Circa 2020
Researchers have long experimented with “lean burn” engines, which boost efficiency and reduce the emissions from combustion. But getting them to ignite is tricky.
Circa 2016
The tire of the future is a ball. An unbelievably sophisticated, nature-inspired, magnetic-levitation-infused ball. Goodyear just revealed its vision for a concept tire that’s intended for the self-driving car of tomorrow. It’s called Eagle-360, and it’s totally round.
The system has already been introduced as a pilot at gates, seating areas and other high-traffic zones around the Orlando International Airport.
Recogni, a startup developing a perception system for autonomous vehicles, has raised $48.9 million in venture capital.
The billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX says Austin was the first choice of his executive team when choosing the site for the latest Tesla factory.
Right now, the entire electric VTOL scene is a house built on a foundation of faith. Faith that the hordes of researchers beavering away on next-gen battery technology will achieve an enormous energy density breakthrough, or faith that hydrogen fuel cell powertrains will prove safe, reliable and practical in an aviation context.
Both seem likely, eventually, but the urban air taxi industry is pushing to be up and running within five years, and right now there’s no powertrain on the market that can keep these energy-intensive vertical-lift birds in the air long enough to be practical in a commercial sense.
France’s Ascendance sees an opportunity for an intermediate step. The company was founded by four ex-Airbus employees who worked on the groundbreaking E-Fan project, which back in 2015 became the first electric aircraft to cross the English Channel. Now, the team is working on a hybrid initiative to make long-range, low-emissions VTOL flight a reality even before the battery and hydrogen guys make their breakthroughs.
The 2021 Toyota Mirai claims to have better than zero-emissions by filtering the outside air, but it ignores the emissions of hydrogen sourcing.
