wello presented a future vision of mobility at CES 2020 with a solar-powered cross between a bike and an electric car. the réunion-based startup presented its compact tricycle designed specifically for people in urban areas, to help alleviate congestion on the roads by offering an alternative to cars.
Mercedes-Benz announces the next-gen eSprinter electric van that will be built on a new platform with more variants.
It is also coming to North America.
Back in 2018, Mercedes-Benz unveiled its electric eSprinter van and the electric van hit European markets last year.
Serena Corr looks at the science behind batteries, discusses why we are hunting for new ones and investigates what tools we use to pave this pathway to discovery.
Watch the Q&A: https://youtu.be/lZjqiR0czLo.
The hunt is on for the next generation of batteries that will power our electric vehicles and help our transition to a renewables-led future. Serena shows how researchers at the Faraday Institution are developing new chemistries and manufacturing processes to deliver safer, cheaper, and longer-lasting batteries and provide higher power or energy densities for electric vehicles.
Serena Corr is a Chair in Functional Materials and Professor in Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Sheffield. She works on next-generation battery materials and advanced characterisation techniques for nanomaterials.
This event was generously supported by The Faraday Institution.
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For now, it looks like our best bet for going interstellar is to rely on robotic spacecraft that are optimized for speed.
For countless generations, the idea of traveling to an extrasolar planet has been the stuff of dreams. In the current era of renewed space exploration, interest in interstellar travel has understandably been rekindled. However, beyond the realm of science fiction, interstellar space travel remains a largely theoretical matter.
Between the sheer expense involved, the need for technological developments to happen first, and the nature of spacetime itself, sending people to another star system is something that is not likely to happen for a long time – if ever. But in spite of the challenges, the hope remains.
So will humanity ever go interstellar? Let’s break it down categorically and see how hard it might be. First up, there are the laws of physics, which aren’t too accomodating on this front.
The three-wheeled, two-person vehicle is curvy and lightweight.
Aptera, the company that shuttered in 2011 after failing to secure funding for its three-wheeled electric car, is back with a new solar electric vehicle it claims never needs charging, at least, for most drivers. And it predicts its top model, with a battery of 100 kWh, can get up to 1,000 miles of range.
The new three-wheeled, two-person (or two adults plus pet, as its specs suggest) vehicle has a solar roof array that can provide up to 45 miles of range per day, so if you have that top model and add the charge from the solar panels while it’s parked, then the 1,000 range seems … possible. Although, as Car and Driver points out, the vehicle doesn’t run just on solar power while driving.
“With Aptera’s Never Charge technology, you are driven by the power of the sun. Our built-in solar array keeps your battery pack topped off and anywhere you want to go, you just go,” Aptera co-founder Chris Anthony said in a press release. “Never Charge is built into every Aptera and is designed to harvest enough sunlight to travel over 11,000 miles per year in most regions.”
Today, Aptera announced a solar electric vehicle that will not need to be plugged in for most regular uses, and it sports a 1,000 mile range on a full charge.
“With Aptera’s Never Charge technology, you are driven by the power of the sun. Our built-in solar array keeps your battery pack topped off and anywhere you want to go, you just go,” says co-founder Chris Anthony. Aptera says they will achieve this by making the vehicle as efficient as possible, allowing the relatively low amount of energy one can get from solar panels to do a lot more than it could for other electric vehicles.
The biggest thing Aptera does that others don’t is optimize the vehicle for low drag. With an airplane-like design and only three wheels, the car has a drag coefficient of just 0.13. To put this in perspective, a Tesla Model S has a drag coefficient of 0.24. With less “wind resistance,” travel at all speeds requires less energy, with the effect of saving more energy compared to normal cars increasing as the car goes faster. Aptera plans to do this while still having a 100 kWh battery pack, so the car will have great range.
Under the streets of south London, in a disused bomb shelter and tube tunnel, is a farm. Growers are producing fresh vegetables and herbs in a fraction of the time it takes a conventional farm https://econ.st/3mGeeW7
A 15-year-old Colorado high school student and young scientist who has used artificial intelligence and created apps to tackle contaminated drinking water, cyberbullying, opioid addiction and other social problems has been named Time Magazine’s first-ever “Kid of the Year.”
Gitanjali Rao, a sophomore at STEM School Highlands Ranch in suburban Denver who lives in the city of Lone Tree, was selected from more than 5,000 nominees in a process that culminated with a finalists’ committee of children, drinking water crisis in Flint, Michigan, inspired her work to develop a way to detect contaminants and send those results to a mobile phone, she said.
“I was like 10 when I told my parents that I wanted to research carbon nanotube sensor technology at the Denver Water quality research lab, and my mom was like, ” A what?” Rao told Jolie. She said that work ” is going to be in our generation’s hands pretty soon. So if no one else is gonna do it, I’m gonna do it.”
Elon Musk’s Boring Company has released the first images teasing the first passenger station of the Las Vegas Loop ahead of its launch.
A Boring Company Loop system consists of tunnels in which Tesla autonomous electric vehicles travel at high speeds between stations to transport people within a city.
The first system is being deployed at the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCVA), which is paying $50 million for the system, but we recently learned that the Boring Company plans to connect the convention center’s Loop to casinos on the strip in order to eventually create a city-wide Loop in Las Vegas.
RV life has never appealed a great deal to me. It has had a slight appeal, but it always looked a bit too compromising for my tastes. Until I discovered the Living Vehicle today.
Granted, there are still some benefits to a more fixed living situation, and an important thing to note is the Living Vehicle is certainly not cheap. It starts at $229,995 and various options will add thousands more (each). But the thing is wicked, offers the core luxuries of life that I feel I need, and allows you to travel all over the place and have different amazing views out your window and your front door as you wish — the kind of views, I presume, that can cost millions of dollars on their own.
