Civil, Structural & Architecture

17 May 23

Self-driving cars will cause ‘moral panic’, says transport minister

Civil, Structural & Architecture, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

Jesse Norman told MPs that a “horrendous” part of the development of the technology will be “scare stories, particularly in the early stages”. Last month, the UK became the first European country to allow drivers to take their hands off car steering wheels on public roads, after the Department for…

11 May 23

TransPennine Express to be nationalised over ‘continuous cancellations’

Civil, Structural & Architecture, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

The government has decided not to renew the TransPennine contract from 28 May, after a quarter of the operator's services were cancelled in January and February and one in six trains did not run in March 2023. The constant cancellations and delays have resulted in a considerable decline in confidence…

11 May 23

New electric ‘Slant’ on getting the shopping home given funding boost

Civil, Structural & Architecture, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

A team of innovation master’s students at the University of Bristol have developed a tap-to-rent electric trailer that can be attached to a bike or e-scooter. The e-trailer could help cut the estimated 4.5 billion car journeys made to and from supermarkets in England each year, as well as assisting…

04 May 23

Electrifying Standards: U.S. Joins EV Race to Zero

Civil, Structural & Architecture

Last month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed a historic set of vehicle tailpipe emissions standards, aimed at making two-thirds of all passenger cars zero-emissions by 2032, along with 46 percent of medium-duty trucks (such as delivery vans) and 25 percent of heavy-duty trucks such as 18-wheelers. The proposed standards,…

03 May 23

Cycling suffering slump since coronavirus peak, figures show

Civil, Structural & Architecture, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

The DfT data demonstrates the surge in cycling – when Covid restrictions affected travel patterns – peaked in March 2021. The amount of cycling on main roads fell by 24.1 per cent from that time up to the end of 2022. The decline has sparked concern that the government will…

27 Apr 23

“Liquid” Neural Network Adapts on the Go

Civil, Structural & Architecture

In the realm of artificial intelligence, bigger is supposed to be better. Neural networks with billions of parameters power everyday AI-based tools like ChatGPT and Dall-E, and each new large language model (LLM) edges out its predecessors in size and complexity. Meanwhile, at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory…

27 Apr 23

FA Cup final day hit by fresh wave of train strikes

Civil, Structural & Architecture, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

Members of the Aslef union will walk out on 12 and 31 May, and then again when Wembley Stadium hosts Manchester City and Manchester United in the FA Cup final on 3 June. That date is also in the sporting calendar for the Epsom Derby. The train drivers' union said…

24 Apr 23

Superconducting highway concept would allow vehicles to travel at 400mph

Civil, Structural & Architecture, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

Superconductors can conduct electricity without any resistance or power loss and can effortlessly cause magnets to levitate above them. These properties would make superconductors useful for high-speed trains or long-distance power transmission in theory, but they only work at extreme low temperatures - more than one hundred degrees below zero.…

22 Apr 23

Hyundai Making (Tesla) Killer EVs on the QT

Civil, Structural & Architecture

In the booming business of electric cars, you expect innovation and ingenious features to hail from luxury land: Lucid, Rivian, Porsche, or Tesla.Driving the new Hyundai Ioniq 6 sedan highlights the rise of an underdog that was almost wholly unforeseen: South Korea’s Hyundai Motors, and its Kia and luxury Genesis…

21 Apr 23

Who’s really in control of getting driverless cars safely onto UK roads?

Civil, Structural & Architecture, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

The UK government has been anticipating the imminent arrival of driverless cars for many years, but the technology is just one of the components needing further development before autonomous vehicles (AVs) appear on Britain’s roads. The reality of AVs hinges on developing a legal framework that underpins how they are…