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

Are you tired from car driving games with steering wheel and gear then play the one of the best Tourist Flying Car Simulation game. If you are looking for best flying car games then flying jet car is awesome as car driving with gear 1 2 3 4 shifting would be hectic routine for you. Do you have steal car and fight with man and police flying helicopter then choose car simulation games with steering would be choice in next? No, flying car games in the future will be best choice for you all flying car games as san andreas flying car. Cockpit view would be your favorite game play but flying car games with guns will be not easy for anyone in all flying car games. Flying car games for free and you can fly for free without any hectic job parking car games to play with steering wheels for free and driving in the city. You are in the driving in the city but this time is different from previous experience as you are in flying jet car. You are given the new responsibility for giving tourist p ick and drop as car games when you can get out the car and go to the airport and fly on a plane. Parking car games to play with steering wheels for free and driving in the city to pick and drop but this will be different from previous one as you fly car with tourist from one tour to other. Best fling car racing games 3d the best of cars 2016 here Tourist Flying Car Simulation. Download it free and enjoy the futurist flying car experience with new jet car. If you played flying muscle car simulator, futuristic flying car, flying stunt car and fly car game then this will be the best flying car game for you according to your choice. Game Features: Cool 3d environment including mountains, city and hill & sea side view - Realistic jet car physics and controls- Futuristic flying car model including wheel and steering- Easy GUI and controls- Tourist Pick and drop passengers animations - Multiple challenging levels.

License Free Version 1.0 Operating System Android
Source: Tourist Flying Car Simulation