Hasta La Gadget!

We have had our fair share of run-ins with 3D printers in the past where news is concerned, and most recently, it is said that 3D printers could pose as a hazardous health risk in the home. I suppose that is not going to stop a certain Ivan Sentch of New Zealand who owns a second generation 3D printer known as Solidoodle, where he will use the Solidoodle to print a 3D car as you can see above. Of course, this does not mean that Ivan is on to the world’s first 3D printed car as that has been done before in the form of the Urbee, although not from the home.

Ivan has been dabbling in 3D printing since January this year, and for him to work on a 3D printed car without any prior experience in the world of 3D printing is even more impressive, as he had to pick up all the knowledge and skills from scratch since last Christmas. So far, Ivan has only 28% of the body left to print and the dash of the Aston Martin DB4 to go, so you can say that he is making quite decent progress.

Like It , +1 , Tweet It , Pin It | 3D Printed Car Looks Impressive Even When Incomplete original content from Ubergizmo.

Students from the University of Texas gave us another reason not to mess with the Lone Star state: they’ll hack your yacht. In cooperation with a luxury boat’s owners, the Longhorns manipulated their $80 million vessel’s nav system, covertly guiding it off-course — all without the crew ever suspecting foul play. By transmitting spoofed global positioning system signals toward the craft, the students tricked its drivers into correcting a non-existent, three-degree course deviation, thus leading them off track. With their work done, the Texans believe this shows exactly how easy it is to exploit civil-band GPS signals. College kids may have conned the helm this time, but it isn’t too far-fetched to think pirates could do the same. Our timbers are shivering just thinking about it.

Filed under: GPS, Transportation

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Source: The Houston Chronicle

Despite apps that let a few lucky Glass owners control their Nest thermostat or unlock that Tesla Model S, one of the futuristic headgear’s most practical applications is still just the default turn-by-turn directions that come courtesy of Google. The R&D department over at Mercedes-Benz realizes that as well, but wants to take it a step further. According to a report in the Silicon Valley Business Journal, the automotive company is working on a Google Glass project that combines both pedestrian and automotive directions to take a user literally from door to door. MBRDNA President and CEO Johann Jungwirth told the publication that he wants Glass to seamlessly transition between walking and in-car navigation. Of course, not everyone has access to the pricey wearable just yet, so the project won’t likely see real-world application any time soon. In the meantime, Mercedes does have a few more down-to-earth solutions for the gadgets you might already have.

Filed under: Transportation, Google

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Source: Silicon Valley Business Journal

There aren’t that many maglev trains in operation yet (one is currently operating in Shanghai, China and another is in Japan). There have been skytrains and monorails before, but this is the world’s first magnetically levitating system of mass transit, which will be built in Tel Aviv, Israel. Previous maglev trains were for intercity journeys, not urban mass transit.

Skytran was designed to reduce urban traffic congestion. It’s supposed to be less expensive to use, faster, and more comfortable than cars or buses. The two-seater pods allow for personal transit between stations.

Vehicles will be requested through a mobile app and are supposed to arrive almost instantly on demand.

The system was designed by engineers from NASA and Skytran. I wonder how this will scale up when tens of thousands of people try to use it every day. It kind of reminds me of the pods in Minority Report.

[via designboom]

We did check out the BMW i3 electric car back when it was a concept as well as a prototype, but I guess the day has finally arrived where BMW unveiled its first mass-production electric car, aptly known as the BMW i3. According to BMW, do not thumb your noses down on the BMW i3, as it is capable of accelerating from 0-60 miles an hour in a matter of seven seconds or so, while a full charge of its battery would be able to give you a range approximately 100 miles.

The BMW i3 is tipped to go on sale Stateside not this year, but sometime in the second quarter of next year, with an estimated sticker price of $41,350 before one takes into consideration federal tax breaks and other incentives. There is also an optional “range extender” which comes in the form of a tiny gasoline motor which should see the price tag increase to touch the $45,000 mark. One thing’s for sure, rides like the BMW i3 will be able to meet future emissions regulations in most regions, making it the ideal purchase, but one thing that needs to be worked on would be the range as well as revamping the existing infrastructure of a country to accommodate the presence of electric cars to make them easier to own and maintain.

Like It , +1 , Tweet It , Pin It | BMW i3 Electric Car Unveiled original content from Ubergizmo.