|
News Source Slashdot:Hardware
EV Sales Are Still Rising. They Have Not Slumped
"Media headlines suggesting some slowdown in EV sales are simply incorrect," writes the site Electrek, "and leave out the bigger picture that gas car sales actually are dropping..."Over the course ofthe last two years or so, sales of battery electric vehicles, whilecontinuing to grow, have posted lower year-over-year percentagegrowth rates than they had in years prior. EV sales used to grow at50%+ per year, but for the last couple years, they have grown closerto ~25% per year. This alone is not particularly remarkable — itis inevitable that any growing product or category will show slowerpercentage growth rates as sales rise, particularly one that has beengrowing at such a fast rate for so long. In some recent years, wehad even seen year-over-yeardoublings in EV market share (though one of those was 2020->2021,which was anomalous). To expect improvement at that level perpetuallywould be close to impossible — after 3 years of doublingmarket share from 2023's 18% number, EVs would account for morethan 100% of the global automotive market, which cannot happen... We have seen a global EV sales growth rate of 23% in the first 10months of this year, according to a report just released by RhoMotion (recently acquired by Benchmark Mineral Intelligence). Thatincludes a +32% bump in Europe, +22% bump in China, +4% in NorthAmerica, and a big +48% bump in the "rest of the world." Notably,this 23% global growth rate is higher than last year's YTD growthrate, which was 22%at this time... In covering these trends, some journalists have attempted to usethe less-wrong phrase "slower growth," showing that EV sales arestill growing, but at a lower percentage change than previously seen. But for the first ten months of this year, that isn't true — EVsales are up more in 2025 than in 2024 by a percentage basis. Theyare also up in raw sales numbers — in 2024, EVsales grew by a larger number than in 2023. And the same is trueso far in 2025. Going back to 2023, 10.7 million EVs were soldglobally in the first 10 months. Then in 2024, 13.3 million weresold, a difference of 2.6 million. And so far in 2025, 16.5 millionEVs have sold, a difference of 3.2 million. Not only are the numbersgetting bigger, but the growth in unit sales is getting bigger aswell. Even in America, theEV market "has increased so far this year, with 11.7%US EV sales growth YTD."In terms of US hybrid sales, much has been made of customers"shifting from EVs to hybrids," which is also not the case.Conventional gas-hybrid sales areindeed up and plug-in hybrids, which have grown more slowlythan gas-hybrids/BEVs, have also shown some growth lately. Butgas-hybrid sales have not come at the cost of EV sales, rather at thecost of gas-only car sales. Because that'sjust the thing: the number of gas-only vehiclesbeing sold worldwide is a number that actually is falling.That number continues to go down year over year. Sales of newgas-powered cars are down by abouta quarter from their peak in 2017, and show no signs ofrecovering... And yet, somehow, virtually every headline you read isabout the "EV sales slump," rather than the "gas-car salesslump." The one you keep hearing about isn't happening,but the one you rarely hear about is happening... No matterwhat region of the world you're in, EV sales were up in the first10 months of this year.
Read more...
Why Solarpunk Is Already Happening In Africa
Long-time Slashdot reader schwit1 shares a Substack post by economist/entrepreneur Skander Garroum:You know that feeling when you're waiting for the cable guy, and they said 'between 8am and 6pm, and you waste your entire day, and they never show up? Now imagine that, except the cable guy is 'electricity,' the day is '50 years,' and you're one of 600 million people. At some point, you stop waiting and figure it out yourself. What's happening across Sub-Saharan Africa right now is the most ambitious infrastructure project in human history, except it's not being built by governments or utilities or World Bank consortiums. It's being built by startups selling solar panels to farmers on payment plans. And it's working. Over 30 million solar products sold in 2024. 400,000 new solar installations every month across Africa. 50% market share captured by companies that didn't exist 15 years ago. Carbon credits subsidizing the cost. IoT chips in every device. 90%+ repayment rates on loans to people earning $2/day. And if you understand what's happening in Africa, you understand the template for how infrastructure will get built everywhere else for the next 50 years.
