🚠 Turkey cable car accident, Tesla hits pregnant woman, Light-based chip

On Friday, a damaged pylon collapsed, causing a cabin from the Antalya (Tunektepe) Cable Car system in Turkey to plunge down the mountainside into a rocky area. Nearly 200 found themselves stranded, while one person lost their life and seven sustained injuries.

13 individuals have been issued detention orders in connection with the accident. Among these are individuals responsible for maintaining and repairing the line. For more on what happened, head over to today’s Must-Read.

🔥Today’s job of the day as featured on jobs.interestingengineering.com:

> Systems Engineer
> Mechanical & Physical Engineer - Core Engine Calibration Engineer

🎙 New podcast Sci-fi to reality: the quest to harness solar power from space

Reading Time: 4 mins

Did a friend forward this e-mail to you? Subscribe here.

MUST READ

🚠 Turkey cable car collapse leaves one dead, 200 stranded

A video released by the interior ministry depicted rescue personnel secured with safety ropes ascending into the cabins. “The power went out, and the pod flipped four or five times,” said Istanbul resident Hatice Polat and her family, who were among those rescued.

“It was torture being up there for seven hours. It is swaying every second; you’re constantly in fear. It was very traumatic. I don’t know how we’ll get over this trauma,” Polat recalled. The Turkish justice ministry has confirmed that an investigation into the accident was initiated.

Completed in 2017, the cable car line undergoes major yearly inspections and routine checks. Operated by the Antalya Metropolitan Municipality, it transports tourists from Konyaalti Beach to a restaurant and scenic viewpoint located atop the 618-meter Tunektepe peak.

🚘 Tesla on jury trial after toddler crashes Model X into pregnant mother

In 2018, Mallory Harcourt, who was eight and a half months pregnant, and her husband Adam purchased a Tesla Model X, believing Tesla’s claims for it to be the “safest SUV on the market.”

However, the vehicle proved contrary to the company’s claims. Just four days after their purchase, Harcourt’s 2-year-old son was able to start the car, which caused it to move forward and hit her at their home in Santa Barbara, California.

Now, a jury trial will decide if Tesla is guilty of consumer fraud for falsely advertising the Model X’s technology as safe and negligence for “alleged flaws” in its software design.

💡 Light-based chip: China’s Taichi could power artificial general intelligence

Researchers at Tsinghua University in China have developed a new artificial intelligence (AI) chip that uses light instead of electricity to process data. Dubbed “Taichi,” the chip is reportedly over 1,000 times more energy-efficient than Nvidia’s high-performance H100 GPU chip.

Led by professors Dai Qionghai and Fang Lu, the Tsinghua team explained how their photonic integrated circuit (PIC) chip outperforms traditional electronic chips in tasks like image recognition training and content generation.

Taichi is especially relevant given export restrictions to China due to U.S. trade policies.

Love what you're reading, but too many emails? Sign up to IE+ to get Blueprint Weekly, our exclusive weekly premium newsletter that gives all the insights you love in a more digestible weekly format– plus, enjoy an Ad-Free experience on our website. Try IE+ today for just $1 in the first month. Subscribe here

A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR

How many of you have dreamt of having your own Jarvis?

Watching Tony Stark pass on instructions to his assistant Jarvis and seeing them carried out flawlessly is the next level of technology everyone of us dreams about. And, we are inching closer to having that assistant for ourselves in our pockets.

Rabbit’s r1 device is your best bet if you’re looking out for a smart, intelligent assistant. From booking Ubers, planning and family holidays, to doing complex calculations, the r1 can handle your online tasks for you..

Wondering where you can get your hands on this innovative device? You know where to click!

Get Rabbit r1

HOT TOPICS OF THE DAY

SCIENCE

> A chlamydia vaccine has shown promising results in early trials. It could curb the spread of the sexually transmitted infection (STI) that can lead to infertility in women. (More)

> A team of scientists used videogame assets and ChatGPT to create virtual environments in record time. To do so, they built their version of Star Trek’s “Holodeck.” (More)

> NASA’s Kennedy Space Center researchers are looking for creative approaches to use Electrodynamic Dust Shield (ESD) technology. One of the main focuses is on moon dust, which, even on boots, can cause problems. (More)

ENERGY

> In a promising step towards the evolution of next-generation electric vehicles (EVs), Chinese car maker IM Motors has launched the world’s first EV with a ‘semi-solid-state’ battery. (More)

> Texans might be asked to conserve energy due to higher temperatures forecasted on April 16 and 17. ERCOT is concerned about power plants being offline. (More)

> Lithium supplier Vulcan Energy announced the start of production of the first lithium chloride at its extraction plant in Germany using geothermal energy, an essential step toward producing battery-grade lithium hydroxide. (More)

INNOVATION

> Voltpost is retrofitting existing lampposts into a modular and upgradable Level 2 EV charging platform powered by a mobile app. Its charger design can be installed on a public or privately owned lamppost in minutes. (More)

> 90 minutes for global delivery? Sierra Space sets the stage for cargo transport from orbit, thanks to tens of millions of dollars worth of cutting-edge technology. (More)

> An engineer has shared his experience of designing a CPU from scratch over two weeks “with no prior experience.” During this brief period, Adam Majmudar claims to have learned the fundamentals of chip architecture. (More)

VIDEO

> A new robot hand developed in Maryland can complete a level of Super Mario Bros. The game was a perfect test environment for the soft robotic hand. (More)

> Photons are the fastest-known things in the universe. Photographing photons should, therefore, be impossible - but an MIT team has done it. Using lasers, sensors, and mirrors, they've captured the fastest particle on film. (More)

> What's your typing strategy? Do you know? New research out of Aalto University in Finland has been analyzing how people type. It's hoped the results will inform the development of next-generation user interfaces. (More)

FROM THE WEB

> Mercury: The Solar System's smallest planet may once have been as large as Earth

> Rice engineering students’ device could make intubation safer for young babies

> The world's southernmost active volcano in Antarctica spews gold dust

> What the New Jersey earthquake tells us about the fault system beneath the Northeast

> Electric sports cars are starting a 'performance arms race,' engineer says

> All girl NC robotics team prepares for world championship in Texas