A recent quarterly earnings report from Tesla resulted in a lot -of media coverage surrounding the company's financials and, frankly, its role in the future of the electric vehicle industry.

But Tesla has a lot of irons in the fire and CEO Elon Musk has been stressing the importance of the company’s ambitions when it comes to autonomous vehicles and other technologies – including AI.

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When General Motors paid nearly $1 billion for autonomous driving startup Cruise in 2017, it had grand plans for self-driving taxis. The automaker has made a lot of progress since then but things are still not coming together like it had surely hoped they would.

The latest setback from Cruise came this week when GM CEO Mary Barra told shareholders in a letter that the company’s autonomous driving segment would simplify its path to scale by focusing on the next generation of the Chevy Bolt instead of the Origin, the six-person driverless shuttle bus debuted in 2020.

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The Racer is optimized for a cruise speed of more than 400 km/h (250 mph), which is impressive when you consider that a civilian helicopter's cruising speed typically ranges from 110 to 160 mph—military choppers can average around 200 mph. However, the Racer wants speed but with cost-efficiency and mission performance. For example, Airbus says the Racer's unique engine and aerodynamic optimization could realize a fuel consumption reduction of around 20% compared to current helicopters in the same weight category.

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The company is also working on the Mk-II Aurora spaceplane, a demonstrator aircraft that combines the performance of a rocket with the quick turnaround of an aircraft. While Mk-II is a tech demonstrator, it will also be used as a suborbital vehicle for climate and scientific payloads. In the long term, Mk-II will inform the design of Dawn's Mk-III, the company's orbital vehicle for launching satellites.

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According to the DOJ release, 52-year-old Maxim Marchenko and two unnamed Russian co-conspirators operated an international smuggling network that fraudulently procured dual-use, military-grade OLED micro-displays. This network supplied Russian entities with the microelectronics, which can be used in weapons systems, including night vision goggles, thermal optics and rifle scopes.

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A tugboat and barge, operating together as an articulated tug and barge (ATB), last year ran aground near Marmot Bay off the coast of Alaska. More specifically, the ATB hit a submerged rock while approaching the entrance to a cove, causing about $1.4 million in damages to the barge. The tugboat was fine, none of the six crewmembers aboard were hurt, and there was no pollution as a result of the accident. But there’s still a massive bill for repairing the barge.

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Last January, the Qualifier 105, a small passenger boat, was stored at the Northern Enterprises Boat Yard in Homer, Alaska. The vessel was ashore and on blocks for the winter, but when it was in the water, it was used for everything from marine survey and oceanographic research to environmental clean-up.

Welders were aboard the 100-foot-long vessel performing some aluminum hot work, cleaning up the area around a fuel tank that was repaired and tested the day prior, when a fire broke out in a stateroom below the main deck.

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A Department of Labor investigation revealed that flooring and surfaces manufacturer Ecore International Inc. had committed over a dozen health and safety violations at its plant in Mexia, Texas.

The department told IEN that the investigation was triggered by a complaint that mentioned, "hazards associated with fire, electrical, egress and powered industrial vehicles."

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