Transportation – Lifeboat News: The Blog

2019: the year of moon missions, marijuana and mega-hub airports | The Economist

Posted by Derick Lee in law, space, transportation

Dec 23
2018

From groundbreaking moon missions to growth in the legal-cannabis market, 2019 will be year of new highs. Here’s what to watch out for in the year ahead.

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To the Moon and Back: Apollo 8 and the Future of Lunar Exploration

Posted by Michael Lance in space, transportation

Dec 22
2018

Muscle cars. Film cameras. Bell-bottoms. 8-tracks. It’s 1968. Astronauts Borman, Lovell and Anders get a call to cancel their holiday plans. By December, the three were suddenly farther away than any human had ever been from our home planet. Start your flashback here: https://go.nasa.gov/2Ey19dY

A long-awaited battery that would cut electric-vehicle costs may finally be close

Posted by Klaus Baldauf in materials, transportation

Dec 22
2018

24M is reducing manufacturing costs by stripping out extraneous materials—and just got $22 million to begin building its first commercial factory.

This 195-gigapixel photo of Shanghai is so huge you can zoom in from miles away and see people’s faces

Posted by Genevieve Klien in mobile phones, transportation

Dec 22
2018

Smartphone cameras have gotten so good that we struggle to find a reason to invest in a point-and-shoot, but there are still major advancements being made in camera tech that are light years ahead of anything you can fit in your pocket. A new panorama shot by China’s Jingkun Technology (calling themselves “Big Pixel”) is a great example of that, and its size is so jaw-dropping you could spend days staring at it.

The photo, taken from high on the Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai, shows the surrounding landscape in stunning detail. From your virtual perch many stories above the ground, you can zoom in so far that you can read the license plates on cars and spot smiling faces greeting each other on the sidewalk.

Robot Car GIF

Posted by Shailesh Prasad in robotics/AI, transportation

Dec 19
2018

Disney’s wall-riding robot.

Elon Musk unveils his test car tunnel as a fix for traffic in Los Angeles

Posted by Genevieve Klien in Elon Musk, sustainability, transportation

Dec 19
2018

The Loop system from his adjacent Boring Company startup, once up and running, would take vehicles underground on an elevator and then send them zipping along a track to their destination.

An earlier concept of public-transportation-like “skates” based on Tesla chassis was abandoned, apparently, in favor of regular Teslas with the enhanced wheels. Those who tried the tunnel described a very bumpy ride at less than optimum speeds.

Self-driving car drove me from California to New York, claims ex-Uber engineer

Posted by Shane Hinshaw in robotics/AI, transportation

Dec 19
2018

A car has completed the first autonomous coast-to-coast trip in the US. (via The Guardian)

Trip by Anthony Levandowski, controversial engineer involved in Uber-Waymo lawsuit, would be longest without human taking over.

Ford applied noise-cancelling technology to a doghouse, and it’s awesome

Posted by Genevieve Klien in materials, transportation

Dec 18
2018

Keeping passengers in a vehicle from hearing the noise of a busy road is a problem that many auto manufacturers have attempted to solve over the years. Noise dampening materials can only do so much, but Ford is now working with noise cancelling technologies that aim to actively combat road sounds by cancelling them out.

The company recently applied its new noise-cancelling know-how to a project that has nothing to do with vehicles, but instead focuses on man’s best friend. Ford Europe built a new kind of doghouse that allows canines to rest without worry of loud noises, like fireworks, disturbing them.

Solar Voyager forced to abandon mission

Posted by Genevieve Klien in sustainability, transportation

Dec 18
2018

A car made from waste plastic has been forced to abort its mission to the South Pole because of bad weather.

Solar Voyager was set to be the first solar-powered expedition to reach Antarctica.

But despite it being Antarctica’s summer, unexpected heavy snow has meant progress has been slow, and now the team have had to turn around.

The Tesla Model 3 ‘Superbottle’ Easter Egg Is a Fascinating Packaging Solution

Posted by Genevieve Klien in engineering, sustainability, transportation

Dec 18
2018

By many accounts, the Tesla Model 3 is a great car. Sure, it’s needed some work on the body and on fit and finish, but there’s lots of cool engineering behind Tesla’s highest volume offering, including the “Superbottle,” an awesome packaging solution for the cooling system that contains a fun little easter egg.

Last week, I stopped by Munro and Associates, the fascinating company that tears cars apart to find out exactly how they’re built. While there, manufacturing experts showed me the Tesla Model 3’s bizarre-looking coolant bottle, which features a cape-wearing bottle as part of the mold:

Also on the bottle is the text “Superbottle”: