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Google and IEEE launch $1M challenge for downsized inverters

Green Car Congress

Google and the IEEE have launched the Littlebox Challenge—an open competition to design and build a small kW-scale inverter with the highest power density (of at least 50 W/in 3 , or 3.05 The grand prize winner will be announced sometime in January, 2016. —Google FAQ on the challenge. Click to enlarge.

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Toyota Research Institute CEO Pratt outlines initial AI/robotics mandates; trillion-mile reliability

Green Car Congress

Last November, Toyota Motor established a new company—Toyota Research Institute Inc. At a press conference at CES 2016, TRI CEO and Toyota Executive Technical Advisor Dr. Gill Pratt laid out his new company’s near-term approach and challenges it seeks to address, as well as its much larger ambitions. Earlier post.) (The

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Thomson Reuters report finds established auto industry companies, not Silicon Valley, leading development of autonomous driving tech

Green Car Congress

According to the report— 2016 State of Self-Driving Automotive Innovation —there were more than 22,000 new inventions related to self-driving automobiles between January 2010 and October 2015, with some clear leaders already emerging in the space. —2016 State of Self-Driving Automotive Innovation.

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Safer and Self-Driving Cars Now on Roads

Clean Fleet Report

Tesla, Volvo, Mercedes (Daimler), BMW, Audi, GM, Ford, Nissan, Toyota and others are now delivering cars with some of these features and developing cars with all of these. million annually in 2016 to $36.6 Google, in partnership with Stanford University, has successfully had self-driving vehicles on the road since 2009.

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Stanford scientists identify new Li-B-S solid electrolyte materials that boost lithium-ion battery performance

Green Car Congress

To find reliable solid electrolytes, Sendek and his colleagues in 2016 trained a computer algorithm to screen more than 12,000 lithium-containing compounds in a materials database. Other co-authors are Ekin Cubuk at Google Brain, and Brian Francisco and Josh Buettner-Garret at Solid Power, Inc. Austin D.

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As Electric Car Makers Ante Up Billions, Software Is Ace in the Hole

Cars That Think

Consulting firm KPMG , for example, estimates that in addition to the 179 new battery EV model launches and refreshes between 2016 and 2020, at least another 251 are expected between 2021 and 2023 by traditional auto manufacturers, or original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) as they are referred to in the industry, as well as start-ups.

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Alphabet’s Intrinsic Acquires Majority of Open Robotics

Cars That Think

Open Robotics, meanwhile, branched out in 2016 from a strict non-profit to also take on some high-profile projects for the likes of the Toyota Research Institute and NVIDIA, supporting itself commercially by leveraging its experience and expertise in ROS development. Which is exactly what OSRF did.