UK motorists would feel safer in a flying car than a driverless vehicle, study finds

UK motorists would feel safer in a flying car than getting behind the wheel of a self-driving vehicle, a new study has found.

A poll of 1,591 UK drivers revealed more than half (56 per cent) have such little faith in the groundbreaking technology they would prefer to risk their lives operating an aircraft.

The research, published this week by consumer finance company Varooma , found motorists aged up to 24 were the most eager to take to the skies, with a whopping 60% saying they favoured flying over being driven by their cars.

Pensioners were also more interested in owning a flying car than autonomous vehicles, with 52% preferring to clock up the air miles than be chauffeured by a machine.

Almost three-quarters (73%) of those questioned said they would not give up driving for driverless cars, while 38% admitted it was "extremely unlikely" they would buy one if they could afford it.

Surprisingly, more people would trust the cars to ferry their children to school (7.5%) than to transport money (5%).

Patrick Martin, senior marketing executive of Varooma, said the results were a wake-up call to the motor industry.

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"Despite significant investment to get autonomous vehicles on the road rapidly developing technological advances, it would seem British drivers remain unconvinced," he said.

"We all understand the dangers associated with flying a plane so it's surprising to discover we find that a safer option than computer-operated cars."

Driverless cars have been come under fire in recent months following a number of high-profile incidents.

US motorist Joshua Brown, 40, died in May when his Model S ploughed into a moving truck at full speed while on autopilot. It is the first known death of its kind.

Earlier this week an autonomous Lexus collided with a van in California after its automated system failed to anticipate a driver allegedly ignoring a red traffic light.

Back in January, Google, which is at the forefront of driverless car development, revealed human drivers had to take the wheel 341 times within 14 months in response to hazards and software failures.

The intervention was needed to avoid a collision just 13 of those times. In 69 cases the driver took control to prevent dangerous driving, and in 272 a human had to take over because of "software failures".

Despite the dangers, however, younger drivers were also the most willing to relinquish control of the cars, with 17% saying they would trust a computer to navigate, compared to just 9% of those aged 55-64.

Nearly a quarter (23%) of motorists aged 18-24 also admitted they would play augmented reality game Pokemon Go if they didn't need to focus on driving, while 28% of women in all age groups said they would watch a film during a driverless journey.

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The most popular activity for men was sleeping, attracting 22% of the vote.

"While the future of autonomous transport remains unclear, these results suggest car manufacturers have a great deal of work to do before driverless cars are commonplace on UK roads," said Martin.

Source: UK motorists would feel safer in a flying car than a driverless vehicle, study finds

The Flying Car Might Be Your Next Company Car

We've been promised flying cars for, oh, about as long as we've been promised jetpacks. But Woburn, Mass.-based Terrafugia is ready to finally fulfill one of those dreams: It has spent a decade developing the Transition, a car with airplane wings whose first prototype took flight in 2009. President and cofounder Carl Dietrich says he could get this baby on the road in just two years, assuming he raises another round of financing to cover production.

Related: What Self-Driving Trucks Could Mean For Your Next Delivery

Private aircraft have been small-business tools for decades. Are today's entrepreneurs in your target market?Dietrich: Absolutely. The Transition has the potential to help businesspeople do more in a day. Not only can you land closer to your final destination compared to airline travel, but you can drive straight from the airport instead of arranging another ride.

Other than saving travel time, though, how does this stand to benefit businesspeople?For example, real estate developers with properties spread across a region could visit more sites more quickly, and regional salespeople could cover more territory. And a flying car also gives you freedom to spend more time with clients.

Combining a car with a plane must have presented pretty unique regulatory challenges. How do you address those?To be road legal, the Transition required certain exemptions. For example, we use an aircraft-type polycarbonate windshield instead of automotive safety glass, to preserve visibility if the screen is broken by a bird strike. We were also allowed to use slightly less advanced airbags than those in the latest cars, mainly to reduce costs -- our small company simply cannot afford the newest smart versions. But the vehicle still offers automotive safety technology not previously found in aviation.

Related: Your Next Company Car Might Be an Uber

Your next-generation version, the TF-X, is largely autonomous. Is that the future of the future?The TF-X, which looks far into the future, would allow the owner to prepare for meetings while the vehicle flies itself at up to 200 miles per hour -- roughly twice as fast as the Transition.

Source: The Flying Car Might Be Your Next Company Car

RoboBusiness Conference Explores the Future of Flying Cars

The top minds and companies in the robotics industry will converge on downtown San Jose for the annual RoboBusiness Conference & Expo. The conference will feature speakers and product demonstrations from dozens of the most notable companies including Apple, Microsoft and Intel.

RoboBusiness is known for its interactive exhibits, keynote speeches dedicated to technological advancement featuring a variety of robots and their "Pitchfire" event, where startups get a chance to pitch their products—Shark Tank-style—to an audience and investor-judges who offer feedback and an opportunity to win a large prize.

Casey Nobile, co-chair of this year's RoboBusiness conference, said attendees "can expect to be inspired by people promoting real fresh ideas and business solutions and cutting edge technologies. They will see new faces with great networking experiences for startup companies, end-users or investors."

Nobile said that the robotics industry is growing rapidly and startups are coming into the field with the aim of introducing robotics products to the consumer marketplace. She added that one of the challenges for businesses in the robotics sector is connecting customers' needs with developers. RoboBusiness, she said, is a place where the two come together.

This year's conference promises to showcase self-driving cars, robots for the home, retail robots and robots in healthcare and provide a venue for for startups, consumers and investors to learn and network.

New this year is the Chief Robotics Officer summit, which tackles the emerging role and need for accountability in the technology industry. CRO's are responsible for managing the growth, cost and integration of robotics in business where robots overlap with human operators.

Nobile said the robotics industry is at a critical juncture of growth, and the CRO position is one response to that growth. "Robotics are part of a lot in different businesses, so how do people prepare themselves for the introduction of robots?"  She said that the CRO gives businesses ideas of how to start introducing the newest technologies and different business models so people are up-to-date with what is next in robotics.

Along with the new summit, participants can anticipate a wealth of talks tackling a variety of topics on the spectrum of robotics and technology. Keynote speeches include a conversation on cloud robotics with James Kuffner, CTO of the Toyota Research Institute, who will discuss robot intelligence based on search, machine learning and more. And Will Allen, an inventor and innovator for HP, will discuss the normalization of robots in the home and workplace.

The RoboBusiness Conference & Expo is scheduled for Sept. 28-29 at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center.

Source: RoboBusiness Conference Explores the Future of Flying Cars

Uber Might Make Those Flying Cars We Think We’re Entitled To

The phrase "Where's my flying car" has turned into an ironic call for the retrofuture that has never happened: In the 1950s and 1960s, fresh off the ground-breaking invention of nuclear power, the western world envisioned a future full of sleek white buildings, gyroscopic robots, and, of course, flying cars. Think the Jetsons combined with Apple's minimal style.

But then that never happened. 2015, the setting of Back to the Future II and its famous flying cars, has come and gone with barely even a functioning hoverboard. But don't despair! Uber can finally get us those flying cars we think are so special.

Uber has revealed that it is looking into tech that would allow it to create automated drone taxis. Like self-driving cars, the self-driving drones could ferry customers who call them in the Uber app. Unlike cars, the drones can travel as the crow flies: In a straight, mid-air route.

How It Works

The news comes from Jeff Holden, Uber's head of product, who recently told Recode that the ride-share company is already researching "vertical take off and landing" (VTOL) technology. This craft would feature fixed wings in addition to the ability to take off and land vertically rather than on lengthy runway.

From Recode:

"Holden said that he has been researching the area, 'so we can someday offer our customers as many options as possible to move around." He added that "doing it in a three-dimensional way is an obvious thing to look at.'

Holden said in the interview that such technology could be in use within a decade, which is an aggressive prediction, given the issues around the complexity of movement in the air above densely populated areas. (Also, you know, the possibility of these VTOL vehicles crashing into each other.)"

