Derailing Into Controversy: China’s Straddling Bus

Song Youzhou

China’s futuristic straddling bus was an idea that sounded straight out of a science fiction novel. It seemed too good to be true. And, as it turns out, it may be.

Just days after its high-profile unveiling in the northeastern city of Qinghaungdao—quashing doubts that the project would ever get off the ground—the bus (or train, as some have argued) seems to have driven right into a ditch of dashed hopes.

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‘Straddling bus’ soars over cars in China

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China’s long-awaited ‘straddling bus’ received its inaugural test run in Qinhuangdao, Hebei province this week.

The Transit Elevated Bus, to give it its official title, is designed to help combat gridlock by letting passengers soar over the tops of cars on the increasingly-congested roads of China’s major cities.

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Nikola Motor: Taking a swipe at ‘Tesla Semi’, announces ‘working prototype’ for December

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In a weird and clearly reactionary move after Elon Musk announced that Tesla will venture in the semi-truck business, electric truck startup Nikola Motor, which like Tesla borrowed its company name from Nikola Tesla, announced that it will unveil a working prototype of its first truck, the Nikola One, on December 2nd in Salt Lake City.

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Chinese Electric Car Sales Up 162% So Far This Year

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The spectacular growth of the New Energy Vehicle (NEV) market in China continues; state media reports that sales were up a massive 162% to 170,000 units in the first half of the year. NEVs include pure-electric vehicles (EV) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV).

The 170,000 NEVs were divided by 134,000 EVs and 36,000 PHEVs.

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Electric cars could eclipse fossil fuels by 2027

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Electric power could be the dominant form of propulsion for all new cars sold in the UK as early as 2027, with more than 1.3 million electric cars registered each year, according to forecast analysis by Go Ultra Low, the government and industry-backed campaign.

This means that, according to Go Ultra Low, the UK is on target to meet a government forecast that all new cars and vans will be electrically-powered by 2040.

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Hidden “anti-crime” mics are proliferating on US public transit

Warp drive is closer than you think

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Not too long ago, we had to assume that we would never be able to travel faster than light. This was based on scientists’ belief that we can travel through space but cannot change the nature of space itself. Then the idea of ‘Warp Drive’ came along to challenge all of the barriers that Einstein’s theory identified. Warp Drive is about squashing and stretching space. Maybe it’s time to have a look at how far we’ve come or how close we are to seeing a real warp drive built by humans.

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Welcome to Larry Page’s Secret Flying-Car Factories

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Silicon Valley developed a fleeting infatuation with a startup called Zee.Aero not too long ago. The company had set up shop right next to Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., because Google tightly controls most of the land in the area. A reporter spotted patent filings showing Zee.Aero was working on a small, all-electric plane that could take off and land vertically—a flying car.

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Robots could be the future of mail

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Despite the hype, drones may be only one small part of the future of post. It’s expected that not only drones but self-driving trucks may be the next big thing in mail delivery.

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The UK gets its first driverless car insurer

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As cars have gained more assistive driving features, many questions have been raised as to how driverless vehicles will be insured. If someone has an accident while being piloted by an autonomous car, who is at fault? The driver? The car itself ?

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