IEN Radio

By now I think we can all agree that the role of entertainment and communication technology will continue to play a greater role in all facets of society, including automotive offerings. But, just in case you weren’t sure, electronics giant Sony made it very clear … by building their own car.  On display this week at the Consumer Electronics Show is Sony’s Vision S, an electric (of course) concept...

Last year, Walmart had in-store robots installed at nearly 1,500 locations. Despite creeping out customers and making human counterparts feel uneasy, Walmart is rolling out robot workers in 650 new stores.  According to Bloomberg , the new robots are shelf-scanners that alert human employees when items are out of stock. According to the IHL Group, out-of-stock items cost retailers about $1 trillio...

Last week, a pair of historic experimental Shelby Mustangs were unveiled at the 49th Annual Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction in Scottsdale, Arizona.  Little Red and the Green Hornet were the only notchback coupes ever manufactured with a Shelby nameplate. Once thought to be lost forever, the prototypes now have a new lease on life.  Little Red is a 1967 Ford Shelby GT500 EXP Prototype. In Mar...

A 50-year-old worker at J & A Grinding has confessed to lacing a coworker's drink with a cleaning liquid. Curtis Malloy was an employee at the industrial tool plant in Delaware when he confessed to adding Pine-Sol to a coworker’s beverage after a nine-month long investigation. He told the authorities that the female coworker had teased him, so he spiked her drink and now he's facing...

Nearly 12 years ago, China, intent on joining aerospace industry stalwarts Boeing and Airbus, established a new state-owned entity known as the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China — or COMAC, for short.  The company set a goal of a maiden flight for its debut passenger jet, the C919, in 2014, with production and delivery to follow in subsequent years.  After a series of delays, the C919 did t...

When you’re the biggest e-commerce company in the world, people love to bag on you. And if you’re Amazon, sometimes you deserve it. According to an article in Business Insider , third party sellers accounted for 58 percent of Amazon’s gross sales in 2018. And the sales can certainly be gross , according to a recent story in the Wall Street Journal . That’s because the WSJ says its reporters, in an...

Based in Los Angeles, Laffite Supercars designs unique concept cars and manufactures short-run automobiles.  This week, the company introduced the X-Road, a street-legal all-terrain vehicle that combines off-road power with high-end luxury.  The X-Road delivers up to 700 horsepower and weighs 2,866 pounds, which gives the driver a horsepower-to-pound ratio of 4.09 lbs/hp. Now, that won't put...

Bloomberg reported December 13th that Sunnyvale, California-based Turvo — a real-time collaborative logistics startup — has implemented an important new company policy that essentially says employees aren’t allowed to entertain clients at strip clubs, and certainly not expense such bills to the company. Why caused this new policy? Well, the company’s most recent CEO was fired in May for doing just...

Over the last 100 years, one of the most overlooked, but crucial elements of any manufacturing supply chain is boxes. Specifically, cardboard boxes. Whether you’re Amazon, or Bob’s Discount Pet Supplies, cardboard boxes are literally the default way of packaging your products for transport. But ever since manufacturers have been using boxes, there’s been the issue of wasted space and the need to a...

It seems like nothing pulls at the nostalgic heartstrings quite like a car. For me, any time I think about that digital speedometer in my 1986 Chevy Z24, it makes me smile. And many, it seems, feel similarly about the iconic DeLorean sports car. Made equally famous by its starring role in the Back to the Future movie trilogy, as well as the public demise of its founder, the DeLorean continues to i...

More than 10 years after General Motors discontinued the Hummer as part of a bankruptcy announcement, the popular brand might be back, and it's entering a much different segment of the automotive market. According to a report from Reuters, via the Wall Street Journal, the Hummer will make its comeback as an electric pickup truck and electric SUV. Quite the departure from it's gas-guzzlin...

Don’t be evil.  Up until last year, those words were not only part of Google’s official Code of Conduct, but served as their longstanding, albeit unofficial motto. However, recent actions seem to be calling that phrase’s legacy at Google into question. The company’s firing of the recently dubbed Thanksgiving Four, has led the National Labor Relations Board to launch an investigation into the Mount...

