capture by using a mask and hood that simply covers their face from a single doorbell camera.
All this data could also be utilized by Ring’s Neighbors app, which allows fellow Ring users to share camera footage of those deemed suspicious. This could then be used to trigger a Neighborhood Alert Mode that lets everyone using the app know when a person fitting these physical or biometric traits has been spotted in the area.
One would hope that applications could be expanded to help prevent bigger tragedies like home invasions or kidnapping.
Ring has been working on facial recognition tech since 2016, with work in this area continuing since being purchased by Amazon in 2019 – a company that just might have additional interests in collecting personal data.
https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-ring-patents-describe-cameras-recognizing-skin-texture-odor-2021-12
For the first time in nearly a century, General Motors won’t be able to claim the title of “America’s top automaker.”
Instead, that designation — for this year, anyway — will belong to a Japanese company.
Automakers are reporting their December and full-year sales totals for the U.S. market, and General Motors’ more than 2.2 million vehicles sold in 2021 trailed the more than 2.3 million reported by Toyota. The last company to outsell GM in the U.S. was Ford — in 1930.
GM outsold Toyota by more than 400,000 vehicles in 2020, but the Detroit auto giant saw its sales drop 13% last year and slide 43% in the fourth quarter. Toyota, by contrast, reported a 10% increase in U.S. sales in 2021 to take the top spot.
Industry analysts pointed to a lingering shortage of semiconductors that has particularly affected the auto industry. GM was forced to alter production and focus on more profitable vehicles to compensate for the lack of chips. Toyota was forced to cut production, as well, but it weathered the initial crisis better than its rivals.
According to observers and the companies themselves, however, Toyota might not hold the top spot for long. Pent-up consumer demand is expected to result in strong sales numbers in 2022, and GM says its sales will improve alongside the supply of semiconductors.
Toyota, meanwhile, declined to spike the proverbial football. Senior Vice President Jack Hollis told Reuters although the company is “grateful … being no. 1 is never a focus or priority."
If it’s not, it turns out they’re pretty good at it anyway: Toyota led all other companies in worldwide sales in 2020, and it’s poised to retain that title when 2021 numbers become available later this month.
Apple took issue with how one of its iPhone factories in southern India was being run and placed the Foxconn plant “on probation.” BBC News reports Apple’s action came after the protesting of food poisoning and living conditions began.
A spokesperson for Apple said the company dispatched independent auditors to the factory following concerns surrounding food safety and accommodation conditions. They then discovered the issues that resulted in protests and the factory closing on December 18.
The spokesperson added, “We found that some of the remote dormitory accommodations and dining rooms being used for employees do not meet requirements and we are working with the supplier to ensure a comprehensive set of corrective actions are rapidly implemented.”
The issues eventually led to 250 female employees who worked at the Foxconn plant suffering from food poisoning. Local media reported over 150 required hospitalization. The factory employs 17,000 people.
An unlikely candidate has immersed itself in the electric vehicle industry. Two years ago, Sony, the company known for electronics such as cameras, televisions and headphones, announced its Vision-S concept electric vehicle design at the CES tech show in Las Vegas.
It’s still not out, but Sony recently announced at CES it will launch a new company called Sony Mobility Inc. A press release on Sony’s website claims the new subsidiary will help Sony “explore entry into the EV market.”
This exploration includes a potential commercial launch of a second Sony EV. This second electric vehicle, named the Vision-S 02, is a seven-seat SUV. It appeared at this year’s CES next to Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida and the original sedan from 2020. The interior features a panoramic dash screen for data, controls and entertainment and 360-degree surround sound.
Expanding on the entertainment aspect, new gaming capabilities involve playing PlayStation games through a remote connection to a console at home. Streaming games can also be played through the cloud. Gaming can be done on the front panoramic screen or the rear-seat displays. In the safety area, sensors were installed 360 degrees around the vehicle. The sensors include CMOS image and LiDAR sensors that can monitor three-dimensional space to assist a driver in judging surrounding environments.
When exactly a Sony EV will be available for purchase, no one seems to know. However, public road testing in Europe for the original Vision-S began in December of 2020 and 5G driving tests took place in April 2021.
Consumers in the market for a new car have faced a unique challenge this year: because of shortages of critical components, scarcity on dealer lots has resulted in less choice. But before you concede to simply taking what you can get, Consumer Reports wants to remind you that not all makes and models are created equal when it comes to their reliability.
The independent agency has unveiled its annual brand rankings for auto reliability and reports that Asian auto brands lead by a wide margin. In fact, Lexus, Mazda and Toyota are all in the top three for the second year running.
The Consumer Reports methodology follows a 0 to 100 point scale and the group says the average ranking falls within 41 to 60 points. Asian automakers, this year, have an average score of 62 which far outshines the European models, which average a 44.
Domestic brands bring up the rear at an average of 42 points. In fact, the only domestic brand to make the top 10 was Buick, which comes in at #5. Consumer Reports says that, while globally, cars tend to be more reliable than SUVs and trucks, domestic automakers are exhibiting the opposite trend. American cars, for example, scored a 38 in reliability compared to SUVs at 45 and pickups at 41.
An independent, court-appointed monitor of the United Autoworkers Union says the UAW has “fallen short” on the many reform efforts laid out in a settlement with prosecutors last year.
The union had been under pressure to reform after more than two dozen former leaders were convicted of crimes, including embezzlement, after being accused of lavishing spending for their own personal benefit. After a yearslong corruption probe, federal prosecutors reached a deal with the union in December of 2020, part of which included the appointment of a monitor to oversee the UAW’s activities for six years.
Other agreed upon actions included the UAW paying back the IRS some $1.5 million and reviewing its internal voting process.
Employees of a Refresco bottling factory in Wharton, New Jersey are voicing their displeasure.
Yahoo! News reports the workers filed federal complaints with OSHA to report unsafe conditions. The employees also gathered outside the facility, where they held signs bringing attention to their cause.
An immigrant rights group, Wind of the Spirit, and community residents accompanied the disgruntled employees, many of whom are Latin American immigrants.
At the rally, the Refresco workers expressed their desire for the company to begin negotiations with their union.
The employees voted to form a union in June following a year and a half of organizing. Factors such as low wages, minimal benefits and sexual harassment led to the decision to start a union. After the vote, Refresco, the largest independent bottling corporation in the world, filed a legal appeal against the move to form a union.
Almost 250 workers reported issues with the plant.
The owner of a civil engineering firm has been sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to charges stemming from an explosion at his company’s facility more than three years ago.
The case began after the Aug. 2018 incident at KCCS Inc., an Idaho tanker testing and repair company owned by Loren Kim Jacobson. Prosecutors said a KCCS employee was welding during a cargo tanker repair procedure when the flame pierced the tanker and ignited residual material inside. The employee was severely injured in the blast.
During the subsequent investigation by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Jacobson told investigators that the injured welder was an “observer” rather than an employee, and that, furthermore, the company did not have any employees at all — apparently an effort to evade OSHA requirements that apply only to employers.
Prosecutors also said Jacobson made numerous other false claims to investigators, including that he had used a meter that could have detected the explosive fumes.
Under the plea deal, Jacobson acknowledged that although the company routinely conducted cargo tanker repair, he did not possess the federal safety certification required to do so. He would also send employees into the tankers themselves in order to conceal illegal repairs, and wrote plausible pressure test numbers instead of actually testing tanks’ valves. He lied to a federal Department of Transportation inspector about the latter.
On a day when a large share of Americans seek to recover from Thanksgiving excess, Elon Musk effectively ordered his employees back to their posts in Hawthorne, California, in order to address a “disaster” related to the spaceflight company’s new rocketship engine.
According to the email sent to SpaceX employees on Black Friday — obtained by the Verge — the company faces a “genuine risk of bankruptcy” if the matter isn’t resolved.
The problem stems from the Raptor, the methane engine that will power the company’s next-generation Starship spacecraft to the moon and beyond.
Musk wrote that SpaceX officials looked into the engine following the departure of former senior officials, and found that issues with its production were much more severe than previously thought. He didn’t disclose specifics about the problems, but he indicated that they could mean that Raptor production won’t be high enough to launch the company’s larger, next-generation Starlink communications satellites on Starships at the necessary pace — at least one every two weeks in 2022, Musk wrote.
Cadillac enjoyed decades as the nation’s leading luxury auto brand — so much so that its name is still synonymous with the finest in pretty much any field you care to mention.
But in recent decades, amid changing consumer tastes and growing competition from overseas rivals, GM’s luxury nameplate saw its U.S. market share gradually erode — although a surge in demand from China helped cushion its slide.
The brand now sees a new opportunity to assert itself in the Western luxury sector, and it's forcing some tough decisions in order to make it happen.
Cadillac chief Rory Harvey told Reuters this week that the company is nearly finished with a broad overhaul of its U.S. dealership network that saw it cull outlets that weren’t sufficiently willing to accommodate a rapid shift to electric vehicles.
The World Health Organization announced the possibility of a global shortage of syringes in 2022 for the COVID-19 vaccine in the 1 billion to 2 billion range.
UN News reported a WHO senior adviser, Lisa Hedman, warned many may find themselves missing routine vaccinations unless manufacturing picks up.
Hedman also said over 6.8 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines are currently administered globally per year. That number nearly doubles the routine amount of inoculations annually delivered.
Hedman says, “[Given] the global manufacturing capacity of around six billion a year for immunization syringes, it’s pretty clear that a deficit in 2022 of over a billion could happen if we continue with business as usual.”
To add another hurdle, syringes require 10 times more transportation space than a vaccine, which makes them susceptible to delays.
Amid rising food costs nearly across the board, the typical Thanksgiving feast will be considerably more expensive than a year ago.
The American Farm Bureau Federation’s 36th annual Thanksgiving Items Cost Survey found that the average cost of this year’s holiday dinner for a party of 10 is up 14 percent from 2020.
At a cost of $53.31, it equates to less than $6.00 per person.
The shopping list for the survey includes turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, rolls with butter, peas, cranberries, a veggie tray, pumpkin pie with whipped cream, and coffee and milk — all in quantities sufficient to serve a family of 10 with plenty for leftovers.
The Farm Bureau survey also covered an expanded menu that included ham, Russet potatoes and frozen green beans, and when those are added, the overall average Thanksgiving feast cost is $68.72 — still up 14% year-over-year and a little under $7 per person.
Survey data found that the average 16-pound turkey costs $23.99, up 24% from last year, during the period of Oct. 26 to Nov. 8.
For that highly nuanced person who wants to combine executive level business savvy with down-and-dirty racing tricks, Dodge just might have the job for you.
The maker of the Challenger Hellcat and other notable muscle cars has a role to fill within its organization, announcing recently that it is on the hunt for a C-level brand ambassador to promote its new marketing strategy, dubbed “Never Lift.”
Dodge says the individual selected for this year-long gig will be provided with a Hellcat to drive for a year, a salary of $150,000 and a custom wardrobe.
And the only thing that outshines this perk package is, perhaps, the job title, which is Chief Donut Officer. And don’t worry… there are business cards to prove it.
Another day, another story about pandemic relief fund fraud… except this one has a unique twist.
A Georgia man has been accused of fraudulently obtaining $85,000 in relief funds for an unnamed business that prosecutors say he misrepresented -- inflating its size and number of employees in his application.
You can guess then, probably, that the man -- Vinath Oudomsine -- didn’t use the money as intended once he received it. And boy didn’t he.
Prosecutors are alleging blew more than two-thirds of the money he received -- or, $58,000 -- on a single Pokemon card.
For those of you not familiar, Pokemon is a Nintendo video game character whose brand has expanded into an Anime series, films and a widely popular trading card game. In fact, the card game has become the most well-known trading game ever, with more than 34 billion cards sold, some of the rarest netting high sales prices.
In the seven years since Tesla first debuted the advanced driver-assist technology known as Autopilot, the system has made headlines over everything from ill-advised driver behavior to deadly crashes.
In the U.S., federal highway regulators just weeks ago opened an investigation of Autopilot after a series of crashes involving Teslas and emergency vehicles parked on roadsides.
Other nations, of course, have their own incidents to look into — and one, according to Reuters, took a particularly aggressive strategy.
The investigation began after a Tesla in the Netherlands — with Autopilot on and, apparently, following too closely behind another car — was involved in a rear-end collision.
Tesla’s cars collect and store driving data in order to make improvements or fix potential problems, but the company encrypts it to protect drivers’ privacy and keep it out of the hands of its rivals. It’s available, by request, to owners and the authorities, but Dutch officials said important details were left out.
Tesla’s Cybertruck is hard to forget.
In late 2019, Elon Musk took the stage to unveil his company’s latest design, a futuristic, boxy EV truck described by observers as a “large metallic trapezoid.”
In a now infamous demo of how “breakproof” the Cybertruck’s windows were, an engineer threw a metal ball at the glass, which Musk had described as bulletproof, causing it to unexpectedly shatter.
But Cybertruck’s moment in the sun didn’t end there, and since then the company has reportedly netted about a million pre-orders for the model, production of which was originally planned for this year.
Last month, Musk confirmed that the production goal for the pickup needed to be modified, saying that it won’t actually go into production until late 2022, with volume ramping up in 2023. But since then, Tesla has quietly made some other changes on its website that have the industry speculating that the Cybertruck might be facing further delays… and leaving some questioning whether we’ll ever see it at all.
Last week, Kellogg Co. was hit with a $5 million lawsuit for "false, misleading and deceptive" marketing. The lawsuit alleged that Frosted Strawberry Pop-Tarts don't have strawberries in them even though the product's ingredients list says the popular pastries contain "2% or less of dried strawberries, dried pears and dried apples.”
Although food labeling lawsuits are hot right now, many of them can be traced back to one man: Spencer Sheehan, a New York lawyer who has filed more than 400 lawsuits, many against food and beverage manufacturers.
According to NPR, Sheehan has almost single-handedly created a historic spike in class-action lawsuits, which are up more than 1,000% since 2008.
Sheehan went after Ferrara because Keebler Fudge Stripes cookies weren't made with real fudge. He did the same to General Mills for Betty Crocker Fudge Brownie Mix.
The lawyer is averaging about three new lawsuits a week, also targeting Frito-Lay's Hint-of-Lime Tostitos for prominently showing limes on the packaging while carefully tucking "flavored tortilla chips" in the bottom corner of the bag.
A computer vision startup claims it has the solution to improving fast-food worker performance. The startup, Agot AI, comes from Pittsburgh and its plan involves the installation of cameras in fast food kitchens.
The monitoring can be used to correct mistakes in preparing orders. CEO Evan DeSantola gave the example of an employee who forgets an ingredient. The technology would notice the error and notify the worker before the order is given to a customer.
DeSantola believes the technology serves a greater purpose beyond calling out mistakes. For example, the extra monitoring could reward employees for a mistake-free day and determine if a worker is experiencing burnout or requires additional training.
As the worker shortage persists, nearly 80% of restaurant operators do not possess enough employees to handle business, according to Business Insider.
Paint industry insiders are saying the problem is causing “complete chaos” as supply chain challenges intensify and reports emerge that the world is running out of the color blue.
You heard that right.
According to Bloomberg, Dutch paint company Akzo Nobel NV reports they’re running out of the ingredients to make several shades of blue paint and the color tint has become “extremely difficult to get.”
And the weird part is, Akzo Nobel says there’s no reason for it.
Bloomberg quoted CEO Theirry Vanlacker as saying “There isn’t really a reason why this big panic is happening” and that “This should be a transient situation that could take six to nine months to get back to normal, but there is no fundamental reason why there would be a lasting supply and demand imbalance.” He says the capacity for making these raw materials never changed, yet his company is now expecting cost increases and shortages into 2022.
Swedish startup Jetson Aero is joining the personal aircraft game. Its electric VTOL is called Jetson One and the users can assemble it themselves. It is also classified as an ultralight, which means owners do not need a pilot license to fly it.
This creation allows Jetson to act on its goal from its website which reads, “We intend to make everyone a pilot.” If it comforts those uneasy about unlicensed citizens flying around, Jetson also says on its site that “Safety is our number one priority.”
Since it falls under the category of an ultralight, performance and capacities are limited.
Jalopnik reports these limitations mean it must weigh less than 254 pounds, fuel capacity cannot exceed five gallons and it can only travel at a maximum speed of 55 knots, or 63 miles per hour. Last, but not least, it can only carry one occupant.
The One features four large rotors which sit inches from an open cockpit. It also possesses an all-aluminum space airframe, weighs 190 pounds and cannot be flown by a pilot who weighs more than 210 pounds. Flight controls are a 3 axis joystick and throttle lever. Flight time is 20
Charles Munger isn’t as well-known as Warren Buffett, for whom he has long served as right-hand man at the Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate.
But the 97-year-old, like the Oracle of Omaha, is a Nebraska native, a billionaire in his own right, and a prodigious philanthropist.
He is also, apparently, something of an amateur architect. And his hobby and his financial largesse have combined to spark controversy in his adopted Southern California home.
Five years ago, Munger announced he would donate $200 million toward a new building to alleviate a housing crunch at the University of California-Santa Barbara — on the condition that his blueprints be followed exactly.
Details weren’t disclosed at the time, but they’re available now: the $1.5 billion Munger Hall would be the largest dormitory in the world, an 11-story block that would house up to 4,500 students in small, single-occupancy rooms — the vast majority without windows.
The university, according to the Santa Barbara Independent, described “Charlie’s Vision” as one in which students would be encouraged to leave their tiny rooms and mingle with others in the building’s common areas.
The auto industry’s vehicle shortage has hit a new level of weird, according to a recent report by Ford Authority, who claims the Blue Oval is cracking down on a new and deceptive practice by its own dealers.
The report claims that Ford is dealing with another problem with its new Bronco, the much anticipated vehicle reprise that’s been mired in problems ranging from quality issues to pricing snafus.
But, of course… customers still want them and, to that end, so do Ford dealers.
The problem, according to Ford Authority, is that Ford dealers are reportedly going to great lengths to get more than their allotment, and some are even fabricating fake reservations for made-up customers in order to do so
A crafty Amazon shopper developed a scheme to make some money off the multinational conglomerate. The plot involved Hudson Hamrick, a native of Charlotte, North Carolina, who purchased expensive items through Amazon and then initiated returns.
One problem, the items Hamrick sent back to Amazon were not the items he bought. Instead, Hamrick sent back similar, cheaper items as the returns. On occasion, he went on to sell the original item to get both the return and resale value.
He did this for five years and was estimated to accumulate over $290,000 in total fraud.
U.S. attorneys filed charges in September claiming Hamrick had approximately 300 fraudulent transactions with Amazon. Of the 300, 270 involved product returns. Of the 270 returns, 250 were “materially different in value.”
In 10 to 20 years, Honda wants its business to offer more than automobiles, motorcycles and power equipment. A part of its “2030 Vision,” the company from Tokyo is looking to the sky and to robots and sees these advancements being offered by the 2030s and 40s.
The first is air taxis. This would build on HondaJet, which was founded in 2006 and features business jets.
Bloomberg reports that Honda hopes to commence flight tests on its air taxis in 2023. It will use a lithium battery and a gas-turbine generator which would assist in increasing its range.
If all goes according to plan, Honda sees this certified by 2030. And if Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) reaches a fully autonomous stage by 2040, Honda estimates an annual market of $269 billion.
The name Ryanair may not be as familiar to Americans, but in Europe, the budget-friendly airline carried more passengers than any competitor in 2020.
And they carried them on Boeing planes. That’s because Ryanair has long maintained a fleet that’s solely supplied by Boeing in order to streamline operations. By using only variations of the 737 model, Ryanair says its able to move pilots seamlessly from craft to craft, keeping costs down and safety up.Right now, according to Ryanair’s own website, the airline has more than 300 planes in its fleet but it’s got a lot more on order in support of an expansion it says will conclude with 520 total planes by 2024. This means that a fully booked Ryanair could fly 160 million passengers per year.
Last month, the Cumbre Vieja volcano on the Spanish island of La Palma erupted for the first time in 50 years, sending ash and lava billowing into the sky in often-spectacular fashion.
More than three weeks later, the volcano is still going strong: a new river of lava began after part of the volcano’s cone collapsed over the weekend, and another eruption was reported by local volcanologists on Monday. The still-growing lava flows have claimed some 1,400 acres of farmland and nearly 1,200 buildings to date — including, officials say, a local cement factory.
Last month, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) took a hypersonic missile prototype built by Raytheon Missiles & Defense and Northrop Grumman and completed a successful free-flight test.
This test involved a Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) missile. The HAWC’s engine got it to as fast as five times the speed of sound, about 3,853 miles per hour. It was a monumental moment for hypersonics, which are expected to be the new frontier for advanced weaponry.
But now, Reuters reports the Pentagon is saying hypersonics are too expensive. It requests defense contractors cut the ultimate cost of such weapons as a unit can cost tens of millions.
When an employer and an employee part ways, it’s not always on the best of terms. But in most cases, the departed worker moves on with their life. In most cases.
But in others, an ex-worker can feel wronged to the point where they are looking to exact revenge.
A 26-year-old Florida woman has been accused of hacking into the systems at her former workplace, the Melbourne Flight Training School.
According to a report published by Vice’s Motherboard, 26-year-old Lauren Lide resigned from her position at Melbourne in 2019 after her father, who also worked there, had been fired. A few months later, the CEO of the flight school, Derek Fallon, noticed some significant gaps in information in the app the company used to track its flights.
Since the beginning of the year, the global auto industry has been plagued by a lingering shortage of semiconductors that stems all the way to the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The crisis is impacting the entire supply chain, from the world’s most well-known car brands down to the lesser-known manufacturers that make their components.
One of the latter companies, evidently, is tired of being hung out to dry by its automaker customers — and wants to be paid accordingly.
Novares, a French company that makes plastic parts used in one in every three vehicles around the world, says some 2,000 orders have been cancelled on short notice this year, with at least 100 of those orders scrapped with less than 48 hours’ notice.
Facilities managers and safety and security personnel try to have a plan for everything, but sometimes, all it takes is a lonely lover to play the wild card.
Last week, a woman in Maine called in a pair of bomb threats at Puritan Medical Products. The calls prompted the evacuation of two manufacturing plants.
When asked why she did it, authorities said it was to spend more time with her boyfriend, a Puritan employee.
She made the first phone call to the Maine State Police around 9:00 a.m. on Thursday, stating that she would plant a bomb at a Puritan manufacturing plant in Pittsfield. Then, she called back two hours later, upping the ante to four pipe bombs she said she planned to hide in the area. The Guilford, Maine-based company has a pair of facilities in Pittsfield that make swabs used for COVID-19 testing.
Two weeks ago, an elite team completed the first successful free-flight test of the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) missile. Raytheon Missiles & Defense worked with Northrop Grumman to build the prototype for DARPA.
For the test, the HAWC was released from underneath the wing of an aircraft. Seconds after it deployed, the missile's solid rocket motor boosted it to supersonic speeds. The HAWC's scramjet (supersonic combustion ramjet) engine ignited and accelerated the missile to hypersonic speeds above Mach 5 (five times the speed of sound).
The billionaire race to space has provided a list of fascinating headlines. The most recent escapade, which involved Elon Musk’s SpaceX launching the Inspiration4 mission into orbit, added a rather unsanitary headline to the list.
No professional astronauts rode with the Inspiration4 crew, leaving the amateurs to solve any issues that arose on their own. They did, however, have communications with the SpaceX team — and that came in handy when an alarm sounded.
CNN Business reported the problem came from a fan in a toilet. The fan’s purpose is to create suction to make sure that human waste goes the right direction in the zero-gravity environment. Adding to the popular saying regarding fans and fecal matter, the fan malfunctioned, and the alarm went off.
Cracks have been spotted on the International Space Station, and while it isn’t cause for immediate concern, retired NASA astronaut and current member of NASA’s ISS Advisory Committee Bill Shepherd described it as a “fairly serious issue.”
NASA told Business Insider the cracks do not threaten the safety of astronauts at this time and no new potential leak sites were found.
The cracks were found by Russian cosmonauts on the Zarya module back in August. Eerily enough, no one seems to understand why the cracks are appearing. To add to the unsettling news, Shepherd believes there may be cracks the crew hasn’t discovered yet.
The U.S. aerospace sector is warning that it could face further supply chain and manufacturing problems if the federal government doesn’t step up its regulatory review process soon.
At issue, Reuters reports, are new soot emissions standards for aircraft engines. The rules aren’t scheduled to take effect until 2023, but industry group the U.S. Aerospace Industries Association warned that its members will need clarity on what the regulations will mean long before that deadline.
The aerospace sector, which was slammed by the decline in air travel during the COVID-19 pandemic, is now dealing with the same supply chain issues affecting many other industries. Any unnecessary regulatory delays, the group warned, would generate additional uncertainty, and could impact the broader aerospace supply chain and subsequent airline deliveries.
Late last year, electric delivery van developer Workhorse Group — despite years on shaky financial footing — was riding high amid a global push to clean up last-mile logistics and its partnerships with high-profile companies.
But just nine months later, the company is beset by vehicle issues, a federal investigation and tumbling stock prices.
In the latest headline-grabbing snag, Reuters reports that Workhorse has issued a recall of its newly released van and suspended further deliveries of the vehicle in order to ensure it meets federal safety standards.
Tesla’s long reign as the leader in electric vehicle driving range is officially over.
The Environmental Protection Agency this week certified that a new sedan from startup EV maker Lucid Motors can travel 520 miles per charge.
It’s the first time that the agency determined that an all-battery vehicle has eclipsed the 500-mile range mark, and it bests the top offering from Tesla by more than 100 miles, the New York Times reports.
The rating applies to the Lucid Air Dream Edition Range, the much-hyped startup’s debut vehicle and the top-of-the-line version of its Air electric sedan. The newly certified vehicle is slated for deliveries beginning later this year to customers who paid a sticker price of $170,000 before federal or state electric vehicle incentives.
Lucid plans to eventually roll out more economical versions of the Air, including a base model that will be below $70,000 when a federal tax credit is factored in. The company says the base model’s range would roughly match the range on the previous record-holder, the Tesla Model S Long Range.
We’ve talked about a ton of autonomous vehicle technology, and we’ve also discussed electric ride-hailing solutions; new technology for low-cost public transportation probably doesn’t sound all that revolutionary any more.
But according to Mark Seeger, the founder and CEO of Concord, California-based Glydways, it will be necessary to combine elements of all three of these strategies and technologies to truly impact and innovate the future of mobility.
If he and his team can make their platform work, it would not only remove the negative stigma of public transportation, but deliver it in a way that is profitable — and appealing enough to take vehicles off the road.
In a report released in late August, OSHA informed meatpacking giant JBS USA that it was levying fines of $175,000 against the company after an employee at its beef factory in Greeley, CO had an arm amputated by a conveyor belt.
The OSHA report, sent to JBS on Aug. 17, details five safety violations at the factory, which does business as Swift Beef Company. It states that during the end of a shift clean-up task, a 37-year-old employee was cleaning a conveyor belt when he reached for product that fell off it — after removing a plastic sleeve that prevents smock sleeves from dangling near danger zones — when he became caught in the drive sprockets of the conveyor, resulting in the amputation of his left arm.
In May, a gun maker in the Czech Republic bought Colt Holding Company for $222 million.
The company, Ceska Zbrojovka Group, hopes the acquisition and the Colt brand name will provide a better position in the firearms market around the world — and even contend for some U.S. military contracts.
CZG not only bought the Colt name; the deal came with factories in the U.S. and Canada. Until recently, the company’s production primarily operated in the Czech Republic. However, this new North American footprint satisfies the U.S. military's "Buy America" requirement, and CZG believes it could lead to big business.
According to a new report from Reuters, CZG hopes to more than double the combined companies' size in just a few years, which would put it in the same league as Smith & Wesson, which had $1.1 billion in sales last year. The other leader in firearms, Sturm, Ruger & Company, did about $569 million in sales in 2020.
Colt has been around for some 175 years and is not only a supplier to the U.S. military, but the exclusive supplier to the Canadian military. Colt had been a key U.S. military supplier until 2013, when it lost the contract to supply the M4 carbine over reliability problems. The M4 is the successor to the M16, but soldiers said the M4 would malfunction and jam in dusty environments.
For those who haven’t been, the rolling hills and valleys of southwestern Wisconsin combine with wide swaths of lush farmland to create a uniquely beautiful landscape. And sitting as a perfect example of this blend of small towns and dairy farms is the village of New Glarus.
With a population of about 2,000, local pride resonates primarily from two areas: its Swiss ancestry and the local craft brewery.
Perhaps best known for its Spotted Cow offering, although I’m more preferential to the seasonal Staghorn, New Glarus Brewery employs about 120 people.
Co-owned by Deb Carey and her husband Dan, who is also the head brewmaster, the company was founded by the couple in 1993. It has since grown to become the 12th largest craft brewer in the U.S, with annual sales in the ballpark of $20 million.
However, recent allegations are casting some dark clouds over the company’s success. According to a report from IBMadison.com, a handful of brewery shareholders, led by three original investors, are suing the company’s CEO- Deb Carey.
At the heart of their suit are allegations that basically accuse Carey of being less than transparent about the company’s financials. This includes the establishment of the Sugar River Distillery, which was designed to be owned by the brewery, but Carey transferred ownership to her and her husband without notifying stockholders.
In case you were wondering, the company does have a board of directors, but Carey is the only member.
The suit also claims that New Glarus Brewery retained, as opposed to distributed, over $100 million in earnings, including over $40 million in cash. It’s alleged that the Carey’s used large portions of these funds for their own wants, as opposed to re-investing in the business or sharing with stockholders.
Deb Carey is also being accused of using brewery money to buy minority shareholders’ voting shares at lower values in order to retain her majority.
According to Carey, in a report by Wisconsin Public Radio, she was blindsided by the lawsuit and sees it as retaliation for her decision to not lay off employees or seek PPP funds over the last year. Essentially, she contends, that because stockholders didn’t see dividends at the level that they could have, they’re now suing.
It’s worth noting that those three stockholders’ initial $25,000 investments would now be worth upwards of $10 million. The company’s net value is estimated at about $200 million.
I have been a professional writer and reporter for more than 20 years, and I’ve been covering the industrial sector for nearly 15 of those years. And in all of that time, I can honestly say that the following might be my favorite story ever.
The story starts and, basically ends, on July 6 of this year when thieves broke into a major shipping company’s overnight drop box. It’s assumed that these individuals thought they were swiping some high-tech electronics gear that they could re-sell.
Well, they weren’t completely wrong.
And while they were spotted by nearby closed caption TV cameras, the crew appeared to make a quick and clean get-away.
However, the high-tech electronics gear they stole was produced by Santa Clara, California-based Roambee, which describes itself as a provider of global supply chain visibility products.
Maybe you can see where this is going.
For days the thieves drove around the Bay Area with 25 bright yellow GPS trackers that, before being stolen, had been on their way to a manufacturer of COVID-19 vaccines, for use in tracking pharmaceutical shipments.
The sensors in the trackers are able to communicate directly to the cloud in constantly updating their location in real-time.
According to a release by Roambee, officers at the Santa Clara Police Department were elated when they were informed that the thieves in question had stolen GPS devices, as they were able to obtain hourly location updates on their suspects as they traveled over 760 miles during the next 12 days.
This gave law enforcement more than enough time to not only prepare arrest warrants related to the initial crime, but obtain insight into several others during the thieves’ joy ride. They were arrested, without incident, on July 18.
Interestingly enough, Vidya Subramanian, VP of Emerging Technologies at Roambee, states that, "This is not the first time that the company has had its trackers stolen. In 2017, burglars broke into our office and stole GPS tracking sensors, and were busted within hours of the incident.”
Yet another benefit of supply chain visibility.
Based in New York state, Gear Motions manufactures custom cut and precision ground gears for everything from oil pumps and cars to medical devices. Earlier this month, construction began on the company's new factory in Tonawanda, NY. The plan is to bring the Gear Motions' Buffalo-based Niagara Gear and Oliver Gear divisions together under one roof.
According to the company, the divisions are currently landlocked, which makes it impossible to expand operations.
The new 56,000-square-foot facility won't be larger, but the layout will be more efficient and provides room for future expansion.
Staffing the new facility, however, could be a challenge. In a recent NPR article, Dean Burrows discussed the company's challenges in finding skilled labor.
During the pandemic, many of Gear Motions' machinists took early retirement. Burrows says that it is difficult to attract talent. He's not just looking for skilled labor; he'll take anyone. He's raised wages by 20% and offered to train up prospective employees. Still, he struggles to find workers, particularly for second shift positions, as he competes with companies like Amazon and McDonalds.
Burrows has been forced to push orders out or refuse business entirely. He says it's not worth the risk to his reputation if he can't get employees who can produce the product.
As manufacturers compete for help, companies are getting aggressive. In early August, rubber parts manufacturer Custom Rubber Corp used $879,000 in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) money to significantly raise wages. On the other side of the coin, Tyson Foods has some 10% of its factory positions unfilled. The problem is causing the company to do five days' work in six.
Gear Motions plans to start moving into the new facility in January 2022.
The recent events of a Farmington Hills, Michigan wedding would seem to suggest that taking your work home with you is not always the worst thing for your marriage, or for others.
According to a report in the Detroit Free Press, married Ford engineers, and wedding guests, Harish Thiruvengadam and Swetha Shailendra were able to save the day after nearby storms knocked out power at an outdoor wedding reception.
The electricity went down at about 10 p.m., and with the groom about to call it an early night, Thiruvengadam, a mechanical engineer, remembered the PowerBoost feature of the couple’s F-150.
The PowerBoost is a hybrid-electric system powered by a lithium-ion battery pack, an electric motor and regenerative braking. It allows for full EV operation in certain conditions, but also works with the gasoline engine to generate a range of up to 700 miles on a single tank of gas, and still deliver enough power to tow up to 12,000 pounds.
But in this instance fuel efficiency and towing power were nothing compared to another feature of the PowerBoost platform – the ProPower Onboard. This mobile generator is able to capture power from the battery is delivering on-site power for tools, or in this case, lighting, music devices and speakers.
Shailendra, who works as an advanced connected vehicle engineer at Ford, helped her husband plug multiple cords into a power strip, which was then connected to outlets on the ProPower Onboard – keeping the party going strong for another five hours.
The couple said they had experienced a similar power outage at their home a couple of days prior and used the truck’s generator for a number of appliances.
If you’re interested and your local dealership has weathered industry-wide inventory issues, a 2021 F-150 Hybrid with the ProPower Onboard starts at just over $73K.
When autonomous driving systems are in the headlines these days, they tend to reinforce public skepticism of self-driving technology.
But while high-profile incidents in the news might indicate that those systems aren’t quite ready for prime time, make no mistake: that day is coming, and soon. In fact, a newly released report suggests that advances in technology could make the act of actually driving a car effectively obsolete by 2050.
The analysis by IDTechEx laid out a timeline of how things could progress. Data from the California Department of Motor Vehicles shows that Waymo, Cruise and other self-driving tech leaders are currently traveling about 30,000 miles between interventions by human drivers -- and that number is climbing by a factor of two each year.
By 2024, that means that autonomous cars could match or exceed the safety of human drivers, and at that pace, self-driving vehicles would be able to cover 3 trillion miles -- the entirety of the U.S.’s mobility demand -- by 2046. By 2050, they would be able to cover the world’s mobility needs while averaging less than one collision per year.
That prompted analysts to ask: why should manual driving, which leads to thousands of deaths and millions of injuries every year, continue to exist?
The report suggested that the restrictions would likely be implemented gradually, but that some of the conditions are already being put in place. Many urban corridors, for example, are limiting vehicle traffic in order to improve air quality and pedestrian safety -- those areas could be restricted to autonomous vehicles only, before being expanded to entire cities and, eventually, all public roads.
Although driving likely won’t disappear entirely, those who want to continue putting the pedal to the metal could be forced to do so within the confines of an auto race or test track.
Remote meetings were a lifesaver in 2020 as many businesses were abruptly thrust into a work-from-home environment. And no one platform got more attention than Zoom.
Along with it, Zoom hazards frequently became viral punchlines. Whether it involved children, pets or wardrobe malfunctions, the Internet seemed to have an endless appetite for a good virtual snafu.
But it seems these types of events have been more than just anecdotal. A recent survey, published by Bloomberg, contends that 1 in 4 executives at large companies have had to fire someone over a Zoom call slip-up.
According to the report, which cited a survey commissioned by workplace collaboration firm Vyopta Inc., Zoom calls went from 10 million per day at the close of 2019 to 300 million per day in April of 2020.
With this massive spike came a bit of a learning curve, and according to the managers surveyed, not everyone was competent when it came to the virtual meeting platforms. While it was the more dramatic incidents that made national news, even humdrum gaffes could impact business and the survey cites blunders such as being late, not knowing when to mute, or inadvertently revealing proprietary information. The report says these miscues can result in lost business and missed opportunities.
The survey results also revealed that bosses don’t completely trust a third of their workforce to be effective in a work-from-home setting. Perhaps this is why McKinsey reported last year that many companies want the happy medium of a hybrid virtual model post-pandemic, where remote work is mixed with time in the office.
Earlier this year, NASA picked SpaceX to build the lander that will return astronauts to the moon for the first time in more than 50 years.
Under the nearly $3 billion contract, Elon Musk’s company would propel the mission using one of its new rocketships, known as the Starship, which is eventually intended to bring humans to Mars.
But Musk’s chief rival in the private spaceflight game has other ideas.
The two companies that lost out on the lunar lander contract — Dynetics Inc. and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin — appealed the decision to federal officials, arguing that their bids were not scored correctly and that NASA should have handed out multiple contracts for the effort.
After the Government Accountability Office rejected that overture, Blue Origin decided to take things further. Reuters reports that Blue Origin is suing the federal government in hopes of addressing what it says are “fundamental” flaws in the bidding process.
The company’s filing is under seal, but Blue Origin said it identified problems that must be addressed in order to preserve fairness, competition and “ensure a safe return to the moon for America."
NASA said it was reviewing the matter; its legal response is due in mid-October.
The GAO, in its ruling, said NASA was within its rights to award just a single contract, and that SpaceX had the highest rating at a significantly lower price — though Blue Origin contends the company was unfairly allowed to revise its pricing. Bezos had also offered to personally offset $2 billion of NASA funding.
The contract decision, meanwhile, has already generated fallout for Blue Origin. Business Insider reports that a top engineer on its lander program has departed the company to work for SpaceX.
Neighbors of a New Jersey dog treat factory are fed up with its smell.
An Aug. 11 report from WNBC-TV detailed complaints from residents in Neptune City, New Jersey, about a Nylabone plant on the Jersey Shore.
“What I smell is like a rotting, dog food-like excrement smell,” one neighbor told the news station. Said another: “It’s nauseating. Instant headaches until, like, you’re nauseous.”
The factory has been next door to the neighborhood for decades, but smell complaints didn’t ramp up until dog treat production was recently consolidated there.
Nylabone President Glen Axelrod said, "Are we going to be able to solve it 100%? No, and I never promised 100% ... 100% is not realistically achievable, so I wouldn't promise something that's not achievable.”
Axelrod said the company recently spent over $2 million on odor abatement, charcoal filters and other improvements. He added that what residents are smelling is non-toxic and simply the process of making dog treats.
“If it were a bakery, you'd be smelling baked food; if we were a steakhouse, you'd be smelling steak," he said.
WNBC said it’s not clear what legal steps residents can take against the factory, though they are talking with an attorney.
In 2018, former engineers from SpaceX and Blue Origin formed their own company with the hope of revolutionizing travel here on Earth instead of in space.
Hermeus says it’s developing the world’s fastest reusable aircraft, capable of reaching speeds of Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound. And it says a new Pentagon contract will help get its first jet off the ground.
The company announced a $60 million agreement with the U.S. Air Force to test its first aircraft, dubbed Quarterhorse, which officials said would be the first in a line of autonomous, high-speed aircraft.
Under the deal, Hermeus would have three years to develop, build and test a concept aircraft, which would use a turbine-based combined cycle engine based on GE’s J85 turbojet engine. The company laid out an ambitious plan to validate its technology at much lower costs than would ordinarily be expected for this type of flight system.
Hermeus said it would use autonomous and reusable systems, “ruthlessly” focused requirements, and a hardware-rich program to help keep expenses down. It also vowed to push its systems to the point of failure, which would ultimately make the engineering process faster while improving both R&D and flight safety. Officials said the learning process would require real-world testing, particularly when exploring speeds that no airbreathing aircraft has flown before.
Although the military has obvious interest in hypersonic systems, Hermeus officials said the world’s fastest reusable aircraft could unlock trillions in additional economic growth every year. At some 3,000 miles per hour, a Mach 5 aircraft would cut the flight time from New York to London from the current seven hours down to a brisk 90 minutes.
What’s better than an autonomous, 10-ton, diesel-electric tank that can hit off-road speeds of up to 25 miles an hour? Probably one that also features a remotely operated 30-millimeter cannon and 7.62-millimeter automatic machine gun.
That’s what the U.S. Army is currently putting through its paces as part of its Robotic Combat Vehicle-Medium program, which also falls under its Next Generation Combat Vehicle Cross-Function Team.
Built via a partnership between Textron Systems and Howe & Howe, the Army took receipt of four RCV-M prototypes — better known as Ripsaws — earlier this year. Testing is set to continue into the fall.
Ideally, armed with promising test data, the Army plans to seek over $84 million from Congress to continue development across the Robot Control Vehicle platform.
First unveiled about three years ago, the Ripsaw’s autonomous functionality would ideally allow it to be sent in ahead of soldiers to provide data on the terrain, identify any chemical agents or weapons systems, seek out potential ambush locations, and clear out small-unit enemy positions.
All of these applications would obviously play a key role in ensuring safer troop movement, and in capturing more intel for operational planning.
Adding to the Ripsaw’s recon features is the ability to deploy drones that, according to a report on TaskandPurpose.com, were produced by FLIR systems and capable of delivering 360-degree, high-quality video feeds on the surrounding environment.
A Kongsberg Defense Systems Protector turret serves as the remote-control platform for the aforementioned cannon and machine gun.
Additional add-ons that are under consideration include the XM813 Bushmaster chain gun (think of a cannon/machine gun hybrid), smoke grenades, retrofitting kits for amphibious operations, countermeasures for taking down enemy drones, and the Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station, also known as CROWS, which features a Javelin anti-tank missile.
If the Ripsaw does eventually get the green light, U.S. soldiers won’t the be the first to reap its benefits. A stripped-down version of the vehicle has appeared in a number of films, including Fast and Furious 8: Fate of the Furious.
As a labor shortage rages in nearly every industry, we see reports suggesting that wages are increasing in many areas to attract workers. In fact, just this week we learned that the average pay for grocery and restaurant workers has topped $15 an hour for the first time.
But would it surprise you to learn that as wages inch up for the lowest paid, that they’re going up at the executive level as well? Probably not.
A new report issued by the Economic Policy Institute has tracked CEO pay back to 1978 and says that the average chief executive’s pay has grown 1,322% in that time period. And while that’s certainly a long span of time -- more than 40 years -- the average worker’s pay has grown a mere 18 percent during that same time period.
This means the average CEO makes $351 for every dollar the average worker does… and though a recent report in Forbes says wealth increased for the ultra-wealthy to the tune of $5 trillion during the pandemic, EPI points out that the CEO-to-worker pay ratio isn’t even the highest it’s ever been. That happened in 2000, when it was 366-to-1.
And even if you’re at the bottom rung of this lop-sided ladder, you’re not alone: the report says that even the top .1% of workers -- those just below the chief exec category -- still make about 6 and a half times less, putting CEOs, according to the report’s author Lawrence Mishel, “in their own stratosphere.”
But there’s hope. EPI says that the existing labor shortage will continue to put pressure on companies to increase wages and benefits for even their lowest paid workers and that could shift some power in the direction of the rank-and-file which is, says Mishel, “something they desperately need.”
The skills and labor shortages continue to be significant pain points for manufacturers. The bottleneck has forced manufacturers to test various solutions, from signing bonuses, to hiring previously terminated employees.
Depending on who you are talking to, everyone has a theory: a lack of interest in manufacturing, a lack of access to trade classes in schools, too much welfare assistance and the age-old: they don't pay enough.
An Ohio rubber parts factory recently took the $879,000 it received in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans to test whether or not higher wages might help solve staffing problems.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Custom Rubber Corp President Charlie Braun used PPP money to raise wages. For example, the company struggles to fill machine operator positions, so Braun raised the starting hourly pay $4.55 per hour to $18.25 -- it's up to $19 per hour for the night shift. So far, things are going well.
Since January, the company has added 33 new employees, and profit has nearly doubled for the same period during a good year, up to 6% from the usual 3%.
Labor costs are now at 17% of sales, up about five percent, but when orders surged 50 percent in 2021, the extra labor helped Braun keep up. Employees also received their highest profit-sharing payout in nearly ten years.
However, the company's president stresses that the pay raises could lead to wage compression and cause problems down the line as new hires come in at salaries comparable to long-tenured staff.
The jury is still out for Braun, who admits that slow sales could put the company in a difficult position with higher labor costs. However, Braun notes that money isn't enough to prevent turnover. Company culture and safety also play a big role so, Custom Rubber has been looking into investing in automation and other equipment to make jobs easier.
When it comes to low wages, Braun admits that he leaned on the recession to keep wages down. He says the manufacturing industry is also to blame for fueling the labor shortage by keeping wages down.
According to a recent study by Deloitte and The Manufacturing Institute, the manufacturing skills gap could lead to 2.1 million unfilled jobs in the U.S. by 2030, costing $1 trillion in 2030 alone.
The industry lost 1.4 million jobs at the onset of the pandemic. While the sector recouped 63% of jobs lost, the loss set the labor force back by more than a decade.
A recent report published by Inc. Magazine contends that as many as 9 in 10 American workers may be currently considering looking elsewhere for employment.
Well, we’re going to go out on a limb and say this next job prospect might just be tantalizing enough to get the other ten percent…
That’s because McCormick, the brand that’s been gracing American spice racks since the late 1800s, has announced that it is looking to fill a specific role that we might all consider ourselves well qualified for: a Director of Taco Relations.
McCormick, who has long been a main player in the taco seasoning market, has determined to step up its game. The company hopes to hire a consultant of sorts to “work with the McCormick Kitchens team to develop innovative and delish taco recipes, travel across the country in search of the latest taco trends, dialogue with other like-minded taco connoisseurs across social media, and be in on the latest Street Taco seasoning mixes developed by the McCormick innovation lab.”
Delish was part of the quote. I didn’t improvise delish.
The role is short term, but comes with a generous compensation package: McCormick says it will pay $25,000 a month for what mostly amounts to remote work of about 20 hours per week for up to four months. That’s six figures for eating tacos, just to make sure we’re all paying attention here...
According to CNBC, McCormick is looking for someone with “a strong teamwork mentality, an interest in all things tacos and a keen eye for storytelling through video and social media.”
The deadline is TODAY, so if you feel you “eat tacos like it’s your true calling,” as McCormick is requesting, then you can submit a video that spends two minutes or less showcasing your personality and detailing your commitment to tacos.
I feel like I just did that.
Millions of consumers have been laying low for most of the past year-and-a-half amid a global pandemic, which, understandably, fueled increased demand for comfort food.
The maker of Cheetos, Doritos and Tostitos scrambled to keep its snacks on store shelves, but in at least one plant, it reportedly came at the cost of its production workers’ well-being.
Members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers Local 218 are in the midst of a strike at the Frito-Lay plant in Topeka, Kansas, over what they say are unreasonable working conditions, the Washington Post reports.
Union officials say the plant has implemented forced overtime and 84-hour workweeks — many employees say they work seven days a week for up to 12 hours per shift, only to return to work eight hours later.
Workers also allege that their requests to hire more workers have been rebuffed, their safety concerns dismissed, and calls for hazard pay, bonuses or other compensation unheeded. Frito-Lay, the snack foods division of PepsiCo, took in $4.2 billion in sales alone last year as its parent company’s revenue and stock price have soared.
Frito-Lay says it made an offer to the union earlier this month that would address workers’ concerns, including a 60-hour workweek cap and a 4% wage increase. The company says it is committed to safely continuing operations in Topeka with the workers that remain — reportedly about 300 of its normal staff of 850.
Talks between the union and the company are set to resume Monday.
Moving the broader passenger vehicle market from gasoline-powered cars to electric ones will require making EVs practical enough for everyday drivers.
That means resolving issues such as limited driving ranges and lengthy charging times — where automakers have made great strides in recent years — but it also means making EVs more affordable.
Nissan, which helped usher in the electric-car era with its Leaf more than a decade ago, has reportedly slashed the starting price of the newest Leaf model by thousands of dollars compared to the 2021 version — and can now claim the title of the nation’s most affordable EV.
Electrek reports that the 2022 Leaf features a starting suggested retail price of $27,400, down more than $4,000 compared to the 2021 model. That doesn’t include things like taxes, license fees or destination fees, but it also doesn’t include a full federal tax credit for EVs, which Nissan still qualifies for. That would drop the starting price below $20,000, with potentially more savings available through state or local incentives.
