Also this week: Tesla-affiliated researchers say they’ve invented a very long lasting car battery , the Porsche Taycan is very fun , and electric buses hit a potential speed bump , courtesy of Congress. It’s been a week—let’s get you caught up.
Headlines
Stories you might have missed from WIRED this week- We test the new electric Porsche Taycan by driving it—where else?—on the German autobahn .
- Maybe it’s time to get more obsessed with transportation efficiency, instead of speed. Y’know, .
- How a congressional bill aimed at stimulating homegrown rail car and bus manufacturing businesses might put a damper on electric buses .
- The future face of the country’s most popular rail route.
- How the UK government is getting 150,000 travelers stranded by the sudden collapse of a travel agency back to Britain .
- Software-focused developer + massive automaker = 🤑
- Researchers associated with Tesla announce a breakthrough to create a longer-lasting lithium-ion battery that might be able to power a vehicle for over 1 million miles .
- From WIRED Opinion : The US government really should spend more money on revamping air traffic control for the drones and flying cars to come.
- The NTSB says Boeing didn’t anticipate how pilots would react to the 737 MAX —a significant factor in two fatal crashes that happened just months apart.
- Uber announces a bunch of new features aimed at protecting rider safety .
- German researchers are trying to figure out how to get pilots to land their planes more quietly .
Highway Fan of the Week
Ignore the Phanatic—this guy loves I-95 more than you.Stat of the Week
833%The jump in autonomous-vehicle job postings between 2015 and 2019, according to the jobs site Indeed. Job searches jumped, too, by 450 percent. But note, job searchers: The sector saw a dip between 2018 and 2019, with postings dropping by 19 percent. The majority of these jobs are near the usual places: San Jose, Pittsburgh (home of Uber and ArgoAI’s self-driving efforts), and Detroit.Required Reading
News from elsewhere on the internet