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Category: transportation – Page 271

Sunny way.

A ‘bike highway’ running between Daejon and Sejong in South Korea is a sight —or rather, a concept —, you surely haven’t thought of before: It stretches for 20 miles (32 km), and it not only shields cyclists from the sun but also generates power at the same time.

It’s true that a bicycle lane in the center of a highway is an unusual location for one, especially with three lanes of traffic on either side of it, yet it works. Much like the $3.7 million SolaRoad in the Netherlands, a 230-foot road replaced by solar panels, which powers the highway’s lighting system, this bike highway is a win for green energy. Its lanes produce more than enough electricity to power the lighting of the highway and the electric vehicle charging stations, according to Fast Company.

However, in the Netherlands, bicyclists ride on top of the panels instead of under them, while South Korea’s case is the opposite. Under the overhead solar panels, cyclists use subterranean tunnels to enter and exit the path, which boosts safety tremendously since they can get on and off the bikeway without being involved in the regular traffic. Once on the route, they’re shielded from the traffic on each side by barriers, and while that doesn’t provide pleasant roadside views, it does offer sun protection.

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Hyundai announced that it is shutting down its internal combustion engine development team as the automaker focuses on electric cars.

For 40 years the Korean automaker has been developing internal combustion engines to use in its vehicle lineup, but no more.

The Korea Economic Daily reports that Hyundai’s new R&D chief Park Chung-kook confirmed in an email to employees that they are shutting down new engine development:

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What a challenge COVID-19 has had on our global supply chains, exposing vulnerabilities in production capacity, shipping logistics and in particular last mile enablements. According to a recent report of Technavio, the last mile delivery market will grow to USD $14.96B from 2021 to 2025, with a CAGR of 15.06%. Also according to tier one market research firm, Gartner Group, by 2023, 50% of leading global enterprises will have invested in real-time transportation visibility solutions.

Last mile delivery is defined as the transportation of goods and services from a distribution hub to the final customer destination, within a reasonable time at an affordable rate and in mint condition. Supply chain focus on the last mile has significantly become top of mind given the COVID-19 global pandemic, as organizations have had to refresh/rethink their conveyance systems and develop new creative strategies to build more proficient conveyance intelligence.

In times of unprecedented challenges, especially in the past two years, companies are accelerating their investments in robotics, trade channel expansion, laser precision targeted product and supply chains, and last mile intelligence systems.

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With the future of transportation for cars all set to be electric, all eyes are now on how the bigger haul vehicles will make their transition. While the biggest hurdle to overcome still remains the range of these vehicles, with automation also making progress, the designs of these trucks are also set for a change.

With their Atlantis, designers Dolzhenko and Voronezhstev imagine a future where these semi-trucks have reached Level 5 automation, where vehicles are completely autonomous and require no human intervention at all. In contrast, even as it is labeled ‘Full Self Driving’, Tesla is inching closer to a Level 3 automation 0, even as it aims to achieve a Level 4 someday.

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It’s made for high speeds and for showing off!

In the past, we have brought you Lazzarini Design Studio’s mega yacht concept, Prodigium. The King of the Seas, as it’s also known, was shaped like a giant shark and spanned a whopping 501 feet (153 meters) long.

Inspired by Roman architecture, Prodigium was equipped with Roman statues and two columns that supported its upper deck, an impressive and unique design. Now, the same studio that brought you this marvel of the seas has produced a superbike concept called Hypercycle that is bound to grab your attention.

The new motorcycle is red, grey, white, and gold, making it fit to be a transformer, and it is also shapeshifting. It boasts an extendable rear wheel section with an independent horizontally aligned wishbone suspension.

This means it can be stretched out to seem longer. Lazzarini does not cite any specifications so we don’t know how much longer it becomes but they do provide a cool image that showcases the bike’s shape.

Full Story:

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The French company Moonbike is preparing to bring its fun-looking snow transporter to the US, just in time for winter riding.

The Moonbike may have “bike” in its name, though it’s hard to call it a true snow bike.

But don’t let that rear track fool you. It’s not really a traditional snowmobile either, in that it rides on a single forward ski instead of two.

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The modern electric vehicle renaissance has been hampered from day one by the physical limitations imposed by the current state of battery technology. Inefficiencies in the form of heavy battery packs and low power densities have long limited not just the range and performance of EVs but the very forms they can take — there’s a reason Tesla started with a Roadster and not a Cybertruck. But steady advancements in power systems over the past few years — alongside skyrocketing demand for larger, electrified vehicles which cater to the US market — has led to a watershed moment in 2021: the emergence of EV pickups and SUVs.

Yes, we all know the Model X exists and Tesla “did it first” — spare me your tweets — however, the sheer number and variety of new, pure EV pickup and SUV models either ready to hit the showroom floor or in active development is staggering compared to just a few years ago. Let’s take a look at some of this year’s standouts.

GM is betting big on its proprietary Ultium battery technology, investing $35 billion in self-driving and EV technologies through 2025. The company has also announced that it intends to sell 30 EV models by the end of 2025 and EVs exclusively after 2035 with the 1,000 horsepower GMC Hummer EV serving as its vanguard offering.

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Tesla confirmed that it will shut down “passenger play,” which allows for playing video games on the center screen of its vehicles while driving. The change comes after NHTSA announced that it is opening an official probe into the situation.

Tesla has recently been putting more work toward video games inside its vehicles with the goal to “optimize fun” with its ownership experience.

Last year, we reported on Tesla building a new video game and user interface team in Austin, Texas. The goal is to build the platform, Tesla Arcade, and onboard as many video games as possible. Video games are primarily supposed to be used while parked and charging, but Tesla allows playing them while driving after a warning that the feature — called “passenger play” –should only be used by passengers.

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