Archive for the 'Technology' Category
Delphi to Begin Testing On-Demand Robot Taxis in Singapore
August 1st, 2016Via: Bloomberg: Delphi Automotive Plc, the vehicle-electronics supplier that last year conducted the first coast-to-coast U.S. demonstration of a self-driving car, will begin testing autonomous autos in Singapore this year that may lead to robot taxis by the end of the decade. The test will involve six autonomous autos, starting with the modified Audi Q5 […]
Tesla and SolarCity to Combine
August 1st, 2016Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand. Via: Tesla: Just over a month ago, Tesla made a proposal to purchase SolarCity and today we are announcing that the two companies have reached an agreement to combine, creating the world’s only vertically integrated sustainable energy company. Solar and storage are at their best when […]
Breakthrough Solar Cell Captures CO2 and Sunlight, Produces Burnable Fuel
July 30th, 2016I’ve posted lots stories about similar technologies and the main problems are, very low yields, scalability, short lived and/or expensive catalysts. But who knows? Maybe it will become viable before the Mr. Fusion. Via: University of Illinois: Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have engineered a potentially game-changing solar cell that cheaply and […]
Electronic Voting Systems and Security
July 30th, 2016Of course, it’s worse than Bruce admits: Clinton Foundation and Electronic Voting Machines Via: Bruce Schneier: Over the years, more and more states have moved to electronic voting machines and have flirted with Internet voting. These systems are insecure and vulnerable to attack. But while computer security experts like me have sounded the alarm for […]
Mercedes-Benz shows Off the First Fully Electric Heavy Urban Transport Truck
July 27th, 2016Production is still many years away. Via: TechCrunch: Daimler isn’t about to let Tesla own any more ‘firsts’ in electric transportation; the German company revealed the Mercedes-Benz Urban eTruck today in Stuttgart, an all-electric truck with a total admissible weight capacity of 26 tonnes (29 U.S. tons), which makes it the first clean energy big […]
Artificial Intelligence Swarms Silicon Valley on Wings and Wheels
July 24th, 2016See artificial intelligence winters and hype cycles. Via: New York Times: For more than a decade, Silicon Valley’s technology investors and entrepreneurs obsessed over social media and mobile apps that helped people do things like find new friends, fetch a ride home or crowdsource a review of a product or a movie. Now Silicon Valley […]
Self Driving Car Company Asks People to Generate Data with Mobile Phones
July 24th, 2016But what I really thought was interesting was the inducement to get people to do this: Comma Points and a scoreboard. In other words, Hotz turned this into a game. I wonder if he plans to use the Chffr app to offer bonus points to get people to drive on roads that present particularly difficult […]
Super-Hard Metal ‘Four Times Tougher Than Titanium’
July 24th, 2016Via: BBC: A super-hard metal has been made in the laboratory by melting together titanium and gold. The alloy is the hardest known metallic substance compatible with living tissues, say US physicists. The material is four times harder than pure titanium and has applications in making longer-lasting medical implants, they say. Conventional knee and hip […]
Inside the Test Flight of Facebook’s First Internet Drone
July 21st, 2016Via: The Verge: In its first flight, Aquila exceeded engineers’ expectations for its energy efficiency. More test flights are planned, aimed at flying Aquila “faster, higher, and longer,” says Jay Parikh, Facebook’s vice president of engineering, in a blog post today. And then Aquila will have its next big test: flying with the “payload,” as […]
iPhone Case to Monitor Device’s Radios for Surveillance Activity
July 21st, 2016Of course, inexpensive signal blocking pouches can prevent phones from communicating. You have to test them to make sure that they’re actually blocking the signals. See: Black Hole Faraday Bags, for example. This thing below, however, will tell you when something dodgy is happening. (Much better than my warm-to-the-touch-dead-battery indicator.) Via: Wired: A mockup of […]
