A solar-powered airplane finished crossing the United States on Saturday, landing in New York City after flying over the Statue of Liberty during its historic bid to circle the globe, the project team said. The spindly, single-seat experimental aircraft, dubbed Solar Impulse 2, arrived at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport at about 4 a.m. local time after it took off about five hours beforehand at Lehigh Valley International Airport in Pennsylvania, the team reported on the airplane's website. Such a pleasure to land in New York! For the 14th time we celebrate sustainability," said the project's co-founder Andre Borschberg on Twitter after flying over the city and the Statue of Liberty during the 14th leg of the trip around the globe. The Swiss team flying the aircraft in a campaign to build support for clean energy technologies hopes eventually to complete its circumnavigation in Abu Dhabi, where the journey began in March 2015. The solar cr...
Google's self-driving car chief has urged lawmakers to ensure the US sets consistent laws for the technology
Chris Urmson told a Senate hearing that the US Transport Secretary should be given authority over the matter rather than leaving it to individual states. He also reiterated his company's view that it would be safer if passengers were not able to override a vehicle's autonomous systems. That contrasts with the view of California's regulator. The state's Department of Motor Vehicles published draft rules in December that said a trained human must still be able to take control. Mr Urmson noted that 23 states had now set a total of 53 pieces of legislation relating to self-driving vehicles, some of which are at odds with each other."We currently face a growing patchwork of state laws and regulations on self-driving cars that has the potential to become unworkable," Mr Urmson said. "If every state is left to go its own way, it would be extremely impractical to operate an autonomous vehicle across state boundaries." His view was supported a...