Lifeboat Foundation

A six-seat, vertical takeoff and landing airplane.

Many folks have voiced the concerns over autonomous autos for many legitimate reasons including hacking and weak satellite signals for navigation especially when you review mountain ranges of the east coast.

The world has witnessed enormous advances in autonomous passenger vehicle technologies over the last dozen years.

The performance of microprocessors, memory chips and sensors needed for autonomous driving has greatly increased, while the cost of these components has decreased substantially.

Continue reading “Autonomous car development will speed up following a fatality” »

They might not work, but no one will know for sure unless they’re given a chance.

That’s the general idea behind the recent selection of five aviation-related technologies for vigorous study as part of NASA’s ongoing Convergent Aeronautics Solutions project during the next two years of so, which itself is now in its second year.

Researchers will study a new kind of fuel cell, increasing electric motor output with the help of 3D printing, use of Lithium-Air batteries to store energy, new mechanisms for changing the shape of a wing in flight and basing a new antenna design on the use of lightweight aerogel.

Continue reading “Five New Ideas to be Explored by NASA Aeronautics Teams” »

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Porsche concept electric Mission E car.

Continue reading “Porsche concept electronic Mission E car” »

It’s the feel good Autopilot story Tesla has been waiting for.

Smaller than a dime and with no moving parts, MIT’s lidar-on-a-chip is exactly what cars and robots need.

The newest Airbus and Boeing passenger jets flying today are made primarily from advanced composite materials such as carbon fiber reinforced plastic — extremely light, durable materials that reduce the overall weight of the plane by as much as 20 percent compared to aluminum-bodied planes. Such lightweight airframes translate directly to fuel savings, which is a major point in advanced composites’ favor.

But composite materials are also surprisingly vulnerable: While aluminum can withstand relatively large impacts before cracking, the many layers in composites can break apart due to relatively small impacts — a drawback that is considered the material’s Achilles’ heel.

Now MIT aerospace engineers have found a way to bond composite layers in such a way that the resulting material is substantially stronger and more resistant to damage than other advanced composites. Their results are published this week in the journal Composites Science and Technology.

Continue reading “Carbon Nanotube ‘Stitches’ Strengthen Composites” »

We don’t recommend playing “Pokémon GO” while driving, but we have to admit this Tesla hack is cool in theory.

“Gogoro is bringing 200 of its stylish all-electric scooters to Berlin. Starting today, anyone over 21 with a valid driver’s (or motorcycle) license will be able to rent one of the scooters as part of a new scooter-sharing program”

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