Tech Engineering

Millions of Electric Cars are Coming What Happens To All The Dead Batteries

The battery pack of a Tesla Model S is a feat of intricate engineering. Thousands of cylindrical cells with components sourced from around the world transform lithium and electrons into enough energy to propel the car hundreds of kilometers, again and again, without tailpipe emissions. But when the battery comes to the end of its life, its green benefits fade.

If it ends up in a landfill, its cells can release problematic toxins, including heavy metals. And recycling the battery can be a hazardous business, warns materials scientist Dana Thompson of the University of Leicester. Cut too deep into a Tesla cell, or in the wrong place, and it can short-circuit, combust, and release toxic fume.

That’s just one of the many problems confronting researchers, including Thompson, who are trying to tackle an emerging problem: how to recycle the millions of electric vehicle (EV) batteries that manufacturers expect to produce over the next few decades. Current EV batteries “are really not designed to be recycled,” says Thompson, a research fellow at the Faraday Institution, a research center focused on battery issues in the United Kingdom.

That wasn’t much of a problem when EVs were rare. But now the technology is taking off. Several carmakers have said they plan to phase out combustion engines within a few decades, and industry analysts predict at least 145 million EVs will be on the road by 2030, up from just 11 million last year. “People are starting to realize this is an issue,” Thompson says.

Governments are inching toward requiring some level of recycling. In 2018, China imposed new rules aimed at promoting the reuse of EV battery components. The European Union is expected to finalize its first requirements this year. In the United States, the federal government has yet to advance recycling mandates, but several states, including California—the nation’s largest car market—are exploring setting their own rules.

Complying won’t be easy. Batteries differ widely in chemistry and construction, which makes it difficult to create efficient recycling systems. And the cells are often held together with tough glues that make them difficult to take apart. That has contributed to an economic obstacle: It’s often cheaper for batterymakers to buy freshly mined metals than to use recycled materials.

Better recycling methods would not only prevent pollution, researchers note, but also help governments boost their economic and national security by increasing supplies of key battery metals that are controlled by one or a few nations. “On the one side, [disposing of EV batteries] is a waste management problem. And on the other side, it’s an opportunity for producing a sustainable secondary stream of critical materials,” says Gavin Harper, a University of Birmingham researcher who studies EV policy issues.

To jump-start recycling, governments and industry are putting money into an array of research initiatives. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has pumped some $15 million into a ReCell Center to coordinate studies by scientists in academia, industry, and at government laboratories. The United Kingdom has backed the ReLiB project, a multi-institution effort. As the EV industry ramps up, the need for progress is becoming urgent, says Linda Gaines, who works on battery recycling at DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory. “The sooner we can get everything moving,” she says, “the better.

Now, recyclers primarily target metals in the cathode, such as cobalt and nickel, that fetch high prices. (Lithium and graphite are too cheap for recycling to be economical.) But because of the small quantities, the metals are like needles in a haystack: hard to find and recover.

To extract those needles, recyclers rely on two techniques, known as pyrometallurgy and hydrometallurgy. The more common is pyrometallurgy, in which recyclers first mechanically shred the cell and then burn it, leaving a charred mass of plastic, metals, and glues. At that point, they can use several methods to extract the metals, including further burning. “Pyromet is essentially treating the battery as if it were an ore” straight from a mine, Gaines says. Hydrometallurgy, in contrast, involves dunking battery materials in pools of acid, producing a metal-laden soup. Sometimes the two methods are combined.

Each has advantages and downsides. Pyrometallurgy, for example, doesn’t require the recycler to know the battery’s design or composition, or even whether it is completely discharged, in order to move ahead safely. But it is energy intensive. Hydrometallurgy can extract materials not easily obtained through burning, but it can involve chemicals that pose health risks.

And recovering the desired elements from the chemical soup can be difficult, although researchers are experimenting with compounds that promise to dissolve certain battery metals but leave others in a solid form, making them easier to recover. For example, Thompson has identified one candidate, a mixture of acids and bases called a deep eutectic solvent, that dissolves everything but nickel.

Both processes produce extensive waste and emit greenhouse gases, studies have found. And the business model can be shaky: Most operations depend on selling recovered cobalt to stay in business, but batterymakers are trying to shift away from that relatively expensive metal. If that happens, recyclers could be left trying to sell piles of “dirt,” says materials scientist Rebecca Ciez of Purdue University.

