Lifeboat Foundation

Mark Moore, Uber Engineering Director of Aviation, and Bell Helicopter’s EVP of Technology and Innovation, Michael Thacker, joined Cheddar to break down the new program.

Tesla Inc. has kicked off production of its long-awaited electricity-producing shingles that Elon Musk says will transform the rooftop solar industry.

After months of teasing, so much so that we had actually seen pretty much the entire vehicle and we have been aware of its main specs, Fisker officially launched its new EMotion all-electric vehicle at CES in Las Vegas last night.

Today at CES, Samsung unveiled DRVLINE, a hardware and software platform that will allow car makers to create customized, technologically advanced autonomous vehicles. Many platforms are an all-or-nothing solution, which forces users to adopt the entire package en masse, without any sort of customization. DRVLINE, however, allows vendors to swap and customize individual components, building the vehicle to their specifications, as well as allowing for rapidly evolving technology.

“Building an autonomous platform requires close collaboration across industry, as one company cannot deliver on this enormous opportunity alone,” said Young Sohn, the president and chief strategy officer of Samsung. “The challenge is simply too big and too complex. Through the DRVLINE platform, we’re inviting the best and brightest from the automotive industry to join us, and help shape the future of the car of tomorrow, today.”

The first DRVLINE initiative will be a camera that features lane departure warnings, adaptive cruise control, collision warning and algorithms that can deliver warnings about pedestrians. The system will start shipping this year.

Continue reading “Samsung introduces autonomous driving platform called DRVLINE” »

I guess the idea works, but there’s one little snag.

Putting solar panels into our roads isn’t the craziest idea, but we may as well admit that it poses some unique challenges. For instance, people may want to walk away with pieces of it. That’s what happened in China, anyway, just five days after authorities opened up what they claim is the world’s first solar panel-paved highway.

As reported by the Qilu Evening News (and noted by TechNode), the experimental kilometer-long stretch of road in Shandong is covered in more than 10,000 solar panels, sandwiched between an insulating layer on the bottom and a durable, transparent one on top — less than 3 cm thick all told. There are coils that can charge electric cars as they drive over it, and the system can even warm up in order to melt snow and ice. It opened to use on December 28.

Continue reading “Someone stole a piece of China’s new solar panel-paved road less than a week after it opened” »

The XB-1 will be the first independently-developed supersonic jet, and the fastest civil airplane ever made. Oh, and tickets are $6,600.

This modified engine was demonstrated to drive over 100 miles on a single gallon of gas. Why hasn’t this technology been further developed? Explore more forbidden science: http://ow.ly/BSI430hyNGN

Aurora Innovations nabs its first two customers.