In the V2X framework, vehicles are wireless connected to each other

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.

Connected technology improves infrastructure efficiency in smart cities

Through information and communication technologies, smart cities can provide enhanced public services and improved quality of life by managing traffic and dynamic safety policies. They can also promote sustainability by automating energy use and redirecting resources according to need.

Two main types of inflight WiFi connections are air-to-ground and satellite-based

ATG systems rely on aircraft antennae to catch signals from cellphone towers, while the latter uses a network of satellites transmitting data from space. As of 2022, airlines like Delta and United hosted over 1.5 million monthly WiFi sessions.

Acoustic Vehicle Alerting Systems provide motor sounds in electric vehicles

Since 2019, various global standards have set requirements for these systems, which seek to mimic combustion-engine sounds by meeting specific sonic criteria, including sound pressure, frequency, and pitch. Sound engineers design these systems to meet these requirements, ensuring that passers-by, particularly the blind and visually impaired, can detect the presence of a vehicle.

Over-the-air updates, pioneered by Tesla, have become the industry standard

Tesla's innovative direct-to-consumer sales model and online ordering system changed car-buying, and the Model S, which had a 200-mile range, forced other automakers to enhance their EV offerings and rethink vehicle design.

The internet explained at five levels of difficulty, from protocols to internet flattening

Resembling a roadway with traffic laws that all cars must follow, the internet is the hardware that connects a source to a destination, and these connections must follow specific software rules. Although data had to travel through about 10 networks to reach a destination in the past, data centers increasingly consolidate traffic, just as a highway does for cars, to improve data speeds.

The Internet of Things refers to the connection of all devices to the cloud

These connections between everyday objects, each other, and data processing centers enable devices to adapt to user needs and improve their ability to respond to real-time data. IoT networks are designed to enhance the efficiency of homes, cities, and industries.

Nearly every major automaker now offers a hands-free driving system

The capabilities of these systems range from automatic lane changes via eye-tracking to an assistant that reminds you to check your blind spot before changing lanes yourself. Most systems still require the driver to remain alert and be prepared to take over.

How 5G will transform media and gaming experiences

The latest generation of cellular mobile communication, known as 5G, promises speeds up to 100 times faster than 4G. Intel's Asha Keddy talk to MarketWatch about how this will transform media consumption and gaming experiences.

As of 2025, Waymo has rolled out "robotaxi" services in five US cities

The company has been under investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration following dozens of crashes and incidents that appear to show Waymo vehicles violating traffic laws over the past decade in Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Austin.

The Tesla coil was the first system to wireless transmit electricity

Developed in 1891, the system effectively consists of two open electric circuits with a gap of air between them. When a high enough voltage is built up, air becomes a conductor and sparks of electricity are generated.

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.

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

Radio waves are used in broadcasting, weather radar, telecommunications, and GPS

Its ability to bend around obstacles and reflect off the ionosphere—an electrified layer of Earth's upper atmosphere—allows this type of light to travel long distances without damaging living things due to its low energy. MRI scanners, WiFi, and Bluetooth technologies are also applications of this form of light.

Woven City at the base of Mount Fuji in Japan

The Woven City at the base of Mount Fuji in Japan is a ‘living laboratory’ for new technologies. It is being developed by Toyota subsidiary, Woven Planet, and will be the world’s first programmable city.

The WEF’s Edison Alliance connected more than 1 billion people to digital services

By 2024, the World Economic Forum-backed Edison Alliance had delivered digital connectivity and access to financial, healthcare, and education services to more than 1 billion people, using public-private partnerships across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the US.

Check your 5G coverage with Verizon’s interactive map

Use this interactive network coverage map to check Verizon 5G and 4G availability in your area. Find out just how far Verizon's nationwide cell phone coverage map spans.

Web3 is the successor to our current version of the Internet

Web1 (existing roughly from 1990 to 2005) was about decentralized and community-governed open protocols. Most of the value accrued to the edges of the network: users and builders. Web2 (roughly 2005 through 2020) was about siloed, centralized services run by corporations.

