Lifeboat Foundation

Acer might be better-known for its range of laptops, tablets, phones, and similar consumer electronics, but it has quietly lifted the lid on a brand-new product line — an electric, all-terrain vehicle (eATV).

The Taiwanese tech titan unveiled the eATV “X Terran” (presumably that’s not meant to be ‘Terrain’) prototype at the eCarTech conference in Munich last week, but the company didn’t reveal too many details. We have, however, now obtained some photos of the vehicle.

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https://youtube.com/watch?v=GbShbMRudUM

InVisage filmed in challenging, bright sunlight conditions to test the dynamic range, and shot fast moving subjects (RC race cars) to show off the global shutter. The resulting footage (below) is surprisingly cinematic, considering that the sensor is smartphone sized. (It’s also a bit soft, which the company chalked up to the sensor being an early prototype.) The tech looks intriguing, though the level of hype in the press release and making-of film is a bit over-the-top. Still, if it can be refined further — perhaps by a sensor company like Sony — it could result in strikingly better smartphone and camera images in the not-too-distant future.

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Toyota’s three-seater exoskeleton car and an electric vehicle with touch screens that turn it into a “digital space” are among the concept models that will be on display at the Tokyo Motor Show this week.

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Construction on the first Hyperloop test track will begin soon in California. It’s going to be expensive.

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See exactly what changed from the show floor to the street.

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At the launch of its latest Autopilot features, Tesla CEO Elon Musk noted that it would roll out the new vehicle capabilities to nations outside the United States once it got regulatory approval. Today Musk tweeted that the company has gotten approval from all those countries (except Japan). Now Tesla owners around the world can enjoy the slightly unnerving feeling of letting their Model S drive itself on the highway. Musk also announced that Autopilot 1.01 would be coming soon with improved fleet learning, better lane tracking on poor roads, curved speed adoption and controller smoothness.

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Self-driving cars are already cruising the streets. But before they can become widespread, carmakers must solve an impossible ethical dilemma of algorithmic morality.

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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” »