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Category: transportation – Page 303

Mobile H2O generator pulls drinking water from air for off-grid nomads

For over a decade, Israeli atmospheric water generator (AWG) company Watergen has been one of the players working to refine and grow air-to-water technology that can efficiently pull water vapor out of the air and collect it as fresh, filtered drinking water. Its previous work has focused heavily on large installations to supply communities, businesses and households, and its latest innovations shrink the water-harvesting tech into a form portable enough for overlanders, RVers, tiny home dwellers and other off-grid explorers.

The last time we ran into Watergen’s work was at CES 2,019 where it showed the Automotive AWG system. The center-console-integrated system was one of the wondrous highlights of the show, but it seemed an odd, limited use for a technology with such potential, a strange detour on a larger journey. Does the average passenger car driver really need a water tap over the cupholders?

If a mobile air-to-water generator is to find a following amongst drivers, it would be a far better fit for vehicles that spend long hours traveling through places without much access to water – motorhomes and camping trailers, specialized remote-work trucks and vans, and perhaps long-haul tractor-trailers, to name a few examples.

Wright proposes a 100-seat electric airliner powered by aluminum

US-based Wright Electric has announced a 100-seat electric short-hop aircraft slated to go into service by 2026. It’ll either be powered by hydrogen, or it’ll use recyclable metal in what the company calls an “aluminum fuel cell.”

Wright is working on a number of large electric aircraft projects, including an even bigger 186-seater it’s developing in conjunction with European airline EasyJet and BAE Systems. This would be a “low-emissions” electric, presumably using a fossil-fueled range extender to top up its batteries and extend its flight range to around 1,290 km (800 miles). The partnership is pitching it as a “path” towards clean aviation, a kind of Prius of the skies, that will prove the electric powertrain while waiting for energy storage to come up to scratch.

Wright’s latest project, however, will be totally zero-emissions, and will use high-density energy storage to tackle flights up to an hour in duration – that’s enough for the ~1,000-km (620-mile) hop between Sydney and Melbourne, or London-Geneva, or Tokyo-Osaka, or LA-San Francisco.

The first firefighting robot in America is here —- and it has already helped fight a major fire in Los Angeles

Circa 2020

A newly recruited firefighter in Los Angeles put out a major fire even before being formally introduced at a news conference. That new recruit is a robot.

The Thermite RS3, the first robotic firefighting vehicle in the United States, was scheduled to arrive at the news conference the morning of October 13 but it was diverted to a major emergency structure fire in the fashion district in Downtown Los Angeles earlier that day.

“It was exciting to see this unique piece of apparatus put into action on its first day in service,” said Los Angeles Fire Department Capt. Erik Scott.

Luminar Surges On Plan To Supply Laser Sensors For Nvidia’s Self-Driving Car Platform

Laser lidar startup Luminar, founded and led by the youngest self-made billionaire tracked by Forbes, will supply its sensors to Nvidia for a new autonomous vehicle technology platform that the chip and computing powerhouse is developing for automakers to install in consumer cars and trucks. The news pushed Luminar’s shares up more than 20%.

Nvidia aims to supply the DRIVE Hyperion system, powered by its Orin “systems on a chip” computing hardware, AI-enabled software and Luminar’s long-range Iris lidar, to automakers starting in 2,024 Luminar said at Santa Clara, California-based Nvidia’s annual GTC conference. The platform, which also integrates cameras and radar for additional sensing capability, includes everything needed for mass-production vehicles to operate autonomously in highway driving, Nvidia said earlier this year.

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Nvidia’s new tech uses AI to automatically match voice lines to animated faces

Nvidia may be best known for graphics cards you can’t find in stores, but the company also makes some interesting software tools. An example of this is the noise removal feature known as RTX voice, which was upgraded to work with all GeForce cards earlier this year, and does an excellent job of cleaning up background noise.

Now Nvidia (Thanks, 80.lv) has been showing off a new tool in beta this year involving sound. Audio2Face is an impressive looking auto rigging process that runs within Nvidia’s open real-time simulation platform, Omniverse. It has the ability to take an audio file, and apply surprisingly well matching animations to the included Digital Mark 3D character model.

This New Personal Flying Vehicle Prototype Can Fly You At Speeds Up To 160MPH

Beats road traffic any day.

As the world progresses towards electric vehicles and flying cars, a team of researchers from the Washington State University is working with ZEVA Aero, a Tacoma-based start up to test different components to create a single passenger, electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.

It’s interesting to note that ZEVA Aero has already completed a functional prototype of a very futuristic looking eVTOL vehicle which has been assigned to use by first responders and emergency services before the general public. The prototype is capable of flying at 160 mph for up to 50 miles (80km). When it takes off from the ground, it hovers just like a helicopter and then tilts horizontally to fly more efficiently like a plane. This enables it to take advantage of the reduced drag and travel at faster speed as compared to other eVTOL vehicles.

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