Google Partnering with Ford on Self-Driving Cars; Sony Working On 40% Longer-Lasting Battery

Google and Ford are partnering to build self-driving cars, according to a report by Yahoo Autos. Businessinsider.com says the deal should be announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next month. The joint venture will create a company that builds self-driving cars using Google technology. The entity will be legally separate from Ford, partly to protect Ford from potential liability. Google has been testing out their odd looking little self driving cars on city streets for a couple years now. Ford and numerous other car makers have been hard at work on self-driving car tech. The partnership would represent Google’s first success enlisting an established car-maker to adopt its technology.

Lithium-ion batteries have been powering our phones and laptops for a long time, but there are other technologies that may work better. Sony played a key part in popularizing Li-ion batteries in the 1990s. Mashable.com reports they are now working on new, sulfur-based batteries, which could offer up to 40% better energy density per volume. That means battery life would last roughly 40% longer.The first Li-S batteries were built in the late 2000s, almost none are commercially available today, mostly due to the sulfur easily degrading. It’s unclear exactly how Sony plans to solve this problem with its new batteries. Sony is apparently also working on magnesium-sulfur (Mg-S) batteries, which are potentially both more efficient and cheaper than today’s batteries.
Sony reportedly aims to have the new batteries ready for commercial production by 2020.