Day: January 20, 2017

By Cat DiStasio

"Where we’re going, we don’t need roads." When Doc Brown said it, he was driving a flying time machine, of course. But not all vehicles need to become airborne to travel off the grid. This capability is especially important in rural areas where roads have never existed, or in disaster recovery situations where pathways are no longer passable due to earthquakes or flooding. No matter the reason, a slew of innovations are tackling off-road transportation like never before. Some futuristic all-terrain vehicles are built to drive over just about anything, while others have been engineered to carry their own road surface and pick it back up as they truck along. Whether the situation calls for traveling over impassable obstacles or creating a road for other vehicles, there’s a tough machine out there to tackle the job.

Road-carrying truck

B-Y-O-Road? Welsh company Faun Trackway dreamed up (and built) a truck that can travel where there are no roads — because it carries its own. Mounted on the back of an otherwise pretty standard-looking truck, a roll of thin aluminum extrusions can be unfurled to create a 50-meter roadway. The resulting temporary surface is capable of supporting vehicles weighing up to 70 metric tons, so the road-laying truck is a great companion for delivery and rescue vehicles carrying heavy supplies into otherwise hard-to-reach areas. Once the convoy has traversed the aluminum roadway, Faun Trackway’s creation rolls the road back up and hustles along to its next challenging destination.

Electric "spider" car

The Swincar is a bizarre but useful car that can drive just about anywhere. Each of the vehicle’s independently driven wheels is attached to a spider-like leg for extra ground clearance, and powered by its own electric motor. This setup translates to a lot of power and control, so uneven terrain barely even slows the Swincar down, let alone stops it in its tracks. Because it’s an all-electric vehicle with no emissions, the Swincar one-ups traditional ATVs in the sustainability department as well.

Tunnel zipper truck

This truck can not only drive where there is no road, but it can build a 14-mile tunnel out of Lego-like bricks in just 24 hours. The zipper truck is equipped with rollers held in place by a tapered metal core, and the wider front of the truck allows the tailored lock-blocks to be placed just so, creating a perfect archway. Much like the historic arch’s Roman predecessors, the arched tunnels zipped together by this truck need no mortar or adhesive to stay together. Even better, the blocks can be removed once the tunnel is no longer needed and then be reused many times over.

Slope-worthy VW party bus

While some off-road vehicles are designed with serious functions in mind, others are just looking for a good party. This modified 1966 VW Bus Bulli T1 was created with slope-side jams in mind, and its wheels were replaced with rubber snowmobile tracks. The hip party van can travel across the snow at a good clip — around 30 miles per hour — and comes equipped with a 1,000-watt subwoofer and two 300-watt speakers (as well as two turntables and a microphone). Just add snow and your own DJ.

Automatic brick road machine

Designed to make charming brick roads even easier to lay down, this Dutch machine does the work of a crew of human laborers in a fraction of the time. Dubbed Tiger-Stone, the automatic paver-laying machine can lay up to 400 square meters of gorgeous brick road in a day. Adjustable to widths up to six meters, the machine is fed by human workers who stack bricks into an angled hopper in the desired pattern. The machine then leverages gravity to lower the bricks onto the pre-leveled ground where a sand layer has been prepared. Tiger-Stone eliminates the back-breaking aspects of bricklayers’ jobs, while cutting both time and cost and — best of all — leaves behind a beautiful brick road where there was none before.

All-terrain adaptive tricycle

This hybrid tricycle helps adventurers with disabilities go places they’ve never been able to go before. Created by designer Jesse Lee, the Horizon can traverse a wide variety of surfaces that wheelchairs and other adaptive vehicles struggle with, such as gravel, hills, grass and dirt. It’s powered by electricity and pedal power (controlled either by hand or foot), which can be combined in one of three different "driving modes," depending on how much power is needed. The Horizon can go up to 25 miles per hour, and its 48-volt lithium-ion battery offers a 30-mile range on a full charge.

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The Volkswagen microbus is one of the most iconic vehicles of all time, and now the automaker is set to revive the classic for the modern era. Meet the I.D. Buzz: VW’s all-electric, self-driving microbus of the future. In other auto news, Nissan debuted a stylish Vmotion 2.0 sedan packed with self-driving technology, and the Chevrolet Bolt was named the 2017 North American Car of the Year. IKEA is known for its flat-pack furniture, but it’s branching out into urban mobility by launching its very first bike. The Sladda is a chainless aluminum cycle that can be kitted out with front and rear racks, panniers and even a towable cart.

Tesla has built one of the biggest buildings on the planet. Now it’s building the world’s largest solar roof to top it off. When it’s complete, the photovoltaic array will enable Tesla’s Gigafactory to operate entirely on clean energy. Meanwhile, the Netherlands announced that wind energy now powers all of its electric passenger trains, and the UK is developing technology to power its trains with off-grid solar. As Inauguration Day approaches, many are worried about the future of clean energy in the US, but Elon Musk thinks the Trump administration may be "positive on renewables," and President Obama reassured the public that the US’ clean energy transition is "irreversible."