Read more...
A 'Peak Oil' Prediction Surprise From the International Energy Agency
"The International Energy Agency's latest outlook signals that oil demand could keep growing through to the middle of the century," reports CNBC, "reflecting a sharp tonal shift from the world's energy watchdog and raising further questions about the future of fossil fuels."In its flagship World Energy Outlook, the Paris-based agency on Wednesday laid out a scenario in which demand for oil climbs to 113 million barrels per day by 2050, up 13% from 2024 levels. The IEA had previously estimated a peak in global fossil fuel demand before the end of this decade and said that, in order to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, there should be no new investments in coal, oil and gas projects... The IEA's end-of-decade peak oil forecast kick-started a long-running war of words with OPEC, an influential group of oil exporting countries, which accused the IEA of fearmongering and risking the destabilization of the global economy. The IEA's latest forecast of increasing oil demand was outlined in its "Current Policies Scenario" — one of a number of scenarios outlined by the IEA. This one assumes no new policies or regulations beyond those already in place. The CPS was dropped five years ago amid energy market turmoil during the coronavirus pandemic, and its reintroduction follows pressure from the Trump administration... Gregory Brew, an analyst at Eurasia Group's Energy, Climate and Resources team, said the IEA's retreat on peak oil demand signified "a major shift" from the group's position over the last five years. "The justifications offered for the shift include policy changes in the U.S., where slow EV penetration indicates robust oil [consumption], but is also tied to expected increases in petrochemical and aviation fuel in East and Southeast Asia," Brew told CNBC by email. "It's unlikely the agency is adjusting based on political pressure — though there has been some of that, with the Trump administration criticizing the group's supposed bias in favor of renewable energy — and the shift reflects a broader skepticism that oil demand is set to peak any time soon," he added... Alongside its CPS, the IEA also laid out projections under its so-called "Stated Policies Scenario" (STEPS), which reflects the prevailing direction of travel for the global energy system. In this assumption, the IEA said it expects oil demand to peak at 102 million barrels per day around 2030, before gradually declining. Global electric car sales are much stronger under this scenario compared to the CPS. The IEA said its multiple scenarios explore a range of consequences from various policy choices and should not be considered forecasts. Thanks to Slashdot reader magzteel for sharing the news.
Read more...
Jack Dorsey Funds diVine, a Vine Reboot That Includes Vine's Video Archive
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: As generative AI content starts to fill our social apps, a project to bring back Vine's six-second looping videos is launching with Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey's backing. On Thursday, a new app called diVine will give access to more than 100,000 archived Vine videos, restored from an older backup that was created before Vine's shutdown. The app won't just exist as a walk down memory lane; it will also allow users to create profiles and upload their own new Vine videos. However, unlike on traditional social media, where AI content is often haphazardly labeled, diVine will flag suspected generative AI content and prevent it from being posted. According to TechCrunch, a volunteer preservation group called the Archive Team saved Vine's content when it shut down in 2016. The only problem was that everything was stored in massive 40-50 GB binary blob files that were basically unusable for casual viewing. Evan Henshaw-Plath (who goes by the name Rabble), an early Twitter employee and member of Jack Dorsey's nonprofit "and Other Stuff," dug into those backup files to try and salvage as much as he could. He spent months writing big-data extraction scripts, reverse-engineering how the archived binaries were structured, and reconstructing the original video files, old user info, view counts, and more. "I wasn't able to get all of them out, but I was able to get a lot out and basically reconstruct these Vines and these Vine users, and give each person a new user [profile] on this open network," he said. Rabble estimates that through this process he was able to successfully recover 150,000-200,000 Vine videos from around 60,000 creators. diVine then rebuilt user profiles on top of the decentralized Nostr protocol so creators can reclaim their accounts, request takedowns, or upload missing videos. You can check out the app for yourself at diVine.video. It's available in beta form on both iOS and Android.