The ideal is direct recycling, which would keep the cathode mixture intact. That’s attractive to batterymakers because recycled cathodes wouldn’t require heavy processing, Gaines notes (although manufacturers might still have to revitalize cathodes by adding small amounts of lithium). “So if you’re thinking circular economy, [direct recycling] is a smaller circle than pyromet or hydromet.”

In direct recycling, workers would first vacuum away the electrolyte and shred battery cells. Then, they would remove binders with heat or solvents, and use a flotation technique to separate anode and cathode materials. At this point, the cathode material resembles baby powder.

So far, direct recycling experiments have only focused on single cells and yielded just tens of grams of cathode powders. But researchers at the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory have built economic models showing the technique could, if scaled up under the right conditions, be viable in the future.

To realize direct recycling, however, batterymakers, recyclers, and researchers need to sort out a host of issues. One is making sure manufacturers label their batteries, so recyclers know what kind of cell they are dealing with—and whether the cathode metals have any value. Given the rapidly changing battery market, Gaines notes, cathodes manufactured today might not be able to find a future buyer. Recyclers would be “recovering a dinosaur. No one will want the product.”

Another challenge is efficiently cracking open EV batteries. Nissan’s rectangular Leaf battery module can take 2 hours to dismantle. Tesla’s cells are unique not only for their cylindrical shape, but also for the almost indestructible polyurethane cement that holds them together.

Engineers might be able to build robots that could speed battery disassembly, but sticky issues remain even after you get inside the cell, researchers note. That’s because more glues are used to hold the anodes, cathodes, and other components in place. One solvent that recyclers use to dissolve cathode binders is so toxic that the European Union has introduced restrictions on its use, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency determined last year that it poses an “unreasonable risk” to workers.“In terms of economics, you’ve got to disassemble … [and] if you want to disassemble, then you’ve got to get rid of glues,” says Andrew Abbott, a chemist at the University of Leicester and Thompson’s adviser.

To ease the process, Thompson and other researchers are urging EV- and batterymakers to start designing their products with recycling in mind. The ideal battery, Abbott says, would be like a Christmas cracker, a U.K. holiday gift that pops open when the recipient pulls at each end, revealing candy or a message. As an example, he points to the Blade Battery, a lithium ferrophosphate battery released last year by BYD, a Chinese EV-maker. Its pack does away with the module component, instead storing flat cells directly inside. The cells can be removed easily by hand, without fighting with wires and glues.

The Blade Battery emerged after China in 2018 began to make EV manufacturers responsible for ensuring batteries are recycled. The country now recycles more lithium-ion batteries than the rest of the world combined, using mostly pyro- and hydrometallurgical methods.

Nations moving to adopt similar policies face some thorny questions. One, Thompson says, is who should bear primary responsibility for making recycling happen. “Is it my responsibility because I bought [an EV] or is it the manufacturer’s responsibility because they made it and they’re selling it?” In the European Union, one answer could come later this year, when officials release the continent’s first rule. And next year a panel of experts created by the state of California is expected to weigh in with recommendations that could have a big influence over any U.S. policy.

Recycling researchers, meanwhile, say effective battery recycling will require more than just technological advances. The high cost of transporting combustible items long distances or across borders can discourage recycling. As a result, placing recycling centers in the right places could have a “massive impact,” Harper says. “But there’s going to be a real challenge in systems integration and bringing all these different bits of research together.”

There’s little time to waste, Abbott says. “What you don’t want is 10 years’ worth of production of a cell that is absolutely impossible to pull apart,” he says. “It’s not happening yet—but people are shouting and worried it will happen.

By Ian Morse

Source: Millions of electric cars are coming. What happens to all the dead batteries? | Science | AAAS

