Tag: Feedly

Android users can get Chrome remote access via a new app

from DailyTech Main News Feed http://ift.tt/1lbxkgD
via IFTTT

Philip Morris International said first-quarter income sank 12%, as the cigarette maker continued to struggle with shrinking volumes in most of its regions.

from WSJ.com: What’s News US http://ift.tt/1l7oC7c
via IFTTT

Certain people have been trying to tell us this all along.

from FAIL Blog http://ift.tt/1isLgDv
via IFTTT

Filed under: Government/Legal, Recalls, Safety, GM

Documents do not shed light on what motivated the decision to eschew use of the first switch.

General Motors made a fateful choice in the fall of 2001.

The company considered two options for ignition switches to be installed on the 2003 Saturn Ion. One drawing submitted that September contained an ignition switch that included a longer detent spring and plunger with greater torque.

In October, one month later, the company considered another engineering drawing that showed a shorter detent spring and plunger, which made it easier for the switch to move between the "run" and "accessory" positions.

Documents do not shed light on what motivated the decision to eschew use of the first switch, but GM’s decision to go with the shorter switch has proven to have far-reaching consequences. The shorter switches have been linked to at least 32 car accidents resulting in at least 13 deaths.

Drawings of the two different switches were among the 200,000 pages of documents GM submitted to federal investigators who want to know why the company waited until this February to recall more than 2.5 million cars afflicted with the defective switches when it had knowledge of its flaws for more than a decade. The springs in the shorter switches were 9.6 millimeters; the springs in the longer ones were 12.3 millimeters, according to the documents. The difference between life and death was 2.7 millimeters.

On Wednesday, the Center for Auto Safety, which first noted the differences between the drawings, sent a letter to General Motors CEO Mary Barra, asking if she had been briefed about the differences in the parts – and the documents that illustrate them – in advance of Congressional hearings held earlier this month. Clarence Ditlow, the executive director of CAS, and Joan Claybrook, a former head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, called on Barra to release all documents that shed light on the decision to select the switch utilizing the shorter detent spring and plunger.

Continue reading Documents show GM rejected better ignition switch in 2001

Documents show GM rejected better ignition switch in 2001 originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 17 Apr 2014 08:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

from Autoblog http://ift.tt/1eD5z1H
via IFTTT

The Pentagon has plans to breath new life into old drones, and they will do so by transforming these once loyal servants into Wi-Fi hotspots. Of course, using drones as a Wi-Fi hotspot is not exactly the newest idea on the block, and neither does it elicit an “Eureka!” moment, but it is interesting to see how this might change the face of battle in a war. Normally, the equipment …

from Coolest Gadgets http://ift.tt/1eycR6Y
via IFTTT

Most of the passengers, according to news reports, were high school students and teachers on a school trip. Of the nearly 500 people who were on board, nearly 300 were initially unaccounted for.

from News http://ift.tt/1l16rA9
via IFTTT

First Flight Of The Black Knight

Advanced Tactics

Yesterday Advanced Tactics announced the successful first flight of their Black Knight Transformer, a hybrid truck helicopter designed for military missions. In December, the truck completed driving tests. 

One of the more modern features of the transformer, besides being a freaking flying truck, is that pilots can fly it either while sitting inside it, or remotely. For this first test, it obtained an altitude of less than 10 feet off the ground and was remotely piloted. While it’s still a long way from entering military service, the successful flight and drive tests mean the concept at least works at a human scale. Its transformation between the two modes is subtle—eight rotors, four on each side, spring out for takeoff, fold in for driving through tighter streets, and tilt forward in the air for faster flight. 

In the future, the Pentagon may want the Black Knight Transformer (or its smaller sibling, the Panther Transformer) to carry and retrieve troops from difficult to reach places. Sometimes flying is the better way to do that, getting the Transformer over canyons and clear of landmines. Once past obstacles, the Transformer can drive out to where it needs to be, letting troops evacuate their wounded right from the site of battle. There are other ways to accomplish this, like trucks carried inside V-22 Ospreys, but the Transformer combines that usefulness into one body, and a remotely pilotable one at that.

Black Knight In The Air

This is a drone filming a drone. The Transformer here is unmanned, and the picture comes from an unmanned quadcopter, flying even higher.

Advanced Tactics

from Popular Science http://ift.tt/1kegGhA
via IFTTT