Why It's Cool

Uber isn't the only competitor in the "flying cars" category, as the Telegraph explains:

"Earlier this year Ehang, a Chinese company, unveiled the 184, an autonomous quadcopter drone designed to carry a single passenger, with a battery life of 23 minutes. The 184, which has been slated for release as early as this year, is expected to cost up to $300,000 (£232,000).

Google founder Larry Page is one of the major believers in flying cars, putting $100m of his own money into startups developing the technology."

There's a reason flying cars haven't been invented yet: Traffic regulations are already tough, and we have plenty of crashes. Now imagine if the traffic could flow up and down as well as right and left. What would a three dimensional traffic stop even look like? Could people learn how it worked? Clearly, the self-driving aspect of a flying drone taxi is pretty essential.

Image: Flickr / Vince Smith

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Source: Uber Might Make Those Flying Cars We Think We're Entitled To

Flying cars? Uber's working on it

And you thought driverless cars were the future?

Not content with being one of the first companies to get the autonomous technology on to real-life roads, Uber's not stopping there and is already planning ahead for what the next big thing might be after that.

The billion-dollar startup has revealed it's looking at technology which could produce vertical take off and landing - yep, basically a flying car.

Read more: The world's first driverless taxis have hit the road (beating Uber)

Uber's head of product Jeff Holden told a conference audience it wants to "some day offer customers as many options as possible to move around" and that it was "an obvious thing to do".

It may sound out of this world, but Holden is confident this kind of invention is only a decade away. He said he believes VTOL (that's Vertical Take Off and Landing) is no flight of fancy, but another way of achieving Uber's mission in life - doing away with the concept of owning your own car.

Already in prototype phase is a Jetson's style drone for carrying people being developed by Chinese company Ehang and being tested in Las Vegas, so the technology, known as VTOL is perhaps not quite as "out there" as you might think. Other companies working on turning science fiction into science fact include startups Terrafugia and Aeromobil.

Read more: The Jetsons' flying car just came a step closer to reality

Aeromobil's prototype flying car Terrafugia's concept flying car
Source: Flying cars? Uber's working on it

How to Turn an Old Smartphone Into a Dash Cam for Your Car

There's no doubt that a dash cam can really come in handy in your car–not just to record meteors and flying cars, but more practical events like collisions and aggressive driving. But instead of buying one, you can just use equipment you already have and a freely available app.

By now, everyone probably has an old smartphone stashed away in a desk drawer. Wouldn't it be nice if you could put that device to good use? Today we're going to talk about how to set up and use your old smartphone as a dash cam, not only saving you money, but giving you a cool project to boot.

How to Set Up the Hardware

Aside from your old smartphone, you will need a charging cable long enough to reach the power outlet in your vehicle, as well as a dashboard or window mount. This setup works the same as it did when we showed you how to create time lapse driving videos using your iPhone.

The cable shouldn't be difficult to come by, since most people have one or two spare ones lying around. The mount is easily bought from any electronics store or Amazon, which carries an abundance for around $20-$25.

In our time lapse article, however, we made no bones about using your current smartphone to do this. When performing the dash cam arrangement, it is best if you have a device that you won't need to take off the mount or otherwise use to call, text, or play music. (Though if you do, be sure to pull over first.)

Once you've gathered the necessities, place your mount on the dashboard or windshield in such a way that it captures the best view of the road ahead.

You want to mount your smartphone-turned-dash-cam in such a way that it is pointed down the middle of the hood and records equal parts of the car's right and left sides.

You may not be able to capture as much of the road (150 degrees or more) as many dedicated dash cams, so simply do your best to ensure you're getting as much as possible.

Make sure the phone is plugged in at all times. You don't want to run out of battery at some critical moment, plus most older devices have batteries that have begun to decline and therefore don't last as long as newer ones.

Finally, once mounted, make sure the device is secure and tightened down. It might shift while you're in motion, so check it occasionally and adjust it (after stopping the car or volunteering a passenger) so that it's always pointed in the right place.

What to Look for in a Dash Cam App

When it comes to the software, you have a lot of options. These so-called blackbox apps come with a long list of features, but we need something that records continuously, tracks our location and estimated speed, date, time, and adjustable video quality.

This last bit is important because any dash cam, whether it's a smartphone or a dedicated dash cam device, you need to know that you won't run out of memory and not be able to record anymore. Unless your old smartphone has heaps of extra storage space, lowering the video quality can help you get a lot more recording time.

On the other hand, too low of video quality might give you unusable results, so it's a matter of finding a happy medium. Changing the recording time can help with this problem. If your device has a smallish capacity, then you can keep the recording time low and simply loop over the previous recording each time.

Don't forget also that this is a smartphone we're talking about, so if you're short on storage space, you can always delete apps, photos, and other stuff, or just reset it to factory condition (or get a bigger SD card, if your phone supports it.) Whatever the case, you have options, especially if your device will allow you to expand the storage.

That said, we have a few recommendations of our own, but feel free to look around if these don't work for you.

For Android: AutoBoy Dash Cam – Blackbox

If you have an old Android smartphone you're no longer using, we recommend using something like Autoboy Dash Cam – Blackbox or Autoguard Dash Cam – Blackbox. Unsurprisingly, there are quite a few dash cam apps in the Play Store, but these two are free and among the most highly rated.

AutoBoy has a clean, smart interface and it's very easy to use. Let's have a look at just some of the many settings. Under the General settings, you'll be able to turn on the shock sensor, which will measure the impact of a collision, and change the unit settings from kilometers per hour to miles.

Another unique feature is emergency auto dial, which will dial an emergency contact number (for example: 911).

Checking out the recording settings, you can adjust the recording time and maximum storage allotment, which is 10GB by default.

Another important setting you might want to consider is video quality. The lower the quality, the more recordings you can fit into your storage allotment.

We could go on and on about the settings, as there are quite a few but if you decide to use AutoBoy Dash Cam, feel free to peruse them yourself.

For iPhone: DashCam

If you're using an old iPhone, then the choice is simple: DashCam. DashCam includes all the necessary features we need, including–but not limited to–speed, location, and loop recording.

DashCam is among a selection of several other viable choices in the App Store, but it's the only one that appears to have any ratings behind it and it's most recent version has garnered highly favorable reviews.

DashCam is really simple to use, while also being very powerful. The settings aren't exactly voluminous, but there are some very essential things you should know about. For one, DashCam has loop recording option, which will keep recording over previously recorded video. That is, unless you have auto save enabled–in which case, loop recordings will automatically saved.

Note, you can also switch between high and low video resolution. Remember, you will get more recordings the lower the resolution.

Be sure to scroll through the rest of the settings and adjust anything that applies to you.

Whether using an Android device or iPhone, what you use for your dash cam software is completely up to you. You're encouraged to experiment with several apps and decide which one works best.

The Downside: Heat and Thieves

While using your old smartphone as a dash cam is easy and frugal, there are downsides. The one that ranks above them all is heat.

Leaving a relatively delicate electronic device in a locked car can mean a quick death for it. Many modern higher-end dedicated dash cams come with better heat resistance to mitigate this problem. If you decide to go the smartphone route, then your only real solution is to take your dash cam smartphone with you when you leave the car unattended for long periods.

Taking your newly repurposed smartphone with you may seem a pain, but it beats having your car broken into by thieves looking to score. It's one thing to forget your device on the car seat or center console, where it might be missed by someone casually casing a parking lot, but it's quite another to leave it hanging off your dash mount in plain view.

Again, many dedicated dash cam devices are made to fit discretely on your dash and thus circumvent this problem, so that's another thing to consider.

That said, if you're not budgeted for an actual dash cam, you simply want to experiment, or you're just keen on this kind of project, then your old unused smartphone could finally have a new lease on life.

Source: How to Turn an Old Smartphone Into a Dash Cam for Your Car

Tourist Flying Car Simulation

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Source: Tourist Flying Car Simulation

The 5 Best (and Worst) Autonomous Cars in All of Sci-Fi

As the United States federal government issues comprehensive regulations regarding self-driving cars and Elon Musk's Tesla refutes hacker claims over alleged car takeovers, there's just one question on everyone's lips: How soon before autonomous cars take over the world?

