Explore the components of autonomous vehicles controls

Future self-driving cars may communicate across a closed wireless infrastructure

Current autonomous vehicles collect and analyze their own data through their own hardware and proprietary software. Connecting data from all such cars on a single network will require overcoming challenges related to standardization and security.

The Society of Automotive Engineers sorts self-driving technology into six levels

At level 0, a vehicle cannot intervene on its own, and the driver controls all navigation. At level 3, the car operates autonomously under limited conditions, but a human can still take control. A future level 5 vehicle drives itself and lacks a steering wheel or pedals.

Explore the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's guide to automated cars

This page provides answers to questions on topics ranging from liability for crashes involving autonomous cars to the safety benefits of these cars. A timeline of the evolution of automated safety technologies is also provided.

As of 2025, self-driving cars continue to be unavailable to consumers

These vehicles rely on radar, cameras, lidar, and advanced AI to process data and make real-time driving decisions. Companies like Waymo and Mercedes-Benz are testing autonomous cars on public roads, but challenges remain, including technical reliability issues, regulatory hurdles, and a lack of consumer trust.

In a 2024 survey, 93% of participants expressed concerns about self-driving cars

Safety was the leading consumer fear, with technological malfunctions coming in second. Nearly half of all consumers identified skepticism or concern as their primary descriptor for autonomous cars, but 20% cited enhanced mobility for the elderly and people with disabilities as a key benefit.

Tesla offers two variations of autopilot systems for its vehicles

The standard package provides adaptive cruise control, which adjusts the vehicle's speed according to traffic conditions, and autonomous steering to maintain the car's path. The enhanced system includes automated lane changing, parking, traffic light, and stop sign controls.

Autonomous vehicles have been confirmed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

Research indicates that self-driving cars can reduce harmful pollution through lower traffic, decreased parking demand, and optimized driving behavior. These benefits can be enhanced further in smart cities with responsive traffic signals.

Today's cars use turbocharged hybrid engines and AI-assisted technologies

In addition to enhanced speed, serious accidents and technological advances have led to major innovations, leading to more aerodynamic and more protective cars.

Self-driving formula cars race in the Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League

The league and high-speed versions of traditional cars help to showcase the capabilities of driverless vehicles and the reliability of their AI systems. Leonardo da Vinci first imagined the idea for such machines in the 16th century.

The benefits and risks of smart grids, from improved efficiency to cybersecurity risks

By using a network of devices, including digital meters, sensors, and controllers, smart grids can quickly detect mechanical issues and fluctuations in supply and demand, automatically adjusting electricity flow to prevent cascading failures. While this is important for variable solar and wind power generation, many of these computer systems are designed to be controlled remotely, which increases the risk of malicious access.

When you complete a CAPTCHA on a website to prove you are human, you may be unknowingly training algorithms for self-driving cars, whose systems require training data to help identify crosswalks, bicycles, and other outdoor objects.

AI systems identify patterns involving physics and time through 'world models'

These realistic virtual environments, such as driving simulations seen in video games, allow these systems to "learn" properties about reality beyond what can be captured in samples of text, images, and videos. Training AI in these simulated environments can help develop "physical AI" for automated robotic systems. (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

Prompt viruses can exploit and take advantage of integrated AI systems

AI agents—software that can complete requested tasks without ongoing human direction—are expected to increasingly communicate with one another as users and businesses incorporate AI. Providing malicious, self-replicating instructions through prompt injection attacks can cause damaging commands to cascade across systems and services (e.g., banking), without requiring human intervention.

Twenty of the coolest products from CES 2025

This roundup from Cybernews showcases standout CES 2025 innovations—from flying cars and robot dogs to VR headsets and AI-powered gadgets—showing the event’s most talked-about tech.

Electric vehicle systems run on five key components

The system is made up of a charger—converting AC into DC—a battery, a power control unit, motor(s), and a single gear. A complex gearbox is not needed because electric motors are efficient at operating across a range of speeds.

Explaining how open source systems like Linux can be secure, despite their public source code

While no computer system is immune to all cyberattacks and malware, the transparency of open-source technology means many thousands of developers can review and oversee the underlying code powering the software on an ongoing basis. This increases the likelihood of catching and patching vulnerabilities more quickly than smaller groups of cybercriminals looking to exploit them.

Security technician hacks a voting machine to reveal its vulnerabilities

A technician bought an old, likely-decommissioned voting machine from 2013 and took it apart to see how a would-be hacker might be able to exploit its vulnerabilities. Get a sense of the needs for secure, up-to-date voting machines with this...

The US air traffic control system is safe but due for major technological updates

On any given day, over 3 million passengers fly on roughly 45,000 flights in the US. Flying today is safer than ever, but air traffic controllers deal with outdated technology that can interfere with pilot communication.

