Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: transportation – Page 337

UK air taxi firm Vertical Aerospace to float on New York stock market

The aircraft could be used to transfer passengers between home and airports, Virgin believes. It would be able, for example, to make the 56-mile journey from Cambridge to Heathrow in 22 minutes, compared with a 90-minute drive.

The announcement represents another step in the race to making mass electric flight and air taxis a reality. Some analysts have predicted the sector could be worth £150bn by 2040 but significant hurdles remain, including regulation and safety certification. The VA-X4 has yet to take its first test flight. Dómhnal Slattery, the chief executive of Avolon, said its order would “accelerate the inevitable commercial rollout of zero-emissions aircraft. Before the end of this decade, we expect zero-emission urban air mobility, enabled by eVTOLs, to play an increasingly important role in the global commercial aviation market.”

Nvidia acquires hi-def mapping startup DeepMap to bolster AV technology

Chipmaker Nvidia is acquiring DeepMap, the high-definition mapping startup announced. The company said its mapping IP will help Nvidia’s autonomous vehicle technology sector, Nvidia Drive.

“The acquisition is an endorsement of DeepMap’s unique vision, technology and people,” said Ali Kani, vice president and general manager of Automotive at Nvidia, in a statement. “DeepMap is expected to extend our mapping products, help us scale worldwide map operations and expand our full self-driving expertise.”

One of the biggest challenges to achieving full autonomy in a passenger vehicle is achieving proper localization and updated mapping information that reflects current road conditions. By integrating DeepMap’s tech, Nvidia’s autonomous stack should have greater precision, giving the vehicle enhanced abilities to locate itself on the road.

Tesla is now looking to hire self-driving car test drivers around the world

Do you want to work for Tesla remotely and test its latest Autopilot and Full Self-Driving features? You may be in luck as we learn that the automaker is now looking to hire self-driving car test drivers around the world.

You don’t even need a college education.

When it comes to Autopilot and Full Self-Driving package features, people often say that Tesla’s own paying customers are the testers and that’s mostly true, but the automaker also does plenty of internal testing.

Segway (Yes, Segway) Is Making a Hybrid Motorcycle Worthy of All Your ‘Tron’ Fantasies

The bike’s powertrain uses a fuel cell to turn gaseous hydrogen into electrical energy.

The engine setup holds its own, too. The Apex H2 will feature a hybrid powertrain that will convert gaseous hydrogen into electrical energy via a special fuel cell, reports New Atlas. Ninebot says the hydrogen-electric setup will be able to generate over 80 horsepower and rocket the bike from zero to 60 mph in less than four seconds. Considering that the original Segway—yes, the infamous two-wheel personal transporter favored by mall cops—topped out at 10 mph, that’s pretty impressive, even if it is slower than the Apex concept’s quoted top speed of 124 mph. Of course, there’s one key difference between the two bikes: The Apex H2 will be one of the rare concept vehicles you’ll be able to buy.

Ninebot says the bike will go into production in 2023, with deliveries expected to begin that same year. When the H2 does finally go on sale, the bike will join a varied Segway lineup that includes a Wall-E-esque motorized chair on wheels and a high-performance, Lamborghini-approved go-kart that can go 25 mph. You do you, Segway.

Addmotor Motan M-66 R7 e-bike review: An easy-riding, fun electric moped

Electric bicycles in the rugged moped style are all over the place these days, and for good reason. Unlike fitness e-bikes that are often used for a combination of exercise and leisure riding, electric mopeds are built mostly for good old fashioned getting around. And the Addmotor M-66 R7 moped fully embodies that design ethos. It’s a transportation e-bike that will have you zipping around your city faster than a car and cheaper than a public transport season ticket.

New Battery Tech Could Finally Make Flying Taxis Economically Feasible

Flying taxis, more technically known as electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicles, might actually — finally — become a feasible technology thanks to a new development in battery technology.

Ironically, the hardest part of designing and building eVTOLs isn’t the vehicle itself. Instead, it’s solving the challenging energy situation that eVTOLs face: Any battery that’s powerful enough to lift the thing is almost certainly too heavy and slow-charging to make a trip worthwhile. But a team of Pennsylvania State University engineers tested new batteries that can both recharge in a matter of minutes and survive thousands of charge cycles, according to research published Monday in the journal Joule, making eVTOLs seem a whole lot more realistic.

The energy-dense lithium-ion batteries represent a major leap forward in electric vehicle energy tech, according to The Independent. Both could be charged for a 50-mile journal in under ten minutes, making eVTOLs far more economically viable because each vehicle could take more trips per day.

/* */