Science fiction loves a good robots-gone-bad story, but what about automobiles imbued with artificial intelligence? In his book Pale Blue Dot, Carl Sagan asserts that a totally hypothetical alien, observing Earth from a great distance would assume the self-sufficient cars were the dominant form of life on our planet because the "streets of the cities and the roadways of the countryside are evidently built for [the cars'] benefit." Still, there isn't a huge amount of science fiction history dealing with self-driving cars, probably because future forms of conveyances depicted in science fiction have overwhelming focused on other kinds of vehicles like jetpacks, rocketships, flying cars, hoverboards, etc.

Still, the autonomous and occasionally, sentient, self-driving car story certainly has its place in both literary science fiction and pop sci-fi, too. If we leave out totally ridiculous cars like Herbie the Love Bug or Ian Fleming's magical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, what we are left with is five of the best and most feared self-driving sci-fi cars of all time.

KITT from Knight Rider

You knew this one was coming. The popular 1982 TV series Knight Rider ostensibly starred David Hasselhoff as do-gooder and hairy-chest-baring badass, Michael Knight. But, the true star of Knight Rider was obviously KITT — Knight Industries Two Thousand — a fully sentient A.I. controlling the operations of a 1982 Pontiac Trans Am. In addition to a sweet turbo-boost mode, KITT was obviously capable of driving himself without Hasselhoff's Michael Knight behind the wheel. Metaphorically and psychology, KITT sort of represents our fear of the self-driving car. In terms of the big stuff, KITT could have gotten the job done without Michael Knight, but everyone felt more comfortable with Michael and his liberally unbuttoned shirts at least being in the car. KITT didn't need a driver, but because of our paranoia, he had one anyway.

Notably, the telltale back-and-worth red light on the front of KITT comes from another sci-fi robot: the Cylons from the original 1978 Battlestar Galactica. Both the Cylons and KITT were designed by famous TV producer Glen A. Larson. Battlestar even had a proto-KITT in the form of CORA, an onboard A.I. who flies Starbuck's space fighter for him in the episode "The Long Patrol."

An illustration for the 1964 GM World's Fair which Asimov commented on in non-fiction

Isaac Asimov's "Sally"

The grandpa of science fiction robot stories is easily Isaac Asimov. And while Asimov wrote a considerable amount of non-fiction in which he predicted the coming of autonomous cars, he also penned one excellent fictional short story on the subject. In the future of "Sally," the only kinds of cars allowed on the road are the self-driving variety. The story depicts several cars briefly turning against human beings by surrounding a bus. The titular car, Sally, isn't viewed with scorn by the human characters, though the reader is given a general sense of unease about this development in human history.

Though this story takes place in Asimov's conception of 2057, it isn't implicitly connected to his other robot stories because nothing about the "three laws of robotics" are actually mentioned. Like Asimov's other robots (and Data from Star Trek) Sally the car has a "positronic brain," but the safety rules governing these artificial brains from Asimov's other stories don't seem to be present.

Hot Rod in the original  1986 'Transformers: The Movie'

All of the Autobots in Transformers

When the Transformers instituted themselves into popular culture in 1984, the catchphrase of the heroic Autobot leader Optimus Prime was "Transform and Roll Out!" We might think of the Transformers for their ability to become walking robots, but the biggest appeal most of them have — at least the Autobots, anyway — is their self-driving capability. In fact, in the initial episodes of the first Transformers cartoon, the virtuous Autobots turned into cars only, whereas the dastardly Decepticons transformed exclusively into vehicles and objects mostly know for their weaponization.

There's something of exceedingly naive car-crazy Americanism here: The most heroic and noble of all the self-driving cars was a giant Mack Truck. And in 1986, when Optimus Prime was replaced with a new leader in Transformers: The Movie, guess what he was called? Hot Rod.

Quaid in the back of the infamous Johnny Cab in 'Total Recall'

A lot of Cars in Philip K. Dick Stories, Novels and Films

We all know Kanye West posted a still photo from Total Recall when he joined Instagram, and he probably did it to comment on all the self-driving cars in the news. The self-driving Johnny Cabs in Total Recall have disastrous results for Arnold Schwarzenegger's Quaid in that film. Meanwhile, in Minority Report, John Anderton (Tom Cruise) gets taken for a similar nearly-fatal joyride ride at the behest of an autonomous car.

Both Total Recall and Minority Report are based on short stories by Philip K. Dick, an author not shy about his extreme paranoia about both government regulations and technology.

Any of the "Possessed" Automobiles in Maximum Overdrive

Sure, you probably love the haunted car horror-flick Christine, but what about the Stephen King written-and-directed film Maximum Overdrive? Sentient cars hell-bent on humanity's destruction occupies the majority of this narrative, but unlike King's supernatural novel Christine, you can count Maximum Overdrive as science fiction. Supernatural forces are not to blame for these cars becoming self-aware. The tail of a comet passing close to Earth, and the existence of an alien UFO in the epilogue, are asserted as the "reason" why these vehicles turned deadly.

Presciently, Stephen King would briefly retire from writing after being in a car accident, and would then write a novel about another mysterious ghost car titled From a Buick 8. Now, the only question that remains is how long before King writes yet another car-themed horror story based on Tesla.

Source: The 5 Best (and Worst) Autonomous Cars in All of Sci-Fi

DARPA's 'Aerial Dragnet' will monitor drones in cities

While air traffic control systems track, guide and monitor thousands of planes and helicopters every day, one group of sky flyers remains unmonitored: drones.

In recent years, small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), such as commercial quadcopters and hobby drones, have become less expensive and easier to fly — adding traffic to airspace that's already congested. Drones are also more adaptable for terrorist or military purposes, and because they are currently flying unmonitored, U.S. forces want to be able to quickly detect and identify UAVs, especially in urban areas.

A new project launched by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Pentagon's research arm, wants to map all small drone activity in urban settings. Managers of the Aerial Dragnet program are soliciting proposals to help the military provide continuous surveillance of drones on a city-wide scale. [Humanoid Robots to Flying Cars: 10 Coolest DARPA Technologies]

"Commercial websites currently exist that display in real time the tracks of relatively high and fast aircraft — from small general aviation planes to large airliners — all overlaid on geographical maps as they fly around the country and the world," DARPA program manager Jeff Krolik said in a statement. "We want a similar capability for identifying and tracking slower, low-flying unmanned aerial systems, particularly in urban environments."

Aerial Dragnet will initially focus on protecting military troops who are operating in urban settings overseas. However, DARPA said that the system could be applied stateside to help protect civilians in U.S. metropolitan areas from drone terrorist threats.

While there are UAV tracking systems in development, these surveillance methods are focused on open areas. Urban areas present a particular challenge for monitoring small drones and other UAVs, because sight lines are very limited, according to DARPA officials.

DARPA therefore envisions "a network of surveillance nodes" for Aerial Dragnet that uses sensor technologies that can look over and between buildings, tracking drones and UAVs even when the robotic flyers disappear from sight. This network could be mounted on long-endurance UAVs, resulting in a super drone network to monitor other drones — as an artist's concept shows.

The agency is hosting a Proposers Day on Sept. 26 for new technologies for the Aerial Dragnet program.

Copyright 2016 LiveScience, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: DARPA's 'Aerial Dragnet' will monitor drones in cities

Goodbye Hot Rods, Hello Mobility Pods

Illustration by Christopher Delorenzo

Created with Sketch.

By Bradley Berman

Sep 20, 2016

Let's face it: nobody knows what the car of the future will look like. Despite designers producing nearly a century's worth of wonderful concepts for sleek sci-fi roadsters, personal people-movers and low-orbiting flying cars, the forecast for what we might actually be driving/riding remains murky.

The free rein we've enjoyed to fantasize about a brighter transportation future was granted because we lacked the necessary technological clues about how cars will really function in coming decades. Well folks, get ready: autonomous cars are almost here.

