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Charging into the mainstream: Volvo electrifies its first class-8 truck

It’s key to a project bringing battery-electric trucks to a larger audience.

This is the Volvo VRN Electric, the company's first electric class-8 truck. [credit: Volvo ]

The reality of a production-ready fully electric semi is now upon us, at least for the short-haul routes. Last week, Volvo Trucks revealed the VNR Electric, the centerpiece of an ambitious and highly collaborative $90-million pilot project. It's known as Low-Impact Green Heavy Transport Solution, or LIGHTS for short. In addition to Volvo, which has invested $36.7 million, 14 other entities from both the public sector and private enterprise have signed on to this collaboration.

"Bringing electric trucks commercially to market takes more than the launch of the truck," says Keith Brandis, vice president of partnerships and strategic solutions at Volvo Group. "With the LIGHTS program, Volvo and its partners are working on creating a true holistic strategy," simultaneously studying not only the performance of the truck itself, but also variables such as maintenance needs, route logistics, infrastructure requirements, and environmental impact.

"Goods movement in the region is one of the biggest contributors to smog-causing emissions and 22 percent of emissions from California's overall transport sector," says Harmeet Singh, chief technology officer at Greenlots, the company developing and deploying the charging infrastructure for the LIGHTS program. "Our goal for the project is to demonstrate that electric trucks and the requisite charging infrastructure and systems are ready for real-world application," Singh told Ars.

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Dreams im Test: Bastelwastel im Traumiversum

Bereits mit Little Big Planet hat das Entwicklerstudio Media Molecule eine Kombination aus Spiel und Editor produziert, nun geht es mit Dreams noch ein paar Schritte weiter. Mit dem PS4-Titel muss man sich fast schon anstrengen, um nicht schöne Eigenkr…

Linux distro review: Intel’s own Clear Linux OS

Clear Linux OS is the best benchmarking distro. But what’s it like to live with?

Clear Linux came in first on roughly half of the 50 benchmarks Phoronix threw at it. [credit: Phoronix ]

Intel's Clear Linux distribution has been getting a lot of attention lately, due to its incongruously high benchmark performance. Although the distribution was created and is managed by Intel, even AMD recommends running benchmarks of its new CPUs under Clear Linux in order to get the highest scores.

Recently at Phoronix, Michael Larabel tested a Threadripper 3990X system using nine different Linux distros, one of which was Clear Linux—and Intel's distribution got three times as many first-place results as any other distro tested. When attempting to conglomerate all test results into a single geometric mean, Larabel found that the distribution's results were, on average, 14% faster than the slowest distributions tested (CentOS 8 and Ubuntu 18.04.3).

There's not much question that Clear Linux is your best bet if you want to turn in the best possible benchmark numbers. The question not addressed here is, what's it like to run Clear Linux as a daily driver? We were curious, so we took it for a spin.

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Unix: NetBSD 9.0 unterstützt ARMv8 und ARM-Server

Mit der neuen Version 9.0 von NetBSD haben die Entwickler des freien Betriebssystems den Hardware-Support nach eigenen Angaben signifikant verbessert. Dazu gehören unter anderem die Unterstützung für ARM-Server und viele SoC aus Bastelplatinen. Das Tea…

Netcologne: Lokaler Netzbetreiber klagt gegen Vodafone-Unitymedia

Netcologne will sich mit dem bundesweiten Kabelnetz von Vodafone nicht abfinden und kämpft beim Gericht der Europäischen Union dagegen. Der Glasfaserausbau werde durch deren Marktmacht behindert, sagte der Firmenchef. (Netcologne, Vodafone)

Generationenübergreifend arbeiten: Bloß nicht streiten

Passen Generation Silberlocke und Generation Social Media in ein IT-Team? Ganz klar: ja! Wenn sie ihr Wissen teilen, kommt am Ende sogar Besseres heraus. Entscheidend ist die gleiche Wertschätzung beider Altersgruppen und keine Konflikte in den altersg…

Eisenbahn: Alstom will Bahnsparte von Bombardier übernehmen

Eine Fusion mit der Zugsparte von Siemens untersagte die europäischen Wettbewerbsbehörde vor drei Jahren. Jetzt will der französische Schienenfahrzeughersteller Alstom durch einen Kauf der Bahnsparte von Bombardier wachsen. (Verkehr, Technologie)

