TechMobility Topics

Coffee.  As the cost of it continues to rise due to increasingly volatile climate patterns, the demand for coffee is increasing.  The United States actually grows very little coffee within its borders.  To meet this demand, enter beanless coffee.  YIKES!  

As if you don’t have enough to be concerned about, consider this:  the land underneath the largest cities in the United States is sinking, threatening buildings, roads, and rail lines, according to new research.  But that sinking, known as subsidence, is not happening in the same way, in each place, or even the same way across one city.  

His name is Herb Coakley, former Uber and Lyft driver and founder of Mystro, an app that helped gig workers juggle multiple platforms.  Now he’s back with Courial, a premium delivery service that respects the people doing the work and wows the people receiving it.    Listen to this episode to learn more! 

It's called Slate and its a Jeff Bezos-backed effort to bring a low priced (less than $20K) EV truck to American motorists.  It's low price means plastic fenders and panels, hand crank windows and bring your own entertainment.  Is there a real market for this vehicle?  Listen to the podcast to learn more. 

Imagine passing a truck on the Interstate at highway speed that doesn’t have a cab for a driver.  That is in fact just a flat wall crowned with sensors and cameras.  In China, these futuristic yet cheap-looking trucks are part of a fleet of driverless light trucks that can carry 1,000 parcels autonomously over a range of 110 miles.  Sound far-fetched?  It’s happening in China right now, and some form of it is in America’s immediate future.  

Tiny houses.  With the stock of affordable housing severely diminished in many parts of the country, the rise of tiny houses offers some people an alternative when considering a safe place to live.  A twist on that concept is the rise of tiny house villages, often near or just outside small towns in rural America.  Could this be a win-win for all?   

The Mitsubishi Outlander was originally introduced to American motorists at the 2001 North American International Auto Show in Detroit as the Mitsubishi ASX concept vehicle – ASX standing for Active Sports Crossover.  Replacing the body-on-frame Montero Sport in North America, the Outlander went on sale during the 2003 model year.  

The fourth and current generation of the Outlander debuted in 2021 for the 2022 model year.  As part of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, the Outlander is based on the Nissan Rogue which rides on the CMF-CD platform.  For 2025, the seven-passenger Outlander gets a mid-cycle refresh with revised front and rear styling along with greater levels of luxury in materials and design throughout the interior. 

As of the end of 2024, the State of California had 48 percent MORE electric vehicle chargers than gas pump nozzles at 178,549.  This compares of just 120,000 gasoline nozzles.  However, only 17,000 of the chargers are fast chargers with the rest being the slower Level 2 chargers. 

On secret radio stations nationwide, a decades old news service has survived the move to digital.  They are called radio reading  services and they perform a vital function for the visually impaired. 

Building a vehicle starts with years of planning, thousands of global suppliers and available workers, millions of square feet of factory space, and billions of dollars in capital expenditures.  It takes years to bring a new factory on-line, assuming you have the people and engineering staff to run the factory.  It is not something that companies do quickly or on a whim.  There are financial and logistical concerns that must be taken into consideration – often over a large number of years.  These are the logistics of the American auto industry.