Archive for the ‘transportation’ category: Page 480
Jan 30, 2018
Volvo Becomes the First Premium Car Maker to Go All Electric
Posted by Shane Hinshaw in categories: business, transportation
“Volvo cars is taking a bold step forward,” the company explained in a video on Volvo’s official Twitter account, “heralding the end of an era for the pure internal combustion engine.”
While other companies have yet to take the leap, Volvo knows investing in electric car production makes good sense from a business perspective: “This is about the customer,” Håkan Samuelsson, Volvo Car Group’s president and CEO, said in a press release. “People increasingly demand electrified cars and we want to respond to our customers’ current and future needs.”
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Jan 30, 2018
Two ex-Google engineers built an entirely different kind of self-driving car
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: robotics/AI, transportation
Jan 30, 2018
BMW’s artificially intelligent motorcycle
Posted by Genevieve Klien in categories: robotics/AI, transportation
Jan 29, 2018
Why Elon Musk is selling flamethrowers
Posted by Shane Hinshaw in categories: Elon Musk, sustainability, transportation
Jan 29, 2018
African countries have taken the first major step towards cheaper continental flights — By Yomi Kazeem | Quartz
Posted by Odette Bohr Dienel in categories: drones, governance, innovation, transportation
“Yesterday (Jan. 28), 23 African countries launched the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) initiative by the African Union (AU). ”
Jan 29, 2018
Fully Electric “Tesla of the Canals” Set to Make Maiden Voyage This Summer
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: robotics/AI, transportation
Jan 29, 2018
NASA tests light, foldable plane wings for supersonic flights
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: energy, transportation
Planes that can fold their wings to different angles while in the air have the potential to fly faster than their peers, and NASA has recently made headway into their development. The space agency has conducted a series of test flights proving that it can control the wings it designed to move into any position and that they have aerodynamic benefits. While the technology has existed for a long time, it typically requires the use of heavy hydraulic systems. NASA’s version doesn’t need that kind of machinery: it relies on the properties of a temperature-activated material called shape memory alloy instead. Upon being heated, the alloy activates a twisting motion in the tubes serving as the wings’ actuator, moving the wings’ outer portion up to 70 degrees upwards or downwards.
The foldable wings will give typical planes like commercial airliners a way to adapt to different flight conditions. They can give pilots more control over their aircraft and could even lead to more fuel efficient flights. Planes designed to fly at supersonic speeds (faster than the speed of sound), however, will get more out of this technology.
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Jan 29, 2018
Tesla Semi Spotted on California Street
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: law, robotics/AI, transportation
Tesla has managed to ship several high-end electric vehicles to consumers, but commercial trucking is the company’s next big move. After showing off its design for an electric semi truck, the company has been working on an aggressive release schedule. However, the vehicle hasn’t been spotted in real life until now. A video uploaded to YouTube shows Tesla’s sleek electric semi cruising down a road in California.
There are few details to glean from this short clip (below). The original prototype trucks Tesla unveiled several months back did not have side mirrors, leading some to suspect Tesla had some fancy alternative in mind. The truck just spotted in the wild does have mirrors, though. That’s necessary for it to be street-legal, so Tesla probably just omitted the mirrors for the announcement to make the truck look cooler.
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Jan 29, 2018
How to Optimize Your Home for Robot Servants
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: robotics/AI, transportation
Robots can walk, talk, run a hotel … and are entirely stumped by a doorknob. Or a mailbox. Or a dirty bathtub—zzzzt, dead. Sure, the SpotMini, a doglike domestic helper from Boston Dynamics, can climb stairs, but it struggles to reliably hand over a can of soda. That’s why some roboticists think the field needs to flip its perspective. “There are two approaches to building robots,” says Maya Cakmak, a researcher at the University of Washington. “Make the robot more humanlike to handle the environment, or design the environment to make it a better fit for the robot.” Cakmak pursues the latter, and to do that, she studies so-called universal design—the ways in which buildings and products are constructed for older people or those with disabilities. Robot can’t handle the twisting staircase? Put in a ramp. As for that pesky doorknob? Make entryways motion-activated. If you want droids at your beck and call someday, start thinking about robo-fitting your digs now.
1. Wide-Open Floor Plan Any serious sans-human housekeeping needs a wheeled robotic butler with arms, Cakmak says. That means fewer steps, plus hallways wide enough for U-turns. Oh, and hardwood floors. Thick carpeting slows a bot’s roll.
2. Visual Waypoints Factory robots work so fast in part because their world is highly structured—conveyor belt here, truck over there. So for your robo-home, create landmarks that anchor the bots in space—a prominent light fixture, say, that tells them, “You’re in the dining room.” (RFID tags will help bots locate smaller objects, like cleaning supplies.)
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