Tag: trucking

InSight and Juno Keep on Trucking

NASA’s InSight lander on Mars and the Juno orbiter at Jupiter have new leases on life. From a report: The spacecraft are expected to continue gathering data about their respective planetary targets during their newly extended missions, allowing scientists to learn more about seismic activity on Mars and turn their attention to the moons of Jupiter. Juno’s mission has been extended…

Are We Ready for Driverless Trucks?

Two million truckers move 70% of America’s goods. But hundreds of thousands of their jobs could be disrupted away, reports Jon Wertheim on the CBS news show 60 Minutes, in “a high-stakes, high-speed race pitting the usual suspects — Google and Tesla and other global tech firms — against small start-ups smelling opportunity.” One of those startups is TuSimple, and their…

Anthony Levandowski Sentenced To 18 Months In Prison, As New $4 Billion Lawsuit Against Uber Is Filed

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Anthony Levandowski, the former Google engineer and serial entrepreneur who was at the center of a lawsuit between Uber and Waymo, has been sentenced to 18 months on one count of stealing trade secrets. Judge Alsup said that home confinement would “[give] a green light to every future brilliant engineer to steal trade…

Y Combinator Company ‘Flexport’ Is Shipping PPE To Frontline Responders

The Y Combinator company Flexport is a San Francisco-based freight-forwarding and customs brokerage company. (Its investors include Google Ventures and Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund.) But on March 23rd Flexport announced they were now re-focusing all their resources to get critical supplies to frontline responders combating COVID-19. They’ve joined a team that announced on Friday announced “we’re shipping full cargo planes filled…

Big Rigs Begin To Trade Diesel For Electric Motors

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: Two years ago, the eCascadia [the electric version of the Freightliner Cascadia] was nothing more than a PowerPoint presentation — a virtual rendering to expedite a diesel stalwart into a zero-emissions future for goods movement. Now it’s one of several competing models, from start-ups as well as established truck makers,…

Could Unions At Tech Companies Gain Traction in 2020?

“2020 may be the year where tech unionizing efforts gain some actual traction for the first time,” argues GeekWire: The chances of this happening in 2020 reflect several factors in the industry and political landscape coming together in the right way for the first time ever. The “Streisand Effect” is basically where the actions you take to prevent what you most…

Judge Halts California ‘Gig Worker’ Law From Taking Effect For Truckers

schwit1 shares a report from CBS News: A federal judge has temporarily blocked a new California labor law from impacting more than 70,000 independent truckers. The law, passed late last year, makes it harder for companies to classify workers as independent contractors instead of employees, who are entitled to minimum wage and benefits such as workers compensation. U.S. District Judge Roger…

Waymo’s Driver-Less Cars Will Also Deliver Parts To Repair Shops

“Waymo said that its autonomous vehicles will be used to help shuttle car parts between several AutoNation locations and other repair shops in the Phoenix, Arizona area,” reports the International Business Times: While the expanded partnership may not seem like a big deal at first blush, it’s important for investors to know that the move is yet another step for Waymo…

The Most Detailed Map of Auto Emissions In America

The New York Times published findings from an analysis of new data released through Boston University’s Database of Road Transportation Emissions. The map embedded in the report shows a year’s worth of CO2 from passenger and freight traffic on every road in the United States. From the report: The database provides the most detailed estimates available of local on-road CO2 over…