Thorium is long been considered a safer, better alternative than uranium for fission based nuclear power projects. Molten salt designs promise all the nonproliferation benefits of thorium, plus simpler, more cost-effective reactor designs combined with intrinsic safety. But the Chinese and the US have started work on molten salt reactor projects the promise to take this promising technology out of the lab and onto the grid.The autonomous driving space is fluid and dynamic, but a few major players are surfacing as leaders in the race to Level 5. Cruz, Waymo and Tesla are the most quoted, but a new partnership between Ford, Lyft and Argo AI to deploy self driving cabs in American cities promises to shake up the race. The combination promises synergies similar to the Tesla approach: Ford supplies the vehicles and service support, Argo AI the court technology, and Lyft provides scheduling, billing and cloud connected data infrastructure. The result may be more than just self driving, but a new way for automakers to monetize Level 4/5 systems.Access all episodes of This Week in Engineering on engineering.com TV along with all of our other series.