Lifeboat Foundation

Finally. A Back to the Future tribute that’s genuinely cool.

Engineers at Stanford University along with Renovo Motors built an electric, self-driving DeLorean, appropriately named MARTY. The researchers are using it as a test bed to develop autonomous cars that use racing-inspired techniques to avoid accidents.

See also: USA Today travels ‘Back to the Future’ with front page from the film.

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We’re going back to the future! In Back to the Future Part 2 Doc and Marty travel to the future—October 21, 2015. Yup, we’re living their future! But while we might not have flying cars, hoverboards, or self-fitting shoes, a lot of their predictions about the future weren’t that far off. Here’s a list of 10 they got right.

But seriously, they got a lot wrong. Find out what in our other video, 10 Things Back to the Future 2 Got Wrong!

Continue reading “10 Things Back to the Future 2 Got Right” »

1980s hero Marty McFly travels to Oct. 21, 2015, in Back to the Future II, otherwise known as this Wednesday — and nobody is more excited than the brands.

In a partnership with Verizon, ride-sharing service Lyft will be bringing a fleet of DeLorean DMC-12s to New York City to offer users free rides on Back to the Future day, Oct. 21, 2015.

See also: Live your ‘Back to the Future’ dreams with Ford’s $1.21M flux capacitor.

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Serial amphibian creator Alan Gibbs has used the American International Motorcycle expo in Florida to launch three new outrageous recreational vehicles. Not satisfied making ridiculously fun-looking amphibious quadbikes, cars and trucks, Gibbs has now built two-and three-wheeled motorcycles that you can ride straight down a boat ramp into the water. At the touch of a button they convert to jet skis, retracting wheels out of the way and switching to jet propulsion. There’s almost no delay – the switch from road mode to water mode is done in less than 5 seconds, so you barely even lose momentum as you ride in or out of the water.

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The car will also serve as a promotional vehicle to help Irish students get excited for careers in STEM fields.

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Created by Russian engineer Nikita Chen-yun-tai, the new Apis Cor 3D printer is powerful enough to print a building in one day, yet small enough to be moved with minimal preparation and transportation costs. This portability allows users to print a building in one location and easily move the Apis Cor the next day to another spot. It promises to revolutionize the use of 3D printers in construction, especially in developing nations where low-cost, efficient printing is critical.

The 3D printing of houses is not a new idea — companies have been using the tenets of additive manufacturing for years. What makes the compact Apis Cor printer unique is the unit’s small size — it measures 16.4 ft by 5 ft, weighs 2.5 tons and can be assembled within 30 minutes. As a result, the Apis Cor can be moved easily without the need for an expensive method of transportation and setup. It requires no site preparation and no testing before use, which means it can be dropped on site and deployed right away after assembly.

Related: A Chinese company assembled this 3D-printed home in just three hours.

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Remote driving could be a good halfway step to fully autonomous vehicles, but it feels pretty weird.

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Tesla’s new autopilot system is relying on the cutting edge of machine learning, connectivity and mapping data.

While Tesla’s new hands-free driving is drawing a lot of interest this week, it’s the technology behind-the-scenes of the company’s newly-enabled autopilot service that should be getting more attention.

At an event on Wednesday Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk explained that the company’s new autopilot service is constantly learning and improving thanks to machine learning algorithms, the car’s wireless connection, and detailed mapping and sensor data that Tesla collects.

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https://youtube.com/watch?v=4FpIs0mBfrw

Hoverboard today, Hyperloop tomorrow.

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