The new Leo (formerly Project Kuiper) antenna will enable air travelers bandwidth of up to 1 gigabit per second for downloads and 400 megabits per second for uploads on Delta, JetBlue, and any other commercial airlines Amazon signs up.
Still, Amazon isn’t close to meeting its deadline from the FCC to launch 1,600 satellites by July 2026, having recently requested a two year extension.
Finnish startup Donut Lab claims it’s made a solid-state battery breakthrough. Whether you believe it or not, the technology does appear to be more than just hype.
VW is swapping the electric compact SUV with the gas guzzling Atlas at its Chattanooga factory, right in the midst of a global oil crisis. The automaker says it will continue to sell ID.4s in the US while it still has inventory, and promises future version of the EV for the US market — with no timeline attached. The ID.4 is the latest casualty of the Trump administration’s knee-capping of the EV market in the US.
The first-of-its-kind rest stop, which includes e-bike battery recharging equipment, was erected in record time thanks to NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s request to get it done in time for his first 100 days in office. Workers had to improvise a crane-lift because they didn’t have the right permit, and also deal with a misplaced electrical wire. But in the end, they finished it. (Hopefully future shelters will include bathrooms, though.)
[New York Times]
Uber and Volkswagen are now testing their first robotaxis on the streets of LA, in anticipation of launching a commercial service later this year. The all-electric VW ID Buzz minivans are using autonomous technology developed by VW subsidiary, MOIA America. The company plans on scaling the fleet to 100 vehicles during the testing phase. Each vehicle will have a safety driver ready to take over in case something goes wrong.
