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Category: transportation – Page 276

MIT 6.S094: Convolutional Neural Networks for End-to-End Learning of the Driving Task

This is lecture 3 of course 6.S094: Deep Learning for Self-Driving Cars taught in Winter 2017. This lecture introduces computer vision, convolutional neural networks, and end-to-end learning of the driving task.

INFO:
Slides: http://bit.ly/2HdXYvf.
Website: https://deeplearning.mit.edu.
GitHub: https://github.com/lexfridman/mit-deep-learning.
Playlist: https://goo.gl/SLCb1y.

Links to individual lecture videos for the course:

Lecture 1: Introduction to Deep Learning and Self-Driving Cars.

Lecture 2: Deep Reinforcement Learning for Motion Planning.
https://youtu.be/QDzM8r3WgBw.

Lecture 3: Convolutional Neural Networks for End-to-End Learning of the Driving Task.

Researchers develop AI system capable accelerating learning and yielding process

SEOUL — Using a high-performance artificial intelligence (AI) chip, South Korean researchers have established a system that can accelerate the process of learning data and yielding results. The system capable of performing five thousand trillion operations per second is ideal for autonomous vehicles and AI servers because its chipset is about the size of a coin.

Tunnel-like vaults house cafes and workshops along revitalised Prague waterfront

Architect Petr Janda has transformed a series of vaults on the banks of the Vltava River in Prague into versatile public spaces as part of a project aimed at revitalising the embankment.

The project to transform approximately four kilometres of the Czech capital’s riverbank was initiated in 2009, by which time the former quayside had been deserted for many years.

The embankment area was being used for car parking, with the vaults containing storage units. Janda’s studio Brainwork helped develop a proposal to create a waterfront promenade that reactivates three separate sections of the embankment and introduces new public functions.

For BP, car chargers to overtake pumps in profitability race

LONDON, Jan 14 (Reuters) — BP says its fast electric vehicle chargers are on the cusp of becoming more profitable than filling up a petrol car.

The milestone will mark a significant moment for BP which wants to shift away from oil and expand operations in power markets and around electric vehicles (EV).

EV charging has for years been a loss-making business as a whole for BP and rivals as they invest heavily in its expansion. The division is not expected to turn profitable before 2025 but on a margin basis, BP’s fast battery charging points, which can replenish a battery within minutes, are nearing levels they see from filling up with petrol.

Next Fiat Panda aims for ‘most affordable EV’ title, will slot below 500e

Next Fiat Panda aims for ‘most affordable EV’ title with customizable, clever crossover that will slot below 500e.

What’s the most affordable EV you can buy? If rumors out of Fiat are to be believed, the answer to that question will soon be “the new Fiat Panda” as Stellantis targets the bottom end of the booming electric car market.

Set to arrive as soon as this spring, the new Fiat Panda will be an EV-only offering from Stellantis’ “entry” Italian brand, and is expected to slot in below the ell-electric Fiat 500e, price-wise, in the company’s lineup. Its main objective, as the brand’s President, Oliver Francois, told AutoExpress UK, is to “awaken the sleeping giant” he believes Fiat to be. “That’s exactly my point of view,” he says, when discussing new models. “We have not even started awakening the giant.”

As a product, the upcoming Fiat Panda is believed to be heavily based on Fiat’s 2019 concept, the award-winning Fiat Centoventi. At the time, the company said it would reduce the car’s build costs by adopting a spartan design with a limited color palette that was at once “minimalist and fully customizable.”

The Zeva eVTOL That Moves Like Superman Completed Its First Test Flight

It takes off vertically then moves horizontally.

Zeva Aero, a Tacoma-based company looking to make vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) vehicles for a single pilot, reached a major milestone as its full-scale aircraft completed its maiden untethered flight, the company said in its press release.

We have covered many electric VTOL (eVTOL) concepts in the past and covered their progress as well. While most are aimed to become air taxis, capable of moving people from point A to point B within or even between cities, Zeva’s Zero wants to offer this service on a highly personalized basis, giving its users the freedom from aircraft pilots to chauffeur them around. A typical Zeva Zero user could lift from practically any parking lot in the city, negating the need for dedicated vertiports as well.

Full Story:

The VTOL might look a little odd at first glance. But the oddity of the design gives it unmatchable speeds among VTOLs.

Continue reading “The Zeva eVTOL That Moves Like Superman Completed Its First Test Flight” | >

Researchers from DARPA, NASA and MIT working to develop Anti-Gravity technologies

Anyone able to find the sources? 🤔

Antigravity is the concept of a technology that, when applied to an item or a place, allows it to “cancel” gravity rather than compensate for it, as in the case of an aircraft.

Since November 2020, a group of experts from NASA, DARPA, MIT, and the Air Force has met on Zoom on a monthly basis to explore future propulsion technology, including the possible “antigravity.” Given that this technology now exists only in science fiction or in the thoughts of a few dreamer thinkers, this is a remarkable occurrence.

The Alternative Propulsion Engineering Conference (APEC) was founded to allow experts to explore forbidden (and even crazy) concepts that go beyond the boundaries of current contemporary science.

Rolls-Royce Says Its Electric Plane Just Smashed the World Record for Speed

The first electric plane took flight in 1973. There was just one person on board and the plane only stayed in the air for 14 minutes, but it was the beginning of an ongoing effort to power aircraft with batteries instead of fuel. Multiple companies are working on building faster, lighter, more efficient electric planes, as well as batteries to power those planes—and last week an aircraft made by Rolls-Royce hit some new milestones in the industry.

Cheerily dubbed the Spirit of Innovation, the plane is part of the company’s Accelerating the Electrification of Flight initiative. The seemingly precocious plane just completed its maiden flight a little over a month ago, and Rolls-Royce subsequently launched “an intense flight testing phase” to collect data on the performance of the aircraft’s power and propulsion system, a 400kW electric powertrain they call “the most power-dense propulsion battery pack ever assembled in aerospace.”

Last week, the company said in a press release, they set three new world records. First, the aircraft reached a top speed of 345.4 mph (555.9 km/h) over 1.8 miles (3 kilometers). That’s 132 mph (213 k/h) faster than the existing record. The Spirit of Innovation got up to an altitude of 9,842.5 feet (3,000 meters) in 202 seconds—60 seconds faster than the existing record. And finally, the plane reached a maximum speed of 387.4 mph (623 km/h) during its flight tests, which Rolls-Royce says makes it the world’s fastest all-electric vehicle. The company is waiting on the Federal Aviation Institute to confirm and certify these claims.

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