TOKYO, Dec. 18 (Kyodo) — Honda Motor Co. President Takanobu Ito said Tuesday the company is eyeing a continued production capacity boost in emerging Asian countries to help achieve its goal of doubling global auto sales to more than 6 million units in five years through fiscal 2016. “We’ll definitely have to beef up production […]
Automotive/Transportation
Photos of the Day: Old Uranium, New Research
A team of three researchers based in Austria and Australia lead by Stephan Winkler have identified the bomb-pulse of this isotope in corals from the Caribbean Sea. Uranium is readily dissolved in seawater, and therefore is carried by ocean currents. This makes uranium-236 and ideal tool for investigating ocean currents. Read the full story here. […]
Investigating Ocean Currents Using Uranium-236 from the 1960s
In the period of atmospheric nuclear testing in the 1950s and 1960s significant amounts of uranium-236 were distributed world-wide. Despite this, uranium-236 has mostly eluded detection and clear attribution to this source. A team of three researchers based in Austria and Australia lead by Stephan Winkler have identified the bomb-pulse of this isotope in corals […]
Yazaki Opens Auto Parts Factory in Cambodia
PHNOM PENH, Dec. 17 (Kyodo) — Japanese auto parts maker Yazaki Corp. opened a wire harness factory in Cambodia on Monday, which President Yasuhiko Yazaki said will create about 600 jobs in the country immediately. The $24 million plant is in Koh Kong Province about 270 kilometers southwest of Phnom Penh. Speaking at the opening […]
Government Investigates Ford Floor Mats
DETROIT (AP) — The federal government is expanding an investigation into floor mats that interfere with pedals in Ford, Mercury and Lincoln cars. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration was initially investigating 2010 Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan vehicles. Late last week, it said it also would look at those 2008 and 2009 models and […]
EEPROM-configurable IC enables easier development of TPMS modules
The MLX91802 is a system in package solution for tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) implementations that combines an analog pressure sensor and a low power sensor interface with an MLX16 16-bit RISC-based microcontroller. It is housed in a compact, pressure ported, plastic SO16 package and has an operational temperature range of -40 °C to 125 […]
Panel: Fault Under Japan Nuke Plant May Be Active
A team of Japanese geologists says a seismic fault running underneath a nuclear plant in western Japan is likely to be active, which could force the scrapping of one of its two reactors. The five-member panel commissioned by the Nuclear Regulation Authority announced Monday that the structure underneath the Tsuruga plant showed signs of seismic […]
iSolated: Bad Apple Maps directions lead to desert
SYDNEY (AP) — The city of Mildura is not at the end of a dirt road in the Australian bush, in tire-choking desert sand far from food and water. Unfortunately, Apple’s much-maligned mapping application thinks it is. More than two months after Apple’s CEO apologized for errors in its Maps service, Australian police say the […]
Japan’s Imported Car Sales Up
TOKYO, Dec. 6 (Kyodo) — Sales of new imported vehicles in Japan, including those built abroad by Japanese automakers, rose 14.8 percent in November from a year earlier to 26,503 units, an industry body said Thursday. Of the total, sales of Japanese-brand vehicles gained 29.9 percent to 6,767 units, buoyed by Thai-assembled models such as […]
Driverless vehicles expected to navigate intersection of safety, speed
How do driverless vehicles navigate through intersections? Faster and safer than if humans were in charge, according to researchers with the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. Autonomous vehicles will turn themselves over to an automated intersection controller, which adjusts the trajectory and speed of the vehicles to prevent crashes, said Ismail Zohdy of Cairo, Egypt, a […]