google vs. volkswagon…..vw #ftw! ‘come on google, germany already has self-driving taxis!’
Who needs safety drivers? Not Germany’s Freie University, that’s for sure, which has just demonstrated a self-driving taxi to rival Google’s efforts without a soul at the wheel. This laser, radar and sensor-equipped VW Passat, dubbed “Made in Germany,” has a companion iPad app from Appirion to do all the hard work, too — you just start the program, punch in coordinates and wait for the car to extract itself from a nearby parking lot and pick you up from school. Ladies and gents, the future is now. Watch it right after the break.
via Self-driving taxi picks you up at the press of a button (video) — Engadget. Read the rest of this entry »
google + self-driving cars = amazing!
Google has been testing out self-driving cars and have logged over 140k miles so far. Now thats innovation!
flying humvee? the military can’t be serious…
It looks like AAI Corp has, indeed, landed the contract for feasibility studies of the Transformer flying Humvee project, which as far as we can tell takes a lightly armored (if armored at all) four man vehicle and puts it in the air, practically begging to be hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. And if that doesn\’t sound sketchy enough, keep in mind that among the design considerations are gas tanks in the craft\’s wings which, as Spencer Ackerman at Wired points out, would make really obvious targets. The testing should last about a year, and cost DARPA a cool $3 million. If all goes well, AAI could have a partial prototype in 2013.
via Flying Humvee a step closer to reality, still seems like a really bad idea — Engadget.
GoPro bringing high-def helmet cams to the masses, launching $180 HD Hero 960
If you want high-def footage from your lid you have more choices than ever, but if you’re on a budget there just aren’t that many. The 720p ContourHD is currently the best value at around $230, but we’ve received word from GoPro that the company is looking to under-cut that with the upcoming $180 HD Hero 960. We have scant few details about this new model, set for release this fall, but based on the name we’re guessing it’ll fall short of the current HD Hero’s 1080p and offer a maximum of 960p, which should be plenty of pixels for most extremophiles. We also have to figure it will continue with its predecessors boxy stylings, but we’d certainly be happy to see a somewhat sleeker redesign.
Twitter Wants To Play With The Big Boys
Twitter Opening Its Own Custom Data Center In Utah Later This Year
As you may have noticed, Twitter has had some reliability issues over the past few months. Part of this was related to the World Cup, part of it is because they just continue to grow at a fast pace — 300,000 new accounts are created a day now. It has gotten to the point where Twitter needs their own warehouse for tweet storage. So they’re building one, in Salt Lake City.
“Hey ‘melon, chill out!”
Watermelon cooler push cart: perfect for those sultry North Carolina summers
Crazily enough, the device you’re staring at above — jaw solidly on the floor, we’re sure — is real. As in, you can purchase one for you and yours. So far as we can tell, this here watermelon cart (priced at ¥19,950, or a whopping $231) serves to keep your voluptuous fruit cool when being transported from market to mouth, but everything beyond that is lost in translation. What’s curious, however, is that this seems like a device created and sold exclusively in Japan. If we had to bet, though, we’d say it was originally dreamed up by a farmer in eastern North Carolina — you know, the home of watermelon Cook-Out milkshakes, an official watermelon license plate and roads where chop-top school buses are frequently used as watermelon hauling machines.