The new Leaf comes in five models that start anywhere from $27,400 to $37,400; the extra money is the difference between a range of nearly 150 miles and a range for more than 200.
The Mini Electric, often cited as the market’s cheapest EV, starts at just under $30,000, while Tesla’s mass-market electric sedan, the Model 3, starts at more than $40,000.
Nissan also plans to bolster its EV lineup in the U.S. later this year. The Ariya mid-size SUV will reportedly feature a range of up to 300 miles.
On July 5, 2021, three workers were nearly crushed by a 200-metric-ton platform when things went bad while dismantling an oil rig off the coast of Western Australia.
The technicians were working on a decommissioned Santos oil rig when a crane removed the topsides, and it began to swing out of control, leaving the workers exposed, clinging to the steel column below.
According to a report and video from Boiling Cold, workers were to remove the platform in two steps. First, they would use a flame cutter to cut through part of the steel column, caisson, and then a crane would hold the weight of the topsides while the crew cut through the rest of the column.
A video taken aboard the Allseas Fortitude, the multipurpose offshore construction vessel that housed the crane lifting the topsides, shows the technicians stranded on the column as the crane operator tries to gain control of the swinging 440,925-pound topsides.
According to the Daily Mail, the crisis was likely averted because the crane driver moved the platform as far away from the workers as possible. However, the maneuver still left those on the boat and the technicians exposed to falling debris. Luckily, everyone made it out alive.
Santos has 17 more structures set to be decommissioned in the next five years; let's hope it goes a little smoother. The company acquired the platforms in 2018, and they had been idled since 2006. They were built by Apache, a U.S. energy company, back in 1993.
Santos contracted Dutch company Fugro, which hired Allseas to provide the construction vessel as well as an AUS Group Industrial Services subsidiary for rope access technicians.
The incident is currently under investigation by local authorities. As a result, Santos has to hold off on future lifts until the review is complete. The company is cooperating with the investigation.
Santos is one of the largest domestic gas producers in the area.
Whether you like them or not, Crocs -- the rubbery, washable footwear popular with health care workers, preschoolers and middle-aged dads across America -- are here to stay. And nothing speaks more to the permanence of this so-called “ugly shoe” than the fact that Crocs pulled in $1.4 billion in 2020, making it the company’s best year on record.
It’s really no surprise then that a shoe company that sold 69 million pairs last year would inspire some copycats.
That is what’s at the heart of a lawsuit Crocs recently filed against multiple retailers, putting them on blast for selling what it claims are blatant knockoffs.
Big names like Walmart and Hobby Lobby have been identified in the suit as having infringed upon Croc’s trademark, specifically selling lookalike products with distinctive markings that Crocs says are its own.
The lawsuit reads: "Given the virtually infinite number of different, non-infringing footwear styles in existence today, and which are available to other footwear companies, Crocs' competitors do not have any actual competitive need to use the Crocs 3D Marks."
The “3D Marks” in reference, says Business Insider, are holes that run along the front end of the shoe. The suit invites the comparisons by citing specific reviews from buyers of the copycat clog, including one that says “"If you are in the market for crocks (sic), these are awesome! They are great quality, and very inexpensive."
Just how inexpensive is likely a sticking point for Crocs: while an average pair of the real-deal clogs costs about $50, Walmart’s nearly identical version sells for about $10.
With an international agreement to curb climate change looming over the coming decades, countries around the world are starting to look at timetables for phasing out the production of new gasoline-powered cars.
But in the U.S. and elsewhere, an unlikely opponent has emerged to fight an ambitious transition to all-electric vehicles.
Toyota, whose Prius once made it the darling of eco-conscious car buyers, is opposing stricter emissions limits and electric vehicle initiatives around the world, the New York Times reports.
The world’s largest automaker says it embraces electric vehicles and is working to reduce its overall emissions, but it contends that a swift transition from gas vehicles to electric ones is unrealistic — and that hybrids like the Prius should continue to play a role.
Critics, however, argue that the company is merely seeking to protect its bottom line after years of betting on the wrong technologies in the race to clean up the auto sector.
Toyota brought gas-electric hybrids into the mainstream and invested heavily in hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, which can be refilled quickly, emit only water vapor, and travel long distances without needing lengthy recharges. But those vehicles remain expensive, and the extensive investment needed to increase hydrogen fuel production and build filling stations has largely failed to materialize.
Electric vehicles, by contrast, are traveling longer distances, recharging more quickly, and becoming more cost-competitive every year.
One regulator told the Times that Toyota has been “caught flat-footed” by the shift, and the result is that a company long known for a cautious approach has turned into one of the most politically active. Company officials reportedly lobbied congressional staff against a quick EV transition last month, and Toyota did not join a 2019 emissions compromise between other major automakers and the state of California.
One group says Toyota has gone from a leader to the worst in the auto industry when it comes to corporate climate lobbying.
Some analysts believe that hydrogen fuel cells could still become competitive with electric vehicles in coming years, but for now, even Toyota acknowledges that “all-electric vehicles are the future.” The company is now producing them for the Chinese market and says it plans to introduce 15 battery-electric models by 2025.
Chinese researchers have been working on a plan to avoid an Armageddon-esque asteroid hitting Earth should the issue ever present itself.
It doesn’t involve Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck, but rather, sending 23 of the country’s largest rockets in an effort to redirect the large rock.
According to Reuters, researchers at China’s National Space Science Center discovered 23 Long March 5 rockets could change an asteroid’s original course by 1.4 times the radius of the Earth. Provided they all strike simultaneously.
This method is deemed a lower risk than sending nuclear explosives to meet the asteroid. Such an act may result in smaller fragments that remain on a collision course with Earth.
The researchers used an asteroid named Bennu to base their calculations. Bennu’s width is equivalent to the Empire State Building’s height. It orbits the sun and resides in a class of rocks all of which could result in regional and continental damage if they struck Earth.
Any asteroid exceeding one kilometer in length is an issue on the global scale.
China has already launched six Long March 5 rockets since 2016, but there is still work to be done. The sixth launch in May ended with debris reentering the atmosphere. Leading up to its landing in the Indian Ocean, the exact location of where the debris would hit was unknown.
"By increasing the mass hitting the asteroid, simple physics should ensure a much greater effect," Professor Alan Fitzsimmons, from the Astrophysics Research Centre at Queen's University Belfast, told Reuters. He added the actual operation of such a mission needs to be studied in greater detail.
Professor Gareth Collins at Imperial College London estimates a 1% chance of a 100-metre-wide asteroid hitting Earth in the next 100 years.
On July 1, 33-year-old David Olson started a little demo on the back steps of his house; he wanted to build a new deck. The project took a turn when Olson, who lives in Norton Shores, Michigan, uncovered an odd black sphere buried behind the cinder blocks. He found a bowling ball and, at first, he didn't think much of it, but then he found about 157 more.
According to the Detroit Free Press, Olson thought the balls were just used as fill, which he was fine with since they were easier to move than your typical boulder, but Olson wondered where they came from.
He reached out to bowling ball manufacturer Brunswick Bowling Products. Olson has three young kids and wanted to make sure that the balls weren't toxic. The company traced the balls back to the 1950s.
Up until 2006, Brunswick manufactured balls, pins and other bowling equipment in Muskegon, Michigan, which is a little more than five miles north of Olson's home in Norton Shores. Olson, who has chronicled his journey on Facebook, was recently contacted by former Brunswick employees who said that former workers used to take scrap bowling balls and use them as cheap fill. As you can see from some of the photos Olson posted, lines were carved into the scrap parts.
A new report suggests that steel producers could be forced to abandon tens of billions of dollars’ worth of equipment in coming decades as the world transitions away from coal.
Global Energy Monitor, a San Francisco energy policy think tank, says that as many nations work to phase out coal as an energy source in order to meet global climate goals, steel plants continue to rely on blast furnaces, which use a coal derivative known as coke to turn iron ore into pig iron, and ultimately, into steel.
The GEM report, according to Reuters, suggests that as coal production winds down, those coal-powered blast furnaces could be idled, and the steel sector worldwide could be forced to write down those “stranded assets,” which the report estimates as worth $47 billion to $70 billion.
Cars.com recently unveiled its 2021 American-Made Index, which ranks new vehicles on how they contribute to the U.S. economy.
The five criteria utilized to construct the rankings are assembly location, parts sourcing, U.S. factory employment, engine sourcing and transmission sourcing.
For the first time in the AMI’s 16-year history, an electric vehicle topped the list, and it’s none other than Tesla’s Model 3. Another Tesla, the Model Y SUV, came in third in the rankings.
We may have forgotten about the supply-chain debacle inflicted by the infamous ship that became trapped in the Suez Canal this past spring, but those manufacturers with goods aboard haven’t.
Companies with products aboard the Ever Given in March are still awaiting their goods. And while the cargo ship may not be immobilized, those companies continue to sit in limbo — with their products and money hanging in the balance.
An Egyptian court impounded the Ever Given following the filing of a $916 million compensation claim by the Suez Canal Authority against the ship’s owner. As a result, the ship is stuck once again, but this time, it’s trapped in the Great Bitter Lake amid the legal battle.
Unfortunately, the waiting might not be the worst of it. According to a report by CNN Business, companies such as IKEA, Lenovo, Snuggy and many more may also have to pay to settle the financial obligations of the ship due to an ancient maritime law principle called “General Average.”
GlobalFoundries detailed the demand in a lawsuit filed against IBM on Monday, Reuters reports.
The trouble began more than six years ago, when GlobalFoundries agreed to purchase IBM’s chip business for $1.5 billion.
IBM claims the transaction required GlobalFoundries to continue making chips for IBM, but instead, the company abandoned advanced chipmaking technology in 2018 citing exorbitant research and development costs.
IBM subsequently turned to Samsung for its chips for more than two years before sending a letter to GlobalFoundries in April alleging contract violations. IBM threatened to sue and called for GlobalFoundries to pay $2.5 billion in damages.
IBM said in a statement that GlobalFoundries abandoned their agreement as soon as the final payment was received, then sold off assets from the transaction for its own benefit.
As COVID-19 cases continue to drop, Americans are eager to get back to the beach this summer and make up for lost time.
But it appears there’s a little problem that needs to be worked out first.
A recent investigation by the online pharmacy and laboratory Valisure uncovered alarming ingredients in some of the most popular sunscreen brands.
The report identified the chemical benzene in sunscreen lotions and sprays from popular brands including Neutrogena and Banana Boat. Benzene has been long been considered a cancer-causing contaminant, and is not found in the formulas of these products. Experts believe there is no safe amount of benzene to be applied to the skin, although the FDA does allow it in levels of 2 parts per million.
Additionally, the levels of benzene varied from batch to batch in the sunscreens studied, evidence that led Valisure to assume that the manufacturing process was to blame for the contamination.
The company has since initiated a petition urging the FDA to recall 40 sunscreen formulas, which include many household names. Neutrogena is the brand that tops the list with the highest levels of benzene.
David Light, CEO of Valisure, called the benzene contamination “a broad and very concerning issue in the American consumer product supply chain,” saying “it underscores the critical need for independent testing.” Light’s comments come after another Valisure investigation, this one in March, found benzene contamination in dozens of hand sanitizers.
Food and beverage giant PepsiCo on Monday shared plans for a new corporate policy embracing remote work flexibility — led by shifting half of its office staff to working from home permanently.
PepsiCo says that under its new "Work that Works" program, there will be no default, day-to-day workplace for employees in its headquarters locations.
Office associates, along with their managers, will choose what work can be done remotely and what needs to be done in person, while decisions about the best ways of working will be based on roles, daily activities and team dynamics.
PepsiCo pointed to studies showing that flexible work boosted engagement, work-life balance and all-around well-being, as well as created positive environmental impacts that will fuel the company’s performance and sustainability goals. PepsiCo noted that employers that offer flexible work see a 15% increase in productivity, 31% less absenteeism and 10% less turnover.
The Work that Works program will also let PepsiCo scale down its real estate footprint by 15%, which it says will lead to less waste and lower energy use. The company said that roughly 50% of its office staff will work remotely at any given time, and that for every 100 employees who work from home twice a week, it will save 70 tons of greenhouse gas emissions.
Two divisions of newly formed car giant Stellantis face fraud charges in a sweeping investigation into the manipulation of diesel vehicles in emissions testing.
The automaker, established by the merger of Fiat Chrysler and PSA Group earlier this year, said that a French court had charged its Peugeot and Citroen brands with consumer fraud.
The Peugeot probe concerns vehicles sold in the country from 2009 to 2015. French prosecutors, according to Reuters, found in a 2019 investigation that some vehicles emitted 10 times the legal limit of nitrogen oxide.
Peugeot was reportedly ordered to pay $36 million to guarantee potential payouts in the case, while Citroen would need to guarantee more than $30 million in payouts.
A third Stellantis brand, FCA Italy, was directed to appear before the court next month as part of the same investigation.
Stellantis said its companies are assessing their defense options and that it believes its emissions systems met all requirements in place at the time.
The long-running investigation was sparked by the discovery of Volkswagen’s cheating on U.S. emissions tests in 2015. Another European carmaker, France’s Renault, was also charged in the probe this week.
The automobile maker and Lockheed Martin co-announced May 26 that the two companies are working together on developing a new line of moon rover vehicles that astronauts will use in future lunar missions.
The iconic car maker and aerospace and defense provider touched on how NASA’s upcoming Artemis missions will take humans to the moon by 2024 — for the first time since 1972. When they do, astronauts will use a range of rover vehicles to explore the lunar surface and perform science experiments.
To enable this, NASA called upon industry leaders in early 2020 to provide concepts for robotic mobility systems and lunar rovers, along with feedback on commercial technologies and acquisition strategies for a new lunar terrain vehicle (LTV). The new announcement said the LTV is only the first of lunar surface vehicles the Artemis program will rely on.
Both GM and Lockheed Martin have a storied history of collaboration with NASA. GM was heavily involved in the guidance and navigation systems and LRV used throughout the Apollo missions from the 1960s and early 1970s. Lockheed Martin has worked closely with NASA in all aerospace aspects for more than 50 years.
This week, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) made an incredible announcement that could, at first, improve the operational readiness of soldiers but eventually improve the lives of any person suffering jet lag or food poisoning.
In April 2020, DARPA introduced the ADvanced Acclimation and Protection Tool for Environmental Readiness program.
The ADAPTER program aims to create new systems that give warfighters control over their bodies. Like any human, soldiers suffer from jet lag and food poisoning, making them less effective during critical missions. The plan is to create engineered cells and biochemicals integrated into an internal, bioelectronics carrier device that soldiers can tap into as needed. If a soldier's sleep schedule is off, he/she can activate therapies that either eliminate the illness or regulate disrupted circadian rhythms.
It’s one of the most popular brands produced by Stellantis, formerly known as Fiat Chrysler. So why are 1,600 workers at a Jeep plant in Belvidere, IL on the cusp of losing their jobs?
Unfortunately we’re seeing the fallout from a global computer chip shortage hitting greater extremes. Earlier this month, Stellantis attributed losses of about 11% in Q1 to semiconductor shortages that impacted production rates.
At the time, Stellantis suggested it would get worse in the second quarter and it seems we’re seeing a preview, as last week the company said it would be cutting an entire shift at the Belvidere plant in late July.
What’s worse is that this particular plant has already been sitting idle since March, an approach that’s also been taken by many Stellantis competitors who have struggled to maintain production levels without access to critical parts.
In April of this year, we reported on the latest activities of Aerion Supersonic, the ambitious, Boeing-backed planemaker whose goal was to bring supersonic passenger jets to the sky by the middle of the decade.
The company’s “boomless cruise” technology is designed to ferry business travelers on an ultra quiet jet in about half the time of a traditional plane… without creating a sonic boom. The plane has generated a lot of excitement throughout its development, and Aerion touted an $11 billion sales backlog.
And while a lot can change over the course of just a few months, it still came as a shock when multiple news outlets reported last week that Aerion was shutting down.
Aerion confirmed the news to CNBC, saying in a statement that “the current financial environment” has “proven hugely challenging to close on the scheduled and necessary large new capital requirements.” Translation? They’re out of money.
And while the company seemed very bullish when it touted product developments in April, experts say we shouldn’t exactly be stunned that Aerion pulled the plug. Engadget says this was “not a surprising outcome” due to the heavy expense of aircraft design and the circumstances of the pandemic creating a big question mark as to how long it will take for air travel to fully recover. They suggest that more permanent shifts to remote work might mean the market for business travel might not roar back fully… possibly ever.
It was April 30th when workers at a Volvo truck assembly plant in Dublin, Virginia called off a 13-day strike after the company brokered a peace agreement with the UAW: talks would begin again and so would the work.
And it’s true that talks, which had begun in February of this year, did resume while the plant’s 2,900 UAW members worked under the terms of an expired, five-year contract that had been reached in 2016.
Since then, UAW workers have voted “no” on a May 16th contract and “no” again on the second version that was put to a vote June 6th. It was after the latest decision that the union said workers would resume their strike the next day.
According to a report, 91 percent of union members voted against the salary language and 90 percent voted “against hourly and common language in the proposed six-year agreement.” This amounts to an even steeper defeat than that which applied to the contract that was voted down in May.
The plant’s VP and General Manager Franky Marchand called the action “difficult to understand” and said the union leadership had previously endorsed the tentative agreement prior to the vote. He added that the plant was still committed to the collective bargaining process and remained confident an agreement would eventually be reached. Union leaders suggested the same, and said they’d be available to resume talks again this week.
With over 21.6 million people, the infrastructure of Mexico City faces a daily strain that is both immense and unique. And while we’ve covered some of the challenges this creates, including the recent and devastating collapse of a metro train overpass, a report on Wired.com adds a unique problem to the mix.
Using radar-based ground measurement tools that can go up to 100’ into the earth, geologists think areas of the world’s second largest city could sink as much as 100’ over the next 150 years.
The phenomenon is called subsidence, and it could be a big problem for nearly half of Mexico City’s population.
Subsidence happens when too much groundwater is extracted, causing the land above it to compact, and sink. And if that’s not bad enough, the land doesn’t sink in a uniform manner, which creates a huge issue for roads, bridges, sewer pipes and other infrastructure running between two endpoints that could be sinking, or not sinking, by disparate amounts.
The US Military is under fire after a training incident gone awry.
According to a recent report, a group of soldiers were engaged in a training exercise in Bulgaria when a mistake sent them off course. The group was assigned the task of clearing and securing multiple structures on the US airbase in Cheshnigirovo when they inadvertently strayed from the designated area and onto private property.
Task and Purpose said the soldiers with the 173rd Airborne Brigade then accidentally stormed the operating factory next door, seizing and clearing the premises of the company’s bewildered and, no doubt, terrified employees.
Some evidence suggests the factory, which reportedly produces equipment used in olive oil production, was entered by soldiers with weapons drawn, though the Army has stressed that no firearms were discharged in the incident. Either way, the media source Arms Watch has reported that the factory’s owner has since filed a lawsuit.
If you’re looking for someone to blame for the price of chicken wings, experts say it’s the fault of the pandemic -- at least partially, anyway -- as American appetite for chicken has remained strong during COVID restrictions and in response to fast food chicken sandwich wars.
And while chicken producers are working overtime to try to address the demand, one proposed plant is being sidelined over concerns from the surrounding community.
An Alabama county court has blocked the construction of a Pilgrim’s Pride plant in the city of Gadsden that has reportedly been subject to “vocal community opposition.” The judge issued the injunction to stop construction due to concerns it will be “a smelly, dangerous nuisance,” according to the AP.
At issue is the location, which is near homes, schools and a church, as well as the region’s airport. 120 truckloads of chicken parts would arrive at the plant daily, and the Judge acknowledged local concerns over the smell, traffic and potential to impact the operations of the airport. He said that while he understood the need to bring jobs to the area, it was critical to balance that need against the rights of the citizens in the community.
A couple in Pennsylvania is taking Solar Roof to court and attempting to initiate a class-action lawsuit against the Tesla subsidiary.
It seems that after agreeing to a price of just over $46,000 to have their entire roof outfitted with Tesla panels for generating solar energy — and re-financing their home to pay for it — the couple put down a $100 deposit and waited for Tesla to contact them.
One of the smaller pieces of news coming out of the Shanghai Auto Show last week was the unveiling of new, and more colorful versions of China’s most popular electric car.
Standing out more than the new yellow, pink and green versions of the Wuling Hong Guang Mini EV is its price tag. Introduced last summer at base prices of under $4,400, the new models will be staying as light on the pocket book as they do no the road.
While the scaled down model will retain its $4,400 price tag, models with upgraded safety features and creature comforts like air conditioning will range from $5,700 to $6,700.
The vehicle, which is about 2/3 the size of a traditional sedan, is made by SAIC-GM, a state-backed entity partially owned by GM. It features a top speed of 63 mph and has a full-charge range of just over 100 miles.
The electric format, combined with a lower price point has made these tiny cars a hit, registering nearly twice as many sales in China as Tesla. .
Huawei is one of the world’s most prominent consumer electronics and telecommunications companies.
It’s also the first global tech giant to emerge from China — a fact that put a target on its back from governments wary of Beijing’s influence and motives. The U.S., in particular, imposed sanctions that prevented the company form using U.S.-made technology — including Google’s Android platform — and put pressure on its allies to look elsewhere for high-tech telecom gear.
With its global market share in jeopardy, Huawei has increased its focus on the Chinese market, but it’s also apparently looking for other revenue options. The company recently announced plans to supply vehicle operating systems to three Chinese automakers, but it reportedly has even more interest in the automotive sector.
Reuters, citing people with knowledge of the matter, reports that Huawei is in talks to assume control of a pair of Chinese electric vehicle operations.
A jury has awarded three veterans a total of $7.1 million after a case against 3M went to trial. At issue are earplugs.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the resolution last week, when a Florida jury agreed with the plaintiffs who said that 3M failed to warn users of product defects relating to its earplugs.
The earplugs in question are called Combat Arms, a product designed for soldiers that 3M actually acquired from another manufacturer in 2007. Unfortunately, they came with some baggage: a redesign in 2000 was the source of an alleged design flaw that the product carried, reportedly making it too short to fit properly.
The plugs were used by the Armed Forces between 2003 and 2015, and because of the alleged design flaw, hundreds of thousands of veterans have claimed that they’ve experienced hearing loss or ringing in the ears and that Combat Arms are to blame.
An Oklahoma manufacturer of prefabricated steel structures will pay more than $430,000 to settle dozens of apparent violations of U.S. sanctions on Iran, federal officials announced this week.
According to the U.S. Treasury Department, Alliance Steel of Oklahoma City outsourced engineering work to an Iranian company at least 61 times between late 2013 and late 2018.
Officials said that when Alliance was unable to handle engineering work in-house, it would outsource the excess work to subcontractors, a process overseen by the company’s then-chief engineer and vice president of engineering — who directed a “significant portion” to a company owned by his brother in Iran.
Among other lessons, the past year has shown the serious consequences of the decades-long inability to get modern broadband communications to rural or remote communities.
Too many parts of the country still don’t have access to broadband even as some cities rocket into the 5G age, but there’s no easy fix: installing towers, cables and other necessary infrastructure is expensive — particularly when they need to be routed over great distances without many paying customers waiting at the end.
Typically, a story involving smugglers and a high-speed boat chase through the harbors of Hong Kong would be fuel for a Jason Statham movie surrounding organized crime, guns and/or drugs.
Post-pandemic however, we’re not talking about nefarious substances or weapons. Rather, a report on DigitalTrends.com links these events to approximately 300 stolen Cryptocurrency Mining Processors made by Santa Clara, CA-based Nvidia.
The cards in question were recently confiscated after the aforementioned chase. They carry an inflated retail value of about $220,000, but pandemic-related slowdowns in production and distribution could be driving their black market values even higher.
Considered a lower-tier offering, the 30HX cards in question are not currently available in the U.S., but have been seen in stores throughout Asia selling at more than $500 over typical retail prices.
The lower processing power and lack of video outputs of the 30HX means it’s not a viable option for gaming or other high-level processing applications facing shortages, like the automotive sector.
And, while the 30HX’s hash rate of 26 MH/s is less desirable for cryptocurrency miners, this is another market sector feeling the pinch of supply chain pressures.
Bitcoin value, for example, has continued to skyrocket, driving an uptick in minors, mining activity and transactions. This increased activity demands more processing power, and has led to a run on applicable processors and chips – creating shortages similar to those seen in the automotive and gaming sectors.
So, if something is better than nothing and you’re not particular about the origins of what you’re buying, this type of activity could continue.
The smugglers got away, with law enforcement believing they fled to mainland China. But in addition to the CMP’s, the local police also found kits for increasing computer system RAM within their cargo. It’s believed that the crew obtained these kits in response to a projected price increase for DRAM.
To oversimplify what this means for those who, like me, are not familiar with computing memory and processing terminology, more RAM allows for handling more data at higher speeds. RAM is also chip-based, making it more expense and difficult to obtain right now.
DRAM is off-chip and less expensive, but with a chip shortage, DRAM demand could seek a spike. For these smugglers, that means these stolen kits represent a new market opportunity and could lead to repeats of the recent Hong Kong chase.
Based in Paris, Illinois, North American Lighting manufactures automotive lighting systems.
On Nov. 14, 2020, an accident at the company's Advanced Forward Lighting Plant left an employee severely injured.
According to the Department of Labor, a master maintenance technician suffered severe facial burns when pressurized material in a B-13 plastic molding machine exploded.
OSHA investigated the accident and found that North American Lighting lacked proper lockout/tagout procedures to protect maintenance workers. The company also failed to make sure that employees used eye and face protection.
The company was cited for four violations, one repeat violation and three serious violations, and faces $85,826 in penalties.
According to OSHA, North American Lighting was fined for similar violations in 2019.
In a statement, OSHA Area Director Barry Salerno said, “If North American Lighting took the time to implement and test the safety procedures, this serious injury could have been prevented.”
A Koito Manufacturing subsidiary, North American Lighting has eight locations across the U.S. We reached out to North American Lighting, but they have not yet responded to our request for comment.
In 2020, OSHA issued 2,065 citations for lockout/tagout violations. It was the sixth most frequently cited workplace safety violation last year.
Ford is making its first foray into long-range, fully electric vehicles with the Mustang Mach-E, an SUV based on its iconic sports car that drew rave reviews as thousands of deliveries began in recent months.
But a new report highlights the types of headaches that likely await automakers as they transition to more and more electrified fleets.
The Mach-E, which starts at more than $40,000, boasts a range of 300 miles per charge, but in order to get to those miles, the vehicle — like others, electric or not — needs a 12-volt lead-acid battery to get up and running. And a software issue in some vehicles, according to numerous owner complaints, is keeping that 12-volt from charging, essentially rendering the car useless.
The Verge reports that the problem prevents the 12-volt from charging while the vehicle is plugged in to charge its main lithium-ion battery pack. That means that even if the battery pack appears full — just like a gas tank — the car won’t be able to start.
Ford informed federal highway regulators that the problem in the car’s powertrain control module affects Mustangs built on or before Feb. 3. That reportedly means dozens of vehicles could potentially be affected; the company told the Verge that the matter involved “a small number.”
It’s possible to jump the car as you would a gas-powered vehicle, the report notes, but getting to the lead-acid battery in the first place requires opening and pulling back multiple panels — even cutting through vinyl in some cases. And even though it’s a software matter, Ford says it can’t deploy an over-the-air fix, and that owners need to take their cars to an EV-certified Ford dealership.
If you order fries from a fast-food establishment during April, don’t be shocked if they tell you they’re out of ketchup.
Yes, as just the latest food commodity facing major disruption due to impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, America is currently facing a ketchup packet crisis.
As first reported by the Wall Street Journal, restaurants nationwide are scrambling to find supply of ketchup packets that have been depleted amid more Americans ordering takeout throughout the pandemic. Meanwhile, many establishments that have allowed indoor dining have switched from ketchup bottles to packets as a hygienic safety measure.
This in turn has caused a shortage of the packets felt by retailers both large and small, and forced ketchup manufacturers to raise their prices considerably. The Journal said cited data from restaurant-business platform Plate IQ showing that packet prices are up 13% since January of 2020, and their market share has soared compared to bottles of the same product.
On Wednesday, March 31st, 49-year-old Cody Easterday pleaded guilty to a $244 million scam to defraud Tyson Foods and another unnamed company.
According to the Department of Justice, the Washington man charged the companies to purchase and feed hundreds of thousands of cattle. The only problem was, they didn't exist.
Cody Easterday owns cattle feedyard Easterday Ranches and he agreed to buy and feed more than 200,000 cattle on behalf of Tyson and the other company. He was advanced the costs of buying and raising the cattle.
The gearheads over at Jalopnik usually take to new auto development with a critical eye, so when their observations reach the level of aggrandized headlines, well… it’s worth taking a look.
In this case, it relates to the automaker Genesis, a division of Hyundai headquartered in Fountain Valley, California -- and what Jalopnik refers to as “the hottest concept car in a decade.” And they’re not alone in their praise. Top Gear called it “unbelievably gorgeous” and Engadget says it’s “pretty swish.”
Considering the last decade has brought us concept cars that drive themselves and even fly, this hot take on the Genesis X electric coupe is an interesting one.
The vehicle, unveiled last week, is as exciting as an electric car gets, only we don’t know that much about it besides how beautiful it is. Jay Chang, Global Head of the Genesis Brand, invited observers to “take a moment to meet the future of Genesis design through this concept car, which embodies (the) brand’s progressive and audacious spirit.”
For years, automakers have increased their focus on trucks and SUVs as much for their higher profit margins as the heavy demand from car buyers.
Even the cheapest trucks in the North American market will set you back more than $25,000, and the prices for a leading pickup with all the bells and whistles — say, a Chevrolet Silverado High Country from General Motors — start at more than double that amount.
An ocean away, however, GM is apparently much more interested in reaching the entry-level truck buyer.
Motor1 reports that Wuling, a joint venture between GM and China’s SAIC Motor, unveiled its debut pickup with an initial price tag of 58,800 Chinese Yuan — or just north of $9,000 American.
Although you’d have to actually go to China to get it, the report suggests that despite the eye-catching price, the Zhengtu offers a relatively large cargo bed — complete with sides that can fold down — a touchscreen interior display, and the noise and vibration levels of a passenger car.
Whenever the conversation between my follow comic book nerds turns to the topic of super powers, my first choice is always the ability to fly. Maybe that’s why the concept of an individual jetpack has always intrigued me.
And now, finally, it seems that the U.S. military is getting serious about the potential of such a piece of equipment for its soldiers.
Earlier this month, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, asked for research proposals focused on a portable personal air mobility system that could be used for special operations, search and rescue, urban combat, and logistics missions.
And although the proposal said the work could include concepts such as powered gliders, Falcon-inspired powered wingsuits, and parafoils, there’s definitely a slant towards a jetpack.
Additional parameters of the proposal included the ability to transport the system by one or a few people; a range of three miles; the ability to take off anywhere; and a composition that allows the unit to be assembled in less than 10 minutes with minimal tools.
After more than a half-century of making cars for General Motors, the automaker closed down the local assembly plant in 2019 — then announced it would sell the factory to a newly formed electric vehicle maker bearing the city’s name. Although Lordstown Motors Corp. would employ a fraction of GM’s former workforce, the company appeared poised to leap into the nascent market for electric pickups with its Endurance model — slated to begin production in the fall.
Earlier this year, in fact, Lordstown Motors said it had received orders for more than 100,000 pickups, primarily from fleet operators such as utilities and municipal governments.
But a new report suggests those orders are largely smoke and mirrors, and the company now faces an investor lawsuit and a federal investigation.
Back in 2018, a sanitation worker lost one finger and fractured another when his hand got caught in the crimping bar of a jammed ice cream wrapping machine at New Jersey-based Fieldbrook Foods Corporation.
It happened again this past September, when a maintenance mechanic lost two fingers while trying to repair the same machine.
OSHA reported March 15 that when it investigated in September, it found that Fieldbrook willfully failed to shut down and isolate energy to the machine during repair work at its Lockwood, New Jersey plant, which employs about 200 workers. For the repeated lockout/tagout violation, OSHA has proposed $237,000 in penalties.
Harley-Davidson has a problem, and it’s one many of us have: there’s something about Gen Z it just doesn't get.
But for Harley, it’s more than just a disconnect with the TikTok generation: The last time Harley reported the average age of its customer, it was 48… which means Harley isn’t reaching Millennials either. And the results of this gap means America’s most notable bike brand is struggling big time to broaden its niche.
One of the problems Harley has encountered over the years is the shrinking market share for its big, pricy bikes as they compete against smaller and cheaper options. So Harley is taking a new approach, and when you hear some of the details in a recent Reuters report, you’ll wonder what took so long.
Reuters says Harley is embarking on a new certified pre-owned program where the company will push lightly used bikes with a 12-month warranty as well as offer financing. According to the report, some dealers have said that used bikes are outselling new ones at a margin of 3-to-1, and that the pandemic has actually increased demand for motorcycles -- just not new ones. In fact, the demand for pre-owned Harleys was described as “a drag on the company’s retail sales” which, by the way, have declined 40 percent since 2014.
From July 2016 to May 2019 Izaak Kemp worked as a contractor at the Air Force Research Laboratory and National Air and Space Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.
During his time at the base, which oversees the development of advanced laser and hypersonic weaponry, military satellites, and space vehicles, Kemp enjoyed a Top Secret clearance. This would seem to mesh with his educational background of a Master’s degree in physics and a Doctorate in electrical engineering.
And then it got weird.
Kemp recently pleaded guilty to taking 2,500 pages of classified data from 112 different documents to his home in Fairborn, Ohio. This is despite numerous training sessions related to the proper safeguarding of classified material.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency consistently offers leading-edge product developments that often begin with military applications before transferring the technology to the mainstream.
While that’s the case with a lot of imaging and material technologies, their latest announcement will hopefully remain with the Department of Defense.
DARPA recently awarded $22 million in contracts to General Atomics, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman to develop what is being described as an air-launched combat drone with its own arsenal of air-to-air missiles.
Basically, the goal of the LongShot program will be to develop a front-line UAV that can take the fight to incoming air strikes.
Fisker Inc., a company that describes itself as a designer and manufacturer of the "world’s most emotion-stirring, eco-friendly electric vehicles," has announced a memorandum of understanding with Foxconn to develop a new electric vehicle.
Codenamed "Project PEAR" — Personal Electric Automotive Revolution — the plan calls for Fisker and Foxconn to collaborate on a new vehicle. Foxconn hopes to make more than 250,000 Pears per year, with production starting as soon as Q4 2023. The vehicles will initially target markets in North America, Europe, China and India.
The vehicle will be the second introduced by the Fisker brand following the launch of the Ocean SUV in Q4 2022.
I don’t think it would be biased in any way to say that Ford knows how to make a good pickup truck.
Their F-150 has been the best-selling truck in the U.S. since 1976 and the best-selling overall vehicle in America since 1981.
That’s why it came as a surprise when the company recently announced that it would need to recall 87,350 F-150 and Super Duty Trucks due to windshields that, according to the company, "are inadequately bonded to the vehicle body structure.”
The notice went on to explain that in the event of a crash, the windshield’s inability to stay connected to the frame could result in a greater risk of injury. The affected vehicles were built at Ford's Dearborn and Kentucky plants between October 2020 and early February of this year.
Sometimes, the Russian military reminds me of that oddball uncle who comes to the kid’s birthday party wearing camo pants, boots and a cutoff vest with military patches. You’re really not sure if he’s as tough as he looks or as crazy as he sounds, but either way, you make sure to keep an eye on him.
After hearing a couple of recent news stories funneling out of Moscow, I think you’ll get my point.
The first is from state-owned military supplier Rostec. They’re reportedly building a combat suit capable stopping .50 caliber bullets.
Just to offer some perspective, these rounds are typically fired by an M2 automatic machine gun this is tripod- or vehicle-mounted. The rounds measure about five inches long, and are the one thing most high-end bulletproof armor still can’t stop.
However, Rostec is saying that their fourth-generation Sotnik, or "Centurion," battle armor will be ready for the task thanks to a lightweight polyethylene fiber and armor plating that is engineered to withstand a direct shot.
Just as important as its strength, the armor will also reportedly not restrict movement, and will allow users to comfortably handle the extra weight associated with tactical military gear.
While most defense authorities are giving the announcement an exaggerated eye roll, the suit is part of a collection of gear that has reportedly been in development for more than a decade. Previous versions could withstand 7.62 mm rifle rounds, and contained a thermal night vision monocle, integrated communication systems and a self-contained heater.
Also coming out this week was news from Russian arms maker Kalashnikov. Most famous for the AK-47 automatic assault rifle carried by nearly every bad guy in 1980s action movies, Kalashnikov is looking to expand their reach with a self-described gadget gun for hipsters.
It’s an interesting description for a semi-automatic, 12-gauge shotgun with embedded electronic capabilities that could include a compass, video camera and computerized firing instructions. According to the company, the gun is meant for users “born with gadgets and cannot imagine themselves without them.”
The MP-155 Ultima is projected to cost 100,000 rubles, or $1,348.
Executives from Intel, IBM, Texas Instruments say the U.S. tech sector is “at risk.” The domestic electronics sector has long decried the long, slow migration of semiconductor manufacturing from the U.S. to overseas factories — and warned of the potential implications for both commercial supply chains and national security.
But just in case policymakers weren’t completely convinced by pleas from some of the world’s leading technology giants, a global pandemic stepped in to make them pay attention.
As COVID-19 swept around the globe last winter and spring, automakers were forced to idle their plants just as millions of newly home-bound workers began depending on electronics to keep them connected. Semiconductor makers, naturally, diverted wafers and chips originally intended for vehicles to other, more in-demand sectors.
Now, roughly a year later, the auto industry has made a dramatic recovery — and semiconductor makers haven’t been able to catch up. Numerous automakers have been forced to cut back on production due to a lack of parts, and one estimate expects the shortage to make a $60 billion dent in the global auto sector.
The Semiconductor Industry Association — a trade group representing nearly all of the nation’s semiconductor industry, including Intel, IBM and Texas Instruments — says “bold action” is needed to address the challenges facing the sector, and that the U.S.’s leadership in tech is “at risk.” In a letter to the Biden administration, the group called for “substantial” financial incentives for semiconductor manufacturing to be included in forthcoming economic recovery and infrastructure plans.
Congress approved subsidies for semiconductor manufacturing and research last year, but lawmakers have yet to determine how much funding should be allocated. The White House on Thursday promised to help address the shortage — likely in the form of an executive order — but for an industry with lead times lasting months, it will likely be of little consequence to automakers who expect to lose billions in sales.
More than two years ago, Volkswagen announced an $800 million initiative to expand its lone U.S. plant to produce electric vehicles.
But a trade dispute involving the supplier of batteries for those forthcoming vehicles has complicated those plans.
LG Energy Solution alleged that fellow Korean company SK Innovation lured away dozens of its employees in an effort to steal its trade secrets. A judge ruled in LG’s favor last year, and last week, the U.S. International Trade Commission upheld that decision — and banned SK from importing, making or selling batteries in the U.S. for 10 years.
The decision has obvious implications for SK’s $2.6 billion factory under construction in Georgia, but it could also reverberate throughout the North American auto market — SK was supposed to make batteries for electric vehicles from Ford and Volkswagen.
The ITC decision sought to cushion the blow for those companies by including a four-year exemption for Ford and two years for VW, but the German automaker suggested that wouldn’t be enough. VW said it was an “unintended victim” in the case and indicated it would ask for “at least four years” to ensure “an adequate transition period.”
Volkswagen said it would take “all necessary steps” to ensure that production of the ID.4 electric compact SUV — and the addition of some 1,000 factory jobs — moves forward in Tennessee. Both VW and Ford expressed hope that LG and SK would resolve their dispute out of court and ensure the nation’s supply of EV batteries goes uninterrupted. LG has reportedly floated the possibility of SK paying to license its technology.
Georgia officials, meanwhile, asked the Biden administration to reverse the ITC’s decision altogether, citing the potential impact on SK’s plans to hire 2,600 people at its new plant. Biden has 60 days to review or block the ruling.
Americans love a good mystery, especially one that involves an unidentified flying object. Just a guess, but the pandemic may have facilitated more than your average usage of the FBI’s online data vault as amateur sleuths finally had the time on their hands to really get at Roswell.
Meanwhile, a modern day uncertainty has been confounding airspace observers since August. That’s when pilots began spotting what appeared to be a man strapped to a jet pack, speeding through the blue ether at super high elevation. Besides the insanity of the spectacle itself, the jetpack-clad individual generated concern by flying far too close to incoming jets above LAX.
Reuters has tabulated just how much damage Hyundai and partner company Kia recently took in the market after it was announced the automakers were no longer planning a deal with Apple to produce a much-buzzed-about Apple car or its components.
And it was sizable. In early January, Hyundai had confirmed a report that the company was in talks with Apple over potential plans to develop self-driving cars and/or electric vehicles batteries at U.S. Hyundai or Kia factories. At the time, the news caused Kia shares to jump more than 60 percent and the gains remained because reports continued to suggest that talks were ongoing and a deal imminent.
But in a pure example of “the bigger they are, the harder they fall” both Hyundai and Kia took dramatic hits to their market value this week when Hyundai announced to shareholders that they were, in fact, not in talks with Apple on autonomous vehicle development. The fallout from the surprise shift sent Hyundai’s shares tumbling 6.2 percent and Kia’s 15 percent. All told, the loss of market value between the two companies combined was a reported $8.5 billion.
Multiple news outlets reported last week that President Biden will soon issue an executive order aimed at reviewing critical US supply chains and ultimately find ways to reduce the country’s reliance on foreign suppliers for technology, raw materials and medical supplies.
Citing officials familiar with the matter, the reports said that the order will focus on both government contractors and private industry in its efforts to secure US industrial supplies from competitors, including China.
The order will reportedly closely follow the plan Biden laid out in his presidential campaign. It will begin with a 100-day review to identify critical national security risks across US international supply chains and will ask Congress to enact mandatory quarterly critical supply chain reviews to institute the process permanently.
A congressional panel is opening an investigation into widespread COVID-19 infections and deaths of U.S. meatpacking plant employees, saying that the Trump administration didn’t do nearly enough to protect workers.
On Feb. 1, the chairman of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis sent letters to OSHA, Tyson Foods, Smithfield Foods and JBS USA informing them of the new investigation that follows reports of positive cases among nearly 54,000 workers at 569 meatpacking plants in the U.S. — and 270 resulting deaths.
Metal Shark. Loitering munitions. Collaborative swarming behaviors.
That’s who and what this episode will cover, thanks to a recent agreement between the Marine Corps. and Louisiana-based boat builder Metal Shark for a new type of long-distance, autonomous warship.
Technically classified as the Long Range Unmanned Surface Vessel (LRUSV), the objective for Metal Shark will be to create a 30’ craft capable of providing unmanned operations in delivering drones, or the aforementioned loitering munitions, that are capable of collecting information about a potential target before blowing it up.
These Kamikaze drones would form what the Strategic Capabilities Office has dubbed a Sea Mob capable of searching for, and potentially waiting for targets before detonating. According to TaskandPurpose.com, a fleet of LRUSVs would deploy as a “collaborative swarm” capable of interacting with other vessels and weapons systems in overwhelming a target or enemy.
When Fiat Chrysler announced its intention to merge with European car company Groupe PSA, industry analysts warned that there would be casualties: specifically by way of trimming down the number of vehicles in Dodge and Chrysler’s slow-moving portfolios.
But recently Carlos Tavares, the CEO of Stellantis -- the new moniker for the now-fourth-largest global automaker -- tried to allay those fears, suggesting that, despite the merger, they would be giving the company’s brands a "strong opportunity" to rebound.
So why, a few weeks later, is Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis all but signing the death certificate on the brand’s well-known Hellcat V8? The answer actually lies outside of the company’s four walls.
In an interview with CNBC, Kuniskis said “The days of an iron block supercharged 6.2-liter V-8 are numbered.” But he went on to make an important distinction: while Kuniskis believes that it’s regulations that are making the cost of compliance unsustainable, he does not believe the performance generated by these types of vehicles is necessarily on its way out.
Dodge believes, in fact, that these super-performing engines can be replaced by electrics, ushering in what Kuniskis calls “a new Golden Age of muscle cars.” He sees this happening after electric vehicles reach the point of industry standard, after which “the crazy people are going to take the electrification that has now become accessible from a price point and make that performance-based instead of economy-based.”
So does Dodge count itself among these “crazy people?” It might not have a choice. Kuniskis likens the environment today to the one that killed the original muscle cars in the early 70s, when oil prices and safety requirements started to make them unworkable. The engines then were adapted to be more efficient, and could now be facing a similar arc as the government and consumers continue to push for energy efficiency standards to tighten.
The company has stressed that Dodge will remain a performance brand but, also, that Stellantis will produce an electric variant of every vehicle it unveils between now and 2025. So will the Hellcat EV take the V8’s place? While Dodge doesn’t currently offer any EVs, Kuniskis says that will change because “it’s what’s going to allow us to not fall off the cliff.”
More than two years ago, the U.S. Department of Justice announced a new effort, known as the China Initiative, to crack down on the passing of valuable research and intellectual property to the nation’s top economic rival.
In subsequent months, the initiative led to charges against more than two dozen researchers, including six visiting scientists and 10 American academic researchers. But the latest arrest, the New York Times reports, drew a fierce backlash.
Gang Chen, a prominent mechanical engineering professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was arrested earlier this month amid allegations that he failed to disclose financial and academic ties to China when applying for U.S. government grants.
When you’re on the cutting edge of AI development, it’s all but guaranteed that some of your more extreme ideas will wind up in a development holding pattern. And for Microsoft, this is one of those times, as company leaders recently released more details on a robotics project that will be staying in the concept phase… at least for now.
And the reason is a good one: it’s too disturbing.
Microsoft obtained a patent last month on a conversational Chatbot that could be custom made to resemble a specific person such as, according to the patent filing, a friend, relative, celebrity or historical figure.
In case you were wondering if customization in the automotive realm was beginning to slow, the Sentry Civilian is here to reassure you that is not the case.
Designed and manufactured by Toronto-based Inkas, a provider of bullet-resistant vehicles, the Sentry Civilian looks to combine military-level security with J-Lo-level luxury.
On the exterior, the SUV features bullet-resistant windows, run-flat tires and armored passenger compartments. Added touches like reinforced areas around the frame, including the door hinges, add to the vehicle’s impenetrable design.
Despite the fact that the world’s richest increased their wealth dramatically during the pandemic, there were still some moments of philanthropy that might even warm the heart, and hands, of Bernie Sanders himself.
The latest is from Elon Musk, the man battling it out with Jeff Bezos for world’s richest person, who has announced an initiative that targets innovation related to climate change.
In a competition announced late last week, Musk says he will give $100 million in prize money for the person or team who can develop the best carbon capture technology.
Unilever is one of the world’s largest consumer goods conglomerates, and it wants its suppliers to pay up… to their employees.
The London-based company announced a sweeping set of social equity initiatives on January 21st, topping them with by saying it will ensure that everyone who directly provides goods and services to the company earns at least a living wage or income by 2030.
Unilever — which owns numerous well-known known food, home care and personal care brands that range from Axe Body Spray to Dove Soaps to Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream — said that it already pays its 150,000+ employees a living wage and wants to secure the same for more people beyond its workforce, especially those vulnerable workers in manufacturing and agriculture.
While the COVID-19 vaccine rollout is still slowly being rolled out, one major food manufacturer is already going public with its plan to encourage employees to get the shot.
Chobani president and COO Peter McGuinness said in a January 22 LinkedIn post that the company will give its employees up to six hours of paid time off to get vaccinated — devoting three hours for each of the two vaccine doses when it’s available for them to receive.
McGuinness said, quote, “It’s simple, fair and the right thing to do. Our plant employees have been on the frontlines of putting food on America's kitchen tables 24/7 during this pandemic. They’re the heart of our company and we'll do whatever we can to protect them.”
Norwich, New York-based Chobani, best known for its yogurt products, is reportedly working with state and local officials about opportunities for its employees to be vaccinated.
Researchers from McMaster University in Canada have cultivated a new meat using a method they say offers a more natural flavor and texture than other other alternatives to traditional meat. The first sample was cultivated using cells from mice.
The researchers make the meat by stacking thin sheets of lab grown muscle and fat cells. It sounds odd, but it's the same technique used to grow tissue used for human transplants; we're just eating it now.
The sheets of cells are about as thick as a piece of paper. They are grown in culture and then concentrated before being peeled off and stacked or folded together. The sheets bond to one another before the cells die.
The Food and Drug Administration this week announced a settlement with a Washington state juice producer over unsanitary conditions and contaminated products.
The FDA said a federal judge, at its request, entered a consent decree between the agency and Sunnyside, Washington-based Valley Processing Inc. — and its owner and president — to halt the distribution of adulterated juice products.
The FDA previously filed a complaint alleging that Valley’s juice products contained inorganic arsenic and patulin toxins at levels that could pose health risks to consumers.
Fire extinguisher manufacturer Walter Kidde Portable Equipment has been ordered to pay a $12 million civil penalty following allegations that the company failed to inform the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) of product defects in a timely manner.
