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Humidity sucks. Transaera has a new way to deal with it

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Humidity sucks. Transaera has a new way to deal with it

“It’s not the heat that’s killing you, it’s the humidity,” my father said somewhere.

His kids might roll their eyes, especially in the event that they’ve spent any time within the desert Southwest in the course of the summer, but their dad is a minimum of partly right: high humidity not only makes people less convenientalso puts a strain on air-con units. Half of the energy used to power a typical air conditioner is used moisture removal from the air.

For firms like Amazon, Walmart, UPS and FedEx that operate massive warehouses, air-con is becoming a growing problem. Temperatures inside warehouses can rise to uncomfortable levels, potentially dangerously hot.

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A startup is working on a solution to the moisture problem. Transaera is developing a unique air-con solution for homes and apartments that uses a special material to remove moisture before cooling the air. Since greater than 2 billion people in hot, humid regions still lack air-con, the corporate hopes it might help meet that demand while reducing the quantity of energy required.

But first, while it refines the buyer product, it’s rolling out larger units to industrial buildings like warehouses. On Tuesday, it installed the primary one on a customer’s roof, the corporate told TechCrunch exclusively. This dedicated outside air system (DOAS) dehumidifies fresh air coming into the constructing, reducing the workload on the air conditioner.

Transaera DOAS unit loaded onto platform, with assembly for comparison.
Image sources: Transaera

“DOAS is a small piece of the market, but it’s a growing segment,” co-founder and CEO Sorin Grama told TechCrunch. “It’s just an easier entry point.”

The Somerville, Mass.-based startup, founded in 2017, has raised $7.5 million to date, including $4.5 million in a seed round, Grama said. It is currently raising $6 million to support field trials of its hardware.

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Transaera’s core technology is a proprietary material that covers the warmth pump’s heat exchangers, which resemble a automotive’s radiator. In Transaera’s DOAS, air entering the unit passes through a special material that removes moisture from the air. The drier air then passes to the evaporator coils, which cool the air to indoor temperatures.

Air conditioners and dehumidifiers generate heat within the technique of removing moisture from the air. Typically, this heat is wasted, but Transaera reuses it to remove moisture from the desiccant material on a porous wheel. As the wheel passes over the incoming air, it absorbs moisture. The loaded desiccant then spins away from the incoming air and thru the waste heat coming off the evaporator coils. The warm air carries unwanted moisture away from the air. In the winter, the system can reverse, helping to maintain indoor humidity as the warmth pump heats the incoming air.

Many other DOAS systems currently found on industrial roofs also use heat pumps to dehumidify supply air, but because they depend on low temperatures to condense water on coils, the air coming out of them will be too cool for what’s contained in the constructing (especially within the spring and fall, when temperatures will not be high enough to require air-con). The units then have to reheat the air, often using natural gas. “It’s a really inefficient, stupid way to do these dedicated outdoor air systems,” Grama said.

Transaera’s approach uses as much as 40% less energy than current top-of-the-line DOASs, he said. The company’s technology is currently on one industrial roof, but Grama said more shall be added soon. There is a few urgency: Because moisture removal requires a lot energy, it accounts for 1% of all greenhouse gas emissions, according to last examination. That’s about half of what aviation generates, a sector that is come under much greater scrutiny. Cutting energy use from dehumidification by 40% would cut that significantly. Dad would approve.

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This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com

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This is the shipping of products from China to the USA

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Shein and Temu icons are seen displayed on a phone screen in this illustration photo

The Chinese retailer has modified the strategy in the face of American tariffs.

Thanks to the executive ordinance, President Donald Trump ended the so -called de minimis principle, which allowed goods value 800 USD or less entering the country without tariffs. It also increases tariffs to Chinese goods by over 100%, forcing each Chinese firms and Shein, in addition to American giants, similar to Amazon to adapt plans and price increases.

CNBC reports that this was also affected, and American buyers see “import fees” from 130% to 150% added to their accounts. Now, nevertheless, the company is not sending the goods directly from China to the United States. Instead, it only displays the offers of products available in American warehouses, while goods sent from China are listed as outside the warehouse.

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“He actively recruits American sellers to join the platform,” said the spokesman ago. “The transfer is to help local sellers reach more customers and develop their companies.”

(tagstotransate) tariffs

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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One of the last AI Google models is worse in terms of safety

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The Google Gemini generative AI logo on a smartphone.

The recently released Google AI model is worse in some security tests than its predecessor, in line with the company’s internal comparative test.

IN Technical report Google, published this week, reveals that his Flash Gemini 2.5 model is more likely that he generates a text that violates its security guidelines than Gemini 2.0 Flash. In two indicators “text security for text” and “image security to the text”, Flash Gemini 2.5 will withdraw 4.1% and 9.6% respectively.

