Move over, Google. Audi just became the second company to be licensed to run autonomous vehicles in Nevada. As we saw at an exhibition of the tech from its Electronic Research Laboratory, its cars are already well on their way to ditching the driver.
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Once we understand the points at which the human brain makes bad decisions that affect our health, we can begin to find ways to influence us to not make those decisions at all. It's a lot cheaper than a visit to the ER.
Is this the solution the U.S. Postal Service needs to reach solvency? Probably not, but German mail carriers will soon have a faithful truck that stays close by, without anyone in the driver's seat.
Roving robots are something we take for granted. But the tech that makes robots mobile (and soon, robot tech that moves us, too) is clever stuff. Here's what's been happening in the world of robo-motion.
Listening to a car manufacturer drone on about how much money its automobile will "save" you over the course of its lifetime is snoozy at best and suspicious at worst. Volkswagen makes the point obliquely by letting you discover it for yourself -- in a charming set of animated infographics called "True Life Costs."
It's still a car-salesman tactic in the end -- as the incessant voiceover and pop-ups can attest -- but the overall experience is so packed with interesting facts and delightful interactive elements, it's hard to hold it against them.
Like Dylan at Newport, the scraggly old VW bus is going electric.
Volkswagen is expected to introduce a conceptual, iPad-enabled Microbus EV at the International Motor Show in Geneva tomorrow. The vehicle goes by the name Bulli -- which is what Germans have always called it -- and it’s got all the modern amenities the original gas-guzzler never had (and sorely needed) and then some. The electric motor throws up 85 kW of power and travels as far as 186.4 miles before needing a recharge. A removable iPad in the center console handles your hands-free phone and GPS navigation.
If CEO Andrew Mason's candid response--"We hate that we offended people, and we're sorry that we did it"--wasn't evidence enough that these ads were poorly executed, a new report from Nielsen leaves nothing to the imagination.
