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Archive for the ‘transportation’ category: Page 432

Apr 22, 2019

Tesla outlines plan for ‘Robotaxi’ ride-sharing service

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, mobile phones, robotics/AI, transportation

Tesla CEO Elon Musk presented some new details on the Tesla Network’s Robotaxi ride-hailing service during the company’s Autonomy Day. Musk outlined his how much electric car owners can earn from the service, as well as how long vehicles can last operating as autonomous ride-sharing Robotaxis.

Musk started his presentation by reiterating Tesla’s Master Plan, which includes the deployment of the company’s Robotaxi program sometime in 2020 (pending regulatory approval, of course). Musk joked about Tesla’s delays in the rollout of Full Self-Driving features, though he did note that “we said we’re gonna do the Robotaxi, and we’re gonna do the Robotaxi.”

Tesla owners who wish to use their vehicles for the Tesla Network will be able to manage their electric cars through their smartphone. Musk dropped several points of information that will be key to the Tesla Network’s Robotaxi service as well. Among these is the vehicles’ longevity. The CEO noted that current-generation battery packs are good for about 300,000 to 500,000 miles, though Tesla’s upcoming batteries which will go on production next year will operate for twice as long, up to 1 million miles with minimal maintenance.

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Apr 22, 2019

Why China’s electric-car industry is leaving Detroit, Japan, and Germany in the dust

Posted by in categories: sustainability, transportation

China was no good at cars. Then EVs came along.

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Apr 20, 2019

MIT Developing Ionic Wind Thrusters as Efficient Alternative to Jet Engines

Posted by in category: transportation

Circa 2013


A team from MIT are developing thrusters powered by ionic wind as an efficient alternative to current conventional atmospheric propulsion technologies.


Apr 20, 2019

Your Own Personal Aircraft

Posted by in categories: futurism, transportation

This electric vehicle could become your future mode of transportation 😍 via @kittyhawkaero

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Apr 19, 2019

Uber gets $1 billion investment for self-driving unit

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, transportation

Uber announced Thursday night that its self-driving car unit received a $1 billion investment ahead of the tech giant’s upcoming debut on th.

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Apr 18, 2019

Fit to drive? The car will judge

Posted by in categories: electronics, robotics/AI, transportation

However, we are not there yet and we have to take it step-by-step, says Dr Anna Anund from the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI). She and her team are developing sensor-based systems as part of the ADAS&ME project to move towards level three, in which the driver can rest and would only be expected to drive when the car requests it.


When you’re sleepy, stressed or have had a few drinks, you’re not in the best position to drive – or even make that decision. But automated cars could soon make that call for you.

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Apr 18, 2019

Need more energy storage? Just hit ‘print’

Posted by in categories: energy, nanotechnology, transportation

Researchers from Drexel University and Trinity College in Ireland, have created ink for an inkjet printer from a highly conductive type of two-dimensional material called MXene. Recent findings, published in Nature Communications, suggest that the ink can be used to print flexible energy storage components, such as supercapacitors, in any size or shape.

Conductive inks have been around for nearly a decade and they represent a multi-hundred million-dollar market that is expected to grow rapidly into the next decade. It’s already being used to make the radiofrequency identification tags used in highway toll transponders, circuit boards in portable electronics and it lines car windows as embedded radio antennas and to aid defrosting. But for the technology to see broader use, conductive inks need to become more conductive and more easily applied to a range of surfaces.

Yury Gogotsi, Ph.D., Distinguished University and Bach professor in Drexel’s College of Engineering, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, who studies the applications of new materials in technology, suggests that the ink created in Drexel’s Nanomaterials Institute is a significant advancement on both of these fronts.

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Apr 17, 2019

Canada’s $5,000 EV incentive starts next month, Tesla officially disqualified

Posted by in categories: government, sustainability, transportation

Canada’s newly announced $5,000 incentive for electric vehicles is officially going into effect on May 1st next month and the federal government has released the list of eligible vehicles.

Tesla vehicles are officially ineligible for the incentive.

As we reported last month, the Canadian federal announced a new $5,000 incentive for electric cars with a $45,000 price limit, which virtually excluded Tesla vehicles.

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Apr 17, 2019

The first of the TTC’s zero-emission electric buses rolled into town today (PHOTOS)

Posted by in categories: sustainability, transportation

The first of the TTC’s zero-emission electric buses arrived today.

According to TTC spokesperson Stuart Green, the new vehicle must undergo testing and commissioning first before it can enter regular service later this spring.

The first of the #TTC ‘s zero emission electric buses arrived today! This @newflyer vehicle (#3700) will undergo testing and commissioning before it enters regular service later this Spring. We’ll have 60 e-buses by year end, making the TTC a national clean-tech fleet leader. pic.twitter.com/voobFV8JEM

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Apr 17, 2019

Self-Driving Car Tech Will Help Forensic Scientists Find Murder Victims

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, transportation

Lidar, the radar-style detection system which works by bouncing laser light, is most commonly associated with self-driving cars. However, it may have another useful, albeit morbid, application: Helping find bodies which have been buried in unmarked graves.

Sound like something out of an episode of CSI? In fact, it’s a new piece of research coming out of Tennessee’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where scientists have been investigating how lidar could be used a forensics tool to find missing murder victims — potentially even from an aircraft.

“Missing persons investigations pose a significant societal challenge, as well as a time-sensitive technological challenge,” Dr. Katie Corcoran, one of the researchers on the project, told Digital Trends. “Of the millions of missing persons worldwide who are unaccounted for, some are thought to be deceased and buried in unmarked graves. A gravesite can go unnoticed because of natural processes, where the site becomes covered with grass or leaves, for instance. Or the site could have been deliberately masked by a perpetrator trying to hide the body. In either case, the longer the gravesite goes unnoticed, the more difficult it is to locate.”

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