Inside the Cycleplex: The Weird, Wild World of Google Bikes
Corporate bike fleets have become commonplace on sprawling Silicon Valley campuses over the past decade. Apple has campus bikes, as do Facebook, LinkedIn and others. But there’s nothing quite like Google’s.
Tesla, Google Exploring ‘Autopilot’ Car Technology
Bloomberg’s Jamie Butters explains that Tesla is discussing a partnership with Google to develop a driverless, autopilot system for Tesla cars.
Would You Ride the ‘World’s Lightest Electric Vehicle?’
Boosted Boards promise to provide light, easy electronic transport. But is it a sustainable way of getting around the city?
SBU V3 Is The Electric Unicycle Of Your Dreams
Most of the time when one thinks of unicycles single wheeled devices which you pedal power while working to keep your balance come to mind. But, in a world where almost anything is being made into an electric vehicle these days, even unicycles are getting this treatment. One of the latest to date we’ve learned of is the SBU V3, which is an upgrade from a previous version by Focus Designs we reported on in 2010.
The SBU V3, according to the Red Ferret Journal, is designed to help one bypass the necessary training to stay upright and moving. It is a self-balancing design, that, like the Segway of old, is controlled through a process known as natural leaning motions. Taking up to half an hour to master, motions you make, such as naturally turning, are detected through on-board 3-axis accelerometers and gyros sensors said to help provide you with stability assistance in this particular scenario. Also, if you happen to be overdoing it on the unicycle, it will push you backwards in such a way as to let you know it is nearing its physical limits.
QNX hacks a Bentley
While BlackBerry may no longer be an executive brand, Bentleys are still the very icons of style. So when RIM owned software company QNX decided to hack a Bentley, the results were incredibly cool.
GPS brings new clarity to city driving
Spanish researchers are developing a low cost Global Positioning System (GPS), designed to overcome the so-called “canyon effect” of inner-city driving. Tall buildings often render a GPS useless in the city, but the researchers say their system offers a 90% improvement over any competing technology currently available to consumers.
Volvo takes safety to pedestrians with exterior airbags
Swedish car-maker Volvo has turned its attention to pedestrians by installing the first airbags for those outside the car. The new technology was first unveiled at last year’s Geneva Motor Show but has been integrated into the Volvo V40 model, now on sale in a number of countries.
Reengineering bicycle design with Tech 3.0
When we typically think of high tech travel, we start with aviation and end at automotive travel. Bicycling has always remained an antiquated mode of travel for the young, healthy and green consumer. Well, the designers at Visiobike intend to change that.
With capabilities to plug in your smartphone to derive travel analytics, cameras for rear view monitoring, gps plugins to track the location of your bicycle and security pins to engage and disengage your bicycle, this $6,000 bicycle hopes to reengineer the experience and the notion that bicycles cannot be high tech.
Croatian micro-car to electrify mass market
Croatian engineering company Dok-Ing has announced plans to start serial production of its electric three-seat microcar. The company believes urban commuters will find the vehicle ideal for low-cost, environmentally-friendly motoring.
Moth drives robot car, cruises for a date
Researchers at the University of Tokyo created the small vehicle, controlled by a moth tethered to a ball, to characterize the moth’s tracking behaviors. The moth successfully drives the car towards a sex pheromone normally given off by a female.
In practice, the team hope to use this work to develop autonomous robots able to track down the source of smells from environmental spills and leaks, when fitted with highly sensitive sensors.