Could the skyscrapers of the future purify polluted cities? That’s the idea behind this futuristic tower that eats smog and spits out fresh air. Meanwhile, a shopping mall in Israel has built a flourishing rooftop farm that can produce 10,000 heads of lettuce a month. Elsewhere in the world, the largest survival community on Earth has built a massive compound of 575 off-grid doomsday bunkers, and we featured six amphibious houses that literally lift off the ground to escape flooding. In other design and technology news, MIT developed an ultralight material that is 10 times stronger than steel, and Aerochromics launched a line of clothing that changes color when it’s exposed to air pollution.

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Don’t look now, but Canada might just join the likes of France and the UK in ushering in the courier drone era. Transport Canada has approved its first drone test range near the tiny village of Foremost, Alberta, clearing the way for Drone Delivery Canada to launch a robotic cargo service as soon as late 2017. The roughly 927 square miles will help DDC prove that its drones can haul goods across long distances using satellite guidance. Tests with the company’s early partners should start sometime in the first quarter of the year.

The drone delivery system could be more important for Canada than it would be for other nations. Like in other countries, DDC will help both government and corporate clients deliver packages both to each other and to customers (say, from online stores). However, the firm is particularly focused on serving Canada’s northern communities, where roads are few and even modestly-sized towns may be very far away. Drones could supply these communities with medical supplies and other goods on demand, rather than making them wait for the next scheduled cargo flight or truck. That could not only save lives, but improve the quality of life for rural dwellers that frequently have to deal with food shortages and other problems that come with infrequent deliveries.

Source: Drone Delivery Canada

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It’s no secret that ridesharing companies like Uber and Lyft dream of a day when they can depend solely on self-driving cars, and that’s making driver organizations more than a little nervous. New York’s Upstate Transportation Association and Independent Drivers Guild are both pressing for bans on autonomous vehicles in the state out of concern that they’ll ultimately cost thousands of transportation jobs. The IDG believes that it only needs to preserve existing laws to guarantee a ban, but the UTA is considerably more aggressive — it wants a 50-year ban on self-driving cars. Yes, there’s a real chance you wouldn’t even be alive to see the day when driverless rides hit New York roads.

These are just group policies, and the state doesn’t have to listen to them. Governor Cuomo certainly doesn’t appear fazed so far: he just announced a desire to make ridesharing available across the state, not just in New York City. However, this vocal opposition sets the stage for future battles over autonomy. Just as taxi companies have fought ridesharing at every step, you can expect driver organizations worldwide to fight automation tooth and nail… even if it means holding back the safety and convenience benefits that self-driving tech will hopefully offer.

Via: Digital Trends

Source: CNN

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China is taking some steps to curb pollution (it doesn’t have much choice), but one of its most recent steps may be more of a happy accident. The country’s National Energy Administration is suspending 85 planned or in-progress coal power plants — not because they’re threats to the environment and public health (which they are), but because they don’t fit in with China’s latest Five Year Plan. It’s targeting a coal capacity limit of 1,100GW, but the plants would have brought it to 1,250GW. While that’s still an increase over the current 920GW capacity, it’s definitely an improvement.

The freeze follows a gradual change of heart on coal from Chinese officials worried about excess capacity. They told multiple provinces to stop approving coal plants back in March 2016, and in April implemented a "traffic light" approval system that shot down plans for 90 percent of upcoming plants. By October, it was shutting down under-construction projects.

Of course, this isn’t really a shift away from coal — it’s more about keeping coal in check. However, it’s a big deal in a country where smog can reach crisis levels, particularly during cold winter months when heating drives spikes in demand. And it’s a sharp contrast with the change of direction in the US, where the incoming administration is bent on propping up the coal industry.

Via: Greenpeace

Source: Bjx.com.cn (translated)

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When people tell you not to play music at full blast in your car, they’re not necessarily raining on your parade — there’s a real concern that you might not hear an emergency vehicle until the last moment. You might not have to worry quite so much if a Swedish experiment proves successful, though. Ambulances in Stockholm are testing a KTH-made system (EVAM) that interrupts in-car audio with a voice warning when they’re close by and responding to a crisis. The only requirement is that your car’s FM tuner support the Radio Data System format, which is common in the cars you see on the road. The interruptions are speed-sensitive, too, so you’ll get notices at greater distances when you’re on the highway.

A handful of ambulances will trial the system in the first quarter of the year. Whether or not it expands elsewhere will almost certainly depend on early results. We can see at least one potential problem: will this alert drivers on nearby streets where there’s nothing to worry about? Even if the system is overly cautious, it could prove to be a lifesaver if it clears the roads and gets patients to the hospital that much sooner. Unfortunately, this system might not work in neighboring Norway.

Via: Phys.org

Source: KTH

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