Read more...
Russia's AI Robot Falls Seconds After Being Unveiled
Russia's first AI humanoid robot, Aldol, fell just seconds after its debut at a technology event in Moscow on Tuesday. "The robot was being led on stage to the soundtrack from the film 'Rocky,' before it suddenly lost its balance and fell," reports the BBC. "Assistants could then be seen scrambling to cover it with a cloth -- which ended up tangling in the process." Developers of Aldol blamed poor lighting and calibration issues for the collapse, saying the robot's stereo cameras are sensitive to light and the hall was dark.
Read more...
Ask Slashdot: Are There Any Good Android Tablets Out There?
Longtime Slashdot reader hadleyburg writes: For a user with an Android phone and who's happy to stick within the Google ecosystem, an Android tablet might seem like the more obvious choice over an iPad. Of course, iPads are a lot more popular, and asking about Android tablets is likely to invite advice about sticking with what everyone else has. The Slashdot community on the other hand -- being a discerning and thoughtful crowd -- might have some experience in this area and be willing to share the pros and cons they have found. The use case is someone not requiring any heavy usage -- no video editing or gaming -- just email, browsing, YouTube, video calls, and that sort of thing.
Read more...
Valve Rejoins the VR Hardware Wars With Standalone Steam Frame
Valve is ready to rejoin the VR hardware race with the Steam Frame, a lightweight standalone SteamOS headset that can run games locally or stream wirelessly from a PC using new "foveated streaming" tech. It's set to launch in early 2026. Ars Technica reports: Powered by a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor with 16 GB of RAM, the Steam Frame sports a 2160 x 2160 resolution display per eye at an "up to 110 degrees" field-of-view and up to 144 Hz. That's all roughly in line with 2023's Meta Quest 3, which runs on the slightly less performant Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 processor. Valve's new headset will be available in models sporting 256GB and 1TB or internal storage, both with the option for expansion via a microSD card slot. Pricing details have not yet been revealed publicly. The Steam Frame's inside-out tracking cameras mean you won't have to set up the awkward external base stations that were necessary for previous SteamVR headsets (including the Index). But that also means old SteamVR controllers won't work with the new hardware. Instead, included Steam Frame controllers will track your hand movements, provide haptic feedback, and offer "input parity with a traditional game pad" through the usual buttons and control sticks. For those who want to bring desktop GPU power to their VR experience, the Steam Frame will be able to connect wirelessly to a PC using an included 6 GHz Wi-Fi 6E adapter. That streaming will be enhanced by what Valve is calling "foveated rendering" technology, which sends the highest-resolution video stream to where your eyes are directly focused (as tracked by two internal cameras). That will help Steam Frame streaming establish a "fast, direct, low-latency link" to the machine, Valve said, though the company has yet to respond to questions about just how much additional wireless latency users can expect. Further reading: Valve Enters the Console Wars
Read more...
Data Centers in Nvidia's Hometown Stand Empty Awaiting Power
Two of the world's biggest data center developers have projects in Nvidia's hometown that may sit empty for years because the local utility isn't ready to supply electricity. From a report: In Santa Clara, California, where the world's biggest supplier of artificial-intelligence chips is based, Digital Realty Trust applied in 2019 to build a data center. Roughly six years later, the development remains an empty shell awaiting full energization. Stack Infrastructure, which was acquired earlier this year by Blue Owl Capital, has a nearby 48-megawatt project that's also vacant, while the city-owned utility, Silicon Valley Power, struggles to upgrade its capacity. The fate of the two facilities highlights a major challenge for the US tech sector and indeed the wider economy. While demand for data centers has never been greater, driven by the boom in cloud computing and AI, access to electricity is emerging as the biggest constraint. That's largely because of aging power infrastructure, a slow build-out of new transmission lines and a variety of regulatory and permitting hurdles. And the pressure on power systems is only going to increase. Electricity requirements from AI computing will likely more than double in the US alone by 2035, based on BloombergNEF projections. Nvidia's Jensen Huang and OpenAI's Sam Altman are among corporate leaders that have predicted trillions of dollars will pour into building new AI infrastructure.