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Some assisted driving functions—like keeping steady in the middle of our lane, slowing down for traffic ahead, or parallel-parking—are already being offered in a range of affordable cars. The expected big breakthrough in the form of completely autonomous driverless cars is expected in the early 2020s, signaling the biggest transformation in vehicle design since the demise of the horse and buggy.

Size Will Still Matter

Geoff Wardle, executive director of graduate transportation systems and design at the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, Calif., is responsible for preparing the next generation of car designers for that cataclysmic change. "The purview of our students will be much wider than stylizing cars," he said. "They will need deep insights into customer psychology, human factors, interaction design, user experience as well as the business and politics of the future mobility industry." That sounds a lot more complicated than designing hot rods.

Nobody wants a 600-horsepower autonomous car

Nope, sleek sports cars with leather-clad steering wheels and rumbling engine notes will not completely go away in the self-driving age. But they will be reserved for a dwindling group of auto enthusiasts. "Nobody wants a 600-horsepower autonomous car," said David Muyres, executive director for advanced products at Shanghai-based Yanfeng Automotive Interiors, the world's largest supplier of automotive interiors. "You would freak out." In an autonomous car, passengers will want a silky smooth ride, to avoid motion sickness and conserve energy (in what will very likely be a battery-electric vehicle).

Sharing is Caring

Perhaps more importantly for future car design, the rollout of self-driving cars is expected to trigger a massive shift to a subscriber-based model for car usage. Think Uber minus the drivers.

Rather than being saddled with a single privately owned vehicle that needs to serve all our various transportation requirements, we might summons the exact type of single-function vehicle we need for a specific trip. As a result, Wardle believes there won't be a single monolithic shape for tomorrow self-driving cars, but rather "a plethora of vehicle architectures and shapes not seen before."

Certainly nobody had seen anything like the Mercedes-Benz F 015 self-driving concept vehicle, when it was unveiled at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. It's the company's vision for autonomous cars in 2035. "Our focus was to provide the maximum possible space for passengers, so we created an unusually long wheelbase in combination with very short overhangs," said Gorden Wagener, head of design at Daimler AG.

The F 015 is like a lounge on wheels, perfect for socializing with friends as you move towards your destination. What if you're commuting to work by yourself? Take a single-seat mobility machine. Going to Costco? Call up a micro-cargo-van. Taking the family out to dinner? Click an app for a six-seat infotainment-oriented passenger van. Similarly, you'll be able to choose the brand of shared self-driving service that matches your desired experience or lifestyle aspirations. "If status is not very important to you, you'll summons a simple appliance," said Muyres. "If you care about how you arrive, the badge on the hood and leather inside, then you'll ask for that experience."

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Source: Goodbye Hot Rods, Hello Mobility Pods

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Source: Flying Car Stunts 2016

Top 10 car technologies you’ll see in the next decade

While flying cars are still the realm of Jetsons cartoons, the car of the future is just around the corner and will feature a range of new technologies to make driving safer, simpler and more efficient.

Don't just think self-driving cars, because these cars will be able to do a lot more than just drive for you, as demonstrated by Audi's most recent connectivity workshop, where the German car-maker showed a number of new technologies that will one day allow cars to think for us, although not all of them will be initially available in Australia.

Here are 10 things that you're likely to see on mainstream cars within the next decade.

Personal AssistantBefore you even leave the house your car will be monitoring traffic and weather conditions and will let you know if you need to plan to leave earlier.

Pre-heat/pre-coolAlready a feature on some electric cars, your car will heat or cool itself from the grid before you're ready to leave, ensuring there's plenty of charge in the vehicle battery. You'll be able to engage the function from an app on your phone without the tedium of having to go into the garage yourself to switch it on.

Personal Route AssistCurrently available on vehicles including the Audi Q7, A4 and A5, your car's navigation system will learn your preferred route to frequent destinations and will make suggestions for the next trip, choosing from the three most likely destinations and picking the optimum route to avoid traffic.

Parking MonitorYour car learns where you prefer to park, and once your destination is confirmed, it will calculate the probability that you'll find a park in your favourite area.

Auto parkingOnce you're arrive at your destination, your car will drive itself to an available car parking place and message you on your smartphone to let you know its location.

Road Sign & Object RecognitionAs car manufacturers prepare for the introduction of fully autonomous cars, they're teaching cars to be able to read and recognise road signs so they can react accordingly.

Cars will recognise speed limits and signs so that they will be able to drive themselves. In semi-autonomous modes, ie where the driver is still doing the actual driving, the car will be able to take evasive action if it senses no braking when approaching a stop sign.

Car-to-car communicationCars will be equipped with multiple sensors to monitor thousands of points of data which are shared to the cloud and, in turn, passed to vehicles in close proximity. This might include information on upcoming road works, weather conditions, free car parks and changed speed limits.

Traffic Jam AssistWhile traffic jam assist already exists on some vehicles, allowing the car to manage its own acceleration and braking within slow moving traffic, the next generation of car-to-car communication will see cars manage themselves in convoy.

They'll use existing technologies such as adaptive cruise control and the data they've gathered from other vehicles to determine the optimum driving speed and distance to travel together in a pack on motorways in the most efficient way.

Accident alertIn the event that you are involved in an accident, your vehicle will alert emergency assistance teams and advise of your location. While this is a feature on a few cars already in Australia, the technology will extend to your car also advising other vehicles in close proximity that it is causing a hazard, allowing them to change course and avoid the situation.

Driving Style AssistantYour car will learn your driving style and will be able to set its driver assistance technologies to offset your style. If it senses you have a tendency to travel close to vehicles in front of you, it may prime its autonomous emergency braking system earlier, to avoid risk of potential collisions.

Source: Top 10 car technologies you'll see in the next decade

Road smash sends men flying into ditch on State Highway 2

Fortunately, the two men landed on grass as the situation had the potential to be much more serious.

Two men went from working under a bonnet of a broken down car to flying through the air and landing in a nearby ditch after being hit by another car.

A driver pulled over on State Highway 2, near Waitakaruru, at 4am on Monday due to mechanical issues, Senior Sergeant Robbie Hermann, of Waikato police said.

The driver of a second car pulled over to lend a hand.

Both drivers were at work under the bonnet when a third car swung around the corner.

READ MORE:* Fatal crash on Hauraki Plains* Man dies after changing tyre

It appears the driver didn't see the men or the cars on the side of the road and hit at least one car, Hermann said.

That caused the two men to go flying into a nearby ditch.

"Thankfully they landed on grass or the situation could have been a lot worse."

One man was taken to hospital with moderate injuries, another was treated at the scene for some cuts.

The driver of the third car was uninjured.

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"It was lucky the cars impacted the way they did, and something more serious didn't happen," Hermann said.

He was not sure how all the cars were placed at the time of the incident.

Hermann said the patch of road had a reputation for serious and fatal crashes, and the circumstances could have led to a much more sinister outcome.

"It could have been like the incident in Tauranga a couple of months ago."

In that July incident, Kenny McCrae, 52, was killed when he was hit by a car as he helped change a tyre on a friend's SUV on SH29A

 - Stuff

Source: Road smash sends men flying into ditch on State Highway 2

Google car project loses leaders -- and advantage -- as rivals gain

Chris Urmson, the mild-mannered robotics expert who ran Google's self-driving car project, used to say that when his son reached driving age in 2019 the technology would be available so the teenager wouldn't have to take a driving test.

In August, less than a year after auto industry veteran John Krafcik took the helm of the project, Urmson left with much work remaining: Google has yet to launch an autonomous vehicle service for the public.

Other top technologists have also departed and progress has been slow. Once considered a leader in the field, Google has lost its first-mover advantage to other companies pursuing more practical, less-ambitious self-driving car services, said former members of the project and other people familiar with the situation. They asked not to be identified because details of the effort are private.

"They need a partner, a sales force, a strategy," said Roger Lanctot, associate director of Strategy Analytics' Global Automotive Practice.

