Toyota’s prototype ‘cartridge’ is a way to make hydrogen portable

One of the myriad issues with hydrogen as a clean energy source is infrastructure, as it’s very expensive to move around and store an extremely explosive gas. Toyota and its subsidiary Woven Planet believe they may have a solution with a new portable hydrogen cartridge prototype. The idea is that they can be filled up at a dedicated facility, transported where needed, then returned when you receive your next shipment. 

The cartridges would be relatively small at 16 inches long, 7 inches in diameter and about 11 pounds in weight. Toyota calls them “portable, affordable, and convenient energy that makes it possible to bring hydrogen to where people live, work, and play without the use of pipes.. [and] swappable for easy replacement and quick charging.” 

They could be useful for “mobility [i.e. hydrogen cars], household applications, and many future possibilities we have yet to imagine,” Toyota said. It didn’t mention any specific uses, but it said that “one hydrogen cartridge is assumed to generate enough electricity to operate a typical household microwave for approximately 3-4 hours.”

In its press release, Toyota acknowledges that most hydrogen is made from fossil fuels and so not exactly green. But it thinks that it’ll be generated with low carbon emissions in the future, and that the cartridges could help with some of the infrastructure issues. 

Toyota plans to test that theory by conducting proof of concept trials in various places, including its “human-centered smart city of the future,” Woven City in Susono City, Zhizuoka Prefecture in Japan. The company is also “working to build a comprehensive hydrogen-based supply chain aimed at expediting and simplifying production, transport, and daily usage,” it said. 

Hydrogen is an impractical fuel for automobiles, mainly due to the expense and lack of places to refuel. It’s more viable for things like trains and semi trucks, where electrification can be more of a challenge. It also holds promise for air transportation, as batteries are too heavy to be practical in that situation. However, Toyota seems to be pitching the cartridges for personal and home use, but it’s not yet clear what you’d use them for. 

Google is scrapping Assistant’s ability to set location-based reminders

For people who know it exists, the ability to set location-based reminders is one of Google Assistant’s most useful features. It lets them specify a location, so that they can get an alert when they arrive wherever it is — for instance, a user can say “Remind me to call [name of their friend] in NYC,” and Assistant will send them a notification when they step foot in the city. The bad news for those who rely on the feature to remind them to get certain things from the grocery store or to fill up their car tanks when they pass by a gas station is that it’ll soon no longer exist. In the Assistant Help page, Google added a line that says: “The option to create reminders for a certain location is going away soon.”

The company trailed behind Apple and Amazon in introducing the feature and first announced the ability to set location-based reminders via Google Home devices in 2018. As 9to5Google notes, Google has only just started notifying users who set reminders with a location attached that the feature is getting axed. It didn’t say why, though, and only recommended setting reminders at a certain time or setting routines for a location instead. For the latter, users will be able to prompt Assistant to perform a series of tasks triggered based on where they are. 

Google doesn’t have a concrete date for the feature’s removal, but 9to5Google says it could be part of the company’s efforts to make way for the long-awaited “Memory” upgrade for Assistant. It’s meant to transform the voice assistant into a handy organizer, letting users save content, images, reminders and other items in one place that has a smart search function. 

Amazon employees call on the company to stop selling books deemed anti-trans

In 2021, a handful of Amazon employees quit the company over its decision to sell books that suggest kids who identify as transgender are mentally ill. Now, a group of employees is protesting its continued sale of those books by disrupting a Pride event at its headquarters in Seattle. According to The Washington Post, around 30 members of the organization No Hate at Amazon laid on the ground wrapped in trans flags to stop the company’s annual Pride flag-raising tradition. An organizer said: “Amazon does have standing policies against hate speech in its content and technically they say we don’t sell it.” But in truth, those contentious books are still listed on its website.

In a petition the group previously circulated to get Amazon to stop selling anti-trans books, it specifically named two titles: Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters by Abigail Shrier and Johnny the Walrus by American conservative political commentator Matt Walsh. “By continuing to sell and promote anti-trans books and repeating the rhetoric of the anti-trans hate movement, Amazon upper management has allowed the store that we build and operate to be complicit in [the anti-trans] hate movement,” the petition reads.

At least one employee who participated in the event quit the company this week. Senior software engineer Lina Jodoin explained that it’s more than just about the sale of those books, but also about the response they’ve gotten from management when they tried to escalate their concerns. And based on the company’s response to the protest, it will keep on selling those titles.

Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser told The Post in a statement:

“As a company, we believe strongly in diversity, equity, and inclusion. As a bookseller, we’ve chosen to offer a very broad range of viewpoints, including books that conflict with our company values and corporate positions. We believe that it’s possible to do both – to offer a broad range of viewpoints in our bookstore, and support diversity, equity, and inclusion.”