Fuel-eating bacteria used to clean up spills on Essex roads
Highway crews are using micro-organisms that can transform fuel spills into water within minutes, rendering it non-flammable.Essex Highways deals with between 80 to 100 spills a year, traditionally utilising sand and absorbent materials to mop up, but such methods can close roads for three to six hours at a time.Fuel Spill Digester (FSD) turns hazardous fuel into water and - depending on the size of the spillage - can open the road within an hour.The substance is already used on some filling station forecourts, but Essex County Council is among the first local authorities to use it on its roads.
Once the micro-organisms are poured on the fuel, enzymes break down the fuel's harmful components while bacteria digest them.This solution has been described as an eco-friendly alternative that eliminates the need to throw away contaminated absorbents.It is also cheaper than traditional methods, the council says.FSD has been recommended for use in areas with high levels of traffic in order to minimise disruptions.
Tom Cunningham, council cabinet member for highways, said: "Nobody wants to be stuck in traffic because of fuel spills."This new biological solution can get roads up and running much faster, while also ensuring we protect the environment without the need to dispose of contaminated absorbents."Fuel Spill Digestor is a smart way to make the highways safer, greener and healthier for everyone."
Follow Essex news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NBC News
20-05-2025
- NBC News
Elon Musk confirms Tesla plan for robotaxis on Austin roads in June
Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed that the company will have robotaxis on the streets of Austin, Texas, by the end of June. In an interview with CNBC's David Faber on Tuesday at the company's headquarters in Austin, Musk said Tesla aims to bring its robotaxis to Los Angeles and San Francisco following the planned Austin debut. Musk said a Tesla robotaxi service will start with about 10 vehicles in Austin, and rapidly expand to thousands of vehicles should the launch go well with no incidents. Since 2016, Musk has been promising Tesla investors, customers and fans that the company is about a year away from delivering a self-driving car that's capable of transporting passengers safely without human interventions, or a human at the steering wheel. 'It's prudent for us to start with a small number, confirm that things are going well and then scale it up,' Musk said. To start, Tesla has said its robotaxis will be Model Y vehicles equipped with a forthcoming version of FSD (full self driving) known as FSD Unsupervised. Alphabet's Waymo is currently operating commercial, driverless ride-hailing services in various U.S. markets. On a recent earnings call, Alphabet said Waymo already conducts 250,000 paid trips per week. Musk said Tesla 'will geofence' its robotaxis in Austin to start, meaning the company will limit where those Model Y vehicles can drive. But there won't be a human safety driver in the cars, Musk promised. Tesla employees will be remotely monitoring the fleet, he said. 'We'll be watching what the cars are doing very carefully and as confidence grows, less of that will be needed,' Musk said. Musk has previously claimed Tesla's 'generalized' approach to robotaxis is more ambitious than Waymo's. Tesla relies on camera-based systems and computer vision primarily instead of sophisticated sensors including lidar and radar. Musk has said those sensors were expensive and could impede high-volume robotaxi production and scaling of a global fleet. 'What will actually work best for the road system is artificial intelligence, digital neural nets and cameras,' Musk said on Tuesday. Faber pressed Musk on the political backlash that Tesla has faced in response to Musk's involvement with the President Donald Trump's administration, and in German politics. Tesla has faced declining EV sales, reporting a 20% drop in automotive revenue in the first quarter of 2025. Musk attributed the sales decline to the company needing to retool its factories to begin production of a refreshed version of its most popular car, the Model Y. 'We can't make cars if the factories are retooling. But we've seen a major rebound in demand at this point,' Musk said, without providing numbers. 'When you buy a product, how much do you care about the political views of the CEO or even care what they are?' While remaining at the helm of Tesla and also running SpaceX and xAI, Musk is serving as a key adviser to President Trump after spending nearly $300 million to propel him back to the White House. His holdings in Tesla and SpaceX make Musk the world's wealthiest individual with an estimated net worth around $376 billion today, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire's Index.
