Month: July 2017

Enlarge (credit: Michiel Dijcks)

On Tuesday evening, Mercedes-Benz parent company Daimler released a statement saying that it would voluntarily recall three million Mercedes-Benz diesels in the EU to offer a software update that would improve emissions control system performance. The recall will cost the company about €220 million ($254 million). Mercedes-Benz was already in the process of offering software update-focused recalls to improve emissions systems in compact-class cars and V-Class cars with diesel engines, so this new announcement widens the radius on those existing recalls.

Dieter Zetsche, a Daimler AG Chairman and the head of the German automaker's Mercedes-Benz brand, explained the action as a move to clear up uncertainty. He described the recalls as “additional measures to reassure drivers of diesel cars and to strengthen confidence in diesel technology.”

“We are convinced that diesel engines will continue to be a fixed element of the drive-system mix, not least due to their low CO₂ emissions,” Zetsche added.

Destiny 2's major May reveal event in Los Angeles came with a substantial hands-on demo, and I walked away from it pretty impressed. Some fans were kinder to the sequel's unveil than others—with many wondering if this was really worthy of its "sequel" designation. Those fans didn't get to play what I played: the new, monstrous Inverted Spire "strike" mission.

That changed on Tuesday (for those who jumped through Bungie's pre-release hoops) with the launch of the Destiny 2 closed beta. Anybody who pre-ordered the game for PlayStation 4 can now redeem a code and download the beta, which will be live until this Friday. Xbox One players must wait 24 hours longer for their shot, on Wednesday, July 19 because of whatever fat check Sony wrote years ago.

Bungie

Enlarge (credit: Chris Hunkeler)

California lawmakers voted to extend the state’s cap-and-trade program another 10 years on Monday night. The bill includes language that would gradually tighten restrictions on businesses, reducing the amount of greenhouse gases they’re allowed to put in the atmosphere by 40 percent by 2030.

California’s cap-and-trade market puts a limit on the amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that companies are allowed to put into the atmosphere, and it allows companies to buy and sell GHG credits. That means that a company whose business requires additional GHG emissions over the limit would have to buy credits in an auction. The more polluting that companies are collectively, the more credits are in demand, and the more costly it is to do business individually as a polluter.

The first cap-and-trade rules were passed in 2012 and went into effect in 2013. California has linked its market with Québec and has had moderate success with the program, although the most recent carbon auction in February saw low demand—regulated businesses only purchased 18 percent of the auctioned credits compared to the previous auction in November when 88 percent of the credits up for auction were sold. The money raised in the auctions goes to a greenhouse gas reduction fund.

Enlarge / US Rep Dana Rohrabacher, left, in a photo with Neil Armstrong a few years ago. (credit: Dana Rohrabacher)

On Thursday, the space subcommittee of the House Science Committee held a hearing to look into NASA's forthcoming big-ticket planetary exploration missions. Those missions include a Mars 2020 rover, a Europa flyby mission, and potentially a follow-up lander to the Jovian moon Europa.

The hearing was respectable, with on-point witnesses and mostly incisive questions. That is, until California Republican Dana Rohrabacher had his turn at the microphone. After asking a reasonable, if rambling, question about NASA's plans for a Mars sample return mission and the kind of fuel used by spacecraft, Rohrabacher got down to business.

He asked, "You have indicated that Mars was totally different thousands of years ago. Is it possible that there was a civilization on Mars thousands of years ago?"