Hasta La Gadget!

If you tend to drive at night, you know that it can get dangerous on roads without lighting. That’s one of the reasons why some engineers in the Netherlands decided to make their highways glow in the dark.

It was first suggested by Studio Roosegard back in 2012, and it was conceived to make roads safer as well as cut down on the amount of electricity needed to maintain the lighting on long stretches of highway. To this end, the N329 highway in Oss now has a 500 meter-long (~1640 foot) stretch which has glow-in-the-dark road markings. To pull off the trick, a photoluminescent powder was integrated into the road marking paint, and the lines charge up from sunlight captured during the daytime.

I have one concern though – how long will this paint last? It’s a known fact that paint on roads needs to be reapplied every few years.

[via Wired]

Oh, to be a cyclist in the Netherlands. This steel tensioned deck lets cyclists ride high above a busy multi-lane highway in Eindhoven—one of the most bike-friendly areas in the world.

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The city responsible for the first solar-powered family car and a building shaped like a UFO is no stranger to creativity. Eindhoven, Netherlands was recently named “most inventive city” by Forbes magazine, probably thanks to the High Tech Campus (HTC) research and development center located there. The HTC is the result of the Dutch government’s initiative to bolster high-tech innovation in the region after rounds of layoffs from companies like Philips. Scads of tech firms are holed up within HTC’s walls including IBM, Intel and Accenture, with a focus on open cooperation and sharing of ideas and resources. Apparently, this has paid off in spades. According to the HTC’s website, the campus is responsible for roughly 50 percent of the Netherlands’ almost 10,000 patents each year. Yowza.

[Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons]

Filed under: Science, Alt

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Via: Phys

Source: Forbes

Swiss company ABB has been chosen by Fastned to provide chargers for over 200 EV charging stations throughout the Netherlands, in what will be that nation’s largest such network. The largely solar-fueled stations will be spaced out along Dutch highways at a maximum distance of 50 kilometers from each other. Fastned will be using ABB’s Terra fast chargers, which are compatible with a large number of vehicles, including “all major car brands from Europe, Asia and the USA.” Each charger will also be connected to the internet, allowing ABB to push software updates and provide customers with remote assistance. The first batch of chargers will land roadside in September with rollout expected to be completed in 2015. There’s one more image and video after the break.

Filed under: Transportation

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Netflix mentioned another European country was in its sights for this year and tonight it’s announced the new region it will service is the Netherlands. As is its custom, it will be offering Dutch viewers a package of movies and TV shows for one low price, including its ever-growing slate of original series. There’s no word yet on what that price will be, an exact launch date or what devices will be supported, but interested residents can sign up for alerts at Netflix.nl starting today.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Source: Netflix