Auto Blog
16-05-2025
- Auto Blog
Federal Probe Casts Shadow Over Tesla Robotaxi Launch
The NHTSA presses Tesla, Musk on robotaxi specifics The NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) has asked Tesla to answer an extensive list of inquiries by June 19 regarding its robotaxi service's June launch, including how the self-driving tech performs in low-visibility conditions. Low-visibility performance has been a prevalent concern among safety officials investigating Tesla's self-driving programs, given that the tech primarily relies on cameras instead of more complex systems like LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging). Tesla's robotaxi fleet will be based on the company's Full Self-Driving (FSD) software, which offers Level 2 out of Level 5 autonomous capabilities, requiring users to keep their hands on the wheel. However, Tesla's CEO, Elon Musk, said the automaker's robotaxi will use a yet-to-be-released 'unsupervised' version of the FSD software, according to TechCrunch. By comparison, the world's leading robotaxi service, Waymo, runs its fleet with Level 4 self-driving tech using more complex systems like LiDAR. The NHTSA has been investigating Tesla's FSD since October after four reported collisions, including a fatal crash in 2023, Reuters reports. Tesla will use its Model Y as a launching platform for its robotaxi tech — Source: Tesla What is the NHTSA requesting from Tesla? According to official NHTSA documents, the automaker must provide the following information: 'State the name(s) of the system(s) that will be used in robotaxi development and deployment, as well as Tesla's position on the SAE Level classification for the purposes of reporting under NHTSA's Standing General Order on crash reporting.' The agency then asked Tesla to answer how many robotaxi vehicles it will deploy in June, whether the automaker plans to seek any FMVSS (Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards) exemptions, when its self-driving tech will be available for use by people or entities other than Tesla, and if people will monitor the company's robotaxis in real time. To gain more clarity on what this upcoming 'unsupervised' version of FSD software represents, the NHTSA asked Tesla for robotaxi sensor descriptions, roles of cameras or sensors, differences in robotaxi vs. supervised FSD implementation, and each system's control authority on functions like speed or specialized maneuvers. Autoblog Newsletter Autoblog brings you car news; expert reviews and exciting pictures and video. Research and compare vehicles, too. Sign up or sign in with Google Facebook Microsoft Apple By signing up I agree to the Terms of Use and acknowledge that I have read the Privacy Policy . You may unsubscribe from email communication at anytime. The letter published by the NHTSA also requested that Tesla elaborate on its robotaxi's operational design domain (ODD), including: 'Specific operational restrictions Tesla is implementing (e.g., relating to time-of-day, weather, geofencing, maximum speed).' After seeking information on how Tesla measured its robotaxi tech's readiness and how it'll continue monitoring its performance, the automaker must explain how it plans to keep its robotaxis safe in reduced visibility conditions, such as sun glare, fog, airborne dust, rain, or snow and whether Tesla does anything different if those conditions are already there when the ride starts, compared to if they show up during the ride. Tesla Model Y Juniper — Source: Tesla Final thoughts Tesla's upcoming Austin, Texas, robotaxi launch represents an opportunity for the company to catch up with Waymo using autonomous tech that could be less expensive to scale than Waymo's fleet, according to Elon Musk's claims in April. However, details on how Tesla plans to achieve this technological feat are mostly unclear, and the depth of the NHTSA's questions published on Monday aims to change that. Failure to comply with the NHTSA's lengthy inquiries could delay or restrict Tesla's paid robotaxi service, which Elon Musk emphasized as being on pace for its June launch during the company's Q1 results call last month. During that call, Musk also noted that Tesla will use the Model Y as a platform to launch its robotaxi tech, whereas the Cybercab is a different model that the automaker is manufacturing. Autoblog contacted Tesla for comment, but did not receive a response.
Metro
14-05-2025
- Metro
Over 1,200 driverless cars recalled over crashes in the US
An American ride-hailing company has recalled more than 1,200 of its driverless cars after more than two dozen minor crashes. Waymo, which is owned by Google-parent Alphabet, on Monday recalled some of its 5th Generation Automated Driving Systems with software released before November 7. 'The software may cause the vehicles to collide with certain roadway barriers, such as chains and gates,' states the recall notice posted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which aims to prevent injuries and save lives. A total of 1,212 units are subject to the recall. It comes after the company learned of 16 collisions its self-driving vehicles had with barriers including chains and gates from 2022 to the end of last year. There were no injuries reported related to the faulty software. The NHTSA began investigating the Waymo vehicles a year ago after instances of them possibly breaking traffic safety laws. More Trending Some of the incidents 'involved collisions with clearly visible objects that a competent driver would be expected to avoid', the NHTSA found. Waymo said it updated the software to fix the bug and it was deployed across the fleet in December. It comes more than a year after Tesla recalled more than 362,000 of its vehicles in America over concerns that the self-driving technology could cause crashes. The NHTSA determined that Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD) Beta software did not adhere sufficiently to traffic safety laws, by allowing vehicles to 'exceed speed limits or travel through intersections in an unlawful or unpredictable manner increases the risk of a crash'. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Shocking reason a McDonald's in the US requires customers to ring doorbell to enter MORE: How the Menendez brothers murder case unfolded after huge new release twist MORE: Urgent recall for baby food in the US over fears of lead contamination