References

“Reducing Pollution with Electric Vehicles”. http://www.energy.gov. Archived from the original on 12 May 2018. Retrieved 12 May 2018.
Preston, Benjamin. “EVs Offer Big Savings Over Traditional Gas-Powered Cars”. Consumer Reports. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
“How to charge an electric car”. Carbuyer. Archived from the original on 23 April 2018. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
“Infographic: California Is Among the World’s Largest Car Markets”. Statista Infographics. Retrieved 26 September 2020.
“Governor Newsom Announces California Will Phase Out Gasoline-Powered Cars & Drastically Reduce Demand for Fossil Fuel in California’s Fight Against Climate Change”. California Governor. 23 September 2020. Retrieved 26 September 2020.
Groom, David Shepardson, Nichola (29 September 2020). “U.S. EPA chief challenges California effort to mandate zero emission vehicles in 2035”. Reuters. Retrieved 29 September 2020.
“2021 Tesla Model 3 Long Range AWD”. http://www.fueleconomy.gov. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
O’Kane, Sean (22 February 2019). “Tesla’s Model 3 was the best-selling EV in the world last year”. The Verge. Archived from the original on 19 October 2019. Retrieved 15 December 2019.
“2019 Tesla Model 3 Long Range”. http://www.fueleconomy.gov. Archived from the original on 14 April 2020. Retrieved 15 December 2019.
“Tesla Model 3 Equals 1/8 Of World’s EV Sales In 2019”. CleanTechnica. 6 December 2019. Archived from the original on 8 December 2019. Retrieved 15 December 2019.
Holland, Maximilian (10 February 2020). “Tesla Passes 1 Million EV Milestone & Model 3 Becomes All Time Best Seller”. CleanTechnica. Archived from the original on 12 April 2020. Retrieved 15 May 2020.
International Energy Agency (IEA), Clean Energy Ministerial, and Electric Vehicles Initiative (EVI) (June 2020). “Global EV Outlook 2020: Enterign the decade of electric drive?”. IEA Publications. Retrieved 15 June 2020. See Statistical annex, pp. 247–252 (See Tables A.1 and A.12). The global stock of plug-in electric passenger vehicles totaled 7.2 million cars at the end of 2019, of which, 47% were on the road in China. The stock of plug-in cars consist of 4.8 million battery electric cars (66.6%) and 2.4 million plug-in hybrids (33.3%). In addition, the stock of light commercial plug-in electric vehicles in use totaled 378 thousand units in 2019, and about half a million electric buses were in circulation, most of which are in China.
“Global Electric Vehicle Stock Reaches 7.2 Million”. EV Statistics. 20 June 2020. Retrieved 29 September 2020.
“Global EV Outlook 2021 – Analysis”. IEA. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
“US Department of Transportation National Highway Traffic Safety Administration 49 CFR Part 571 Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards”. Archived from the original on 27 February 2010. Retrieved 6 August 2009.
“Citizens’ summary EU proposal for a Regulation on L-category vehicles (two- or three-wheel vehicles and quadricycles)” (PDF).
“Elwell-Parker, Limited”. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
Roth, Hans (March 2011). Das erste vierrädrige Elektroauto der Welt [The first four-wheeled electric car in the world] (in German). pp. 2–3.
Wakefield, Ernest H (1994). History of the Electric Automobile. Society of Automotive Engineers. pp. 2–3. ISBN 1-5609-1299-5.
Guarnieri, M. (2012). Looking back to electric cars. Proc. HISTELCON 2012 – 3rd Region-8 IEEE HISTory of Electro – Technology Conference: The Origins of Electrotechnologies. pp. 1–6. doi:10.1109/HISTELCON.2012.6487583. ISBN 978-1-4673-3078-7.
“Electric Car History”. Archived from the original on 5 January 2014. Retrieved 17 December 2012.
“World’s first electric car built by Victorian inventor in 1884”. The Daily Telegraph. London. 24 April 2009. Archived from the original on 21 April 2018. Retrieved 14 July 2009.
Boyle, David (2018). 30-Second Great Inventions. Ivy Press. p. 62. ISBN 9781782406846.
Denton, Tom (2016). Electric and Hybrid Vehicles. Routledge. p. 6. ISBN 9781317552512.
“Elektroauto in Coburg erfunden” [Electric car invented in Coburg]. Neue Presse Coburg (in German). Germany. 12 January 2011. Archived from the original on 9 March 2016. Retrieved 30 September 2019.
“Electric automobile”. Encyclopædia Britannica (online). Archived from the original on 20 February 2014. Retrieved 2 May 2014.
Gerdes, Justin (11 May 2012). “The Global Electric Vehicle Movement: Best Practices From 16 Cities”. Forbes. Archived from the original on 29 July 2017. Retrieved 20 October 2014.
