Showing posts with label Automobile. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Automobile. Show all posts

Sunday, October 20, 2019

Construction Innovation

The car factory of 2019 looks nothing like the car factory of 1919, whereas the construction site has hardly changed during that time.










Wednesday, August 08, 2012

The Google Car


Driving a car is just a whole bunch of information processing, if you think about it, like Google did. It is not that big of a leap for the search giant that has long sought to "organize the world's information."

A tech startup with a half million dollar budget could not have attempted this. One thing very impressive about Google is when it was small it tackled small things, when it became big it started looking at big problems. It has innovated at scale. Not that search is small. It is bigger than the car. But you know what I mean.

This car will eliminate stupid road accidents. That's a big one.

Google’s Self-Driving Cars Complete 300K Miles Without Accident, Deemed Ready For Commuting
The cars still need to learn how to handle snow-covered roads, for example, and how to interpret temporary construction signs and other situations that could throw its systems for a loop. ..... has added the Lexus RX450h hybrid car to its self-driving car family .... “One day we hope this capability will enable people to be more productive in their cars”
The self-driving car logs more miles on new wheels





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Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Smart Cars Should Talk To Each Other


Toyota Prius IIIImage via WikipediaRobert Scoble's Not Google Car
Self Driving Google Car

Never mind that this might materialize towards the end of the decade and not any time soon, but I had an idea. Cars that drive themselves are not good enough. They should be able to talk to each other. You should be able to set your journey and have your car talk to other cars to form trains along the highway. So if you are programming your car to take you on a 10 hour ride on the freeway, other cars also going the same length and your car should be able to form a train in the middle lane, perhaps 10 cars per train. And of course this would be an intelligent train. It would be seeing the non train cars and keeping watch on them. The train will do what it takes to avoid accidents, up to and including breaking up. And if only all those cars are 100% electric, we will have solved a major, major problem. 100% electric cars by the end of the decade is not that ambitious.

Software just got wheels. Or perhaps it is the other way round.

You know what would be even better? 100% electric bullet trains that move at perhaps 500 miles per hour. Or even 300. Trains are way more efficient than cars. If you could have such train service that connect all major cities, and have metro trains inside all cities, that still leaves room for 100% electric taxi cabs. And rental cars. And even cars. But I think the heavy lifting should be for trains.

How about people work to design smart trains? What would be your idea of a smart train?

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