Technology

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. Starlink signals can be reverse-engineered to work like GPS—whether SpaceX likes it or not For years, Todd Humphreys has been trying to persuade SpaceX to tweak its Starlink constellation to also offer ultra-precise…

Todd Humphreys’s offer to SpaceX was simple. With a few software tweaks, its rapidly growing Starlink constellation could also offer ultra-precise position, navigation, and timing. The US Army, which funds Humphreys’s work at the University of Texas at Austin, wanted a backup to its venerable, and vulnerable, GPS system. Could Starlink fill that role? When…

This article is from The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, sign up here. Hello, and welcome back to the Checkup! This week I found myself back in the classroom, sitting on a small plastic chair and carefully noting down what the teacher told me. It was…

General Motors unveiled Thursday an all-electric GMC Sierra Denali pickup truck, the latest model in the automaker’s march towards a global annual sales target of 1 million electric vehicles by 2025. The GMC Sierra Denali EV isn’t the first electric truck or SUV on GM’s new Ultium platform. It’s actually the brand’s third battery-electric truck, […]

GM takes another full-size pickup electric with the 400-mile range GMC Sierra EV by Jaclyn Trop originally published on TechCrunch

The US federal government is spending big on batteries and electric vehicles. As part of that spending spree, President Joe Biden and the Department of Energy have just announced $2.8 billion in awards to companies involved in producing the minerals and other materials that go into the batteries. The funding will go to 20 projects,…

Mercedes-Benz AG will source carbon-neutral lithium hydroxide to build batteries for electric vehicles from a Vancouver-based mining startup. Starting in 2026, the agreement with Rock Tech Lithium will provide Mercedes-Benz AG with an average of 10,000 tons of battery-grade lithium hydroxide per year — enough for around 150,000 electric vehicles. Mercedes-Benz, which sells about two […]

Mercedes-Benz partners with Canadian mining company for CO2-neutral lithium hydroxide for EVs by Jaclyn Trop originally published on TechCrunch

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. Bill Gates’s energy venture fund is plowing more money into climate adaptation The news: Bill Gates’s climate-oriented venture capital fund is expanding its mission, adding adaptation to its investment categories and establishing a…

AI systems are deployed all the time, but it can take months or even years until it becomes clear whether, and how, they’re biased.  The stakes are often sky-high: unfair AI systems can cause innocent people to be arrested, and they can deny people housing, jobs, and basic services.   Today a group of AI and…