News by Subject Technology & Engineering

The food delivery business, popularized by mobile online services such as Grubhub, OrderUp, and DoorDash, has become a $200 billion industry, which is expected to grow by more than 15% annually over the next five years. New research published in the INFORMS journal Transportation Science reveals how food delivery businesses can implement changes in driver shifts and order delivery structures that can decrease costs and contribute to higher profits.

Engineers have developed decision-making and motion-planning technology to limit injuries and damage when self-driving vehicles are involved in unavoidable crashes. After recognizing that a collision of some kind is inevitable, the system works by analyzing all available options and choosing the course of action with the least serious outcome.

Researchers have surveyed more than 2000 drivers across Australia, France and Sweden for two separate studies investigating what people think about travelling in automated cars. The first international study found French drivers were more likely to one day buy an automated car than drivers in Australia or Sweden. The second study surveyed local Queensland drivers and identified what they saw as the pros and cons of letting a car drive itself.

A new concept for an aluminium battery has twice the energy density as previous versions, is made of abundant materials, and could lead to reduced production costs and environmental impact. The idea has potential for large scale applications, including storage of solar and wind energy. Researchers from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, and the National Institute of Chemistry, Slovenia, are behind the idea.

Overturning tractors are the leading cause of death for farmers around the world. In order to reduce the rate of overturned tractors, researchers at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT) in Japan have developed a model for understanding the conditions that lead to a tractor overturning from an unlikely source: They based their model on one used to understand the unpredictability of a bouncing ball.

'Keep your eyes on the road.' With the recent advances in vehicle-assisted safety technology and in-car displays, this old adage has a new meaning, thanks to two new applications of eye-tracking technology developed by researchers at the University of Missouri.