Lifeboat Foundation

I’m sort of confused as to exactly what’s going on here but it’s worth talking about.

Tesla has started to release a new Full Self-Driving Beta software update (10.7) that improves the situation with “phantom braking” and even helps the FSD beta be more energy efficient.

For more than a year now, Tesla has been slowly rolling out what it is calling “Full Self-Driving Beta” (FSD Beta), which is an early version of its self-driving software that is currently being tested by a fleet of Tesla owners selected by the company and through its “safety test score.”

The software enables the vehicle to drive autonomously to a destination entered in the car’s navigation system, but the driver needs to remain vigilant and ready to take control at all times.

How close are we to having fully autonomous vehicles on the roads? Are they safe? In Chandler, Arizona a fleet of Waymo vehicles are already in operation. Waymo sponsored this video and provided access to their technology and personnel. Check out their safety report here: https://waymo.com/safety/

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Continue reading “Why You Should Want Driverless Cars On Roads Now” »

One of the most important issues in contemporary societies is the impact of automation and intelligent technologies on human work. Concerns with the impact of mechanization on jobs and unemployment go back centuries, at least since the late 1,500 ’ s, when Queen Elizabeth I turned down William Lee ’ s patent applications for an automated knitting machine for stockings because of fears that it might turn human knitters into paupers. ^[2] In 1936, an automotive industry manager at General Motors named D.L. Harder coined the term “automation” to refer to the automatic operation of machines in a factory setting. Ten years later, when he was a Vice President at Ford Motor company, he established an “Automation Department” which led to widespread usage of the term. ^[3]

The origins of intelligent automation trace back to US and British advances in fire-control radar for operating anti-aircraft guns to defend against German V-1 rockets and aircraft during World War II. After the war, these advances motivated the MIT mathematician Norbert Weiner to develop the concept of “cybernetics”, a theory of machines and their potential based on feedback loops, self-stabilizing systems, and the ability to autonomously lean and adapt behavior. ^[4] In parallel, the Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence workshop was held in 1956 and is recognized as the founding event of artificial intelligence as a research field. ^[5]

Since that decade, workplace automation, cybernetic-inspired advanced feedback systems for both analogue and digital machines, and digital computing based artificial intelligence (together with the overall field of computer science) have advanced in parallel and co-mingled with one another. Additionally, opposing views of these developments have co-existed with one side highlighting the positive potential for more capable and intelligent machines to serve, benefit and elevate humanity, and the other side highlighting the negative possibilities and threats including mass unemployment, physical harm and loss of control. There has been a steady stream of studies from the 1950 ’ s to the present assessing the impacts of machine automation on the nature of work, jobs and employment, with each more recent study considering the capability enhancements of the newest generation of automated machines.

In aviation, any advancement in design must either reduce weight or the benefit has to be worth the extra weight. Researchers at the University of Bath seem to have achieved the perfect balance between the two by developing a way to reduce aircraft engine noise by up to 80% while adding almost no extra weight.

As Green Car Congress reports, the research team at the University of Bath developed a graphene oxide-polyvinyl alcohol aerogel, which only weighs 2.1kg (4.6lbs) per cubic meter and therefore makes it the lightest sound insulation ever manufactured.

Researchers developed a graphene aerogel that reduces engine noise to the same level as a hair dryer.

Continue reading “Lightest Sound Insulation Ever Created Will Make Aircraft Engines 80% Quieter” »

Exactly one month ago today, Elation Hypercars threw its hat into the ring and unveiled its first four-wheeled beast known as Freedom. The all-electric hypercar, which promises a staggering 1,400 horses and a 400-mile range, is due to be delivered in 2022 and now has its first prototype.

It was named after a hunting dog and is equally fierce.

The Wright brothers had designed the world’s first successful, heavier-than-air, powered airplane.

Find U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)-funded research about the Wright brothers’ innovative approach to development on OSTI.GOV:
• Accelerating Learning with Set-Based Concurrent Engineering: https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1605517
• Control Co-Design: An engineering game changer: https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1615248
• Engineering a Better Future: Interplay between Engineering Social Sciences and Innovation: https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1530161

Will this be the most exciting stretch of land in all of Central Texas in the coming years? It has investors and developers salivating.

Next week, Audi will open what it is calling “world’s first” charging hub concept in Nuremberg, Germany, complete with reservation options and a lounge area. Audi’s pilot project is intended to test charging solutions for the impending demand for EV infrastructure, particularly in urban areas where drivers might not have access to charging at home.

Audi AG is a German automaker founded over 100 years ago. Known for its automotive offerings in the luxury and performance segment, the company has recently begun to shift its vehicle lineup toward electrification, following suit with its parent company Volkswagen Group.

This past summer, Audi announced its electrification strategy, which includes an end date of 2033 for all new ICE models.