Microsoft: Windows Terminal v0.9 kann beim Start mehrere Tabs öffnen

Das Windows Terminal 0.9 ist die letzte große Preview-Version vor der fertigen Software. Anwender können die Applikation über die Kommandozeile jetzt mit zwei oder mehr Tabs starten. Außerdem sollte durch einen Dialog verhindert werden, dass Nutzer aus…

U.S. Copyright Groups Want South Africa to Ensure that 5G Doesn’t Boost Piracy

The IIPA, which represents the MPA, RIAA, and other entertainment industry groups, sees South Africa as a major threat to its members. The group now recommends putting the country on the US Trade Representative’s Priority Watch List. Among other things, it is worried that the implementation of 4G and 5G in the country could increase piracy.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.

South Africa has found itself in the crosshairs of major US copyright groups, which are not happy with the country’s stance towards critical copyright issues.

South Africa is already subject to a U.S. Government review to see if trade sanctions should be applied.

The review was launched following a referral from the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA). This coalition of prominent rightsholder groups, which includes the MPA and RIAA, informed the USTR that South Africa’s current policies and actions are below international standards.

Among other things, the group is worried that the country’s newly proposed copyright law is far too flexible when it comes to fair use. This stance is echoed by other rightsholders but also heavily criticized by public interest groups and legal experts.

A few days ago the IIPA reiterated its critique in a new submission to the US Trade Representative (USTR). The USTR uses these submissions and other public comments to create its Special 301 Report, an annual list of countries that deserve extra attention due to various shortcomings that may hurt U.S. businesses.

The IIPA is one of the most loyal submitters, sharing its concerns for more than 20 consecutive years. Over these two decades, it has recommended that over 75 countries should be placed on the U.S. “Watch List”.

Until this year, South Africa was never mentioned, but that has clearly changed. In its 2020 recommendation, the IIPA classifies the country among the worst offenders, asking the USTR to put it on the Priority Watch List.

According to the IIPA, South Africa’s newly proposed Copyright Amendment Bill is fatally flawed. This includes the previously mentioned fair use issues as well as a wide range of other shortcomings which were detailed in several pages, too expansive to summarize.

In addition, the country’s response to the threat of online piracy is also said to be lacking. While more legal options have become available, many South Africans turn to piracy, the group notes.

According to the IIPA, increased Internet connection speeds are contributing to a piracy boom. This is in part facilitated by corporate and university networks.

“[O]nline piracy continues to grow in South Africa. Growth in bandwidth speeds, coupled with lax controls over corporate and university bandwidth abuse, drive this piracy,” the IIPA writes.

Throttling the bandwidth of an entire country isn’t a very popular solution. However, according to the IIPA, there are other options available. They include blocking and shutting down websites, which may require legislation to be updated.

Among the list of “priority actions” for the country is also a bandwidth-related suggestion. The rightsholders urge South Africa to ensure that the implementation of 4G and 5G networks doesn’t increase piracy.

“Monitor implementation of 4G and 5G networks to ensure it does not lead to a higher level of piracy, and improve education and increase enforcement commensurate to the increased threat,” the IIPA writes.

This is a rather unique suggestion. The IIPA’s full report lists over a dozen countries and spans 220 pages, but 4G and 5G are only mentioned in relation to South Africa.

The mention is linked to the recent decision of South Africa’s government to open the spectrum. This paves the way for the rollout of 4G and 5G networks, which can boost both legal and illegal consumption.

If piracy indeed gets a boost, the IIPA would like the government to step in to correct this through trade sanctions or other means.

All in all, the IIPA’s overview sums up a long list of shortcomings that it hopes the country will address. Needless to say, this sits in stark contrast to previous years, when they were never even mentioned.

The rightsholder groups hope that the USTR will agree with its concerns and place the country on its Priority Watch List, which is due to be released in the months to come.

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The IIPA’s full recommendations for the USTR’s 2020 Special 301 Review are available here (pdf).

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.

Echo und Co.: Armband stört Mikrofone von smarten Lautsprechern

Wissenschaftler haben in den USA ein Gerät entworfen, das mittels Ultraschall sämtliche Mikrofone in der Umgebung stört und um das Handgelenk getragen wird. Unter anderem können smarte Lautsprecher Unterhaltungen nicht mehr verstehen, wenn das Gerät ak…