Says, Alan Brown. “The Surprisingly Old Story of London’s First Ever Electric Taxi”. Science Museum Blog. Archived from the original on 23 October 2019. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
Handy, Galen (2014). “History of Electric Cars”. The Edison Tech Center. Archived from the original on 18 September 2017. Retrieved 7 September 2017.
“Some Facts about Electric Vehicles”. Automobilesreview. 25 February 2012. Archived from the original on 11 August 2017. Retrieved 6 October 2017.
Gertz, Marisa; Grenier, Melinda (5 January 2019). “171 Years Before Tesla: The Evolution of Electric Vehicles”. Bloomberg. Archived from the original on 11 January 2019. Retrieved 30 September 2019.
Cub Scout Car Show (PDF), January 2008, archived (PDF) from the original on 4 March 2016, retrieved 12 April 2009
Laukkonen, J.D. (1 October 2013). “History of the Starter Motor”. Crank Shift. Archived from the original on 21 September 2019. Retrieved 30 September 2019.
Gosden, D.F. (March 1990). “Modern Electric Vehicle Technology using an AC Motor Drive”. Journal of Electrical and Electronics Engineering. Institution of Engineers Australia. 10 (1): 21–7. ISSN 0725-2986. Archived from the original on 11 October 2019. Retrieved 11 October 2019.
“1960 – Metal Oxide Semiconductor (MOS) Transistor Demonstrated”. The Silicon Engine. Computer History Museum. Archived from the original on 20 February 2020. Retrieved 11 October 2019.
“Who Invented the Transistor?”. Computer History Museum. 4 December 2013. Archived from the original on 20 July 2019. Retrieved 20 July 2019.
Oxner, E. S. (1988). Fet Technology and Application. CRC Press. p. 18. ISBN 9780824780500. Archived from the original on 30 December 2019. Retrieved 11 October 2019.
“1971: Microprocessor Integrates CPU Function onto a Single Chip”. The Silicon Engine. Computer History Museum. Archived from the original on 30 October 2019. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
Scrosati, Bruno; Garche, Jurgen; Tillmetz, Werner (2015). Advances in Battery Technologies for Electric Vehicles. Woodhead Publishing. ISBN 9781782423980. Archived from the original on 29 December 2019. Retrieved 11 October 2019.
“IEEE Medal for Environmental and Safety Technologies Recipients”. IEEE Medal for Environmental and Safety Technologies. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Archived from the original on 25 March 2019. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
Sperling, Daniel; Gordon, Deborah (2009). Two billion cars: driving toward sustainability. Oxford University Press. pp. 22–26. ISBN 978-0-19-537664-7.
Boschert, Sherry (2006). Plug-in Hybrids: The Cars that will Recharge America. New Society Publishers. pp. 15–28. ISBN 978-0-86571-571-4.
See Who Killed the Electric Car? (2006)
Shahan, Zachary (26 April 2015). “Electric Car Evolution”. Clean Technica. Archived from the original on 18 September 2016. Retrieved 8 September 2016. 2008: The Tesla Roadster becomes the first production electric vehicle to use lithium-ion battery cells as well as the first production electric vehicle to have a range of over 200 miles on a single charge.
Kim, Chang-Ran (30 March 2010). “Mitsubishi Motors lowers price of electric i-MiEV”. Reuters. Retrieved 22 May 2020.
“Best-selling electric car”. Guinness World Records. 2012. Archived from the original on 16 February 2013. Retrieved 22 May 2020.
David B. Sandalow, ed. (2009). Plug-In Electric Vehicles: What Role for Washington? (1st. ed.). The Brookings Institution. pp. 1–6. ISBN 978-0-8157-0305-1. Archived from the original on 28 March 2019. Retrieved 6 February 2011.See Introduction
Evans, Scott (10 July 2019). “2013 Tesla Model S Beats Chevy, Toyota, and Cadillac for Ultimate Car of the Year Honors”. MotorTrend. Archived from the original on 13 July 2019. Retrieved 17 July 2019. We are confident that, were we to summon all the judges and staff of the past 70 years, we would come to a rapid consensus: No vehicle we’ve awarded, be it Car of the Year, Import Car of the Year, SUV of the Year, or Truck of the Year, can equal the impact, performance, and engineering excellence that is our Ultimate Car of the Year winner, the 2013 Tesla Model S.
Nissan (3 December 2020). “Nissan marks 10 years of LEAF sales, with over 500,000 sold worldwide” (Press release). Retrieved 11 December 2020 – via Automotive World. Nissan today celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Nissan LEAF and the delivery of 500,000 LEAF vehicles since the model was first introduced. More than 148,000 have been sold in the United States

