Thousands of diesel-powered school buses could get a second life as all-electric vehicles.

EV maker SEA Electric and school-bus dealer Midwest Transit Equipment are partnering up to help accelerate the electrification of school buses. The two plan to convert 10,000 existing school buses to battery power over the next five years.

Just the start: There are about half a million school buses across the US—the largest public transportation network in the country. As these predominantly diesel-powered buses move 26 million students back and forth to school each day, they produce more than 5 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually.

• Transitioning this fleet to electric buses would help cut US bus emissions in half and lessen the negative health effects that exhaust fumes can have on children.

While the cost of powering and maintaining electric buses is lower than those that run on diesel, the price tag for a single 40-foot electric school bus can be as high as $400,000—nearly four times the cost of a $110,000 diesel-powered bus.

• The high initial expense of these vehicles is part of the reason adoption by school systems has been slow so far.
• SEA Electric and MTE say customers can purchase two to three re-powered buses for the price of one brand-new electric bus.

SEA Electric will install its SEA-Drive power system, which is currently used in medium- and heavy-duty EVs such as buses and work trucks, into “near-new” school buses. Converting these buses extends their in-service life for about 10 years, the company says.

These electric buses will also be equipped with vehicle-to-grid capabilities. SEA’s power system allows buses to feed electricity back into the power grid from their batteries when they aren’t in use—a V2G application that has already shown promise for creating a more resilient grid.

SEA builds commercial EVs like delivery trucks, garbage trucks, shuttle buses, cargo vans, and passenger vans. The company launched its first model in 2017 and plans to deliver more than 500 EVs by the end of this year. As fleet electrification accelerates, SEA aims to have more than 15,000 EVs out to customers by the end of 2023.

Looking ahead: The infrastructure bill signed into law by President Biden in November includes $2.5 billion for battery-powered school buses over the next five years, along with another $2.5 billion for “low-emissions” buses that run on CNG, propane, or biofuels.

Click here to read on-site.—GD

5G’s rollout is entering airplane mode.

Last Tuesday, the FAA set flight restrictions for its pilots over fears that 5G carried over C-band spectrum has the potential to interfere with some cockpit safety systems. The FAA order prohibits pilots from operating automatic landing systems and other cockpit systems commonly used in poor weather, over concerns C-band spectrum could hamper their effectiveness.

• The agency said it would notify airports that might face potential disruptions and interference in the future.

AT&T and Verizon voluntarily put their implementation of 5G C-band spectrum on hold to allow more time for the FAA to study the impact the deployment might have on airplane safety. The original timeline was to activate the new wireless service on December 5, but both companies delayed their rollouts to January 5.

• The telcos also committed to lowering the power emitted from existing 5G cell towers that use C-band spectrum for six months, another precautionary measure to ease FAA concerns.
• The FAA also says 5G C-band has the potential to interfere with radar or radio altimeters, which measure the distance between aircraft and the ground.

Telco giants AT&T and Verizon, which collectively spent almost $70 billion in a C-band bidding war in February, in an attempt to catch up to mid-band leader T-Mobile, said the FAA’s claims had no evidence.

• The FCC, which oversees spectrum auctions and generally regulates radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable transmissions, looked into the issue last year and found no evidence of harmful interference with aircraft.

Big picture: Despite the delay in the rollout, the FCC has kicked some incumbent operators out of C-band. Satellite operators like Intelsat and SES had until Dec. 5 to vacate the spectrum in order to receive incentives from the FCC. Intelsat and SES are set to receive $4.9 billion and $3.97 billion for their troubles, respectively.

Click here to read the full story.—JM

The world’s smartest city is not London, Paris, New York, or Tokyo.

A report from the Switzerland–based Institute for Management Development (IMD) and the Singapore University for Technology and Design’s (SUTD) named Singapore as the world’s “smartest” city.

Singapore won the top spot due to its strong drive to introduce technological solutions into its citizens' lives, for better or worse. While Singapore has become a tech Mecca due to innovation like vertical farming and smart lamp posts, it has faced some criticism for using tech to surveil its citizens and clamp down on human rights.

• The report rated 118 cities around the world, based on a combination of survey results from citizens regarding how well the city used technology, as well as economic and social data from the UN Human Development Index.

The rest of the top five spots were given to Zurich, Switzerland, Oslo, Norway, Taipei City, Taipei, and Lausanne, Switzerland.

New York City is the highest-ranked American city in the index, coming in at 12th place. Other American cities in the ranking included Los Angeles (31st), Washington, DC (35th), Seattle (43th), and Denver (45th).

• Abu Dhabi leads the Middle East region, in 28th place; Moscow leads Eastern Europe, at 54th place, while Buenos Aires and Cairo lead South America and Africa at 98th and 104th place, respectively.

Big picture: For all the hype that smart cities place on tech like smarter transportation and lighting, most people don’t prioritize smart-city tech. The report found that most citizens care about more tangible issues like access to affordable housing, employment opportunities (or lack thereof), health services, and pollution.

Click here to read on-site.—JM

Stat: India OK’d a $10 billion plan to attract semiconductor and display makers.

Quote: The Apache Log4j flaw “is one of the most serious I’ve seen in my entire career, if not the most serious.”—CISA Director Jen Easterly

Read: The best science images of 2021, according to Nature. 

Your stubble’s in trouble. There’s simply no match for the Braun Series 9 Pro, the world’s most efficient electric shaver. Seven-day beard? Sheared. This baby has a ProLift trimmer that gently lifts and clips. Powerful. Self-cleaning. Waterproof. 10% off with code MBREW.*

^{*This is sponsored advertising content.}

On this day 26 years ago, Altavista—a leading, early search engine—was released. Three years later, Google came around, and Altavista quickly lost ground to the new search darling.

• Altavista bounced around a few owners before ending up with Yahoo, which ultimately shut down the search engine in 2013.

As the holiday season approaches, consider giving yourself a gift that keeps on giving. The Morning Brew Accelerator program will give you exposure to a broad range of skills and knowledge that will accelerate your career for years to come.

It's the perfect time to invest in your future and use your annual employer’s corporate learning dollars. In most organizations, this money expires at the end of the year—don’t leave dollars on the table!

Learn more and apply for our February 2022 cohort here.

Catch up on the top Emerging Tech Brew stories from the past few editions:

• A lithium shortage is coming, and automakers might be unprepared
• Roblox’s metaverse is already here, and it’s wildly popular
• Timnit Gebru debuts DAIR, an AI ethics group that will center marginalized communities