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Archive for the ‘transportation’ category: Page 448

Dec 18, 2018

Solar Voyager forced to abandon mission

Posted by in categories: sustainability, transportation

A car made from waste plastic has been forced to abort its mission to the South Pole because of bad weather.

Solar Voyager was set to be the first solar-powered expedition to reach Antarctica.

But despite it being Antarctica’s summer, unexpected heavy snow has meant progress has been slow, and now the team have had to turn around.

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Dec 18, 2018

The Tesla Model 3 ‘Superbottle’ Easter Egg Is a Fascinating Packaging Solution

Posted by in categories: engineering, sustainability, transportation

By many accounts, the Tesla Model 3 is a great car. Sure, it’s needed some work on the body and on fit and finish, but there’s lots of cool engineering behind Tesla’s highest volume offering, including the “Superbottle,” an awesome packaging solution for the cooling system that contains a fun little easter egg.

Last week, I stopped by Munro and Associates, the fascinating company that tears cars apart to find out exactly how they’re built. While there, manufacturing experts showed me the Tesla Model 3’s bizarre-looking coolant bottle, which features a cape-wearing bottle as part of the mold:

Also on the bottle is the text “Superbottle”:

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Dec 18, 2018

The technology that could end traffic jams

Posted by in category: transportation

With the number of cars clogging roads around the world expected to double in the coming decades, new ways of responding to crashes, controlling traffic lights and creating diversions will be needed to keep traffic moving.

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Dec 16, 2018

Elon Musk plans for Tesla to make supersonic electric planes

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, sustainability, transportation

Elon Musk said that he would like for Tesla, the electric car maker, to be able to produce a supersonic plane.

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Dec 16, 2018

Aston Martin will make old cars electric so they don’t get banned from cities

Posted by in category: transportation

The ‘Heritage EV’ program launches next year.

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Dec 16, 2018

Elon Musk’s Boring Company to Launch “Road Legal” Autonomous Cars

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

Like many Musk announcements, this one is filled with unknowns.

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Dec 16, 2018

Pic story: enthusiasts’ aviation dream

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

Fu Qiang examines flight simulator cockpit parts at Wright Brothers Science and Technology Development Co., Ltd. in Harbin, northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province, Dec. 14, 2018. If it were not for a common infatuation with flight simulation, chances are that Liu Zhongliang, Fu Qiang and Zhou Zhiyuan, who had once led three entirely distinct careers, might never come across one another, let alone team up and approach an aviation dream. The aviation enthusiast trio launched their hardware developing team in 2009. From the very first electronic circuit, to today’s flight simulator cockpits, the core spirit of autonomous design prevailed throughout the course of their venture. In 2014, Liu, Fu and Zhou left Zhengzhou in central China and relocated to Harbin. They were joined by Ge Jun, another aviation enthusiast, entering a business fast track as the four registered their company, named after the Wright Brothers. The prototype of a scale 1:1 Boeing 737–800 cockpit procedure trainer took shape in the same year. And in the year to come, the simulator cockpit was put to standardized production. The company’s products have obtained recognitions at various levels. In November 2016, a refined model of their cockpit procedure trainer obtained technical certification from the China Academy of Civil Aviation Science and Technology, one of the country’s top research institutes in the field. Later, another flight simulator cockpit prototype received Boeing authorizations. One aspiration of the team is to apply for higher-level technical certifications for their simulator cockpits, and become a viable contributor to the Chinese jetliner industry. (Xinhua/Wang Song)

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Dec 16, 2018

Amazing human powered bike travels 88MPH

Posted by in categories: energy, transportation

Amazing bicycle reaches speeds above 85MPH using only human power.

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Dec 15, 2018

Sci-Fi Promised Us Home Robots. So Where Are They?

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, transportation

Science fiction has promised us a whole lot of technology that it’s rudely failed to deliver—jetpacks, flying cars, teleportation. The most useful one might be the robot companion, à la Rosie from The Jetsons, a machine that watches over the home.

It seemed like 2018 was going to be the year when robots made a big leap in that direction. Two machines in particular surfaced to much fanfare: Kuri, an adorable R2D2 analog that can follow you around and take pictures of your dinner parties, and Jibo, a desktop robot with a screen for a face that works a bit like Alexa, only it can dance.

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Dec 14, 2018

Virgin Galactic’s Historic Space Trip Heralds a Coming Age of New US Human Spaceflight Leaps

Posted by in categories: space, transportation

Virgin Galactic just brought human spaceflight back to American soil after a seven-year hiatus, and other private companies are poised to make some giant leaps of their own.

Virgin’s VSS Unity suborbital spaceliner soared to a maximum altitude of 51.4 miles (82.7 kilometers) during a rocket-powered test flight over California’s Mojave Desert yesterday (Dec. 13).

The milestone marked the first U.S.-based crewed trip to the final frontier since NASA grounded its space shuttle fleet in July 2011. And it was the first spaceflight ever by a private vehicle designed to carry commercial passengers. (By one measure, anyway: Though many people place the boundary of outer space 62 miles, or 100 km, up at the “Karman Line,” the U.S. Air Force awards astronaut wings to personnel who reach an altitude of 50 miles, or 80 km.) [In Photos: Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo Unity Soars to Space].

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