Read more...
What's the Best Ways for Humans to Explore Space?
Should we leave space exploration to robots — or prioritize human spaceflight, making us a multiplanetary species? Harvard professor Robin Wordsworth, who's researched the evolution and habitability of terrestrial-type planets, shares his thoughts:In space, as on Earth, industrial structures degrade with time, and a truly sustainable life support system must have the capability to rebuild and recycle them. We've only partially solved this problem on Earth, which is why industrial civilization is currently causing serious environmental damage. There are no inherent physical limitations to life in the solar system beyond Earth — both elemental building blocks and energy from the sun are abundant — but technological society, which developed as an outgrowth of the biosphere, cannot yet exist independently of it. The challenge of building and maintaining robust life-support systems for humans beyond Earth is a key reason why a machine-dominated approach to space exploration is so appealing... However, it's notable that machines in space have not yet accomplished a basic task that biology performs continuously on Earth: acquiring raw materials and utilizing them for self-repair and growth. To many, this critical distinction is what separates living from non-living systems... The most advanced designs for self-assembling robots today begin with small subcomponents that must be manufactured separately beforehand. Overall, industrial technology remains Earth-centric in many important ways. Supply chains for electronic components are long and complex, and many raw materials are hard to source off-world... If we view the future expansion of life into space in a similar way as the emergence of complex life on land in the Paleozoic era, we can predict that new forms will emerge, shaped by their changed environment, while many historical characteristics will be preserved. For machine technology in the near term, evolution in a more life-like direction seems likely, with greater focus on regenerative parts and recycling, as well as increasingly sophisticated self-assembly capabilities. The inherent cost of transporting material out of Earth's gravity well will provide a particularly strong incentive for this to happen. If building space habitats is hard and machine technology is gradually developing more life-like capabilities, does this mean we humans might as well remain Earth-bound forever? This feels hard to accept because exploration is an intrinsic part of the human spirit... To me, the eventual extension of the entire biosphere beyond Earth, rather than either just robots or humans surrounded by mechanical life-support systems, seems like the most interesting and inspiring future possibility. Initially, this could take the form of enclosed habitats capable of supporting closed-loop ecosystems, on the moon, Mars or water-rich asteroids, in the mold of Biosphere 2. Habitats would be manufactured industrially or grown organically from locally available materials. Over time, technological advances and adaptation, whether natural or guided, would allow the spread of life to an increasingly wide range of locations in the solar system. The article ponders the benefits (and the history) of both approaches — with some fasincating insights along the way. "If genuine alien life is out there somewhere, we'll have a much better chance of comprehending it once we have direct experience of sustaining life beyond our home planet."
Read more...