Best, Paul (19 November 2020). “GM doubles down on commitment to electric vehicles, increases spending to $27B”. FOXBusiness. Retrieved 20 November 2020.

How This Company Has Beaten Tesla With The World’s First Autonomous Electric Truck

When asked which company was the first creating an autonomous electric freight truck, most people will be wrong. And when asked which company was the first creating an autonomous electric truck that is allowed to drive on a public road, most people will be wrong too. It is not Tesla, it is not Alphabet’s Waymo, Uber, or Lyft, and it is not any of the big car or truck manufacturers.

It is Einride (pronounced as “n-ride”), a Swedish startup that was founded in 2016. I spoke to 29-year-old, Forbes 30 Under 30 listed co-founder and CMO of Einride, Linnéa Kornehed to find out how they have done this.

Some Facts About Einride

Founded in 2016, Einride has grown to around 100 people today, and has raised a total of $41M of funding. Nice for a startup, but totally incomparable to the many billions that all the large companies above have invested in electric and autonomous driving. And yet, it is this startup that has beaten all of them in getting its first truck on the road, or “Pod” as Einride likes to call them. As Kornehed explains, “on the day after Elon Musk announced the launch of the Tesla Semi, we already launched our Pod.“

If you aren’t impressed by that already, here are some more facts about Einride:

Named to Fast Company’s prestigious annual list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies for 2021 in the Transportation category
Winner of the 2020 Edison Awards for Innovations and Innovators
Winner of the European Startup Prize for Mobility, a EU-founded Acceleration and Investment Programed for sustainable mobility startups
Listed is CB Insights Game Changers 2020 as one of the 36 startups that could change the world
Featured on 2020 Global Cleantech 100-list
First place in “Sustainable Transport” and “People’s Choice Award”, in the E-prize contest by energy company E.ON. and Veckans Affärer
Exclusive member of the World Economic Forum, Shaping the future of Mobility

Further evidence of their strength are the many brands that have already teamed up with Einride, including Coca-Cola, Lidl, Oatly, and Ericsson, and the fact that they are the first to set a record for an autonomous electric freight vehicle at the Top Gear racing track (see picture and watch here).

Einride is not an ordinary truck manufacturer. It does not produce their Pod’s, nor are their Pod’s for sale. Similar to a company like Apple, Einride is in charge of the design, technology, and branding of their trucks, as well as the control of the complete chain to which they outsource production, assembly and logistics. But most important is its software platform. As Kornehed explains, “at its core, Einride is primarily a software company. It is our platform that makes the difference.”

Einride has adopted at Transportation as a Service (TaaS) model. This means that, as a customer, you don’t buy their products, but you subscribe to a monthly service. In other words, you buy transport, rather than a vehicle. The reason for adopting this innovative business model lies in the specific characteristics of autonomous and electric driving.

Kornehed: “both autonomous and electric driving require careful and systematic planning. This can best be done at the fleet level so that there is an overall planning that is efficient, safe, and that makes best use of the range and charging possibilities of the vehicles.” Through their TaaS model, software platform, and “control room,” Einride can plan much more efficiently than individual transportation companies would be able to do—and thereby help them save money and reduce emissions.

Why and Where Next?

When asked why Kornehed joined Einride and what the company’s drive is, there is no doubt: climate change. As Kornehed continues, “road freight transport is responsible for 7% of global greenhouse emissions. And the volume of shipped goods is growing at a 3-4% rate every year.” Electric, autonomous trucks, according to Einride, could transform road freight transport as we know it by reducing CO2-emissions by 90%. Furthermore, it could also lower operating costs by 60% and radically improve road safety.

When asked whether less transportation would not be a better solution, Kornehed responds, “logistics and transportation are so important in today’s global economy. We don’t want to let that go. The same for traveling, which is great. We should be able to keep all of that, but in a responsible, sustainable way.”

The company wants to set an example and show that the transformation to electric, autonomous freight transportation is within reach. As they show, the technology is there and the legal obstacles can be overcome. Admittedly, their current public road permit is very limited and restricted to a small section of one public road in Sweden. But it means the beginning is there, even in Europe where especially the legal side is a challenge.

