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News Manned Systems
Engineering Sustainability
Watching a junked school bus being fed into a mammoth hammer mill, which loudly pummeled the bus into fragments of metal, rubber, and plastic, was a sight I’ll never forget. I was visiting Huron Valley Metals,...
Editorial Design
COMVEC 2022: Hiring Talent to Meet High-Tech Demands
There’s always been competition for engineering talent. But with embedded software becoming ever more critical for subsystems in commercial vehicles and off-highway equipment, nowadays...
Editorial Unmanned Systems
Platooning Still Promising for Trucking
There is “no business case” for platooning, or the electronic coupling of two or more trucks in close formation. That was the assessment of Daimler Trucks in 2019 when it decided to pause its...
Editorial Test & Measurement
Unreliable Electronics Are the New Prince of Darkness
Younger engineers may be unfamiliar with Joseph Lucas Ltd., the infamous Tier-1 supplier of British automotive electrical and electronic woes. Lucas helped institutionalize, fairly or...
Editorial Manned Systems
EV, Give Me Heat!
Cabin heating and cooling, and their negative impact on vehicle efficiency and range, are among the challenges still to be solved in battery-electric vehicles. For drivers and passengers, interior comfort — being warm...
Editorial Manned Systems
Alternative Fuels, Propulsion Poised for Growth in U.S. Fleets
Fuel prices are soaring. Not breaking news, I know, yet the almost-daily alerts citing new record highs for gasoline and diesel prices are still unsettling. Consumers and...
Editorial Power
Reconsidering Hybrids
After conversations I had with powertrain engineering executives during the 2022 SAE WCX World Congress, and in reading our reports on the panel discussions, I can conclude two things. First, mobility-industry...
Editorial Power
Engine Technology a Decade Later
A securities analyst from New York called me recently, to ask about the future of powertrain. Specifically, she wanted my prediction for a timeframe for the demise of both gasoline and diesel IC engines....
Editorial Connectivity
Maintaining EV Chargers Yet Another Challenge
Industry experts have trumpeted ad nauseam the need to expand electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure for the past half-decade or more. Those calls continued at the recent Green Truck...
Editorial Energy
Geopolitics: The Other Existential Threat
As I write this on Valentine’s Day, 105 Russian army battalions backed by over 500 tactical aircraft and 40 warships are poised for a blitzkrieg-style invasion of Ukraine. I don’t think it’s...
Editorial Automotive
Optimizing EV Platforms for Pickup Trucks
Pickups are the industry’s most popular and profitable product because they offer individualized vehicles for nearly every customer and use case. American pickups wrote the book on mass...
News Energy
Combustion Engines Carry on in Construction
A recent virtual panel discussion reminded me that we ought not forget the propulsion workhorse of our industries: the good ol’ diesel engine. It’s sometimes easy to forget in the avalanche...
Editorial Unmanned Systems
Safety, Standards Crucial to AVs’ Advance
The details and cost of the Biden Administration’s $1.2-trillion ($555 billion in new spending) federal infra- structure bill may have been exhaustively debated by the time it was passed last November, but few could argue that substantial investment in the nation’s systems wasn’t long overdue.
Editorial Power
Ford C2 Is Model for EV Scale, Lower Costs
Has the auto industry ever seen a more dynamic and outright crazy time than today’s second coming of the electric vehicle? Those of us who visited Rivian Automotive’s L.A. auto show display a...
Editorial Manufacturing & Prototyping
Time to End the Madness of EV Sales Subsidies
Electric vehicles have proven that they can sell themselves.
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...
Editorial Weapons Systems
Waging a War for EV Materials Security
Conflict over natural resources and human history are inseparable. Wars waged directly or indirectly over control of commodities, trade routes, water, food sources and arable soil have been the root...
News Power
Mega Push for Heavy-Duty EV Charging
The number of zero-emission (ZE) heavy-duty trucks in the U.S., Canada, China and Europe is expected to increase nearly 80% between 2020 and 2023, from 40 available or announced models to 71. Electric...
Editorial Connectivity
Making Safety Standard
I’m not sure who claims to have coined the often-repeated phrase, “Safety comes standard.” But that tagline came to mind as authorities in Texas and officials with the National Transportation Safety Board...
News Unmanned Systems
State of the Industry: Ubiquitous Broadband Is Key
Bipartisanship and infrastructure: More of the former will (hopefully) help secure more of the latter. That sums up a recurrent theme during the Association of Equipment Manufacturers’...
News Power
Zeroing in on Zero Emissions
Electrification is inevitable for commercial vehicles. That is the takeaway from a quick succession of zero-emission commercial vehicle (ZECV) initiatives announced by various groups since the summer solstice....
Editorial Unmanned Systems
Clean Is the New Safety Paradigm for AV Development
Privately-owned vehicles were never so safe as they are today. Nor have they made so much sense. That thought hit me between the nostrils recently, as I sprayed a pungent disinfectant on...
News Packaging & Sterilization
ConExpo Excels amid COVID-19
Las Vegas seemed to be in a bubble from March 10-13, the week of ConExpo-Con/Agg & IFPE 2020. Tens of thousands of attendees crowded the halls inside the Las Vegas Convention Center and outside on the new...
News Test & Measurement
ConExpo & IFPE 2020: Go Big or Go Home
My inbox has been inundated with notifications of press conferences and exciting new construction equipment, power systems, and other advanced technologies to be revealed at the rapidly approaching...
Editorial Power
SAE Publishes On-Route Mechanized Conductive EV Charging Systems Recommended Practices
SAE International published SAE J-3105 Electric Vehicle Power Transfer System Using Conductive Automated Connection Devices Recommended Practice in...
Editorial Manned Systems
Bigger Barrier to CBEVs: Batteries or Infrastructure?
Batteries have long been considered the main barrier to deployment of commercial battery-electric vehicles (CBEVs), but many industry insiders now believe charging infrastructure is a...
News Connectivity
Bauma Industry Barometer: Tech-Focused in North America
The triennial behemoth of an off-highway trade fair, bauma, may be a few months away yet, but setup for what essentially becomes a city of towering machinery began in November, with...
Editorial Power
Electrify the U.S. Postal Fleet!
What better way to promote the reliable, durable, quiet, clean, and low-cost operation of EVs than to have them serving us daily in our neighborhoods?
Editorial Transportation
OEMs Deny Suppliers the Limelight
OEMs direct the sourcing and write the checks, so they control the message at launch. And that means little or no acknowledgement of vital supplier technology contributions.
Top Stories
INSIDERRF & Microwave Electronics
FAA to Replace Aging Network of Ground-Based Radars
PodcastsDefense
A New Additive Manufacturing Accelerator for the U.S. Navy in Guam
NewsSoftware
Rewriting the Engineer’s Playbook: What OEMs Must Do to Spin the AI Flywheel
Road ReadyPower
2026 Toyota RAV4 Review: All Hybrid, All the Time
INSIDERDefense
F-22 Pilot Controls Drone With Tablet
INSIDERRF & Microwave Electronics
L3Harris Starts Low Rate Production Of New F-16 Viper Shield
Webcasts
Energy
Hydrogen Engines Are Heating Up for Heavy Duty
Energy
SAE Automotive Podcast: Solid-State Batteries
Power
SAE Automotive Engineering Podcast: Additive Manufacturing
Aerospace
A New Approach to Manufacturing Machine Connectivity for the Air Force
Software
Optimizing Production Processes with the Virtual Twin
