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AR/AI

Factory Robots See Slight Drop in Growth, but Still Have Momentum

Despite a slight drop in the installations of factory robots in 2024, the push to automate automotive and other manufacturing was carrying momentum into fiscal 2025 and...

News

AR/AI

CES 2025: Oshkosh Puts AI, Autonomy and Electrification to Work

A multi-brand global company that serves several different industries marked its debut at one of the world’s largest technology exhibitions by highlighting its...

News

Transportation

CES 2025: Bosch Goes Right with Wrong-Way Alerts, Racing Hand Controls

Bosch took to CES 2025 with positive messages about its safety, accessibility and AI technologies, which it said will impact both the people who drive vehicles with its...

News

Power

A New Reckoning

As the industry worked through accelerated production volumes last decade, there were few concerns surrounding low capacity utilization in our fixed-cost-heavy North American ecosystem. With the benefit of stronger demand and...

Technology Report

Power

NVH-Fighting Plastic EV Motor Mount Wins Lightweighting Award

Most motor mounts, even for EV applications, are made of metal alloys. It makes intuitive sense: It’s a vibration-intensive mounting application that demands durability that...

News

Mechanical & Fluid Systems

Cat Reveals All-New 255 and 265 Compact Track Loaders

Caterpillar revealed its next-generation 255 and 265 compact track loaders at its Edwards Demonstration and Learning Center in Peoria, Illinois, in October. Based on D3 series, the 255...

News

AR/AI

Spelling Ford with an ‘E’

One year ago, Ford Motor Co. kicked off a new era in its long history when it bifurcated into two strategically interdependent auto businesses. Ford Blue, the “traditional” business, is responsible for the...

Editorial

Power

Autonomous Timeline: Following the Money

Acquisitions, mergers and outright departures from the sector serve as almost weekly reminders not just that significant consolidation of autonomous-vehicle (AV) development is underway. Right in...

News

Lighting

Illuminating New Roles for Vehicle Lighting

Vehicle lighting used to be about seeing and being seen, but Audi has much larger ambitions for automotive illumination. New LED and digital control technologies are moving the humble headlamp...

News

Connectivity

Is Ground-Penetrating Radar the Next Innovation for Automated-Vehicle Sensing?

Most of the existing autonomous-vehicle (AV) localization strategies try to replicate how human drivers perceive the world. But reliable autonomy requires new...

News

Unmanned Systems

JLR Developing a “Morphable” Smart Seat

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) Research Lead Engineer Dave Withey has invented a seat design that may be the closest yet to a fits-all system for comfort and safety. Rather than use pneumatics for...

News

Imaging

Faurecia Creates ‘Personal Bubbles’ for AVs

App-led exercises that unfold while seated, and audio selections heard via the seat headrest illustrate the types of wellness and comfort options that supplier Faurecia envisions with its...

News

Photonics/Optics

Driver-Monitoring Systems to Be as Common as Seat Belts

Regulators across the globe, most notably in Europe, are calling for driver-monitoring systems to become standard vehicle-safety equipment. The ability for a vehicle to combine...

News

Test & Measurement

Honda Ready with New Injury-Reducing Airbag

Starting next year, Honda will begin fitting vehicles with a new, advanced-design passenger-side front airbag that its engineers said is designed to mitigate brain and neck injuries by cradling...

News

RF & Microwave Electronics

ZF’s Autonomous Systems Head Takes a Pragmatic View of the ‘Levels’ Playing Field

“We are constantly asking this question: Who is the customer likely to buy an SAE Level 4 autonomous vehicle in the consumer passenger market?”...

Articles

Manned Systems

Trucks with Intuition

The automotive and commercial vehicle industries are working on answers to a tremendous number of questions no one bothered to ask before. Volvo, for example, wants to know if vehicles can have human intuition.

What We’re Driving

Power

2018 Ford EcoSport

I’ll concede I might not have thought the EcoSport so irredeemably awful if our test vehicle had been fitted with the 2.0-liter 4-cylinder that comes standard with all-wheel-drive for any of EcoSport’s (more on that...

News

AR/AI

Motion Sickness Meets Autonomous Adaptable Dynamics

Amid the plethora of challenges that face the acceptance of the coming world of autonomous vehicles (AVs), one is distinctly human: motion sickness. The realization that this...

News

Regulations/Standards

Mercedes Reveals Its Experimental Safety Vehicle 2019 – Mobile Robot Included

Mercedes-Benz is among leading OEMs focusing on autonomous vehicle safety, and will showcase its latest concept in June at the Enhanced Safety Vehicles...

News

Electronics & Computers

JLR Pavement Signals Throw New Light on AV Trust Levels

A necessity for all AVs is to ensure that other road users, including pedestrians, have trust in their actions. To help achieve this confidence, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has developed...

News

Materials

Jeep’s Gladiator Takes up Arms in Midsize-Pickup Battle

Maybe the only thing more surprising than the fact it’s been more than a quarter-century since FiatChrysler’s Jeep brand sold a pickup truck is that it’s taken so long to pull...

Technology Report

Test & Measurement

Autonomous Vehicles Present Passive-Safety Challenges

Reclined and rotated seating positions are commonly depicted for autonomously driven vehicles. But for the Autoliv engineers tasked with developing occupant safety for tomorrow’s...

News

Connectivity

Jaguar Land Rover Makes Eye Contact with New AV Research

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) engineers developing autonomous-vehicle (AV) driving systems are working with cognitive psychologists to determine how users—and particularly...

News

Photonics/Optics

New Osram IREDs Enhance Vehicle Vision, less Harmful to Human Eyes

As a compliment to cameras, LIDAR and radar, a new family of Infrared LEDs (IREDs) can expand the vision of SAE Level 4 and 5 autonomous vehicles without harming human eyes.

What We’re Driving

Energy

2018 Nissan Leaf SV

Uncoiling the fat-diameter charge cord from its kit bag, I plugged the Nissan’s new Leaf into the 120-V outlet on my garage’s exterior wall. Handling the cord, which was dirty from the previous night’s charging,...

Application Briefs

Test & Measurement

Turret Aiming and Stabilization System

Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions DivisionAshburn, VA+1-703-779-7800www.curtisswrightds.com Curtiss-Wright’s Defense Solutions division recently completed significant enhancements to the production...

Application Briefs

Photonics/Optics

Joint Effects Targeting System

U.S. Army Operational Test CommandFort Hood, TX254-287-9993www.otc.army.mil Forward observers, experts in directing artillery and mortar fire onto enemy targets, have been testing a new piece of targeting...

Articles

Imaging

WIAMan

The newest crash test dummy in development is actually a blast test dummy. WIAMan (Warrior Injury Assessment Manikin) is a ground-breaking anthropomorphic test device (ATD) being developed by the U.S. Army. It’s the first test dummy...

Application Briefs

Defense

Gun-Mounted Rangefinder

Optics 1, Inc. (Safran)Bedford, NH603-296-0469www.optics1.com Optics 1, Inc. (Safran) recently announced that its Integrated Compact Ultralight Gun-mounted Rangefinder (ICUGR) has been selected by the United States...