Based in Mebane, N.C., Kidde agreed to the civil penalty and other terms as part of a consent decree entered by a federal judge.
The allegations stem from a 2017 recall of Kidde fire extinguisher. According to the recall, the extinguishers could become clogged or require excessive force to discharge, fail to activate during a fire emergency, and some nozzles even fell off.
Nearly seven years ago, in an effort to branch out beyond a maturing market for its flagship product, Apple began working on something quite different.
The iPhone maker tried its best to keep what was known as “Project Titan” under wraps, but anything involving the world’s most valuable company was bound to attract attention — particularly if it involved trying to make its own self-driving car.
Starting a car company from scratch, however, is famously difficult, even for a company with tens of billions in cash lying around. The initiative struggled through changes in direction and leadership, and shed hundreds of engineering jobs at the beginning of 2019.
MACA, based in southern France, is a new startup in the flying-car game with a concept they call the Carcopter. And while the name doesn't suggest it, this one is pretty.
The brainchild of ex-fighter pilot Thierry De Boisvilliers and 12-year Airbus Helicopter veteran Michael Krollak — with nearly 60 years of combined aeronautics experience — Carcopter is a hydrogen-powered flying Formula 1 car.
Gun enthusiasts and hobbyists have long been able to assemble their own firearms at home without running afoul of laws regarding registration.
But as those do-it-yourself options became easier to use in recent years, critics have warned that they are increasingly used by those hoping to circumvent background checks for firearm purchases — leaving authorities with no way to trace weapons increasingly linked to criminal activity.
Keith Berman, 67, is the CEO of Decision Diagnostics, a medical device company based in Westlake Village, CA. On Friday, the Department of Justice announced that a federal grand jury indicted Berman in connection with an alleged scheme to defraud investors. Berman allegedly made false and misleading statements about a new COVID-19 test, which led to millions of dollars in investor losses.
While the pandemic has attacked the economy with brutal force, the impact COVID-19 has had on our pocketbooks has not been equal. Studies show that layoffs have disproportionately affected those in certain industries like retail, hospitality and restaurants, while many white collar workers have managed to make their way through by working from home, relatively unscathed.
Fresh off its historic and successful mission to the International Space Station, last week SpaceX announced even grander plans.
Company founder Elon Musk, took to Twitter, if you can believe it, to announce that the company is planning to construct floating, marine-based spaceports around the world. These aqua-bases would be used to launch rockets into space, including Mars and the moon, as well as to support hypersonic passenger flights around the globe.
According to the Department of Justice, a pair of Virginia attorneys pleaded guilty to federal extortion charges on Friday.
38-year-old Timothy Litzenburg and 41-year-old Daniel Kincheloe admitted to participating in a scheme to extort $200 million from multinational chemical company Monsanto. According to the DOJ, the lawyers threatened financial and reputational harm if the company didn’t hand over money disguised as a “consulting agreement.”
The 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group on the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona is often referred to as the Boneyard.
That’s because it houses approximately 4,000 retired military aircraft – more than anyplace else in the world. And, according to recent reports, it’s about to get a little bigger.
The Air Force has announced plans to retire more than 100 planes across its bomber, airlift, tanker and drone fleets in order to make room for additional aircraft tied to its $1 billion Next Generation Air Dominance program.
According to a report on Military.com, shipping 17 B-1B Lancer bombers, 44 A-10 Thunderbolt II fighter jets, 30 KC-135 Stratotanker and KC-10 Extender refuelers, as well as 24 RQ-4 Global Hawk drones and 24 C-130H Hercules troop transport planes will free up over $4 billion that the Air Force can use on some other stuff with really cool names.
For example, the aforementioned Air Dominance program will explore what future fighter jet operations could look like and support the Advanced Battle Management System. This program will look to sync current intel with surveillance information and machine-gathered reconnaissance data in formulating military plans.
In addition to investing in strategic air combat and defense planning, the funds will be used to help boost and update the Air Force’s current fleet with new F-35A Joint Strike Fighters, F-15EX fighter jets and MH-139 Grey Wolf helicopters.
The aircraft that make their way to the 2,600-acre Boneyard will either be stored for potential use in the short term, picked for parts, or readied for sale. On average, aircraft at the facility produce about $500 million in sales to “military, government and allied customers.
A New York City based startup is facing the wrath of some the world’s biggest tech companies due to the way it’s populating a database for its facial recognition product.
According to its website, Clearview AI’s mission is to enable law enforcement agencies to identify perpetrators and victims of crimes. It apparently does this by using a “research tool” that’s, essentially, a searchable database of photographic images. And they’ve been obtaining these images, reportedly, by scraping them from the web, including from social media sites like Twitter and Facebook.
The New York Times reported in late January that Twitter had contacted Clearview AI and demanded they stop “collecting faces.” Now, according to Business Insider, Google and YouTube have joined Twitter in blasting Clearview AI for violating their policies.
These companies basically all employ language that says that individuals are forbidden from collecting information that’s then used to identify a person or, as Twitter explicitly says, “for surveillance purposes.”
But the startup, whose legal team is certainly being kept busy, says that it is simply accessing publicly available information, which is a right it is afforded by the First Amendment.
BBC News says the startup has amassed more than 3 billion images from a variety of websites, and so far Clearview AI is being used by more than 600 law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and Homeland Security.
Over the past two years, Fiat Chrysler has seen some dramatic highs and some crushing lows. After the automaker endured the sudden passing of longtime leader Sergio Marchionne in 2018, it concluded 2019 with a binding agreement to merge with Peugeot to form the world’s fourth largest car company.
Sandwiched in between these events was FCA’s quiet settlement of a lawsuit that stemmed from a 2016 case where the company was accused of manipulating dealer sales figures. A group of dealers in Illinois had held fast to a lawsuit claiming FCA was guilty of racketeering and anticompetitive practices when it pressured dealers to inflate sales numbers in exchange for a greater allotment of the fastest-selling models.
And while FCA settled this dealer suit and averted a lawsuit, it appears they weren’t able to breathe easy for long. Automotive News is reporting that a new group of dealers, this time in New York, is threatening FCA with a lawsuit for an entirely different reason.
The New York State Automobile Dealers Association has reportedly sent a cease-and-desist letter to Fiat Chrysler, alleging the auto maker’s dealer incentives give an unfair advantage to larger dealerships.
Fiat Chrysler is attempting to clear inventory at the manufacturing level, a strategy designed to avoid saddling plants with thousands of unassigned vehicles when dealer orders mismatch what’s been produced. This year, FCA is offering dealers a $1,500 voucher for every vehicle they buy from the inventory pool and some angry dealers say this is tantamount to 2-tiered pricing: rewarding larger dealers -- those, typically, with more cash to carry inventory -- by selling them vehicles at a lower price.
According to Automotive News, Fiat Chrysler claims its vehicle surplus is due to a production method that’s been trimming costs at the manufacturing level and not, as the dealers claim, because it’s over-producing and pressuring dealers to ease the glut. Bloomberg reported last fall that CEO Mike Manley said that “Working with our dealer network to achieve and maintain discipline with stock levels continues to be one of (the company’s) top priorities.”
More than 30 years after snowmobile pioneer Bombardier first entered the aerospace sector, the company is reportedly set to depart the commercial aircraft industry entirely amid a broad restructuring effort.
CBC/Radio-Canada reports that fresh off a $1.6 billion loss in its latest fiscal year, the one-time aviation and rail giant sold its stake in the A220 passenger jet to its partner Airbus for $591 million.
The French aerospace giant now owns 75 percent of the A220 program, with the remainder owned by the government of Quebec.The deal will relieve the debt-ridden company from paying an estimated $700 million into the program, but it also leaves Bombardier Aerospace with only its private jet manufacturing operations.
Airbus will retain more than 3,000 jobs in Quebec as part of the deal. Bombardier officials noted that they long planned to exit commercial aviation after the company reportedly flirted with bankruptcy in 2015, but the CBC noted the company’s core operations remain something of a “moving target” after years of shedding aerospace assets.
And despite leaving the commercial aerospace market altogether, the company still likely isn’t done — reports indicated that Bombardier is close to a sale of its rail operations to French rail giant Alstom.
Nashville-based Atlantic Natural Foods’ is a producer and distributor of plant-based food products, and its flagship brand, Loma Linda, has a number of plant-based meat products, ranging from hot dogs and veggie steaks, to its most popular offering, seafood. The company’s TUNO brand of plant-based seafood has recently gained expanded distribution. TUNO, a soy-based protein with a texture similar to tuna, is currently sold at Costco, Walmart in the US and Aldi stores in the UK.
This past October, Atlantic requested to attend the annual International Boston Seafood Show, held this coming March 17-19, to exhibit its TUNO brand.
The group vice president of Diversified Communications, who are the organizers of the expo, told Undercurrent News, quote, “One of the unique aspects of Seafood Expo North America for our attending buyers is that we are specifically seafood-focused compared to other general food events. As we are monitoring this alternative protein option, for 2020, it has been determined that protein products be limited to seafood proteins, where a majority of the product’s ingredients need to be seafood or aquatic in nature. Similarly, buyers would not find chicken, pork, or beef products exhibited at the event.”
This isn’t sitting well with Atlantic, which announced in late January that it is considering legal options, threatening to file a formal complaint against Diversified Communications for the restraint of trade and violation of the company’s first amendment rights. Atlantic has asked Diversified to reconsider its decision, on the grounds that, one, in addition to soy, TUNO is made out of ocean-based ingredients, including seaweed and algea, and two, Atlantic is currently developing seafood applications.
The company said it was denied again, and despite multiple requests for further clarification and a chance to review the show policy, it has yet to receive a response from Diversified as of January 29. In a press release, Atlantic it believes Diversified Communication’s actions are directed solely towards Atlantic Natural Foods and its owners, who it said are long-term veterans of the seafood industry.
Atlantic chairman J. Douglas Hines, who the company notes is a 40-year seafood industry veteran, said, quote, “Leaders in the seafood industry are again attempting to ignore innovation and groups out of their control. Instead of embracing change and delivering on new consumer expectations, they continue on a path to repeat past practices.”
In its January 29 press release, Atlantic said it has not finalized its decision to file a lawsuit but is demanding that the event planners formalize a policy that is fair and equitable for all.
A Northeast Wisconsin heavy-duty vehicle manufacturer stands to bear the brunt of tens of millions in proposed spending reductions if the White House gets its way.
Defense contractors are always subject to the whims of global conflict and political considerations, but a new report suggests that orders for hundreds of Oshkosh Corp.-built Army trucks could be a casualty of the administration's efforts to build fencing along the border with Mexico.
The Defense Department recently issued plans to divert more than $3.8 billion to construct 177 miles of fence along the nearly 2,000-mile border. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that most of that funding comes from cancelled aircraft and drone purchases, but more than $100 million would also be diverted from the Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck program.
Those trucks are used to carry munitions and other supplies for the Army. Oshkosh has rebuilt more than 12,000 of them over the past 25 years, and received a $232 million contract to revamp more than 400 more early last year.
Oshkosh officials didn’t answer questions about how the changes could impact its operations or payroll, but Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin’s office told the Journal Sentinel that the Trump administration appears to be taking funding from the state’s manufacturing sector for a wall that the president famously promised Mexico would pay for.
Pentagon budget documents, meanwhile, defended the cut by noting that spending hundreds of millions on legacy trucks was inconsistent with its goals of modernizing its tactical vehicle fleet.
Oshkosh is far from the only firm that would be affected under the plan. The company touts more than 700 suppliers, and Fairbanks Morse — another Wisconsin company — was set to make the engines for a Navy ship program that now faces $650 million in cuts under the proposal.
The UAW has been struggling, for a while now, as fallout from corruption investigations has implicated more and more of its ranking members, including president Gary Jones, who abruptly resigned from the organization this past November.
Jones, who was being charged by the union of misusing funds, was just one of more than a dozen UAW execs pursued for various corruption allegations. But one exec that’s still leading the charge is Rory Gamble, the union president who stepped in take Gary Jones’s place. And what better way for the UAW to commemorate Gamble and the union’s fresh start, than by handing out promotional pens at a lobbying event this week with his name on them.
But there’s one problem. The Detroit News published a story last week that detailed backlash from union members who were not pleased to see the pens emblazoned with the name of their country of origin: China.
Meoshee Edwards, a 23-year UAW member who works at Detroit’s Hamtramck plant reportedly called the pens “hypocritical” and a spokesperson for the union said, simply, “the UAW agrees.” The UAW’s bidding process requires that items purchased come from union-made U.S. plants. So what happened? In this case, the union says the manufacturer flubbed the order.
And New Jersey-based Bankers Pen, Inc. says the union is 100 percent right – they did mess up the order, by grabbing pen parts from their China-made inventory, rather than the U.S.-made stock, due to a processing error. Bankers President Richard Danziger told the Detroit News that it was “absolutely someone in my facility” and that the company would do whatever it takes to make it right.
Unfortunately for the UAW, it’s just more drama at a time when the union doesn’t need it. The organization has been known for wearing a mantle of “Buy American” and even publishes shopping guides on where to buy union-made goods.
A Denver-area autonomous vehicle startup made its public debut this week with a more than $50 million fundraising haul and the announcement of pilot projects at several large companies.
Outrider says it offers first-of-its-kind technology to help automate the distribution yards of large companies. A video issued by the company shows driverless cabs maneuvering containers at loading docks as an employee monitors the operation from a computer.
Although distribution yards offer the kind of confined, repetitive environment that could make it perfect for autonomous technologies, Outrider officials noted they can also be complicated and chaotic, with human workers still performing many different tasks.
In addition to moving containers around a yard, Outrider’s autonomous, electric cabs, according to the company, can also hitch and unhitch trailers and connect and disconnect their brake lines.
Officials also said its system integrates with supply chain software already in use by large companies. Outrider is conducting tests at four unnamed Fortune 200 companies and at paper goods giant Georgia-Pacific.
The company’s fundraising campaign, meanwhile, took in $53 million from numerous venture capital firms as well as logistics giant Prologis and the venture arm of Koch Industries — Georgia-Pacific’s parent company.
Ultimately, Outrider executives hope to establish logistics hubs that are safer, more efficient and more sustainable — founder Andrew Smith set a goal of rapidly retiring the more than 50,000 yard trucks in the U.S. that run on diesel fuel.
The F-35 program has been the target of a lot of criticism. Like, a lot.
The military aircraft, said to be the most lethal and connected fighter jet in the world, has been plagued by ballooning cost, delays and technical problems for years, and the F-35’s annual assessment by the Pentagon’s test center isn’t exactly giving its reputation a boost.
It’s being reported by Bloomberg that, while Robert Behler, the Defense Department’s director of operational test and evaluation, didn’t pinpoint any major problems in flying capability, he did stress there were many Category 1 – or “must fix” items – to address before the project’s next phase.
The report identifies some 873 software deficiencies, down from 917 in September of 2018. The low rate of progress is due to what sounds like a game of “wack a mole” – as problems are snuffed out, more continue to arise.
And software glitches are not the only thing here: the jet is said to have some cybersecurity vulnerabilities and its Air Force version has a pretty serious gun problem, in that it doesn’t shoot straight. While the 25mm firearms on the Navy and Marine versions are mounted externally and have passed muster, the Air Force gun is internally mounted. The test office reportedly “considers the accuracy, as installed, unacceptable” due to “misalignments” in the gun’s mount that didn’t meet specifications.”
But one of the stranger things about this whole situation as that orders for the F-35 continue to pile up. The US is accelerating purchases this year – 20 in this fiscal versus 15 last year – and foreign countries like Japan, Australia and the UK all count themselves as customers.
According to Time, a spokesperson for the F-35 program office had no comment on the latest report from the testing office.
About a year ago, Polestar — the electric vehicle brand founded by Swedish automaker Volvo — unveiled a compact car touted as a potential challenger to Tesla’s Model 3 in the still-young industry of mass-market electric vehicles.
The Polestar 2 debuted at the 2019 Geneva auto show with plans for the car to become available this year.
That’s still the plan, but the brand is also headed back to Geneva next month with a look at where it thinks it’s headed next.
Polestar this week introduced a concept sedan it’s calling the Precept, which officials characterized as a “manifesto” for sustainable, high-performance automaking.
The vehicle features an advanced human-machine interface based on the Android operating system — made by Polestar collaborator Google — along with interior sensors capable of, among other things, tracking the driver’s gaze.
On the exterior, cameras and sensors replace the front grille, while camera-based technologies replace conventional mirrors, and a glass roof with a mounted LIDAR pod anticipates evolving driver assistance systems.
Polestar also touted a variety of sustainable technologies, including wing designs to improve its aerodynamics and range, and interior features comprised of more eco-friendly materials: panels made from flax-based composites, seats from recycled bottles, headrests from recycled cork vinyl, and carpets from reclaimed fishing nets.
The Precept is only a sign of Polestar’s ambition at this point, but the brand itself could be in for some upheaval of its own as Volvo and Geely — its Chinese owner — consider combining their operations into a single entity.
In an era filled with smart cars, smart phones and smart TVs, it doesn’t sound too far-fetched that the Army would like to develop some smart weapons for what we’d like to believe have always been some pretty smart soldiers.
Last month at the annual SHOT Show, Israeli-based Smart Shooter Ltd. unveiled their SMASH Fire Control System. The company is working with Sig Sauer on the Army’s advanced fire control system project, which will be used with their new Next-Generation Squad Weapon.
This new weapons system, which includes semi and fully automatic variants, will replace the M4A1 rifle and M249 machine gun, commonly referred to as the SAW. Designed with shooter accuracy in mind, the SMASH system can engage both stationary and moving targets during the day or at night via a weapon-mounted optic site, specialized pistol grip, and a button on the handguard.
The shooter looks through the optic, placing the crosshairs on the target and then pressing the button to “mark” the target. This information is fed back through the system’s computer as the shooter keeps the crosshairs on the target and squeezes the trigger. Pressing and releasing the button essentially locks the weapon onto the target, while the crosshairs reinforce the aiming point.
This technology removes a number of variables that can affect the accuracy of the shot, such as sighting in the weapon for each user, breathing patterns that can raise or lower the round’s trajectory, weapon recoil, and even unplanned body movements. This stems from the fact that the weapon only fires if the crosshairs are properly aligned.
Additionally, if the target moves suddenly and the shooter keeps the crosshairs trained on it, the system will fire automatically once the shot lines up. This makes moving targets easier to hit without wasting rounds or revealing the direction of fire.
The system is only activated by pushing that button on the handguards, so rapid shots can still be fired without SMASH when necessary. Depending on how both the SMASH system and the new weapons test out, infantry soldiers could see both by early 2023.
A recent announcement from Subaru reveals that it will be the latest automaker to commit to an electric vehicle future – and it won’t go it alone.
Subaru plans to harness Toyota’s more mature hybrid technology to get off the ground, and that’s because Toyota owns about a nine percent stake in the brand. The partners are also working on a few joint projects including some electrics expected sometime around the mid-2020s.
Subaru’s EV goal progresses further when it says that 40 percent or more of its vehicles will be driven by some sort of electrification by 2030. And by 2035, Subaru says that effort will apply to all vehicles in its lineup.
But let’s digest that carefully: Subaru is NOT saying there will be no gas in its lineup, just that at least some power for all its models will be electric – meaning Subaru will, at a minimum, offer an extensive line of hybrids. By 2050, however, Subaru says it will have slashed carbon emissions from its model by 90 percent or more.
In more excitement than the Subaru brand has ever had in one week, the carmaker also unveiled a new concept car that’s a fully EV crossover. Automotive News Europe described it as “a low-slung ride with a raked rear window, elongated cabin, digital sideview mirrors and short front and rear overhangs. The front fascia is aggressively creased, while the wheel wells get heavy black cladding that lends the tires a rugged, oversized look.”
Sounds cool, but on top of a drawn out timeline, Subaru makes it clear that it doesn’t prioritize the US market for its EVs. CEO Tomomi Nakamura called the US EV marker “really tough” and that “only Tesla’s EVs are selling well.” So maybe what feels like a commitment towards EVs is just as much an announcement that Subaru will also watch and wait for other automakers to take the first, and bigger, risks.
Is nostalgia enough to get you to pay $1,500 for the same phone you had in college?
Motorola thinks so. And in their defense, it’s not exactly the same phone… but it is a flip phone and if you thought we moved away from that, remember: everything old is new again.
Late last year, Motorola announced the reboot of the Razr, the world’s most popular phone before the iPhone. Back when flipping made sense because people actually made phone calls… but I digress.
Perhaps Motorola was emboldened to bring back the Razr because of the not-quite-market-proven foldable phone efforts from competitors like Samsung. The updated Razr is said to feature a new hinge that Motorola made in-house with zero gap, protecting the new “Flex View” display from dust. A “Quick View” display sits on the exterior of the device, so when it’s closed it still offers basic smart phone features, allowing the user to do things like read text messages or take selfies.
This week the company announced it would begin taking pre-orders for the device on January 24th and that the formal US release date would be February 6th. If $1,500 is too much for you up-front, Verizon, the phone’s exclusive carrier, is pitching 2-year payment plans.
And there might just be some takers. When Motorola first announced the reboot in November, CNN Business Managing Editor, David Goldman, summed it up best when he said: “The camera isn't great. The battery life stinks. The screen is plastic. The processor is slow. It's superdupercrazy expensive … But ... I kinda want the new Motorola Razr.”
For those of you who don’t know, Jersey is the largest and southernmost of the Channel Islands located between England and France.
The island itself isn’t that important for this story, except that a dad from Jersey recently sacrificed his weekend so his daughter could most likely spend a great number of hers ignoring her father.
Rory Steel, who heads up the Jersey Digital Academy, which provides training and education for those pursing a career in digital technologies, took up the challenge of customizing an Xbox Adaptive Controller, which is designed to help those with mobility issues play video games. Steel’s daughter Ava is challenged with what he describes as “fine motor neuron issues”, which can make traditional gaming controls a challenge to use.
Steel used parts and tools sourced from ebay and a local hardware store to build a control panel that sits on top of the Adaptive Controller. This panel features two joysticks. This first is for moving the on-screen player through their game. The second allows for properly positioning a camera that is part of the gaming system, which is used to bring human movements of the player into certain games.
The next step was adding 16 buttons around the console, each representing a unique gaming function. After what Steel describes as some “serious soldering and wire management”, the console was tested and, well, Ava’s reaction pretty much says it all.
Now, states her dad, she can play The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, just like all her friends.
In addition to one very happy daughter, Steel’s work has also impressed the folks at Microsoft and Logitech. The companies have reached out to him about designing additional controllers for those with other types of mobility impairments.
San Francisco autonomous driving startup Cruise’s more than six-year existence has been a wild ride even by Silicon Valley standards.
The company was purchased by General Motors for nearly $1 billion less than three years later, and its ambition, fundraising and payroll skyrocketed in subsequent years.
Putting autonomous cars on the road, however, proved much more difficult. A fleet of self-driving, ride-sharing Chevrolet Bolts was supposed to be on San Francisco streets already, but was delayed indefinitely last summer.
This week, the subsidiary unveiled a decidedly different approach to autonomous transportation. The Origin, introduced to great fanfare at a San Francisco warehouse, is a boxy, all-electric shuttle without a steering wheel or brakes.
Cruise CEO Dan Amman wrote in a blog post that company engineers, rather than work off the template of the passenger car, sought to build a new mode of transportation from the ground up.
The result is a vehicle with extra-wide, sliding doors and six passenger seats that face towards each other. There’s no room for a driver whatsoever — as well as no pedals, rearview mirrors or windshield wipers.
GM officials plan to deploy the Origin as part of an app-based robotic taxi service, promising the type of consistent rider experience that might be lacking from a conventional cab or an Uber.
Despite the excitement, reports cautioned against expecting the Origin to roll around cities anytime soon. The New York Times reported that Cruise officials would not share details about the vehicle’s testing regimen, regulatory approvals, production goals or a target date for the service to debut.
A recent announcement from Subaru reveals that it will be the latest automaker to commit to an electric vehicle future – and it won’t go it alone.
Subaru plans to harness Toyota’s more mature hybrid technology to get off the ground, and that’s because Toyota owns about a nine percent stake in the brand. The partners are also working on a few joint projects including some electrics expected sometime around the mid-2020s.
Subaru’s EV goal progresses further when it says that 40 percent or more of its vehicles will be driven by some sort of electrification by 2030. And by 2035, Subaru says that effort will apply to all vehicles in its lineup.
But let’s digest that carefully: Subaru is NOT saying there will be no gas in its lineup, just that at least some power for all its models will be electric – meaning Subaru will, at a minimum, offer an extensive line of hybrids. By 2050, however, Subaru says it will have slashed carbon emissions from its model by 90 percent or more.
In more excitement than the Subaru brand has ever had in one week, the carmaker also unveiled a new concept car that’s a fully EV crossover. Automotive News Europe described it as “a low-slung ride with a raked rear window, elongated cabin, digital sideview mirrors and short front and rear overhangs. The front fascia is aggressively creased, while the wheel wells get heavy black cladding that lends the tires a rugged, oversized look.”
Sounds cool, but on top of a drawn out timeline, Subaru makes it clear that it doesn’t prioritize the US market for its EVs. CEO Tomomi Nakamura called the US EV marker “really tough” and that “only Tesla’s EVs are selling well.” So maybe what feels like a commitment towards EVs is just as much an announcement that Subaru will also watch and wait for other automakers to take the first, and bigger, risks.
It stands to reason that global disease outbreaks would have a measurable impact on the sales of cleaning and sanitation products, and a few years back, a study by IRI suggested that the 2014 Ebola outbreak sent hand sanitizer product sales up 56 percent year-over-year.
But for Gojo Industries, the parent company behind Purell hand sanitizer, a ramp-up in the wake of the Wuhan Coronavirus may be accompanied by a change in its marketing message. That’s because the FDA has sent a warning letter to the company over claims that Purell helps to eliminate Ebola, MRSA or even the flu.
But the reason for the letter, says CNN Business, is more about compliance than effectiveness. The FDA actually doesn’t allow over-the-counter topic antiseptics to make claims about effectiveness against certain viruses and, in this case, the agency says the claims are unproven.
Further complicating the issue, the FDA says Purell’s marketing claims are positioning the products as if they were pharmaceutical drugs, which makes for a slippery slope forward. CNN Business says Gojo may have two choices: to try to get the products reclassified as drugs or stop making their marketing claims altogether. Until then, the products will be viewed as unapproved drugs.
And while Gojo works to get its house in order, don’t fret so much about yours: the CDC actually recommends using alcohol-based hand sanitizer for flu prevention, a note that the FDA acknowledged in its recent attempt to stop Gojo from claiming that alcohol-based hand sanitizer should be used for flu prevention.
I think I speak for everyone here when I say… huh?
By now I think we can all agree that the role of entertainment and communication technology will continue to play a greater role in all facets of society, including automotive offerings. But, just in case you weren’t sure, electronics giant Sony made it very clear … by building their own car.
On display this week at the Consumer Electronics Show is Sony’s Vision S, an electric (of course) concept car built to showcase how their products can make the future of mobility that much safer and more enjoyable.
According to Digital Trends, the four-door Vision seems to borrow style points from both the Tesla Model 3 and Porsche. In addition to the full-length dash screen that simultaneously provides an instrument panel and entertainment menu, the Vision also features a screen on each headrest for backseat passengers, and a 360-degree panoramic sound system.
More than 30 sensors are embedded throughout the vehicle, as well as radar, LIDAR and other safety and navigation-based cameras. While some of this tech is new for Sony, the company has been providing its CMOS sensors to Toyota for a while. In addition to the imaging and sensing technologies, on-board software regulates a collection of AI, telecommunication and cloud platforms that provide a steady stream of data relative to vehicle performance and rider preferences.
The electric vehicle runs on a chassis and drivetrain built by Magna, who also works with GM, Ford, Mercedes, and Tesla. Additionally, suppliers such as Qualcomm, Continental and Nvidia played pivotal roles.
No prices were revealed, because more than a concept car, the Vision S is, in all ways and shapes, a sales vehicle. Sony is apparently happy being an automotive supplier, not a competitor.
Last year, Walmart had in-store robots installed at nearly 1,500 locations. Despite creeping out customers and making human counterparts feel uneasy, Walmart is rolling out robot workers in 650 new stores.
According to Bloomberg, the new robots are shelf-scanners that alert human employees when items are out of stock. According to the IHL Group, out-of-stock items cost retailers about $1 trillion each year.
Designed by Boss Nova Robotics, a company based out of San Francisco, the robots are outfitted with 15 cameras and roam the aisles looking for empty shelves.
With the addition, Walmart now has 1,000 shelf-scanning robots in service. However, the company also has robots scrubbing floors, unloading trucks, and fulfilling online orders.
According to Bossa Nova, the robots allow retailers to redesign store operations, from product flow to replenishment. The robots scan the shelves and use artificial intelligence to recognize everything on the shelf, from prices and labels to products.
What's interesting is that they not only know when something is out-of-stock but also misplaced. The robots can also make sure that the tag on the shelf matches the price in the system.
According to Walmart, embracing automation is vital if the retailer plans to keep up with Amazon.
Walmart now operates 4,750 stores in the U.S., and robot workers will eventually enter service in each location in various roles.
Last week, a pair of historic experimental Shelby Mustangs were unveiled at the 49th Annual Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Little Red and the Green Hornet were the only notchback coupes ever manufactured with a Shelby nameplate. Once thought to be lost forever, the prototypes now have a new lease on life.
Little Red is a 1967 Ford Shelby GT500 EXP Prototype. In March 2018, this "Holy Grail of lost collector cars" was found in rural North Texas. Most believed the car was destroyed, but it turns out that the same owner had it stored (albeit outside) for more than 20 years. The Green Hornet is a 1968 Shelby GT500 prototype.
Craig Jackson, chairman and CEO of Barrett-Jackson, unveiled the cars. The Team that discovered Little Red included classic car restoration specialist Jason Billups, who led the restoration of the Green Hornet.
At the unveiling, Little Red and Green Hornet idled beside their modern-day descendants, including a one-of-one Candy Apple Green and a Rapid Red 2020 Shelby GT500.
The independent rear suspension, four-wheel disc brakes, and electronic fuel injection connect Green Hornet to the 2020 models, while the new supercharger is similar to what was under the hood of Little Red.
The 2020 Green Hornet car was the first model to roll off the line at Flat Rock Assembly Plant last fall. Jackson paid $1.1 million at auction for the vehicle to raise money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
When you’re the biggest e-commerce company in the world, people love to bag on you. And if you’re Amazon, sometimes you deserve it.
According to an article in Business Insider, third party sellers accounted for 58 percent of Amazon’s gross sales in 2018. And the sales can certainly be gross, according to a recent story in the Wall Street Journal.
That’s because the WSJ says its reporters, in an attempt to test the oversight of Amazon’s third-party seller network, were able to successfully sell products via the platform that they’d found in a dumpster. The outfit says it was following up on reports from dumpster divers that it was “easy to list discarded toys, electronics and books on the retailer’s platform.”
Reporters obtained the trashed items, cleaned and packaged them, and sent them to by an Amazon warehouse, where they would take advantage of the Fulfillment by Amazon service. This means they would be listed as Eligible for Prime, and hard to distinguish from the products Amazon sells itself. Once they were listed, reporters quickly bought the products back as “customers.”
One package, they said, even came back in the original box they’d sent it in – not Amazon’s own packaging – and appeared to have been unopened. And it was a food item retrieved from a dumpster at Trader Joe’s. Trader Joe’s told the Journal that it doesn’t approve of any of its products to be sold on Amazon, though the seller’s account wasn’t flagged until much later, and nobody confirmed the origins of this new third party seller’s products.
Following the report, Amazon added to its list of “unacceptable items” those intended for destruction or disposal … and a spokesperson told the Journal that Amazon expects its sellers to act honestly and fairly, which begs the question: does anybody actually check? Not according to former Amazon compliance director Rachel Greer, who told the Journal there is “absolutely nothing stopping you from dumpster diving.”
We already know Amazon has a counterfeit problem and Business Insider suggests that stories like the Wall Street Journal’s only compound the problem of growing consumer distrust, saying that as problems continue to crop up, consumers may consider shopping elsewhere. And likewise, from the third party seller side, merchants worried about brand reputation and counterfeit competition may opt not to list their goods with Amazon.
A 50-year-old worker at J & A Grinding has confessed to lacing a coworker's drink with a cleaning liquid.
Curtis Malloy was an employee at the industrial tool plant in Delaware when he confessed to adding Pine-Sol to a coworker’s beverage after a nine-month long investigation. He told the authorities that the female coworker had teased him, so he spiked her drink and now he's facing a felony.
According to a report from the Delaware News Journal, Malloy’s coworker alerted police after her beverage smelled like Pine-Sol in April 2019. She believed that Malloy had been tainting her drinks for a while.
According to court documents, the police sent a sample to the crime lab which found isopropyl alcohol, a chemical found in Pine-Sol.
In security footage, Malloy was seen at the woman's desk during suspicious times, and in an interview with detectives, he admitted pouring Pine-Sol into his co-workers drink.
Malloy has since quit J&A, and faces charges of one count of adulteration. Adulteration is typically a Class G felony punishable by up to two years in prison unless it is proven that Malloy caused the coworker physical injury or illness.
Unfortunately, this isn't the first time that we've seen a case of workers poisoning coworkers. In March 2019, a 56-year-old employee at ARI Armaturen in Germany received life in prison for sprinkling mercury and cadmium on sandwiches in the break room. And in April, a 32-year-old engineer at Berkeley Engineering and Research in California was arrested for attempted murder for putting cadmium in a coworkers water bottle.
According to its website, J & A Grinding, based in Newark, Delaware, specializes in industrial tool sharpening and grinding.
We reached out to J & A, but as of presstime the company has not responded to our request for comment.
Nearly 12 years ago, China, intent on joining aerospace industry stalwarts Boeing and Airbus, established a new state-owned entity known as the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China — or COMAC, for short.
The company set a goal of a maiden flight for its debut passenger jet, the C919, in 2014, with production and delivery to follow in subsequent years.
After a series of delays, the C919 did take to the skies for the first time in 2017, and Chinese officials reportedly hoped to finish testing, start production and begin making deliveries by the end of this year.
Instead, Reuters reported this week that the company has completed less than one-fifth of the flight hours needed for approval by China’s civil aviation regulator, and that the corporation is now looking at deliveries in 2021 or 2022, at best.
Sources told Reuters that the latest problem surfaced after COMAC engineers sent incorrect calculations about engine loads to manufacturer CFM International, which may require the engine and housing to be reinforced.
Previous issues included cracks in the test jets’ horizontal stabilizers and gearboxes, and the report noted that federal prosecutors in 2018 uncovered a scheme by Chinese officials to spy on 13 global aerospace manufacturers.
Analysts said the issues underscore COMAC’s inexperience in commercial aviation, but some also noted the continued delay isn’t necessarily a problem for the company — even if it misses out on orders during the current market upswing.
After all, they said, China’s government can simply direct its own airlines to buy COMAC’s jets whenever they’re ready.
Based in Los Angeles, Laffite Supercars designs unique concept cars and manufactures short-run automobiles.
This week, the company introduced the X-Road, a street-legal all-terrain vehicle that combines off-road power with high-end luxury.
The X-Road delivers up to 700 horsepower and weighs 2,866 pounds, which gives the driver a horsepower-to-pound ratio of 4.09 lbs/hp. Now, that won't put it in the Top 10, where supercars like the Hennessey Venom GT2 has a horsepower-to-pound ratio of 55.87 hp/lb, but according to the company, that does give it the best performance from an all-terrain supercar.
The car has a 17-inch suspension travel that allows drivers to jump like a Dakar rally prototype in the desert or casually drive through the neighborhood.
The company is only making 30 of them and plans to start delivering them by the end of 2020. However, the starting price is steep $465,000, and if you want the electric version, tack on another $80K.
Laffite Supercars is owned by former professional race car driver Bruno Laffite and his wife, Laetitia. The company has operations in LA, Miami, and Valencia, Spain. The final car assembly will take place at the Los Angeles facilities, and the car is registered for the road in California. Bruno is also the nephew of legendary Formula One driver Jacques Laffite.
If the car looks familiar, that's because it's nearly identical to the SandRacer 500GT that debuted in December 2015. In June 2017, supercar manufacturer Zarooq Motors announced that the luxury supercar was ready for limited production.
The launch had some eerie similarities. For example, SandRacer's initial production run was going to be 35 cars; it started at $450,000, and one of Zarooq Motors' founders was ... former professional race car driver Bruno Laffite, nephew of legendary Formula One driver Jacques Laffite.
The Sandracer was once called the "Off-Road Lamborghini of Arabia." Since then, the company has all but disappeared. Let's hope the X-Road doesn't suffer a similar fate.
Bloomberg reported December 13th that Sunnyvale, California-based Turvo — a real-time collaborative logistics startup — has implemented an important new company policy that essentially says employees aren’t allowed to entertain clients at strip clubs, and certainly not expense such bills to the company.
Why caused this new policy? Well, the company’s most recent CEO was fired in May for doing just that – to quite a degree. Bloomberg cited legal filings that show Turvo’s board accused co-founder Eric Gilmore of expensing 76 thousand dollars at strip clubs over a three-year span, leading to his firing this past May.
Even over three years, I’m sure 76 grand could get you and your business clients plenty of sub-par strip joint food, some great booze and a lot of… entertainment?
The court filings show 39-year-old Gilmore didn’t deny the accusations, but sued the company with the claim that Turvo didn’t follow proper protocol for his termination, which Turvo refuted before the two parties settled in September.
The company — which makes software that aids logistics companies track freight and has about 85 million dollars in investment backing — has since replaced Gilmore with new CEO Scott Lang, who joined Turvo just before Thanksgiving and implemented the no strip club rule.
Lang told Bloomberg that he’s focused on helping the company move past the scandal, and when asked about the idea of buttering up potential clients at strip clubs, he said, quote, “Never have. Never Will.” End quote.
Despite his firing in May, as of Dec. 18th, Gilmore’s LinkedIn profile still lists his position as Founder, Board Member and Special Advisor to CEO at Turvo – perhaps indicating that the company has not completely severed ties with him after all.
Over the last 100 years, one of the most overlooked, but crucial elements of any manufacturing supply chain is boxes. Specifically, cardboard boxes. Whether you’re Amazon, or Bob’s Discount Pet Supplies, cardboard boxes are literally the default way of packaging your products for transport.
But ever since manufacturers have been using boxes, there’s been the issue of wasted space and the need to add material to secure the product. Due to their square or rectangular shape, many types of products only occupy a small portion of the box they’re in. This is especially true amid the rapid rise of e-commerce. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve opened a box from an online order and just shook my head at how much space was wasted shipping one or two small items.
The folks over at 3M are tackling these issues in the form of a new packaging product that is, let’s say, outside the box. Last summer, the conglomerate’s Scotch Brand introduced its Flex & Seal Shipping Rolls, which are marketed as making shipping easier, especially for small businesses.
The shipping rolls are made out of three different layers of plastic developed by 3M — an internal adhesive layer that sticks to itself, a middle cushioning layer similar to bubble wrap, and a rugged outside layer that is tear- and water-resistant. Together, the rolls allow a user to place any object less than 3 pounds inside the sticky side, fold over enough of the roll to envelop it and press the adhesive side together to form an enclosed package.
According to 3M, once sealed, the material is strong enough to stay in place during shipping, so no tape is required. Once sealed, you have about 30 seconds to reposition the item if you’d like, after which point the adhesive gets too strong to adjust without damaging it. This makes the package protected from tampering, while being easy enough to cut with scissors or tear open.
Just like wrapping paper, the rolls come in different sizes. As of mid-January, it’s available in 10, 20, 50 and 200 foot rolls.
3M promotes the Flex & Seal shipping rolls as saving businesses time on their manual packaging operations, which can involve finding the right-sized box, adding packaging peanuts or bubble wrap and closing the boxes with tape.
One of the big draws of cardboard boxes is that they are easily recyclable. And while Flex & Seal is recyclable, it’s limited in the way that plastic shopping bags are, in that only certain retail stores and recyclers can take them. 3M has said they’re working on making the material more eco-friendly.
But where Flex & Seal lacks in recyclability, it makes up for in space-saving. 3M touts that unlike cardboard boxes, shipping companies would be able to fit more this new type of package in a single truck, which would make such shipping supply chains more efficient and could potentially reduce emissions.
Flex & Seal isn’t the first product aimed at providing an alternative to boxes. Amazon has been using mailer bags for several years, and other shipping supplies providers have their own plastic and polyurethane bags that are quite similar in how they’re used. But Flex & Seal looks to be the first recyclable option meant for businesses to use for their own shipping.
More than 10 years after General Motors discontinued the Hummer as part of a bankruptcy announcement, the popular brand might be back, and it's entering a much different segment of the automotive market.
According to a report from Reuters, via the Wall Street Journal, the Hummer will make its comeback as an electric pickup truck and electric SUV. Quite the departure from it's gas-guzzling origins.
The Hummer will be sold under GMC and return as part of a Super Bowl campaign. The new EV will compete against Tesla's recently unveiled Cybertruck, and the electric pickup trucks from upstart Rivian.
The new Hummer will reportedly re-enter production at GM's Detroit-Hamtramck plant beginning in 2021 as part of the company's $3 billion investment in the facility. The company will start with electric trucks next year with electric SUVs coming online in 2023.
The brand was nearly sold to a Chinese company in January 2010 for $150 million. However, about two months later, the deal collapsed and Hummer was shut down.
GM has not commented on reports, but the new incarnation will likely be a far departure from the gas hog that was essentially pushed into the civilian marketplace by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the early 1990s, only to be run out of town twenty years later as gas prices soared and consumers became hyper-aware of the vehicle's poor fuel economy. Hummers, which could retail for more than $100,000 at the time, averaged about 15 miles per gallon.
To compete with the Cybertruck, the new incarnation will need to match or surpass Tesla's reported range, which starts at more than 250 miles per charge.
It seems like nothing pulls at the nostalgic heartstrings quite like a car. For me, any time I think about that digital speedometer in my 1986 Chevy Z24, it makes me smile.
And many, it seems, feel similarly about the iconic DeLorean sports car. Made equally famous by its starring role in the Back to the Future movie trilogy, as well as the public demise of its founder, the DeLorean continues to inspire.
Although it’s not literal time travel, a team from Stanford University has bestowed a collection of cutting-edge automotive technologies to modernize a 1981 DeLorean they’ve dubbed, obviously, MARTY. Jonathan Goh and his crew converted the vehicle from a V-6 to all-electric power, and added self-driving capabilities via on-board computers and pair of GPS antennae. The vehicle’s autonomous controls were complimented with a custom suspension and bigger brakes in attempting to tackle a drifting course.
Drifting is the style of driving where the car keeps moving forward while pointed sideways. And it seems MARTY was made to drift, as the vehicle completed the 1-kilometer course dubbed MARTYkhana, flawlessly.
Although two passengers are shown in the video, neither took control, but let the self-driving system control the DeLorean through precise turns, acceleration and braking.
Other than just being extremely awesome, the electric, self-driving, drifting DeLorean was designed with the goal of improving the handling of emergency vehicles on slippery roads. Despite, how it looks, the nature of the course actually offered insight on ways for a vehicle to more safety travel on slick roadways by utilizing all of the friction created by the tire and the road to better control the car.
Big tech is constantly being accused of watching us, but a new allegation from a former Apple executive contends his ex-employer was actually reading his text messages.
But the issue didn’t start there. It began when Gerard Williams, chief architect of Apple’s iPhone and iPad chips, left the firm in February of 2019 to go out on his own.
After launching Nuvia, a server chip startup stocked with other former Apple talent, Williams was quickly hit with a lawsuit alleging he violated a non-compete agreement by planning his new gig and recruiting other employees from Apple to join him.
And how do they know that? Because there are supposedly texts to prove it, information which Apple presented in its court filing, according to Bloomberg.
Williams is calling the monitoring a “stunning and disquieting invasion of privacy” and it certainly runs contrary to Apple’s early 2019 ad campaign suggesting that “what happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone.”
While Nuvia’s business model doesn’t place it in head to head competition with Apple, the tech giant says it has considered this business and has lots of R&D tied up in server related technology. Not to mention, they say, Williams “used his knowledge during his tenure of almost a decade at the iPhone maker to develop technologies that would later be used at Nuvia.”
And the company appears to be out for blood. It’s not only seeking injunctions, but they also reportedly want punitive damages from Williams for breach of contract and breach of duty of loyalty. And loyalty is important to Apple … though privacy, it seems, isn’t.
Last Friday, 18-year-old Cameron Golden entered the Dart Container factory outside of Atlanta and shot and killed a fellow co-worker, 42-year-old Taurus Andrews.
The shooting happened at around 7:00 am. It was shift change at the Dart facility that makes food and beverage containers, and it created a panic.
Golden wasn't arrested until hours later when he was tracked down at a bus station about 170 miles west in Alabama. He is charged with murder.
Authorities don't yet know if the shooting was random or if Andrews was targeted. However, Golden, a temporary employee, entered the plant, shot Andrews and left before police arrived. Andrews died at the hospital.
The building was evacuated while authorities searched for the shooter. Coworkers were bused to a nearby church and interviewed by investigators.
A Dart spokesman said the company was grateful for the managers who helped safely evacuate the building. The plant will remain closed until further notice and counseling will be made available to employees.
Andrews joined the company as a utility worker in June 2018. According to his grandmother, his shift was just ending at the time of the shooting.
Update: According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Golden has been extradited to Georgia after being arrested in Alabama. He faces charges for murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.
Don’t be evil.
Up until last year, those words were not only part of Google’s official Code of Conduct, but served as their longstanding, albeit unofficial motto. However, recent actions seem to be calling that phrase’s legacy at Google into question.
The company’s firing of the recently dubbed Thanksgiving Four, has led the National Labor Relations Board to launch an investigation into the Mountain View, California technology giant. The controversy surrounding these employees stemmed from the collective’s outspoken views about organizing a union. Google stated that these individual’s pro-union activities had nothing to do with their firing, because they were let go due to “intentional and often repeated violations of long-standing data security policies, including systematically accessing and disseminating other employees’ materials and work.”
The four have denied these charges and allege that Google retroactively applied new data protection rules to previous actions. The complaint was filled for these four individuals by the Communications Workers of America union and the AFL-CIO.
According to a recent Bloomberg.com report, one element not helping Google’s case is the apparent use of an internal monitoring tool that automatically reports employees who create a calendar event that encompassing more than 10 rooms or 100 participants. Google’s parent company, Alphabet, states this is simply a way to ensure resources are being used responsibly.
However, this type of alarm, coupled with Google’s recent hiring of IRI Consultants, a well-known, NYC-based law firm that has a reputation for helping large healthcare providers steer clear of union formation, has many questioning the company’s true motives. The company’s connection to IRI was discovered and made public by anonymous employees.
The union talk at Google stems from what some feel is the need to protect employees who have protested the company’s handling of sexual harassment complaints and its work with the Department of Homeland Security.
The NRLB is now charged with investigating the merit of the complaint, and if it makes sense to proceed with charges.
Since his first appearance in 1939, Batman has undergone a number of changes in his quest to both stay ahead of his enemies and relevant to comic book fans. However, one thing that has remained a constant is his continued use of unique tools and devices for vanquishing his foes.
And now, one of those devices is set to make its way into real-life law enforcement. I’m not sure what the Dark Knight called it, but the folks at Wrap Technologies are calling their Kevlar rope shooting device the BolaWrap 100. Just like in the comics, video games, animated series and movies featuring the Caped Crusader, the BolaWrap 100 fires like a 9 mm handgun in propelling an eight-foot long cord at 640 feet-per-second.
The Kevlar cord has two metal barbs on each end that attach to the targeted individual and allow the cord to wrap around the torso or legs. The cord is fired from a cartridge, so loading and unloading is similar to a firearm’s magazine or clip. It also features a laser aiming function and is effective from up to 25’. The general idea is for the BolaWrap to detain or restrain a person of interest without the use of firearms, tasers, rubber bullets or physical force.
The inventor of the device, who has no known connections to Wayne Enterprises, is Woody Norris – who also developed the LRAD acoustic cannon known for blasting out painful soundwaves over long distances. He got his inspiration from the bolas, which is Spanish for ball, that were used by South American ranchers to help capture straying cattle.
A number of law enforcement agencies around the country are testing the devices, with perhaps the most notable being the Los Angeles Police Department. The LAPD is slated to begin a 90-day trial in January.
Glassdoor, the website that enables workers to publicly evaluate their employers, has released its “Best Places to Work” list, and there have been some interesting changes from years past.
“Best Places to Work” is a compilation derived by the rankings employees give their companies, and the year-over-year winners tends to include those big name tech companies out of Silicon Valley that always make the news with their sprawling campuses full of ping pong tables.
Except this year, when former #1s like Google and Facebook dropped out of the top ten altogether, with Google coming in at 11 and Facebook at 23. Ranked number one, instead, was Boston-based social media analytics company HubSpot, who offers things like unlimited vacation time and a pet-friendly office setting.
