Transportation Science News

June 25, 2025

Top Headlines

You Hear the Beep, but Can’t Find the Car: The Hidden Flaw in Electric Vehicle Safety

June 18, 2025 — As electric vehicles grow more popular, their warning sounds may not be doing enough to protect pedestrians. A Swedish study shows that these signals are hard to locate, especially when multiple ...

Does Outdoor Air Pollution Affect Indoor Air Quality? It Could Depend on Buildings' HVAC

May 30, 2025 — Researchers determined how much outdoor particulate pollution affects indoor air quality. Their study concluded pollution from inversion and dust events is kept out of buildings, but wildfire smoke ...

A Cheap and Easy Potential Solution for Lowering Carbon Emissions in Maritime Shipping

May 29, 2025 — Reducing travel speeds and using an intelligent queuing system at busy ports can reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from oceangoing container vessels by 16-24%, according to researchers. Not only ...

Mid-Air Transformation Helps Flying, Rolling Robot to Transition Smoothly

May 28, 2025 — Engineers have developed a real-life Transformer that has the 'brains' to morph in midair, allowing the drone-like robot to smoothly roll away and begin its ground operations without pause. The increased agility and robustness of such robots could ...

New Fuel Cell Could Enable Electric Aviation

May 27, 2025 — Engineers developed a fuel cell that offers more than three times as much energy per pound compared to lithium-ion batteries. Powered by a reaction between sodium metal and air, the device could be lightweight enough to enable the electrification of ...

Light-Driven Cockroach Cyborgs Navigate Without Wires or Surgery

May 22, 2025 — have created a new type of insect cyborg that can navigate autonomously -- without wires, surgery, or stress-inducing electrical shocks. The system uses a small ultraviolet (UV) light helmet to steer cockroaches by taking advantage of their natural ...

Nimble Dimples: Agile Underwater Vehicles Inspired by Golf Balls

May 19, 2025 — Underwater or aerial vehicles with dimples like golf balls could be more efficient and maneuverable, a new prototype has ...

UCF's 'Bridge Doctor' Combines Imaging, Neural Network to Efficiently Evaluate Concrete Bridges' Safety

May 16, 2025 — New research details how infrared thermography, high-definition imaging and neural network analysis can combine to make concrete bridge inspections more efficient. Researchers are hopeful that their ...

Eldercare Robot Helps People Sit and Stand, and Catches Them If They Fall

May 13, 2025 — Engineers built E-BAR, a mobile robot designed to physically support the elderly and prevent them from falling as they move around their homes. E-BAR acts as a set of robotic handlebars that follows a person from behind, allowing them to walk ...

A Small Bicycle Handlebar Sensor Can Help Map a Region's Riskiest Bike Routes

May 9, 2025 — Researchers have developed a system, called ProxiCycle, that logs when a passing car comes too close to a cyclist (four feet or less). A small, inexpensive sensor plugs into bicycle handlebars and ...

Nearly One-Quarter of E-Scooter Injuries Involved Substance Impaired Riders

May 1, 2025 — About 25% of 7350 patients hospitalized for scooter-related injuries between 2016 and 2021 were using substances such as alcohol, opioids, marijuana and cocaine when injured. The findings underscore the urgent need to strengthen safety regulations, ...

Flying Robots Unlock New Horizons in Construction

Apr. 24, 2025 — An international team has explored how in future aerial robots could process construction materials precisely in the air -- an approach with great potential for difficult-to-access locations or work at great heights. The flying robots are not ...

Latest Headlines

updated 12:39pm EDT

Faster Way to Solve Complex Planning Problems

Apr. 16, 2025 — Researchers developed a machine-learning-guided technique to solve complex, long-horizon planning problems more efficiently than some traditional approaches, while arriving at an optimal solution ...

Holiday Flights Could Carry Fewer Passengers as World Warms

Apr. 16, 2025 — By the 2060s, some airports with shorter runways may need to reduce their maximum take-off weight by the equivalent of approximately 10 passengers per flight during summer ...

Unsafe Driving During School Drop Offs at 'Unacceptable' Levels

Apr. 13, 2025 — Risky driving by parents and other motorists who do the school run is putting children in danger, according to a new ...

Hopping Gives This Tiny Robot a Leg Up

Apr. 9, 2025 — A hopping, insect-sized robot can jump over gaps or obstacles, traverse rough, slippery, or slanted surfaces, and perform aerial acrobatic maneuvers, while using a fraction of the energy required for ...

Speed Cameras Take Six Months to Change Driver Behavior, Effects Vary by Neighborhood

Apr. 4, 2025 — New York City's automated speed cameras reduced traffic crashes by 14% and decreased speeding violations by 75% over time, according to new research. ...

How GPS Helps Older Drivers Stay on the Roads

Apr. 3, 2025 — New research shows that Sat Nav systems are helping keep older drivers on the roads for longer. The study reveals that over 65s with a poorer sense of direction rely more on help from GPS navigation ...

Reducing Risk of Embankment Slope Failures Along Roads

Apr. 2, 2025 — Based on their findings, the researchers noted there are practical solutions that could have prevented collapse of the embankment slope investigated in this study. Their recommendations include using ...

Geometric Design of Material Provides Safer Bicycle Helmet

Mar. 28, 2025 — By using geometric shapes in the shock-absorbing material, researchers have developed a bicycle helmet that provides better protection against head injuries. The material absorbs shock by contracting ...