Looking forward, Einride’s next steps are starting their operations in the US and expanding further in Europe. And, as Kornehed closes, “we hope to show people and businesses that it is possible to make a change. But change doesn’t happen by itself. By achieving all that we have achieved in just five years with our startup, we hope to inspire others to take their own sustainability initiatives.”

Jeroen Kraaijenbrink

I help companies discover, formulate and execute their future plans, so that they will realize their ambitions in a complex and uncertain world. My drive is to bring people and companies to the next level by offering strategic guidance and training. I wrote “Strategy Consulting,” “No More Bananas,” and “The Strategy Handbook.” Reach out to me via jeroenkraaijenbrink.com, LinkedIn or jk@kraaijenbrink.com

Source: How This Company Has Beaten Tesla With The World’s First Autonomous Electric Truck

How the Pandemic Finally Ushered in the Golden Age of the QR Code

Last month, Denso Wave Inc., an obscure Japanese conglomerate that sounds vaguely made up, received a prestigious award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the largest association of technical professionals in the world.

Ordinarily, this would be one of those tossed-off bits of corporate news that appears in press releases before sinking to the bottom of the internet archives like a high school lacrosse score. But the timing was noteworthy. After all, Denso Wave, the venerable honoree, was being celebrated in 2020 for something its workers had invented all the way back in 1994: the QR Code.

Given the rapid adoption and even more rapid obsolescence of technology, having a 25-year-old invention showered with laurels seems weird — like if the Recording Academy decided to award the Smashing Pumpkins a Grammy for Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness next January. But that’s 2020 for you. Fanny packs and wide-leg jeans are back, Russia is a menace again, Boomers run the show, and everyone is kinda pissed off at Smash Mouth. It’s like the 1990s all over again.

And despite all our rage, the QR code is suddenly very relevant again. After many polarizing years — in which Quick Response codes became a cultural punchline, started to appear on tattoos and gravestones, earned the scorn of Tumblrs and were declared dead — the pandemic has put two-dimensional black-and-white pixel patterns back in our life again, perhaps permanently.

Recently, the payment platform Venmo introduced its very first credit card, which features a huge QR code right on the front. “When you’re out for dinner and everyone throws their card into the folio, the waiter has to split the check between four or five cards,” explained Venmo Senior Vice President Darrell Esch. “Whereas here, I can throw my card into the center, and everybody else can quickly scan my code, link to my Venmo and push the funds to settle.”

The irritating specter of split-check dinners may seem quaint in the era of social distancing, but what the QR code also offers for this surreal time is a way to limit the amount of physical touching strangers and consumers have to do, which is a huge reason why we’re hearing so much about QR codes again. They’re easy enough to use and they help us keep space. Over the summer, the British government released a contact-tracing app using the technology to keep track of attendees at potential super-spreader events, and later this year, CVS will roll out touchless payment using QR codes at 8,000 of its stores. (God willing, the foot-long receipts will remain.)

Another feature of the QR renaissance revolves around the reality that, in spite of American and European dismissals, QR codes have been insanely popular across much of Asia this whole time. In China, consumers buy everything, from street-cart jianbing to Swarovski crystals, using quick response-enabled payments. In recent years, QR codes have accounted for a full third of mobile transactions there to the tune of a trillion dollars in overall sales.

It’s wild to think that after many clumsy debuts (especially in guerilla marketing campaigns), QR codes are finally having their moment — in fancy restaurants, in social justice protests, in doctors’ offices — but the truth is that we had to grow into our QR codes on this side of the world. And sometimes, that takes many years to do.

When Americans first started seeing square-patterned panels, we weren’t initially well-equipped to deal with them. The weak cellular data of the “Can you hear me now?” era often made processing a QR code an infuriating experience that belied the whole point of the technology. And then, of course, there were Apple-induced inefficiencies at the head of the trend. “If you wanted to actually scan one of these things, you [needed] to download a separate bespoke app to be able to do it,” Nicolás Rivero recently vented about the early days of consumer QR codes.

Despite being technologically more prepared, we still have a ways to go before the QR wave means we’ll all be buying street meat or tipping buskers with the whip of a phone. After all, tens of millions of Americans still don’t carry smartphones and tens of millions more are cranky about their tech. And so, like cash, vinyl, or paper books, the old analog ways have a funny tendency to stick around.

