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Japan Is Designing An Invisible Train To Be Launched By 2018

This extraordinary train is designed by train Kazuyo Sejima, who was recently awarded Pritzker Prize, which is given as a Nobel Prize of architecture. Sejima is an architect from a Japanese company Sanaa. He claimed that without a doubt the train will be not totally unseen but it will be super-reflective. It seems to be partially invisible because of its pure mirrored shell. This task was very challenging for the architects as well as for the engineers. After this successful mission, they have concluded that this design can be put on to the active trains as well.

Sejima has got authorization from the Seibu Railway Co, that for celebrating its 100th anniversary of Red Arrow express commuter train, they have to remodel the outer surface and inside of it. The invisible train is likely to be launched in 2018 and this express will travel over 178 km (111 miles) all over Japan. In an interview held last week, Sejima said “The limited express travels will pass through beautiful panorama like mountains of Chichibu. This will be a great reason for the passengers to travel on this train.”

The whole news about the partially invisible train is not revealed by the inventors but Dezeen magazine has published that its outer surface will have semi-transparent and mirrored panels, and its boxy shape created into a silver bullet. We already came through extraordinary bullet train designed by Japan and now this semi-transparent train seems really exciting. This will be the latest invention which we have not come through till now.

Hyundai’s new electric bus has 180 miles of range and fully charges in an hour

After a lot of speculation, Korean automaker Hyundai finally pulled the wraps off of its first mass-produced electric bus this week. It’s called the Elec City. It has a range of 180 miles, thanks to a 256kWh battery pack, according to Hyundai. A report from the Yonhap news agency says the bus can also be fully charged in just over an hour. The company plans to launch the bus in 2018.

While that’s more than double what had been rumored for Hyundai, it’s still a far cry from the massive 660kWh capacity of the Catalyst E2, the newest bus from American manufacturer Proterra. The Catalyst E2 supposedly gets 350 miles of street driving on a single charge, and maybe more with some highway driving mixed in. Plus, Proterra’s new bus will hit the road in 2017.

It’s not clear if Hyundai would ever bring its bus to North America, but if it did, Proterra wouldn’t be the only competition. Chinese manufacturer BYD has sold buses in California. Canadian company GreenPower has a small foothold as well. Tesla CEO Elon Musk even flirted with the idea, though it appears that the project could be on hold while he works on tunneling under Los Angeles. Adoption rates could go up as electric buses get better and cheaper, too. Despite the fact that they’re about twice as expensive as their diesel counterparts in the early going, a recent study from Columbia University estimates that they could save cities money over the long haul.