Google's project started in 2009, long before carmakers and most other companies seriously considered the technology. But when Singapore unveiled the first autonomous taxi service in August, Google wasn't involved. Instead, a small startup called nuTonomy provided the technology. Uber Technologies Inc., founded in 2009, will soon let users of its popular ride-sharing app hail autonomous Volvo SUVs in Pittsburgh.

Google has driven more than 1.8 million miles in tests on public roads in a bid to perfect its software to handle difficult situations, such as driving in snow. Tesla Motors already offers partially autonomous features in more than 70,000 of its electric cars, and Otto, a startup run by former Google car project members, is developing a self-driving system for trucks on highways, an easier technological challenge than the one Google faces. Uber acquired Otto in July.

"Google still has an imperfect system and no clear path to go to market," said Ajay Juneja, chief executive officer of Speak With Me Inc., which offers voice recognition and related technology for cars, watches and other connected devices. "How exactly would they have shipped something by now?"

This is part of a broader challenge Google parent Alphabet Inc. faces turning research projects into profitable businesses. The company is more cautious about rolling out new technology early, after its Glass internet-connected eye wear flopped, according to one of the people. There's also a higher bar now for projects as Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat has said she requires clearer paths to profitability before approving more funding or expansion.

Possibly the biggest drag on program is the sheer scope of Google's ambitions. Its aim is to revolutionize transportation through full autonomy. The software must be trained thoroughly to handle all eventualities. Meanwhile, there are already methods to make self-driving cars good, rather than perfect. That has helped companies including Uber, Daimler's Mercedes-Benz, Tesla and Volvo Car Group catch up with Google, Juneja said.

Uber's service, which is tied to the smartphones of drivers and passengers, can generate a lot more driving data, an essential ingredient to quickly train the artificial intelligence software needed to guide self-driving vehicles, Morgan Stanley analysts said in a recent research note.

"Uber logs as many miles in 24 minutes as Google's autonomous cars have logged in their existence," they wrote. "While none of these miles are fully autonomous today, we just point out the scale of experience that can accelerate the development of the AI, mapping and learning for autonomous cars."

Tesla, with thousands of internet-connected cars on the road, has a similar data advantage, one former member of the Google car project said.

The two main ways for Google to commercialize the technology are by including Chauffeur, the name for its self-driving software, in cars made in high volume by existing auto manufacturers, or through a popular ride-sharing service that could slowly replace a human-driven fleet with automated vehicles, industry experts said.

Google has neither of these yet. It struck a deal in May with Fiat Chrysler, but only to put its software in 100 minivans. Talks with other car companies, such as Ford, have yet to produce high-volume deals. And many car companies are pursuing their own self-driving strategies. General Motors bought self-driving software startup Cruise Automation in March and invested $500 million in ride-sharing service Lyft Inc., gaining two important ingredients for an autonomous vehicle service.

A Google unit invested in Uber in 2013, sparking speculation Google's self-driving software would automate Uber rides. But Uber is building its own autonomous technology now. Google is planning to expand a ride-sharing service built around its Waze navigation app, however that will only be in San Francisco later this year, while Uber and Lyft cover most major U.S. cities.

"I think they'd rather enable than do," Lanctot, of Strategy Analytics, said. "As enabler, they can work with all, rather than become a competitive target."

Slow progress caused frustration among some members of the Google car project, and that's been exacerbated by early momentum of rivals that entered the race later, according to former members of the team and a person familiar with the situation.

The team knew what it would take to deliver a fully-autonomous system, known in the industry as L4, but some Google executives didn't understand the complexity, according to one former member of the project. The person left to help run an active business with paying customers, something that's missing from the car project. A Google spokesman declined to comment for this story.

Several years ago, some on the team wanted to push ahead with a service that didn't require full automation, but Google co-founder Larry Page insisted on complete human driver replacement, another person said.

Sebastian Thrun, the first head of the Google car project, left in 2014 to focus on his online education startup Udacity Inc. and develop flying cars with Page.

In early 2016, Anthony Levandowski, one of the original engineers on the project, co-founded Otto. He started the company with Don Burnette, who wrote software for Google's self-driving car, Google robotics expert Claire Delaunay and Lior Ron, who worked on Google Maps and Android smartphones.

Otto's goal is to "speed the adoption of self-driving technology," according to its website. Levandowski told The Wall Street Journal in May that it's easier to prove Otto's technology is better than humans on highways, where the tasks of driving are fairly straightforward, than in cities, which generate more complex driving situations. Levandowski declined to comment on why he left Google's project.

When Urmson left in August, other project veterans Jiajun Zhu and Dave Ferguson also departed.

One former member said the project is suffering from a "seven-year itch" as staff look for new challenges. Googlers like to see technology they work on influence as many people as possible, so it's been difficult to see the steady drumbeat of rival autonomous vehicle announcements while Google's project slogs through testing, this person said.

The New York Times reported Urmson was unhappy with the direction of the project under new CEO Krafcik and that he quarreled with Page about it. Urmson told Bloomberg he wasn't frustrated with progress, but declined to say why he was unhappy. "I'm not willing to get into it," he wrote in a text message, adding that he's "extremely proud of both the team and of the work."

Zhu said he and Ferguson left to put together a startup in artificial intelligence and robotics. "I joined the project 7.5 years ago when we were just a handful of engineers and look at where the whole industry is today," he wrote in an email. "It would have been much harder to leave if we weren't so confident in the strength of the team at Google."

Another person familiar with the car project said Google still has the most experience in the field, and its technology is still the most advanced, despite the company's reluctance to use that advantage for practical routes to commercializing the technology, such as Otto's truck automation.

Still, rolling out partial autonomous technology can be risky. Tesla's driver-assistance features, known as Autopilot, have been in the spotlight since a fatal crash in May.

In 2012, Google let employees test a similar system for automated highway driving and discovered the attention of the human drivers quickly drifted, leaving them incapable of taking back control quickly and safely. That persuaded the company to pursue full autonomy, even if it took longer.

"Full autonomy, although much harder, is the right route," Krafcik said in a recent interview with Bloomberg Businessweek.

Google hasn't decided on a business model yet, Krafcik said in the July 18 interview. "Serious snow testing" is still to come, while it could be 20 to 25 years before most trips in cities will be provided by autonomous vehicles, he added.

That's a stark contrast to Urmson's oft-quoted prediction about his son's driving test. During a recent text message exchange, he declined to say whether he's sticking with that forecast.

"It's been a long time and it's time to see what else is out there," he said after news of his departure broke. One thing he did confirm: He has no plans to join Uber.

---

Alex Webb and Keith Naughton continued.

Source: Google car project loses leaders -- and advantage -- as rivals gain

2017 Chevrolet Volt rated 'Top Safety Pick+' by IIHS

Over the past few years, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has made its ratings process more challenging for automakers. However, the 2017 Chevrolet Volt has passed its IIHS tests with flying colors, nabbing the highly coveted rank of "Top Safety Pick+".

To earn that, the 2017 Volt had to perform well on the organization's traditional side, moderate overlap front, roof strength, and head restraint tests, as well as new tests for small overlap front and front crash prevention. It also had to have headlights rated as good or acceptable.

On the IIHS' side, moderate overlap front, roof strength, and head restraint tests, the Volt earned solid "good" ratings. It also earned a "good" on the more challenging small overlap front test--an improvement from the previous generation Volt, which earned an "acceptable" rating. (You can see the 2017 Volt taking the small overlap front test in the video clip above.) 

The Chevy Volt also has front crash prevention (including two automated braking systems), making it possible for the car to earn the IIHS' "+" rating. On front crash prevention tests, the IIHS says that the Volt completely avoided a collision at 12 mph, and its speed at impact was cut by 5 mph in the organization's 25 mph test. All in all, the Volt earned a superior rating on front crash prevention. 

As for headlights, the Volt's standard lights earned an "acceptable" rating from the IIHS. With the optional high beam assist--which detects the presence of other vehicles and switches from high to low beams automatically--the Volt's headlight rating rose to "good".

