Hasta La Gadget!

Self-driving cars are nothing new: Google, Lexus and Audi have all showcased the technology in prototype form before. But these autonomous vehicles are all designed to operate on public roads and handle unforeseen obstacles using advanced sensors like LIDAR. What about cars operating in a controlled environment like a private track? Ford engineers answered this question when they partnered with Autonomous Solutions Inc. to develop robot drivers to test vehicle durability. The GPS-based system (accurate to one inch) allows up to eight autonomous cars to operate simultaneously on the same track.

Durability testing is traditionally rough on both test vehicles and human drivers. The new technology, which is three years in the making, is now being used to test upcoming models (like Ford’s 2014 Transit van). It enables testing 24 hours a day, seven days a week with perfect repeatability. Vehicles send their position and speed to a central computer (monitored by a single person) via a low-latency wireless connection and receive instructions on what maneuvers to perform. This is actually quite similar to what Anki Drive is doing with toy cars. Motors control the steering wheel, gear shifter and pedals to simulate a driver following a predetermined route.

Ford plans to equip the cars with more sensors (such as radar and cameras) to allow a mix of human and robot drivers to operate safely on the same track together. Check out the gallery below and the company’s video and PR after the break.

Filed under: Robots, Transportation

Comments

Via: New York Times

Source: Ford

Tackling an 18-hole golf course does require some bit of endurance and a certain degree of physical fitness for sure. The thing is, it is all the more important to make sure that you remain well hydrated throughout the entire course, so that you do not end up collapsing on the green with your caddy requiring to drive you back to the clubhouse’s medical facilities on a buggy. Well, what better way to show the world your love for the game of golf than with the $89.95 Drink Dispensing Driver?

The Drink Dispensing Driver is pretty much self-explanatory, as it is a drink dispensing golf club which allows you to get a head start on the rest of your mates while you guys are still trudging on the course itself. The unit’s club head and shaft will make it look like it is a normal driver, but it has the secret ability of dispensing 1-oz. per second from a spout in the club head with but a single touch of a button. Whenever it resides in a golf bag, the drink dispensing driver will allow you to maintain the illusion of proper course etiquette, without drawing a second look unless the course officials have this rather keen eye. Capable of keeping up to 54 oz. of refreshments cool or warm for up to five hours, the Drink Dispensing Driver will be powered by a quartet of AA batteries.

[ Drink Dispensing Driver copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Linux godfather Linus Torvalds may have a frosty relationship with NVIDIA, but that hasn’t stopped the company from improving its hardware’s support for the open-source operating system. In fact, the chipset-maker is working on the OS’ compatibility with its Optimus graphics switching tech, which would enable laptops to conserve power by swapping between discrete and integrated graphics on the fly. In an email sent to a developer listserv, NVIDIA software engineer Aaron Plattner revealed that he’s created a working proof of concept with a driver. There’s no word on when the Tux-loving masses may see Optimus support, but we imagine that day can’t come soon enough for those who want better battery life while gaming on their mobile machines.

Filed under: Laptops, Software

NVIDIA working on Linux support for Optimus automatic graphics switching originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Sep 2012 06:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink PC World  |  Gmane  | Email this | Comments

Anyone who often relies on taxi service to get around, as good as it can be, has likely had a driver who was less than courteous — and in the worst cases, outright scary. Samsung wants to keep passengers safe, and drivers honest, through a just-published patent application for an end-to-end taxi service. On a basic level, it’s a taxi finder with a rating system: the mobile app in the patent can hail a nearby cab based on the driver’s “kindness” rating and verify that it’s the right vehicle with a short-range wireless link, not unlike an even more genteel version of Uber. It’s when passengers hop inside that Samsung’s implementation takes on a more distinct shape. If the driver puts customers or the whole cab in danger, a passenger-activated SOS mode flags the car’s location to get the police on the scene before it’s too late. We don’t know how likely Samsung is to implement such a system, although it has been actively developing more advanced backseat technology and filed the US patent in February, a year after its Korean equivalent. We do know this is one of the few patents we’d rather not completely experience first-hand — the only crazy taxis we’re comfortable with sit inside game consoles.

Filed under: Transportation

Samsung files for patent on safe taxi service, we hope we never fully test it originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Aug 2012 13:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  USPTO  | Email this | Comments