Lifeboat Foundation

Elon Musk made new comments about the Tesla Semi program, Tesla’s upcoming electric semi truck, and said that the vehicle will eventually have up to 1,000 km (621 miles) of range.

This new range is going to be achieved, thanks to Tesla’s new in-house battery cells and battery pack technology.

When launching Tesla Semi in 2017, the automaker said that the production versions of Tesla Semi, which is a class 8 truck with a 80,000-lb capacity, will have 300-mile and 500-mile range options for $150,000 and $180,000, respectively.

O,.o hungry babies.

Rat school is in session as fed-up New Yorkers try to learn how to deal with a surging rodent population.

Rats as big as bunnies are roaming the streets in broad daylight, nesting in trees and chewing through car engine wires that can cost thousands to fix. And there are so many that residents are kvetching about them every chance they get: Complaints about rats to the 311 hotline have totaled 12,632 so far this year, a third more than the 9,042 for all of 2019.

Continue reading “Giant New York rats overtaking Central Park and the UWS” »

It’s pretty easy to dismiss the capabilities of Tesla’s Autopilot and Full Self-Driving beta. A look at Autopilot’s ranking from Consumer Reports alone would suggest that Tesla’s driver-assist system is pretty average at best, and that solutions like GM’s Super Cruise are far more advanced and capable.

With this in mind, the narrative surrounding Tesla’s self-driving efforts largely suggests that the company’s driver-assist systems, while advanced, are years away from being a capable autonomous driving solution. And when Tesla achieves autonomy, actual FSD companies like Waymo and Cruise would be far ahead.

These preconceptions about Autopilot and the Full Self-Driving suite, however, are a bit questionable, especially if one were to consider the capabilities of the FSD beta today, which is currently being tested by a select group of Tesla owners. Tesla owner and YouTube host Dan Markham of the What’s Inside? Family channel recently experienced this, when he took a drive on a Model S equipped with the FSD beta.

When the Mini Vision Urbanaut is parked, the dashboard can turn into a daybed among other lounging-related abilities in the concept car.

Travel + Leisure reports the same company that operates luxury, glass-domed trains in Western Canada, Rocky Mountaineer, plans to launch a new route from Denver to Moab beginning August 2021. The route, named Rockies to the Red Rocks, will be two days with one night in a hotel in Glenwood Springs.

The train ride focuses on great views in glass-domed trains with outdoor viewing decks, gourmet dining and tremendous service while passing on the sleeping arrangements — leaving that up to the hotel in Glenwood Springs.

“Rocky Mountaineer will bring a new luxury train tour to explore the historic rail route between Denver and Moab. Over the past 30 years, Rocky Mountaineer has become renowned for our world-class train travel experiences, and now we are opening our newest train experience in the region where train travel history began,” said Peter Armstrong, founder of Rocky Mountaineer. “This region, with its magnificent scenery, national parks, vast opportunities to explore, will delight millions.”

To be built in Northern California, the limited-edition vehicles will have a top speed of 260 mph and start at $2.3 million each.

XTI Aircraft has teamed up with VerdeGo Aero to build the TriFan 200, an unmanned, autonomous vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft.

Denver, Colorado-based XTI and Florida-headquartered VerdeGo say on 19 November that the TriFan 200, a small brother of the in-development passenger TriFan 600 aircraft, will be capable of transporting 227kg (500lb) of cargo on missions of more than 200nm (108km).

“The TriFan 200 aircraft will open up a significant new market for XTI to address the needs of cargo and logistics operators globally,” says XTI’s chief executive Robert LaBelle.

In the near future, large vessels carrying vehicles or other cargo across the ocean could be powered by wind, thanks to innovative sail technology.

Oceanbird, designed by Swedish engineering company, Wallenius Marine, is a futuristic concept for a PCTC (Pure Car and Truck Carrier) with capacity to carry 7,000 cars on long-distance ocean journeys. The project aims to prove that the global shipping community can transport goods in a sustainable way, and that low or zero-emission shipping is possible by using wind as the main energy source.

“We are proud to present our third iteration of our design, which we have worked with for several years,” said Per Tunell, COO of Wallenius Marine. “Shipping is a central function in global trade and stands for 90% of all transported goods, but it also contributes to emissions. It is critical that shipping becomes sustainable. Our studies show that wind is the most interesting energy source for ocean transports and with the 80-metre-high wing sails on Oceanbird, we are developing the ocean-going freighters of the future.”

The automotive industry is knee deep in the vast transition to electric, but one place where gas is still going strong is out on the water. Seattle startup Zin Boats wants to start what you might call a sea change by showing, as Tesla did with cars, that an electric boat can be not just better for the planet, but better in almost every other way as well.

With a minimalist design like a silver bullet, built almost entirely from carbon fiber, the 20-foot Z2R is less than half the weight of comparable craft, letting it take off like a shot and handle easily, while also traveling a hundred miles on a charge — and you can fill the “tank” for about five bucks in an hour or so.

Waiting for the other shoe to drop? Well, it ain’t cheap. But then, few boats are.