The Volt is a plug-in hybrid vehicle that can travel 53 miles on a single charge before its gasoline system kicks in. It's the first in a series of electric and plug-in hybrids that were recently tested by the IIHS. Others scores will be published soon. 

Source: 2017 Chevrolet Volt rated 'Top Safety Pick+' by IIHS

1970's hovercraft cars, now Flying cars

Flying farm vehicles?

In the early 1970's hovercraft cars were the 'future' rage – deal with the bumper to bumper traffic, beat the rush .... and today, it's flying cars according to a recent news report.

Growing up as with most children, part of the reading material were wonderful stories of the magic carpet and how one could sit and he whisked away to a far away place without a single hair being out of place!

Then as a young man in the '70s this had progressed to hovercraft cars as at that time these remarkable hovercraft machines could skid across waterways and mangroves, with the next obvious traffic solution, city congestion.

The imagery was graphic. The presentations full of adventure, excitement and progress, being on the cusp of a new age in personalised travel. No longer one needed to get in the family car, rather it was the hovercraft. Kids belted up, mum's hat tied down and dad the adventure pilot come driver.

The motion video presentations were dramatic. Hovercraft fan blades below and behind – the uplift perfectly balanced – the reverse and forward leavers easy to function for smooth manoeuvrings – and off you'd all go with a frightful breezy noise!

And that was only the beginning. Imagine taxi services, all lined up, the one in front blowing the one behind it off its mooring and so on down the line. Then the light van and tradies hovercrafts – these were something else. In typical form, rushing hither and thither from one 'fix-it' job to another. Gardens pulverized with every visit. Then the semi-trailers were something else, the rear wagon weaving about in the wind, exciting what!

Surprise surprise, the outcomes didn't quite measure up to the literature and promotions. A very good idea yet difficult to implement.

Flying tractors boat hauling doubtful?

Now Flying Cars

Quoting directly from the above article -

To combat traffic problems across the globe as a result of increasing urbanisation in megacities, Airbus has wild plan. "Techies in Silicon Valley invent hi-tech products every day. However, they still do not have a solution for one of their biggest problems: rush hour," Airbus wrote on its website.

"In response, Airbus Group experts are looking skywards to develop radical concepts that will relieve urban congestion." The aircraft manufacturer said it had experts pursuing a project, known as vahana, to develop autonomous flying vehicles. Project executive Rodin Lyasoff said the company hopes to test the first vehicle prototype by the end of 2017.

"Many of the technologies needed, such as batteries, motors and avionics are most of the way there," he said. "[Adding sense-and-avoid technology is] one of the bigger challenges we aim to resolve as early as possible."

There we are – and further

Airbus chief executive Tom Enders said a network of flying taxis might sound like science fiction, but he strongly believed the vision was already taking shape. "I'm no big fan of Star Wars, but it's not crazy to imagine that one day our big cities will have flying cars making their way along roads in the sky," he said. "In a not too distant future, we'll use our smartphones to book a fully automated flying taxi that will land outside our front door — without any pilot."

Flying heavy machinery ?

Church car park - landing strips

Imagine Hillsong with its 17,000 worshippers. Forget the sermon, the car park attendants like aircraft marshals would be waving their flight sticks about, waving each flying car to a stand still. Like the recent driver-less car initiations, flying cars would be something else.

Now focus on the after church routine. The Hillsong air traffic controller would have his hands full after the church service. 1000 flying cars an hour. One might be around for quite a while if you were the the 17,000th flying car. Sounds like a bit of a long wait, 17 hours. The classic late lunch.

Be that as it may, big time I'm in - I think I could handle a flying car.

Scenario 1 - Computer engaged with GPS from Tweed Heads to Melbourne. "Flying Car 1743 to Control – destination digitally logged – flight path received". Response - "Flying Car 1743 free to proceed."

Scenario 2 – Computer engaged with GPS to Shopping Centre. "Flying Car 1743 to Control – destination digitally logged – flight path received". "Response - "Flying Car 1743 – proceed to shopping centre parking lot No 147" (displayed on GPS).

But how would the bad guys get on, police chasers and the like. What about minister pastoral visits, first house 1 Bay Street – set computer; second home visit 2 blocks further on, re-set computer; Buck Rogers eat your heart out! Hold on – doesn't The Revelation talks about this stuff ???

Flying school bus?

Dr Mark Tronson is a Baptist minister (retired) who served as the Australian cricket team chaplain for 17 years (2000 ret) and established Life After Cricket in 2001. He was recognised by the Olympic Ministry Medal in 2009 presented by Carl Lewis Olympian of the Century. He mentors young writers and has written 24 books, and enjoys writing. He is married to Delma, with four adult children and grand-children.

Mark Tronson's archive of articles can be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/mark-tronson.html

Source: 1970's hovercraft cars, now Flying cars

Car plows into police, sending officers flying , scrambling

By PAUL DAVENPORTAssociated Press

PHOENIX (AP) - Three Phoenix police officers, including a rookie on his first night on patrol, were on a routine patrol in front of a convenience store when they became the target of an unimaginable attack.

A red sedan barreled toward the officers across the parking lot, slamming into two of them and smashing into the front of the store. An officer who managed to evade the crash ran up to the car and pulled the driver out. A struggle ensued. The rookie officer, still reeling from a head injury after getting hit by the car, deployed a stun gun to disable the man so he could be arrested.

The attack Tuesday morning left authorities searching for answers about the driver's motivations and decrying it as an unprovoked assault on both police and public safety.

"I've never seen anything like that before," Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery said Wednesday. "When someone targets a police officer, it places the entire community at risk."

A judge ordered Marc LaQuon Payne jailed on multiple counts, including suspicion of attempted first-degree murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, criminal damage and resisting arrest.

Payne didn't have an attorney who could comment on the allegations when he appeared in court Tuesday night after being treated at a hospital.

Two officers suffered serious injuries, but one of them was released from the hospital. The rookie officer remained hospitalized Wednesday for treatment of a concussion.

Court documents released Wednesday describe Payne as a transient who was under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time.

An attached police probable-cause statement didn't say whether Payne told police anything after the incident, and police did not immediately respond to questions related to a possible motive and other aspects of the incident.

The attack came during an especially violent year for police officers nationwide, including separate deadly attacks in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Dallas over the summer.

Police Chief Joseph Yahner denounced the Tuesday morning incident as a "violent, intentional act" in which officers were targeted.

Phoenix police released a store surveillance video of the incident. It showed a vehicle backing out of a parking space, circling the parking lot and then accelerating toward the officers.

The video shows the rookie officer thrown several feet in the air and hitting the front windshield of the suspect's vehicle.

Deputy County Attorney April Sponsel said during the brief court hearing that Payne should be held without bond because he attacked the officers and posed a continuing threat to the public. He said the man needed to remain behind bars to protect the public and police "from individuals such as this, individuals who coldly attack officers."

Payne did not speak in court other than to give his name in a tired-sounding voice when asked by the judge.

He slouched forward during the beginning of the hearing, resting his head on his left forearm. The judge asked him to "stand up, please" at one point, and he did.

Court records indicate that Payne was placed on probation after pleading guilty in 1998 to aggravated assault in a 1992 incident.

A former public defender who represented Payne in that case said she didn't recall him or the case.

___

AP writers Josh Hoffner, Walter Berry and Terry Tang contributed to this report.

Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: Car plows into police, sending officers flying , scrambling

Wall Climbing RC Car Defies Gravity & The Wildest Dreams Of Our Childhoods

Home » Wall Climbing RC Car Defies Gravity & The Wildest Dreams Of Our Childhoods

We've always been impressed by the way radio-controlled cars mount even the very toughest terrain. It's a wonder, decades removed from our Tyco-fueled childhoods, that full-sized vehicles lack the suspension, traction, and maneuverability to scale steep, jagged rocks as swiftly and under-control as our favorite RC toys like the RC flying car.

The closest we've ever gotten has been the original Mako in the first "Mass Effect" and while that beast had some incredible grip, it simulated roughly the mobility of a drunken elephant.

