Lifeboat Foundation

Tesla unveiled its first prototype of its Optimus humanoid robot on Friday — an actual robot this time, by the strictest definition, instead of a flesh and blood human clad in a weird suit. The robot performed some basic functions, including walking a little bit and then raising its hands — all for the first time without supports or a crane, according to Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

The company may be taking its first early steps into humanoid robotics, but it has a lot riding on the business. Musk has said that the Optimus bot will eventually be more valuable “than the car business, worth more than FSD (Tesla’s add-on ‘Full Self-Driving” feature, which is not self driving.)

What was apparent at the event Friday night is that Tesla is making the economically wise, but strategically questionable decision to yoke together the destinies of both Optimus and its Autopilot (and by extension, FSD) ambitions.

Tesla is expected to start production of its highly anticipated futuristic truck in 2023.

Tata Motors, an India-based automaker, has launched a new small hatchback all-electric vehicle starting at just over $10,000.

The Indian auto market has been lagging behind its peers when it comes to electrification.

This is due to many factors, but not the least of which is the fact that the country has strong protectionist laws when it comes to its auto industry and it makes it hard for foreign automakers to launch new vehicles in the country without producing them there.

Aiming to become the world’s largest operator of supersonic aircraft fleet, American Airlines (A1G) (AAL) has signed an agreement with Boom Supersonic for the purchase of what will be the world’s fastest commercial airliners.

American Airlines (A1G) (AAL) committed to purchasing up to 20 Boom Supersonic Overture aircraft with an option for an additional 40 jets, it announced on August 16, 2022. Showing its intent, the Texas-based air carrier said it has already transferred a non-refundable payment to the manufacturer for first 20 planes. However, it did not specify the worth of the recent deal.

According to the terms of the deal, the manufacturer must meet industry-standard operating, performance, and safety requirements, as well as other American Airlines’ (A1G) (AAL) requirements, before any Overture jets are delivered to the airline.

Capturing combustion on a large scale is now possible.

The first cross-sectional photos of carbon dioxide in a jet engine exhaust plume were taken by researchers using brand-new near-infrared light imaging technology.

The research was published in Applied Optics’ 28th issue.

Continue reading “Researchers successfully capture the first images of carbon dioxide emissions in aircraft engine” »

He made the announcement as usual over Twitter.

Over the years, we have watched with excitement as Tesla CEO Elon Musk has revealed more and more details about the Cybertruck. On Thursday, he took to Twitter to share one more feature of the truck: it will be waterproof enough to briefly serve as a boat.

Tesla.

Continue reading “The Cybertruck will also be a boat, says Elon Musk” »

Regent has released video of its remarkable Seaglider prototype in flight testing. The first machine to combine the efficiency advantages of ground effect and hydrofoiling in a single design, it promises revolutionary speed and range in coastal areas.

Wing-in-ground effect (WIG) aircraft such as the Soviet-era Ekranoplan have shown promise in the past, but they’re yet to take off, so to speak, as a mainstream form of transport. These low-flying birds ride on a cushion of air between their wings and the surface, which gives them a significant lift and efficiency boost over regular planes flying higher in the air – as long as they stay within their own wingspan of the surface beneath. This extreme altitude restriction means that while ground-effect aircraft could fly over land, it’s too dangerous for regular operations, and they typically stay over water.

Continue reading “Watch the world’s first hydrofoiling ground effect vehicle take off” »

We wonder what Tesla is going to reveal.

Once again, it is that time of the year. The annual Tesla AI Day, a demonstration of the most cutting-edge technologies from all of the company’s operating divisions is tomorrow. While Tesla vehicles receive the majority of press attention, the company has a wide range of other applications and products that it is constantly developing and improving.

Continue reading “AI Day 2022: Tesla may unveil a major milestone for its Optimus robot” »

❤️ Check out Lambda here and sign up for their GPU Cloud: https://lambdalabs.com/papers.

📝 The paper “LM-Nav: Robotic Navigation with Large Pre-Trained Models of Language, Vision, and Action” is available below. Note that this is a collaboration between UC Berkeley, University of Warsaw, and Robotics at Google.
https://sites.google.com/view/lmnav.

Continue reading “Google’s New Self-Driving Robot Is Amazing! 🤖” »