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Submission + - Bill Gates To Stanford Grads: Don't (Only) Focus On Profit (itworld.com)

Submitted by jfruh
jfruh writes: The scene was a little surreal. Bill Gates, who became one of the world's richest men by ruthlessly making Microsoft one of the word's most profitable companies, was giving a commencement address at Stanford, the elite university at the heart of Silicon Valley whose graduates go on to the endless tech startups bubbling up looking for Facebook-style riches. But the theme of Gates's speech was that the pursuit of profit cannot solve the world's problems.

Submission + - Soon You'll Control Your Home From Your Car

Submitted by cartechboy
cartechboy writes: You know that time you were driving along and suddenly remember that you forgot to shut your garage door, or turn the lights off? Soon that will be a thing of the past because you'll be able to control your home from behind the wheel of your car. New technology is being developed by Japanese firms Toyota and Panasonic that will allow you to contact an existing cloud-based Toyota Smart Center which then links with Panasonic's cloud system. An example scenario would be an application linked to a vehicle's GPS data can remind the user to turn off the air-conditioning before leaving home, and then enable them to turn it on remotely before returning. The two firms began working on the technology a year ago. This is the future, and it's all controlled via the cloud.

Submission + - Are Hover Cars About To Be A Thing?

Submitted by cartechboy
cartechboy writes: Remember back in the day when we all thought we'd be driving flying cars in the future? Well that clearly didn't happen, though it still might in the future. But somewhere inside Toyota there's a team of engineers who think hover cars might be a thing, and apparently there's a project underway at one of Toyota's "most advanced' research and development areas. We aren't talking Jetson's flying car, more like a car that merely hovers "a little bit away" from the road. Probably a few inches with the aim to reduce road friction. With no wings or ridiculous speed, this is probably no simple process. No one really knows how long Toyota has been working on the idea, or how far along it is. Basically, don't expect flying Priuses any time soon...

Submission + - Local Motors Is Going To 3D Print This Car

Submitted by cartechboy
cartechboy writes: A while back, Local Motors said it was going to 3D print a car at this year's International Manufacturing Technology Show in Chicago in the fall. The design of the car was crowdsourced and the contest attracted over 200 entrants. The winning design was just announced and it was submitted by Michele Anoe of Italy. His Strati impressed the judges with its combination of strong character--expressed through complex 3D surfacing--and practical design that would work well with 3D printing. The printed car will use electric power, and it's intended to demonstrate 3D printing's potential as a manufacturing process for lighter, more efficient vehicles. It'll be interesting to see Local Motors take this design and 3D print it later this fall.

Submission + - Drone crashes on roof of Dallas Cowboys stadium (suasnews.com)

Submitted by garymortimer
garymortimer writes: A DJI Phantom Vision owner lost sight of his drone and the return to home feature kicked in. The only snag, the stadium was in the way. Its owner knows its there as he attached a GPS pet tracker for unexpected events. A different spin on the boy next door asking for his ball back.

Submission + - This Car Can Lean Into Curves, Literally

Submitted by cartechboy
cartechboy writes: You know how motorcycle riders lean into the corners, sometimes even touching their knee to the ground? Yeah, you can't do that in a car, but Mercedes-Benz has developed new technology that replicates that sensation by leaning the car into bends. It's called Dynamic Curve and it's part of the Active Body control suspension system on the new 2015 Mercedes-Benz S-Class Coupe. In turns, special plunger cylinders raise the suspension struts and lower the opposite side, depending on the direction of the bend. This has the result of tilting the car body slightly towards the inside of the corner, countering centrifugal cornering forces. Mercedes says it's not design for increasing cornering speeds, but increasing pleasure for the driver and passengers. We now live in an era where cars actively lean into corners for driver and passenger pleasure.

Submission + - Tesla Has To Sell 6 Million Electric Cars To Make History

Submitted by cartechboy
cartechboy writes: Many entrepreneurs have tried to start car companies in the U.S. over the past century, but the last person to do so successfully from the ground up was Walter P. Chrysler in 1924. To say this feat is monumental would clearly be an understatement. That isn't to say many haven't tried. Those who have include Preston Tucker, Henrik Fisker, Malcolm Bricklin, and even John Delorean. Now it's Elon Musk's time with Tesla. But what will it take for Musk and Tesla to be successful? The answer is the sale of at least six million electric cars. That's what it'll take to make history. Henry J. Kaiser's car company Kaiser-Frazer (later Kaiser Motors) produced a staggering 750,000 vehicles in its nine year run. Times have changed, back in 1955 when Kaiser closed up shop, only 11 million vehicles were sold globally, where as last year 83 million vehicles were sold globally. To equal the scale of Kaiser's achievement Tesla will have to sell at least 6 million vehicles. While not impossible, it gives an idea of the challenge facing any automotive entrepreneur.

Submission + - Tesla's Fate In New Jersey To Be Decided Tomorrow

Submitted by cartechboy
cartechboy writes: There's been a ton of guerilla warfare between auto dealers and Tesla Motors, and it's about to continue. Tomorrow a bill will be heard by the Consumer Affairs Committee of the New Jersey State Assembly regarding electric-car companies like Tesla to sell their cars directly to the public. This bill applies solely to zero-emission vehicles. Auto-dealer associations both at a state and national level are extremely threatened by Tesla's direct-sales model. Dealers in some states have been successful in banning Tesla's direct-sales model, while others have failed. The Federal Trade Commission has already stated it's in favor of Tesla's direct sales model and is against dealer-backed bans. It feels what the dealers are trying to do only hurts the consumer. Is Tesla's direct sales model the future of car sales?

Submission + - Rocks Made of Plastic Found on Hawaiian Beach (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: Plastic may be with us a lot longer than we thought. In addition to clogging up landfills and becoming trapped in Arctic ice, some of it is turning into stone. Scientists say a new type of rock cobbled together from plastic, volcanic rock, beach sand, seashells, and corals has begun forming on the shores of Hawaii. The new material--which the researchers are calling a "plastiglomerate"--may be becoming so pervasive that it actually becomes part of the geologic record.

Submission + - Eating Breakfast Won't Help You Lose Weight (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: Dieters are often urged to eat breakfast as a way to lose weight, so they don’t binge later in the day. But two new studies suggest this conventional wisdom is wrong. The authors speculate that the volunteers compensated for any changes in food intake at other times of the day. A second, smaller report in the same journal assigned lean adults to breakfast or no breakfast and found little impact on metabolism and heart health.

Submission + - End of an Era - No more PSP (theguardian.com)

Submitted by Linnen
Linnen writes: Sony has ended shipping PSP handheld in Japan.
From Guardian;
"Now PSP is saying goodbye. Shipments to the US ended this year, and they are closing in Japan soon. European stores will see their last arrivals toward Christmas. Launched in Japan in December 2004, it is almost 10 years old – not a bad achievement for a handheld that was almost written off early in its lifespan."

Submission + - Ford Just Created A Midsize Sedan That Barely Weighs Anything

Submitted by cartechboy
cartechboy writes: Today's automakers are scrambling to make lightweight vehicles to help improve fleet fuel economy. Using aluminum in high-end luxury cars is nothing new, but using it in pickup trucks, that's new. Ford stunned the industry in January when it unveiled the new aluminum 2015 F-150. By using aluminum it shaved 700 pounds from the truck's curb weight. Now Ford's showing an even more advanced design concept called the Fusion Lightweight Concept Car. It's a midsize Ford Fusion that weighs less than a subcompact Fiesta. How? Ford made use of extensive lightweight materials like carbon fiber, aluminum, lightweight plastics, chemically strengthened glass, and it event went so far as to fit it with aluminum brake rotors, carbon fiber wheels and oil pan, composite springs, and more. Ford acknowledges the materials and methods used to create this concept aren't ready for mass production, but it's working on getting there with the use of shared architectures, new production methods, and volume. This is a look at the future, and it's not so far away.

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