Impact Lab – Page 351 – A Laboratory of the Future Human Experience

Tesla

Tesla Giga Texas will produce the Cyberquad, the ATV that debuted alongside the Cybertruck. The Cyberquad gained popularity after its appearance during the Cybertruck unveiling, even appearing in one of Travis Scott’s music videos.

“So we’re definitely making the Cybertruck here,” reaffirmed Elon Musk at the recent Annual Shareholders Meeting, referring to Giga Texas. “And so probably the ATV, too,” he added.

When he talked about Tesla’s ATV, Musk was referring to the Cyberquad. The Tesla CEO provided a few details about the upcoming all-electric recreational vehicle. Musk took particular note with regards to the ATV’s safety, stating that since ATVs are inherently dangerous vehicles, Tesla would ensure that the Cyberquad is as safe as possible.

Space

‘Armageddon-style’ spacecraft to crash into asteroid

October 18, 2021

Mission is ‘first test for planetary defence’, says space agency

Nasa has announced plans to send a spacecraft hurtling into an asteroid at 15,000mph to change its path in the US space agency’s first “planetary defence” test.

The mission, known as a Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), will be the Nasa’s “first use of the kinetic impactor technique” in which “a large, high-speed spacecraft is sent into an asteroid’s path to change its motion”, reported CBS News.

Nasa has called the mission “the first test for planetary defence”, and will send the spacecraft on a collision course “to hit the binary near-Earth asteroid Didymos and its moonlet, Dimorphos” on 24 November.

The mission will “assess if it is possible to divert an incoming celestial body”, The Telegraph said, in the hope that we can “avoid a mass extinction event like the one that wiped out the dinosaurs, and most life on Earth, 66 million years ago”.

Scientists have already identified at least 26,000 “near-Earth objects”, 4,700 of which meet Nasa’s classification as “potentially hazardous objects”. These are objects in space that are “larger than 500ft across, pass within 4.7 million miles of the planet, and would cause devastating damage if they hit” the Earth, the paper added.

The Didymos system, the target for the DART demonstration, is made up of two bodies. Didymos, the primary body, is roughly 780 metres across according to Nasa, while its moonlet is about 160 metres in diameter. The space agency hopes to hit the moonlet, which is “more typical of the size of asteroids that could pose the most likely significant threat to Earth”.

Robots

Smart robots do all the work at Nissan’s ‘intelligent’ plant

October 18, 2021

Nissan’s “intelligent factory” hardly has any human workers

By YURI KAGEYAMA

KAMINO KAWA, Japan — Nissan’s “intelligent factory” hardly has any human workers. The robots do the work, including welding and mounting. They do the paint jobs and inspect their own paint jobs.

The factory, on the outskirts of Tokyo, is set to be up and running sometime before April, according to Nissan Motor Co.

Its assembly line is designed so that all three types of models — electric; e-Power, which has both a motor and an engine, and those powered by regular combustion engine — can be built on the same line. Each vehicle is equipped with the right powertrain as it moves along the line.

The workers at the factory can focus on more skilled work such as analyzing data collected by the robots, and on maintaining the equipment.

All automakers are working on robotic technology that can increase adaptability and enable them to respond quickly to market demand.

During the tour, giant mechanical arms equipped with large displays shone light from the displays on to the car’s surfaces from various angles so that cameras could detect the tiniest flaws.

A mechanism quickly wound wires around a metal object that looked like a giant spool, a motor part that Nissan is using to replace magnets now used in electric vehicles. The company says the innovation eliminates the need for rare earth materials, cutting costs.

AI

Avastars And Alethea AI Stage First Conversation Between Intelligent NFTs (iNFTs)

October 18, 2021

AI Collaboration Proves NFTs Aren’t Just Capable of Communicating Directly with Humans, but Also with Each Other

This week, Avastars, the first fully on-chain profile picture NFT project, collaborated with Alethea AI, creator of the intelligent NFT (iNFT) category, to stage the first conversation between iNFTs.

While Alethea AI’s technology was recently used to generate a conversation between an iNFT and a human, namely Avastar #102, Pandora, and NFT42 Founder Jimmy McNelis, this new collaboration marks the first time that Alethea AI’s technology has been used to enable iNFTs to communicate directly with each other.

Avastars #101, Salvatar, and #102, Pandora, converse with one another in a new collaboration between Avastars and Alethea AI.

Collaboration between Avastars and Alethea AI marks the first conversation between intelligent NFTS (iNFTS.)

Aviation

Solar-powered aircraft could spend six months in the stratosphere at a time

October 17, 2021

Image:The solar-powered Zephyr aircraft could soon be spending up to six months in the air at a time

The aircraft could be used for internet connectivity as well as for military purposes, and Airbus has previously signed deals to provide versions of it to the UK’s Ministry of Defence.

Airbus has flown a solar-powered aircraft on two 18-day trips, and says the Zephyr could soon spend six months in the air at a time.

The skinny plane, which resembles an unmanned glider although it has two small propellers, has had two test flights in civilian airspace.

It operates in the stratosphere, higher than planes but lower than satellites, and the company hopes it could help bring internet connectivity to billions of people around the world.

Aviation

With NASA partnership, Orlando begins planning for air taxis, flying cars

October 17, 2021

A rendering of a Lillium jet in flight. The company is planning to build a vertiport in Lake Nona.

By Tribune Content Agency

ORLANDO, Fla. — Orlando is preparing for when flying cars are an option for those who want to soar over congested highways or between nearby cities. And they may arrive far sooner than 2062, as “The Jetsons” predicted.

The city has signed onto a partnership with NASA to develop strategies for welcoming electric oversized drones, which take off vertically from landing pads called vertiports. The city’s first vertiport, to be built by the German company Lillium, is planned for the Lake Nona area.

Though officials suspect the mode of transportation could take off in coming years, so far the Federal Aviation Authority hasn’t approved any such vehicles for use. But a recent study found that a piece of a projected $2.5 billion market could be in play for early adopters of the technology.

“We’ve heard from different operators that their hope is to be in operation with passengers sometime in the 2024-2025 time frame,” said Jacques Coulon, an Orlando transportation planning projects coordinator. “For us, that means they’ll want to have a vertiport in place and so we’ll need to have regulations set and full understanding of what those impacts are before then.”

facebook

One currency to rule them all: Facebook’s Diem has global ambitions

October 17, 2021

There are two big questions on everyone’s lips now: What exactly is Facebook’s Diem, and what it will offer its potential 2 billion users?

By MICHAEL GARBADE

The year 2021 seems to be a big year for the blockchain world as several projects, such as nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and centralized decentralized finance exchanges (CeDeFis), are taking the central stage. Also at the forefront is Facebook’s Libra.

Not too long ago, the media was rife with the news that the world’s largest social media network was developing plans for a global digital currency. Then, after a while, it looked like Facebook shelved plans for it. Disputes with regulators around the globe had a hand in delaying and redirecting Facebook’s plans a bit. Instead of backing out, Facebook decided to strategize and launch a “different” global digital currency later in 2021, after rebranding the project to Diem.

It is different in the sense that they had a change of name and administration. However, the Libra Association, later renamed to Diem Association in December 2020, will manage the project.

Bitcoin

US Launches National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team to Prosecute ‘Criminal Misuses of Cryptocurrency’

October 16, 2021

The U.S. has launched the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, an initiative of the Department of Justice (DOJ), to tackle and prosecute “criminal misuses of cryptocurrency, particularly crimes committed by virtual currency exchanges, mixing and tumbling services, and money laundering.” U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said, “The point is to protect consumers.”

brain hacking

World’s Smallest Brain-Inspired Computer – So Small That It Can Harvest Its Energy Itself

October 16, 2021

The energy consumption of the device will be so small that it can harvest its energy itself, directly from its surroundings. The project has received funding from the Villum Experiment program.