So, what are the implications of this change? Well, it could indicate that priorities for workers are shifting. When the job market was a little less friendly, high pay and onsite amenities were about as good as it got. But with a job market that’s delivering skill shortages to almost every sector, competition for talent is heating up. And some businesses might need to shift strategies.
In a 2018 report, Forbes cited Harvard Business Review data claiming work-life balance is the second most desired employment perk, coming in only behind medical coverage.
With that in mind, HubSpot’s unlimited vacation time, for example, might be a perk that outweighs Facebook’s free meals and onsite laundry. While those are nice perks, let’s face it: they’re pretty transparently designed to keep employees onsite and working.
So can companies outside of tech compete with these new demands for work-life balance and flex time? The GlassDoor list suggests that yes, in fact, they can. Truck maker Cummins, apparel company Lululemon, and building materials distributor ABC Supply Co. all made the top 50.
Cadillac is making a big bet on electrics. Just how big? The president of GM’s luxury division just told Reuters that most – maybe even all – of Cadillacs models will be fully electric by 2030.
The automaker predicts it will give its models one more refresh in their existing gasoline versions and then begin its move towards electrics.
The first foray could be the large Cadillac SUV GM expects to begin producing at Detroit’s Hamtramck plant in 2023. The plant, according to Reuters reports, will face a $3 billion overhaul between now and then to accommodate the Escalade’s EV lookalike.
A compact electric SUV is also in the works, with Cadillac planning to kick off, again, in 2023.
For Carlisle, the transition timeline is still way up in the air, and the company wants to see improvements as it relates to both battery charging time and capacity, suggesting that the 300-miles-per-charge standard will need to increase, maybe even to 400.
And that’s not the only notable change we’ll see from Caddy: the automaker says it will begin modifying the way it names its vehicles, shifting from number letter combinations that, let’s be honest, nobody can keep straight, to actual words. That’s because, says Carlisle, “Escalade is an awesome name.” We agree. Much better than CT6.
Researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory are using a new 3D printing technique to improve lightning strikes on airplanes.
Airplane exteriors sare traditionally made of carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP). It's lighter than metal, but its low electrical conductivity and heat resistance make it vulnerable to lightning strikes.
Conventional lightning strike protection technology includes expanded metal foils/films on top of composite structures. This technology works, but it increases weight, corrosion, and it's expensive to add and repair.
Oak Ridge researchers created a new adhesive material for carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP), and the material has proven effective against lightning strikes. The polymer has a chain-like structure that makes the aircraft components both electrically conductive and structurally strong with thermal treatment. It's applied in thin layers from 0.25–0.4 mm thickness.
Now comes the fun part. The research team had to test it, so it conducted simulated lightning strike tests on the protected components. The pieces not only showed minimal damage but also enabled more uniform heat dissipation, suggesting that it could eventually lead to more effective lightning strike protection technology.
This week, NOWLAB introduced LOCI, a design prototype for a 3D-printed autonomous podcar designed for last-mile movement.
NOWLAB is the additive manufacturing innovation arm of the BigRep Consultancy, the team behind the NERA eBike, a 3D-printed electric-motorcycle, and smart concrete walls with embedded sensors.
First seen on New Atlas, the podcar has airless tires, embedded electronics, and wireless connectivity to transport you through dense urban environments.
NOWLAB envisions podcars being manufactured on demand using a fleet of BigRep's 3D printers. One highlight of the prototype is that if you need a new component or part, you scan the NFC chip in the piece with your phone and send it to the 3D printer.
The team could also integrate sensors to monitor parts for preventative maintenance.
According to the company, the podcar was developed using parametric modeling. The design is flexible, not only in that it's printed on-demand, but different features and materials, or even tires, could be swapped out based on the location or application.
According to the company, LOCI has only 14 unique parts, all of which were 3D-printed with BigRep additive system. Even the tires.
Researchers from Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) used an integrated tissue-organ printer (ITOP) to 3D-bioprint a trachea.
Researchers have already 3D-printed tracheal splints and scaffolds to grow tissue-engineered tracheas, but this is the first trachea with various functional materials.
Previous attempts failed because they only used regenerated cartilage tissue. According to the researchers, they weren't strong enough to hold the airways open or provide the necessary flexibility.
These constructs were printed with cartilage and smooth muscle regions at the same time using biodegradable polyester material and stem cell hydrogels. The cartilage provides enough support to avoid collapse, and the smooth muscle offers the needed flexibility.
The proof-of-concept could one day lead to custom patient care for those suffering from tracheal stenosis, or the narrowing of the windpipe. Now, these patients need breathing tubes. In the future, medical professionals could use the patient's medical records to print biocompatible replacements.
Next, the team will test long-term functionality to make sure the 3D-bioprinted tracheas maintain their initial characteristics.
WFIRM has done some impressive work in the past, everything from 3D printing human ears to growings livers, kidneys, and even anal sphincters.
We know the SUV market is a competitive one. And with one automaker after another putting at least most of their eggs into this basket, it’s sure to spark some segment design changes, if only because everyone wants to be the standout.
Which makes the latest problem for the Ford Explorer even worse. The 2020 redesign of Ford’s most famous SUV came on the heels of the company’s announcement that it was all-but-killing its passenger cars.
It’s clear the company had high hopes for the new Explorer and its luxury counterpart, the Lincoln Aviator. Ford spent a billion dollars re-tooling its Chicago plant to accommodate production of the redesigned models and said the 30 day soup-to-nuts overhaul was the fastest retooling the automaker has ever done for an all-new vehicle build.
But was Ford moving too fast? The hotly anticipated vehicles coming out of Chicago were almost immediately either recalled or sent to Ford’s Flat Rock Michigan facility to be fixed. The Detroit Free Press reported in late November on what it termed “horror stories” from Explorer and Aviator owners, detailing problems with leaking sunroofs, display panels and more. One Aviator owner said his console gets hot to the touch, to the point where he can’t set his phone down or it will overheat and shut down.
And as if Ford didn’t have enough on its plate with this messy launch, there are more problems: the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has announced that neither model will qualify for a safety award this year.
IIHS says the new Explorer actually performed better in driver-side small overlap front test than earlier models. The vehicle earned good ratings in four of the IIHS tests, but it is required to earn a good rating in the driver-side small overlap crash test in order to be awarded a top safety pick. In this test, where a vehicle travels at 40 mph toward a 5-foot-tall rigid barrier, “there was enough intrusion into the outboard part of the footwell to elevate the risk of injury to the driver’s left leg” which resulted in the IIHS awarding an overall rating of “acceptable.”
Something tells me Ford didn’t spend a billion-dollars retooling their plant, plus its massive design and development costs, to produce an “acceptable” Explorer. In a 3Q earnings call, Ford acknowledged it took on too much with the Chicago retooling and three new model launches all at once. IIHS says Ford expected to earn a good rating in the recent tests and would “investigate why it didn’t.”
But it’s likely what Ford does with its findings that will determine whether these new models can ultimately flourish in a crowded market for mid-sized SUVs
Boeing is having a hell of a week, and that’s not even usually news anymore. The aerospace supplier, who has been buried under the weight of its issues with the Max jet for months, saw its stock price tank when markets got wind of discussions to possible scale down or even discontinue Max production.
But, alas, there is more money to lose for Boeing and this time it relates to a coveted military project that the aerospace company was in the running for. And it wasn’t just any contract. The winner-take-all award is set to be the largest contract awarded in 2020.
But it won’t go to Boeing.
Last week marked the deadline for bid submissions for a contract to replace the military’s Minuteman III missile system. Boeing has participated in the military’s program as a Minuteman supplier since 1962, and the company was expected to bid on the project along with competitor Northrop Grumman.
But last week Boeing confirmed that it would bow out of the process, leaving Northrop Grumman as the lone bidder for the $85 billion project.
Boeing said in July that it would have trouble competing on price since Northrop Grumman had purchased solid rocket motor maker Orbital ATK in 2018 – and Orbital ATK just happens to be the top producer of the solid fuel rocket motors generally used in the missiles.
Boeing concluded it faced a tremendous disadvantage, and said in the statement that “the current acquisition approach does not provide a level playing field for fair competition.”
Boeing had reportedly, and repeatedly, asked the Air Force to “mitigate Northrop’s anticompetitive and inherently unfair cost.” But, eventually saying the Air Force did not address its concerns, Boeing decided not to submit a proposal, leaving Northrop alone – a position that concerns some considering a one-bid deal could result in inflated costs. One analyst said he thinks this could case the Air Force to reconsider the acquisition strategy altogether.
Modernizing the country’s nuclear arsenal is projected to cost $1.2 trillion over 30 years.
In contrast to anyone who follows Elon Musk, it looks like there are some elements of Tesla’s business that its’ founder doesn’t want to discuss.
This includes, according to a recent report from the Reno Gazette Journal, a rash of thefts that hit the company’s Nevada Gigafactory in 2018. Police reports obtained by the Journal indicate that representatives from Tesla were uncooperative with Storey County police officers called to investigate missing raw materials – like upwards of $150,000 of copper wire that disappeared in approximately two months.
Some reports have the quantity of missing copper escalating into millions of dollars. According to the article, contractors were also asked by Tesla not to report the crimes or even improve security measures in response to these events.
The reason behind this reticence, according to both the paper and police reports, was fear that apparently emanated directly from Elon Musk about bad press. Tesla stated that any information the company might have on potential suspects, including photos or security video, would only be provided if ordered via a subpoena.
This news follows an SEC whistleblower suit filed by former Tesla Gigafactory employee Karl Hansen, who has stated that the automaker failed to disclose thefts of goods valued at over $37 million.
On a positive note, police officials were reported as saying that relations between Tesla and local law enforcement has been improving throughout 2019.
Roberto Escobar, brother of infamous cocaine trafficker Pablo Escobar and who, according to Escobarinc.com, was the former accountant/chief of assassinations for the notorious Medellin Cartel, is also the founder of Escobar, Inc. His company recently unveiled what they’re touting as the replacement to the iPhone.
That’s right, for $349 you can head to their website and purchase the Escobar Fold 1, a foldable smartphone that Escobar claims will not break, which would contrast with some of the issues encountered by the Samsung Galaxy Fold unveiled earlier this year. He cites a special type of high-resolution plastic that is more durable than previous foldable models.
The price point is also lower, because according to an interview with Digital Trends, Escobar “cut the networks and retailers to sell to customers” directly. It even comes with free shipping and a complimentary cover. Then again, value is what would you expect from a guy who reportedly spent $2,500 a month on rubber bands to handle all the cash flowing through the Cartel.
He may also be targeting a specific kind of user based on comments about the phone’s security. Roberto has made statements about an exterior metal coating that won’t allow near-person communications like Bluetooth or other technologies like RFID to access the device. He also states the phone is more difficult for governments to access than Apple or Samsung offerings.
Additional features of the Android-driven phone include a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Series processor, a 16-megapixel camera, two 7.8” flexible AMOLED screens, a fingerprint sensor and a multi-axis gyro. The Escobar Fold 1 is available in a 128 and 512 GB sizes, with the second option selling for $499.
It’s worth noting that Escobar, Inc. cites earnings of over $100 billion from intellectual property (which includes over 50 trademarks and copyrights) and asset management since it was founded in 1984 - about nine years before Pablo died.
For those looking to order at the company’s website, be careful before clicking on some the “informational” videos. Roberto’s use of the Escobar girls is about what you might expect.
A pair of German industrial giants this week officially kicked off a pilot project in the heart of Silicon Valley that, they hope, will pave the way for autonomous taxis in dense urban corridors.
Daimler, the maker of Mercedes-Benz cars, and Bosch, an auto supplier and technology provider, first announced a joint effort to work on self-driving systems in 2017.
On Monday, the companies unveiled the autonomous Mercedes-Benz S-Class sedans that will shuttle passengers from West San Jose to the city’s downtown, along the busy Stevens Creek Boulevard and San Carlos Street.
The service, which will be initially limited to a select group of users, allows riders to book a trip on an app developed by Daimler’s mobility division.
A safety driver will be in the vehicles to ensure nothing goes awry with the self-driving system — in accordance with California law — as the companies seek to determine how autonomous vehicles would work in a broader mobility ecosystem that includes public transit and car-sharing services.
Ultimately, the companies hope to build a system with the highest classification of automation — SAE Levels 4 and 5 — capable of being installed across a wide variety of vehicle types and models.
Daimler Mobility is also working on a fleet platform that would enable ride-sharing companies to easily incorporate self-driving Mercedes into their networks — a potentially important step given the problems some ride-sharing providers have experienced with autonomous technologies.
The announcement appears to narrowly beat the forecast set by Bosch and Daimler two and a half years ago: to put driverless cars on city streets by the beginning of 2020.
In the name of preserving history, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have used advanced imaging to create digital replicas of the bullets that killed President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963.
The bullets are typically stored at the National Archives, which brought the spent ammo to NIST so the ballistics team could make new perfect copies.
Even though we're more than 56 years removed from the tragic event, the National Archives still receives many requests to access the bullets. The plan is to make the 3D replicas available to the public by early 2020 because the original photographs that were made available are aging. Now, everyone will have access to the microscopic details of each bullet.
The new collection will include two fragments from the bullet that caused the president's fatal wound, as well as the "stretcher" bullet that struck both the president and Texas Gov. John Connally. The stretcher bullet was found near Connally at the hospital.
The collection also includes two bullets test fired from the assassin's rifle, as well as one that is believed to have been used in a previous assassination attempt on an army major.
The ballistics team used focus variation microscopy to create a series of images at different focal distances at each location along the object's surface. As the lens moved across the bullet, it built a 3D surface map.
The team spent countless hours rotating the metal fragments to image every facet, and then stitched the images together, capturing every tiny scratch and anomaly in the metallic surface.
NIST performed 22 scanning runs just on the stretcher bullet, producing 1,699 individual measurements of the bullet's surface.
The NIST ballistics team members are familiar with bullet imaging. They often work on developing advanced forensic techniques that can identify firearms used in crimes.
The project wasn't without its challenges, as the bullet fragments were bent and distorted in ways that made them difficult to image. A single piece took more than 30 scans to image the entire surface.
Some of the techniques used throughout the process will be employed in future criminal cases. We'll see what new insight comes out once the public begins analyzing those bullets next year, but until then, and for the foreseeable future, the bullets that killed President Kennedy in Dallas will be returned to their temperature and humidity-controlled vault.
Earlier in the week, Fiat Chrysler became the last among the Detroit 3 to sit down at the bargaining table with the United Autoworkers Union. And while it’s easy to predict at least some drama, a new twist revealed Wednesday will provide a backdrop for the talks that NBC News is calling “explosive.”
That’s because rival automaker General Motors has just filed a federal racketeering lawsuit, alleging a decade-long conspiracy between FCA and the UAW. And the mastermind behind it, according to the suit, is former – and now deceased – Fiat Chrysler CEO, Sergio Marchionne.
GM contends that FCA corrupted bargaining agreements between 2009 and 2015, meaning GM wound up on the hook for labor costs it otherwise wouldn’t have. GM also alleges that the union was directed to deny the same benefits to GM that it was allowing for FCA, a claim they support by pointing to the $8-per-hour difference in labor costs between the two automakers, perhaps because FCA was quietly permitted by the union to hire more temporary workers at lower wages.
The suit said FCA was "the clear sponsor of pervasive wrongdoing, paying millions of dollars in bribes to obtain benefits, concessions and advantages in the negotiation, implementation and administration of labor agreements over time." GM contends this scheme saddled it with billions in costs and a significant disadvantage – and while it won’t yet put a number on the damages it intends to pursue, GM’s general counsel Craig Glidden says it is likely to be “substantial.”
FCA responded harshly to the lawsuit, suggesting its content and timing were “intended to disrupt (its) proposed merger with PSA as well as (its) negotiations with the UAW.” That said, FCA’s cozy relationship with the UAW has come to light in recent years, as an ongoing corruption probe into the union has revealed several executives complicit in a bribery scheme intended to divert funds to union officials in the name of “relationship building.”
In perhaps the most explosive of all the claims is the part of the lawsuit where GM alleges that Sergio Marchionne was scheming to take over GM by merger, and he would enable favorable terms by having the union in his pocket – a pursuit he allegedly laid the groundwork for by authorizing UAW bribery.
For its part, GM denies the lawsuit was timed to either disrupt union talks or to derail FCA’s proposed merger.
There is perhaps no company in the world that will be happier to put 2019 behind them than Boeing. The aerospace giant started the year with a number of unanswered questions related to the crash of their 737 Max jet in Indonesia, along with increased competitive pressures from Airbus.
Then in March another 737 crashed in Ethiopia, which led to a near-global grounding of the plane and subsequent safety-related delays in delivering new models.
Now, just as the company is hoping to resume plane deliveries, the inspector general for NASA has released an audit criticizing Boeing’s charges for a fixed contract to develop a ship capable of shuttling astronauts to the International Space Station. Under scrutiny is a $287 million upcharge that Boeing levied to offset potentially higher costs down the road. These costs stemmed from the company anticipating a gap in flights due to the spacecraft’s development running about two years behind schedule.
Boeing has received a $4.3 billion contract as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
The auditor felt that as much as $187 million of this total was “unnecessary” because such a gap could be solved by NASA buying seats on Russian spacecraft during this stretch. Which is exactly what Boeing proposed, serving as a broker for five seats at a cost of $373 million.
The U.S. has relied on Russia for rides to the ISS since the Space Shuttle program ended in 2011.
The auditors also managed to slide in a not-so-subtle dig at Boeing by citing that SpaceX, which has a $2.5 billion contract related to the same Commercial Crew Program, was not provided an opportunity to address this potential shortage of missions, even though Elon Musk’s company had said it might be able to provide the desired craft sooner than Boeing.
NASA contested the auditor’s findings, as did Boeing, stating that its fees accounted for additional flexibility and schedule resiliency.
Back in 2015, Amazon rolled out its innovative Dash Buttons — which were little oval electronic devices you could stick somewhere and re-order a specified amount of product by pressing its button. It was geared for Amazon Prime members to let them rapidly re-order home supplies like laundry detergent, coffee, juice, and cleaning items.
Amazon discontinued its Dash Buttons this past February after a German court ruled that they violate the country’s consumer protection laws, in that their press-to-buy mechanism fails to provide enough information about a product’s price. Existing Dash buttons will continue to operate, however.
While the Button version is no more, the dash is far from dead. Last week, Amazon launched a similar concept offering — the Amazon dash smart shelf, a wi-fi connected smart scale aimed for keeping small business supplies in stock. The concept is essentially the same as the button.
At one inch tall and available in 7 by 7-inch, 12 by 10-inch and 18 by 13-inch sizes, the electronic shelf can be placed on any surface you’d keep supplies on. You power it on with its plug or with batteries, connect it to Wi-Fi, and use your Amazon Business account or the Amazon mobile app to determine which item you’ll use it for — such as printer paper, coffee products, cleaners or post-it notes. The shelf then senses the weight of the items and determines when you’re running low.
Connecting through Amazon’s shopping services, you can either have the shelf automatically reorder that product to arrive on time, or provide you with low inventory notifications so you can re-order it yourself. Amazon says the shelf is designed to avoid accidental automatic reorders if items are temporarily removed.
Branded as “The scale that keeps businesses stocked,” the dash smart shelf is currently being tested with selected partners this month. It will be available to Amazon Business Customers who have a registered US business license starting in 2020. No consumer plans have been announced so far.
Amazon is currently offering businesses using the dash smart shelf a discount of up to 15 percent on certain items like Keurig and Folgers coffee, Kind snack bars, Hammermill paper, and products from 3M and Kimberly Clark Professional.
This year's Hot Wheels report is out. The annual report from the National Insurance Crime Bureau details the ten most stolen vehicles in the United States.
The data comes from information submitted by law enforcement to the National Crime Information Center (NCIC).
According to the FBI, 748,841 vehicles were reported stolen in the United States in 2018, which is a 3% decline from 2017. It's about a million less than the high watermark of 1.7 million thefts in 1991.
The top ten cars stolen in 2018 were:
- 2000 Honda Civic: 5,290, (38,426 Honda Civics stolen in total)
- 1997 Honda Accord: 5,029 (36,815)
- 2006 Ford Pickup (Full Size): 3,173 (36,355)
- 2004 Chevrolet Pickup (Full Size): 2,097 (31,566)
- 2017 Toyota Camry: 1,144 (16,906)
- 2017 Nissan Altima: 1,451 (13,284)
- 2017 Toyota Corolla: 1,034 (12,388)
- 2018 GMC Pickup (Full Size): 1,170 (11,708)
- 2001 Dodge/Ram Pickup (Full Size): 1,155 (11,226)
- 2000 Jeep Cherokee/Grand Cherokee: 646 (9,818)
According to the Insurance Information Institute, motor vehicle theft in 2018 accounted for about $6 billion in losses.
The NICB recommends car owners use four "layers of protection" to guard against vehicle theft. Some seem a little over the top, like kills switches and tracking devices.
However, according to the NICB, the easiest and most cost-effective way to thwart would-be thieves is common sense. Take your keys and lock your doors, in that order.
In September, Jaguar opened up a state-of-the-art design studio in the UK. For the first time in the company's 84-year history, the entire design team assembled in a single location.
The studio is more than 12,000 square meters, doubling the previous footprint. It's enough room for the approximately 280 designers, with backgrounds in everything from fashion and watchmaking to sports and gaming, to simultaneously work on 20 full-size clay models.
This week, the company unveiled the new 2021 Jaguar F-Type, a new high-end sports car that starts at a little more than $70,000 US.
The F-TYPE R, which starts around $101,800, has a 5.0-liter supercharged V8 that generates 575 hp and 516 lb-ft of torque. The 'R' accelerates from 0 to 60 mph in 3.5 seconds and has an electronically-limited max speed of 186 mph.
Jaguar used the launch, as well as a partnership with Hot Wheels, to show off the new design studio from a unique perspective.
As part of the partnership, Hot Wheels created a 1:64-scale model of F-TYPE and built a 761-foot long custom track that stretched through the studio. With 25 loops and 55 boosters, the track traveled over various workspaces -- it even drove through its life-sized counterpart.
The designers from Jaguar and Hot Wheels used the CAD data from the real car to create a precise 3D-printed recreation.
The Hot Wheels team also recreated the Velocity Blue color and even hand-painted the F-TYPE badge on the back. The custom-built track was designed and developed under the tutelage of Official Hot Wheels master track designer Paul Schmid. The tiny F-TYPE reaches scale speeds of up to 300 mph.
The real version will be on sale early next year; the Hot Wheels version won't be on the market until November 2020.
It’s cyber Monday and, for many of us, that means sneaking glances at the online price slashing throughout the day in order to net the best deals possible on our holiday purchases.
If your shopping takes you to Amazon, you already know that you need to be on alert for knock-off products as the e-tailer itself has admitted it faces challenges in policing the millions of SKUs it offers.
But what about products that aren’t exactly counterfeit, rather, simply knock offs of existing designs selling at half the price? And what if the seller is actually Amazon themselves?
Let’s jog back a bit. You may be familiar with the San Francisco-based sneaker company, Allbirds, who produces a shoe made of Merino wool and touts an organic, sustainable supply chain. Since its launch in 2014, Allbirds has become an extremely popular brand, which is no doubt enough to inspire copycats.
In this case, a strikingly similar style of Allbirds $90 shoe began showing up on Amazon.com under the Amazon private label brand 206 Collective – one Allbirds co-founder Joey Zwillinger is calling “algorithmically inspired” by his shoe. But one big difference between the two is the price: the 206 Collective version was listed around $35.
But there was another big difference. Zwillinger recently told CNN that the most frustrating part of the ordeal is that Allbirds open sources its sustainable materials, meaning Amazon’s 206 Collective brand could freely use them without infringing on any patents. Zwillinger penned an open letter to Jeff Bezos last week, blasting Amazon for this move, asking him to “please steal our approach to sustainability” and saying that if Amazon removed the “oil-based products” in its supply chain that the two vendors could “jointly make a major dent in the fight against climate change."
Amazon has said that it’s simply offering products “inspired by a trend” and that this “a common practice across the retail industry.” But there might be one thing Amazon could do to graciously level the playing field, and that’s raising the price: the 206 Collective shoe padded its cost by another $10 headed into the holidays.
On Wednesday, SpaceX was conducting a pressure test on the SpaceX Starship MK1 at a facility in Boca Chica, Texas, when the top of the next-generation rocket exploded.
LabPadre was streaming the test and captured the explosion, which sent debris flying in all directions.
According to The Verge, the explosion wasn't necessarily a setback, or unexpected. A SpaceX spokesperson told The Verge that the test was pressurizing systems to the max. Nobody was injured in the test.
The aircraft is a prototype of a reusable vessel that could eventually be used to transport humans and cargo on deep space missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
According to a report from CNBC, plans for the MK1 recently changed.
In September, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said that the MK1 would fly in a test to 65,000 feet. However, a company statement said that the focus has now shifted to the MK3, which is "designed for orbit."
The company said that the MK1 "served as a valuable manufacturing pathfinder," and subsequent designs will be different.
SpaceX has previously stated that the Starship could attempt a moon landing as soon as 2022.
DSG Technology specializes in patented, high-tech ammunition, and at a North Carolina firing range, the team recently showed off some of its new capabilities.
The first is CAV-X, super cavitating ammunition classified as a Multi Environment Ammunition (MEA). The ammo can be fired underwater using partially or fully submerged weapons and hit targets both underwater and in the air.
Ammo traditionally slows and loses its lethality underwater. CAV-X has traveled through more than 55 feet of water and penetrated 2 cm of steel. Subsequent tests accurately made it through nearly 200 feet underwater.
According to DSG, CAV-X bullets have tips made out of tungsten. The tips create a small air bubble as the shot moves through the water, which reduces drag, similar to the supercavitation effect used in torpedoes and even some boat designs.
According to an article from Defense One, U.S. Special Operations Command has begun experimenting with new bullets.
In a recent demonstration, the company fired a CAV-X bullet from a Colt AR-15 through 13 blocks of ballistic gelatin. According to the company, the achievement set an unofficial world record for round travel through gelatin. According to Defense One, a standard bullet only goes through a couple of cubes -- this went through 13.
The company also showed off XMP (Xtreme Material Penetration) ammo that can fire through sandbags, steel, and body armor.
The company recently attended Demo Days at the Modern Warfare Symposium at Fort Bragg in North Carolina; an event put on by the Global Special Operations Forces (SOF) Foundation.
DSG has its headquarters and R&D in Norway, but all production, as well as the aquatic test facility, are in the United States.
According to company officials, DSG can now mass produce CAV-X bullets.
University of Waterloo researchers have created a new device that takes a small, cheap sensor and solves a sometimes heartbreaking problem.
More than 50 children have died in hot cars in 2019, and more than 100 dogs and other animals have died from heat-related causes over the last two years.
This new device combines radar with artificial intelligence to detect humans and animals alike, and in testing, it has worked with 100 percent accuracy.
Only three centimeters in diameter, it is designed to detect even the smallest breathing movements from living beings. The component will eventually mount to rear-view mirrors or ceilings.
When a child or animal is left in the car, the system will stop the doors from locking and sound an alarm.
The wireless, disc-shaped sensor was funded in part by a major automotive parts manufacturer that plans to bring it to market by the end of 2020.
Researchers are now trying to use it to monitor drivers for fatigue, distraction, and other impairments. Still, it could also be used by companies like Uber to determine the number of people and their location in the car.
Smart toilets on the market today primarily boast energy savings with more accurate flushes or simple luxuries like a seat warmer or massaging bidet.
Researchers from the University of Wisconsin and Morgridge Institute for Research are working on a smart toilet with knowledge that extends beyond the basin.
The team is working on a proof of concept smart toilet that would analyze your urine to keep tabs on your health.
Metabolites in the urine have known associations with 600 human conditions, everything from diabetes to cancer. Your pee knows everything about your eating habits to exercise as well as the medication you use and even sleep quality.
The team conducted a pilot study on themselves. Professor Joshua Coon and Data Scientist Ian Miller analyzed 110 samples collected over ten days and found that it tracked everything from coffee and alcohol consumption to when they took Tylenol.
The Coon Research Group is now designing a toilet that will incorporate a portable mass spectrometer that can recognize the user and process samples. They say it's "a bit Rube Goldberg-like" but functional, and they plan to install the toilet in their research facility.
Coon believes the "smart toilet" concept could have significant health implications for the global population. If you pair it with efforts from the Gates Foundation to reinvent the toilet, we just might save the world one toilet at the time.
While the proof of concept will likely cost tens of thousands of dollars, the price would probably come down with mass-market adoption. How many people are in the world now? 7.7 billion.
Tubulanes are theoretical structures that exhibit extraordinary strength because they are made of crosslinked carbon nanotubes.
Researchers at Rice University's Brown School of Engineering recently 3D printed structures based on tubulanes, and they tested their strength the only way a red-blooded American institution knows how: they shot them.
Tubulanes were first theorized in 1993. While this isn't the exact design, the structures are like really close cousins. The lightweight design is porous but almost as hard as a diamond.
In tests, the structures performed up to 10 times better than a solid block of the same material.
When the researchers shot a projectile at the blocks at 12,974.2 mph, the tubulane-like polymer structures stopped the bullet by the second layer with no significant damage to the structure. Bullets fired at the same speed cracked the entire reference cube.
Tests in a press also showed how the tubulane-like blocks collapse into themselves without cracking.
According to the researchers, the only thing holding back these structures printed in metal, ceramic, or polymer is the size of the 3D printer.
The designs could soon lead to better materials for a host of applications, most notably in oil and gas, as well as the aerospace and automotive industries.
More and more business models are incorporating sustainability plans with actual teeth. That’s because the more we learn about climate change, the scarier it becomes and many organizations are smart enough to either truly care, or care about the potential business implications of doing nothing.
But cutting carbon is hardest for those businesses that produce a lot of it, which is why some are responding with skepticism to the recent announcement by Formula 1 racing, that they plan to reach a goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2030.
F1 is calling its sustainability plan “ambitious, yet achievable,” and its blueprint begins with an overview of the volume of emissions behind the global racing circuit. No surprise, the organization is kicking out a lot of C02 – about 256,000 tons in 2019. Producing the same amount by driving a car, for example, would mean a trip that uses 28 million gallons of fuel.
But the race itself isn’t the biggest problem, says F1. 45 percent of its emissions are related to “logistics” for this traveling event, and the movement of equipment from place to place. It’s not uncommon for the schedule to cross an ocean and then zip right back, which is why F1 says part of its plan will be to address more efficient travel. Other areas of focus will include an elimination of single use plastics at events, renewably powered factories and team offices, and taking advantage of carbon sequestration programs.
It all sounds like a detailed, if ambitious, start, though some wonder whether the sport itself can withstand such a dramatic shift, especially as it yields to net zero carbon powered race cars.
As Jalopnik’s Elizabeth Blackstock points out, there are more challenges that become wrapped up within this one, including the amount of money petroleum brands contribute to the sport through sponsorships and advertising.
On August 9, 2019, a fire at a Tyson meat processing plant in Holcomb, Kansas, forced the facility to shut down.
According to local reports, the sparks from welders conducting maintenance operations near the slaughterhouse likely caused the fire. No one was harmed in the blaze.
The complex is home to Tyson Fresh Meats, the beef and pork subsidiary of Tyson Foods.
The fire damaged the area that housed the hydraulic and electrical systems for the slaughterhouse and cooler and caused part of the roof to collapse. It also put about 1,200 people out of work.
Yesterday, Tyson announced plans to get back to work. The reconstructed plant is nearly done, and the company will begin processing beef in the first week of December.
The effort includes a new roof, support beams, hydraulic piping and pumps, and about 50,000 feet of new wiring, including the reconstruction of the electrical panel rooms and equipment.
The plant should be fully operational by the first week of the new year. However, the company will spend December testing the new equipment and making the necessary adjustments to ramp up production.
In the interim, Tyson diverted cattle to other beef facilities to try and offset production volume losses. The company also continued to pay full-time team members for 40 hours per week throughout the shutdown.
Tyson says that the employees were instrumental in the clean-up and reconstruction. As you can see from the before and after photos provided by the company, they certainly had their work cut out for them.
When Sakthi Automotive Group USA first opened its doors in 2014, it was to major fanfare. The first new auto supplier to open up in the Detroit area in ten years, this Indian-owned company built a flourishing campus producing knuckles and tooling arms for several major OEM clients.
But the success story didn’t end there. Sakhti was lauded for hiring practices that gave priority to Detroit residents and even offered jobs to more than 200 parolees looking for a second chance. It was estimated that, by 2020, Sakthi would have invested $100 million into the Detroit area.
But all that may come grinding to a halt, as Automotive News is reporting that Sakthi is on the verge of shutting its doors. And on the surface, it looks like the reason is clear. The customer responsible for more than 70 percent of Sakthi’s business – General Motors – recently cut ties with the firm. But it appears that’s not even close to where the problems started.
Auto News points to evidence of extreme mismanagement and the former CEO, Lalit Kumar, told the outlet that after he was ousted by the company’s chair in 2018, Sakhti execs lost nearly $19 million in the six months that followed.
Meanwhile orders continued to pile up, and so did bills. Huntington Bank, following up a loan default notice, accused Sakthi of operational mismanagement, using as evidence $9 million in charges for premium freight the company needed to meet customer shipments. Kumar also says the company owners pulled profits out of the business, rather than investing them back in to help the company launch its platform for a new, massive GM order supplying parts for its SUVs.
This past spring, with losses mounting at a rate of nearly $900,000 per week, Sakthi was put into receivership and things just got worse from there. A deal was struck with one of Sakthi’s owners to buy the rest of the company, but the appointed receiver’s apparent attempt to strongarm GM into supporting certain terms of the deal -- by withholding shipments -- caused the automaker to cut ties, all but killing Sakthi’s chances for a comeback.
Keep in mind, GM had already loaned the company more than $9 million to help keep the parts flowing but the automaker had apparently hit its limit, and the results of the botched receivership now means that 750 people will lose their jobs. The other losers in this debacle are the Michigan taxpayers, who funded a $3.5 million job creation grant to support the business.
If the Titanic taught us anything, it was that you never leave your fiancée alone with Leonardo DiCaprio and his sketch book, and labeling something as unsinkable is apparently a slap in the face of the maritime gods. Regardless, thanks to backing from the U.S. Army, the National Science Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, researchers from the University of Rochester are claiming to have created a metal treatment process that could be used for a number of applications, including unsinkable marine vessels.
The metal itself is not the breakthrough, as the test materials were normal aluminum. However, by using femtosecond lasers to carve tiny groves, the team created superhydrophobic surfaces that capture enough air to form a barrier that displaces water and keeps the aluminum afloat.
Heavy ships travel without sinking because they weigh less than the volume of water being displaced, often using advanced engineering process to regulate weight and displacement. They sink when leaks throw off this ratio. That’s where those etchings and their ability to trap air come into play.
Researchers also saw that, over time, these laser-created grooves fill with water, sinking the metal. So, the team placed two of the etched disks on opposite ends of a small pillar, with the carved sides facing inward and with a gap in the center small enough to prevent water from entering. This creates an air bubble that keeps the metal afloat.
The research team tested the metal by placing it underwater and holding it down with a weight for two months. After removing the weight, the metal floated to the surface. This same process was repeated after drilling holes in the metal. Regardless of any level of damage, it continued to float.
And because the primary benefit is the metal’s ability to propel water, it could be used for a number of applications, including riding metal objects of dirt and contamination with a minimal amount of water. This has piqued the Gates’ interest and their mission to improve toilet sanitation in developing countries.
The biggest challenge is the amount of time, and commensurate costs, consumed by the laser etching process – it takes nearly an hour per square-inch of metal.
The latest experimental aircraft in NASA’s famed X-plane program is edging closer to its debut flight.
More than 70 years after the X-1 first broke the sound barrier, the space agency last week showcased the X-57 at its research facility in California.
Instead of setting new speed records, however, NASA hopes the aircraft, named “Maxwell,” will take another step toward practical electric aviation. The X-57 program began in 2015, but was generally known to the public only through artist renderings or photos of a project still deep in the development phase.
In the fourth and final planned modification in the project, NASA engineers are outfitting a twin-engine propeller plane made by Italy’s Tecnam Aircraft with 14 electric motors powered by custom lithium-ion batteries. With the largest two motors now attached to the plane, NASA opened the doors of its facility at Edwards Air Force Base to give reporters from Reuters a look.
The agency also developed a flight simulator to help engineers and pilots acclimate to what the X-57 might feel like. Although many private aerospace companies are working on electric projects — with some already taking to the air — NASA reportedly wants the X-57 initiative to develop electric technology that can help larger manufacturers meet strict government aviation standards.
Like other electric aviation projects, the X-57 is constrained by the limits of battery technology, which means it will likely be limited to smaller plans or shorter flights.
Officials said the aircraft, the first crewed X-plane in some 20 years, is expected to make its debut flight late next year.
In 2013, the National Transportation Safety Board told ABC News that 97 percent of the airplane fatalities that occurred didn’t happen on commercial flights, and that small planes were involved in an average of five accidents per day.
Much of this goes back to a lack of pilot training, the NTSB said at the time.
And it appears to be still true today, which is one of the reasons the avionics and navigation company Garmin has been developing a product that can take over in the event of an emergency and actually land an airplane with just the press of a button.
It’s called Autoland, and it’s currently being demoed by the private plane company, Cirrus, to be used by anyone – even someone who’s never been on an airplane before – to land a plane if the pilot becomes incapacitated. And you’re going to love this next part – it’s actually exactly what you’re picturing: a big red button.
Once the button, which resides in the airplane’s ceiling, is pressed, it activates warnings that tell those nearby to keep their hands off the controllers. The system then tracks down the nearest appropriate airport and contacts the control tower, to whom it issues a message that’s basically we’re coming in for a landing; clear the runway.
Since Garmin is already in the map game, the system has cutting edge GPS that IDs everything from unusual terrain to a cell phone tower, and safety navigates around it. The system, reportedly, can even navigate around storms.
Cirrus – who is calling this technology in its planes “Safe Return,” plans to integrate it as standard equipment in its single engine private jet, Vision. A Florida-based plane company, Piper, will also use it, according to CNN Business, and Garmin hopes the technology will make its way to other airplane companies.
In October, Hyundai Motor Group became just the latest player to get into the flying car game when the company hired Dr. Jaiwon Shin as Executive Vice President and Head of the company's new Urban Air Mobility (UAM) Division. Shin led R&D projects like the supersonic X-plane at NASA for about 30 years.
On November 7, 2019, Hyundai's Executive Vice Chairman Chung Eui-sun revealed that the car company plans to have its own flying car technology by 2023 and commercialize an air taxi service as soon as 2029. The company plans on partnering with technology leaders as well as startups around the world to make its vision a reality.
The Hyundai exec made the announcement while giving the keynote speech at the Mobility Innovators Forum 2019 hosted by Hyundai Motor at Pier 27 in San Francisco.
Like many Urban Air Mobility competitors, Hyundai hopes its plans will help fix the many traffic woes that cripple transportation in urban areas. However, Hyundai is taking a more human-centered approach.
The company recently set up the Human-Centered City Advisory Group, which is made up of engineering, urban planning and psychology experts. The group is tasked with creating a blueprint for future cities and publishing its findings sometime next year.
The motor group has also been working on the 2050 Future City Project to make predictions on future cities to work as a guideline for smart city development.
The company's 2050 Future City Project even released an illustration of its interpretation of the Future of San Francisco, and well, it's something.
According to studies, if automatic braking systems were installed in every vehicle, the number of rear-end crashes would likely be cut in half… which is one major factor behind the decision by dozens of automakers to agree to put automatic braking systems in each of their new cars by year 2022.
Within three years of the standard, the IIHS says the systems will prevent an estimated 28,000 crashes – which is great, right? Well, as we move towards this established feature there are some people out there who have some reservations about automatic braking.
In fact, the NHTSA is investigating a claim by one woman that her 2018 Nissan Rogue inexplicably slammed on the brakes while she was driving down the highway at 55 mph – coming to a complete stop. Cindy Walsh says the Rogue’s automatic braking has engaged two other times. When she has taken it to the dealership, they said it worked.
She told CBS News that’s she’s now too scared to even drive it anymore. NHTSA’s investigation will cover the 2017 and 2018 Rogue after some 850 complaints of false activation of the SUV’s automatic braking – the results of which have reportedly been 14 crashes and five injuries. Jason Levine of the Center for Auto Safety also told CBS that people were beginning to turn the system off, which added to the incentive for these agencies to resolve the matter and “move towards a recall very quickly.”
A recent study by the IIHS says the systems are safe, but “there is definitely room for improvement.” Outside of any potential issues with the Rogue, there have been seven recalls relating to automatic braking systems in the past three years. The “phantom braking” problem in the Rogue could add more than a half million to that list.
A 64-year-old Ohio man received a 20-month prison sentence for illegally exporting industrial equipment to Iran, and he did it for more than a decade.
In November 2006, Behrooz Behroozian became the owner and operator of Comtech International, a computer parts supplier in Dublin, Ohio. The problem was that Comtech didn't have a storefront or any domestic sales, and it rarely exported computer parts.
Instead, according to the Department of Justice, the shell company exported gas and oil pipeline parts to Sumar Industrial Equipment in the United Arab Emirates.
Sumar acted as a middleman, passing the parts to Iran and covering up the Columbus man's scheme. His actions violated sanctions imposed upon Iran by the U.S. in May 1995.
He exported manifolds, valves, and connectors used for industrial pipelines in the gas and oil refinement industry and made from $35,000 to $40,000 per year.
Behroozian was born in Iran in 1955. He entered the U.S. in 1976 and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1987.
Harvard researchers have created a new depth sensor inspired by the eyes of a jumping spider. It could soon be in everything from microbotics to wearable devices.
The tiny arachnids have incredible depth perception, which enables them to attack prey with great accuracy.
Researchers from the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have created a device that combines a multifunctional, flat metalens with an algorithm to measure depth in a single shot.
Current depth sensors rely on cameras or laser dots to measure and map depth. Humans have stereo vision, which means that we use information from both of our eyes to determine depth.
Jumping spiders are much more efficient. If a jumping spider looks at a fruit fly with one of its principal eyes, the fly will appear sharper in one retina's image and blurrier in another. This change in blur tells the spider how far away the fly is.
In computer vision, the calculation is referred to as depth from defocus, but until now, it has only been possible with large and slow cameras.
The new metalens captures images and produces a depth map using a computer vision algorithm. The color on the depth map represents object distance. The closer and farther objects are colored red and blue, respectively.
While this could lead to more powerful wearables and microbotics, let's hope that the new advances include robotic jumping spiders.
Some chameleons can snatch a cricket in 20 milliseconds; the average human blinks in about 300 milliseconds (on the quick end).
A team of researchers at Purdue's FlexiLab created high-speed prestressed soft actuators that mimic the chameleon's quick tongue using elastic energy. The robots are made of stretchable polymers, like rubber bands, only with internal pneumatic channels that expand when they are pressurized.
The prestressed pneumatic soft robot can expand five times its length, catch a live fly beetle and retrieve it, all in 120 milliseconds.
According to the researchers, the work could make future robots faster and more accurate.
And if that isn't cool enough, the team also mimicked the three-toed woodpecker to make a high-speed gripper and a Venus flytrap to make a soft robot that snaps closed in 50 milliseconds.
The new actuators could lead to advancements in robotics because they can grip and hold objects up to 100 times their weight without any external power.
Humanity is one of the biggest concerns with autonomous humanoid robots. What if they aren't human enough?
A team of researchers from the University of Illinois and MIT has developed a way to keep a human in the robot by tethering the two together.
The researchers have created Little Hermes. Right now, it's just a small robot torso with legs but is operates simultaneously with a human counterpart.
The small-scale bipedal robot could one day be deployed into situations deemed too dangerous for humans.
The researchers were inspired by the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster in 2011. While humans couldn't intervene as the disaster was unfolding, a humanoid robot could've helped prevent the nuclear meltdown that is still rippling throughout the world today.
The idea of human-piloted robots isn't new, but this is one of the first times that the human feels the same forces that the robot experiences.
The researchers created a motion-captures suit that acts as an exoskeleton. The human uses the suit to move the robot, but also feel what the robot feels.
The synchronicity would also help stabilize the robot.
To prove the feedback force, the researchers struck Little Hermes with a mallet -- and its human counterpart felt the impact as well.
Next, the researchers are hoping to make Little Hermes wireless and create robot-to-human force feedback devices for other parts of the body.
This August, a Microsoft subsidiary in Japan experimented with a four-day workweek. The company worked Monday through Thursday as part of a work-life balance project, and the workers received paid leave on Fridays.
The results were surprising as the company announced a nearly 40 percent boost in productivity. The figure was determined by comparing sales figures from August 2018.
According to the company, the program was part of the 2019 Summer "Work-Life Choice Challenge." The project not only made workers more efficient, but the schedule also lowered electricity costs by 23%.
The program was such a success that the company plans to hold a similar event this winter.
As part of the move towards efficiency, the company cut meeting times from 60 minutes to 30 minutes and capped attendance at five employees -- no reason to tie up multiple people from the same team. The company also encouraged workers to use group chats rather than email.
The news serves as a bit of a promo for Microsoft's Workplace Analytics platform, which takes user data from Office 365 to identify patterns that impact productivity, workforce effectiveness, and employee engagement.
This winter, Microsoft Japan is inviting employees to share ideas about how to improve the work-life balance.
The program will also partner with MINDS (Millennial Innovation for the Next Diverse Society), a cross-industry collaborative effort in which millennial workers observe modern workplaces to find the "ideal way to work" in 2020.
The group will help inform government and economic organizations on millennial working style preferences.
The partnership could help fight burnout across the industry, particularly in millennial workers. A 2018 Gallup study found that millennial workers are more likely to burn out at work than older generations.
Perhaps the four-day workweek is the key.
NASA earlier this year launched an initiative to partner with private companies to try out their products in orbit, and automotive, consumer goods and even entertainment enterprises lined up to send their goods to the International Space Station.
A supply ship launched over the weekend, for example, included components from Lamborghini’s sports cars and a small, zero-gravity test oven among its cargo. This week, footwear and apparel giant Adidas announced that it, too, would partner with the ISS to try out its product development absent the usual limits of Earth’s gravity.
The company will send pellets of its proprietary expanded thermoplastic polyurethane — known as Boost — to the ISS as part of a launch reportedly set for sometime next year.
Once safely in orbit, astronauts will fill a mold of a shoe midsole with the material to examine — with a high-speed camera — how the pellets move and interact in space. The company says learning about how the pellets move with much less interference from gravity could help engineers optimize its shoes back on the ground.
And one day, who knows? The launch could be a precursor to manufacturing shoes — among many, many other items — high above the Earth’s surface.
Last week, a 28-year-old man was working at US Food Corp in Hicksville, NY, when his right arm became entangled in a piece of machinery and was severed.
According to local authorities, his arm was amputated below the elbow.
The man ran to Energy Mechanical Corp., the business next door, where employees used a belt as a tourniquet to help control and stop the bleeding.
According to a local report, the victim reportedly lost his arm in a machine used to make dough at US Food. He then ran into the neighboring business looking for help. When he entered the business the victim was still lucid enough that he was on his phone trying to call his supervisor.
The employees at Energy Mechanical not only stopped the bleeding, but they believe that they saved the man’s life.
Emergency personnel arrived in about 10 minutes, replaced the tourniquet and took the man and the arm to the hospital with hopes that it could be reattached.
OSHA is investigating the incident. As of press time, there has been no update on the worker's condition or whether or not the arm was saved.
US Foods is a distributor and supplier with around 250,000 customers nationwide, including restaurants and hospitals. With headquarters in Rosemont, IL, the company employs around 25,000 in the U.S.
Sysco has entered an agreement with the U.S. Department of Labor to resolve gender discrimination allegations at four plants.
From November 2013 to December 2014, investigators from the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) found that Sysco facilities in Maryland (2), Pennsylvania, and Virginia discriminated against 238 female applicants.
The women applied for outbound selector positions. According to current listings, the job calls for pulling products in the warehouse and preparing them for shipping — by stacking them in an orderly and stable configuration.
The settlement prevents Sysco from admitting liability, but the company is on the hook for $182,354.26 in back wages, benefits, and interest to the female applicants.
Sysco will also make 60 job offers to original applicants as positions become available in Jessup and Pocomoke City, Maryland; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; and Harrisonburg, Virginia.
The agreement also calls on Sysco to review and revise selection procedures, and train company personnel to prevent future violations.
Based in Houston, Texas, Sysco is a multinational food distributor. As a federal contractor, Sysco, the company failed to comply with Executive Order 11246, which prohibits gender discrimination by federal contractors.
The laws make it illegal for contractors and subcontractors doing business with the federal government to discriminate on the basis of race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.
The motorcycle marketplace continues to face challenges as it adjusts to an evolving customer base less interested in loud pipes and excessive power. In response to these evolving consumer demands, designs have transitioned to focus on fuel efficiency and electric powertrains over big engines, and handling and maneuverability in exchange for size and flash.