NVIDIA Connects AI GPUs to Early Quantum Processors
"Quantum computing is still years away, but Nvidia just built the bridge that will bring it closer..." argues investment site The Motley Fool, "by linking today's fastest AI GPUs with early quantum processors..." NVIDIA's new hybrid system strengthens communication at microsecond speeds — orders of magnitude faster than before — "allowing AI to stabilize and train quantum machines in real time, potentially pulling major breakthroughs years forward."CUDA-Q, Nvidia's open-source software layer, lets researchers choreograph that link — running AI models, quantum algorithms, and error-correction routines together as one system. That jump allows artificial intelligence to monitor [in real time]... For researchers, that means hundreds of new iterations where there used to be one — a genuine acceleration of discovery. It's the quiet kind of progress engineers love — invisible, but indispensable... Its GPUs (graphics processing units) are already tuned for the dense, parallel calculations these explorations demand, making them the natural partner for any emerging quantum processor... Other companies chase better quantum hardware — superconducting, photonic, trapped-ion — but all of them need reliable coordination with the computing power we already have. By offering that link, Nvidia turns its GPU ecosystem into the operating environment of hybrid computing, the connective tissue between what exists now and what's coming next. And because the system is open, every new lab or start-up that connects strengthens Nvidia's position as the default hub for quantum experimentation... There's also a defensive wisdom in this move. If quantum computing ever matures, it could threaten the same data center model that built Nvidia's empire. CEO Jensen Huang seems intent on making sure that, if the future shifts, Nvidia already sits at its center. By owning the bridge between today's technology and tomorrow's, the company ensures it earns relevance — and revenue — no matter which computing model dominates. So Nvidia's move "isn't about building a quantum computer," the article argues, "it's about owning the bridge every quantum effort will need."
Read more...
How the US Cut Climate-Changing Emissions While Its Economy More Than Doubled
alternative_right shares a report from The Conversation: Countries around the world have been discussing the need to rein in climate change for three decades, yet global greenhouse gas emissions -- and global temperatures with them -- keep rising. When it seems like we're getting nowhere, it's useful to step back and examine the progress that has been made. Let's take a look at the United States, historically the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter. Over those three decades, the U.S. population soared by 28% and the economy, as measured by gross domestic product adjusted for inflation, more than doubled. Yet U.S. emissions from many of the activities that produce greenhouse gases -- transportation, industry, agriculture, heating and cooling of buildings -- have remained about the same over the past 30 years. Transportation is a bit up; industry a bit down. And electricity, once the nation's largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, has seen its emissions drop significantly. Overall, the U.S. is still among the countries with the highest per capita emissions, so there's room for improvement, and its emissions (PDF) haven't fallen enough to put the country on track to meet its pledges under the 10-year-old Paris climate agreement. But U.S. emissions are down about 15% over the past 10 years. The report mentions how the U.S. managed to replace coal with cheaper, more efficient natural-gas plants while rapidly scaling wind, solar, and battery storage as their costs fell. At the same time, major gains in appliance, lighting, and building efficiency flattened per-capita power use. This also coincided with improved vehicle fuel economy that helped keep transportation emissions in check.
Read more...
Ford Considers Scrapping F-150 EV Truck
According to the Wall Street Journal, Ford executives are considering scrapping the electric version of the F-150 pickup truck as losses, supply setbacks, slow sales, and the arrival of a cheaper midsize EV truck undermine the business case for its full-size electric pickup. Reuters reports: Last month, a union official told Reuters that Ford was pausing production at the Dearborn, Michigan, plant that makes its F-150 Lightning electric pickup due to a fire at a supplier's aluminum factory. "We have good inventories of the F-150 Lightning and will bring Rouge Electric Vehicle Center back up at the right time, but don't have an exact date at this time," Ford said in a statement on Thursday. The WSJ report added that General Motors executives have discussed discontinuing some electric trucks, citing people familiar with the matter. The Detroit three, which includes Ford, GM and Chrysler-parent Stellantis, have rolled back their ambitious plans for EVs in the United States, pivoting to their gasoline-powered models.
Read more...