Increasing contact between humans and wild animals is driving zoonotic threats

Zoonotic diseases, which spread from animals to humans, present one of the most significant emerging threats worldwide. Scientists have identified around 200 viruses capable of infecting humans, and unfortunately, the number of such diseases are on the rise—at least 60% of all emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic in origin.

Virtual and augmented realities are paving the way for a more immersive future

Tech companies like Apple, Meta, and Microsoft invest heavily in immersive technologies such as virtual, augmented, and mixed reality. While VR transports users to a fully digital space and AR adds digital elements to the real world, mixed reality allows interaction with both at once.

Toronto's downtown has 18 miles of underground pedestrian tunnels

Known as the "Path," these tunnels have helped reduce pedestrian traffic on Toronto's busy downtown streets for over a century. They were first built by local business owners, prompting a network effect of add-on tunnels.

How end-to-end encryption protects messages, even from service providers

Using symmetric and asymmetric cryptography, data is encrypted on the sender's device before being transmitted across application servers that lack the key needed to decrypt it. The message is not decrypted until it reaches the recipient's device, which uses their private key to recover the plaintext. E2EE's effectiveness has led to its adoption by WhatsApp and Signal.

X is a social media platform focused on real-time communication and content sharing

Users post and interact through short messages known as tweets. As of February 2025, X receives over 4.83 billion monthly visits, with users spending an average of 34 minutes daily on the platform.

Adhesion molecules and intercellular junctions allow cells to connect together

While some organic structures are mostly composed of non-cellular components (e.g., collagen and calcium phosphate minerals in bones), tissues and organs composed of connected cells rely on specialized proteins and connections to create watertight seals that protect cells within the interior from environmental molecules.

Voyager 1 and 2 are the only spacecraft to reach and study interstellar space

The Voyager Interstellar Mission extended beyond the original planetary flybys to explore the solar system's edge and beyond. Voyager 1 and 2 crossed the heliosheath—the boundary between the solar wind and the interstellar medium—in 2012 and 2018, respectively.

School buses are the safest vehicles on the road

Even without seat belts or airbags, the big yellow school bus transporting millions of students to school each day remains the safest vehicle on the road. A long history of tragic lessons led to today's highly tested school bus design, including the padded compartments created by school bus seats, multiple emergency exits, cross-view mirrors, and more.

Transistors are the foundation of electronic signal processing

Small amounts of voltage can allow or block the flow of electrons across a transistor made from modified layers of semiconducting materials. The conducting (1) and insulating (0) states can be quickly modified as binary code is processed in a computer system.

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.

Power lines are dotted with large, brightly colored balls to improve the visibility of these thin wires to helicopters and small planes and help prevent potential crashes.

Watch how viruses like Ebola can spill over from animals to humans—and vice-versa.

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

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.

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.

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

Objects can be 3D printed with light by projecting 2D computerized tomography (CT) scans onto rotating cylinders of resin, which solidify upon exposure.

Track the location of the Voyager probes, currently between 13 and 15 billion miles away from Earth.

While the first exchange-traded fund (a 'basket' of different assets that can be bought and sold on a stock exchange) in the US only launched in 1993, the global ETF market has grown to more than $10T in the short time since.

The American Society of Civil Engineers' infrastructure report card gave the US a C in 2025, its highest grade since the project launched in 1998.

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

About 2,000 US babies are born annually without some portion of their limbs, potentially leading to a lifetime of pricey prosthetics.

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.

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.

Pure water does not conduct electricity because this flow of energy requires the movement of charged particles, and water is a neutral molecule.

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.

Some researchers have labeled nomophobia, the fear of being without your phone, as 'the phobia of the 21st century.'

The syncytiotrophoblast is the outer layer of the placenta and the largest human cell, spanning an area about twice that of a king-sized bedsheet.

In 1963, a basement renovation in Turkey revealed a passageway to a hidden, multilevel underground city that once housed as many as 20,000 people

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.