Or, if you’re Aston Martin, you pretty much do whatever you want in rolling out your first-ever motorcycle offering.
The British luxury car maker synonymous with James Bond recently unveiled the AMB 001. Created in partnership with iconic English motorcycle manufacturer Brough Superior, the Aston Martin bike features many of the bells and whistles you might expect from a high-end bike.
First, a turbocharged, 180-horsepower engine drives the motorcycle, which will weigh just under 400 pounds. This places it on the high side as far as power goes, and the middle of the pack in terms of weight.
The wheels offer double wishbone front forks with matte black brake assemblies. They’re offset by the traditional Aston Martin Stirling Green and Lime Essence racing colors, as well as a carbon fiber fin inspired by the company’s new series of mid-engine sports cars.
Additional finishing touches include a hand-stitched, padded seat made from leather that can also be found on the handlebar grips. Wings attached to the front of the bike's cowl provide aerodynamic downforce that help improve top speed and handling. And finally, Aston Martin’s unmistakable stainless steel wings can be found on the motorcycle’s nose and tank.
The bikes are being built in the Brough Superior factory in Toulouse, France. They’re set for delivery late next year. Aston Martin will only make 100 of the track-exclusive bikes, each carrying a retail price of $119,559.
NASA's Artemis program wants to put Americans back on the moon by 2024. But the program has had its share of problems. The $20 billion to $30 billion price tag has ruffled some feathers, not just on overall cost, but who will land the contracts and how they will be used.
The program has some aggressive goals, including building an outpost on the moon and mining for resources. It has also been considered that Artemis would be the precursor for a mission to Mars.
This week, Artemis took one step closer to becoming a reality as Blue Origin announced a national team that will build the Human Landing System that will be used to reach the moon, and it's a supergroup. Like the Avengers, as long as they were all aerospace engineers.
Blue Origin signed agreements with Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Draper. Each company has experience working with NASA and has expertise in elements crucial to the program's success.
Draper will lead descent guidance and provide flight avionics. Northrop Grumman will build the Transfer Element vehicle that brings the landing system towards the moon. Lockheed Martin is heading up the the reusable Ascent Element vehicle and leads crewed flight operations and training. And Blue Origin, the prime contractor, will lead program management, systems engineering, safety and mission assurance, and mission engineering while also providing the Descent Element that is based on the multi-year development of the Blue Moon lunar lander.
According to Blue Origin, "It’s time to go back to the Moon, this time to stay."
Back in June, we watched as Composite Metal Foam (CMF) stopped armor-piercing bullets. Researchers fired a .50-caliber armor-piercing round 514 meters per second at the foam, and it bounced off.
Now, researchers from North Carolina State University have a new, slightly less volatile application for the foam. Using a combination of CMF and epoxy resin, the team believes that they could revolutionize aircraft wing design. And really, anything that uses aluminum.
The hybrid material is called "infused CMF." When we saw the bullet-bouncing foam, it was made up of hollow spheres of steel and titanium embedded into steel, aluminum or other alloys. The hybrid uses stainless steel spheres and a stainless steel matrix. However, they immerse the material in a hydrophobic epoxy resin and use vacuum forces to draw resin into the hollow spheres and pores in the matrix. After the process, about 88 percent of the CMF's pores are filled with resin.
What I found most interesting was how they tested it. In order to stand up to aerospace-grade aluminum, they needed to see how quickly water streams off it, how well it stands up to erosion, and how well bug parts stick to it. Really.
In all tests, the infused CMF performed better than aluminum — even the bug test, which not only tests the maximum height of bug residue that builds up on the material, but the total area covered in bug guts as well.
It could help cut costs on future aircraft design by improving performance while cutting the all-important weight and improving fuel efficiency. And it's better on bugs.
When we've covered artificial skin in the past, the one thing that we've neglected: can you tickle it? Right? What fun is a robot if it can't kick in at the tickle party? So, researchers at the University of Bristol have created an interactive artificial skin.
The Skin-On interface is a multi-layer silicone membrane that mimics the layers in human skin. The skin consists of a surface textured layer, an electrode layer with conductive threads, and a hypodermis layer. It allows devices to feel your grasp, including tickling, caressing — even twisting and pinching. And that caption is on this photo with a robot being tickled, caressed, twisted and pinched.
Now, I know that they also created a phone case and computer touchpad as part of the tech demonstration, but we all know where this is headed, right? Extremely realistic shaved cat robots.
I understand why you might miss the story — most of the pictures just look like someone let their kid run wild at the lab with a tub of silly putty.
The university, which with collaborated with Telecomm ParisTech and Sorbonne University, also released a sizzle reel of various pinching, touching, tapping and otherwise fondling. You know, to control your phone.
Next, the researchers are working on making the skin more realistic, including embedding hair and giving it goose bumps.
Dr. Anne Roudaut, associate professor in human-computer interaction at the University of Bristol, supervised the research. One of the authors of the paper — Skin-on interfaces: a bio-driven approach for artificial skin design to cover interactive devices — said, “This work explores the intersection between man and machine." Yep, I'd say you nailed it.
Last weekend China hosted a Helicopter Exposition focused on displaying some the country’s latest military developments. In addition to a potential Black Hawk helicopter look-alike, Parrot Laboratory offered a two-seat, turbojet concept dubbed … the Super White Shark.
Looking more like a flying saucer from a 1950s sci-fi flick, the Super White Shark can reportedly reach a stop speed of over 400 mph, with a flight range of just over 1,800 miles and a ceiling of just under 20,000 feet. The developer claims to have been inspired by some of the leading combat helicopters currently in use, but offers what it describes as “a revolutionary design that perfects wing-body-fusion technology.”
For those with a less profound engineering background, apparently wing-body-fusion technology in the aerospace sector means … round.
While the Super White Shark does offer a truly unique name, this approach to aircraft design is nothing new. The U.S. experimented with a ducted-fan design in the early 1960s. The round body housed a collection of internal propellers that provided lift. Dubbed the Avrocar, concepts only made it three feet off the ground, but in posing as a possible combination of a helicopter and jeep, it could reach speeds of up to 35 mph. The project was scrapped after the concept posed no real aviation benefits.
But China says their armed version, with its two turbojet engines, was designed for the "future digital information battlefield."
The Super Great White Shark measures about 25’ long and 10’ high, with room for a two-person crew. From a more technical engineering perspective, the rounded design could legitimately enhance its’ stealth capabilities.
Of course, that will only be known once this concept aircraft actually takes flight, which it hasn’t. But the Chinese government has stated it could be ready for takeoff by next year.
On October 30, 2012, an industrial accident at North Jackson, OH-based aluminum manufacturing company Extrudex killed 21-year-old John Tomlin Jr. A rack containing 4,000-5,000 pounds hot aluminum parts tipped over and pinned the employee in an oven. The rack was reportedly being pushed on a roller conveyor system, and a co-worker was seriously injured as well.
62-year-old Brian K. Carder and 57-year-old Paul Love pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obstruct justice charges. Last week, the pair of plant managers were officially sentenced for their role in the incident, specifically lying during the investigation and trying to strong-arm subordinates.
The Department of Labor's Office of Inspector General's investigation found that Carder and Love tried to hide information and intimidate workers from speaking to OSHA investigators.
Carder's sentence carries three years of probation; however, the first five months include weekend only confinement -- that means he goes to jail on the weekends for five months, typically you go in on Friday night, and you're released on Monday morning. Carder was also ordered to pay a $20,100 fine. Love also received three years probation, including three months of house arrest and a $1,100 fine.
According to the indictment, Carder and Love told subordinates that their jobs might be in jeopardy as a ploy to get them to recant previous emails about safety issues at the plant.
In a settlement with OSHA, Extrudex Aluminum accepted one willful and seven serious citations and agreed to pay a $112,000 penalty.
Back in 2012, then-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn announced that the automaker would revive its Datsun brand more than 25 years after the iconic Japanese brand was originally phased out. Although you could still find the odd Datsun on U.S. roads, Ghosn wanted the name for a new line of low-cost vehicles targeting emerging markets — part of a larger goal of raising Nissan’s overall share of the global car market.
Seven years later, Ghosn is facing criminal charges for alleged financial improprieties, Nissan’s profits are down, and the revived Datsun — now five years into production — is apparently taking market share from its parent company.
As a result, Nissan’s new leadership is apparently planning to scrap the Datsun brand once again. Two company officials told Reuters that the brand would likely be a casualty of a broad recovery plan that would reverse Ghosn's expansion ambitions. The automaker is expected to cut production in many markets and abandon some versions of the Titan pickup.
Plants in the countries originally targeted by the Datsun revival, the officials said, would likely be hit hardest as Nissan focuses on China and the U.S. The new Datsuns, Reuters noted, are made in Indonesia, India and Russia.
The overall restructuring plan will likely be presented before the end of the month, although some final details are reportedly still being worked out.
This spring, German air taxi startup Lilium debuted a five-seat flying car prototype and showed footage of its — sort of — debut flight.
The company, founded by engineers from the Technical University of Munich, made its first vertical takeoff and landing flight with a two-seater in 2017, then showcased the five-seater — which features two sets of fixed wings rather than more energy-consuming rotors — briefly lifting off and hovering in May.
This week, Lilium released new footage that showed its small, electric jet taking to the skies above southern Germany.
In the video, the jet smoothly transitions from vertical to horizontal flight, and the company said it has clocked in at speeds of more than 60 miles per hour.
Eventually, the company hopes the jet will be able to travel at speeds of up to 185 miles per hour.
Lilium said it has now wrapped up the first phase of flight testing and remains on track to offer air taxi services in several cities across the world by 2025. The company says the jet’s expected range of just more than 185 miles on a charge will offer practical, zero-emission air transit across entire regions rather than solely in cities and suburbs.
The company has also dedicated its first manufacturing space at its Munich headquarters, and this week named a former Airbus executive as its new chief program officer.
Researchers from Northwestern University and Washington University at St. Louis have created a new implant that could save people who are overdosing on opioids.
The autonomous device is about the size of a USB thumb drive, and it's implanted beneath your skin. When it senses that oxygen is low, it administers naloxone, more commonly known as Narcan.
The team recently received a $10 million grant from the National Institutes of Health's Helping to End Addiction Long-Term (NIH HEAL) initiative.
First, the team will test the device on animals before advancing to human trials.
The implant could overcome the biggest hurdle in life-saving treatment. Typically, a third party not only has to administer Narcan, but you need to have it on hand as well.
The device can be placed in the abdomen, lower back, or collar bone.
The implantable will undergo about five more years of development, but it could stand to save many lives. More than two million Americans suffer from opioid-specific substance abuse.
San Francisco-based OpenAI has trained a pair of neural networks to solve a Rubik's Cube with a single robot hand.
The team places the cube into the palm of a dextrous 24-joint robot hand that mimics human anatomy, but they don't tell it how to solve the cube. Instead, it learns like a human through evolution, only faster.
The team ran thousands of simulations to give the robot a base, and the AI takes it further. The team doesn't show the hand how to move the cube. It learns everything from the cube's weight (and how to manipulate it) to how to solve the puzzle. Most of the time.
The robot's track record isn't exactly perfect. It solves an easy cube about 60 percent of the time, and difficult cubes only 20 percent of the time. A "maximum difficulty scramble" implies that it requires 26 face rotations to solve. Simpler scrambles require 15 rotations.
The algorithm is adaptable and learns in real-time as the team presents external obstacles to the hand. For example, they put a rubber glove on it, drop confetti on it, hit it with smoke, tangle bracelets around it, fondle it with a giant wooden hand, and peck at it with a stuffed giraffe. Basically, they teach it to withstand the rigors of Mardi Gras.
The team has been working on the project since May 2017, and the demonstration could lead to general-purpose robots being capable of performing complex tasks.
Oh, and if you're interested, they're hiring.
The Uniti One is a new electric hatchback from Uniti, an EV startup headquartered in Sweden with engineering and production in the United Kingdom.
The project started at an open innovation research lab at Lund University, and we could soon see the first vehicles on the road.
Uniti One is a city car with a range of up to 186 miles; however, the standard 12 kWh battery will have a range of about 93 miles. Still, if you use a 50 kW rapid DC charger for 10 minutes, you will have about 62 miles, which would easily fit the average American's 32-mile round trip commute.
The EV tops out at 74.5 mph and has a curb weight of about 1,322.77 pounds.
The designers want to create a smartphone-like digital experience for the changing needs of society. The One has a clean, if not minimalist, design.
This Tuesday, the company started taking orders for production models of the climate-neutral electric car that will be revealed at an event later this year.
Like Tesla, the company plans to roll out new features like software updates. If you get in early, you'll receive all upgrades for free for the life of your car.
The petite design is reminiscent of a more encased version of the Elio Motors Autocycle, mostly in that the passengers or "co-pilots" sit behind the driver. At least the One has room for two in the back.
According to designboom, the city car will first be available in Sweden before rolling out in the UK halfway through next year. The cost works out to about USD$19,000.
Integrating the latest creature comforts and connectivity-laden technologies with new automotive offerings has become increasingly common. But the latest concept from Toyota takes these comforts to an almost uncomfortable level. The LQ is a battery-electric hybrid that, in addition to providing a 185-mile range between charges, features Yui.
Yui is an artificial intelligence platform that looks to “build an emotional bond between car and driver.” First unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in 2017, Yui’s interactive nature is designed in such a way that it can potentially learn from the driver in customizing their driving experience based on the driver's emotional state.
This means Yui could determine, via voice communications and seat posture, if the driver is stressed or tired and automatically adjust interior lighting, seating positions, climate controls and even music or fragrance selections to help reduce stress or improve alertness. The seating system consists of multiple inflatable air bladders and in-seat air conditioning. When the system recognizes that the driver is tired, it inflates the air bladder in the seat back to support an upright sitting posture and directs cool air from the ventilation system.
When conditions allow the driver to relax, such as in automated driving mode, the air bladder in the seat back gradually inflates and contracts to encourage controlled abdominal breathing. The AI functionality could also be used to provide information updates related to the trip or make infotainment suggestions.
Roof and floor mat areas offer additional communications options in sharing road surface conditions via one million tiny, embedded mirrors that can project figures or objects on the road ahead. Not that drivers need to be looking down to see what’s going on, as an augmented reality heads-up display jointly developed with Panasonic can display information such as lane warnings, upcoming road signs, or route guidance via 3D imagery displayed through the windshield.
As previously mentioned, an automated, not to be confused with autonomous, driving mode is also provided. This allows a system featuring multiple cameras, sonar, radar, 2D road mapping and access to parking lot cameras to determine the best parking spot after dropping drivers off at the front door.
No timeline has been set for the commercial availability of the LQ or Yui.
Last week, Tesla was approved to begin production in China.
The company is building a $2 billion Gigafactory, its first overseas manufacturing site, in Shanghai.
According to Reuters, Tesla was included on the country's approved automotive manufacturers list on Thursday, which means it can now begin production.
According to the Daily Mail, Tesla hopes to make 3,000 cars a week out of the gate and ramp up to 500,000 cars per year.
The Shanghai factory will not only serve the largest automotive market in the world, but it will also help the company avoid tariffs imposed on U.S. cars.
Tesla’s Q3 electric car sales improved this summer. According to the AP, the company delivered 97,000 vehicles from July through September, which was better than any other three-month period in its history.
The company still needs to deliver about 105,000 vehicles by the end of the year to hit Elon Musk’s sales target of at least 360,000 in 2019.
The plant in Shanghai will be the first fully foreign-owned car plant on Chinese soil.
Even as laws regarding the use of marijuana become more lax in many states, the grey areas seem to be widening. Take for example, rules regarding cannabis use by workers. Whether or not your state allows for legal weed is one thing, but it doesn’t mean your employer can’t give you the ax if they determine you’re using it.
But will they? Earlier this week, the National Safety Council, or NSC, released a statement on cannabis in the workplace, and they don’t mince words, saying no level of cannabis use is acceptable for those working in safety positions.
NSC cites a recent survey where they asked employers about cannabis use, revealing that 81 percent were concerned about the substance having a negative effect on their workplace. Further, “24% indicated they would dismiss an employee found to be misusing legal cannabis, such as being under the influence while on the job.”
NSC is urging companies to enact their own clear policies that state that “no amount of cannabis consumption is acceptable for those who work in safety sensitive positions."
So what are we considering “safety positions?” Well, it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to consider most or all plant floor activity to involve some sort of safety component, and if that’s the case, it makes it even easier for an uneasy employer to test pretty much whomever they want.
Legal experts say that most states allow a business to subject current employees to a drug test if “the employee holds a position that could threaten the safety of the public or coworkers.”
And NSC says that cannabis use causes the kinds of effects, like impaired movement and difficulty with decision-making, that can have deadly consequences. That said, the agency does recommend that businesses find non safety-sensitive positions for users of legal medical cannabis.
When the economy is good, and your company is performing, it’s not unreasonable to ask for a raise, right?
And if you’re a CEO of a major Fortune 500 business, you might just get one. A big one. But how much is too much?
Microsoft has reported that its CEO Satya Nadella has gotten a sizeable bump in his 2019 comp plan – a 66 percent increase, in fact. Most of it takes the form of stock awards, but when you tack it onto his base of $2.3 million, the result is $42.9 million pay package. Part of the 66 percent goes to a $1 million bump in his base salary, and Nadella defenders would also point out that the stock payout was part of a long-term performance-based stock award.
Now, Microsoft is having a good year, that’s for certain. The company’s stock hit an all-time high in September, and its market cap reached $1.07 trillion. Additionally, it’s taken back the title of “most valuable company in the world” from Apple. Hitting its growth targets after doubling down on cloud services, the company justifies the compensation based on what it calls Nadella’s “strategic leadership.”
And while Microsoft’s pay for its employees ranked an admirable 19th among U.S. based businesses, it did fall below that of fellow tech companies Google, Facebook and Amazon. Additionally, according to an internal survey in 2018, 39 percent indicated they were not compensated fairly.
So we know where the rank-and-file fit in terms of their pay package, but how does Microsoft’s top exec rank amongst his peers? According to CNN Business, Apple’s Tim Cook netted a $15.7 million pay package last year, and Google’s Sundar Pachai made a mere $1.9 million – and Bloomberg reported that he began turning down stock awards after several lavish comp years drew controversy.
But the real laggard here is poor Jeff Bezos, who has netted around $80K for the past two decades for his work as CEO of Amazon. Somehow I think he’ll be just fine.
Last year, we brought you a story about how easy it is to fool your phone’s facial recognition security tech, by simply scanning and photographing your head and then 3D printing it. Not a big deal.
Well, now there’s an even easier way than that to crack a phone, and Samsung is so concerned it’s deploying a software patch to fix it – ASAP.
Meanwhile, if you own a Galaxy S10 or Note10 – beware. Your screen protector might be unwittingly holding onto your prints, allowing other users with, decidedly, NOT your fingerprints, to use the reader to unlock your device.
According to CNN Business, a British woman discovered recently that her husband was able to unlock her phone using the fingerprint reader and they later discovered that the cheap case she was using was the problem. The aftermarket product features a screen protector and the residue left from her prints was being retained, thus fooling the high-tech reader when her husband would press down where she had previously used the device.
Samsung is asking users to refrain from using these screen protectors until it’s able to remedy the situation. It seems the problem with these specific models is that they use “ultrasonic fingerprint scanners,” which reportedly use soundwaves to create a 3D map of the user’s print. Certain phone cases, says Samsung, are causing these systems to malfunction. But who would have guessed it could all have been caused by a smudge?
British company Dyson is most famously known for its high-end vacuum cleaners touted on the air by founder, chief engineer and namesake James Dyson.
But the company also makes a wide variety of other electronics, and in 2017 officially signaled its ambitions to dive into the nascent market for electric vehicles.
By that time, Dyson had formed a team of hundreds of engineers, acquired a Michigan battery technology company and committed more than $2 billion to the effort. It subsequently outlined plans for testing facilities in England and a factory in Singapore.
But just about two years after officially announcing the vehicle initiative, Dyson is reportedly pulling the plug.
CNN reports that James Dyson, in a note to employees, wrote that the company's engineers had developed a “fantastic” electric vehicle, but that the project would not be commercially viable and that no buyers interested in acquiring the project had surfaced.
Dyson said the company’s battery efforts would continue, and that the hundreds of workers on the project would be either transitioned elsewhere in the company or “supported fairly” as the vehicle initiative winds down.
But the decision adds to a familiar refrain for those companies venturing into the auto industry, with its massive capital and R&D requirements, for the first time: how to actually turn a profit.
Advancements in prosthetic technology continue to amaze me, we've seen everything from 3d printing low-cost limbs to advanced robotics incorporated into new designs.
What struck me in the new work from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and SensArs Neuroprosthetics was when they used the word 'merge.'
Researchers are currently conducting clinical trials of a bionic limb. One of the test subjects lost his leg in a motorcycle accident. Now, because of this novel neuroprosthetic leg technology, he can feel his leg and foot as if it were his own.
According to the researchers, the difference is the electrodes. Instead of wrapping the electrodes around the patient's remaining nerves, they surgically pierce them.
When blindfolded, the patients could tell when they touched his big toe and heel. He could even describe how much his knee flexed.
So now, the patients don't need to think about it when they are walking around. They just walk, which is also less mentally taxing.
Exciting work has come out of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. After all, they're also the ones behind artificial skin.
Next, the researchers hope to conduct a longer study with more patients. The tech could soon improve the lives of the millions of people who have suffered an amputation.
Other than being a slimy devil, the Northern Clingfish sucks ... and it's really good at it.
The Clingfish clings to rough and slimy surfaces, and it can hold up to 230 times its weight. Researchers from the University of Washington used it to build a better suction cup.
According to the researchers, the new prototypes are stronger than their natural counterparts. The new suction cups could be used in applications that require a strong but reversible sticking force on rough or textured surfaces. I thought they were talking about large and disparate manufacturing materials. Nope, they meant whale tagging and shower caddies.
Clingfish have a disc on their stomach that helps them to hold on. The rim of the disc is covered small hairlike structures that create more friction along the edge and helps the fish stick to rough surfaces. The entire disk is flexible and elastic, which helps them adapt and hold on to coarse, uneven surfaces.
The team has spent five years building a better sucker. Now, they want to take the next step. They have a prototype, but now they need an engineer who can further develop the design for specific applications in mind.
Flies are annoying. Thus the phrase "shoo fly, don't bother me." Perhaps you've heard of it.
However, its fly movement that interests the researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Right now, they're studying the way a fly walks because it could lead to advancements in robot transportation. It could also lead to more realistic robot flies.
Flies are capable of climbing nearly any terrain. They have adhesive pads and claws that help them stick to walls and ceilings. If robots could not only improve mobility but also rest on any surface, they could become more energy efficient.
First, they needed to learn more about how flies behave, so the developed DeepFly3D, a motion-capture system for the common fruit fly.
The system recorded a fly walking on top of a tiny floating ball with seven cameras. To keep it in place, they glued the fly's back to a stage.
DeepFly3D learns how the fly maneuver so it can teach robots how to move. And it doesn't just watch. The system predicts what the fly is going to do. If it's right, it confirms its hypothesis or learns from its mistake and evolves.
The study is in eLife Sciences, and the researchers made all of their data available on GitHub.
In the last couple of weeks, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology has published work on artificial skin, amputees merging with prosthetic limbs, and robotic flies.
Oh, and we're not just talking flies either. DeepFly3D works on other animals as well, even humans.
Yesterday, the University of Maine Advanced Structures and Composites Center unveiled the world's largest polymer 3D printer. The printer is capable of printing parts up to 100 feet long, and at a ceremony, they revealed some incredible achievements.
First, they showed off a 3D printed tactical center they printed in three weeks. Next, they showed off a 3D printed boat mold made from PLA derived from corn and nanocellulose derived from wood. The mold helped build the roof of a boat. The material is 100-percent recyclable.
Finally, the team pulled the cover off of a 25-foot long, 5,000-pound boat that was entirely 3D printed.
While it is the largest 3D printer, it doesn't lumber along. The boat took little more than a weekend to print. The researchers started printing the boat on a Thursday at 6 pm, and by about the same time Sunday night, they had a boat.
While many names were considered, including the 3D Mainiac, the multidisciplinary team of researchers and engineers settled on the 3Dirigo. Dirigo, which means "I lead" in Latin, is the motto for the state of Maine.
Overall, the project cost about $40,000.
The boat was outfitted with a 150 HP Mercury motor, christened with a bottle of champagne, and better yet, it floated.
Guinness World Records was on hand to officially recognize the 5,000-pound 3Dirigo as the largest 3D printed boat in the world. The record was previously held by a 40-pound rowboat.
When discussing how such an achievement was possible, one university official said, "none of us is smarter than all of us."
The future of hypersonic flight is exciting.
Companies currently building experimental craft are shooting for Mach 1.5 to Mach 2. Boom Supersonic, for example, is now assembling the XB-1 supersonic demonstrator aircraft, which could reach Mach-2.2. However, we need to be ready for the next wave of aircraft that will reach Mach 10 -- that's ten times the speed of sound or 7,672 mph.
Traveling Mach 10, and faster, will present some challenges, so researchers need to study how particular objects and materials will respond to those speeds.
So, the engineers at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, used a giant gun.
According to the researchers, when an object reaches above Mach 5, the air chemically decomposes around the craft. Some points behind the shockwave get hotter than the surface of the sun. The object typically heats up, melts, and chemically reacts with the air.
Unfortunately, it's impossible to recreate all of these conditions in a wind tunnel, so the researchers used a two-stage light gas gun system to simulate hypersonic flight conditions.
The gun can generate velocities up to 15,660 mph. The system itself is 72 feet long and is normally used to study ballistics.
Right now, the engineers are shooting objects at up to Mach 15 to see how they heat up, melt, and chemically react.
The work could one day help create the hypersonic aircraft of the future by addressing the material challenges now.
Sidenote: At 15,660 mph, that's around the world in just over 1.5 hours.
The founder of secretive electric vehicle startup Faraday reportedly declared bankruptcy in the U.S. after running up more than $2 billion in debts.
Bloomberg, citing court documents filed in Delaware, reports that under a debt restructuring plan, Jia Yueting plans to turn over his stake in the EV company to his creditors in China.
Jia, the founder of a sprawling Chinese tech company, emerged as the primary backer of Faraday as it rapidly — and quietly — grew from startup to a hundreds-strong staff in Los Angeles that purported to be preparing a challenge to Tesla for electric vehicle supremacy.
He took over as CEO in late 2017, after the company had rolled out an underwhelming prototype, announced plans for a $1 billion factory in Nevada and set a timetable to make its first cars. Its ambitions, however, were rapidly scaled back amid questions about its finances.
The company scrapped the Nevada plant for a smaller operation in California, then burned through hundreds of millions invested under a new partnership.
Most recently, the company formed a joint venture with a Chinese gaming company for another infusion of cash, and replaced Jia as its chief executive.
Jia’s creditors reportedly hope to be reimbursed — at least in part — with the proceeds from an initial public offering, although the filing conceded that might not raise as much as the company hopes, due to, Jia's filing said, “negative press.”
This week, Hyundai threw its hat into the flying car ring. You know what? With all of the players and collaborations, someones got to get it right. Right?
The Hyundai Motor Group's big move was that it hired Dr. Jaiwon Shin as Executive Vice President and Head of the new Urban Air Mobility Division. Shin previously led aviation research and development at NASA. He was there for about 30 years and was behind projects like the supersonic X-plane and Urban Air Mobility.
According to Hyundai, the new division will develop core technologies and innovative solutions for safe and efficient airborne travel. And why not, the market is supposed to be worth $1.5 trillion within the next 20 years.
While we've seen flying cars that look like everything from a flying Delorean to a giant quadcopter and various transitional aircraft, Hyundai's concept will likely be described as serviceable and adequate. Hey, as long as it's reliable and safe.
Huntington Ingalls is regarded as the largest shipbuilder in the U.S. And if a recent suit filed against the company comes to fruition, it will also be responsible for one of the largest fraud cases against a military supplier in recent history.
For nearly 10 years, submarines from the company’s shipbuilding facility in Newport News, Virginia have struggled to maintain the sound-dampening coating applied to their hulls. The coating, which resembles foam rubber, is designed to absorb sonar waves sent from enemy ships. With no sound pinging off the hulls, these ships are much more difficult to detect.
The problem, according to the complaint, is that Huntington Ingalls never trained their workers to properly apply this Special Hull Treatment. This led to the coating slipping off while the submarine was moving, and losing the stealth capabilities it relies upon in delivering troops or performing surveillance activities. The suit says Huntington Ingalls was aware of the problem, but falsified tests and certifications to make it look like the coating had been applied correctly to the Virginia-class attack submarines.
Huntington Ingalls and Northrop Grumman, which the company spun off from in in 2011, are being sued for over $100 million for allegedly misleading the federal government and violating the federal government's False Claims Act.
The qui tam lawsuit, which means it rewards whistleblowers in successful cases where the government recoups damages due to fraud, is being brought by Ari Lawrence. The senior engineer worked at Huntington Ingalls until 2017. He claims he was pressured to keep quiet about the issues, had a promotion blocked, and was re-assigned after raising concerns.
The suit was initially struck down by federal judge in Florida earlier this month, but it also requested a new filing by October 15. Reports by Task & Purpose indicate that the ruling was based on technical issues related to the filing, not the merit of the case.
These attack subs come in at about $2.8 billion each, with plans for 11 more to be built by 2024.
The use of hand grenades on the battlefield goes back to the 1500s. Weighing up to six pounds, these early versions were basically hollow metal balls filled with gun powder and attached to slow-burning fuses. Over time, the weight has gone down and the effectiveness has improved. However, one element of these explosive devices that has remained a challenge is customizing their output based on the mission.
Enter Norway-based Nammo and their Scalable Offensive Hand Grenade. Instead of relying on fragments of embedded metal to disable the enemy, they use the release of pressure to disable, injure and kill the enemy, or destroy structures.
A concussion style grenade is nothing new, but the ability to essentially stack potentially lethal grenades like Legos by attaching up to two additional units offers new application potential. For example, one grenade could be used to stun, but attaching additional grenades could escalate the explosive effect accordingly.
Also, each grenade can have its own fuse, allowing for a sort of timed or chain reaction, again, depending on the circumstance. The lack of metal fragmentation also allows for less collateral damage from flying shrapnel and the option of slowing down an adversary, as opposed to more lethal results.
Social media continues to make the human resource waters murkier than ever, especially when it comes to deciding what to share on your accounts, but also what companies peruse when considering new applicants.
While industry professionals, universities, and even grade schools constantly remind children and professionals to think carefully about anything they post online, stories continue to pop up about social media, causing professional fracases.
One of the latest stories comes from Waukesha, Wisconsin-based Castalloy, a company that produces high alloy castings. This story doesn't have to do with the applicant's social media, but rather an HR worker who posted the applicant's resume on her personal Facebook page and ridiculed it.
According to CBS-58, in late September, a person applying for a job at Castalloy submitted a resume that said he had a "GED in Biochemistry." The worker did cross out the applicant's name, but he still found out about the post. The HR worker 't didn't break the law, but it was highly unethical, according to industry professionals.
It's not just the ridicule, but you have to consider that the applicant might still be employed.
Castalloy is investigating.
In a similar story, 24-year-old Emily Clow was applying for a marketing position at Austin-based Kickass Masterminds, a company that helps small business owners and entrepreneurs.
The company found a photo of the applicant in a bikini on Instagram and posted it with a warning to other applicants. The Masterminds post said, "PSA (because I know some of you applicants are looking at this) do not share your social media with a potential employer if this is the kind of content on it." It continues, "I am looking for a professional marketer - not a bikini model."
Backlash is an understatement.
The post went viral, and as of press time, every Kickass Masterminds website and social media page redirects to a statement posted on Medium from company founder and CEO Sara Christensen. Christensen called the post an "error in judgment". She apologized for her behavior and called her actions a "great case study in what NOT to do."
Clow says she shared her story to start a dialogue about how employers use social media.
IEN reached out to Castalloy, but the company did not respond to our requests for comment.
When GM announced this summer that they’d be moving the engine in the 2020 Corvette, people went bonkers. It was like Beatlemania.
That’s because the change to a mid-engine was just one piece of a complete overhaul: a redesign from the ground up that, according to Chevy, that left only a single part carried over from the original.
But there was more in store, as Chevy debuted its Stingray this week, announcing it would feature its first-ever hardtop convertible.
The new ‘Vette will be ditching the cloth for a lightweight composite roof that swaps out a hydraulic system for six motors that can fold the top up or down at speeds up to 30 miles per hour. When the roof is off, it lives in a heat -resistant compartment that shields it from the massive heat that’s kicking off from the ‘Vette’s 495 horsepower engine.
According to Autoblog, the leader engineer on the project says the company will likely build at least 50 percent of the new Corvette as convertibles and that this version only adds 77 pounds of weight compared to the traditional coupe. It also adds to the purchase price, though, so expect to dish out about $7,500 more for the model.
That said, you’re getting some cool features no matter which you choose. According to Chevy, the door handles and hatch and hood releases are flush, offering “a perfectly clean appearance and improved aerodynamics.” Between three trims an a “Corvette Configurator” program, the sky is the limit in terms of colors, wheels, accessories and more. The mid-engine design allows a rear trunk to be paired with front cargo space large enough to fit your carry-on.
See, who says you can’t have it all?
Let’s just be real: Doing your taxes is complicated and hard, and even the most honest of individuals can find themselves making a mistake here and there. And if you do, that’s what the auditors are for, right?
Unless nobody is paying attention. A recent audit conducted by a U.S. Treasury Department watchdog revealed that some-$82 million in credits were bestowed upon American taxpayers over a five year period for electric and plug-in electric vehicles purchases that didn’t actually qualify for the EV tax credit.
Developed in 2009 to help support the ramp-up of electrics, the government program allows buyers of certain vehicles to claim a dollar-for-dollar credit on their taxes, depending on which models they buy. Manufacturers who hit a certain threshold in sales of these electrics see the credits for their buyers drop incrementally until they are phased out altogether.
According to Forbes, erroneous credits first started surfacing way back in 2011. After this same watchdog published the results of an investigation at that time, the IRS began requiring taxpayers to list their model year and VIN. And yet, the agency appears to have continued to fail spectacularly at tracking the vehicles in the program. In fact, the report blames a lack of controls and reviews for the massive blunder, and says many of the deficiencies identified back in 2011 “still exist.”
The future of this tax credit is really anybody’s guess. President Trump wants to kill it. Meanwhile, industry stakeholders, including those currently most impacted by the phase-out like Tesla and GM, have rallied around a proposal called the “Driving America Forward Act.” If enacted, this would allow for an increased number of vehicles to be sold before the phase-out is triggered, leveling the playing field for some companies in the twilight of the current credit program.
But “Driving America Forward” may not be necessary if taxpayers can continue to write off whichever vehicles they want and nobody bothers to check their eligibility.
And as for the EV tax credit “cheaters,” they may yet get their comeuppance: According to Automotive News, the IRS is planning to develop a program that will try to recover the erroneously awarded credits.
Back in the late 90s and early 2000s Ericsson was one of the leading names in an emerging product category – mobile communication devices, or cell phones. This was a time before Android and Apple, so the Swedish telecom company was competing against the likes of Motorola, Nokia and Blackberry.
During this time the stakes were high, the opportunities higher, and the lay of the mobile networking land in many emerging markets resembled the Wild West. So, although the company stopped producing phones more than 15 years ago, some of those early practices apparently continued. And now they’re about to pay a heavy price for mistakes made over the last two decades.
Over the years Ericsson has transitioned to focus more on networking equipment, with its products playing a key role in the development of 5G infrastructure and the internet of things. However, since 2013 it has also been working with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice on an investigation dealing with kickback schemes and bribes used to secure contracts in China, Indonesia, Kuwait, Saudia Arabia, Djibouti and Vietnam.
The SEC and DOJ recently concluded the investigation and are now looking to fine Ericsson over $1.2 billion for “ethics breaches” that may have violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which lays out anti-bribery and transparent accounting guidelines. The company pre-emptively fired 50 people last year for practices that reportedly continued up until early 2017.
The investigation’s findings come at a time of transition for Ericsson, as it has been cutting costs in freeing up resources to continue its surge in the 5G market. It recently claimed to have its products deployed in about two-thirds of all current 5G networks.
Late last month the company also announced plans for a 300,000-square-foot factory outside of Dallas that will produce advanced antenna radio systems for North American customers.
While exact details of the scandal have not been made public yet, the company’s CEO, Borje Ekholm recently told Forbes that his company is “ashamed about the historical conduct”, “very unhappy”, and “sad about being in this position.”
What does parenthood and space exploration have in common? Both take a village.
According to a recent report from Business Insider, SpaceX wants to buy-out residents of a small retirement community outside of its Texas rocket-launch site. According to offer letters from the company, it didn’t anticipate the “significant disruptions” that its’ launching activities have created.
According to offer letters, SpaceX is offering residents of Boca Chica Village three times the value determined by an independent assessor. However, they must respond within two weeks of receiving the letter, and the amount offered is not negotiable. SpaceX will also cover all closing and related real estate costs.
Musk’s commercial satellite launching and space exploration company first received approval for the south Texas facility in 2014 and has been test-launching a prototype called Starhopper about 1-1/2 miles from the village. Early reports show the test rocket, which could someday shuttle passengers to Mars, getting about 500’ in the air.
Some of those unexpected disruptions have included a brush fire, notices for the potential of accidental explosions and now the need to obtain FAA approval for launch vehicles with larger, louder and more potentially combustible, rockets.
So, to help obtain the approvals they need and expand the company, SpaceX is trying to buy out the entire village of Boca Chica.
While SpaceX might feel a three-time multiplier is fair, some residents disagree and have resisted the offer. The company has also offered free admission to VIP launch events that are typically not available to the public.
A number of the offer letters will meet their two-week deadline later this week.
Nio delivered fewer cars as the government phases out subsidies for electric vehicles.
Electric vehicles are considered part of the future of transportation, but in the present day, conventional automakers tend to have trouble selling them, and startups tend to have trouble making money on them.
The latest example of the latter phenomenon appears to be Nio, a Chinese company listed on Wall Street and backed by the Tencent conglomerate and other major tech and investment firms. Nikkei reports that the startup EV maker, after laying off hundreds last month, canceled its scheduled earnings call and slashed 1,000 more jobs this week.
The reason? The company reported a $478 million loss in its latest quarter, far steeper than both the previous quarter and for the same window last year. Nio vehicle deliveries, meanwhile, dropped 10 percent compared to the previous quarter.
Officials vowed to implement efficiency and cost-cutting measures amid challenging market conditions, but the Nikkei report suggested the latest in a series of blows to the company raised serious questions about its long-term viability.
Nio recalled more than 4,800 cars earlier this summer, and faces growing competition in the EV segment — particularly as Tesla prepares to open up a factory in Shanghai.
More damaging, however, was the Chinese government’s move to phase out subsidies for electric vehicles. Nio cars reportedly cost car buyers $8,000 more today than they did just one year ago.
The company plans to raise $200 million from Tencent and its CEO, but the Nikkei reports the company also expects to get $1.5 billion from a state-owned capital fund under a deal announced earlier this year — which would certainly go a long way toward helping anyone’s bottom line
Makers of Barbie and American Girl, Mattel has launched a new line of gender-inclusive dolls.
Creatable World is a customizable line that allows kids to create unique dolls. The brand consists of six different kits available in various skin tones. According to the company, each kit includes the figure, two hairstyle options, six pieces of clothing, and various shoe and accessory options that change with each kit.
Since 2016, major toy companies like Mattel and Hasbro ramped up efforts to make toys more inclusive. It was small businesses that started breaking down the barriers before the large corporations stepped in. The interest in inclusivity has lead to everything from Barbie dolls with a wider variety of body types and facial features to American Girl dolls with diabetes kits.
For the Creatable World line, Mattel reportedly worked with a team of experts, parents, physicians, and kids to develop the new line. Through research, the company found that kids didn't want toys dictated by gender norms.
In a statement, Kim Culmone, senior vice president of fashion doll design, said Mattel thought it was time to create a doll line without labels. She hopes the Creatable World kits will encourage people to think more broadly about how all kids can benefit from doll play.
The kits retail for around $30 and are available at retailers online including Amazon, Target, and Walmart.
Hopefully, the Creatable World will work as planned and make every child feel that all are welcome. #AllWelcome
One reason electric vehicle adoption has been slow is the range. People are worried about the charge. They think the car will run out of juice, leaving them stranded. This story isn't going to help the cause.
Last week, police officer Jesse Hartman with the City of Fremont in California was in pursuit of a suspect when his 2014 Tesla Model S 85 ran out of power.
According to The Mercury News, authorities don't know why the squad car wasn't fully charged before Hartman's got behind the wheel. The electric squad car usually has up to 50 percent charge remaining after each shift.
The officer attempted to pull over a driver wanted in connection with a crime. The suspect drove off, reaching speeds up to 120 mph. When the suspect took off, the officer realized that he had just six miles of battery left on the car, according to a recording from Broadcastify.
Other units took over the pursuit, but the chase was called off due to safety concerns. The police found the suspect's car abandoned. The officer had to find a local charger just to make it back to the station.
Particularly lousy timing as the cruiser was part of a pilot program to see if electric vehicles are suitable for law enforcement on a larger scale.
In January 2019, Fremont's police department became the first police agency in the nation to incorporate a Tesla into its patrol fleet. It bought it used for $61,000 and spent 12 months and another $4,400 retrofitting it. Maybe add that to the shift-change checklist.
Interested companies can lease the life-like quadruped — at a pretty steep cost.
Boston Dynamics is most famously known for videos of its eerily life-life robots doing eerily life-like tasks, from opening a door to performing somersaults.
But the company says it’s finally moving from prototypes to production, and this week invited people besides its employees to take its robots for a spin.
Boston Dynamics officials said some robots are already in the hands of participants in an early adopter program, and this week, the company began soliciting applications for those interested in leasing its dog-like quadruped robot, known as “Spot.”
Leasing a Spot will reportedly cost you about as much as a new car, but the company’s engineers insisted it could pay off for public safety agencies, oil and gas extraction and, perhaps most promisingly, construction companies.
Spot could carry up to 30 pounds of tools or building materials around construction sites, either accompanying workers or hauling gear to places that humans otherwise would have trouble getting to.
One robotics expert told the BBC that if the robots pass this initial test, their price could drop considerably.
Just how many Spots will see the job site is yet to be seen, but company officials told TechCrunch there’s been no shortage of casual interest — including from those who’d simply like a little help getting their next cold beverage from the fridge.
If there’s one thing we know about Americans, it’s that they love trucks. But even one of the top producers or pickups in the world knows that, sometimes, even pickup drivers want some wind in their hair.
Which may be why the company has filed a patent exploring the idea of a pickup truck with a removeable hardtop. That’s right, a pickup truck convertible.
Published last week, the patent discusses a new design that would make it easy for riders and drivers to swap to a more “open air experience” and says that current available options are difficult to remove and install. Ford would, instead, develop “removable vehicle roof cap assemblies that are equipped with self-aligning mounting systems for simplifying installation and removal.”
Some industry experts believe the patent could be Ford’s way of trying to compete with the new Jeep Gladiator, whose roof is also removable, and they think it’s possible Ford is eyeing the Ranger for a convertible version.
And while we’re speculating it’s, of course, possible the company won’t ever explore the design at all. Many have tried over the years to perfect this concept, but with clunkier transitions and less durable materials, so maybe Ford is onto something here – especially as the market shifts away from cars in favor or larger vehicles. Or maybe they’re just messing with Jeep.
Elemental Processing of Lexington, Kentucky is suing Oregon-based HP Farms for $44 million over bad seeds.
Elemental Processing produces CBD, a wildly popular plant extract used in various treatments.
According to Oregon Live, Elemental claims that HP Farms sold it more than six million mostly worthless hemp seeds.
Elemental says that most of the seeds were male, whereas it is the feminized plants that produce the flower. The biggest problem is that Elemental didn't know that it had a bum crop until the seeds had sprouted and farmers had to plow them under.
According to Elemental, the bad seeds could cost at least $44 million in profits.
According to the lawsuit, male seeds sell for less than a penny, whereas feminized seeds cost up to $1. Having too many male plants also stops the feminized plans from flowering.
Oregon state planted 50,000 acres of hemp this year, making it the largest producer in the nation.
According to Forbes, the CBD market could reach $20 billion by 2024. Better shore up your seed suppliers.
The Air Force wants a flying car, and according to a report from Defense One, they want it to replace the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor.
Agility Prime is the name of a new U.S. Air Force (USAF) project to replace the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft with a combat-ready flying car.
According to Defense One, the program will begin this fall as the Air Force tries to tap into commercial flying car innovation.
At the Air Force Association's Air, Space & Cyber Conference, USAF Assistant Secretary for Acquisition Will Roper announced that he had asked the Air Force Research Lab to look into a flying car "acquisition strategy" -- be it a competition or challenge.
According to Roper, the competition would challenge teams to perform specific tasks, everything from transporting small cargo to moving heavy weaponry.
Roper hopes the Agility Prime program will help identify potential commercial partners. While a flying car might not be able to do everything an Osprey can do, it remains a "compelling option."
The idea seems torn for the DARPA playbook, which has held competitions in everything from subterranean robotics to drone swarms. The agency has used it as a way to identify investment targets and technology partners that have advanced national security since the 1950s.
It will be interesting to see the field of competitors. It could be an opportunity to see which flying car designs are legitimate, and which ones are still rendering.
Airbus wants you to have a better experience when flying in its commercial jets, so it’s going about that the best way it knows how – by tracking your every move.
The aerospace company has announced that it is kicking off trials of its IoT connected cabin technologies, called “the Airspace Connected Experience.” According to Airbus, the plan is for this new initiative to both enhance its ability to personalize the flying experience to each passenger and also to allow for greater operational efficiencies and added revenue streams.
The connected experience will work by tracking individual food orders, seat positions – even which movie you’ve watched, with the intent of being able to market more specific products and services to you in the future based on your individual tastes. Airbus also suggests the tech will enable passengers to order their favorite snacks and drinks ahead of time.
That seems like the direction we’re headed in as a society, so I’m not exactly surprised, but there’s another component of this whole endeavor, and it’s one passengers will be decidedly less comfortable with. Airbus is reportedly testing smart cameras that will be positioned outside of airplane lavatories to help better understand what the holdup is. Besides measuring passenger wait times, a spokesperson told Gizmodo the system could help the flight crew determine whether someone had been locked inside or is suffering from a medical event. Or something else.
For passengers who are skeeved out by this whole camera prospect, Airbus assures that they will blur the faces of passengers to offset any privacy concerns. So… you’re good.
Last spring, we discussed the difficulties that off-road vehicle manufacturer Polaris was having with its line of RZR all-terrain vehicles.
In fact, since 2013 the company has recalled more than a half-million of the ATVs due to fires, rider injuries and one death. These issues were all tied to defective heat shields that have plagued the vehicle’s ability to operate safety for more than six years.
Polaris was so slow to address the issue, other than continually recalling the RZR, that in 2017 the Consumer Products Safety Commission finally had enough and fined Polaris $27 million for failing to notify the agency in a timely manner of the heat shield issue, even though Polaris had good information on the defects and risks to riders.
However, despite over $340 million in warranty costs, the aforementioned fine, over 150 fires, 11 rider burns, one death and a 10-acre wildfire being attributed to the unsafe operational condition of the Polaris RZR, one organization has continued to stand by the vehicle and use it around the world.
That group is the United States Marine Corps.
According to a recent report on Military.com, Marine Corps Special Operations Command continues to outfit their Radiers with the MRZR, a military version of the RZR, for training and real-world missions.
The gas and diesel-powered vehicles can carry between 1,000 and 1,500 pounds. Unarmored, the four available models can transport up to six people.
One of the more prominent uses of the MRZR has been outfitting it with an anti-drone weapons system called the Light Marine Air Defense Integrated System, or LMADIS. And while this combo was recently credited with knocking out Iranian drones, some of those troubling safety issues have begun to materialize.
While the Corps has yet to record a fire, earlier this year a Marine was killed when his MRZR rolled over. Two others were injured in the crash, which remains under investigation.
Despite this recent incident and the troubling history of the ATV, the Marine Corps has stated that they have no plans to move away from the MRZR.
In 2013, a safety technician was working for French railway engineering company TSO died while traveling for work. The circumstances around his death, however, stray from your average work-related injury.
According to a report from the BBC, a man identified as Xavier X suffered a heart attack and died after having extramarital sex with a stranger in Central France. According to the New York Times, he returned to his hotel, but the heart attack was linked to the encounter.
Now, French law is a little different. A Paris court ruled his death an industrial accident and found the company liable for his death since it occurred during a business trip. The ruling means that his family is entitled to compensation.
Under French law, the employer is responsible for any accident during a work trip. TSO challenged the decision, saying that the extramarital affair happened outside of work, but the company's appeals have failed.
The initial classification as a workplace accident came from the state health insurance provider, which stated that the employee died during normal behavior. It was treated the same as if it had happened while Xavier X was showering or eating.