Manufacturer Bricks Smart Vacuum After Engineer Blocks It From Collecting Data
A curious engineer discovered that his iLife A11 smart vacuum was remotely "killed" after he blocked it from sending data to the manufacturer's servers. By reverse-engineering it with custom hardware and Python scripts, he managed to revive the device to run fully offline. Tom's Hardware reports: An engineer got curious about how his iLife A11 smart vacuum worked and monitored the network traffic coming from the device. That's when he noticed it was constantly sending logs and telemetry data to the manufacturer -- something he hadn't consented to. The user, Harishankar, decided to block the telemetry servers' IP addresses on his network, while keeping the firmware and OTA servers open. While his smart gadget worked for a while, it just refused to turn on soon after. After a lengthy investigation, he discovered that a remote kill command had been issued to his device. He sent it to the service center multiple times, wherein the technicians would turn it on and see nothing wrong with the vacuum. When they returned it to him, it would work for a few days and then fail to boot again. After several rounds of back-and-forth, the service center probably got tired and just stopped accepting it, saying it was out of warranty. Because of this, he decided to disassemble the thing to determine what killed it and to see if he could get it working again. [...] So, why did the A11 work at the service center but refuse to run in his home? The technicians would reset the firmware on the smart vacuum, thus removing the kill code, and then connect it to an open network, making it run normally. But once it connected again to the network that had its telemetry servers blocked, it was bricked remotely because it couldn't communicate with the manufacturer's servers. Since he blocked the appliance's data collection capabilities, its maker decided to just kill it altogether. "Someone -- or something -- had remotely issued a kill command," says Harishankar. "Whether it was intentional punishment or automated enforcement of 'compliance,' the result was the same: a consumer device had turned on its owner." In the end, the owner was able to run his vacuum fully locally without manufacturer control after all the tweaks he made. This helped him retake control of his data and make use of his $300 software-bricked smart device on his own terms. As for the rest of us who don't have the technical knowledge and time to follow his accomplishments, his advice is to "Never use your primary WiFi network for IoT devices" and to "Treat them as strangers in your home."
Read more...
China Achieves Thorium-Uranium Conversion Within Molten Salt Reactor
Longtime Slashdot reader hackingbear writes: South China Morning Post, citing Chinese state media, reported that an experimental reactor developed in the Gobi Desert by the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics has achieved thorium-to-uranium fuel conversion, paving the way for an almost endless supply of nuclear energy. It is the first time in the world that scientists have been able to acquire experimental data on thorium operations from inside a molten salt reactor according to a report by Science and Technology Daily. Thorium is much more abundant and accessible than uranium and has enormous energy potential. One mine tailings site in Inner Mongolia is estimated to hold enough of the element to power China entirely for more than 1,000 years. At the heart of the breakthrough is a process known as in-core thorium-to-uranium conversion that transforms naturally occurring thorium-232 into uranium-233 -- a fissile isotope capable of sustaining nuclear chain reactions within the reactor itself. Thorium (Th-232) is not itself fissile and so is not directly usable in a thermal neutron reactor. Thorium fuels therefore need a fissile material as a 'driver' so that a chain reaction (and thus supply of surplus neutrons) can be maintained. The only fissile driver options are U-233, U-235 or Pu-239. (None of these are easy to supply.) In the 1960s, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (USA) designed and built a demonstration MSR using U-233, derived externally from thorium as the main fissile driver.
Read more...
The World's Tallest Chip Defies the Limits of Computing: Goodbye To Moore's Law?
Longtime Slashdot reader dbialac shares a report from EL PAIS: For decades, the progress of electronics has followed a simple rule: smaller is better. Since the 1960s, each new generation of chips has packed more transistors into less space, fulfilling the famous Moore's Law. Formulated by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore in 1965, this law predicted that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit approximately doubles each year. But this race to the minuscule is reaching its physical limits. Now, an international team of scientists is proposing a solution as obvious as it is revolutionary: if we can't keep reducing the size of chips, let's build them up. Xiaohang Li, a researcher at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia, and his team have designed a chip with 41 vertical layers of semiconductors and insulating materials, approximately ten times higher than any previously manufactured chip. The work, recently published in the journal Nature Electronics, not only represents a technical milestone but also opens the door to a new generation of flexible, efficient, and sustainable electronic devices. "Having six or more layers of transistors stacked vertically allows us to increase circuit density without making the devices smaller laterally," Li explains. "With six layers, we can integrate 600% more logic functions in the same area than with a single layer, achieving higher performance and lower power consumption."
Read more...
|
