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Archive for the ‘transportation’ category: Page 382

Dec 1, 2018

Supersonic air travel is finally coming back

Posted by in categories: engineering, ethics, policy, transportation

Supersonic air travel is back. 15 years after the Concorde was grounded, everyone from aerospace companies to NASA to small startups is working to bring back ultrafast civilian aircraft. We take a look at the engineering challenges that make supersonic flight so difficult, and try to figure out what’s different about this new generation of planes.

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Dec 1, 2018

It took seven miles to pull over a Tesla with a seemingly asleep driver

Posted by in categories: sustainability, transportation

The driver was arrested for drunk driving.

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Nov 30, 2018

Tesla will live and die by the Gigafactory

Posted by in categories: space, sustainability, transportation

Right now, in the desert just east of Reno, Nevada, Tesla is drilling into recently laid asphalt to install more electric vehicle chargers in the parking lot of the Gigafactory. The company has hired so many new workers in recent years that it needs more space to let them charge their Nissan Leafs, Chevy Bolts, Toyota Priuses, and, of course, Teslas. But before long, those chargers will be ripped right back out, along with the asphalt, and moved to a new spot to make room for more factory space.

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Nov 30, 2018

Delta says USA’s ‘first biometric terminal’ is ready to go at Atlanta airport

Posted by in categories: privacy, robotics/AI, transportation

Delta says the Atlanta airport’s Terminal F has become the “first biometric terminal” in the United States where passengers can use facial recognition technology “from curb to gate.”

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Nov 29, 2018

Closer look at Rivian’s R1T all-electric pickup truck and why I ordered it

Posted by in category: transportation

Following the unveiling of the Rivian R1T all-electric pickup truck, we took a closer look at what is becoming one of the most anticipated EVs scheduled to come out in the next two years.

Here’s a ton of pictures, videos, and GIFs of the Rivian R1T, and why I ordered one.

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Nov 28, 2018

Dauntless UAV can lift 200 pounds over your head

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, transportation

A few years back, we heard about Mobile Recon Systems’ KittyHawk, a large-ish quadcopter that could carry three GoPro cameras. Well, the Kentucky-based company has now announced the new Dauntless UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle), which can lift and transport over 200 lb (90 kg).

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Nov 27, 2018

Volvo’s Self-driving Trucks Are Ready to Start Work at a Mine in Norway

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, transportation

Volvo is about to launch its first-ever commercial operation using its driverless truck technology. A deal with a Norwegian mining firm will see six of its autonomous vehicles carry limestone between the mine and a port in an operation aimed at boosting productivity and reliability, as well as safety.

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Nov 27, 2018

Opinion: Some months ago, I introduced the idea of quantum computing in this column

Posted by in categories: quantum physics, robotics/AI, transportation

All of today’s computing takes its root from the world of “bits”, where a transistor bit, which lies at the heart of any computing chip, can only be in one of two electrical states: on or off. When on, the bit takes on a value of “1” and when off, it takes on a value of “0”, constraining the bit to only one of two (binary) values. All tasks performed by a computer-like device, whether a simple calculator or a sophisticated computer, are constrained by this binary rule.

Eight bits make up what is called a “byte”. Today, our computing is based on increasing the number of bytes into kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes and so on. All computing advances we have had thus far, including artificially intelligent programmes, and driverless cars are ultimately reduced to the binary world of the bit.

This is a natural extension of western thought; for centuries, western philosophy has followed the principles of Aristotelian logic, which is based on the law of identity (A is A), the law of contradiction (A is not non-A), and the law of the excluded middle (A cannot be both A and non-A at the same time, just as non-A cannot be both non-A and A at the same time).

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Nov 26, 2018

This Is How Astronomers Solved The ‘Zone Of Avoidance’ Mystery

Posted by in categories: space, transportation

Galaxies are found uniformly everywhere in the Universe, except in the Milky Way’s plane. Here’s why.

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Nov 26, 2018

Quantum Computing Can Reshape Our Physical Infrastructure If We Let It

Posted by in categories: information science, quantum physics, robotics/AI, transportation

Despite growing excitement around the transformative potential of quantum computing, leaders in many industries are still unfamiliar with the technology that’s likely to prove more disruptive than Artificial Intelligence and blockchain. This ignorance seems particularly acute in industries that deal with physical systems and commodities. In an informal survey of two dozen executives in transportation, logistics, construction and energy, only eight had heard of quantum computing and only two could explain how it works.

In many ways this lack of awareness is understandable. Quantum computing’s value to our digital infrastructure is obvious, but its value to our physical infrastructure is perhaps less evident. Yet, the explosion of power and speed that quantum computers will unleash could indeed have a profound impact on physical systems like our transportation and utility networks. For companies, municipalities and nation states to stay competitive and capture the full benefit of the quantum revolution, leaders must start thinking about how quantum computing can improve our infrastructure.

Unlike classical computers, in which a bit of information can be either a zero or a one, quantum computers are able to take advantage of a third state through a phenomenon known as superposition. Superposition, which is a property of physics at the quantum scale, allows a quantum bit or qubit to be a zero, a one or a zero and a one simultaneously. The result is an astronomical increase in computational capacity over existing transistor-based hardware. Google, for example, has found that its quantum machines can run some algorithms 100 million times faster than conventional processors.

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