UK invests $340 million in clean tech for air travel
View of Airbus ZEROe hydrogen-powered fuel cell engine project at the 55th International Paris Airshow at Le Bourget Airport near Paris, France, June 16, 2025. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier
PARIS (Reuters) -Britain said it would invest 250 million pounds ($340 million) in technology to make air travel greener, backing research into zero-emission flying, laser-beam manufacturing and cutting aircraft drag, to help boost the country's aerospace industry.
Britain said the funding for research and development projects led by Airbus, Rolls-Royce and a number of smaller companies and academic partnerships, would attract more private investment into the sector and add new jobs.
Industry Minister Sarah Jones is due to announce the new funding at the Paris Airshow on Tuesday, backing a number of projects which include the development of infrastructure for testing liquid hydrogen systems, fuel cell systems and developing lightweight materials.
The funding announcement came ahead of the government's industrial strategy, expected to be published later this month, and which will aim to help grow the country's defence and advanced manufacturing sectors.
Jones said supporting the major contractors was "incredibly important", but the government also wanted to encourage more start-ups in the sector.
"Getting the supply chain of smaller businesses ready is the challenge, and that's what we want to build up in the UK," she said in an interview.
Airbus UK chairman John Harrison said the funding gave the industry the confidence and stability needed to fuel innovation.
"It's initiatives like these that are absolutely critical to accelerating our decarbonisation journey and advancing sustainable, cutting-edge manufacturing," he said.
($1 = 0.7351 pounds)
(Reporting by Paul Sandle, writing by Sarah Young, editing by William James)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
2 hours ago
- The Star
Tesla invites select few to Texas robotaxi trial with front seat safety monitors
Arthur Maltin, a test driver with The Dawn Project, performs a safety test on a self-driving feature in a Tesla Model Y during a protest against Tesla robotaxis, ahead of the Tesla robotaxis' official services in Austin, Texas, U.S., June 12, 2025. REUTERS/Joel Angel Juarez (Reuters) -Tesla has sent out invitations to a small group of people to join the limited test of its robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, which is tentatively set to start on Sunday, according to posts and email screenshots on social media. The invitations said a Tesla employee will accompany riders in the front passenger seat, the posts showed. A successful trial in Austin will be crucial for Tesla, as car buyers shun the company following its CEO Elon Musk's embrace of hard-right politics in the U.S. and worldwide. The company has shifted from building a cheaper EV platform to robotics and artificial intelligence. Much of the company's valuation rests on that bet. Musk has said he will focus on safety in the trial, with humans remotely monitoring the vehicles. He has said he expects to be able to scale the robotaxi quickly. Tesla plans to deploy around 10 Model Y SUVs that run on a version of Tesla's full self-driving driver assistance software, Musk has said. The start could be delayed and the service might be limited or unavailable in bad weather. Riders have to be aged 18 or above to take a ride. "Tesla is rolling out the Robotaxi service extremely cautiously, which is good. Baby steps," posted Omar Qazi, an user with 635,100 followers who posts often about Tesla using the handle @WholeMarsBlog and received an invite. "Very much so," CEO Elon Musk responded. But commercializing autonomous vehicles is an expensive, risky process. Tesla and others such as Alphabet's Waymo and Amazon's Zoox have faced federal investigations and recalls following collisions. Industry experts have questioned the efficacy of Tesla's self-driving technology that depends mostly on cameras and AI, without redundant sensors such as lidar and radar, claiming fog, heavy rain, and glaring sunlight can hamper safety. On Wednesday, a group of Democratic lawmakers from the Austin area called on the company to delay the rollout until September, when a new state law governing autonomous vehicles takes effect. Users who confirm their presence in Austin can download Tesla's Robotaxi app, which they use to call a vehicle. "Through this exclusive preview, you'll have the opportunity to provide valuable feedback on our Robotaxi service," one of the screenshots could not immediately verify the authenticity of the screenshots. (Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru and Abhirup Roy in San Francisco, Editing by Peter Henderson and Louise Heavens)
The Star
2 hours ago
- The Star
US highway safety officials reviewing Tesla's robotaxi deployment plans
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Tesla on display at the Everything Electric exhibition at the ExCeL London international exhibition and convention centre in London, Britain, March 28, 2024. REUTERS/Peter Cziborra/File Photo
The Star
2 hours ago
- The Star
Apple sued by shareholders for allegedly overstating AI progress
FILE PHOTO: People walk past an Apple logo at an Apple store in Paris, France, April 23, 2025. REUTERS/Abdul Saboor/File photo (Reuters) -Apple was sued on Friday by shareholders in a proposed securities fraud class action that accused it of downplaying how long it needed to integrate advanced artificial intelligence into its Siri voice assistant, hurting iPhone sales and its stock price. The complaint covers shareholders who suffered potentially hundreds of billions of dollars of losses in the year ending June 9, when Apple introduced several features and aesthetic improvements for its products but kept AI changes modest. Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment. CEO Tim Cook, Chief Financial Officer Kevan Parekh and former CFO Luca Maestri are also defendants in the lawsuit filed in San Francisco federal court. Shareholders led by Eric Tucker said that at its June 2024 Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple led them to believe AI would be a key driver of iPhone 16 devices, when it launched Apple Intelligence to make Siri more powerful and user-friendly. But they said the Cupertino, California-based company lacked a functional prototype of AI-based Siri features, and could not reasonably believe the features would ever be ready for iPhone 16s. Shareholders said the truth began to emerge on March 7 when Apple delayed some Siri upgrades to 2026, and continued through this year's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 9 when Apple's assessment of its AI progress disappointed analysts. Apple shares have lost nearly one-fourth of their value since their December 26, 2024 record high, wiping out approximately $900 billion of market value. The case is Tucker v. Apple Inc et al, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 25-05197. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Mark Porter and Rod Nickel)