Big tech is constantly being accused of watching us, but a new allegation from a former Apple executive contends his ex-employer was actually reading his text messages. But the issue didn’t start there. It began when Gerard Williams, chief architect of Apple’s iPhone and iPad chips, left the firm in February of 2019 to go out on his own. After launching Nuvia, a server chip startup stocked with ot...

Since his first appearance in 1939, Batman has undergone a number of changes in his quest to both stay ahead of his enemies and relevant to comic book fans. However, one thing that has remained a constant is his continued use of unique tools and devices for vanquishing his foes. And now, one of those devices is set to make its way into real-life law enforcement. I’m not sure what the Dark Knight c...

Glassdoor, the website that enables workers to publicly evaluate their employers, has released its “Best Places to Work” list , and there have been some interesting changes from years past. “Best Places to Work” is a compilation derived by the rankings employees give their companies, and the year-over-year winners tends to include those big name tech companies out of Silicon Valley that always mak...

Last Friday, 18-year-old Cameron Golden entered the Dart Container factory outside of Atlanta and shot and killed a fellow co-worker, 42-year-old Taurus Andrews. The shooting happened at around 7:00 am. It was shift change at the Dart facility that makes food and beverage containers, and it created a panic.  Golden wasn't arrested until hours later when he was tracked down at a bus station ab...

In contrast to anyone who follows Elon Musk, it looks like there are some elements of Tesla’s business that its’ founder doesn’t want to discuss. This includes, according to a recent report from the Reno Gazette Journal , a rash of thefts that hit the company’s Nevada Gigafactory in 2018. Police reports obtained by the Journal indicate that representatives from Tesla were uncooperative with Storey...

We know the SUV market is a competitive one. And with one automaker after another putting at least most of their eggs into this basket, it’s sure to spark some segment design changes, if only because everyone wants to be the standout. Which makes the latest problem for the Ford Explorer even worse. The 2020 redesign of Ford’s most famous SUV came on the heels of the company’s announcement that it...

Cadillac is making a big bet on electrics. Just how big? The president of GM’s luxury division just told Reuters that most – maybe even all – of Cadillacs models will be fully electric by 2030. The automaker predicts it will give its models one more refresh in their existing gasoline versions and then begin its move towards electrics. The first foray could be the large Cadillac SUV GM expects to b...

Boeing is having a hell of a week, and that’s not even usually news anymore. The aerospace supplier, who has been buried under the weight of its issues with the Max jet for months, saw its stock price tank when markets got wind of discussions to possible scale down or even discontinue Max production. But, alas, there is more money to lose for Boeing and this time it relates to a coveted military p...

Researchers from Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) used an integrated tissue-organ printer (ITOP) to 3D-bioprint a trachea.  Researchers have already 3D-printed tracheal splints and scaffolds to grow tissue-engineered tracheas, but this is the first trachea with various functional materials.  Previous attempts failed because they only used regenerated cartilage tissue. Accord...

Researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory are using a new 3D printing technique to improve lightning strikes on airplanes.  Airplane exteriors sare traditionally made of carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP). It's lighter than metal, but its low electrical conductivity and heat resistance make it vulnerable to lightning strikes.  Conventional lightning strike protection technology inclu...

This week, NOWLAB introduced LOCI, a design prototype for a 3D-printed autonomous podcar designed for last-mile movement. NOWLAB is the additive manufacturing innovation arm of the BigRep Consultancy, the team behind the NERA eBike , a 3D-printed electric-motorcycle, and smart concrete walls with embedded sensors.  First seen on New Atlas , the podcar has airless tires, embedded electronics, and w...

Roberto Escobar, brother of infamous cocaine trafficker Pablo Escobar and who, according to Escobarinc.com , was the former accountant/chief of assassinations for the notorious Medellin Cartel, is also the founder of Escobar, Inc.  His company recently unveiled what they’re touting as the replacement to the iPhone.  That’s right, for $349 you can head to their website and purchase the Escobar Fold...

In the name of preserving history, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have used advanced imaging to create digital replicas of the bullets that killed President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963.  The bullets are typically stored at the National Archives, which brought the spent ammo to NIST so the ballistics team could make new perfect copies.  Even though we&...