Lifeboat Foundation

Rather than waiting for multiple crashes to happen at a location before intervening to improve road safety, a new study suggests we can identify dangerous areas proactively — by measuring cyclist stress levels as they navigate city streets.

The challenge: When designing a city’s transportation infrastructure, urban planners must balance the needs of drivers with the safety of pedestrians and cyclists. This is often done through surveys of local residents and best practices learned over time.

This process doesn’t always get it right, though, so sometimes cities have to install safety improvements, such as crosswalks, bike lanes, or stop lights, at dangerous intersections or stretches of road.

China has cheap labour and huge market so still EV companies will invest in China.

BEIJING, Jan 1 (Reuters) — China will cut subsidies on new energy vehicles (NEVs), such as electric cars, by 30% in 2022 and withdraw them altogether at the end of the year, the Finance Ministry said on its website on Friday.

The ministry had said in April 2020 that NEV subsidies would be cut from 2020 to 2022 by 10%, 20% and 30%, respectively.

Continue reading “China to cut new energy vehicle subsidies” »

Imagine a future where living in close quarters will be the norm, and so will the vehicles in about five decades from now reflect that societal bond. The Arrival Chemie is a true example of a minimalist future that will revolve around simplicity, function and of course human bond!

Automotive design is going through a metamorphosis stage wherein the gradual shift to an eco-friendly set of wheels is becoming the priority of manufacturers and consumers alike. This shift in perception has had a domino effect in the basic design of vehicles since the propulsion mechanisms and their placement in the vehicle have changed. This gives more freedom to experiment with the interior as well as exterior form. More emphasis is now on the comfort and lounging experience while traversing from point A to B. While on the exterior the multifunctional approach takes precedence.

The future of lidar is uncertain unless, as Voyant hopes to do, its price and size are reduced to fractions of their current values. As long as lidars are sandwich-sized devices that cost thousands, they won’t be ubiquitous — so Voyant has raised some cash to bring its smaller, cheaper, more easily manufactured, yet still highly capable lidar to production.

When I wrote up the company’s seed round back in 2019, the goal was more or less to shrink lidar down from sandwich to fingernail size using silicon photonics. But the real challenge faced by nearly every lidar company is getting the price down. Between a strong laser, capable receptor and a mechanical or optical means of directing the beam, it just isn’t easy making something cheap enough that, like an LED or touchscreen, you can easily put several of them in a vehicle that costs less than $30,000.

CEO Peter Stern joined the company just as COVID was getting started, and they were looking for a way to turn a promising prototype developed by co-founders Chris Phare and Steven Miller into a working and marketable product. After going back to basics they ended up with a photonics-based frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) system (just go with it for now) that could be manufactured at existing commercial fabs.

The autonomous-driving tech company said it successfully completed a test run of a robotic semi in Arizona highway that was the world’s first on public roads without humans in the cab.

Circa 2008

Japanese scientists and origami masters hope to launch a paper airplane from space and learn from its trip back to Earth.

True to CEO Elon Musk’s word, Tesla is expanding its presence in California despite the company officially moving its headquarters to Texas. And amidst this California expansion, Tesla has leased nine acres of land to support its operations in Lathrop — all for a very reasonable price of $1 per year.

As noted in a Manteca Bulletin report, Tesla has been deliberately expanding its footprint in Lathrop since the company came to the city in 2014. During that time, Tesla was hoping to convert an old Mopar distribution center into a manufacturing facility for car parts. Tesla has since expanded its activities in Lathrop, with the company building an 870,000 square foot warehouse in the city. More recently, Tesla also broke ground on an upcoming “Megafactory” for its flagship battery storage unit, the Megapack.

With Tesla poised to employ an estimated 1,500 people working in two shifts at the “Megafactory,” the need for a space where the facility’s employees could park their vehicles while at work arose. With this in mind, the Lathrop City Council voted unanimously last week to lease nine acres of city-owned land to the electric vehicle maker. Tesla is expected to pay for all improvements, infrastructure, and maintenance for the new land, but this would likely be no issue.

It could save an average of £110 a year — and cut their carbon footprint by 20%.

Will a new electric car really save you money factoring in electricity costs? Let’s run down the costs to see how much you could actually save.