Mini Rolling Robot Takes Virtual Biopsies

Mar. 27, 2025 — A tiny magnetic robot which can take 3D scans from deep within the body, that could revolutionize early cancer detection, has been developed by researchers. The team say this is the first time it has ...

E-Scooter Crashes Mainly Caused by Reckless Driving

Mar. 25, 2025 — Crashes on electric scooters are mostly due to the behavior of the riders, with one-handed steering and riding in a group being some of the largest risk factors. The researchers are also concerned ...

Do-It-Yourself Box Filter Clears the Air of Indoor Pollutants

Mar. 24, 2025 — When wildfires threaten communities, human health can be impacted as smoke distributes on the breeze, infiltrating various structures. To help people protect themselves and their families, ...

Receiving Low-Glucose Alerts Improves Diabetic Drivers' Safety on the Road

Mar. 10, 2025 — A Japanese study has found that the use of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) devices, equipped with sensors that alert diabetics when their blood sugar levels drop, can potentially make diabetic ...

Urban Highways Cut Opportunities for Social Relationships

Mar. 6, 2025 — Urban highways promise to get people to their destinations faster -- and bring them together. But at the same time, they reduce social connections between people within the city, especially at ...

Engineered Cartilage from Nasal Septum Cells Helps Treat Complex Knee Injuries

Mar. 5, 2025 — Injuries to the articular cartilage in different joints, including the knee, are painful and limit mobility. Therefore, researchers are developing cartilage implants using cells from the ...

Neural Network Deciphers Gravitational Waves from Merging Neutron Stars in a Second

Mar. 5, 2025 — Binary neutron star mergers emit gravitational waves followed by light. To fully exploit these observations and avoid missing key signals, speed is crucial. An interdisciplinary team of researchers ...

Study Shines Headlights on Consumer Driverless Vehicle Safety Deficiencies

Mar. 4, 2025 — Researchers have demonstrated that multicolored stickers applied to stop or speed limit signs on the roadside can 'confuse' self-driving vehicles, causing unpredictable and possibly ...

Self-Driving Cars Learn to Share Road Knowledge Through Digital Word-of-Mouth

Feb. 27, 2025 — A research team has developed a way for self-driving vehicles to share their knowledge about road conditions indirectly, making it possible for each vehicle to learn from the experiences of others ...

Quantum Interference in Molecule-Surface Collisions

Feb. 27, 2025 — Scientists have revealed how quantum interference and symmetry dictate molecular behavior in collisions with gold surfaces, offering new insights into molecular interactions. The findings can have ...

Lunar Trailblazer Blasts Off to Map Water on the Moon

Feb. 25, 2025 — On Wednesday 26 February, a thermal imaging camera blasted off to the Moon as part of NASA's Lunar Trailblazer mission. This aims to map sources of water on the Moon to shed light on the lunar ...

Microcomb Chips Help Pave the Way for Thousand Times More Accurate GPS Systems

Feb. 21, 2025 — Optical atomic clocks can increase the precision of time and geographic position a thousandfold in our mobile phones, computers, and GPS systems. However, they are currently too large and complex to ...

Bio-Hybrid Drone Uses Silkworm Moth Antennae to Navigate Using Smell

Feb. 19, 2025 — Conventional drones use visual sensors for navigation. However, environmental conditions like dampness, low light, and dust can hinder their effectiveness, limiting their use in disaster-stricken ...

Air Inside Your Home May Be More Polluted Than Outside Due to Everyday Chemical Products

Feb. 18, 2025 — Bringing aromas indoors with the help of chemical products -- yes, air fresheners, wax melts, floor cleaners, deodorants and others -- rapidly fills the air with nanoscale particles that are small ...

Combining Millions of Years of Evolution With Tech Wizardry: The Cyborg Cockroach

Feb. 13, 2025 — A research team has developed two new autonomous navigation systems for cyborg insects to better navigate unknown, complex environments. The algorithms utilized only simple circuits that leveraged ...

Solar-Powered Device Captures Carbon Dioxide from Air to Make Sustainable Fuel

Feb. 13, 2025 — Researchers have developed a reactor that pulls carbon dioxide directly from the air and converts it into sustainable fuel, using sunlight as the power ...

Research Uses AI to Make Infrastructure More Resilient, Sustainable

Feb. 13, 2025 — From predicting potholes to designing more durable concrete, artificial intelligence is paving the way for smarter infrastructure, new studies ...

The 'Hydrogen Economy' May Be Relatively Small, but Critical

Feb. 13, 2025 — Researchers have quantified the role of the 'hydrogen economy' in making our society more sustainable. They present the results of extensive modelling of pathways to decarbonizing the ...

Researchers Are Driving the Charge of Zero Emissions

Feb. 10, 2025 — New research finds that electric vehicles generally produce less non-exhaust emissions compared with gasoline-powered ...

College Commuters: Link Between Students' Mental Health, Vehicle Crashes

Feb. 5, 2025 — Young adults are at higher risk for crashes due to inexperience, risk-taking, and impaired driving. A study examines the link between commuter college students' mental health and crash risk, ...

One in Four Chance Per Year That Rocket Junk Will Enter Busy Airspace

Feb. 5, 2025 — There's a 26 per cent annual chance that space rocket junk will re-enter the atmosphere and pass through a busy flight area, according to a recent study. While the chance of debris hitting an ...

Engineers Model Electric Grid Demand for EVs to Charge While in Motion

Feb. 4, 2025 — Running out of gas in a remote area far from a gas station is every driver's worst nightmare. A similar stressor, known as "range anxiety," exists for owners of electric vehicles who ...