Predictive brain implants raise ethical concerns about patient autonomy after surgery

These devices can accurately forecast neurological events like seizures and suggest or even automatically deliver responses. Their constant monitoring and prescriptive functions may blur the line between patient choice and device influence.

Watch how algorithms can be designed to train themselves and self-improve without human input, to the point where the optimized code is too complex for programmers to understand.

The Cybathlon is an international competition for assistive technology

The competition pits teams against each other in eight races targeting different innovations, such as arm prostheses, leg prostheses, and vision assistance. Participants in the Cybathlon use it to push the boundaries of technology, including brain implants and assistive software that incorporates AI.

Modern innovations have allowed rides to simultaneously become more extreme and safer

Several ingenious additions to roller coasters, such as extra wheels, magnetic brakes, and hydraulic system safety bars, have largely reduced discomfort and threats such as broken rides or ejected passengers.

SpaceX's Crew Dragon was the first crewed spacecraft piloted by touchscreen

In May 2020, NASA astronauts flying SpaceX's Crew Dragon to the International Space Station used touchscreen controls instead of traditional switches and dials, a significant shift for astronauts and how they pilot and interact with spacecraft. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

Challenges for synthetic biology

Can engineering approaches tame the complexity and unpredictability of living systems? An exploration of five challenges for the field and how they might be resolved.

Using cryptocurrency to turn traditional financial arrangements on their head

Cryptocurrency is poised to drastically change everything in the financial world, including financial arrangements. Decentralized finance makes it easier for virtually anyone to take advantage of financial markets without the need for a bank. However, there are new risks involved as well. Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics Kevin Werbach, an expert on Bitcoin and blockchains discusses it all in detail in The Conversation.

Manage the control room of a virtual nuclear power plant

This interactive takes you on a tour of a virtual plant before handing you the keys to the control room. Challenge yourself to produce enough energy to meet demand while avoiding a nuclear meltdown.

Tech giants like SpaceX and Meta are increasingly behaving like sovereign powers

Companies now make unilateral decisions once reserved for nation-states, such as controlling satellite internet access in active war zones and influencing global information flows. Lawmakers and the international order are struggling to keep up with technological developments, let alone regulate them.

Electrical grids worldwide must double their power delivery capacity by 2050 to meet surging demand from AI and electric vehicles.

Radioactive elements can introduce software errors because the ionizing radiation they produce can detach electrons from atoms, and computer code relies on the distribution of electrons.

After 25 people used virtual reality headsets to practice flying with virtual wings—flapping their arms—their visual cortex responded to the wings almost as if they were real arms, treating them as body parts.

Explore the known asteroids, comets, and spacecraft involved in asteroid studies within our solar system with 'Eyes on Asteroids,' a 3D visualization from NASA.

In 2019, a laptop loaded with six of the worst malware in history and described as 'an exhibit of historical weaponry' sold for $1.3M.

In 2025, four executives from large tech companies were given positions in the US Army Reserves—including Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar, which reinforced Palantir's ties with the US military and its role as a leading defense partner.

Visualize how CRISPR-Cas9—a type of immune system used by single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses—targets and makes precise changes to a gene's DNA.

English mathematician Ada Lovelace wrote the first computer algorithm a century before computers existed and hypothesized that computing devices would one day be able to compose music—foreseeing the generative AI systems of today.

A vending machine run with Anthropic's AI went out of business after it was convinced to give away items for free and sell a video game console.

In recent years a child anxiety expert has created and tested a novel phobia and anxiety treatment approach for children, focused on changing how parents respond to the fears.

The price of gas is a composite made up of several different factors, with the federal gas tax making up less than 20% of what drivers pay at the pump.

As of 2025, the most cited papers in science include a review of graphene, methods to improve image recognition, streamlining electron density calculations, and optimizing protein studies.

Play the role of a student in a game where you try to navigate college and remain debt-free, selecting different income levels, high school experience, race, ethnicity, and more.

Alzheimer's can lead to brain shrinkage, with an average of around 2% of volume reduction per year

Telehealth demand for GLP-1s for weight loss is booming as consumers seek easier access.

Venture capital is a form of funding provided to early-stage companies with high growth potential, typically in exchange for an equity (or ownership) stake

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

Chaos theory—informally known as the butterfly effect—is the reason why weather forecasts are presented with probabilities rather than certainties.

The use of fungi to detoxify land and water—a process known as mycoremediation—has been used to clean up natural resources affected by the 2025 California wildfires.

Human-to-human transmission of hantavirus remains extremely rare, so the 2026 hantavirus cruise ship outbreak doesn't mean we're facing a COVID-style pandemic risk.

Stanford built a Google Maps for the Roman Empire, revealing how much it cost to travel in the ancient world

The Russia-Ukraine conflict is the largest ground war in Europe since World War II in terms of casualties, forces mobilized, and displacement of civilians.