By Adam Chandler @AllMyChandler

More Like This

Teenager’s Code Used by Arthouse to Create $432,500 Piece of Art

Japan Tags Dementia Sufferers with Barcodes

Beggars in China Adopting a High-Tech Solution for Old Problem

ABC News (Australia)

The coronavirus pandemic has opened up a new frontier for collecting your personal details. Across much of the country customers are having to use their mobile phones to register before they can sit down in a café or restaurant. Some of these online check-ins are run by marketing companies and there are concerns the information could be snatched up by data merchants. Subscribe: http://ab.co/1svxLVE

Read more here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-10-3…#QRCodes #QRCodeCovidCheckIns ABC News provides around the clock coverage of news events as they break in Australia and abroad, including the latest coronavirus pandemic updates. It’s news when you want it, from Australia’s most trusted news organisation. For more from ABC News, click here: https://ab.co/2kxYCZY Watch more ABC News content ad-free on iview: https://ab.co/2OB7Mk1 Go deeper on our ABC News In-depth channel: https://ab.co/2lNeBn2 Like ABC News on Facebook: http://facebook.com/abcnews.au Follow ABC News on Instagram: http://instagram.com/abcnews_au Follow ABC News on Twitter: http://twitter.com/abcnews #ABCNews #ABCNewsAustralia #breakingnews

Why 5G Technology Will Lead to a Better Quality of Life

It’s easy to forget what communications life was like before 4G. Since its introduction around 2010, mobile subscribers using 4G have enjoyed excellent connectivity. They can stream music, videos and movies, even while conducting video chats.

But over the next few years, the rollout of 5G networks around the world will usher in exciting capabilities that are much more advanced and promise to boost commerce. In its report entitled “Study on Socio-Economic Benefits of 5G Services Provided in mmWave Bands,” the GSMA, which represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide, predicts that “by 2034, 5G can be expected to generate US$2 trillion in GDP globally and US$588 billion in tax revenue.” All industries—agriculture, mining, financial services, public services, manufacturing and more—are expected to benefit.

Advanced capabilities

Due to 5G’s higher connection speeds, mobility and capacity, as well as its lower latency, this next-generation network is expected to enable innovative software for a range of advanced applications. The GSMA identifies several key use cases, including:

Remote object manipulation, which lets surgeons perform microscopic surgery from remote locations
Industrial automation, which allows artificial intelligence (AI)- and machine learning (ML)-enabled robots to collaborate to improve production line efficiency using data analytics
Virtual and augmented reality, which enables workers to learn how to operate new equipment using holograms rather than physical equipment
Next-generation transport connectivity, which can lead to improved commute times and reduced pollution through use of streaming and real-time data to optimize travel routes

Software-defined infrastructure drives 5G

These services won’t appear overnight. Communications service providers (CSPs) will continue to support existing networks while they invest in new infrastructure to support 5G.

In a recent blog, Jean-Pierre Brulard, VMware senior vice president and general manager, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), writes: “For CSPs, it is a major undertaking, which is why it is likely that rather than a pure 5G network, the majority of people will see a blended approach, where 4G is available to deliver basic services, and 5G introduced for specific tasks. It is therefore critical [for CSPs] to have what’s known as the telco cloud. This is software-defined technology that supports both current 4G and lays the groundwork for 5G.”

The telco cloud uses a common architecture that simplifies a CSP’s infrastructure so it can be a foundation for deploying new services. CSPs use the telco cloud to connect their existing environments with private, edge and public networks.

The telco cloud is based on Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), which streamlines the design and deployment of networking services and automates their operation. VMware helps CSPs like Vodafone create new revenue streams, open new industry opportunities, drive down costs and improve overall customer satisfaction by enabling them to become nimbler and more responsive.

VMware provides an optimal infrastructure for all telco applications and services: custom built, packaged, virtualized, cloud native and software as a service (SaaS). With this infrastructure, CSPs can deliver those applications securely to any endpoint across a telco-distributed cloud, including private and public cloud, branch/edge, micro data center, gateway or end user.

5G creates new possibilities for enterprises

Becoming 5G-ready isn’t an opportunity only for CSPs. 5G provides huge possibilities for businesses to deliver new services and applications, allowing them to reimagine how they engage with customers. Imagine restaurants delivering freshly prepared food via drones, for example.

According to Brulard: “With 5G, enterprises can access the levels and speeds of connectivity they need to take advantage of the game-changing technologies—such as Internet of Things (IoT), edge computing and AI—that are going to shape the next stage of the digital revolution.”

