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The NASA spacecraft Dawn has spent more than seven years traveling across the solar system to intercept the asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres. Now in orbit around Ceres, the probe has returned the first images and data from these distant objects. But inside Dawn itself is another first – the spacecraft is the first exploratory space mission to use an electrically-powered ion engine rather than conventional rockets. Such ion engines will propel the next generation of spacecraft. Inside an Ion Engine Ion engines use electric power to create charged…

Daimler Trucks has shifted gears in its ongoing effort to develop autonomous vehicles. By fitting its Highway Pilot self-driving system to a Mercedes-Benz Actros truck and steering it down a stretch of Autobahn 8 near Stuttgart, the company has marked the first time an autonomous production semi has been tested out on public roads. Much like the posited advantages of self-driving cars, Daimler says improvements in driver safety are a compelling reason to pursue the technology in the road freight sector. By allowing autonomous systems to shoulder some of the burden…

Sometimes being the best isn’t enough. You have to keep pushing, and trying to beat yourself. It’s a mindset that works for Olympic athletes, gearing up for Rio, and also for a small Maryland company that modifies Corvettes. Genovation takes the iconic muscle cars, rips out the drivetrain, and replaces it with twin electric motors, and 44kWh of batteries down the old transmission tunnel, and where the fuel tanks used to be. The team was puttering about with its Genovation GXE in February, when it set the speed record for…

In many ways, adulthood is a litany of dreams deferred, elaborate goals of things like eating ice cream for dinner dashed. But every once in awhile something awakens childhood dreams of, say, being a race car driver. Something like this build-your-own racetrack kit. OK, they’re magnets. But the guys at Blipshift—known for their fun auto-inspired T-shirts—let you zoom around the track of your dreams while waiting for the coffee to brew or your kids’ waffles to heat up. “Formula Fridge” features a mélange of enough curves and straights to build…

The fatal crash of a Tesla Model S car on self driving mode has increased the pressure on auto makers and regulators to ensure that automated driving technology can be deployed safely and to find ways of determining accountability in the event of a crash. To that end the German government is set to pass new legislation requiring all cars equipped with self-driving features to include a black box, similar to those required on aircraft. Under the proposal from Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt, all automakers will have to install a recording…