Transportation – Lifeboat News: The Blog

Jun 22
2016

Hydrogen-Powered Race Car Runs Laps at Le Mans

Ford’s GT claimed first place in its class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans on the 50th anniversary of the first of its four outright victories in the 1960s, and Porsche’s 919 Hybrid snatched a second consecutive Le Mans victory.

The unheralded news of this year’s Le Mans race, however, is a hydrogen fuel cell race car completed laps on the Le Mans circuit for the first time in history.

The pioneering car was a Green GT H2, driven around the French track by former Formula 1 driver Olivier Panis during a break in qualifying, and again before the race started.

Jun 21
2016

Faraday Future gets approved to test self-driving electric cars in California

DETROIT (Reuters) — Faraday Future plans to begin testing prototype self-driving electric vehicles on California roads later this year after winning approval from the state, an industry source said on Tuesday.

The China-backed, Los Angeles-based startup plans to begin building and selling electric vehicles next year in the United States, but has not disclosed details of its self-driving program.

A spokesperson from the California Department of Motor Vehicles on Tuesday confirmed that Faraday had been approved to test self-driving vehicles on public roads on June 17.

Jun 21
2016

Detachable plane cabin could save lives

Click on photo to start video.

This detachable plane cabin could save many lives.

Jun 21
2016

Elon Musk Aims to Shore Up SolarCity by Having Tesla Buy It — By Michael J. de la Merced and Peter Eavis | The New York Times

” … Tesla Motors said on Tuesday that it had offered to buy SolarCity in an all-stock deal, one that could value the latter at as much as $2.8 billion. The aim, Mr. Musk argues, is to create a renewable-energy giant, collecting clean electricity and putting it to work propelling cars.”

Jun 20
2016

This Electric Racecar Goes Faster Than The World’s Fastest Car

This electric car can go from 0–60 in two seconds.

Jun 20
2016

This concept car changes itself to fit each driver’s preferences

Jun 20
2016

These 15 electric cars will be here by 2020

It won’t be long before you will have your choice of electric cars.

Jun 20
2016

Musk: Half of Cars Made in 7 or 8 Years Will Be Driverless

Just another one of Musk’s ambitious predictions, or inevitable truth?

Jun 19
2016

Self-driving tractors and data science: A visit to a modern farm

Self driving tractors are a big benefit for farmers and thier families.

Farming isn’t the low-tech endeavour some might think.

Jun 18
2016

Long Promised Artificial Intelligence Is Looming—and It’s Going to Be Amazing

We have been hearing predictions for decades of a takeover of the world by artificial intelligence. In 1957, Herbert A. Simon predicted that within 10 years a digital computer would be the world’s chess champion. That didn’t happen until 1996. And despite Marvin Minsky’s 1970 prediction that “in from three to eight years we will have a machine with the general intelligence of an average human being,” we still consider that a feat of science fiction.

The pioneers of artificial intelligence were surely off on the timing, but they weren’t wrong; AI is coming. It is going to be in our TV sets and driving our cars; it will be our friend and personal assistant; it will take the role of our doctor. There have been more advances in AI over the past three years than there were in the previous three decades.

Even technology leaders such as Apple have been caught off guard by the rapid evolution of machine learning, the technology that powers AI. At its recent Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple opened up its AI systems so that independent developers could help it create technologies that rival what Google and Amazon have already built. Apple is way behind.