Wanderer

"Pakistan isn’t the first country you’d expect to crash the global solar party. But by the end of 2024, it quietly rocketed into the top tier of solar adopters, importing a jaw-dropping 22 gigawatts worth of solar panels in a single year. That’s not a typo or a spreadsheet rounding error. That’s the kind of number that turns heads at IEA meetings and makes policy analysts double-check their databases. It certainly made me sit up and take notice when I first heard about what was happening in mid-2024.

It’s more solar than Canada has installed in total. It’s more than the UK added in the past five years. And yet it didn’t make a blip in most Western media."

"Norway is the world leader when it comes to the take up of electric cars, which last year accounted for nine out of 10 new vehicles sold in the country."

Figure AI, a robotics innovator, and BMW, the German automobile giant, have revealed remarkable advancements in the Figure 02 humanoid robot’s capabilities. 

Operating on a production line, the Figure 02 robot has made a significant leap, achieving a 400% increase in speed and a sevenfold improvement in success rate.

"The UK’s era of coal-free power begins on the 1st October 2024, following a rapid decline over the last 12 years which has seen power sector emissions plummet by three quarters."

"This report provides an overview of the UK coal power phase-out, looking at changes in electricity generation since 2012 when coal began to rapidly decline. It provides context on how phase-out was achieved through a mix of initiatives and policy frameworks, and considers how this can inform the next chapter of UK power sector decarbonisation."

"Coal power provided almost 40% of UK generation in 2012, shrinking to 2% by 2019, and finally falling to zero by October 2024. In 2012, coal generated 143 TWh of electricity, equivalent to Sweden’s total power demand in 2023."

"the Alphabet-owned company has been allowed to deploy an unlimited number of robotaxis for paid driverless rides in the city [San Francisco] at all hours. In March, state regulators allowed the company to expand its commercial ride-hailing to 22 Peninsula cities.

Now, Waymo officials are declaring victory after a year of commercial driverless service without any serious incidents and say it gives them confidence to speed up their robotaxi expansion.

David Margines, Waymo’s director of product management, said in an interview that the company’s one-year track record in San Francisco “is a validation” that its robotaxis can “drive safely” and “coexist in the communities that we want to operate in.”

“Looking back over the year, I’m thrilled to say that it’s been a big success,” he said."

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/25985192

"Waymo regularly takes its autonomous vehicles on winter road trips to test the cars in snowy environments. In 2017, it was Michigan.

This year, Waymo will hit multiple wintry locales, including Truckee, California; Upstate New York; and Michigan, from the Upper Peninsula to the metro Detroit area"

Seen this on reddit and thought it was an interesting question that largely is not talked about.

It is largely an issue that gets sidelined and hidden because people don't want to talk about it or accept that it exists. Hopefully this gets some traction to break that marginalisation.