Electric Vehicles & Cars - Page 22

Uber has just announced that it has teamed with autonomous vehicle company Motional on a new partnership that will see "autonomous deliveries" on Uber Eats.

The trial will begin in "early 2022" and would see Motional (which has partner with Hyundai and Aptiv) have some, not all, food delivery options that will be delivered with a self-driving car, through the Uber Eats app on your phone. Customers will be able to choose from "a curated set of meal kits from select restaurants".

Now, while the "autonomous food delivery" through Uber Eats sounds like an autonomous car picking up your order from the restaurant, driving it to your house (or work, school, etc) and then you collect it. But the trial will see "safety operators present in the vehicle" throughout the autonomous Uber Eats food delivery trial.

Elon Musk is being Elon Musk again, with Tesla announcing the new "Cyberwhistle" that was sold out in nanoseconds and... well... you can't buy it anyway.

Anyway, Tesla's new Cyberwhistle is exactly what it sounds and looks like: a freaking Tesla Cybertruck-inspired whistle "Cyberwhistle" that costs $50. It's made of stainless steel, with Elon Musk tweeting out to "Blow the whistle on Tesla!"

But the fun doesn't end there for the world's richest man, with the Tesla and SpaceX boss adding "Don't waste your money on that silly Apple Cloth, buy our whistle instead!" Apple released its $29 cleaning cloth back in October 2021, where back then Musk was teasing Apple CEO Tim Cook. Cook announced the new Apple Bağdat Caddesi, a new store in Instanbul, to which Musk replied: "Come see the Apple Cloth TM".

If you didn't already know: Apple is working on its own car that would make a gigantic splash in the automotive industry, and now new design renders have been crafted from Apple's own patents filed for the Apple Car. Check them out:

The new renders come from a UK-based car leasing company called Vanarama, which was tasked with designing renders from the patents Apple had filed for the Apple Car. From the outside, the Apple Car has a beautiful mesh-style grille that looks like the circular vents Apple uses on its desktop Mac Pro.

Inside, there's a huge customizable dashboard that spans across the entire front of the car. The steering wheel looks like it's ripped right out of the future -- and out of Tesla's latest electric cars -- with a huge 80s style Apple logo on the wheel itself.

Tesla announced its beefy new computer inside of its latest Model S and Model X electric cars, which has a new custom AMD RDNA 2-based GPU that we're hearing more details about now.

The new Tesla Model S and Model X cars have had their innards taken apart, with Ingineerix looking at the new Tesla Car Computer to see that it packs an AMD Zen 1+ based custom Ryzen Embedded chip -- and not the rumored Zen 2-based chip -- with a SKU number of "YE180FC3T4MFG".

Tesla seems to have used a Ryzen APU with a quad-core 45W APU packing 0.5MB of L2 cache, and 4MB of L3 cache. The model number on the APU seems to suggest it's a custom Ryzen V180F embedded chip, with the "FG" in the SKU of "YE180FC3T4MFG" meaning it's a Picasso APU based on the updated Zen 1 microarchitecture AKA Zen+.

You knew this day was coming, and it probably costs a little less than you thought -- or maybe a little more -- but you can now order a hoverbike for $680,000 from a company called ALI Technologies.

A.L.I. Technologies has opened up pre-orders for its new "XTurismo Limited Edition" hoverbike, with a conventional engine, with 4 x battery-powered motors that provide up to 40 minutes of flight time at up to 62 mph (100 kph). It has a motorcycle-style design that is placed on propellers, with a red-and-black style that looks slick.

ALI has considerable backers in Mitsubishi Electric and Kyocera, where it debuted its hoverbike hovering a few feet off the ground at a race track near Mount Fuji recently. ALI CEO Daisuke Katano told Reuters: "Until now the choice has been to move on the ground or at scale in the sky. We hope to offer a new method of movement". Katano added that the hoverbike use would be limited at first, not flying on the roads of Japan, but more so by rescue teams to access difficult-to-reach locations.

DJI has just unveiled its new cinema camera that has a built-in gimbal, shoots up to 8K 75FPS video, packs a LIDAR-based rangefinder that, even in low light, promises a "sharper, faster, and more reliable focusing experience".

DJI's new Ronin 4D drone is using the Zenmuse X9 camera, a full-frame with interchangeable lens mounts for DJI's own DL and Leica's M systems, with 9 built-in ND filters. There's the 6K version of the DJI Ronin 4D drone which shoots up to 6K 60FPS and 4K 120FPS, while the 8K model will shoot 8K 75FPS which is kinda insane.

That explains why DJI is pushing the "cinema camera" side of things if it can shoot 8K 75FPS video, with the Zenmuse X9 camera also shooting in RAW or 422HQ in ProRes, or H.264 if you wanted smaller files. DJI usually makes its cameras specifically for their drones, but the new Zenmuse X9 camera was made specially for the new Ronin 4D drone. This means you can't buy the spiffy new Zenmuse X9 camera and put it on your DJI drone, as it's exclusive to the Ronin 4D.

A drone light show in China has ended in absolute terror, with drones falling out of the sky and onto spectators watching below.

A bunch of videos were uploaded to various social media networks, with a video above on YouTube showing the disaster unfold. There were 200 drones flying in formation above a mall in the central city of Zhengzhou, China, when they started dropping out of the sky.

The drones hit buildings on the way down, and crashes into vehicles parked on the road. Spectators of the drone light show were yelling out "be careful" and "back off" as they were running away from the drones falling out of the sky. There were reportedly around 5000 people in the crowd that day, including many of them being children, with drones falling out of the sky and onto them is a horrible thing to imagine.

In something that feels like it should be branded as "only happens in Australia" -- multiple bird attacks have made drone delivery companies ground their delivery drones in Canberra, Australia.

Drone delivery company, Wing, said that it has paused its operations in the northern suburb of Harrison, while bird experts work out what is going on with the local ravens that have been striking their delivery drones. The situation can be dangerous, as a bird could easily down a drone and you don't need that crashing into the ground.

Wing explained to its customers: "We've identified some birds in the area demonstrating territorial behaviors and swooping at moving objects. While this is common during nesting season, we are committed to being strong stewards of the environment, and would like to have ornithological experts investigate this further to ensure we continue to have minimal impact on birdlife in our service locations".

DJI is about to unleash its next-gen Mavic 3 drone which looks to be their best yet, and not just their best yet -- but it could be the very best drone ever made.

We're looking at improvements across the board starting with a gigantic increase to the battery life, so flying time is at record levels, while new cameras will capture better footage than ever before. The new DJI Mavic 3 Pro drone would have up to 46 minutes of flight time, double the previous-gen Mavic 2 Pro.

We should see the new DJI Mavic 3 Pro with a second camera, so you'll be able to switch between the telephoto and wide-angle lenses from the single drone. Increased flight time, and a second camera (with its own sensor and lens) is not a bad upgrade -- it's an amazing upgrade -- and that's not all.

A United States military B2 stealth bomber worth $2 billion was forced to crash land after malfunctioning mid-flight.

The incident occurred at 12:30 am during a routine training exercise and resulted in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) putting a temporary flight ban of six miles in all directions of the crash landed stealth bomber. The FAA will roll back the flight ban on September 17.

So, how did this happen? An investigation is currently underway to figure that out, but what we do know is that the B2 bomber was forced to make an emergency landing at the Missouri airbase where it sustained damage. Air Force Global Strike Command issued a statement to The Drive, "A U.S. Air Force B-2 Spirit experienced and [sic] in-flight malfunction during a routine training mission and was damaged on the runway at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, after an emergency landing. The incident is under investigation and more information will be provided as it becomes available."

Tesla is no stranger when it comes to pioneering radical changes to vehicles, as the company has been at the forefront of vehicle innovation for quite some time.

Tesla undoubtedly popularized electric vehicles and with that popularization, many vehicle manufacturers followed by investing into their own research and development so they could produce their own electric vehicles. Tesla hasn't slowed down in terms of new additions to its vehicles, and since 2019 the electric car manufacturer has reportedly been working on a new idea that involves laser beams and a windshield.

Electrek reports that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has granted Tesla the patent that's officially titled, "Pulsed laser cleaning of debris accumulated on glass articles in vehicles and photovoltaic assemblies". At the moment, there has been no word on when this new technology will be implemented into Tesla vehicles, but speculation is pointing towards the Cybertruck featuring this new technology as it didn't have any windshield wipers when it was unveiled back in November 2019.

Tesla is rapidly improving the semi-autonomous driving side of its electric cars, with the new Full Self Driving 10 beta being rolled out and it has some impressive upgrades.

The new Full Self Driving 10 beta saw an updated Tesla EV driving down Lombard St in San Francisco, a twisty-turn-y street that would be tricky for the FSD system to navigate. FSD 10 appears to have solved this, with a Tesla driver having FSD 10 take him and his passenger down the twists and turns, without a single intervention leaving him saying he's "flabbergasted".

You'll also be able to have a better idea of what your car can see, as it seems that Tesla has made some upgrades to visuals as well. There's not as many stats in your face, but when they're there they will be more accurate, and more stable without the glitches.

Basemark is known for benchmarking software, but the company is stepping -- or rather, sitting in the drivers seat of the automotive industry with the introduction of Rocksolid Core.

What the new Basemark Rocksolid Core does for automotive companies is save them many years and many billions of dollars in development time and investment, by tapping into breakthroughs that Basemark has in its special auto herbs and spices.

Basemark is the first to offer an entire end-to-end platform from safety critical things in your future car: gas, brakes, and more through to the instrument cluster, body electronics, amd more. Basemark offers this all as a source code licensing model to OEMs with Rocksolid Core.

New Yorkers were stuck underground for 5 hours yesterday, with a power surge shutting down half of the New York City subway system, with power restored early Monday.

The power outage started after energy utility company Con Edison, which powers the NYC subway system, reported a downed power line. This caused a voltage dip throughout New York City, with the chain of events causing the NYC subway system to shut down for 5 hours, becoming one of the largest emergency power system breakdowns in many years.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) described the event as "an unprecedented system breakdown" for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Hochul said: "Last night was unacceptable. If you're one of those riders or people relying on safe transport, the system failed you. The MTA is the lifeblood of the city, and a disruption of this magnitude can be catastrophic".

A car manufacturer is implementing into its vehicles an artificial intelligence (AI) personal assistant that is designed to respond like a human.

That car company is MG, and the vehicle the artificial intelligence personal assistant will be in is the new MG Astor SUV. The company behind the car has said that the new AI personal assistant is a "first for any car globally" and is designed to offer what is described as human-like emotional responses. The AI personal assistant will be able to engage in a conversation with the driver and answer questions about any topic with its answered being sourced from Wikipedia.

According to MG, the AI personal assistant will be able to speak, listen, react and look at the driver when it's spoken to - it can even mimic the driver. MG says that the AI personal assistant will also be able to read drivers the news, complete commands such as opening the sunroof, and even provide driving advice after it has learned the driver's driving pattern. If you are interested in learning more about this feature or the MG Astor SUV as a whole, check out this link here.

A Tesla driver decided to get behind the wheel after a few drinks and fell asleep while driving. Luckily his car saved his life.

On July 30, a 24-year-old Tesla owner located in Norway jumped behind the wheel of his Model S after drinking and passed out. Luckily for the driver, and not to mention the other people on the road, Tesla's autopilot system detected that the driver had fallen asleep and kept the vehicle in the middle of the lane before safely coming to a stop.

Videos of the man have surfaced online that clearly show the man asleep at the wheel. According to authorities close to the matter, the man was found "evidently drunk" when Emergency Medical Services arrived and has had his license temporarily suspended. Stories such as these show that systems like Tesla's autopilot can really save lives on the road. For more information on this story, check out this link here.

Elon Musk has said that the production of the Tesla Cybertruck won't begin until the production of the Model Y is at volume.

Musk revealed the news during Tesla's second-quarter earnings call and said that the Tesla Semi won't be launched until next year and that there are many supply and engineering challenges ahead of the company. The Tesla CEO goes on to explain that the priority of the new Tesla plant in Texas will be the Model Y and that the Model Y, Semi, and Cybertruck will be fitted with Tesla's next-generation 4680 battery technology.

Due to the Cybertruck and Semi being "heavy users of cell capacity", putting the next-generation batteries into these vehicles won't be economically viable until a steady supply is created with a large volume. Musk continued and said that if Tesla began production on the Cybertruck at low volumes now, the vehicle might cost "$1 million a piece", hence why the company has decided to delay production.

If you live in an area with heavy rainfall and the chance of flooding, it may be time to consider buying a Tesla, at least according to these videos.

It should be noted that none of the Tesla electric vehicles have an official "boat mode", but that doesn't mean that the cars can't drive when surrounded by water. A video released by Tesla Owners of Silicon Valley shows a Tesla owner in China driving through a body of water where the water on the road comes up to the windshield of the car.

This isn't the first time a Tesla owner has challenged the waters in the area, as another Tesla driver tested his luck in a flooded area that had water levels coming up over the back tires. Tesla vehicles are designed to be waterproof (to a degree), which makes sense when you consider that all of the company's vehicles are electric. Perhaps the idea of driving them through water came from a tweet from Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who said, the "Model S floats well enough to turn it into a boat for short periods of time".

A Reddit user has shared to moment a tornado enabled the Sentry Mode on an individual's Tesla Model X.

For those that don't know, Tesla vehicles are equipped with Sentry Mode, which is a feature that gives the vehicles more protection as it utilizes all of the car's cameras to record its surroundings. A proximity alert triggers Sentry Mode, and these alerts can vary depending on the situation. Apparently, Sentry Mode is triggered when a Tesla is caught in a tornado, according to Reddit user VanillaGorilla.

VanillaGorilla says that he was out with his wife running errands when the Model X was caught right in the middle of a massive storm that tore through the parking lot. As you can see from the footage, the Sentry Mode is activated on the driver's side door, and while the storm does look exceptionally rough, the Reddit user said the Model X was still driveable after it passed. "The car took a beating but is still driveable, so we can't complain", said the user.

A company has announced an electric vehicle that is capable of mining cryptocurrencies while it was parked.

According to a report from Wired, the Canadian car manufacturer Daymak will be developing an electric vehicle named Spiritus, which will be available in 2023. The new electric vehicle has already received $350 million in preorders for the vehicle, and as you probably already imaged, Daymak accepts cryptocurrency as payment for the vehicle.

The NVIDIA VP of Worldwide AI Initiatives Keith Strier, said, "The idea has tremendous potential because we're looking at not thousands, but tens of millions of supercomputers in these cars. In the United States or Germany, it may not be as big a deal, but in a smaller country, as autonomous trucks and cars hit the road, it completely shifts the potential for compute (sic) in that country."