Articles by Thomas Black

Fast Trains, Toxic Chemicals: Why Rail Safety Is Still a Problem

In the year since the derailment of a Norfolk Southern Inc. train brought national attention to US railroad safety, little has changed. Trains are still rolling through East Palestine, Ohio, at 50 miles per hour β€” the same speed allowed …

Driverless Truck Companies Plan to Ditch Human Copilots in 2024

Driverless trucks with no humans on board will soon cruise Texas highways if three startup firms have their way, despite objections from critics who say financial pressures, not safety, is behind the timetable. After years of testing, Aurora Innovation Inc., …

FedEx Faces Safety Issues as Driver Accidents, Insurance Costs Rise

FedEx Corp. is pressuring delivery contractors to improve safety after mounting accidents helped trigger a near-tripling of insurance costs over the decade. FedEx is requiring contractors that deliver packages on behalf of the company’s Ground unit to install vehicle cameras …

Bursting Pipes, Sagging Roofs Strain Texas Adjusters, Contractors

After the big freeze in Texas comes the big thaw — and the big demand for workers to repair the broken pipes and sagging roofs the retreating ice and snow will reveal. It could take months for contractors to fix …

Computerized Eyewear Looking for Success in Factories and Field

Remember Google Glass? The vaunted debut of the company’s computerized eyewear six years ago was one of Silicon Valley’s more spectacular flops. Deemed too awkward and pretentious, early users were disparaged as “glassholes” by a critical public. Parent company Alphabet …

UPS, Drone Maker Kick Off U.S. Commercial Flights in North Carolina

United Parcel Service Inc. and a startup drone partner began the first continuing commercial drone deliveries in the U.S., making a short flight carrying a medical sample between North Carolina hospitals on Tuesday. The deliveries, using a drone made by …

High-Flying Drone Business May Leave Smaller Firms, Pioneers Behind

Andy Trench made $2,000 a day in 2015 taking sky-high photographs along the East Coast with a drone he made himself. Now, that same work fetches about $175. “It’s apparent that a lot of this industry is a race to …

Southwest Fatality First for a U.S. Airline in 9 Years

One passenger was killed when an engine blew out on a Southwest Airlines Co. jetliner carrying 149 people, marking the first fatality on a U.S.-registered airline in more than nine years. The plane, bound for Dallas from New York’s LaGuardia …

Drone Delivery Fleets Counting on Hyperlocal Weather Forecasts

Imagine a weather report so precise it provides wind-gust forecasts for individual city blocks. Such micro-weather data may soon become a realityβ€”and a necessity for future fleets of delivery drones. As Amazon.com Inc., United Parcel Service Inc., Domino’s Pizza Inc., …

Delta System Failure Highlights Need for Airline Technology Upgrade

The failure of Delta Air Lines Inc.’s worldwide computer network this week spotlights the vulnerability of the information systems sustaining the biggest U.S. carriers, each of which has contended with major disruptions during the last year. Complex networks cobbled together …