According to the New York Times report, if a person dies in a work-related accident, French law entitles his/her partner to up to 40 percent of the deceased's annual income as a pension. The insurance will also pay partial funeral costs, and the partner could receive a one-time $3,800 payout.
TSO likely fought the decision because a work-related accident can significantly increase the company's social security contributions.
It’s back, and while the focus of this year’s most frequently cited workplace safety violations didn’t change too dramatically from 2018, some of the factors contributing to them offer perspective on the changing face of industrial safety.
The National Safety Council and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced the preliminary Top 10 as part of the NSC Congress & Expo recently held in San Diego.
At #10, which was new to the list last year, are 1,411 citations for Personal Protection and Lifesaving equipment related to eye and face protection. More specifically, too many workers were not properly protecting themselves against flying debris and chemicals or exposing themselves to radiant energy environments, like welding.
Coming in at #9 are the 1,743 violations related to machine guarding. It seems plants are still struggling to attach the guards in the right place and anchor them properly to protect users. As a result, worker amputations continue to be a significant safety concern.
At #8 is Fall Protection – Training Requirements. Providing and documenting the proper training materials and programs continues to be a challenge.
Holding steady at #7, thanks to 2,093 citations, is the improper use of Powered Industrial Trucks, or more specifically, the certification and qualifying of operators for fork trucks and similar vehicles.
Improper ladder use came in at #6 with 2,345 violations. The four and five positions on the countdown switched spots this year, with Respiration Protection falling after picking up 2,450 citations and Lock-Out-Tag-Out citations moving up a spot to number four with 2,606 citations.
On the respiratory front, a lack of fit testing and overall program management contributed to its number of citations, while a lack of training and oversight of proper lock-out-tagout procedures resulted in that category’s rise.
Coming down the home stretch, there were 2,813 violations related to #3 on the list – Scaffolding. The inability to properly implement and manage a Hazard Communication program led to the #2 most cited OSHA violation, tallying over 3,600 violations.
And still leading the way, and holding the #1 position with over 6,010 violations so far is Fall Protection. This has been the number one OSHA violation for the last seven years.
Worth noting – if all of these 31,816 citations were administered at just the minimum amount, they would still represent nearly $160 million.
Boeing’s disaster year continues to hurtle down the runway, as we learned this week that one of the company’s planes failed a safety test – and it’s not the sidelined 737 Max jet, the model blamed for two deadly crashes since last Fall.
And that might actually be worse because, this time, it’s the 777X, a Boeing plane that is still under development, but one the company needs to help offset the sales vacuum that’s been sucking the air out of Boeing’s profits. That’s because 4,500 orders for Max jets are sitting unfilled as the company continues to struggle to revise the cockpit technology to the point where it satisfies regulators and passengers alike.
But back to the 777X. This model is considered a key product for Boeing as it’s the longest body aircraft of any commercial jet, allowing it to carry up to 425 passengers on routes as long as 7,600 nautical miles. But not just yet, because during last week’s test, the aircraft reportedly failed its final high-pressure load test.
According to Aviation International News, the test requires the craft’s wings “to bend to 150 percent of the maximum load they would likely encounter in flight while pressure gets applied to the skins of the wing and fuselage.” During Friday’s test, the rear part of the fuselage depressurized and a door even came off the plane.
Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg downplayed the incident somewhat, suggesting that what happened was not unusual for a static test, and reinforcing that the plane had made it through 99 percent of its tests. That said, the incident is unlikely to speed things up for the craft that’s been facing other problems with its timetable, including issues with the plane’s GE engines needing some last-minute redesigns.
And the timetable is, of course, important. Last year, Boeing sold 99 planes in the month of August. This year – 6.
A 20-year-old Wisconsin man is accused of an elaborate plot to manufacture thousands of counterfeit vaping cartridges.
According to local authorities, since January 2018, Tyler Huffhines ran a "very high-tech" operation that included a staff of 10 employees.
According to a report from WISC, employees filled from 3,000 to 5,000 counterfeit cartridges a day. Each pack was professionally packaged and sold for about $16, which works out to $48,000 to $80,000 of product each day. According to the Kenosha News, the employees, who also had time cards, received just 30 cents per package.
A team of agencies that included the DEA searched two area homes where they found 188 pounds of marijuana, THC oils, and about $20K in cash.
According to the Kenosha News, Huffhines ran the operation out of his mother's condominium.
Warnings issued by health officials say that buying counterfeit vaping cartridges is dangerous. As of press time, approximately 450 cases across 33 states have linked the fake product to severe lung disease. Six people have died, in California, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, and Oregon -- though it is unknown if Huffhines's product is tied to the illnesses or deaths.
Huffhines is quite the entrepreneur. Two years ago, he was in the news for establishing a resale business while still in high school. The student made thousands by reselling everything from shoes to desks. He also had a real estate license as well as a used car dealer license.
If you look at the fastest cars in the world today, it’s hard to imagine that, 90 years ago, race cars looked like this.
The 4 ½-liter supercharged “Blower Bentley” competed in the LeMans race and is considered to be one of the rarest and most valuable Bentley models in the world. Feeding off the nostalgia of this massive, two-ton race car, Bentley has announced that it will be producing 12 replicas of the “Team Blower” with a little help from some modern technology.
Bentley will reportedly disassemble one of its Team Blowers and use a 3D scanner to identify and catalog each part, creating a digital model. According to a press release, Bentley will then enlist specialists from its bespoking and coachwork division, Mulliner, to handcraft each individual pre-war race car.
Bentley says only four of these Team Blowers were built in the late 1920s, at the behest of Sir Tim Birkin, one of the “Bentley Boys” who helped propel Bentley to racing supremacy throughout that decade. Today, in an effort that aligns with Bentley’s 100th anniversary, the 1929 Team Blower “will be the master example for 12 continuations - one for each race that the original fleet of four Team Blowers competed in.”
Bentley’s Mulliner team will use the original 1920s molds and tooling jigs to create the 12 separate sets of parts before the Blowers are assembled, with each continuation being as identical as possible to the originally, with changes being made minimally and only to address safety concerns. The four-cylinder engines will feature an aluminium crankcase with cast iron cylinder liners and a non-detachable cast-iron cylinder head, and the car’s body will be made up of a pressed steel frame.
It will take the team 2 years to complete the series of 12 cars, a painstaking timeframe that will surely be reflected in the price – a sum Bentley will only reveal to individual buyers “upon application.”
Back in April, U.S. Army Lieutenant General James Richardson told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the new ENVG-B – the army’s enhanced night vision goggle-binocular – was “better than anything (he’s) experienced” in his whole career.
But according to Task & Purpose, the night vision game is hot right now and Microsoft is working on a project that could bump out this new tech as soon as 2022. It’s being referred to as being almost like “a real-life Call of Duty” and incorporates a version of the developer’s HoloLens augmented realty technology, along with night and thermal vision capabilities.
But for some scientists, the night vision technology race that’s already underway isn’t good enough, as they want to get rid of the glasses part entirely. And just how do you do that? Well, for most of us, it’s the stuff of nightmares.
Scientists like Dr. Gang Han feel there is another way for soldiers in combat missions to utilize night vision, and without any heavy equipment because they’d just be using their own eyes – with some modifications, of course.
Han’s team at the University of Massachusetts Medical School propose injecting the user’s eyeball with nanoparticles that can enhance their ability to see more than just standard “visible light.” Their experiments started with mice, whose eyes were injected with upconversion nanoparticles – or UCNPs. According to a press release published by the American Chemical Society, who plans to host a presentation on the technology this Fall, these nanoparticles contain rare-earth elements which can “convert low-energy photons from NIR light into higher-energy green light that mammalian eyes can see.”
The UCNPs lasted about ten weeks in the mice’s eyes and didn’t cause any noticeable side effects. And while there are many obvious upsides to having superpowers, will troops be on board with the whole needle in the eyeball thing? The glasses, we should note, only weigh about two pounds.
Advancements in aerospace design technology has allowed the U.S. military to get really efficient at transporting people, equipment and supplies. However, many of those same technologies also make it really difficult to do those things without being detected.
Recently, a collection of researchers from Georgia Tech University, in cooperation with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, has developed a material that could provide a solution.
Paul Kohl, a professor in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Tech, recently described to Digital Trends how his newly developed photosensitive polymer could be used to construct a parachute or glider that dissolves when exposed to sunlight.
So, while its use would obviously be relegated to nighttime operations, the ability to leave no signs of arrival could be key to the success of many covert missions.
Kohl’s previous research focused on the use of such materials for biodegradable packaging applications. The polymer is derived from a chemical called aldehyde, which is mixed with certain plasticizers to provide structure. The end result is a lightweight, flexible material similar to nylon.
However, as soon as the material is exposed to higher temperatures, all of these bonds slowly break down. This structure not only results in a faster disappearing act, but the costs to produce it are also lower.
In instances where users can’t wait for the sun to rise, the reaction could be set off using a small light emitting diode built into the object. Once the decomposition process starts, all that’s left is some residue and a faint smell that dissipates with time.
A working glider prototype has already been constructed, but it’s load capacity currently sits at just one kilogram. Next steps will obviously entail increasing the amount the material can carry, as well improving rigidity, cost, and the time it takes for the material to completely disappear.
The automaker is betting that high-end buyers will be willing to pay — a lot — for an electric vehicle with Porsche performance.
German luxury automaker Porsche this week officially joined the list of automakers competing with Tesla in the nascent market for electric vehicles.
But whereas Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company and most rival automakers are working toward more economical and practical EV models, the Volkswagen subsidiary took a different approach.
Porsche officials say its new Taycan — unveiled at events on three continents Wednesday — offers the same features and performance its customers have come to expect from generations of its gasoline-powered sports cars.
Company officials believe that, as a result, people will be willing to pay a premium for the Taycan. The vehicle starts at more than $150,000, with a more powerful version starting at $185,000 — each tens of thousands of dollars more expensive than even the highest-priced Tesla.
The higher-priced model, the Taycan Turbo S, offers 750 horsepower and can go zero to 60 in 2.6 seconds. Executives expect the car to travel up to 250 miles per charge, and its batteries can charge up to 80 percent in under 23 minutes.
The Taycan is the first of numerous planned electric models from Porsche and Volkswagen in coming years. Although Porsche acknowledged the inevitable comparisons with Tesla’s pioneering luxury electric vehicles, the company says it’s more concerned with winning over its existing market. About half of the orders for the car, officials told CNBC, come from current Porsche owners.
Researchers from the University of California - Berkeley have developed a new solar-powered water harvester that's the size of a microwave and pulls water out of the air in areas as dry as the Mojave Desert.
The harvester blows air over a cartridge filled with metal-organic framework (MOF). The framework pulls water from the air, which is then removed by heating it. Next, the concentrated water vapor blows through a tube to a condenser.
The harvester can pull more than five cups of water from low-humidity air per day for each kilogram (2.2 pounds) of water-absorbing material.
The harvester, which runs on solar panels and a battery, recently went through three days of field tests in the Mojave Desert. The device produced about three cups of water (0.7 liters) per kilogram of absorber per day.
On the driest day, with a relative humidity of 7% and temperatures over 80 degrees Fahrenheit, the harvester still produced six ounces (0.2 liters) of water per kilogram per day.
A new startup, Water Harvester Inc., plans to market a version of the device that can supply 7 to 10 liters of water per day: enough drinking and cooking water for two to three adults.
A larger version of the harvester, about the size of a mini-fridge, will provide 200 to 250 liters of water per day, enough for a household to drink, cook and shower. In two years, the company hopes to have a harvester that will produce 20,000 liters per day, enough to provide water for a village, all running off the grid.
The research is published in the new issue of in ACS Central Science.
A research team has designed a new portable exosuit that could soon help people walk and run. You know what, it's just nice to report a new exoskeleton that doesn't have a tail.
You wear the hip exosuit on your waist and thighs with the actuation system attached to your lower back. The system uses an algorithm to predict when you're going to switch from running to walking, or vice versa, by analyzing how your center of mass is moving. That way, it doesn’t give you too much of a boost when your walking.
According to the researchers, the new suit is lightweight and uses a cable actuation system that applies force from the waist belt, and thigh wraps to generate torque that works in concert with the gluteal muscles.
The device weighs a little more than 11 pounds, but most of the weight which is around your trunk.
In initial tests, the exosuit reduced metabolic rates in walkers by 9.3 percent and in runners by 4 percent. In subsequent experiments, it helped users more efficiently walk uphill walking, run at various speeds, and traverse multiple terrains.
The hip exosuit was actually developed as part of DARPA’s former Warrior Web program and is the result of years of soft exosuit R&D. The team previously developed a multi-joint exosuit that was licensed by ReWalk Robotics. In April 2018, the previous suit was used by a paralyzed man to complete a marathon.
The team includes researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), the University of Nebraska Omaha, and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. Their work was recently published in Science Robotics.
Next, the team will try to make an even smaller, lighter, and quieter version of the robotic shorts.
Last week, we brought you the news that the iconic Lincoln Continental was more than likely living out the last of its golden years in a suburban Michigan facility before being ferried away to sedan heaven where it could be free to drive around with the Buick LeSabre.
It just so happens that there’s another ailing model that’s soon to be stricken from the production lines and, well, I feel like you should know.
This time, it’s not Ford planning a funeral, rather, Fiat Chrysler.
FCA has been riding the waves of the Jeep craze for the last several years, but it’s the automaker's small cars that are languishing, especially its Fiat brand. According to a recent report in USA Today, Fiat sales peaked in the U.S. in 2014, which was the last time gas was over $3 a gallon, and since then they’ve basically been in free fall – dipping 66 percent over the four years that followed.
It’s no surprise, then, that Fiat has confirmed it will be killing, for the North American market, the Fiat 500 and 500e, the smaller versions of its tiny coupe.
According to a statement made by the automaker, Fiat will continue to offer the Fiat 500X all-wheel-drive compact crossover in North America, along with the 500L wagon, and the Fiat 124 Spider roadster. According to the company, riding out the inventory should bring 500 and 500e enthusiasts into about 2020.
USA Today says that low gas prices and an SUV-hungry market aren’t the only things that have worked against the 500. It says the brand ranked second to last in shopping considerations for American buyers and part of it was due to poor dependability ratings and a lack of body style modifications, leaving the model “out of sight, out of mind.” Even massive dealer incentives and discounting wasn’t enough to move the needle.
They say these things come in threes. Which vehicle is next? You can bet when we find out, we’ll tell you.
This week, SpaceX successfully tested the Starhopper prototype in Texas. In just 57.36 seconds, the rocket lifted off, reached 150 m, and then stuck the landing.
It was the craft’s second successful test. In July, it reached 18 m, because the FAA had restricted it to less than 25 m.
According to a report from designboom, Starhopper is part of a broader R&D effort to burn liquid methane in SpaceX’s engines instead of kerosene.
The technology seems destined for a mission to Mars. Elon Musk ended a series of congratulatory tweets by stating that the craft will one day land on the "rusty sands of Mars.”
According to a Seattle Times report, Starhopper will now be retired and cannibalized for parts. The company will also shift focus to Starship, the rocket it plans to send to Mars.
The Starship will be designed to carry up to 100 passengers to the moon and Mars.
Oh, and if there is any question about whether or not there is a renewed interest in space? The Starhopper test has been viewed more than 1.2 million times in less than 24 hours.
Controlling energy costs is a critical challenge in any production environment. But when you combine the harsh conditions, safety concerns and regulatory scrutiny that accompanies mining operations, that challenge becomes even more pressing, especially when working with equipment that doesn’t have the greenest of track records.
Well, an electric dump truck made by the Swiss company Kuhn Schweiz AG is hoping to play a big part in changing that legacy. In operation since April, the 121-ton eDumper is the largest electric vehicle on the planet. When fully loaded, it can transport up to 65 tons of mined rock without generating any emissions – thanks to the world’s largest battery, which weighs in at just over 4.5 tons.
As is the case with most EVs, the eDumper is outfitted with regenerative braking. So, when hauling 130,000 pounds or rock or ore downhill from the mine it’s currently working at, those brakes generate more energy than is needed to keep the truck’s battery fully charged.
The world’s largest EV actually began its life utilizing a traditional, diesel engine. However, the company worked with researchers from the Bern University of Applied Sciences to implement an electric motor, the aforementioned record battery, and the complimentary components.
While it would be nice to see some of that innovative thinking and engineering prowess directed for just a minute in coming up with a better name for the eDumper, it’s performance is tough to beat. In comparing it to a non-electric vehicle of the same size, projections have it reducing CO2 emissions by up to 2.6 million pounds and saving as many as 130,000 gallons of diesel fuel over its 10-year lifespan.
Reuters is calling it a “forgery crisis” and, in a recent exclusive story, the news outlet is reporting that the gold industry is being roiled – and it’s bad.
Reuters says that gold bars are being fraudulently stamped with the logos of major refiners and slipped into the supply chain, to the tune of about $50 million worth over the last three years. Reportedly the bars are so hard to detect, they were even discovered in the vaults of financial institutions like JPMorgan Chase.
But the problem is more nuanced than it sounds. Apparently fake gold is actually relatively easy to detect. In this case, the gold itself is real but it’s the markings that are fraudulent – making the knockoffs much harder to detect. But the underlying issue is serious – the fake bars reportedly stream into the supply chain from nefarious actors like those laundering money or running illegal mines.
Reuters says that high gold prices have enhanced the appeal of the bullion market, and no one has yet been able to determine who is producing these sophisticated fakes, but there are concerns that the illegal bars are reaching the west from regimes that could be sanctioned – meaning the $50,000 kilobars could be made of conflict minerals, or even funding terrorism.
Currently, banks and manufacturers are obliged to disclose whether the gold they use has come from central Africa, where its mining could fund conflict. According to several Reuters sources, when JPMorgan Chase discovered it was holding fraudulent bars, it analyzed the route of origin and determined they likely were made in Asia, prompting the bank to cease shipments of gold from Asia that didn’t come “freshly made from a small clutch of refineries it trusted.”
According to Michael Mesaric, the CEO of Swiss refinery Valcambi, the latest bars “are highly professionally done, and though only a few thousand have been found in circulation, he believes there are “way, way, way more.”
A 75-year-old worker died last Thursday after an accident at The Rose Corporation in Reading, PA.
Local authorities say that Wilfred Santiago died after he was pinned between a wall and a large turntable from a vertical turning and boring machine.
The incident happened around 10 a.m. when Santiago became entrapped in the machine. He died before emergency personnel arrived.
According to a local report, Santiago had already retired from the company, but chose to return to work.
In a statement from the company, a spokesperson acknowledged Santiago's passing and stated that it was cooperating with the investigation. OSHA has investigators at the scene.
According to the company's website, Rose Corporation is a contract manufacturer and industrial fabricator that specializes in large components and subassemblies across multiple industries.
On August 10, 2019, a video was posted on Facebook by MyWay Alaska that depicted thousands of dead pink salmon in the Tutka Bay in Alaska.
The original video was shared more than 115,000 times and viewed over 1.2 million times. The caption on the video attributed the kill to climate change and record high temperatures in Alaska in July. Turns out, it was simply a tragic fish harvesting accident at a local hatchery.
According to a statement from the Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association (CIAA), which operates the Tutka Bay Lagoon Hatchery, approximately 700-1,200 pink salmon died and/or suffocated when a net used in a commercial seining operation snagged and ripped open on July 28 -- the same day the video was recorded.
According to the CIAA, the catcher vessel (seiner) was contracted to harvest the fish and take them to a processing facility. The CIAA sells fish to cover operational costs and open up space for fish return to the hatchery.
The Tutka Bay Lagoon Hatchery can incubate up to 125 million pink salmon eggs. About three million adult pink salmon return to the lagoon each year.
In seine fishing, a net hangs in the water with its bottom edge held down by weights and the top edge held up by floats. The net was full of salmon when it ripped open. Many were released, but many died.
In a statement addressing the video, the CIAA said, "Accidents like this do sometimes happen to commercial fishing vessels, and we are sorry for any confusion it has caused."
In May 2019, Grand View Research forecasted the legal cannabis business to be worth an estimated $66.3 billion by 2025. In 2018, it was valued at $11.9 billion, which means it has great potential especially as more states legalize recreational sales -- or if it is legalized at a federal level.
According to current data from IBISWorld, $66.3 billion would make it more than three times the size of the chocolate production industry ($19B in 2019), about a third of the dairy industry ($107B) and a little more than a quarter of the aircraft, engine and parts manufacturing industry ($241B). That is the market’s projected value in 2025 compared to current values.
Cannabis manufacturing is a growing industry, particularly as it pertains to cultivation, extraction, packaging and processing equipment. To learn a little bit more about how this developing industry has and will impact the design engineering and industrial marketplace, we asked the pros.
We surveyed 325 people who work in manufacturing (62%), distribution (21%) and design engineering (17%) -- and most have a positive outlook on the budding industry.
Typically, these professionals work for companies that serve a range of markets, including consumer, food and beverage, and automotive, as well as some who worked in aerospace, pharmaceutical, medical, and military, among others.
Of the professionals surveyed, more than 25% (25.54%) have already designed, manufactured or sold products for use in the cannabis manufacturing industry.
More than 45% reported that customers have expressed interest in products designed and manufactured for the cannabis industry.
Overall, nearly 80% (79.08%) of industrial, distribution, and design engineering professionals have a positive outlook on the cannabis industry. About 17% (16.62%) remain uncertain, and less than 5% (4.31%) have a negative outlook when it comes to legal cannabis.
It makes sense, $66.3 billion is a big number.
Even the most casual observer of the automotive market knows that the sedan is slowly going the way of the dinosaur.
In the past few years, we’ve lost some good ones – from the practical Ford Taurus (my first ride!) to the classic dad car, the Chevy Impala. But the latest from the chopping block rumor mill relates to a model that’s so old that it’s featured predominantly in the scenes of Mad Men – the Lincoln Continental.
The Continental, one of the oldest models still in production – though, not continuously – is on its 10th edition and, according to Automotive News, this may very well be its last.
The writing on the wall pertains to a factory in Flat Rock, Michigan that currently assembles both Continentals and Mustangs. According to reports, the plant is planning to add two new all-electric crossovers to its to-do list, starting with the 2023 model year with an annual combined volume of about 65,000 units.
Ford is reportedly selling just a few hundred Continentals every month this year, which means that it would be an easy decision as to which model would get the ax to clear space.
According to Motor1, it’s possible the Lincoln Continental could survive as an import – meaning, the brand continues to exist in China and could still be sold here. The problem with that theory is, last we checked, China and the U.S. have been embroiled in an ever-escalating conflict over trade and autos and auto parts have been swept right up in the tariff mix, with no end in sight. Auto News says an earlier Ford plan of importing the defunct Focus wagon from China was axed last year over tariff concerns.
As the Big 3 continue discussions with the United Autoworkers Union on terms for an upcoming contract, there’s a lot of distracting noise in the background – and it’s the roar of a raging scandal that just continues to grow.
The issue is an investigation by federal agencies alleging rampant fraud taking place by UAW officials who demanded kickbacks from automakers, as well as vendors supplying products and services to the union.
After a handful of indictments of union officials and, also, implicated parties within Fiat Chrysler, we learned last week that a union administrator named Michael Grimes was party to GM’s unit of the UAW, meaning FCA won’t be the only of the Big 3 to get dragged into this whole ordeal.
But it’s the specifics of this particular scheme with Grimes that are equal parts astonishing and infuriating – especially so for GM’s union workers. You see, Grimes – while representing a training center run jointly by the UAW and GM – is being accused of recommending a contractor to fulfill an order for 58,000 UAW watches, to be given out to GM’s employees. Through this, Grimes reportedly muscled a $250,000 kickback from the contractor, while promising to recommend the vendor again for future orders… which he did.
Down the road, a $6 million order for custom “Team UAW-GM” jackets, along with another for 55,000 backpacks, pumped more cash into his personal coffers – to the tune of about $900,000 over the life of the scheme with this vendor.
But the worst part here is that, besides the egregious kickbacks, Automotive News is reporting that the watches were never even distributed, and that “the $4 million order remains packed away in a warehouse near the Detroit River.”
But maybe the GM workers didn’t want them. Why? Auto News says that the watch maker was actually a chiropractor, who just jumped into the watch business, reportedly to recoup a bad loan he had made to a friend of one of the union officials.
Overall, Grimes is accused of accruing nearly $2 million in “illicit benefits” over the course of a decade.
Artificial intelligence has found its way into cars, manufacturing equipment, home appliances and even aircraft.
The Army, in a move that I’m sure has been covered by some low-budget action movie, is looking to integrate the technology into missiles. The goal would be the ability to fire a missile that could basically find its own target. While infrared sensors have successfully been embedded into smaller projectiles in allowing them to detect tanks and similar vehicles at ranges of about 200 meters, this iteration would ideally work for longer distance targets.
It would also differ from laser-guided weapons in that a human providing an aiming point from the ground would not be needed.
Dubbed the Cannon-Delivered Area Effects Munition, the Army hopes to have a working prototype by 2021. The most challenging portion of developing the missile’s intelligence, or software, will most likely deal with developing algorithms that will allow the missile to distinguish between friendly, civilian and opposing force targets in crowded combat zones.
In an attempt to quell concerns over the possibility of a rogue Skynet-like missile going haywire, a spokesperson for the U.S. Army was quoted in a Digital Trends report as saying that, “This is not an autonomous weapon, nor is it intended to be. We seek an advanced capability for a round — once fired — to continue pursuing a target despite the types of interference that might cause it to pursue something else.“
Sorry, but unless these missiles are going to have some sort of remote driver piloting them, it kind of sounds autonomous to me.
Perhaps the biggest benefit to such a weapon would be the ability to replace clustering munitions that scatter multiple explosive devices the size of a grenade over wide areas. In addition to potentially dumping and leaving unexploded ordinance, these types of weapons can also hit innocent bystanders as well as the enemy.
Based in Seattle, WA, Whooshh Innovations designs systems that help fish move over obstacles. The company's tech uses AI to identify and sort out invasive species, differentiate between hatchery fish and those grown in the wild, and help fish move up and over dams to spawn.
The company created the patented Whooshh Passage Portal, but you may have heard of it by another name, the "Salmon Cannon."
The Salmon Cannon is a floating platform that uses a pneumatic tube to fire fish over dams of any height.
Fish are drawn into an accelerator. A door closes behind the fish and it is moved into the Whooshh Tube which moves the fish using an air blower. The fish are scanned by a machine vision scanner, sorted and then sent to a “glide” which delivers them on the other side of the dam at <25 ft/s.
According to the company, the Salmon Cannon was introduced as a safer and faster alternative to fish ladders, which let all species pass, sometimes don't work at all, and have even devastated some native species.
Using the Salmon Cannon, a fish can pass a dam in 2.55 minutes. A fish ladder, on the low end, takes 2.88 hours. The cannon also operates autonomously and is monitored remotely.
The design has been in use since 2011 to relocate 19 different species, everything from sturgeon and steelhead to Asian carp and walleye, moving up to 60 fish per minute, 86,400 fish per 24 hours.
The Minnesota Aquatic Invasive Species Research Center uses the system to remove invasive carp from state lakes.
With 85,000 dams in the U.S. and about 1 million worldwide, it’s likely you’ll find a Salmon Cannon a waterway near you. Though they may also call it by its other name, the "Dam Smart Fish Passage."
The Aston Martin Vanquish was a touring car that existed through two generations, the second of which concluded production in 2018. That happened to be the same year that the automaker went public, and in the ensuing flood of paperwork, it was discovered that Aston Martin had quietly sold some assets.
In this case, we learned that Aston Martin had unloaded the tooling and design drawings of the Vanquish to a third party for $26 million, but the buyer was never made public, rather, the company was referred to only as an “auto manufacturer.”
Well, we’ve recently learned that the deal didn’t work out so well for Aston Martin, as the now-public car maker had to reveal to its shareholders that the multi-million-dollar deal was now being classified as “doubtful debt.”
But reports suggest that the debt actually became “doubtful” almost before the ink was even dry on the contract. According to Automotive News Europe, the company who bought the Vanquish assets was Detroit Electric, an EV startup that’s not-so-clearly based in Hong Kong.
Detroit Electric announced in 2017 that it would be developing three vehicles, including a sports car, leaving many wondering how they exactly planned to do that as a such a small company. The answer became clear when it was revealed that Detroit had been the one to buy the tooling for the Vanquish, likely with the plan to use the design as a model, rather than start from the ground up.
But unfortunately for both companies, it’s been reported that Detroit couldn’t even make it’s first payment on time and that, now, Aston Martin is acknowledging that it likely won’t recover any of this money, alerting shareholders of the one-time write-off for the unreceived funds. Apparently getting a Chinese company to pay up in this type of scenario has usually been unsuccessful.
Lucky for them, Aston Martin didn’t actually part with any of the assets and is reportedly shopping for a new buyer to take the contents of a plant in St. Athan, UK to make way for the full scale production of its new DBX model in 2020. There’s not much time, so get your offers in now.
In 1937, Amelia Earhart tried to fly around the world. She didn't make it, and went down somewhere in the Pacific -- though she wasn't declared dead until 1939.
It's been 80 years and the search for Amelia Earhart and her Lockheed Model 10-E Electra has never ceased.
Researchers believe that a new autonomous boat named BEN may be the key to finding some answers. BEN (Bathymetric Explorer and Navigator) ia an autonomous surface vehicle (ASV) designed at the University of New Hampshire and manufactured by ASV Global, an expert in unmanned and autonomous marine systems. BEN was created to explore the seafloor in waters too deep for divers.
The researchers are part of the crew aboard the EV Nautilus, which is led by National Geographic Explorer-at-Large Robert Ballard.
BEN was designed with state-of-the-art seafloor mapping systems to create a 3D topographic map of the ocean floor in the shallow areas near the island where Earhart sent her last radio transmission. The area is too deep for divers and too shallow for the Nautilus. BEN's maps will be used to plan targeted dives with remotely operated vehicles (ROV) to search for remnants of the plane.
Hopefully, after 80 years, this could finally bring some closure to this epic tale.
In June, DARPA held its second field experiment for the OFFSET program. The OFFensive Swarm-Enabled Tactics program, pairs autonomous air and ground robots to complete missions in urban environments.
The test was held at Selby Combined Arms Collective Training Facility in Fort Benning, Georgia. The exercise spanned two city blocks, and the swarms had to locate and isolate a mock city hall building, secure an objective inside and then secure the building. All while creating and monitoring a perimeter, in 30 minutes.
This was the second of six planned tests that will take place about six months apart.
The OFFSET program is made up of Swarm System Integrators and Swarm Sprinters. The Integrators, from Northrop Grumman and Raytheon BBN, create the tools the Swarm Sprinters from various teams and universities use to perform specific tasks.
The program isn't thinking small. DARPA envisions a future in which small, human ground units will be assisted by swarms of 250 collaborative autonomous robots. Likely a combination of flying drones and robotic dogs
Just as soon as we cover a poop-scooping robot, the fleshy beasts could be rendered obsolete by a new robot dog from researchers at Florida Atlantic University.
Researchers took the SpotMini from Boston Dynamics, mounted a 3D printed Doberman pinscher head on it, and gave it a brain.
Astro was outfitted with a deep neural network, or digital brain, and is being trained to act like a dog. It can understand simple commands like stand, go forward, stop and, the classic, sit.
The 100-pound robot has more than a dozen onboard sensors, radar imaging, cameras and a directional microphone it uses to navigate. It also has a pair of kill-crazy digital eyes.
Next, the researchers are working on training Astor to understand hand commands, detect colors, understand multiple languages and coordinate with drones. You can imagine a pack of these things autonomously coordinating search and rescue efforts with a swarm of drones.
The dog will have facial recognition as well, being able to identify people as well as other dogs.
Other potential missions include detecting guns, explosives and gun residue.
Nothing on excretion yet. Maybe the Beetl can be retrofitted to clean up oil spots.
Demand for air travel has increased by five percent so far in 2019, but there’s a problem. Airlines can’t keep up, and much of the blame falls squarely on Boeing, whose problems with its 737 Max 8 model has resulted in the grounding of 387 planes since a second deadly crash of the model in March.
Airlines are struggling with a few things – for one, they’re delayed. Two, they’re clamoring to lease planes to fill the gaps but competing with every other Boeing customer, meaning lease rates are skyrocketing. And what’s worse is that shortages of rental 737s mean the newer models are in such high demand that one aerospace consultant told CNBC that, right now, they’re “like gold dust.”
The situation, then, has led to an interesting trend: airlines are leasing older and older planes. And, according to CNBC, there’s even been airlines sourcing use of the 737-200 model, which Boeing stopped producing in 1988, but first took flight in 1967. That’s right – planes so old they might still have cigarette burns.
And while the older models of the 737 can’t touch the fuel efficiency of something like the Max, airlines are making do in order to avoid disruption as much as possible… and a fix for the Max can’t come fast enough.
According to a new report from Forbes, these hundreds of grounded jets have become a storage and maintenance challenge for airlines, who are working day-to-day to protect them from insects and corrosion, along with the effects of just sitting there unused. Not to mention – as the likelihood increases that these jets will remain grounded into fall and winter, cold weather could pose a big problem: Forbes cites a Boeing 737 maintenance manual, which notes that “tires of planes that are parked for long periods of time can freeze to the tarmac during subzero weather.”
Beetl Robotics wants to provide best-in-class robots using its expertise in cloud networking, computer vision and mechanical design. So naturally, they turned to poop scooping.
According to Beetl, more than 35 million households in the US have dogs and backyards. The team designed a robot that uses computer vision and advanced sensor fusion to clean up after them. And if it works, we'll that's one hell of a market.
The Beetl seems to work similar to a Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner. It deploys from a base and patrols a virtual map of the yard. Beetl finds the mess, deploys a clamshell jaw to clasp it, and then a trimmer to cut any grass that's coming along for the ride or otherwise stuck.
It also uses cloud-based AI to adapt and learn from each scoop, because no two scoops are ever going to be the same.
I don't know, I still say that if you can't clean up after it, you shouldn't have the dog, but maybe I’ve finally aged into common sense.
According to a recent report from Business Insider, the new and improved Air Force Ones that President Trump has helped re-design, will cost upwards of $5.2 billion – which wouldn’t be so bad if that amount wasn’t about $2 billion more than the initial estimate three years ago.
The project entails the modification of two Boeing VC-25s to meet the special demands of a flying White House. The VC-25 is to a 747 what a base model car is to one with all the latest options, creature comforts and performance packages, which in this case includes a specially requested red, white and blue custom paint job by the current Commander in Chief.
It’s worth noting that the base sticker price of these planes would be around $700 million.
While cost overruns are nothing new when it comes to government-procured aircraft, it’s ironic that the same project which the President originally used for touting his deal-making skills is now costing twice as much as the $1 billion cost savings that he was able to negotiate.
Boeing will reportedly be paid $3.9 billion to build the jets, with an additional $1.3 billion being allocated for new hangars and other infrastructure costs. While the actual features and upgrades are understandably being kept under wraps, President Trump has said he “added things.”
The original timeline for completion of the two new Air Force One aircraft was 2024. President Trump has requested this be moved up to 2021. Whether he will get to enjoy the next Presidential plane will be determined next November.
A team of researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences has created a robotic jellyfish.
Jellyfish are some of the most efficient swimmers on the planet. While they’re not that fast, they move through the water by creating a natural jet propulsion.
The researchers developed the robot as a first step towards a bio-inspired underwater vehicle that mimics the propulsion. Specifically, the researchers mimicked Aurelia aurita, commonly called the "moon jellyfish.”
As you can see from the video above, the robot can maneuver vertically and horizontally using similar propulsion created by the cylindrical, bell-shaped bodies.
Jellyfish have been known as inefficient swimmers in the past, but they're more methodical than inefficient or lazy. The use very little energy to get going, and this could be a critical feature for future, untethered underwater vehicles.
Using a combination of the latest in mechatronic design, materials, electronics, and control methods, the researchers created smart actuators to replicate the jellyfish movement. Previous robot jellyfish have been tethered, and as you can imagine, underwater vehicles are limited when they can't swim freely.
Like the moon jellyfish, the robot has a large displacement in order to move a large load capacity. The robot is about 5.5” tall, weighs about 18 pounds, and has a similar shape. It has bell-shaped rigid head, a cylindroid main cavity, and a soft rubber skin. The robot can move up and down by adjusting two clump weights in the head.
Next, the researchers will work on making the robot more maneuverable and autonomous, using AI to learn from it's time in the water.
We have seen our share of exotic, interesting and sad motorcycles over the last few years, but French manufacturer Newron has brought something new to the table with an electric motorcycle that has a large cylindrical battery and a wooden body.
The story of Newron Motors has been one of fits and starts. Sébastien Mahut is an electronic engineer by trade and the man behind the concept motorcycle. He has dreamed of designing an all-electric motorcycle since he was as a child, but until recently, it seemed unlikely that it would ever become a reality.
Officially, Newron Motors was founded in 2016. Shortly thereafter, the company met the design team at Dassault Systems at an incubator, and used Dassault's 3DExperience platform to collaborate on prototypes, sketching and design validation. The money ran out at the incubator and Newron has now turned to the Advans Group.
The company is working with ELSYS Design, a division of the ADVANS Group that specializes in embedded systems. ELSYS is working on a test bench for Newron's wood-wrapped electric motorcycle, and also plans to collaborate on the control and communication interface components.
The company is now on it's second prototype and one interesting feature will allow riders to set their destination in the GPS and allow the motorcycle to configure the most efficient power usage for the trip. The bike will also connect to a smartphone application that will help owners perform predictive maintenance.
Newron’s plans are ambitions. The company hopes to produce 12 road-certified motorcycles in 2020, before ramping up production to commercialization in 2021.
While the production goals seem aggressive, if not a long shot, it seems that little will prevent Sébastien Mahut for realizing his dream.
Earlier this week the Associated Press reported that GM was in the – likely uncomfortable – position of having to correct the vice president on his facts.
The issue centers on Lordstown, Ohio – a town that’s been battered by thousands of job losses over the past few years as GM streamlined, then shuttered a production plant, ultimately shifting about 4,500 positions out of the region.
Because it was such a devastating loss for Lordstown, there’s been a lot of buzz around reallocating the factory… and much of the talk has to do with an electric car company called The Workhorse Group that has reportedly been in talks with GM. Earlier this week, VP Mike Pence was visiting Lancaster, Ohio when he suggested than an affiliate of Workhouse had actually secured the funding to buy the plant, but GM quickly responded to the contrary, saying that – yes, the affiliate had obtained some recent funding but that it was not related to the Lordstown plant.
And a recent report from Bloomberg suggests that the purchase might actually be quite unlikely, saying Workhorse “looks more like Lordstown’s lottery ticket than a savior to be taken seriously.”
That might be because Workhorse reported such dismal earnings on Tuesday that its stock dropped 35 percent. Bloomberg says the 12-year-old company has never really stabilized sales to any sort of “robust” level, but this year’s Q2 was reported at $6,000. You heard that right: $6,000, or about $70 per day, whichever sounds better.
But… there are a few more variables in the mix.
Company co-founder and former CEO Steve Burns plans to form a spin-off of Workhorse called Lordstown Motors. This is the entity reportedly planning the deal with GM, with the strategy of licensing IP and technology to make an electric truck based on Workhorse’s Model W-15. Workhorse would own a minority stake, but Burns is still seeking hundreds of millions in outside backing.
And as for the relative strength of Workhorse, the company reportedly has $70 million backorders and is working out a yet-to-be-finalized but highly lucrative deal with the US Postal Service to produce next gen mail trucks. Gaining access to the Ohio plant, says CEO Duane Hughs, would be “a potential game changer.” And certainly based on Workhorse’s second quarter, something about this game needs to change.
Rocket Lab says reusing its rockets will help it launch small satellites more frequently.
The process of traveling to space is riddled with complicated and expensive engineering challenges, but efforts to make it more economical have thus far emphasized using rockets over and over again.
For most of the spaceflight era, the expensive rockets used to propel men and equipment into orbit were discarded to plummet back to Earth.
SpaceX famously pioneered the process of reusing them by redeploying its boosters to gently guide the first stage of its launch vehicle back to a platform on Earth.
This week, a startup that launches small satellites into space introduced an alternative method for capturing and reusing rockets: basically, the company wants to snag them with a helicopter.
The idea may sound like something out of an action movie, but Rocket Lab said it’s more feasible that a SpaceX-type system for its smaller rockets.
A video simulation released by the company shows a booster from its Electron rocket re-entering the atmosphere, then deploying a parachute — slowing it down enough so that a nearby helicopter can grab the parachute line with what looks a bit like a giant, crude fish hook.
The helicopter would then bring the booster back to a ship for transport back to Rocket Lab.
Before that happens, however, Rocket Lab wants to take a bit more conventional approach: later this year, the company hopes to recover its used rockets from the ocean, ship them back to its factory, and see if it can get them running again.
Batteries go through some intense testing. Researchers drive nails through them, crush them, overheat them, overcharge them and blast them with a laser, among other tests.
Now, the engineers at Sandia National Laboratories have a new toy, an indoor tower that drops up to 500 pounds on lithium-ion batteries. The tower is actually the ninth in-house test, or as testing engineer Chris Grosso says, their "ninth way of killing a battery."
According to Grosso, the test hits the batteries with so much force that it often cuts them in half.
Lithium-ion batteries are found in medical equipment and electric cars, among other things. Impact testing will not only help create safer batteries, but it will also help provide useful information for first responders in car accidents involving EVs.
The new drop tower is controlled remotely. The researchers don’t begin the test until they’re inside a trailer about 30 years away.
The battery is bolted to a load cell to measure the impact force, and the weight drops from up to 8 feet, 8 inches.
The researchers capture data on speed, force, temperature and voltage while cameras record the carnage. Most of the components are off-the-shelf so they can be easily replaced following a fire or explosion.
Next, the engineers plan to add springs or gas-pressurized pistons to boost downward acceleration and increase the impact force. When you do, please send us the footage.
The engineers at Airbus have been particularly inspired by nature lately. In late June, Airbus revealed a scale-model prototype of a new aircraft concept that flapped its wings. The AlbatrossOne uses free-flapping wing tips to fend off turbulence while reducing drag and wing weight.
The team at Airbus unveiled a new concept design at the Royal International Air Tattoo air show in the UK. For this concept, the engineers took biomimicry a step further and went whole bird.
The Bird of Prey is a theoretical airliner, a hybrid-electric, turbo-propeller aircraft that could be used for regional air transportation.
As you can see, the wing and the tail mimic those found on falcons and eagles. Instead of a lone flapping tip, the wings have individually controlled feathers for active flight control, and the split tail doesn't have a tailfin, which would reduce drag and make the aircraft more efficient.
The concept also has a blended wing-to-fuselage joint that mirrors the arch found on birds of prey.
The concept could carry around 80 passengers (regional craft average around 100 passengers) and could have a range of approximately 932 miles. It would also be quieter and up to 50% more efficient -- but when it's just a rendering, you can make some pretty bold claims.
While it is based on "realistic ideas" the Bird of Prey design is meant more to inspire future engineers and less about an actual aircraft -- might be why they tossed an "Engineering is Great" decal on the concept.
Martin Aston, senior manager at Airbus, said "nature has some of the best lessons we can learn about design." Based on some of their recent work, the design team seems to be buying in wholeheartedly.
A couple of weeks ago Chevy unveiled a new-look Corvette touting an upgraded engine design capable of pushing the iconic sports car to new levels of speed and maneuverability.
That news was obviously not lost on the folks over in Blue Oval land.
Ford recently unveiled the most powerful, street-legal Mustang in that brand’s 55-year history. The 2020 Shelby GT500 will feature a 5.2-liter supercharged V8 capable of cranking out up to 625 foot-pounds of torque and 760 horsepower in going zero to 60 in about 3.5 seconds.
Ford also touts the unique engine pushing out all this power.
The hand-built motor utilizes specially-designed pistons and other parts to compliment a seven-speed, dual clutch automatic transmission that utilizes computer controls to upshift in 80 milliseconds – which is actually quicker than an eye blink.
An enhanced suspension system and what Ford claims are the largest brakes of any U.S.-made sports coupe, help keep all that power under control.
In speaking with the Associated Press, Ford performance powertrain engineering manager Patrick Morgan says the new Mustang was created for enthusiasts who want performance on the road and the track.
This helps explain features like a pump that can send gas to the fuel injectors all the way until the tank is empty, and an oil pan capable of keeping the engine lubricated during extreme use.
Morgan says the car can go from zero to 100 mph and back to zero again in 10.6 seconds.
On sale this fall, the 2020 Shelby GT500 will retail for just under $74,000, but options like a Carbon Fiber Track Package can send it up and over $100,000 pretty easily
A 28-year-old employee at an automobile seat factory has been arrested and charged with murder after allegedly shooting a co-worker on the assembly line.
On Sunday, August 4, 2019, Angela Nichole Mayo shot and killed 27-year-old Shanina Smith while both were working at the Lear Corp. factory in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The factory manufactures seats and electrical systems for Mercedes-Benz, which has a plant near Birmingham.
According to local authorities, the workers had a history of disagreements and Smith died at the scene and multiple employees witnessed the event.
Mayo left the plant after the incident, but later surrendered to police. Her bail was set at $150,000.
Workplace violence remains a major concern for employers and employees.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI), 5,147 people suffered fatal workplace injuries in the United States in 2017. Of those, 458 were homicides, which was actually down from the 500 cases reported in 2016.
Of the people killed at work in 2017, 351 were the result of a shooting, 47 were stabbed.
It’s been several years since much of America has fallen under the spell of the Edison bulb – the trendy lightbulb that goes hand-in-hand with today’s standard hipster décor comprised of bronze industrial fixtures and reclaimed barnwood.
But the Edison bulb offers more than just style: these vintage-looking bulbs come with LEDs, meaning they’re more efficient – and last longer – than bulbs equipped with actual old technology… so the combination of the look and function has catapulted Edison lightbulbs to such popularity that they are now a billion-dollar industry.
But they might be on the verge of becoming more expensive, and that’s because UC Santa Barbara is saying that its scientists actually invented the technology and everyone under the sun has been infringing on their patent by selling them.
The university’s legal team is calling this a “groundbreaking patent enforcement campaign” and centers on the technical term for a new generation of light bulb technology known as filament LED, where the glowing filaments are visible behind the glass. The new tech is said to last years longer than traditional bulbs and UC Santa Barbara wants to be compensated for their contribution to improving sustainability.
But it’s not quite so simple. Since most of the bulbs are being produced overseas, the university is actually going after the retailers who sell them once they’re on U.S. soil, and these include Amazon, Target, Ikea, Walmart and Bed, Bath & Beyond.
The university hopes to establish licensing agreements with the retailers and also secure what it deems reasonable royalties. They also want the U.S. International Trade Commission to issue “cease and desist orders to prevent retailers from importing and trafficking in these products without UC’s permission.” Outside of the ITC complaint, lawsuits have been filed against the aforementioned five retailers.
The university’s legal team says that the overall goal of the suit is “to ensure that UC’s patent rights are respected so it can reinvest in education and research to create more world-changing technologies.”
I know everyone thinks that the worst thing about those electric scooter share programs is that, once they’ve served the rider’s purpose, they’re just discarded like trash until someone from the company arrives to pick them up. It’s this issue that’s resulted in several cities to actually ban certain scooter companies from operating there altogether.
But in the past year, we’ve learned that they can also start on fire – the evidence of which was apparent when Skip and Lime pulled scooters temporarily after reports of batteries either smoldering or producing flames.
You know what? Just to be on the safe side, grab an electric bike instead… no, not that either?
TechCrunch is reporting that ride-hailing giant Lyft, who also dabbles in bike sharing, is pulling more than a thousand electric bikes from locations in the Bay Area of California, after two of them caught fire over the past few days.
According to a reporter for the San Francisco Examiner, though these were two separate incidents, both bikes appeared to be at docking stations when their batteries caught fire. No one was reportedly hurt, but witnesses told the Examiner that the batteries were leaking some kind of green fluid.
Lyft told TechCrunch that it was “out of an abundance of caution” that they were pulling the bikes, but the San Francisco Metro Transit Authority seems to have some concerns, stressing how important bikehsaring is to the transportation system in general. A spokesperson also said that they have an inquiry into Lyft “as to the circumstances surrounding this incident as well as to how they intend to prevent any future fires.”
So I guess, in the meantime, the best and safest “microtransportation” might be your feet. But it’s hot out there, so wear shoes.
Most computer programmers, we can assume, use their vast technical knowledge for good and – let me just say – whoever created the “document recovery” feature in Microsoft Word – thank you from all of us who can’t be bothered to click save, even in a thunderstorm.
But despite all the life- and work-saving computer programmers out there, there are – of course – a few bad apples. And sometimes, their nefarious deeds are so clever, you almost want them to get away with it. Almost.
This next story involves a programmer, David Tinley, who was doing contract work for the industrial giant Siemens. Siemens had reportedly hired Tinley to produce customized spreadsheets that incorporated automation, in order to help the company manage orders for its electrical equipment.
