There may come a day when topping up your EV’s battery is as simple as driving down the road.

In the meantime, Israeli startup Electreon is making progress toward introducing wireless EV charging to what its leaders see as the best segment to lead the way on this emerging tech: commercial fleets.

The state of Michigan recently announced an expansion of its wireless charging partnership with Electreon to provide charging solutions to a UPS fleet in Detroit. As Tech Brew previously reported, Electreon started testing its tech on a quarter-mile portion of road on the Michigan Central campus in Detroit, with support from the state, about a year ago.

Electreon will integrate its charging tech into an electric van assembled by commercial EV manufacturer Xos, according to a news release, and the companies will install stationary, cable-free charging equipment at a UPS facility.

The project stakeholders said in the release that this deployment could help prove out wireless charging tech’s “potential to lower the total cost of ownership in the electrification of commercial truck fleets.”

Keep reading here.—JG

Is the AI ready yet?

That seems to be the question on many business leaders’ minds as the second anniversary of ChatGPT’s fateful release nears. Indices attempting to gauge how companies have fared at reworking operations around generative AI have been piling up lately—and the verdict is mixed.

Some companies are more confident than their actual capabilities would indicate, many are finding AI falls short, and others are still organizing their IT infrastructure, these reports said. The data paint a picture of companies grappling with how to best integrate generative AI capabilities into their business as experts say companies are starting to feel pressure to move beyond experimentation.

Here’s a breakdown:

Moving backward: Cisco’s AI Readiness Index found that only 13% of large organizations are “ready to leverage AI and AI-powered technologies to their full potential,” a one-point drop from the same survey last year. The report was based on a survey of almost 8,000 business leaders at companies with 500 or more employees.

Cisco attributes the slipping momentum to culture and data challenges, as well as a lack of necessary talent and skills. And nearly half of companies report that “AI implementations have fallen short of expectations across top priorities.”

“Infrastructure readiness has notably declined, a concerning factor as companies say they anticipate significant increases in workloads,” the report said.

Keep reading here.—PK

Whether you’re tuning in to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade from home or watching it IRL in NYC, Verizon aims to ensure all viewers can enjoy the festivities without a glitch.

The 2.5-mile-long parade—which drew 28.5 million viewers on NBC and its streaming platform, Peacock, last year—relies heavily on the use of 5G networks and fiber optic cables to facilitate the viewing experience. While viewers snap photos for their feed, Verizon works behind the scenes to make sure all those memories get captured seamlessly.

Catherine Clouse, an associate director at Verizon, told Tech Brew that while much of the planning remains routine, evolving tech means year-round upgrades.

This year, Verizon’s focus is on viewers’ heavy data use, including streaming, video calls, and uploading pictures.

“Back in the original days, it was just phone calls or texts,” Clouse said. “Now we’re seeing video uploads, FaceTiming occurring during the parade, and that’s certainly a bigger impact to the network…That’s why we’re expanding our capacity to care for that.”

Keep reading here.—PB