Technology is at its best when it makes people’s lives better, and that’s precisely what we’re going for with our self-driving car project. We’re using advanced computer science to try and make driving safer and more enjoyable.
via The self-driving car logs more miles on new wheels | Official Google Blog.
The ultimate perk of working on the google autonomous car — commuting via autonomous car.
The last time you purchased something made entirely from cardboard, chances are it was a box to pack up your belongings. While the sturdy material is perfect for moving your stuff, an inventor from Israel has figured out a way to make cardboard move you. Using nine dollars worth of materials, bicycle enthusiast Izhar Gafni has created a fully functioning, water-resistant bicycle, made, from seat to spokes, entirely of recycled cardboard. The technology makes the environmentalist’s choice mode of transportation even a bit greener and easier on the wallet.
via Cycle on the Recycled: A $9 Cardboard Bike Set to Enter Production in Israel – Business – GOOD.
Gafni’s next steps involve establishing a company to produce and distribute his cardboard creation to the world market. He’s currently working with investors to have the product ready for mass-production and worldwide distribution by next year.
Exciting! $9-$12 entirely cardboard bike holding up to 485 lbs, coated for element resistance, incorporates origami techniques
Lure of cash prizes has some shifting the time of their Stanford commutes.
via Want to fix traffic? Pay people to get up and go earlier | Ars Technica.
So, Balaji Prabhakar, a Stanford professor of electrical engineering and computer science with a background in computer networks, had an idea. He found that there may be a new way to alleviate congestion: rather than imposing a penalty on drivers, why not pay them to simply alter their behavior slightly? That is, what if drivers were given a financial incentive to drive slightly earlier or slightly later than the prime 8 to 9 am window?
Gamification of traffic; testing at Stanford, pilot program in Singapore
HT Jason
Earlier article from 06/11/2012:
London, Singapore, Stockholm and a few other cities around the world battle heavy traffic with a “congestion charge,” a stiff fee for driving in crowded areas at peak hours. But drivers generally hate the idea, and efforts to impose it in this country have failed.
via Experimental Campaigns Pay Drivers to Avoid Rush-Hour Traffic – NYTimes.com.
Algorithms that automatically reroute your car look like the next trend in mobile mapping.
via An App that Could Stop Traffic – Technology Review.
Brüggemann, 25, and two of his friends, all of them students at universities in Germany, used this idea to create a Windows Phone app called Greenway that aims to thwart traffic jams and get you from one point to another in the shortest amount of time.
Built by 3 university students in Germany,
Won environmental sustainability award (and a $10,000 prize) at Microsoft’s annual Imagine Cup student technology competition in July
Can simulate up to 50K cars
A new analysis gives Californians good reason to be optimistic about the green credentials of the state’s proposed high-speed rail project, due to begin construction in 2013 thanks to funding recently approved by state legislators.
via Future of California high-speed rail looks green.
But to reap those environmental benefits, the state will have to wait until the system becomes fully operational, which could take an estimated 20-30 years after groundbreaking.
New regulations soon to be brought in by the European Commission will mean that all new cars will be fitted with autonomous emergency braking technology (AEB).
wow!