But what Siemens didn’t know – at least not right away – was that Tinley was inserting what are called “logic bombs” into the spreadsheets in the way of “malicious code” that would disrupt the way they worked after a certain amount of time. The U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Western District of Pennsylvania, who is prosecuting the case on behalf of the government, said Tinley orchestrated the malfunctions so Siemens would have to bring him back in to fix them. According to Business Insider, he was busted when one of the logic bombs went off while he was on vacation, forcing him to cough up his passwords, at which point other programmers discovered the logic bombs.
Tinley has pled guilty is now facing a fine as high as $25,000 and up to ten years in prison, but he says he really wasn’t intending to make Siemens become dependent on his work so he could keep getting paid. He claims he was instead simply protecting his proprietary work.
In late 2017, Confederate Motors, a high-end motorcycle manufacturer, announced that it was giving up on internal combustion engines. The Birmingham, AL-based company also changed its name. In January 2018, Curtiss Motorcycle was born with the plan to create affordable, but powerful electric motorcycles.
Curtiss is going after the market aggressively. While the company doesn't plan to begin production of any bikes until February 20, 2020, that won't stop it from taking aim at iconic motorcycle maker Harley-Davidson. In a recent post on Wefunder, an investment platform for startups, Curtiss CEO Matt Chambers calls Harley's LiveWire "bloodless."
Chambers writes that LiveWire "was created under false pretenses, like a marriage commitment made for a green card instead of genuine love." He says that because LiveWire is designed to get people interested in the company's gas-powered products, Harley won't achieve full electric motorcycle potential.
Now, while Harley's new electric bike concepts did disappoint the masses, the company was taking a shot at the urban mobility market. While Harley is launching electric Vespa competitors, Curtiss is offering luxury electric motorcycles. Until recently, a Curtiss motorcycle like the Zeus or Hades would typically start around $75,000. But four days ago, Curtiss unveiled the Psyche, which starts at $30,000. The LiveWire is $29,799.
According to a post from Jordan Cornille on Wefunder, the company wanted a "machine built to the highest standard of Curtiss quality, but at a price relevant to the Harley-Davidson LiveWire customer."
According to designboom, the skeletal Psyche will have two power options: 48 or 96 hp. The bike will weigh approximately 375 pounds with a range of about 160 miles per charge.
Curtiss is initially focusing on the California market, before broadening to the entire US market and eventually, other markets around the world.
So far, the company had raised $397,986 from 203 investors -- with a $1000 minimum bid. The opportunity to invest via Wefunder ends July 30, 2019, at 11:59 PM EST.
If you’re into video games you know that, if the controller doesn’t work right, then what’s the point…
It appears Nintendo users are taking issue with a specific technology that’s been on the fritz for a while now and a newly filed class action lawsuit is pegging the problem on poor product design.
Last week national law firm CSK&D – which specializes in class action suits – filed suit against Nintendo over problems with the detachable controller for its Switch product, called Joy-Con.
Apparently, users of Joy-Con – a controller than can be used as one device or detached into two pieces, making two controllers – have been complaining as far back as 2017 about problems they’re having with these devices. Joy-Con users have reportedly experienced what’s referred to as “drift” – where the device senses input when there isn’t any, and so a user’s video game character could move on the screen without being directed to.
In the lawsuit, Nintendo is being accused of knowing its product features a “manufacturing defect” but failing to disclose it to customers. Even worse, says the suit, the company “routinely refuses to repair the joysticks” without charging their customers.
The suit details the saga of one Switch customer, Ryan Diaz, and also supports their complaint by citing scores of online reviews that mention problems with drift. The lawsuit’s Joy-Con owners hope to recover their “out-of-pocket expenses related to repairs and/or replacement” and are demanding a jury trial to further pursue the complaint.
At the time of the filing, Nintendo told Business Insider it was aware of the issues and encouraged users who were experiencing problems to visit its website for support.
But after a few days of bad publicity, the company may have cracked. Wired reported that Nintendo says it will “revise their customer service procedures” and plans to repair affected units for free, whether or not the warrantees are still intact.
No word yet on how that might impact the legal proceedings, but it’s a start…
When Tesla first announced its upcoming Model Y all-electric crossover in March of this year, it was forced to share the stage with Audi, who also unveiled plans for its Q4 e-Tron around the same time.
Both vehicles have release dates in 2020 and both target the popular crossover segment with close to 300 miles per charge.
And while the two brands, known for luxury, intuitive interiors, will find formidable competition in one another, they shouldn’t forget to swivel – as competition seems to be coming from all sides.
The latest is from Fisker Inc., the second auto company started by designer Henrik Fisker… the first being Fisker Automotive, the electric vehicle maker that made more than one splash – its Fisker Karma extended range luxury electric was a first of its kind, garnering the company many high-profile investors, including celebs like Leonardo DiCaprio.
Then, in 2012, they went bankrupt because, at that time, that’s what you did if you were an electric car company. But Fisker the man had gotten out by then and just moved right along with his plans for electric domination and now, it appears, he’s ready to strike.
In the year 2021, Fisker will begin producing the unnamed crossover and has priced it “under $40,000” which is right in the Model Y sweet spot, as Elon Musk has promised they’d start around $39K.
According to Digital Trends, the Fisker will feature “an 80-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack affording around 300 miles of range, but it’s keeping other details under wraps for now.”
The company is reportedly hoping to build these crossovers here in America, and is scouting factory locations in several states. Like Tesla, Fisker will skip the dealer network thing and sell its vehicles direct to consumers.
So if you’re looking for a nice, semi-affordable electric crossover, you’ll have some choices in 2020. But if you wait til ’21, you’ll have even more.
Amazon is warning customers this week that nutritional supplements they purchased recently may be knock-offs.
In an email to customers, first reported by Wired, Amazon said that certain Align nutritional supplements that were sold by 3rd party sellers – not including manufacturer Procter & Gamble – could likely be counterfeit.
Amazon has assured customers they will be refunded for the products, but does urge them to discard them immediately. And while the company calls the situation “a rare instance,” some experts believe it sheds light on a growing problem for Amazon – as volume increases, how does the marketplace manage the problem of potentially nefarious actors selling bogus goods?
Amazon’s business model basically offers goods in two ways. Either Amazon buys them and serves as something of a distributor, or the third-party sellers themselves list the goods on Amazon’s marketplace in order to sell direct. This marketplace selling, says Wired, accounts for 58 percent of Amazon’s sales volume though it also opens up Amazon customers to all kinds of problems, including buying fake goods and then having no way to track down the manufacturer – who often disappears at the sign of trouble, especially if they’re overseas.
And while Amazon is fighting back on a recent court ruling that says it can be held liable in cases such as these, the company stresses that it is taking its own steps to make these types of situations less likely.
One program is called Transparency, and it allows for item-level tracing of legit goods which feature a unique code that Amazon can scan to verify authenticity before the item reaches the customer. Another, Project Zero, gives manufacturers the agency to instantly boot bad sellers who are ripping their products.
But the question is, can programs like these from Amazon even keep up with the explosive growth of the online retailer’s marketplace? A recent study revealed that Amazon can’t even get a handle on the fake reviews on its site: Fakespot.com says about a third of them aren’t actually legit.
It was inevitable. In fact, we were talking about it nearly three years ago.
But late last week Chevrolet finally unveiled the mid-engine Corvette. Moving the location of the engine symbolized a number of transitions for the iconic eighth-generation sports car. From an engineering perspective, the move provides better weight distribution for the C8, which improves handling and overall performance. A 6.2-liter, 495-horsepower engine will occupy that center space.
An optional ZR1 performance package allows the new Corvette to go zero to 60 mph in under three seconds, making it the fastest Corvette ever. It C8 also comes with a fast-shifting eight-speed automatic transmission, and for those more concerned about fuel efficiency, four-cylinder models are also available.
Engineers also incorporated heat shields and insulation to help reduce noise from an engine that will have moving parts less than a foot behind the driver’s seat. The C8 offers two trunks - one in the front about the size of an airline overhead bin and a rear hatch behind the engine large enough to hold two sets of golf clubs.
Right now Chevrolet is hoping you think this sounds more like a high-end European-style sports car than the traditional Corvette. That’s because the company’s pivot to a mid-engine design also emanated from a desire to attract younger buyers that assume sports car performance has to emanate from across the pond.
Described as "cab forward" design, the traditional long hood and sweeping fenders have been replaced by a downward-sloping nose that retains its traditional, shark-nose hood. One drawback to the new design is the need for large air intake vents on the sides to help cool the engine, which makes it slightly less aerodynamic.
While options can take the C8 well over $100,000, the base price comes in at about $60,000, or $4,000 more than the current base model. Chevrolet sells about 20,000 Corvettes annually, but relies on the brand to help bolster its image and engineering capabilities.
The new ‘Vette’s will be manufactured in Bowling Green, Kentucky and arrive in showrooms later this year.
I know for a fact that we’ve all wondered whether someone could successfully fly across the English Channel on a homemade hoverboard. I mean… right? We’ve thought about that?
Well, the short answer is no… you cannot. Or, not yet anyway.
Yesterday, French inventor Franky Zapata took his “flyboard” to the French coastal town of Sangatte and hit the skies, attempting to be the first person to cross the Channel on a jet-powered hoverboard. The endeavor was scheduled on the 110th anniversary of the first airplane flight over the channel, and Zapata set out via the beach named after the pilot, Louis Bleriot.
Zapata and his device, dubbed the “Flyboard Air” might feel a little familiar, and that’s because he gained international attention a few weeks back when French President Emmanuel Macron Tweeted footage of the sky surfer flying over a parade in honor of Bastille Day. Oh, and he was carrying a rifle, which people had mixed feelings about, reportedly in order to emphasize the military potential of the board.
He must have been flying high on the exposure because he didn’t wait long to attempt to cross the channel on Flyboard Air, which can reportedly reach speeds of 60 miles per hour.
The section Zapata chose to traverse is 22.4 miles wide and though he carried a kerosene pack to help power the board, he was expecting to stop halfway through to refuel. Unfortunately, that’s when the problems occurred. In attempting to land on a boat to gas up, he missed the platform due to movement caused by choppy waves and, instead, fell into the sea.
He was rescued by divers and is reportedly fine. Zapata’s wife told the Associated Press that he would try again because “he never sits back after a failure.” Or maybe somebody else will try? According to Zapata’s company – Zapata Racing – it only takes 20 hours of training to teach a pilot to be proficient at using the vehicle.
This week, ITT Cannon, a division of ITT Inc., agreed to pay $11 million to settle False Claims Act allegations that it supplied untested electrical connectors to the military.
According to the Department of Justice, ITT sold six models of connectors to the government directly through distributors and to government contractors who designed them into equipment sold to the government.
From September 2008 to March 2017, ITT allegedly failed to perform required periodic testing on the connectors.
In December 2010, the government found out about it, and ITT agreed to conduct remedial testing. Two months later, ITT was performing the tests when it experienced several failures. Instead of notifying the government, ITT said that the tests were running behind.
It wasn't until March 2017 that the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) issued an order to stop shipment. In June 2017, ITT formally disclosed the test failures. It also revealed changes in materials, construction, sourcing as well as connector design.
The connectors were removed from the Qualified Products List (QPL), which prevented the parts from being sold to the military. As of July 2019, ITT has only requalified one of the connectors for sale.
The allegations came from whistleblower Ralph Tatgenhorst, a former regional quality manager at ITT's Santa Ana facility. As a result of the settlement, Tatgenhorst will receive $2,090,000.
As a result of the settlement, there is no determination of liability.
According to Nicola T. Hanna, U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, the settlement is designed to prevent ITT from future misconduct. It also serves as a "warning to any government contractor who is not completely upfront about its testing results."
For any of you who have previously been or are currently being chastised for your addiction to first-person shooter games, the United States Army has your six.
The Army recently announced that it will begin testing robotic combat vehicles that are remote-controlled by crews from the back of modified Bradley Fighting Vehicles dubbed Mission Enabler Technologies-Demonstrators, or MET-Ds. The tests are scheduled to begin next March at Fort Carson, Colorado.
Crews will acquire and fire at targets with M113 armored personnel carriers that been retrofitted with the MET-D system. These RCVs utilize 360-degree situational awareness cameras and a remote turret for the 25 mm main gun.
Additionally, each MET-D will have a crew comprised of a driver in the aforementioned Bradley, another soldier responsible for the main gun, and four other soldiers controlling two additional vehicles performing platoon-level maneuvers, and providing cover fire with 7.62 mm machine guns. After these tests, the Next-Generation Combat Vehicle Cross-Functional Team, as part of the Army Futures Command, will use soldier feedback to improve the vehicles and design future evaluations.
Additional tests scheduled for next May will see how the RCVs work in unison with a light infantry unit in performing reconnaissance and basic security tasks. Initial feedback has the chain of command impressed with how quickly the crews have gotten a feel for the MET-D controls.
Looking even further forward, the Army sees three RCV variants: a light version transportable by helicopter; a mid-sized version that can fit on a C-130 aircraft; and a heavy model that would require a larger aircraft for transport. Infrared vision kits with a target range of at least 8.5 miles are also on the wish list.
The main goal is to develop robotic combat vehicles that utilize soldier skills without placing them in the direct line of fire.
Yesterday marked the start of negotiation talks between the United Autoworkers Union – or UAW – and the Big 3 automakers – GM, Ford and Fiat Chrysler … and according to industry experts, we shouldn’t expect this to be easy.
Not that you did.
According to Bloomberg auto executives may be in no mood to make concessions considering the auto market’s shrinking sales at a time when every major company is investing big bucks in the development of both electrics and autonomous vehicles.
And if that didn’t make things awkward enough, the UAW is said to be already riled after GM’s series of plant closures this year.
So, what will the major sticking points be? Bloomberg predicts one will be healthcare. According to the report, UAW workers contribute just 3 percent annually to their health care costs – compared with 29 percent for the average worker with an employer-sponsored plan. That gives them some of the best healthcare benefits in the nation, but they’re weighing heavily on automakers like Ford, who says this line item will cost them more than a billion dollars next year.
The other big contentious issues will likely be job security, especially after this year’s bloodbath at GM left union workers in the lurch, as well the automakers’ use of temporary workers – a strategy that offers the car companies cost savings and flexibility, but helps promote what UAW President Gary Jones calls “a race to the bottom” – one he says the union will halt with this year’s talks.
But the last point that could cause these four-year contract talks to hit some serious snags has to do with the bribery scandal that plagued both the UAW and Fiat-Chrysler with indictments over the past few years. Neither party was considered a victim, but there was certainly damage done with Fiat Chrysler funneling millions of dollars to UAW execs in order to keep them “fat, dumb and happy.” Many believe that the scheme had tangible impact on the last round of negotiations in 2015. And while the union blamed its role on a few bad apples, this year’s contract talks could be a bit more hard fought to prove that their intentions are only to bargain on behalf of the workers.
Lead based paint was banned for residential use more than 40 years ago, but those who live in older homes could still be paying the price.
But the impact doesn’t stop there.
We learned this week that three paint manufacturers are still not off the hook, as they’ve finally settled a decades-long lawsuit with the state of California, after being accused of marketing the paint despite knowing of its toxic dangers.
According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, lead that is absorbed into the body can cause a range of physical problems, including damage to the brain and vital organs, along with developmental or learning disabilities in children.
10 jurisdictions participated in the lawsuit, including heavily populated Los Angeles and San Francisco counties, and they hoped to make Sherwin Williams, Conagra and NL Industries responsible for remediation of the lead paint that remained in the older homes in those areas. The plaintiffs pushed for a much larger settlement – one that could cover hundreds of thousands of homes – but will, instead, settle for $305 million to be paid out over four years.
According to Reuters, “the settlement represents a rare success for plaintiffs suing paint companies under the so-called public nuisance doctrine, which allows public entities to sue parties whose activities negatively impact broad communities by infringing upon a public right.” Since these types of public nuisance claims against paint companies have failed in other states, California is viewing it as win.
For their part, Sherwin Williams, Conagra and NL admit no wrongdoing, and contend that they ceased marketing the lead-based paints once the dangers were made clear.
Billionaire Richard Branson’s satellite launch business is one step closer to a live test flight after sending its launch vehicle plummeting into the California desert this week.
Like its sister spaceflight company, Virgin Galactic, Virgin Orbit hopes to reduce costs by launching its rockets and small satellite payloads from an airborne jet. During this week’s “drop test,” the company’s modified 747, known as Cosmic Girl, ascended to roughly 35,000 feet and successfully released a LaunchOne rocket equipped with water and antifreeze, which simulated the fuel it would carry during the real thing.
Because the test was designed to test only the release of the rocket, Virgin Orbit didn’t care all that much what happened to it afterward: a harrowing descent and crash at Edwards Air Force Base.
The 747 and the LaunchOne rocket went through previous flight and ground tests, respectively, and the company says it’s now ready for a series of final checks before a flight test with a functioning rocket. It’s unclear when that test might occur, but once it does, Virgin Orbit reportedly hopes to start commercial launches within 10 weeks.
A former CEO and chairman of a multinational pharmaceutical manufacturing company will spend the next 30 years in prison for an international fraud scheme that led to the collapse of one of the largest banks in Puerto Rico.
According to the Department of Justice, 56-year-old Jack Kachkar ran the now-bankrupt Inyx Inc. from 2005 to 2007.
The scheme started in 2005, when Kachkar took out loans from Westernbank of Puerto Rico in exchange for a security interest in Inyx's assets. The bank advanced money based on the company's customer invoices. However, at the same time Kachkar had multiple employees forge tens of millions of dollars worth of fake customer invoices from customers around the world. He used the fake invoices to continue to borrow from Westernbank.
He also lied about his company's assets. For example, Kachkar told Westernbank executives that he had mines in Mexico and Canada worth hundreds of millions of dollars. He used the additional collateral to continue to borrow, but it was worth a fraction of what he claimed.
Overall, Kachkar took Westernbank for about $142 million, primarily using fake customer invoices. He spent tens of millions of dollars to live lavishly, including a private jet, luxury homes in Key Biscayne and Miami, Florida, luxury cars, luxury hotel stays, and extravagant jewelry and clothing expenditures.
Around June 2007, Westernbank declared the loan in default and took a $100 million bath on the Inyx loans. The losses eventually led to Westernbank’s insolvency and ultimate collapse. At the time, the bank had 46-branches, 1,500 employees and it was one of the largest banks in Puerto Rico.
Kachkar was convicted of eight counts of wire fraud on February 4, 2019, and was sentenced July 3, 2019. He was also ordered to pay $103,490,005 in restitution.
If you’re BMW and you’re going to make a pickup truck concept, let’s face it – it’s going to be super fancy. And you’re going to insist that it’s just this little old thing you let some trainees tinker with, and you’re never actually going to make it in real life. But if you did…
It would be kind of boss. BMW’s X7 truck has a 3.0-liter turbo inline-six, offering 335 horsepower – plus a longer body and lighter weight than BMW’s upcoming three-row X7 SUV, partly due to the carbon-fiber reinforced plastic that’s being used for the truck’s roof and rear lid and doors.
A dozen or so vocational trainees at BMW Group have reportedly joined forces to produce the road-legal show car, which features a fairly small bed, but one that’s lined with strips of teak wood. BMW says finishes like the honey colored wood and metallic blue paint were inspired by “sporting yachts.”
And while some auto writers are speculating – even recommending – that BMW try to take a grab at the massive cash pile supporting the high-end pickup truck market, the German automaker insists that this is a one-off and they have no serious ambitions to produce it.
But who knows… if you’re in BMW product development, this might actually be the exact right moment to sneak it in. That’s because BMW’s CEO Harald Krueger just announced he would be stepping down from the helm of the automaker, and the decision is being blamed on Krueger’s strategy being “too cautious” in its approach to development of electric cars. So, let’s throw caution into the wind, shall we! Time to make a pickup.
Last week the Air Force inadvertently tried to add their own kind of fireworks to the holiday festivities. Apparently, an A-10C Thunderbolt II out of Moody Air Force Base in Georgia dropped three 25-pound nonexplosive training bombs after an unlucky encounter with a bird.
Fortunately, the rounds fell harmlessly just outside of Suwannee Springs in Northern Florida. Thus far the Air Force has failed to locate the shells. Fortunately, the jet wasn’t carrying its wartime payload of 500-pound M1a-82 bombs. The dummy rounds do carry a small pyrotechnic charge and could pose a slight danger to anyone who might try to handle them.
Although this encounter had a minimal impact on the plane, its passengers and its surroundings, bird strikes are no joke in the aerospace industry.
They first gained notoriety after an incident that became known as “The Miracle on the Hudson”, when Captain Chesley Sullenberger had to land his Airbus A320 on New York’s Hudson River after one of the engines was damaged by a flock of Canadian geese.
According to a recent report on Business Insider, the Air Force has encountered more than 105,000 bird strikes since 1995. The 28th Bomb Wing Public Affairs office also attributes the deaths of nearly 40 airmen to bird strikes since 1985.
These encounters with our winged friends have also generated more than $800 million in damages to jets and transport planes. The most recent being an F-35 stealth fighter that needed $2 million in repairs after encountering a bird during takeoff.
So, whenever we talk about drones or unmanned aerial vehicle technology, we try to position these machines as having application potential for various industries. But let’s be real – the main purpose right now is for military operations.
This makes the drone’s ability to operate covertly extremely important. Now, you’re probably thinking we’re going to talk about stealth design, radar-jamming electronics or some new light-bending cloaking technology. Well, the Russian military anticipated such ridiculous thought processes and is instead going to blow your mind with … basically something that looks like a homemade Halloween custom.
A drone was recently unveiled at the Russian defense ministry’s annual military expo in Moscow that Business Insider describes as looking like a “a snowy owl choking on a mouthful of electronic equipment.”
The thought is that a drone looking like a bird will attract less attention and have greater potential to go unnoticed. The UAV is reportedly equipped with a laser that would be used to guide artillery and aircraft strikes. Also, weighing just over 11 pounds, it can be carried and launched by one person. The drone also features a flight time of 40 minutes and is capable of covering distances of about 12 miles.
In borrowing what appears to be the same approach I used in convincing my brother that it was okay to trade a Robin Yount All-Star baseball card for 10 guys of slightly lesser notoriety, Center of Naval Analyses researcher Samuel Bendett was quoted as saying, "What's interesting is that Russian designers are thinking creatively about UAV applications. Biomimicry allows UAVs to operate in areas where a 'regular'-looking UAV would have been sighted and eliminated … a UAV that looks like a bird can become an invaluable asset."
Apparently, from a distance the drone looks like a snow owl.
So, the Russians are touting a drone that looks like a bird from a distance so it might go undetected until it gets close enough to pinpoint a target, but at that distance it becomes very obvious it’s not a bird and can be shot down.
Be warned America, apparently there’s also one that looks like a falcon.
When you start out a custom engineering project with the phrase “I don’t know if this is the smartest or most stupid thing I’m ever going to do”, the results are typically predictable.
However, inventor, tinkerer, brain tumor survivor and YouTube celeb Simone Giertz, who is also known as the Queen of Sh@#!ty Robots, went on to produce possibly the most unique electric vehicle currently on the planet.
Simone has made a name for herself by creating robotic contraptions that, I’d describe as a bit aggressive for applications such as chopping vegetables, applying lipstick or waking up in the morning. She’s also the founder and CEO of her own company - Artificial Stupidity. And while many of her inventions are essentially for a laugh, it appears her goal of promoting the benefit of failure has produced a remarkable success.
Dubbed Truckla by Simone and her crew, the Model 3 turned pickup truck is not only functional, but will eventually serve as her everyday vehicle. She states that an electric pickup has been a dream since she got her driver’s license. And while Elon Musk has promised a first look at a Tesla pickup by the end of the summer, Simone just couldn’t wait.
Initially scheduled to hit the road last fall, the return of a non-cancerous brain tumor set the timeline back a bit. However, after several weeks of radiation earlier this year, the Truckla project was ready to roll. Resisting the urge to simply eliminate everything behind the front seats to create a classic flatbed, the team went for more of an El Camino look.
This meant the trunk, rear seats and rear roof were removed, and replaced by a custom rear frame, transplanted Ford truck bed, a rear window from a Chevy pickup, and a cut-to-size roof rack. The large electric battery also helped provide some structural stability.
Although Truckla is currently driveable, Simone and her team will look to do some additional waterproofing, internal detail work and electrical upgrades.
The team also made their own fake commercial, so to get a better look at the “truck the world didn’t know it was waiting for, which is available nowhere,” check out the link below.
Harley-Davdison is the latest in a long line of vehicle manufacturers to partner with a Chinese company in an effort to capitalize on a massive, rapidly growing market.
But the iconic motorcycle manufacturer is also making a significant design shift under its new agreement with Qianjiang Motorcycle Company.
The Milwaukee company known for its large, loud bikes last year vowed to make some changes amid years of sluggish domestic sales — including making smaller bikes for the growing Asian market.
The company’s announcement with Qianjiang, a subsidiary of Chinese auto giant Geely, also included details of what that smaller bike could look like. Officials described it as a premium, 338cc displacement Harley motorcycle that will be manufactured at a Qianjiang facility in China and offered at Harley dealerships in the country by the end of next year.
The bike would then be introduced in additional markets in the region. Harley already makes or assembles motorcycles in Brazil, India and Thailand for overseas customers, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel notes, but the company sparked controversy last year by floating the possibility of manufacturing in Europe to avoid newly imposed tariffs.
Still, the company set a goal of generating fully half of its sales volume outside the U.S. by 2027, and sales of its existing bike lineup in China jumped 27 percent last year.
For any of you who have been following the peaks and valleys of the tech company Magic Leap over the past few years, you know that for all the hype there has been just as much failed potential.
For those of you who haven’t been following, here’s a quick backstory: Magic Leap was established in xx and built a reputation around its own secrecy. There was a long time where the startup was raking in –literally – billions of dollars, but wouldn’t reveal publicly what its product was.
Then, two years back, it lifted the curtain on an augmented reality headset comprised of glasses so big and clunky they prompted Gizmodo to report that they “look great if you like looking like an insect from the nose up.” Luckily, early reviews of the emerging product painted a picture that was perhaps worth it: Rolling Stone described a technology that basically did away with traditional stereoscopic 3D technology and produced a much more realistic experience – all without the headache too.
Unfortunately for Magic Leap, its slow crawl towards market readiness has left it open to copycats and it appears there is one viable competitor that’s now racing the company towards its eager niche. And Magic Leap just filed a lawsuit saying the competitor – a company in China called Nreal – is using confidential trade secrets to build its product. And they could have a point, since Nreal’s founder was a Magic Leap employee until 2016.
The lawsuit alleges that Chi Xu, a former Magic Leap engineer, formed a competing company to exploit confidential designers, and says Nreal’s mixed reality glasses are “strikingly similar” to what Magic Leap has designed.
Xu claims Nreal’s glasses actually aren’t that similar, because Magic Leap’s monstrosity was designed the way it was because the company wanted it to replace the phone. He says Nreal’s product is more of an accessory that could connect with a laptop or phone, but still offer many of the key features as the Magic Leap device.
And unfortunately for Magic Leap, Nreal’s developer version is about half as expensive as the comparable device from the California-based startup. And while nReal is based in Beijing, and China is famous for shunning any sort of global intellectual property protection, Magic Leap says Xu’s obligation to confidentiality stem back to his role with Magic Leap on American soil.
The Paris Air Show kicked off earlier this week, and the most awkward guest at the party appears to be Boeing, the airplane maker that’s been scrambling since March to fix a software glitch that’s being blamed for two fatal plane crashes.
And the fix truly can’t come quick enough. The FAA has grounded the plane at the heart of the disasters – the 737 Max 8 – and Boeing’s biggest airline customers are mired in delays due to the airplane shortage. In fact, several of those big customers, including Delta and American Airlines, made deals with Boeing rival Airbus on the first day of the show, while Boeing netted zero new orders.
In speaking to reporters at Paris, Boeing’s CEO of commercial aircraft Kevin McAllister apologized not only “for the loss of lives” but also for the disruptions the airlines were facing and how it was impacting summer travel.
And while it’s hustling to try to fix the problem in a way that satisfies regulators, customers and travelers alike, Boeing has no timetable for when the plane will fly again. So, what else can they do in the meantime?
Bloomberg has reported that Boeing’s CFO Greg Smith told reporters the company remains “open-minded” to changes that will help restore the infamous plane, one of which might be a rebrand – meaning, the company could actually change the plane’s name.
However you feel about this tactic, it wouldn’t be the first time a company tried to skirt bad publicity by slapping a new name on something – let us not forget that the cancer non-profit Livestrong was once called the Lance Armstrong Foundation.
Boeing says its most immediate objective is not a re-brand, rather, it’s getting the plane back in the air safely, and re-earning the trust of the airlines and traveling public. And while it seems Boeing is acknowledging a pretty real threat – what if nobody wants to get on the planes even after they’ve been fixed? – is it considered “re-earning trust” when you just slap a new name on the plane?
Heck, maybe they won’t need to. Day 2 of the Paris Show resulted in a win for Boeing, who netted a letter of intent from International Airlines Group for 200 737s, the company’s first order for the jetliner since the fatal March crash.
James Trussart has made a name for himself by designing custom guitars for rock icons that include Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton and Keith Richards. But I doubt any of them offered as unique a challenge as the Hard Rock Café.
In looking for a different way to introduce their new steak burgers and 20 total new menu items, the restaurant/bar/lounge commissioned Trussart to design the world's first Playable Burger-Powered Guitar using Hard Rock’s 24-Karat Gold Leaf Steak Burger.
The patent-pending instrument uses the electric current supplied by the player's body, a single-board micro-controller wired into the digital guitar's circuitry, and the 24-Karat Gold Leaf in the burger. The player's body completes the circuit within the processor to produce audible tones that can be manipulated by staying in contact with the burger and playing the guitar’s strings.
After playing the specially composed Golden Solo that was written for the … instrument, the musician can enjoy the half-pound burger that’s topped with the edible 24-karat gold leaf, Tillamook cheddar cheese, leaf lettuce, tomato and red onion. According to Stephen K. Judge, President of Cafe Operations at Hard Rock International, the burger gives “fans yet another way to see, taste and hear all that Hard Rock Cafe has to offer."
Before you get too far into that eye roll, it’s worth noting that a portion of the proceeds from the 24-karat Gold Leaf Steak Burger will benefit Action Against Hunger to assist in the fight against world hunger.
The burger comes with fries and sells for $24.99.
The Aska is a new eVTOL flying car design. The door-to-door, drive and fly, hybrid electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicle comes from California-based NFT, which maintains an R&D center in Israel. The company is hopeful that, by 2025, their Aska will let you drive on the road and take to the skies, autonomously.
According to an interview with CNET, the company wanted to build a flying car that was more practical and could work within existing infrastructure. The Aska is designed to charge at any existing EV charging station, however is does require a 65’ x 65’ launch pad to take off and land.
About as big as an SUV, the Aska will begin flight tests in the first quarter of 2020.
The hybrid electric engine is expected to have a range of up to 350 miles, and the design can accommodate up to three passengers.
The company plans to integrate existing autonomous driving systems, but the company also has a home-cooked technology to make it fully autonomous in the air. The aircraft uses various sensors to create a "spherical awareness picture using sophisticated sensor fusion algorithms based on machine learning." They call it the Sense & Avoid System.
According to the company, the system includes trajectory predictions for moving objects which helps the decision-making algorithms plot a new path. The autonomous system is based on commercial-off-the-shelf components so it could be suitable for other flying cars and NFT plans to release it soon as a service.
Also, the company is currently looking for a CTO, so if you're looking for a change of scenery ... think about it.
Researchers at the University of Geneva in Switzerland have created the Beekee Box, a standalone box that can generate a wireless network that enables users to log on to a learning platform without the internet or electricity.
The standalone box was designed for people in remote areas with no connectivity, like people in refugee camps or war zones. It generates a local wireless network that anyone who has a device (and access) can connect to the information hosted on the platform. According to the researchers, it could be a useful tool for training and teaching.
The enclosure is 3D-printed in plastic and the unit includes a microcomputer and battery. The battery works for up to three hours, though you can add an external battery that adds up to seven more hours - the battery can be charged using solar power. The box is 10 cm high, 6.5 cm wide and can hold up to 256 GB.
According to the researchers, it takes about nine hours to 3D print the case and 20 minutes to assemble it. With the programming, the average box can be ready in 10 hours and costs about $150 in materials.
The Beekee box is currently being tested in a Kenyan refugee camp, which is home to 190,000 people. Computers in the camp are scarce and traveling throughout the camp is dangerous, so the box is being used to offer remote education courses to refugees who do have access to smartphones or other devices.
The Beekee Box could also be used in crisis situations, like the Ebola epidemic in Congo. The team is currently working with Doctors Without Borders to be able to provide the necessary medical information to help treat emergency medical care, even if there is no power or internet available in the region.
Last week, exercise equipment inventor Douglas Brendle was sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to multiple counts of tax and healthcare fraud.
A resident of Cheyenne, Wyoming, Brendle is the inventor of the Fitwall, a stainless steel lattice structure that stands about seven feet tall and is 30 inches wide. It has footsteps and hand-holds as well as the ability to add various attachments like resistance bands or a rock-climbing face. The idea is that you have your entire gym (or at least workout) in the wall standing in front of you. A mini jungle gym for one.
From 2008-2012, Brendle owned and operated Brendle Climbing Systems which sold his exercise equipment. In January 2013, Brendle sold the rights to the equipment to investors for $1.5 million to be paid out over the next two years. Unfortunately, Brendle forgot to pay income taxes to the tune of approximately $404,501.
He not only failed to pay income taxes from 2013-2014, but he also fraudulently received health care benefits from Wyoming Medicaid. From 2013-2014, Medicaid paid Brendle approximately $17,173 in benefits.
He was sentenced to 18 months in prison for two counts of willfully failing to file his income tax returns and one count of making a fraudulent health care benefit application. In addition to his prison term, he's also on the hook for the $404,501 in restitution to the IRS, and $17,173.70 to Medicaid. He was facing up to three years in prison.
For a few years, the Fitwall was deemed the "future of exercise," and the company was even named one of the world's top 10 most innovative companies in fitness. As Brendle prepares to begin his sentence, Fitwall gyms are still opening up across the United States.
Last year, MIT researchers partnered with BMW to test ways for humans and robots to assemble car parts together in close proximity.
The team created a robot on rails concept that delivered parts to workstations. However, human workers would often cross this railpath and the robot was designed to freeze whenever a worker passed by. The problem was that the robot was too safe, freezing too early and creating inefficiencies. The issue was the algorithm, it knew where a person was going, but couldn’t anticipate how long the person would stay there and when they would come back across the rail.
The team went back to the drawing board and have created a new tool that better predicts a worker's trajectory.
The new algorithm helps the robot "understand" common human movements, like stops and retracing our steps. In the test, the robot stopped freezing in place for long periods of time and was capable of resuming work shortly after the human passed.
It's the next step towards not only robots working together in a factory, but also collaborating in the home. It could also be paired with tools that helps the robots read our gestures and recognize specific actions/behaviors.
We hear a lot about the millions of dollars in research and development that’s being poured into autonomous vehicle projects but often, that’s it. Besides partnerships and funding announcements that drop into the news cycle here and there, we don’t usually get a look inside the testing programs in order to get a feel for where we’re really at with the driverless car.
And when we do, maybe we learn things we wish we hadn’t.
Tech news site The Information is reporting that GM’s self-driving car unit Cruise – recently estimated to be worth about $19 billion – is actually nowhere near road-ready saying, instead, that it’s plagued with technical glitches.
This wouldn’t be a big deal, probably – I mean, everyone is still buried in the testing phase, not just GM – but the company has been pretty bold with its predictions, suggesting it could be deploying vehicles for commercial ride-hailing without steering wheels or pedals, as soon as 2019. Which, just as a reminder, is NOW.
But the allegations in the report suggest GM won’t get anywhere close to that timeline, saying some San Francisco test rides are taking 80 percent longer than they would in a regular car… not to mention, the vehicles appear to have higher incidents of crashes than human driven vehicles and often encounter “near collisions with other vehicles, strange steering or unexpected braking.”
The report details one particularly humiliating fail for Cruise, when the chief executive of Honda, an automaker that happens to be an investment partner in the GM unit, took a test ride where the car’s software abruptly shut off, requiring the human backup driver to intervene. When the system couldn’t be revived, a second driverless vehicle reportedly had to pick up Honda CEO Takahiro Hachigo to finish the demo.
I think I can speak for most of us here when I say, you can go ahead and slow down, GM. While I can appreciate that there will be an automaker that wants to edge out the competition by pushing out the technology first, it benefits no one if it’s not ready.
If you’re a James Bond fan, you’ve certainly seen the 1977 film The Spy Who Loved Me. You’d also know that there is literally no way that Bond could adequately investigate the disappearance of British and Russian submarines without at least a basic submarine car.
So the movie incorporated an amphibious vehicle that could drive on both land and sea, played by a modified 1976 Lotus Esprit.
The Wet Nellie, as it was nicknamed, was auctioned off in 2013 for about a million bucks and its buyer was none other than the notorious innovator Elon Musk, who said seeing Bond drive the Esprit off a pier and press a button to transform it into a submarine was “the coolest thing (he had) seen in a movie.”
And if you’re Elon Musk and you think something is cool, you will go the ends of the earth to make it viable in real life – just look at Tesla, SpaceX, Solar City, The Boring Company … you get it.
That’s why it’s fun, and not exactly surprising, that Elon Musk recently revealed to a group of shareholders that Tesla actually has a design for a submarine car like the one from the famous film.
Musk acknowledges that this endeavor would be difficult. We agree. It would involve, he says, upgrading the Lotus Esprit with a Tesla electric powertrain and may only result in an eventual “show car.”
If it were ever to be commercially available the market, he says, would be “small but enthusiastic.”
One of the world’s foremost champions of engineers, inventors and at-home tinkerers appears to be on life support amid a desperate push by its supporters to keep it running.
Maker Media, the organizer of the Maker Faire festivals and owner of Make: magazine, suspended operations last week and laid off its staff of 22 people.
Dale Dougherty, the company’s founder and CEO, told TechCrunch that maintaining the business was a struggle throughout its 15-year run, particularly as it hosted large events in increasingly expensive cities and faced competition from the wide range of do-it-yourself content available online.
He said a drop in corporate sponsorships for its science and art exhibitions forced his hand this time around.
The company’s websites remained online as of press time, and Dougherty said he hoped forthcoming financing talks would allow Maker to keep its archives, license its dozens of events worldwide and, potentially, re-launch the company in some form.
Dougherty conceded that a print publication and events company doesn’t make for an attractive business model these days, but he said continued public interest in its events and its widespread impact in education could provide a path forward.
Some high-profile fans, meanwhile, hope to save the company before it gets to that point. A crowdfunding campaign has been set up, and Palmer Luckey, the co-founder of virtual reality company Oculus and a self-described Make: reader since its debut issue, expressed an interest in helping to keep it afloat.
For now, Doughtery said the company’s already scheduled events will take place as planned. The World Maker Faire is scheduled for New York in September
As an avid consumer of sparkling water, I can attest to the fact that brand loyalty is not often a consideration when making a purchase. And if you were to ask the brands within this increasingly crowded market, they might even admit that the fickle consumer is the typical one.
Consider the ups and downs of LaCroix, the fruity fizzy water brand that’s been around for decades but rocketed to popularity in recent years as soda fell out of favor with Millennials. LaCroix also, perhaps accidentally, increased their appeal with unique flavors and retro logo. But if the highs were highs, then the lows must also, unfortunately, be low … and LaCroix is experiencing this first hand.
According to CNN Business, retail sales of seltzer doubled between 2013 and 2018 doubled, but LaCroix – who perhaps rode the wave most successfully – has since seen its stock drop 62 percent, and it appears that a series of lawsuits have helped to drag down the brand.
Last fall, a class action lawsuit alleging false advertising said that LaCroix, which claimed to be flavored with all natural ingredients, actually contained several synthetic compounds, including a chemical used to kill cockroaches. Meanwhile, a new allegation has surfaced, and it doesn’t paint the company’s leadership in a positive light.
Business Insider is reporting that a former LaCroix executive is putting the company – owned by National Beverage Corporation – and its CEO on blast. Albert Dejewski, former vice president of commercial development and engagement for LaCroix, has filed a lawsuit claiming he was wrongfully terminated the day after he raised concerns over the company’s plan to announce its cans were BPA-free. At issue is Dejeski’s contention that the cans actually weren’t – not yet anyway – and that CEO Jospeh Caporella was planning to go ahead with the announcement months prematurely to try to help combat the existing “publicity crisis.”
Dejewski claims the company was 4-6 months out from a BPA can and when he raised the issue with Caporella he was basically told to keep quiet. He was fired the next day.
Meanwhile, LaCroix's website suggests that of its can “are produced without BPA," a claim that, if you’re to believe the lawsuit, amounts to more false advertising.
Airless tires may finally be coming to passenger vehicles.
Tires are just about the most important and underappreciated thing about your car. Nobody cares about the poor, lowly tire until there’s a nail in the road and then… look out. Just a string of curse words.
That’s why the world is basically on fire about the latest announcement from GM and Michelin that they’re collaborating on tests of a new tire – but what a tire!
Currently in the prototype stage, the duo will begin testing the “Uptis” – which stands for Unique Puncture-proof Tire System – an airless tire concept that’s being targeted for passenger vehicles.
The unit will replace both the tire and wheel with a full assembly and the companies plan to test the unit on GM’s Bolt electric car.
Not only does Uptis offer obvious safety benefits – like saving you from the risk from a sudden blowout at high speeds – it also performs as a much more sustainable tire. According to Michelin, about 20 percent of tires are scrapped early due to blowouts or irregular wear, which is a sum total of about 200 million tires annually. A third benefit, according to Michelin, is that Uptis eliminates the need for a spare, which can offer “significant” weight savings for a vehicle.
Michelin currently offers an airless product called the Tweel, an airless tire-wheel combination that’s being used thus far in offroad applications like construction and ag, but the Uptis will be the first of its kind of passenger vehicles. Michelin already has a $50M plant dedicated to Tweel production, so that could help with ramp-up time since GM seems to be chomping at the bit to make this an offering on its cars.
No word on cost, or which models, just yet, but GM did say they plan to be offering Uptis tires on vehicles as soon as 2024.
Researchers from North Carolina State have created a new armor out of composite metal foam (CMF). During tests, the researchers fired a .50-caliber armor-piercing round 514 meters per second at the foam. It bounced off, didn't even leave an indentation on the back plate.
They ran the same test with the bullet traveling 801 meters per second. It left a mark, but it was only 8 mm deep.
The foam not only performed as well as traditional steel armor, but it’s more than 50% lighter. This means that military vehicle designers could drastically cut down overall weight without losing on safety.
CMF is a foam made up of hollow, metallic spheres embedded into a metallic matrix made of steel, titanium, aluminum or other metallic alloys. For the study, the researchers worked with steel-steel CMF, which means that the spheres and matrix were steel.
The armor included a ceramic faceplate, the CMF core and a thin, aluminum back plate.
Dr. Afsaneh Rabiei, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at NC State, has spent years developing CMFs and investigating their unusual properties.
It might be the coolest job in the world. In March 2018, she blew up a high explosive incendiary (HEI) round next to the foam to see if it could stand up to the blast pressure and fragmentation at 5,000 feet per second. That's an anti-aircraft weapon and it worked.
The foam also shields from X-rays, gamma rays and neutron radiation.
According to Rabiei, the foam could soon be used for everything from space exploration to shipping nuclear waste.
A team of researchers believes that the birth defect that leads to extra fingers and toes could provide a blueprint for a way to control robotic limbs.
The condition is known as polydactyly and it impacts one in every 500 babies.
The extra digits are typically removed after birth, but the researchers found a few patients who kept their sixth finger and are studying how their brains adapted to the extra workload.
The idea is to add robotic limbs and fingers to expand our natural abilities, like having a surgeon that controls a third (and robotic) arm.
The international team, made up of researchers from the University of Freiburg in Germany, Imperial College London, and the Université de Lausanne and EPFL in Switzerland, not only provided information for possible advancements in robotics, but also made a case for people to keep their extra limbs, as long as they’re well-formed and functional.
The researchers asked the subjects to perform various tasks, such as tying shoelaces, typing on their phones, and playing video games while they monitored brain activity on an fMRI machine. They observed a set of control subjects with five fingers performing the same tasks.
The researchers found that the extra fingers had their own tendons, muscles, and nerves, as well as an extra corresponding region in the brain. The subjects also performed many of the tasks better than their five-fingered counterparts.
The work, which was published in Nature Communications, is early, but controlling an extra robotic limb as well as a polydactyl person is unlikely -- after all, they’ve been working with it since they were born. But with this new research, it’s not impossible.
At last week’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference, Apple dropped the jaws of those in attendance and throughout the tech world by announcing the availability of the Mac Pro Stand … starting at $999.
Yes, you heard that right and yes, it’s a piece of metal that holds a monitor in place. And it costs $1,000. Just to be clear, it is not included in the price of the $5,000 Pro Display XDR monitor for which it’s designed.
The monitor is a high-end option primarily targeting professional photographers, videographers and filmmakers. The stand features a magnetic attachment and one-piece aluminum construction with Apple's matte silver finish. The company also describes the stand’s movement as “weightless counterbalancing adjustments” in moving the monitor up, down, side-to-side or in transitioning between landscape and portrait orientations.
But neither the features, functions or aesthetics of the stand are what’s garnering the most attention. Nor is the fact that the monitor it holds is being made available for significantly less that comparable options. Rather, a loud majority point to the stand as Apple again jacking up prices on important components that are essentially commodity items.
However, some have come to Apple’s defense. They point out that instead of simply adding $1000 to the cost of the monitor, customers can save that money if they already have a comparable stand. Others have pointed out that this group of professionals will understand the value of a premium product, which is how Apple is looking to position itself.
Then again, maybe it’s just corporate hubris. This is the company that brought computers to the mainstream, revolutionized media consumption, and reshaped communication of all types via the smartphone.
Jonathan Ive, Apple’s Chief Design Officer, is also known to have an unparalleled amount of autonomy. Prior to his passing, Steve Jobs himself stipulated that no one within Apple's management structure would interfere with Ive’s designs or plans. In other words, if Mr. Ive wants to roll out a $1000 stand, that’s what will happen.
In the end, the market will decide on the prospects of the company’s $1000 monitor stand. Historically speaking, Apple tends to be a crowd pleaser.
PFAS, or per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) are a problem. Also called "forever chemicals" PFAS are commonly used in non-stick coatings, lubricants and fire-fighting foams, but they are turning up everywhere.
The chemical has been linked to everything from cancer, increased cholesterol and pregnancies problems.
They have seeped into water systems across the nation and just this week, the FDA announced that it found "substantial levels" of PFAs in food; it was in everything from grocery store meats and seafood to an off-the-shelf chocolate cake. It's even in my wells.
So what are we doing about it? Not much. Some states have started suing manufacturers, but the nation seems crippled by the cleanup cost, which is estimated in the tens of billions of dollars.
However, researchers from the Flinders University Institute for NanoScale Science and Technology in Adelaide, Australia have created a safe, environmentally friendly and low cost way to remove PFAS from water -- it turns out that Australia has quite the PFAS problem too.
The researchers made an absorbent polymer from waste cooking oil and sulfur combined with powdered activated carbon (PAC).
PAC is a low cost sorbent used to remove micropollutants from water. However, is creates a hazardous dust that is flammable and a respiration hazard. It can also cake, which blocks filters and membranes. The sulfur polymer support solves these problems.
In initial tests, the polymer-carbon blend reduced the PFAS in a waters from 150 parts per trillion (ppt) to less than 23 parts per trillion (ppt), well below the 70 ppt limit set by the EPA and other health organizations.
The research was recently published in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering.
Next, the team plans to test the blend on a commercial scale to prove that it is capable of purifying thousands of gallons of water. They are also looking into ways to recycle the material and destroy the PFAS.
At the end of the day, everyone just wants to make more money. That was the message at the Factory of the Future experience at the Bosch Rexroth Automation & Electrification facility in Hoffman Estates, IL.
According to Peter Fischbach, industry segment manager at Bosch Rexroth, 70 percent of machines on the factory floor are not connected at all. The situation provides a huge opportunity to make machines more transparent (and profitable) using data, but one of the common misconceptions is that if you want the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) or Industry 4.0, you have to buy new equipment.
To demonstrate how manufacturers can connect legacy machines, the company took a SKIL drill press and added some sensors as well as the company’s IoT Gateway. The upgrade enabled them to start pulling data from an otherwise dumb or “brownfield” machine and use it in real time.
“Brownfield” equipment is a term used for legacy equipment that is otherwise unconnected and “greenfield” refers to a new facility that is starting from scratch.
The team added an acceleration sensor to monitor motor and spindle speed as well as the ability to monitor pressing force and drill temperature with an edge-connected device. All-in, they added about $2,000 worth of technology to the press.
The data is routed through Bosch’s IoT Gateway which has the ability to pull data from multiple disparate devices and then deploy it to a database where it can be used for anything, including predictive maintenance, data analytics, etc.
