From Science Daily: First Driverless Vehicle to Hit the Roads Singapore’s first clean and green driverless shuttle transportation system will soon see passengers shuttling between Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and JTC Corporation’s (JTC) CleanTech Park. In a partnership between NTU, JTC and Induct Technologies, and supported by the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), an autonomous […]
Sounds great! But there is a little bit of a catch… Startup announces big breakthrough for electric vehicle batteries For years, the electric vehicle industry has been eager to build a better electric car battery: one that extends range while having a longer overall life, is affordable, quick-charging and safe. Now Envia Systems, a start-up […]
Interestingly, they aren’t going with traditional Prius-like hybrids – where a gas engine directly pushes the drivetrain. Rather, they are going full EV for sports cars and Volt-like range-extension for everything else (where the electric engine always pushes the drive train and a small gas engine charges the batteries when necessary). Chrysler plans on bringing […]
Check out FutureCars.com. They provide a fairly comprehensive overview of future automobile technologies with an emphasis on future fuels. Plus, they provide a good run-down on the various ways that the flying car scenario might be realized, including this summary of the challenges that need to be overcome: A flying car should: be able to […]
Hybrid electric/gasoline vehicles have been thought of as a bridge technology to full electric vehicles. There are a number of factors that could make the bridge long (25+ years) or short (a decade). Paypal cofounder and Tesla chairman Elon Musk is betting on a short bridge. Here’s why: Hybrids represent a poor compromise. The product […]
Our friend Michael Darling sent a link this morning to an article entitled “The Road to the Future.” The article presents some possibilities about where transportation technology could be going – self-driving cars, hybrids, air cars, transparent aluminum for windows, and modular personal transportation vehicles. You’ll want to read the whole thing.
Last May, I reviewed Dr. Daniel Wilson’s “Where’s My Jetpack: A Guide to the Amazing Science Fiction Future that Never Arrived “. Apparently, the market heard this crie de coeur and has responded. Gizmodo points to Jet Pack International’s new marketing video (set, you’ll notice, in a particularly picturesque Colorado locale) that draws attention to […]
These electric bikes are popping up all over. Fortunately this one [text and video link] looks less like a toy than the bikes Phil and I wrote about recently.
This Reuters article: Centennial time capsule car found ruined | Oddly Enough | Reuters Got me thinking about a couple of things. First, how might the time capsule have been done better (please confine speculation to approximately mid-century technology), and second, what would constitute “an advanced product of American industrial ingenuity with the kind of […]
Enough about the X-Files. Let’s talk about the X Prize…the automotive X Prize, that is. From Slashdot: The [X Prize] Foundation now plans to offer millions for the first practical car that increases mileage five-fold. The specs for the competition are out in draft form amd call for cars in two categories that are capable […]