Processing IoT and AI in an accelerated 5G world means computing, storage and networking need to be done closer to the end user, an approach that is poles apart from the traditional data center method of data processing. The voluminous amount of real-time data generated by the IoT and AI makes it inefficient to stream to a cloud or data center for processing. A more efficient solution is to implement edge computing, which processes data closer to where it is generated.

VMware Edge^TM, for example, is a software-defined edge platform that enables providers and IT teams to run applications and analytics anywhere, with consistent infrastructure and operations from edge to cloud. Organizations can remotely manage, monitor and secure thousands of locations and millions of diverse devices. This helps to ensure the rapid delivery of the latest apps, containers and infrastructure updates via granular over-the-air lifecycle management.

Such a robust infrastructure will help CSPs and businesses fulfill 5G’s potential to significantly enhance quality of life. 5G can lead to better, accelerated access to healthcare and education, and people can enjoy safer driving conditions and reduced pollution, among other digitally fueled benefits.

By VMware

About a year ago, the talk of 5G kind of made me yawn. Nobody could really explain to me why I should care, or what difference it would really make. But now, as we start into 2020 and I’ve learned a little more about not just what 5G is but how much it has the potential to change … everything, I’m finally starting to freak out just a little bit about 5G. And my goal today is to help you start to freak out. In a good way! ———- Get the full low-down on 5G here: What is 5G?: https://www.reviews.org/mobile/what-i… Explaining Mbps: https://www.reviews.org/internet-serv… ———- We are on the cusp of another technological leap like we haven’t seen in over a decade. Are you ready for it? Hit the comments and let me know what you most want from 5G, or whether you think about it at all. And if you don’t care right now, I promise, you will soon.

WordPress Developer Said Apple Wouldn’t Allow Updates To The Free App Until It Added In-App Purchases

WordPress is adding in-app purchases to its previously free iOS app after claiming Apple prevented it from making updates until the change was made, The Verge reported Friday.
WordPress’ founding developer said in a tweet Friday that Apple cut off developers from making updates to the app unless they started letting users buy domain names within the app — a service the app doesn’t currently include.
The Verge reported that WordPress agreed, meaning Apple effectively pressured a free app into monetizing itself, allowing it to take a 30% commission on future purchases.
Apple’s App Store policies, particularly its requirement that app developers use Apple’s payment systems and give the company a 30% cut, has frustrated developers for years — and recently, lawmakers who say it’s monopolistic behavior.

Apple’s battle with app developers heated up again Friday after WordPress founding developer Matt Mullenweg claimed that the company locked developers out from making updates until it added in-app purchases to the free iOS app, The Verge reported.

“Heads up on why @WordPress iOS updates have been absent… we were locked by App Store. To be able to ship updates and bug fixes again we had to commit to support in-app purchases for .com plans,” Mullenweg tweeted Friday.

“I know why this is problematic, open to suggestions,” he added.

Mullenweg’s tweet referenced Apple’s policy requiring app developers to utilize the company’s own payment systems for any purchases made on iOS apps, of which Apple then takes a 30% commission.

The policy has drawn the ire of developers for years, but the crackdown on the WordPress app is even more controversial because the app doesn’t currently offer any purchases at all, and there’s not a good reason why it would.

WordPress, the hugely popular website builder that powers around a third of the internet, is open-source, meaning people don’t pay to create websites using it. WordPress.com, on the other hand, is a commercial entity that helps users create sites built on that open-source software, and it makes money by selling domain names and other paid website hosting and management services.

WordPress.com also develops the “WordPress” iOS app (that Apple took action against on Friday), which lets users create and manage WordPress-based sites for free — whether or not they pay WordPress.com for a premium domain name.

But because the app is developed by the commercial entity, Apple decided that WordPress.com needed to offer an option to purchase those premium domain names through the app — a 30% cut of those purchases would then go to Apple.

An Apple spokesperson told Business Insider that, per App Store policies, apps — including WordPress — operating across multiple platforms can let users access a service on their iOS app that they paid for on a different platform (such as a website), but the developers then have to offer the ability to purchase that service in the app, too.

That reasoning has angered the open-source community because the app itself is associated by users with……read more

Category: Tech Engineering

Millions of Electric Cars are Coming What Happens To All The Dead Batteries

References

Like this: