Commissioner Gary Bettman at the NHL general managers meeting this spring had a clear answer for when the league might be able to use tracking technology to determine a variety of things with certainty, from high-sticking to whether a puck fully crossed the goal line.
"When we’re certain that it works," Bettman said at the time. “We will test it and re-test it, but we haven’t hesitated to spend the money or the time on technology to improve the game.”
The NHL is taking another step in that innovation with the expansion of the use of Hawk-Eye measuring and tracking techology as part of a new techology partnership with Sony announced Wednesday, hours before the start of the Stanley Cup Final.
The same technology that has become omnipresent in tennis to determine whether the ball is in or out has evolved to the point that it could in help hockey officials and the league’s situation room make more precise calls for close plays on the ice.
“We’re closer — we keep getting closer," NHL executive VP of business development and innovation David Lehanski said. “It’s going to be a solution that includes multiple inputs and different types of technology. ... Likely it will be a combination of active tracking in the puck, in the players, the jerseys — wherever it might be — optical cameras and maybe some other type of technology that all need to get stitched together.”
The league has used Sony's Hawk-Eye technology for the past decade as part of Synchronized Multi-Angle Replay Technology (SMART) services in every team's arena to make replay reviews and coach's challenges faster and more accurate. It also helps organizations keep track of player health and safety.
The technology has improved to the point where cameras capture 29 skeletal points on each player and three more on sticks.
“What that enables us to do is to have an incredibly high-fidelity, low-latency view of the athletes' movements in real time,” Hawk-Eye Innovations CEO Rufus Hack said. “The NHL have a real clear vision around what they’re going to do with this, but obviously it’s still very much in the early stages of what that could look like for them.”
Lehanski said a mix of various tech elements could help on the ice with everything from penalties to positioning on the ice. Off the ice, beyond animated telecasts and visualizations that will continue, the league is hoping Sony cameras can get the home viewing experience closer to in-arena excitement.
“(It's about trying to) bring that game experience into everyone’s homes,” Sony president of imaging products and solutions in the Americas Theresa Alesso said. “As the cameras get better and smaller and lighter, get those angles to the game into someone’s living room is really important.”
AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/NHL
Edmonton Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner (74) makes a save on Adam Henrique (19) during practice, Tuesday, June 3, 2025, in Edmonton, Alberta, ahead of Game 1 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup final series against the Florida Panthers. (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press via AP)
DETROIT (AP) — Sixteen states and the District of Columbia are suing the Trump administration for what they say is the unlawful withholding of over $2 billion in funding for two electric vehicle charging programs.
A federal lawsuit filed Tuesday in Seattle is the latest legal battle that Democratic-led states are pursuing over funding for EV charging infrastructure that they say was obligated to them by Congress under former President Joe Biden, but that the Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration are “impounding.”
“The Trump administration’s illegal attempt to stop funding for electric vehicle infrastructure must come to an end,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a release. “This is just another reckless attempt that will stall the fight against air pollution and climate change, slow innovation, thwart green job creation, and leave communities without access to clean, affordable transportation."
President Donald Trump's administration has been hostile to EVs and has dismantled several Biden-era policies friendly to cleaner cars and trucks in favor of policies that align with Trump’s oil and gas industry agenda.
Transportation Department officials did not immediately respond to request for comment.
The Trump administration in February ordered states to halt spending money for EV charging that was allocated in the bipartisan infrastructure law passed under the previous administration.
Several states filed a lawsuit in May against the administration for withholding the funding from the $5 billion National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program for a nationwide charging buildout. A federal judge later ordered the administration to release much of the funding for chargers in more than a dozen states.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy later issued revised guidance intended to streamline funding applications for states and make charger deployment more efficient. At least four states — Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, and Wisconsin — have announced awards under the vehicle infrastructure program, according to Loren McDonald, chief analyst at EV data firm Chargeonomics, who tracks the state awards.
Tuesday's separate lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, addresses withholding of funds for two other programs: $1.8 billion for the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Grant program, as well as about $350 million for the Electric Vehicle Charger Reliability and Accessibility Accelerator program.
The lawsuit is led by attorneys general from California and Colorado, joined by the attorneys general of Arizona, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia, and the governor of Pennsylvania. All are Democrats.
After returning to office in January, Trump immediately ordered an end to what he has called Biden's “EV mandate.” While Biden targeted for half of new vehicle sales in the U.S. to be electric by 2030, his policies did not force American consumers to buy EVs or automakers to sell them.
Biden did set stringent tailpipe emissions and fuel economy rules in an effort to encourage more widespread EV adoption, as the auto industry would have had to meet both sets of requirements with a greater number of EVs in their sales mix. Under the Biden administration, consumers could also receive up to $7,500 in tax incentives off the price of an EV purchase, a program that congressional Republicans ended last fall.
The Trump administration has proposed rolling back both tailpipe emissions rules and the gas mileage standards and eliminated fines to automakers for not meeting those standards.
Trump has also repeated incorrect information about the status of the federal charging programs; without all of the funds available, only a fraction of what was obligated has been spent so far.
“We had to have an electric car within a very short period of time, even though there was no way of charging them and lots of other things,” Trump said in a Dec. 3 press conference about the proposed weakened fuel economy rules. “In certain parts of the Midwest, they spent -- to build nine chargers they spent $8 billion. So, that wasn’t working out too well.”
The lawsuit comes amid those regulatory changes and as the pace of EV sales have slowed in the U.S. as mainstream buyers remain concerned about both charging availability and the price of the vehicles.
New EVs sold for an average of $58,638 last month, compared with $49,814 for a new vehicle overall, according to auto buying resource Kelley Blue Book.
Automakers, meanwhile, have responded to consumers accordingly.
Earlier this week, Ford Motor Co. announced it was pivoting away from its once-ambitious, multi-billion dollar electrification strategy in lieu of more hybrid-electric and more fuel-efficient gasoline-powered vehicles.
In the spring, Honda Motor Co. also said it would take a significant step back from its EV efforts.
Associated Press writer Matthew Daly in Washington contributed to this report.
Alexa St. John is an Associated Press climate reporter. Follow her on X: @alexa_stjohn. Reach her at ast.john@ap.org.
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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy speaks during a news conference at the Department of Transportation in Washington, Friday, Dec. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