For the demo, the data was pulled into IoT Insights, analysis software that comes pre-installed on the IoT Gateway. It provides a dashboard for the user to view all live-streaming data in one place for up to 20 machines. The user can set the dashboard to monitor spikes in quality problems.
The SKIL example shows a plug-and-play option for OEMs that want to get rolling with an IIoT solution. According to Fischbach, any company can start small and build up to the "factory of the future" using existing brownfield machines.
According to Matteo Dariol, once companies have the data, a common problem is end user follow up. Dariol says that to understand what's going on, companies need to have the right people looking at the right data.
IoT is confusing and a lot of people don't know where to start. Bosch thinks that they can not only help scale towards IoT functionality, but they have the legacy application expertise as well.
Fischbach says that a lot of factories have no insight at all, and for a few thousand dollars of technology, they can change that. After all, at the end of the day, everyone just wants to make more money.
Oh, and the company made a rap marketing video, so there’s that too. #LikeABosch
If you were to visit DC Solar’s website, you’d see a professional-looking dot-com, tiled with images of the company’s solar generators in action. You’ll also notice the proud press releases focusing on DC Solar’s sponsorship of premier NASCAR brands, including Chip Ganassi Racing.
What you won’t see is that the Ganassi sponsorship fizzled after the company was raided in December of 2018 – under suspicion it’s being operated as a Ponzi scheme – and after its assets were frozen, subsequently filed for bankruptcy.
DC Solar is being accused of selling and renting solar generators to major companies – including manufacturers like Sherwin Williams.
According to Bloomberg, the company was tricking buyers into believing they were eligible for lucrative tax credits and deductions, which were later determined to be invalid. Investigators also found shady bookkeeping that suggested that what appeared on paper to be lease sales were actually being covered by investor funds and early investors were being paid back by later ones which… kind of does sound like a Ponzi Scheme.
And while many successful companies became intertwined with DC Solar, the most recent to come out has been Berkshire Hathaway, the holding company run by the famous billionaire Warren Buffett, who just took a write-down of $377 million related to its investment in the company.
For its part, DC Solar still contends that it’s a legitimate business. In fact, an attorney for Jeff Carpoff – the CEO behind the company whose home was also raided by the FBI -- told Bloomberg that DC Solar was “an innovative” and “ credible” business, and that “any allegation that there was a Ponzi scheme or anything illegal about the operation of the business is without merit.”
The case is still playing out, but it’s a bit tough to give Jeff Carpoff, and his wife Paulette, the benefit of the doubt when you get a look at the lavish lifestyle they led – as laid out by Business Insider. The report outlines millions in expenditures from the power couple, including a professional baseball team, a nearly $800,000 box at the new Raiders stadium in Nevada, and millions in planes and cars.
Business Insider adds that the company’s headquarters was sitting on literal piles of cash, including about $2 million hidden in safes and in desk drawers. Then there are anecdotes like the following, that don’t help to prove you’re running an above-board business: according to Bloomberg’s sources,
“Jeff Carpoff often pulled out up to $2,000 in cash at staff meetings, challenged employees to guess how much he was holding, and handed the wad to whoever made the best guess.”
Elon Musk has always been one to make grand projections and, hey – if he can make good on even a handful of his brash promises then the future of the transportation industry – on earth, below ground and in out space – should be interesting.
The latest comments from the visionary entrepreneur have to do with a pet project he’s been teasing for a while now – a Tesla pickup truck model. And in true Elon fashion, he’s not downplaying a single thing about it as we get closer to its release.
In Musk’s recent interview with Ride the Lightning podcast, he promised the new model truck would be priced below $50,000, which is a strong competitive play in the ultra-pricy truck segment. He also said the Tesla pickup would be a superior sports car to a Porsche 911 and better in its “truck-like functionality” than the F-150.
The comments really hit at Ford twice, because the maker of the F-150 is technically in the electric pickup market too – albeit indirectly, following a $500 million investment in electric vehicle maker Rivian. Rivian’s soon-to-be-released electric pickup, by the way, is reportedly to be priced in the $70,000 range. On top of that, Ford suggested at the most recent Detroit Auto Show that an electric F-150 was in the brand’s future, though the company had little detail to offer as far as a game plan.
So while Tesla has a lot going for it here, one thing that might get in its way is the look of this new vehicle, with a design Musk himself admitted some might find offputting. He described it as “sci-fi” and, if you look at some of these renderings, you might agree. But we careful: Tesla has actually only released a teaser image at this point that’s comprised of lines and light. Anything you see on the web is just speculation by industry enthusiasts who are chomping at the bit to imagine the real thing.
Teaching robots how to recognize and handle unknown items remains a key hurdle to enabling automation of a much wider range of routine tasks.
But researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology may have come up with a relatively simple solution: they outfitted an ordinary glove with hundreds of tiny, inexpensive sensors, then used the way its wearers handled things to build a data set of how future robotic arms should respond to a variety of objects.
The scalable tactile glove, or STAG, is a knitted glove laminated with a conductive polymer and threaded with a conductive thread, which resulted in 550 different sensors that captured the pressure applied by a human grip as it interacted with an object.
A neural network then processed the signals, allowing it to identify and analyze 26 common objects, from a soda can and scissors to a pen and a mug.
Using the data set in combination with other systems, such as image recognition or computer vision, could ultimately give robotic arms a more intuitive understanding of unfamiliar objects.
MIT researchers noted that the glove is made with materials costing about $10, and that it also demonstrated how movements in one part of the hand corresponded to movements elsewhere — a potential breakthrough for prosthetics design.
Last Friday, 49-year-old Gregory Stanton was sentenced to 10 months in federal prison for urinating on a conveyor belt that carried cereal at the Kellog's plant in Memphis Tennessee.
Charged with tampering with consumer products, Stanton was also ordered to pay $10,000 in restitution.
Stanton worked as a contract worker at the food manufacturing plant in 2014. During his tenure, he made a video of himself urinating on a conveyor belt. The worst part is that he didn't post the video online until 2016, which means that the products likely made it onto the shelves.
In December 2018, Stanton pleaded guilty to the consumer product tampering charges. He was facing up to three years in prison as well as a $250,000 fine.
According to the AP, Stanton not only recorded himself micturating on the conveyor, but in April 2014 he also shot a video of himself urinating into a bucket and then dumping it into the Raisin Bran production line. The conveyor incident affected three popular brands as well: Rice Krispies Treats, Rice Krispies Cereal and Puffed Rice Cakes.
The videos triggered an investigation by the Food & Drug Administration as well as local law enforcement.
In December, Kellogg’s told IEN that the company was ”pleased that the responsible individual was brought to justice.”
Unfortunately, I’m once again reminded of my Grandfather's old saying. Boy, quit peeing in a bucket and dumping it on the cereal.
When scientists are able to develop a new treatment for a rare disease that severely impacts the lives of very young children, it’s generally considered good news.
And in the case of the newest announcement from Novartis, it is. But it’s not that simple.
The drugmaker, who is parent to the company AveXis, recently revealed a new treatment for a debilitating genetic disease called spinal muscular atrophy. The condition affects up to 25,000 people and is currently the top genetic cause of death for infants, and a new gene therapy has recently gained FDA approval to treat it.
But it seems there’s a catch: the one-time treatment, called Zolgensma, comes with the largest price tag for any drug treatment in the world: $2.1 million.
So, even in a country known for its skyrocketing prescription costs, is this defensible? Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan believes the price tag is fair when you consider the tradeoff, stating "Zolgensma could create a lifetime of possibilities for the children and families impacted by this devastating condition.”
Initially, the company publicly discussed pricing possibilities that could reach up to $5 million, which is why Dr. Steve Pearson, the president of the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, is declaring this actual price “a positive outcome.” But while many experts acknowledge that treatment for this condition is already quite expensive, neither of these defenses have been enough to insulate the drug maker – and industry at large – from backlash.
David Mitchell, founder of the advocacy group Patients For Affordable Drugs, released a statement Friday calling the situation “emblematic of our broken system.” And while Novartis suggests that an initial balloon payment for “a lifetime of benefits” is an improvement on the pay-as-you-go model for chronic illnesses, Mitchell is critical, saying: "We didn't pay for the polio vaccine based on the future cost savings for kids who didn't need to live in iron lungs."
Researchers from South Korea have created a new graphene-based biosensor that sucks to your skin -- it was inspired by the suckers on an octopus.
The researchers designed a cheap, scalable production process for graphene-coated fabric (GCF) sensors that stick to your skin. The fabric is a yarn-like substrate that is coated with graphene oxide and then soaked in L-ascorbic acid to help with conductivity as well as flexibility and strength. The sensor is then coated with a film to form a conductive path from the fabric to the skin. In the final step, the researchers etch tiny, octopus-like patterns on the film.
The material is not only flexible, but durable; capable of standing up to bends, folds, twists and stretches.
In initial tests, the sensor was able to collect data in both wet and dry situations. For example, it was able to sense when a wrist was bending and also picked up electrocardiography (ECG) measurements in wet and dry environments.
It can also read speech vibrations. One test subject placed the sensor on his neck, and it could identify when he said particular words or phrases, such as “Hello” and the sentence “I am a good man.”
The report was recently published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.
The technology could be big news for the wearable, pharmaceutical, drug-delivery, medical device and diagnostics industries, among others because, for wearable sensors to provide accurate information, they need to stay on your skin, no matter how wet, dry or hairy.
In 2016, researchers at the University of California - Berkeley created Salto (Saltatorial Locomotion on Terrain Obstacles). Salto is a tiny jumping robot that can leap off of the ground, hit a spot on the wall, and then jump off the wall. Cool, but limited.
Since then, the team has added a host of capabilities. Salto can now run or jump for more than 10 minutes, taking as many as 100 jumps in that period.
The remote-controlled robot can also jump four-feet high, run 8-10 mph and has the ability to clear various obstacles. It also has the ability to follow, land and launch from moving targets, like a tiny little parkour robot.
Because it's so quick, it can land and launch off of surfaces that normal robots would simply slide off of. It also has onboard sensors that help it stay upright and change position while in the air to make sure it lands correctly.
Next, the team wants to make Salto more agile, including the ability to jump on/from various surfaces, like gravel. Right now, it’s restricted to wood, brick, grass and concrete. The researchers also want to add arms, so it can grab onto objects after it jumps.
The design was inspired by galagoes, which are also known as bush babies.
The team recently presented its work at the 2019 International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Montreal.
Like other robots that were designed with a unique set of skills, Salto could one day be used for search and rescue missions, looking for survivors while navigating unpredictable terrain.
Amazon has found itself at odds with the news outlet Bloomberg over a recent report that the wholesaling giant could be making some big changes. But if the report is to be taken at face value, then it’s not Amazon that’s the true victim – its small and medium sized manufacturers.
That’s because Bloomberg is contending that Amazon is on the verge of a massive supplier purge. According to the report, the company is looking to streamline costs by halting bulk orders from thousands of its smaller suppliers in order to focus wholesale purchasing on major brands.
And while this doesn’t mean the moms and pops lose access to the Amazon customer base, it does mean that they’d need to transition from selling large quantities to Amazon itself, to selling items one by one to Amazon’s living, breathing customers on the company’s marketplace.
This accomplishes a few things for Amazon, according to Bloomberg. Not only does it allow for Amazon to relinquish the management of the sales process to the supplier, but it also falls in lockstep with a strategy that many businesses have been exploring as a cost cutting method – passing the inventory, and its related costs, to someone else along the supply chain.
Sources quoted anonymously said that those companies selling under $10 million in goods on Amazon annually would be the ones chopped from the wholesale buys – which isn’t exactly chump change for most businesses.
When confronted with the report, Amazon responded firmly, basically calling out Bloomberg for running what it says is a false story. In a statement to Fast Company, Amazon said it told Bloomberg before the story ran that the sources were wrong, and that it evaluates suppliers on an individual basis, meaning large scale reductions are not part of its business plan… a plan which it characterizes as thoughtful and considerate.
For its part, Bloomberg has acknowledged Amazon’s firm denial of the story, but appears to believe in the quality of its sources, as no corrections have been made. And whether or not you believe Bloomberg or Amazon, the story includes a bit of sage advice for Amazon’s existing small suppliers: prepare if you can. It can take up to 120 days to shift from an Amazon wholesale supplier to a marketplace seller, according to Anderson Salgado, CEO of Trisbell, a consulting firm that helps people sell products on Amazon. He adds that “smaller Amazon vendors should prepare now by learning how to sell on Amazon’s marketplace to make the transition more smoothly.”
Ford has partnered with Agility Robotics to put a humanoid robot, Digit, into self-driving vehicles to create what they call the "future of self-driving vehicle delivery."
Digit is a bipedal robot that was designed and developed by Agility Robotics. As part of the collaboration, Digit would carry out the final step of delivery, from the car to the door.
Agility Robotics designed Digit to look human. It walks like a human, and can navigate stairs as well as uneven terrain -- it can even bump into a fellow pedestrian without falling over.
As part of the collaboration, Digit deploys out of the back of self-driving Ford -- the new promo shows it unfolding out the back of a van. In the video, the lightweight robot, which can lift up to 40 pounds, grabs a package and brings it to a doorstep.
What is interesting is that to keep Digit lightweight, the team left some of the typical navigational tools out of the design. Once it is deployed out of the car, the vehicle creates a detailed map of the surrounding environment and wirelessly sends Digit the best route to the front door.
The robot does have LiDAR and a few stereo cameras to navigate basic situations, however, if and when it finds itself in a sticky situation, it relays an image back to the car which either solves the problem or sends the info into the cloud to request help from other systems.
Researchers from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore have developed a way to 3D print bathrooms, and they do it in less than a day.
The team spent four years developing a concrete formula that could flow through the hoses and print nozzle, but harden fast enough to hold the next layer of material. The green compound includes geopolymers that are made from fly ash waste.
Once the researchers found the right mix, they started printing prefabricated bathroom units (PBUs). The method not only manufactures the prefab bathrooms about 30% faster than traditional methods, but 30% lighter as well.
The concrete is poured into a mixer and then pumped through a six-axis KUKA Robotic arm that has a reach of about 20 feet in diameter. The material is laid down in a W-lattice shaped pattern which provides strength while cutting down on material.
The unfurnished bathroom is about 6.5 feet long, 8.5 feet wide and 9.18 feet tall, and it’s printed in 12 hours. The team also designed a smaller unit that can be printed in nine hours.
After the structure is completed, the bathroom is furnished with the necessities, like a sink, toilet, mirrors and shower as well as ceramic tiled walls and flooring. Adding the fittings and tiling takes about five days.
NTU’s Singapore Center for 3D Printing worked with Sembcorp Design and Construction, and Sembcorp Architects & Engineers on the proof-of-concept, which stands to shakeup the building and construction industry.
The bathrooms are currently undergoing water absorption and fire resistance tests. If/when the design is approved by local construction authorities, the researchers hope to commercialize the technology through licensing or a spin-off company.
A group in Chicago had a great idea – they wanted to develop a series of floating gardens in creating the Wild Mile along a man-made canal of the Chicago River. The problem, not surprisingly, was the garbage that kept finding its way into these gardens.
While the group had an army of volunteers that were more than willing to pick up the trash by hand, the uneven flow of the river made it difficult to match people’s schedules with when the garbage would appear.
That’s when Urban Rivers had another great idea. They developed Trashbot, a robot that looks like a raft about the size of a kid’s kickboard. Working like a sort of marine version of the Roomba vacuum cleaner, Trashbot can wander up and down the river collecting trash with its robotic arms.
What makes it unique however, is that unlike the Roomba, it’s not autonomous. So, once it takes to the water next month it will need a human at the controls.
This won’t be difficult because any of the four billion people in the world with an internet connection can log on to the Urban Rivers website for a two-minute turn at the wheel of Trashbot.
While algorithms and image recognition platforms could probably be implemented so Trashbot could work autonomously, this approach not only generates greater awareness of the Urban Rivers cause, but it also keeps costs down.
After the trash has been collected, it will transport it to a collection point on the river bank for disposal.
Trashbot will be outfitted with a GPS tracking system to help track its progress and deter theft, cameras for taking wildlife pics and discouraging vandalism, and a tether to prevent the bot from floating or blowing away.
For those who can’t wait to try it out, or to make sure you’re ready when you do get the chance to pilot Trashbot, an online demo can be accessed at https://altrubots.com.
After talks stalled in Chicago, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles, Elon Musk’s The Boring Company has finally landed its first paying customer, inking a $48.6 million deal with the Las Vegas Convention Center. The contract calls for the construction of a one-mile tunnel connecting the two ends of the building.
The project will encompass three underground passenger stations, a pedestrian tunnel and two vehicular tubes capable of transporting up to 4,400 passengers per hour. Escalator access, lighting, a WiFi network and video surveillance systems will also be provided.
Steve Hill, CEO and president of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority ironically described the underground tunnel project as a way to “elevate the experience of our visitors...”
The Boring Company has suggested that this project could be the first of many in connecting the convention center with the Vegas strip and airport, traveling at speeds of up to 155 miles per hour – even though a demonstration of Boring technology last December topped out at about one-third of that speed.
In responding to the initial request for proposal, The Boring Company positioned their underground loop system as a solution that would take less time to construct and provide lower operating costs while easing pedestrian and vehicle traffic in comparison to at-grade or above-ground options.
The Vegas Convention Center is currently in the midst of a 200-acre expansion that is scheduled to be complete by January 2021. The structure hosts more than 1.6 million attendees annually.
Musk is confident that the LVCC project will be complete by the end of year.
Chinese artists Sun Yuan and Peng Yu have found an interesting new application for an industrial robot: squeegeeing blood.
Yuan and Yu combined a Kuka robot, Cognex visual-recognition sensors and software to create "Can’t Help Myself", an examination of our increasingly automated global reality.
The robot uses sensors to detect when the blood flows too far and then uses the end effector to shovel it back into place -- they literally call it a shovel.
It's a bloodbath in that box as it leaves stains on the floor and spatter on the walls. According to the artists, the blood is actually cellulose ether, a rather complicated product made with wood or cotton fiber, combined with colored water.
The art installation was originally commissioned by the Guggenheim Museum, but you can now check it out at the Venice Art Biennale 2019 in Italy. Titled 'May You Live in Interesting Times', the exhibit runs through November 24, 2019 and while you’re there you can also check out the fake indoor beach (sun & sea). Fake beach, real people, indoors.
The pair is known for blending technology with are to create visceral installations and works meant to provoke startling and contemplative emotions. Like the “Angel" sculpture of a dead angel outfitted with large roasted chicken wings; and Old Persons Home, in which 13 life-sized sculptures modeled after aged world leaders ride 13 dynamoelectric wheelchairs and continue to slam into one-another.
One C-47 troop carrier was so visible in the D-Day Invasion of World War II that it was emblazoned with its own message for Adolph Hitler: “That’s all… brother.”
It’s been nearly 75 years since that day, and you might assume that one of the lead aircraft of the main invasion force would be on display in a museum somewhere – but you’d be wrong.
A few years back, an Air Force historian named Matt Scales was researching the late Lt. Col. John Donalson of Birmingham, AL who was reportedly credited with piloting the lead aircraft that dropped the main group of paratroopers along the French coast in preparation for the assault on June 6, 1944.
All told, 900 planes carried the message of “That’s all… brother” but Donalson’s was one of the leads because it was equipped with an early form of a radar system. When Scales dug deeper, he discovered that the plane – which had changed hands many times over the years – had never crashed or been damaged, and was actually sitting in an aircraft boneyard in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
Texas-based Commemorative Air Force preserves military aircraft and set to work on the plane, which was badly corroded and partially disassembled. After rebuilding the piston engines and adding “modern navigation and radio equipment and a fresh coat of paint,” it was air-ready once more, making its inaugural flight in February of last year.
Now the C-47 will join other vintage planes at D-Day 75th anniversary ceremonies in June, including a staged reenactment where “paratroopers” will be dropped along the French coast at Normandy.
Researchers from the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College and City University of Hong Kong have created a biohybrid floating-plane robot.
The robots were inspired by Transformers toys and whales. The robot can shape shift it's elastic body and is propelled by a light-controlled cellular engine. The idea is that this roughly 10 mm robot could one-day perform highly-targeted drug delivery.
The body is the shape of an airplane and was 3D-printed using polysiloxane material, which is the same stuff they use to make dental putty. Then the team coated it with heart muscle cells and a light-sensitive hydrogel.
The robot is driven by a tail fin that mimics whale propulsion but the soft robot is remote controlled by a skin-penetrating near-infrared light. In the absence of light, the wings deploy, allowing the heart cells to propel it forward. When exposed to light, the floating plane retracts its wings, causing it to stop.
The transformable device dramatically improves the usefulness of robots designed to work inside the human body, it will literally swim up the human bloodstream.
So what does that mean for drug delivery? As Zi Chen, an assistant professor of engineering at Thayer said, "We literally dropped drug bombs on cancer cells.”
Because the floating-plane robot is maneuverable, it can carry medicine directly to cancer cells.
Next, the researchers are working to use light to move the wings separately so that it can become more precise.
While they were inspired by Hasbro’s classic toy line, I think Chen said it best, “The result is no toy, it may literally change people's lives."
Researchers at the University of Cincinnati are developing robotic pets to help care for the elderly.
Led by professor Claudia Rebola, a team of researchers is working to make robotic pets more realistic and practical. For example, they could one day check your vitals when you pull them in for a warm embrace (hug).
The team recently received a $1 million National Science Foundation grant to redesign an existing line of toys owned by Ageless Innovation, a company founded by former Hasbro executives.
The company recently acquired the Joy For All Companion Pets product line, which has been on the market since 2015 and feature simple, toy-like designs, sounds and movements to provide comfort, companionship and fun for elderly users.
Rebola's team wants to take the toys and turn them into the next-generation of robotic intelligence that provides psychosocial support for older adults.
In initial interviews, they found that users wanted a dog that was more realistic. The new prototype is modeled after the Yorkshire terrier -- which is one of the most popular breeds among older adults.
Working with high-quality faux fur, the team wants the new dogs to be "more pettable and lifelike." Students also redesigned the body to make it less mechanical and more flexible while improving the eyes, nose and paws.
The team is adding more technology as well, particularly the ability to detect/prevent falls, connect users to caregivers, emergency services and loved ones, check vital signs and provide reminders. The pet will be your friend, audio diary and remind you to take your pills.
Next, the team is improving the prototype with plans to market launch in 2020.
Rebola hopes that future designs will be customizable, so users could model them after their favorite pet.
So you can make a robot copy of your dead best friend that will watch you as the slow crush of time swallows your life. And hopefully they won't eat your eyes when you die.
A 45-year-old executive was fired after he, and his former escort-turned-girlfriend, racked up nearly $5.8 million dollars on his company credit card.
Scott Kennedy worked as a top financial executive at Nemera's plant in Buffalo Grove, IL. The French company designs and manufactures drug delivery products, like nasal, injection, dermal and inhalation devices.
Kennedy first met Crystal Lundberg in 2012 on Backpage.com, a site that promotes sexual services. Last week, she was convicted of fraud in a Chicago federal court.
According to prosecutors, Kennedy and Lundberg spent a bulk of the money after she moved to San Diego with her children and pets (she spent $6,000 on two purebred dogs).
From November 2015 and March 2017, Nemera was charged for a host of non-work-related expenses, like the $12,000 per month Lundberg used to rent a 7,000-square-foot home.
She amassed nearly $600,000 on a failed medical spa, called the Royalty Room, jewelry, cars and trips.
She spent more than $230,000 just on Amazon.
According to authorities, Lundberg told Kennedy that she had access to a $4 million trust fund that she would use to reimburse his company when she turned 30. Turns out that was a lie.
Kennedy was fired last year, and pleaded guilty to wire fraud as part of a deal to cooperate with the government against his former girlfriend. He is still facing a recommended 3.5 years in prison.
Lundberg will be sentenced on August 9th. Kennedy said he just wanted to be loved.
The developer of a two-seat flying car recently tested a larger prototype that company officials hope will finally help realize the potential of urban air mobility.
Lilium famously pioneered a vertical takeoff and landing aircraft and took it for a debut flight in 2017. This month, the company, founded by engineers from the Technical University of Munich, unveiled a five-seat aircraft and showed footage of it briefly lifting off and touching back down.
Eventually, the company intends for the design’s 36 all-electric engines to allow it, once airborne, to cruise at a top speed of 185 miles per hour at a range of about that same distance.
Lilium officials said a fixed-wing design enables the aircraft to travel horizontally without using much energy — unlike drone-like designs that need to generate more lift. The air taxi is controlled remotely from the ground and features a simple design without a tail, rudder, propellers or gearbox. It includes just one moving part in the engine and offers passengers panoramic windows and gull-wing doors.
Lilium hopes that, once certified and moved into mass production, users will be able to use a mobile app to find a nearby landing pad, then travel across a city or region at a comparable price to a conventional taxi. The company expects to begin trials in several locations with a goal of operating in cities around the world by 2025.
Last month, we reported on a situation that was captivating China and perplexing Tesla. In a video that was widely shared on social media, a Model S sitting idly in a parking garage is recorded bursting into flames.
At the time, Tesla took a judicious approach and dispatched a team to China to work with investigators to determine whether the video was real and, if so, what the heck was going on.
But while Tesla was quietly investigating, they were greeted with some unwelcome news: earlier this week, Reuters reported that another parked Model S – this one in Hong Kong – found itself engulfed in flames… so much so, in fact, that it took firefighters 45 minutes to fully put it out.
Now Tesla says that, in an abundance of caution, it will be issuing a software update that revises “charge and thermal management settings on Model S and Model X vehicles.” Tesla’s software updates are always initiated over-the-air, meaning owners don’t need to bring their vehicles into the dealerships. In a statement, the company says they will continue to investigate the root cause, but the update should “further protect the battery and improve battery longevity."
So, Tesla owners – are you freaking out? Should you be? Car and Driver says to take a deep breath: a few cars bursting into flames when the company has sold half a million shouldn’t be a reason to panic, they say. Believe it or not, Elon Musk agrees. Tesla’s chief took to Twitter after the Shanghai fire to remind everyone that cars powered by the internal combustion engine catch fire a lot more. Just how big is the discrepancy? According to Musk, Teslas are about 500% less likely to catch on fire than their gas-powered counterparts.
But this assertion hasn’t help raise the company’s stock price which, after these incidents and a much-worse-than-expected quarterly loss, has dropped $100 per share since the close of 2018.
This week, New York, NY-based AI SpaceFactory won $500,000 by taking first place in NASA's 3D Printed Habitat Challenge. Now, if that sentence alone can't get kids interested in STEM, we're beyond saving.
The competition asked participants to manufacture sustainable shelters for deep-space habitation, including the Moon and Mars.
The team created MARSHA, a 15-foot tall prototype that was 3D printed by robots in 30 hours. The team likely beat out the other challengers because it was printed with little human intervention -- robots even placed the windows.
MARSHA was printed in a biopolymer basalt composite, a biodegradable and recyclable material made from materials found on Mars. The composite stood up well to NASA's pressure, smoke and impact testing and proved to be stronger than other concrete competitors.
AI SpaceFactory spent two years developing construction technologies for Mars. Next, the team plans to recycle and use the materials to 3D print TERA, which is essentially the same thing, but built for Earth-based humans.
The team plans to launch TERA on crowdfunding platform Indiegogo and will offer people a chance to experience what sustainable life might be like on Mars.
I for one, will be signing up, or at least eagerly await it until I realize that I'm priced out.
A team of researchers at the University of Waterloo have developed a new fuel cell that reportedly lasts 10 times longer than any other current technology.
The researchers believe that this advancement, coupled with mass production, could finally make the fuel cell economically viable and provide a suitable replacement to traditional gas-powered engines.
According to the researchers, the cost would be comparable or even cheaper than gasoline engines.
The fuel cell is promising, but based on the test vehicle design, let's hope they just stay focused on fuel cell technology and don't try to move into automotive design. Let's leave that to the Lazzarini's in this world.
These fuel cells are designed to be more durable by delivering a constant amount of electricity as opposed to other designs that provide fluctuating energy.
Fuel cells produce electricity from the chemical reaction when hydrogen and oxygen are combined to make water. By providing a constant amount of energy, the cell design can be simpler and thus, cheaper.
Next, the researchers will work on the problem that has plagued the industry for years: getting people to use them.
Pierpaolo Lazzarini wants to build an unidentified floating object. The U.F.O. 1.2 has been under development for about three years and now the Italian designer is finally ready to make his floating houseboat a reality.
Spanning 12.5 meters in diameter, the U.F.O. has two living spaces: a main entrance and communal area above the water, and an underwater bathroom and bedroom.
According to designboom, the plan is for the vessel to be self-sustainable. The main deck includes solar panels that charge batteries stored inside of the deck, and it can also be outfitted with an optional vegetable garden.
Water tanks and weights are also stored in the deck, the weights make sure the bottom half (about 7.5 feet) of the U.F.O. stays submerged.
The vessel includes a small electric motor that can move the houseboat up to 3.5 knots.
Right now, Lazzarini is crowdfunding the houseboat, working the business model similar to a timeshare except with a place that you actually want to go. He thinks that he can have the first unidentified floating object ready for the water by 2021.
What's crazy is that this isn't the designer's only exotic floating houseboat. Last year, Lazzarini Design Studio launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise nearly $400,000 to build a floating pyramid he calls a Waya. It's the first step towards a proposed self-sustaining floating community called Wayaland.
Say what you want, but the man has vision.
The U.S. House of Representatives has begun investigating a Cleveland-based supplier and aerospace manufacturer for “extreme profit margins” and “excess profit”.
The remarks stem from reports that TransDigm has been a “bad actor” and “gouging taxpayers” by realizing some pretty impressive profit margins on parts for aircraft such as the Apache and Chinook helicopters and Falcon and Globemaster planes.
Some examples include:
- Charging the Pentagon $1,443 for a for a three-inch ring used on a C-135 transport plane that reportedly cost $32 to produce.
- Another is a 3-1/2” quick disconnect coupling for the F-5 and T-38 Talon jets that cost $173 to make, but carried a $6,986 price tag.
- An actuator cover assembly cost the Pentagon $11,988, but cost $799 to produce.
- A $557 hydraulic valve carried a price tag of $10,000.
- A $39 motor brake ring brought in $5,317.
According to the Department of Defense Inspector General, 112 contracts awarded to TransDigm exceeded what that office defines as reasonable profit. In the eyes of the DODIG, any contract that delivers a profit margin of more than 15 percent is excessive.
The margins on the contracts in question range from 17 to 4.451 percent. In total, TransDigm, which is a public company that I’m guessing likes to make money and see a return on the materials, manpower and IP they’ve invested in, was awarded 4.942 contracts valued at $471 million between 2012 and 2017.
The DoD wants the company to repay over $16 million in “excess” profits. They contend that TransDigm intentionally concealed cost data in order to realize such high profit margins.
Earlier this week we covered a joint venture that needed financial support from the government in order to continue producing a product deemed vital to national defense. It’s worth noting that if TransDigm didn’t hike their prices up on just over two percent of their government contracts, they might be in the same boat.
A hearing has been set to not only grill TransDigm over their charges, but to explore the need for greater transparency and regulation regarding defense industry profits
A Hawaiian engineer was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for bribing public officials in Hawaii and the Federated States of Micronesia.
53-year-old Frank James Lyon pleaded guilty to paying $250,000 to Hawaiian officials to secure $2.5 million in state contracts. The bribes secured work for Lyon’s engineering and consulting company in Hawaii.
Lyon also admitted to bribes that led to nearly $8 million in contracts in Micronesia.
According to the Department of Justice, Lyon pleaded guilty on Jan. 22 to conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and to commit federal program fraud. On Monday, May 13, 2019, he was sentenced to 30 months in prison for his involvement.
Lyon admitted that he and his co-conspirators paid bribes to foreign officials in Micronesia as well as to Hawaii state officials in exchange for contracts valued at more than $10 million. Lyon paid off Micronesian and Hawaiian officials with cash, but Micronesian officials also received vehicles, gifts and the ever elusive entertainment.
According to the DoJ, 44-year-old Master Halbert, a Micronesian citizen and government official, pleaded guilty on April 2, to conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Halbert was a government official in the FSM Department of Transportation, Communications and Infrastructure who administered FSM’s aviation programs, including the management of its airports. Lyon not only bribed Halbert in exchange for assistance in securing contracts but allegedly agreed that these bribes would be transported from the United States to FSM.
Halbert is scheduled to be sentenced on July 29, 2019.
The Hellfire missile offers an interesting perspective, not just on military technology, but product lifecycle in general.
The missile was initially developed with a shaped charge, which means the explosion it generated was intense, but channeled to produce a very narrow, focused blast. This make sense as its primary application was taking out heavily armored tanks and vehicles.
The precision of the missile drew military leaders to desire its use in targeting groups of enemy troops, so it was modified to provide a larger explosion radius. The problem was that the Hellfire was not only taking out the intended targets, but placing innocent civilians and infrastructure at risk.
To help address this concern, the Department of Defense and Central Intelligence Agency developed a variant of the Hellfire during the Obama Administration.
And according to a report in the Wall Street Journal last week, the agencies have been utilizing the R9X in Syria and Yemen since 2017. It’s credited with taking out two very high-profile Al-Qaeda targets.
The R9X is a missile, but instead of being packed with explosive ordinance, it’s designed to discharge six metal blades seconds before impact. And seeing as how they’re traveling at up to 1,000 mph, they pretty much cut through whatever is their way – like the roofs of armored vehicles or buildings.
So they’re not only precise and effective, there’s no explosion. They R9X essentially reverts back to the Hellfire’s initial mission of an extremely precise strike.
The operational aspects of the R9X are fascinating, but use of the 100-pound missile, according to a report by Defense One, has thus far been limited to less than 10 instances.
The premise is similar to that of the railgun - hit the enemy with something very hard that’s traveling very fast. The main difference is that while the railgun’s targets are 100 miles away, the R9X has a maximum effective range of about six miles, and can essentially be fired from the ground or air on platforms already in use.
Edmunds.com says that more than 63 percent of the new vehicles sold last year were SUVs or trucks, which is no surprise to automakers who have spent the last few years slashing their small car models to line up with the market.
But they’re not ready to fully let go just yet. According to Bloomberg, automakers have a plan to save some of their dying sedan models, but it’s not exactly novel: a recent report says car makers are adding some of the features that people love about SUVs and applying them to their smaller, squatter counterparts.
One of these more sought after details is all wheel drive and if everybody wants it, then the Toyota Prius should have it, right? And the Mazda 6 and Nissan Altima, a few of the sedans that have lived to tell the tale of the great SUV craze of the 21st century.
All wheel drive and four wheel drive used to matter to only those enthusiasts who really liked to offroad -- or the casual driver who lived in a particularly slippery or snow-covered terrain. There was a time where using it came with a fuel economy penalty that most drivers didn’t find to be worth it.
But today, low gas prices make that less of a hurdle. Add that to the fact that technology has caught up a bit and, according to Toyota, there is no fuel economy penalty with its Prius. It says at 50 MPG combined, using an all-wheel-drive Prius is as -- or more -- efficient than driving most other front wheel drive vehicles.
Bloomberg says the latest effort from more mainstream carmakers and models have taken the feature from more niche and luxury sedans and attempted to democratize it. Rumor has it that Fiat Chrysler is even looking to put all wheel on its Pacifica minivan. The more the merrier, right?
Typically, if there’s demand, someone will figure out how to supply a product. However, in the case of a key naval defense asset, even a contract that has grown by more than to 50 percent in three years, reaching $264 million, wasn’t enough demand to justify continued production.
The eight-pound, three-foot long sonobuoy is described as an expendable, waterborne sensor that is deployed by the hundreds from P-8 surveillance aircraft and MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopters to detect enemy subs. The Department of Defense budgeted for 204,000 of the units in 2020.
These detection units have become increasingly important due to the growing fleet of silent submarines being developed and deployed by Russia and China. These small, battery-powered units allow ships and submarines to keep their distance from enemy subs.
The U.S. military sources the sonobuoy from a single company – ERAPSCO, which is a joint venture between contract manufacturer and designer Sparton Corporation of Schaumburg, Illinois, and electronics engineering firm Ultra Electronics, of Middlesex in the United Kingdom.
While a single supplier offers a number of procurement efficiencies, it can also produce risk. In this case, that risk is Sparton’s financial instability. Ultra tried to buy the company in 2017 but the Department of Justice felt it violated antitrust laws. This led the company to be purchased by a private equity firm last year.
In its’ latest annual report, Sparton basically stated the resources required to make ERAPSCO viable weren’t worth the effort, meaning it wouldn’t be able to meet the Navy’s ongoing needs for the sonobuoy. According to a report from DefenseNews.com, ERAPSCO was set to be dissolved by 2024.
With neither company capable of making the necessary investments to produce the sonobuoy independently, President Trump signed a memo in March that invoked the Defense Production Act. It allows the DoD to provide financial support to ensure production of products deemed essential to national defense.
So, supply should be able to match demand for the short term, but a long-term solution is still needed. The Air Force, to its credit, has issued a solicitation to find suppliers beyond ERAPSO. Depending on your perspective, its’ a problem and an opportunity.
I’m Jeff Reinke and this is IEN Radio.
There was something eerie about this situation out of Ohio that was putting some residents on edge: in the small town of North Olmsted -- a suburb west of Cleveland -- people were finding that their garage door openers and vehicle key fobs were no longer working.
The New York Times reported that the complaints began to surface in late April when about a dozen residents in either North Olmsted or neighboring community Fairview Park alerted authorities of their problems… which may be a low representative sample if you consider how few people probably report garage door problems to the police.
The local NBC affiliate took on the task of sniffing out the cause, hiring a retired engineer to use a spectrum analyzer to survey the area. When that yielded no clues, local electric and cable service providers all did some sleuthing of their own.
When a city councilperson alerted the community that they’d discovered the cause, it turned out to be something nobody really expected: the mysterious frequency was apparently coming from the home of a local inventor. The man, whose name was kept confidential, had built the equivalent of a homemade Ring security system that would alert him if someone approached his home while he was tinkering in his basement workshop. A “volunteer electrical expert” had homed in on the frequency and knocked on the man’s door in order to inform him he’d been unwittingly disrupting access to cars and garages for weeks.
After he disabled the system, the conspiracy theories could be laid to rest and life in sleepy North Olmsted probably got just a little less exciting.
Running through an airport probably isn’t anyone’s idea of a particularly good time, but for the visually impaired, the air travel experience can be an especially daunting one.
Navigating swarms of people through expansive corridors and dozens of nearly identical gates likely couldn’t be done without at least some assistance from airport personnel.
Teams from Carnegie Mellon University, however, recently undertook a couple of projects designed to help those individuals move through airports with the same level of independence they would have elsewhere.
And both recently underwent successful tests at nearby Pittsburgh International Airport.
One project resulted in an existing smartphone app being tailored specifically to airports, including to account for their expansive hallways and moving walkways.
The NavCog app provides turn-by-turn audio directions to users through the Bluetooth navigation beacons already installed in many airports.
The other study, conducted with researchers from two Japanese universities, created an rolling suitcase known as BBeep.
The suitcase includes a camera that tracks other pedestrians in the user’s path, and an alarm that begins sounding if a collision is detected five seconds away.
At 2.5 seconds, the alarm sounds more quickly, and when the clash is imminent, a “stop” alarm blares.
One user, during the test phase, noted that although most people will happily clear a path for a visually impaired person, many are distracted in the airport by departure updates, fellow travelers or their own smartphones.
Carnegie Mellon’s robotics researchers are showcasing their findings this week at a computing expo in Scotland.
I’m Andy Szal, and this is IEN Now.
On April 30, 2017, 60-year-old Lawrence Ray Shiner Jr. was repairing a 145-foot-tall boiler at the Kapstone Paper and Packaging paper mill in North Charleston, SC.
While he was repairing the boiler, he was buried in an "avalanche of salt cake" and died as a result of the industrial accident.
A new wrongful death lawsuit filed by Shiner’s estate is attempting to hold Palmetto Industrial Services and Thompson Industrial Services accountable. Palmetto and Thompson were hired by Kapstone to clean residue out the 13-story boiler. The lawsuit states that both companies were responsible for making sure that the boilers were safe for maintenance operations.
Shiner and the co-workers were underneath the boiler when one employee heard a “loud rumble.”
According to the lawsuit, a massive amount of toxic salt cake fell on Shiner and another coworker. Shiner was buried alive.
The coworker was buried up to his neck, but was pulled from the avalanche by the plant’s in-house rescue staff. The rescue team was on site in minutes and tried to dig Shiner out, but to no avail.
According to WCSC, the lawsuit accuses Palmetto and Thompson of a "failure to properly remove all salt cake deposits accumulated on the interior tubes and walls.“
According to the lawsuit, Shiner suffocated under the “toxic residual salt cake” and died of mechanical asphyxiation.
OSHA has cited Kapstone, now owned by WestRock, several times for unsafe working conditions.
Shiner left behind a wife, two kids and eight grandchildren. A GoFundMe page set up for his family described him as “a family man, good friend and Union man.”
GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/3q70ztk
It looks like Adidas isn’t just for Run DMC anymore.
The company is having a banner year, dazzling investors by beating forecasts in the first quarter, though its explosive growth has an unwanted bedfellow -- supply chain problems that are limiting the company’s ability to meet demand.
It all started in 2016, when Adidas initiated a turnaround strategy, pledging to focus on growing the brand in China and… it worked. Sales were reportedly up a whopping 40 percent in China where the brand’s popularity continues to boom. Besides betting big on China, the sportswear giant has also put up some cash to target high profile celebrities, including its announcement earlier this year that it would partner with Beyonce on a sportwear line. Beyonce. Ever heard of her?
Actor Donald Glover is also engaged in a partnership on a shoe line that emphasizes a well-worn look -- with uneven stitching and laces specifically designed to fringe over time. The market for pre-worn-looking sneakers must be hot? ... though Adidas won’t say which products are being impacted by its supply chain issues, or what types of issues they are.
CNN is calling it “a good kind of problem,” but the reality is this issue is truly limiting growth for the company. Its Q1 performance, though explosive, was restricted due to the inventory issues and Adidas says it expects it to knock as much as two points off growth for the rest of the year.
Meanwhile, the company is doing its best to scale to match growth. Adidas is doubling the size of its Oregon headquarters, creating space for about 1,000 new jobs.
Roughly a decade after being introduced to the U.S. market, Daimler recently announced that it will stop selling the infamous ForTwo Smart vehicle in the U.S. and Canada after the 2019 model year.
Depending on your perspective, the move shows either the positive momentum of the U.S. economy and significant improvements in automotive engineering efficiencies, or it reinforces the simple fact that Americans will always prioritize comfort and convenience over energy savings when it comes to transportation.
The writing was on the wall for Smart earlier this year when Daimler sold half of the business to China's Geely Holding. The joint venture will retain Mercedes-Benz Design to handle design and styling, but all future Smart vehicles will be made in China. Current Smart owners will still be able to get their vehicles serviced through Mercedes-Benz dealers.
According to various reports, Daimler’s decision was based on sales that continued to drop from a high of 25,000 vehicles in 2008 to less than 1,300 cars last year. When Smart cars were first introduced in U.S. markets, gas prices had hit an all-time high of over $4.10/gallon, compared to average prices of $2.49/gallon in 2018, and those prices reflect a significant increase over the previous five-year stretch.
These lower gas prices, coupled with greater overall fuel efficiency, helped push the SUV trend now dominating U.S. vehicle sales. Industry insiders also point to the brand’s move to a completely electric lineup as contributing to the continued sales slump. They entered a marketplace that has become more and more crowded, but offered fewer driver comforts and full-charge range of only 60 miles.
Additionally, the two-seater is nearly three feet shorter than any other vehicle on the market, but carries an MSRP higher than a Corolla or Chevy Malibu, but with less space and power. In urban areas, the growth of ridesharing services has also lessened some of the convenience-based selling points of a Smart car.
However, just because the brand has left the U.S., that doesn’t mean it has met its demise. Daimler and Geely appear committed to the Smart brand through at least 2022, and have even hinted at possibly expanding into … you guessed it, SUVs.
Researchers from VTT Technical Research Center in Finland have created a new coating using nanocellulose.
Nanocellulose naturally adheres to wood and forms an airtight film on the surface. This makes nanocellulose-based coatings a good fit for the protective wood treatments.
The coating is based on HefCel technology (High-Consistency Enzymatic Fibrillation of Cellulose), which was developed and patented by VTT.
The coating can be sprayed or brushed on to the wood and it works by reducing the access of oxygen to the surface.
The coating could make a significant impact on the coatings market, particularly in construction materials.
The researchers recently designed new equipment that more efficiently and cost-effectively manufactures larger batches of HefCel and have seen promising results from it’s initial run.
Next, the researchers are looking to potentially commercialize the technology, which could be a possible fit for the paint industry, packaging, composites or simply as a coating industry raw material.
Early reviews of Samsung’s new Galaxy Fold have been critical of the new folding screen, but I think the most hilarious came from iFixit as part of the website’s product teardown, “Like a beautiful butterfly, our Fold's life was tragically short … Also like a butterfly, this thing is alarmingly fragile.”
iFixit is a website that provides information to give people more access to repairs. Since some companies don't make parts or manuals readily available, the website is designed to work like one big (and free) repair manual, mostly to encourage people to fix things themselves.
According to iFixit, the phone is easy to get into, but had “overwhelming fragility” which isn’t a good sign if it’s going to demand a $2,000 price point. The teardown also noted that the Fold’s design had “a ton of entry points for dust and other foreign matter to make their way inside” as well as “many different ways for the screen to break.”
Overall, the teardown reinforced concerns from other design reviews, namely the mechanics of the fold wearing out and the high likelihood that the screen will need to be replaced, which is expensive.
Last week, Samsung put the Galaxy Fold on hold to make “further improvements.” The company didn’t give an updated launch date, which was originally set for April 26th.
The company also got iFixit has remove its teardown, which has caused quite a stir. That comment section is an entertaining read.
In the teardown, the authors said “Hopefully it can metamorphose into something a bit more robust to avoid the windshield of fate … Maybe with their extra time, Samsung can add a bit more reinforcement and some ingress protection, so these glorious wings may flap another day!”
Researchers from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore (NTU Singapore) have finally created the one true magic pill to fight obesity. The team has developed a prototype capsule that inflates in your stomach to make you feel full.
They call it the "EndoPil," and it contains a balloon that self-inflates after it's activated by a handheld magnet.
The handheld magnet triggers a reaction between acid and salt, which fills the balloon with carbon dioxide.
The idea is that the pill will be swallowed like any other, however researchers have yet to start clinical trials. For now, it worked on a pig that lost about 3.3 pounds in a week.
Last year, the team also performed a trial with a healthy patient volunteer, however the capsule was inserted with an endoscope. The balloon was successfully inflated within her stomach, and she didn’t experience discomfort or injury from the inflation.
Right now, it is quite a horse pill to swallow, measuring about 3 cm x 1 cm. After it’s triggered, the balloon expands to 120 ml and floats to the top of the stomach, which is more sensitive to fullness.
The balloon can then be deflated magnetically to a size small enough to enter the small intestines.
The team hopes to conduct another round of human trials within the year. First they need to make sure that the balloon can be naturally decompressed and expelled by the body, before testing the capsule for its efficacy.
If all goes well, it could one day replace other procedures like lap band surgery, which is invasive and still fails in 1 in 5 patients.
On April 16, 2019, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested a 44-year-old man in California for overseeing a scheme to smuggle $72 million in counterfeit Apple and Samsung cellphone components from China.
Chan Hung Le owns Irvine-CA based EZ Elektronix, which he used as part of an elaborate plot to import counterfeit screens and other components while skirting law enforcement.
The scheme started in June 2010 when Le and his co-conspirators, including relatives and EZ Elektronix employees, used various methods to evade authorities. For example, Le used multiple business names and addresses, as well as “virtual offices” and post office boxes, in at least three U.S. states.
The company certainly has a nefarious past. In October 2011 and February 2012, EZ Elektronix’s office was raided and authorities seized about 7,200 counterfeit iPhone parts and 11,700 other counterfeit cell phone parts worth more than $1.7 million.
After the raid, Le switched up his scam and had the counterfeit goods sent to two fake companies in Texas and Oklahoma. After the parts arrived, they were shipped to Southern California under the name "Pac-Depot Inc.” while legitimate merchandise was shipped directly to EZ Elektronix. This allowed the parts to be inspected at different U.S. ports and did not appear to be associated with Le or his company.
In 2016, Hongwei “Nick” Du, pleaded guilty to conspiring to traffic counterfeit goods and money laundering. Du was one of Le's suppliers, and admitted to selling him at least $18.7 million worth of components. He said that at least half of the parts were counterfeits bearing the trademarks of Apple, Samsung, Nokia and other companies.
From January 2012 to December 2018, EZ Elektronix paid more than $72 million to three companies who helped Le import the fake parts, many of which were found by authorities when he was arrested.
If convicted, Le faces up to 45 years in federal prison.