https://techxplore.com/ en-us Tech Xplore internet news portal provides the latest news on electronics, technology, and engineering. Driverless taxis are a bit like buses. You wait ages for one, and then a fleet arrives all at once. The US firms Waymo and Uber have both said their vehicles will be on the streets of London in 2026. https://techxplore.com/news/2025-12-driverless-taxis-uk-blame-wrong.html Business Wed, 10 Dec 2025 16:40:01 EST news684606722 Railway infrastructure could be made safer and more reliable using AI, artificial intelligence, according to research published in the International Journal of Information and Communication Technology. The research outlines a new automated, real-time fault detection system based on deep learning that can identify problems with track, bridges, tunnels, and signaling equipment. The work could address long-standing challenges in maintaining complex transportation networks. https://techxplore.com/news/2025-12-ai-real-fault-rail.html Automotive Thu, 04 Dec 2025 15:09:18 EST news684083342 Scientists at the University of Sharjah have developed an advanced digital twin technology designed to replicate renewable energy stored in tanks, substantially improving their efficiency and reliability. The team presents the details of their invention, called a "data-driven digital twin," in a paper published in the journal Energy. https://techxplore.com/news/2025-11-scientists-unveil-digital-twin-tech.html Energy & Green Tech Tue, 11 Nov 2025 12:02:04 EST news682084921 UNSW Sydney nano-tech startup Diraq has shown its quantum chips aren't just lab-perfect prototypes—they also hold up in real-world production, maintaining the 99% accuracy needed to make quantum computers viable. https://techxplore.com/news/2025-09-quantum-chips-major-hurdle.html Business Wed, 24 Sep 2025 11:00:09 EDT news677921521 Jaguar Land Rover said Tuesday that its production lines, shut down after a cyberattack in August, will remain at a halt until at least Oct. 1. https://techxplore.com/news/2025-09-jaguar-rover-shutdown-oct-cyberattack.html Security Tue, 23 Sep 2025 04:20:02 EDT news677819660 Annually, tens of thousands of wildfires ravage the United States, posing significant threats to people, wildlife, and infrastructure. A percentage of those wildfires are caused by degraded or downed electrical equipment. But what if artificial intelligence (AI) could detect the spark before wildfires even start? https://techxplore.com/news/2025-08-ai-snuff-wildfires-power-line.html Engineering Thu, 28 Aug 2025 11:30:07 EDT news675597147 A study, led by Dr. Wentao Huang, overcame a critical gap in five-phase permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) diagnostics: conventional methods fail to assess inter-turn short-circuit (ITSC) severity. The method integrates two technologies: a real-time tracker that diagnoses faults, and an AI analyzer that processes signals to quantify damage while estimating short-circuit parameters. https://techxplore.com/news/2025-07-motor-safety-ai-powered-capability.html Engineering Thu, 03 Jul 2025 13:16:03 EDT news670767361 A research collaboration between Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai Qi Zhi Institution, and Huawei Technologies has introduced BAFT, a cutting-edge autosave system for AI training that minimizes downtime and optimizes efficiency. https://techxplore.com/news/2025-03-baft-ai-autosave-losses.html Computer Sciences Thu, 27 Mar 2025 16:49:52 EDT news662312983 Historically, access to geothermal energy has hinged on real estate's famously three most important factors: location, location, and location. Because conventional geothermal power plants require hot, permeable rocks and plenty of underground fluid, use of the technology has been limited mostly to places with recent volcanism, such as Japan, New Zealand, the Philippines, Kenya, El Salvador, Iceland, and the western United States. https://techxplore.com/news/2025-02-geothermal-wider-access-energy.html Energy & Green Tech Sat, 22 Feb 2025 03:01:44 EST news659415663 German and Finland expressed deep concern over the discovery Monday of a severed undersea data cable between the countries through the Baltic Sea, saying it raised suspicions of sabotage and that an investigation was underway. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-11-cable-baltic-sea-finland-germany.html Telecom Mon, 18 Nov 2024 12:39:44 EST news651155980 Japan's nuclear watchdog on Wednesday formally disqualified a reactor in the country's north-central region from restarting, the first rejection under safety standards that were reinforced after the 2011 Fukushima disaster. The decision is a setback for Japan as it seeks to accelerate reactor restarts to maximize nuclear power. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-11-japanese-disqualify-reactor-fukushima-safety.html Energy & Green Tech Wed, 13 Nov 2024 05:20:02 EST news650697188 Germany's national rail company reported "massive" disruptions over parts of the country on Saturday, blaming a "technical disturbance" that was forcing many trains to wait at stations until the problem is cleared up. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-09-german-rail-major-disruptions-due.html Automotive Sun, 08 Sep 2024 06:51:13 EDT news644997069 Modern software applications usually consist of numerous files and several million lines of code. Due to the sheer quantity, finding and correcting faults, known as debugging, is difficult. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-07-fault-localization-software.html Software Wed, 31 Jul 2024 05:46:14 EDT news641623566 Imagine being able not only to detect a fault in a complex system but also to receive a clear, understandable explanation of its cause. Just like having a seasoned expert by your side. This is the promise of combining a large language model (LLM) such as GPT-4 with advanced diagnostic tools. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-07-smart-diagnostics-generative-ai-empower.html Energy & Green Tech Mon, 15 Jul 2024 12:17:03 EDT news640264621 As our reliance on electric vehicles and renewable energy systems grows, so does the demand for efficient and sustainable battery technologies. The challenges of performance degradation, safety concerns, and environmental impact loom large. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-06-sustainable-battery-technology-fault.html Energy & Green Tech Wed, 05 Jun 2024 14:11:04 EDT news636815462 No crystal ball is needed to envision a future that engineers have in mind, one in which air taxis and other flying vehicles ferry passengers between urban locations, avoiding the growing gridlock on the ground below. Companies are already prototyping and testing such hybrid electric "flying cars" that take off and land vertically but soar through the air like winged aircraft to enable efficient flight over longer distances. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-04-virtual-sensors-aerial-vehicles-stay.html Robotics Wed, 24 Apr 2024 13:34:04 EDT news633184442 An arc-fault is an electrical discharge between two conductors due to poor contact. These discharges cause sparks that can reach temperatures as high as 1000 degrees Celsius, making them one of the major causes of electrical fires. In the United States, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) estimates that 50 to 75 percent of all electrical home fires are a result of arc faults. Arcing can occur even in home appliances that operate at lower voltage levels making the swift detection of an arc-fault is essential for improving electrical fire safety. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-03-arc-faults-electrical-safety.html Engineering Mon, 04 Mar 2024 16:08:03 EST news628790881 Republican appointees to the Supreme Court criticized the EPA's rule on cross-state air pollution during oral arguments Wednesday, as the justices contemplate whether to block the rule as lower legal challenges play out. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-02-supreme-court-skeptical-state-air.html Business Thu, 22 Feb 2024 08:22:03 EST news627812521 As the demand for technologies that enable generative AI continues to skyrocket, processing capacities must keep pace to accommodate model training and fault tolerance. University of Michigan researchers designed a solution specific to modern AI workloads. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-12-open-source-framework-large-language-pre-training.html Computer Sciences Mon, 18 Dec 2023 15:13:04 EST news622134782 Distributed cloud storage is a hot topic for security researchers around the globe pursuing secure data storage, and a team in China is now merging quantum physics with mature cryptography and storage techniques to achieve a cost-effective cloud storage solution. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-11-cloud-storage-approach-quantum-physics.html Computer Sciences Tue, 14 Nov 2023 11:00:01 EST news619178400 Solar panel systems are now being installed at a rapid pace. In 2022 alone, the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE) registered a doubling of installed solar power systems connected to the power grid. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-10-extra-centimeters-rooftop-solar-panel.html Engineering Thu, 19 Oct 2023 15:27:04 EDT news616948021 Some of Victoria's worst bushfires have been started by power lines. So, power distribution companies have installed devices that limit the energy flowing to the fault to cut the fire risk. However, in networks equipped with these devices, communities might experience power outages for hours while network operators attempt to track down a fault along tens of kilometers of power line. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-09-exact-power-fault-minutes.html Electronics & Semiconductors Wed, 27 Sep 2023 12:00:01 EDT news615034463 Making group decisions is no easy task, especially when the decision makers are a swarm of robots. To increase swarm autonomy in collective perception, a research team at the IRIDIA artificial intelligence research laboratory at the Université Libre de Bruxelles proposed an innovative self-organizing approach in which one robot at a time works temporarily as the "brain" to consolidate information on behalf of the group. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-09-robots-collaborate-consensus.html Robotics Thu, 14 Sep 2023 11:15:02 EDT news613908901 Financing for clean energy in developing and emerging economies excluding China must increase seven-fold within a decade if global warming is to be capped at tolerable levels, the International Energy Agency said Wednesday. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-06-climate-goals-energy-surge-global.html Energy & Green Tech Wed, 21 Jun 2023 05:06:50 EDT news606542806 An article titled "On misbehaviour and fault tolerance in machine learning systems," by doctoral researcher Lalli Myllyaho was named one of the best papers in 2022 by the Journal of Systems and Software. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-04-machine-absolute-certainty.html Software Tue, 18 Apr 2023 12:53:56 EDT news601041233 For decades, transistors—the heart of computer chips—have been getting smaller and smaller. As a result, the electronic components in many devices can be made even more compact, faster and also more powerful. But is this development coming to a natural halt? The smaller the components, the greater the danger that individual defects in the atomic structure will significantly change the behavior of the component. This applies to the established silicon technology and novel nanotechnologies based on 2D materials. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-01-defects-2d-electronic-circuits.html Electronics & Semiconductors Mon, 16 Jan 2023 15:20:03 EST news593104800 Researcher Sveinung Attestog shows in a new study how we can more quickly detect faults in machines that are widely used in wind turbines and electric cars. This is something that could pay off for electricity customers and car owners. https://techxplore.com/news/2022-12-efficient-turbines-electric-vehicles.html Electronics & Semiconductors Tue, 20 Dec 2022 12:30:03 EST news590761801 Less than six months after rejecting a proposal for a major desalination plant in Huntington Beach, the California Coastal Commission on Thursday approved plans for a different, smaller project in Orange County they say could serve as a model for future projects. https://techxplore.com/news/2022-10-california-coastal-commission-desalination-orange.html Energy & Green Tech Fri, 14 Oct 2022 12:50:01 EDT news584969835 A research team led by Prof. Gao Ge and Jiang Li from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has investigated the fault diagnosis of a pulse width modulation converter and proposed a neural network fault diagnosis algorithm to solve existing problems in this field. Results were published in IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics. https://techxplore.com/news/2022-08-fault-diagnosis-algorithm-pulse-width.html Electronics & Semiconductors Wed, 24 Aug 2022 09:54:02 EDT news580553641 Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have learned a lot about how to reliably integrate large amounts of wind and solar power onto the grid—but there are a few outstanding challenges. https://techxplore.com/news/2022-06-short-circuit-energy-transition.html Energy & Green Tech Fri, 03 Jun 2022 10:16:17 EDT news573470172