That's why we salute the Wall Climbing RC Car from Hammacher Schlemmer: if the new Mako in "Mass Effect: Andromeda" still handles like an Abrams tank, we can point to this tangible toy based on actual U.S. reconnaissance camera vehicle engineering and say, "See this? Just make the Mako do this!"

No, seriously. The same general idea of a vacuum housed within this RC car's undercarriage that allows it to scale and adhere to walls, windows, and even ceilings has been utilized for years by our Armed Forces. Once attached, it can move forward, backward, left, and right as though it were cruising along the floor. The infrared remote control can maneuver it from up to 50 feet away. Its wall-scaling and ceiling-mounting abilities turn off with a flip of a switch located on the car to shift it into normal driving non-vertical or upside-down driving.

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Source: Wall Climbing RC Car Defies Gravity & The Wildest Dreams Of Our Childhoods

Google Car Project Loses Leaders, and Advantage, as Rivals Gain

Chris Urmson, the mild-mannered robotics expert who ran Google's self-driving car project, used to say that when his son reached driving age in 2019 the technology would be available so the teenager wouldn't have to take a driving test.

QuickTake Driverless Cars

In August, less than a year after auto industry veteran John Krafcik took the helm of the project, Urmson left with much work remaining: Google has yet to launch an autonomous vehicle service for the public.

Chris Urmson

Photographer: Drew Angerer/Bloomberg

Other top technologists have also departed and progress has been slow. Once considered a leader in the field, Google has lost its first-mover advantage to other companies pursuing more practical, less-ambitious self-driving car services, said former members of the project and other people familiar with the situation. They asked not to be identified because details of the effort are private.

"They need a partner, a sales force, a strategy," said Roger Lanctot, associate director of Strategy Analytics' Global Automotive Practice.

Google's project started in 2009, long before carmakers and most other companies seriously considered the technology. But when Singapore unveiled the first autonomous taxi service in August, Google wasn't involved. Instead, a small startup called nuTonomy provided the technology. Uber Technologies Inc., founded in 2009, will soon let users of its popular ride-sharing app hail autonomous Volvo SUVs in Pittsburgh.

Google has driven more than 1.8 million miles in tests on public roads in a bid to perfect its software to handle difficult situations, such as driving in snow. Tesla Motors Inc. already offers partially autonomous features in more than 70,000 of its electric cars, and Otto, a startup run by former Google car project members, is developing a self-driving system for trucks on highways, an easier technological challenge than the one Google faces. Uber acquired Otto in July.

"Google still has an imperfect system and no clear path to go to market," said Ajay Juneja, chief executive officer of Speak With Me Inc., which offers voice recognition and related technology for cars, watches and other connected devices. "How exactly would they have shipped something by now?"

Broader Challenge

This is part of a broader challenge Google parent Alphabet Inc. faces turning research projects into profitable businesses. The company is more cautious about rolling out new technology early, after its Glass internet-connected eyewear flopped, according to one of the people. There's also a higher bar now for projects as Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat has said she requires clearer paths to profitability before approving more funding or expansion.

Possibly the biggest drag on the program is the sheer scope of Google's ambitions. Its aim is to revolutionize transportation through full autonomy. The software must be trained thoroughly to handle all eventualities. Meanwhile, there are already methods to make self-driving cars good, rather than perfect. That has helped companies including Uber, Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz, Tesla and Volvo Car Group catch up with Google, Juneja said.

For more on autonomous cars: Bloomberg's QuickTake

Uber's service, which is tied to the smartphones of drivers and passengers, can generate a lot more driving data, an essential ingredient to quickly train the artificial intelligence software needed to guide self-driving vehicles, Morgan Stanley analysts said in a recent research note.

"Uber logs as many miles in 24 minutes as Google's autonomous cars have logged in their existence," they wrote. "While none of these miles are fully autonomous today, we just point out the scale of experience that can accelerate the development of the AI, mapping and learning for autonomous cars."

Tesla, with thousands of internet-connected cars on the road, has a similar data advantage, one former member of the Google car project said.

Partners Needed

The two main ways for Google to commercialize the technology are by including Chauffeur, the name for its self-driving software, in cars made in high volume by existing auto manufacturers, or through a popular ride-sharing service that could slowly replace a human-driven fleet with automated vehicles, industry experts said.

Google has neither of these yet. It struck a deal in May with Fiat Chrysler, but only to put its software in 100 minivans. Talks with other car companies, such as Ford Motor Co., have yet to produce high-volume deals. And many car companies are pursuing their own self-driving strategies. General Motors Co. bought self-driving software startup Cruise Automation in March and invested $500 million in ride-sharing service Lyft Inc., gaining two important ingredients for an autonomous vehicle service.

A Google unit invested in Uber in 2013, sparking speculation Google's self-driving software would automate Uber rides. But Uber is building its own autonomous technology now. Google is planning to expand a ride-sharing service built around its Waze navigation app, however that will only be in San Francisco later this year, while Uber and Lyft cover most major U.S. cities.

"I think they'd rather enable than do," Lanctot, of Strategy Analytics, said. "As enabler, they can work with all, rather than become a competitive target."

Frustration

Slow progress caused frustration among some members of the Google car project, and that's been exacerbated by early momentum of rivals that entered the race later, according to former members of the team and a person familiar with the situation.

The team knew what it would take to deliver a fully-autonomous system, known in the industry as L4, but some Google executives didn't understand the complexity, according to one former member of the project. The person left to help run an active business with paying customers, something that's missing from the car project. A Google spokesman declined to comment for this story.

Several years ago, some on the team wanted to push ahead with a service that didn't require full automation, but Google co-founder Larry Page insisted on complete human driver replacement, another person said.

'Seven-Year Itch'

Sebastian Thrun, the first head of the Google car project, left in 2014 to focus on his online education startup Udacity Inc. and develop flying cars with Page.

In early 2016, Anthony Levandowski, one of the original engineers on the project, co-founded Otto. He started the company with Don Burnette, who wrote software for Google's self-driving car, Google robotics expert Claire Delaunay and Lior Ron, who worked on Google Maps and Android smartphones.

Otto's goal is to "speed the adoption of self-driving technology," according to its website. Levandowski told the Wall Street Journal in May that it's easier to prove Otto's technology is better than humans on highways, where the tasks of driving are fairly straightforward, than in cities, which generate more complex driving situations. Levandowski declined to comment on why he left Google's project.

When Urmson left in August, other project veterans Jiajun Zhu and Dave Ferguson also departed.

One former member said the project is suffering from a "seven-year itch" as staff look for new challenges. Googlers like to see technology they work on influence as many people as possible, so it's been difficult to see the steady drumbeat of rival autonomous vehicle announcements while Google's project slogs through testing, this person said.

The New York Times reported Urmson was unhappy with the direction of the project under new CEO Krafcik and that he quarreled with Page about it. Urmson told Bloomberg he wasn't frustrated with progress, but declined to say why he was unhappy. "I'm not willing to get into it," he wrote in a text message, adding that he's "extremely proud of both the team and of the work."

Zhu said he and Ferguson left to put together a startup in artificial intelligence and robotics. "I joined the project 7.5 years ago when we were just a handful of engineers and look at where the whole industry is today," he wrote in an e-mail. "It would have been much harder to leave if we weren't so confident in the strength of the team at Google."

Another person familiar with the car project said Google still has the most experience in the field, and its technology is still the most advanced, despite the company's reluctance to use that advantage for practical routes to commercializing the technology, such as Otto's truck automation.

'Right Route'

Still, rolling out partial autonomous technology can be risky. Tesla's driver-assistance features, known as Autopilot, have been in the spotlight since a fatal crash in May. The company released an update of the software Sunday with enhanced radar and a GPS database and said that might have saved the driver's life.

In 2012, Google let employees test a partially autonomous system for automated highway driving and discovered the attention of the human drivers quickly drifted, leaving them incapable of taking back control quickly and safely. That persuaded the company to pursue full autonomy, even if it took longer.

"Full autonomy, although much harder, is the right route," Krafcik said in a recent interview with Bloomberg Businessweek.

