Infrastructure

South Metro Atlanta is set to become home to a demonstration pilot for a publicly accessible automated transit network using autonomous electric vehicles on dedicated guideways – promising to deliver rail-like capacity at bus-fare prices.

Nobody really enjoys seeing power lines, but maybe they could be turned from an eyesore into a local point of pride. Such is the thinking behind this creative project that transforms power line pylons into huge animal sculptures.

Dubai authorities have inked a deal with The Boring Company to create a network of tunnels likened to a "wormhole" that will allow users to move at speed under Dubai's streets and avoid traffic congestion.

A decade after it was revealed, London's "super sewer" is now finally complete. The mega-project is expected to revolutionize the handling of waste in the British capital, boosting the capacity of its 150-year-old sewer system significantly.

GridServe has partnered with Cornwall Services to install an Electric Super Hub in the heart of the popular tourist destination, which includes a solar canopy and a huge battery to support the grid supply to a dozen EV chargers.

Working with private industry, the University of Cambridge has gone one step beyond 3D printing with a concrete infrastructure unit that was not only made in an hour, but incorporates sensors to make it self-monitoring and, one day, self repairing.

Bay Area startup Earthgrid says it's developing a plasma boring robot that can dig underground tunnels 100x faster and up to 98% cheaper than existing tech, and it plans to use it to start re-wiring America's energy, internet and utilities grids.

San Francisco startup Petra says its new contactless thermal drilling robot can make steady progress through super-hard rock that would normally destroy drilling equipment – and it's absolutely mesmerizing to watch "Swifty" in action.

Although fiber optic internet cable has many advantages over metal cable, it frequently has to be distributed underground – this limits its usability. Facebook, however, has developed a robot that could wrap the cable around existing power lines.

Startup Ample has come out of R&D stealth mode to help move EV adoption along with the launch of an automated battery swap solution for electric vehicles, which makes use of modular battery packs that can be retrofitted into existing EVs.

Swapping batteries in ebikes is pretty common, but things get more complicated for electric cars. EV maker Nio has had swappable batteries at the heart of its design language for a while now, and has recently celebrated its 500,000th battery swap.

It looks like it was designed for the zombie-apocalypse, but the TF-19 Wasp from Ohio-based Throwflame is a serious piece of kit with potentially life-saving applications. From clearing critical infrastructure to pest management and forest fire back-burns, this modern-day dragon is nobody's toy.