By AARHUS UNIVERSITY

Artificial intelligence (AI) has seen explosive growth in recent years, but despite major progress, the power required to run AI algorithms continues to increase.

In stark contrast to this, the human brain only requires around 20W to perform more than 10 quadrillions (10,000,000,000,000,000) operations. This is 12 orders of magnitude better than modern supercomputer technologies.

“That’s why we’re conducting intensive research into developing new hardware that mimics the structure of the human brain, with neurons, synapses, and neural networks, known as brain-inspired computing (BICs). But even though we’ve managed to drastically reduce the energy consumption of AI algorithms, there’s still a long way to go before BICs are as efficient as the human brain when it comes to size and energy efficiency,” says Hooman Farkhani, an assistant professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Aarhus University.

Aviation

Craft Aerospace’s novel take on VTOL aircraft could upend local air travel – TechCrunch

October 16, 2021

By Laurie Foti

Air taxis may still be pie in the sky, but there’s more than one way to move the air travel industry forward. Craft Aerospace aims to do so with a totally new vertical takeoff and landing aircraft that it believes could make city-to-city hops simpler, faster, cheaper and greener.

The aircraft — which, to be clear, is still in small-scale prototype form — uses a new VTOL technique that redirects the flow of air from its engines using flaps rather than turning them (like the well-known, infamously unstable Osprey), making for a much more robust and controllable experience.

Co-founder James Dorris believes that this fast, stable VTOL craft is the key that unlocks a new kind of local air travel, eschewing major airports for minor ones or even heliports. Anyone that’s ever had to take a flight that lasts under an hour knows that three times longer is spent in security lines, gate walks and, of course, getting to and from these necessarily distant major airports.

“We’re not talking about flying wealthy people to the mall — there are major inefficiencies in major corridors,” Dorris told TechCrunch. “The key to shortening that delay is picking people up in cities and dropping them off in cities. So for these short hops, we need to combine the advantages of fixed-wing aircraft and VTOL.”

Driverless vehicles, Science & Technology News

New York-based Buffalo Automation unveils Greycraft, the world’s first fully autonomous, AI-driven water taxi concept | Tech News | Startups News

October 16, 2021

By Laurie Foti

We wrote about Buffalo Automation in November of 2019 after the New York-based tech startup was selected as one of the 19 semi-finalists to compete for the $3 million investments by New York accelerator GENIUS NY. A lot of exciting things have happened since them.

Last week, Buffalo Automation unveiled the world’s first fully autonomous, AI-driven, passenger-carrying robotaxi in Knoxville, Tennessee next week, opening the door for cities nationwide to adopt this alternative form of transportation. The official launch of the fully operational Greycraft Water Taxi is targeted for early 2021 and will initially be cost-free for residents pending proper transportation permits.

Greycraft is the only solar-powered, autonomous vessel currently capable of carrying passengers and traversing busy waterways. Using the newly released Mayday app, it can also be hailed much like Lyft or Uber. Buffalo Automation has made the possibility of using autonomous water taxis as a safe, reliable, environmentally friendly means of transport, a reality.

Founded in 2015 Thiru Vikram, Buffalo Automation is an AI startup that provides autonomous systems for commercial ships, recreational boats, ports, and waterways. Buffalo Automation’s flagship product, Automate, is a predictive boat navigation system that guides large commercial ships.

Robots

Caltech Researchers Develop Bipedal Robot LEONARDO, Which Can Walk, Fly And Even Skate

October 16, 2021

Bipedal robots like LEONARDO are being considered extremely promising as they are able to tackle complex real-world terrains more easily than humans.

By Harsh Vardhan

In a stunning development, researchers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have developed a bipedal robot named LEONARDO that seamlessly works on two types of locomotion i.e. walking and flying. According to Caltech’s official report, this new technology will make even the most complex of movements extremely smooth. Moreover, the scientists believe that if successful, LEONARDO can be deployed for missions on alien planets like Mars or Saturn’s moon Titan.