Text safety for the text measures how often the model violates Google guidelines, making an allowance for the prompt, while image security to the text assesses how close the model adheres to those boundaries after displaying the monitors using the image. Both tests are automated, not supervised by man.

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In an e-mail, Google spokesman confirmed that Gemini 2.5 Flash “performs worse in terms of text safety for text and image.”

These surprising comparative results appear when AI is passing in order that their models are more acceptable – in other words, less often refuse to answer controversial or sensitive. In the case of the latest Llam Meta models, he said that he fought models in order to not support “some views on others” and answers to more “debated” political hints. Opeli said at the starting of this yr that he would improve future models, in order to not adopt an editorial attitude and offers many prospects on controversial topics.

Sometimes these efforts were refundable. TechCrunch announced on Monday that the default CHATGPT OPENAI power supply model allowed juvenile to generate erotic conversations. Opeli blamed his behavior for a “mistake”.

According to Google Technical Report, Gemini 2.5 Flash, which is still in view, follows instructions more faithfully than Gemini 2.0 Flash, including instructions exceeding problematic lines. The company claims that regression might be partially attributed to false positives, but in addition admits that Gemini 2.5 Flash sometimes generates “content of violation” when it is clearly asked.

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“Of course, there is a tension between (after instructions) on sensitive topics and violations of security policy, which is reflected in our assessment,” we read in the report.

The results from Meepmap, reference, which can examine how models react to sensitive and controversial hints, also suggest that Flash Gemini 2.5 is much less willing to refuse to reply controversial questions than Flash Gemini 2.0. Testing the TechCrunch model through the AI ​​OpenRoutter platform has shown that he unsuccessfully writes essays to support human artificial intelligence judges, weakening the protection of due protection in the US and the implementation of universal government supervisory programs.

Thomas Woodside, co -founder of the Secure AI Project, said that the limited details given by Google in their technical report show the need for greater transparency in testing models.

“There is a compromise between the instruction support and the observation of politics, because some users may ask for content that would violate the rules,” said Woodside Techcrunch. “In this case, the latest Flash model Google warns the instructions more, while breaking more. Google does not present many details about specific cases in which the rules have been violated, although they claim that they are not serious. Not knowing more, independent analysts are difficult to know if there is a problem.”

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Google was already under fire for his models of security reporting practices.

The company took weeks to publish a technical report for the most talented model, Gemini 2.5 Pro. When the report was finally published, it initially omitted the key details of the security tests.

On Monday, Google published a more detailed report with additional security information.

(Tagstotransate) Gemini

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Aurora launches a commercial self -propelled truck service in Texas

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The autonomous startup of the Aurora Innovation vehicle technology claims that it has successfully launched a self -propelled truck service in Texas, which makes it the primary company that she implemented without drivers, heavy trucks for commercial use on public roads in the USA

The premiere appears when Aurora gets the term: In October, the corporate delayed the planned debut 2024 to April 2025. The debut also appears five months after the rival Kodiak Robotics provided its first autonomous trucks to clients commercial for operations without a driver in field environments.

Aurora claims that this week she began to freight between Dallas and Houston with Hirschbach Motor Lines and Uber Freight starters, and that she has finished 1200 miles without a driver to this point. The company plans to expand to El Paso and Phoenix until the top of 2025.

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TechCrunch contacted for more detailed information concerning the premiere, for instance, the variety of vehicles implemented Aurora and whether the system needed to implement the Pullover maneuver or the required distant human assistance.

The commercial premiere of Aurora takes place in a difficult time. Self -propelled trucks have long been related to the necessity for his or her technology attributable to labor deficiencies in the chairman’s transport and the expected increase in freigh shipping. Trump’s tariffs modified this attitude, not less than in a short period. According to the April analytical company report from the commercial vehicle industry ACT researchThe freight is predicted to fall this yr in the USA with a decrease in volume and consumer expenditure.

Aurora will report its results in the primary quarter next week, i.e. when he shares how he expects the present trade war will affect his future activity. TechCrunch contacted to learn more about how tariffs affect Auror’s activities.

For now, Aurora will probably concentrate on further proving his safety case without a driver and cooperation with state and federal legislators to just accept favorable politicians to assist her develop.

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At the start of 2025, Aurora filed a lawsuit against federal regulatory bodies after the court refused to release the appliance for release from the protection requirement, which consists in placing warning triangles on the road, when the truck must stop on the highway – something that’s difficult to do when there isn’t a driver in the vehicle. To maintain compliance with this principle and proceed to totally implement without service drivers, Aurora probably has a man -driven automotive trail after they are working.

(Tagstranslate) Aurora Innovation

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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