Google hasn't decided on a business model yet, Krafcik said in the July 7 interview. "Serious snow testing" is still to come, while it could be 20 to 25 years before most trips in cities will be provided by autonomous vehicles, he added.

That's a stark contrast to Urmson's oft-quoted prediction about his son's driving test. During a recent text message exchange, he declined to say whether he's sticking with that forecast.

"It's been a long time and it's time to see what else is out there," he said after news of his departure broke. One thing he did confirm: He has no plans to join Uber.

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Source: Google Car Project Loses Leaders, and Advantage, as Rivals Gain

This flying car is real and it can fly 430 miles on a full tank.

Danny M.80% of people on the road have their heads up their asses...now you want to put them in flying cars?? What could possibly go wrong?

Eric S.Ok how many cars are on the road at any one time in LA? Maybe a million? Can you imagine 1/10 of those flying? 100,000 flying over LA all at once? And you'd still need to land at an airport right? Not in your driveway. Would you let your teenager drive a flying car? What if you get in a fender bender at 10,000 feet?

Freddie S."A sport pilot license permits a pilot to fly only light sport aircraft during the day and in good weather. According to the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association's cost calculator, the cost for a private license runs on average $9,900, a recreational runs $7,700 and a sport license about $4,400." Put it looks really cool if you can afford it.

Source: This flying car is real and it can fly 430 miles on a full tank.

New Fan Theory Thinks Sandy from Grease Was Dead the Whole Time!

It's been a few weeks on the Internet since a crazy fan theory is trying to ruin our beloved TV and movies, so weren't we due for one? That explains the revival of a 2013 Reddit thread that might change the way we think about the movie "Grease" forever.

User atomicbolt suggests that there is a devastating tragedy hiding under the summer lovin' -- Sandy has been dead the entire time!!!

Think back to the beginning of the movie. "Danny explains through song that they first met when Danny 'saved her life - she nearly drowned.'" But she laughs it off as "splashing around." Maybe Sandy died that day.

"As she drowned, her brain deprived of oxygen, she had a vivid coma fantasy involving her summer fling Danny, where they shared a magical year of high school together," atomicbolt writes. "The visions get increasingly outlandish as time passes, until finally, as Danny desperately tries to resuscitate her on the beach, she sees herself flying into Heaven in her dying moments."

That is the ONLY explanation for the end of the movie when Sandy and Danny get into their red convertible. As they start driving away from the carnival, the car starts to fly through the air, a smile spreading across Sandy's face. Of course, this is "Sandy flying into heaving in her dying moments."

"The entire movie was a drowning woman's coma fantasy."

We'll totally ignore the fact that it is totally normal everyone starting breaking into song and choreographed numbers, and a flying car might be the cheesy-and-fun ending we were all looking for.

We of the Internet are fascinated by conspiracy theories, and the possibility that death is lingering around us, even in our movie-musicals. So it's no surprise that the post has racked up over 577,000 views on Imgur and countless responses on Reddit, even more since its recent revival on social media.

What do you think? Is there something sinister lurking underneath Danny's pompadour? Maybe he is the Devil tempting her with rock and roll and fast cars? Did you notice that Kenickie is really just a casual sexual assaulter?

We may never know, but at least we'll alwaaaaays have each oooootherrrrr.

Source: New Fan Theory Thinks Sandy from Grease Was Dead the Whole Time!

These 5 flying taxis could revolutionize your commute

Forget hailing that self-driving Uber, you could be riding a flying taxi to the airport sooner than you think.

EHang

From "Back to the Future"-esque flying cars you can own to flying taxi systems, these new transport systems are slated to arrive sooner than you think.

Scroll down for a closer look.

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Source: These 5 flying taxis could revolutionize your commute

This Is The Bentley Flying Spur W12 S: About As Ludicrous As Luxury Cars Get

by James Allen31,132 reads

Power may corrupt, but it can also be ruddy fantastic.

For almost as long as the company's been in business, Bentley has been associated with some of the fastest and most powerful production luxury cars in the world - dating right back to the original 3.0-liter models, complete with their heady-by-1920s-standards outputs of 70-hp. Fast forward 90 years or so, and a similar story can still be said about Bentleys today, with the newly-revealed Flying Spur W12 S carrying on the luxury carmaker's long-standing tradition.

Noteworthy for being the first ever four-door car by Bentley to officially crack the 200-mph barrier (the official top speed is said to be 202 mph - some 2 mph faster than the fastest non-S Flying Spur), the Bentley Flying Spur W12 S is almost defined spec-sheet-wise by its incredible performance. Along with the ballistic turn of speed, this huge luxo barge can crack the 0-60 mph sprint in just 4.2 seconds. All of this pace is pretty much down to the monstrous powerplant that resides behind the new gloss black radiator grill: a tried-and-tested 6.0-liter twin-turbocharged W12 that produces 626 hp and an amazing 605 lb-ft of torque.

Bentley hasn't just thrown a load of horsepowers at the Flying Spur W12 S, though. On top of the engine enhancements, Bentley has also fiddled with the car's suspension (on top of adding adjustable damper settings) in order to provide the Spur S with a "more dynamic drive" in comparison with the standard Flying Spur. Goodies like carbon-ceramic brakes and carbon fiber interior finishes are available as options, though all Flying Spur W12 S models get the gloss black exterior trim pieces, subtle interior tweaks and Bentley's beautifully knurled aluminium paddleshifters. Prices aren't known just yet, though we should be informed of them soon, as the first customer Flying Spur W12 S deliveries are said to begin before the year is out.

Source: This Is The Bentley Flying Spur W12 S: About As Ludicrous As Luxury Cars Get

2017 Bentley Flying Spur W12 S is First Bentley Sedan to Top 200 MPH

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It's a stunning feat to brush past 200 mph in a purpose-built sports car, but reaching beyond 200 mph in a four-door is an entirely different experience. If you have the courage (and the bankroll), you have the pick of just a handful of sedans capable of such velocities. With the debut of the new Bentley Flying Spur W12 S, that exclusive club just got a little bigger.

Essentially, this is the overboosted, hunkered-down variant of the W12-powered Flying Spur, a four-door that is just as comfortable making an appearance at a Hollywood film debut as it is hammering down the autobahn at triple-digit speeds. The magic number is 202 mph, which makes this the first Bentley sedan to pass 200 mph (the larger Mulsanne Speed is claimed to be able to hit 190 mph). Before the W12 S, the mighty Continental Flying Spur Speed handily dispatched the two-buck barrier with aplomb. It carried the same twin-turbocharged W-12 lump under the front hood, pushing out a healthy 600 hp back in 2008.

The W12 S builds on those impressive figures. The 6.0-liter now churns out 626 hp and 605 lb-ft of torque, making the all-wheel-drive W12 S capable of 4.2-second 0-60 mph sprints. To handle this extra gumption, Bentley beefed up the suspension, developing what it calls "a more responsive suspension tune." If the lofty v-max still has you sweating, Bentley will slot big carbon ceramic discs at all four corners. Not for free, of course.

Once you do manage to slow down, you'll be able to appreciate the myriad changes made to the interior outfitting. According to Bentley, the interior is now available in a "wider palette of colors," along with special stitching and revised fascia finish. "W12 S" is embroidered prominently into the leather headrests, blending in well with the "W12 S" door sill plates for the front and rear sections. For the driver, each W12 S comes standard with a neat Sport Plus steering wheel, complete with weighty metal gear-shift paddles.

Externally, the W12 S now comes with a suite of gloss black trim in place of the regular chrome pieces, including a darker tint for the front grille lattice. The headlights, foglights, and taillights are darkened as well. Up front, the lower bumper valence is a new, more aggressive design, complementing a new aggressive five-spoke wheel design.

No pricing information is provided, but as the adage goes, "If you have to ask…" Buyers who write blank checks will take delivery of the new bad-boy Flying Spur at the end of the year.

Source: Bentley

Source: 2017 Bentley Flying Spur W12 S is First Bentley Sedan to Top 200 MPH