First Self-Driving Car Just From Uber Hit the Streets

Uber has announced that it is testing its first self-driving car, a hybrid Ford Fusion, around Pittsburgh throughout the coming weeks. The car, developed by Uber’s Advanced Technologies Center (ATC), is outfitted with a variety of sensors. These include radars, laser scanners, and high-resolution cameras to map details of the environment.

But the car isn’t going solo just yet. A human will be in the driver’s seat to monitor operations.

Uber chose Steel City for its “world-class engineering talent and research facilities,” stating that Pittsburgh’s “wide variety of road types, traffic patterns and weather conditions” makes it an ideal testing ground.

Pittsburgh Mayor William Peduto welcomes their choice: “We’re excited that Uber has chosen the Steel City as they explore new technologies that can improve people’s lives — through increased road safety, less congestion, and more efficient and smarter cities.”

Uber is making the shift to self-driving cars because, as they note, some 94% of road accidents involve human error. They are joining Google, Ford, Volvo, and Lyft in an alliance that aims to urge lawmakers to revise current existing laws stating that artificial intelligence is not (and cannot be) a legal driver.

Source: Pennsylvania

Comments

Wind Turbines

The Bahrain World Trade Center is the first skyscraper to have wind turbines integrated into the structure of the building.Three large wind turbines are suspended between two office towers. The towers are aerodynamically tapered to funnel wind and draw air into the turbines. This airfoil tapering allows the wind to enter the turbines at a perpendicular angle and increases air speed as much as 30 percent in each of the 95 ft wide turbine rotors. The turbines supply about 15 percent of the electricity used by the skyscraper - approximately the same amount of electricity used by 300 homes. Source: www.norwin.dk

10 URLs to Find Out What Google Knows About You

Google is much more than just a search giant. It is also home to many of your favorite products: Gmail, YouTube, and Chrome, just to name a few. Apart from that, it also offers many products to help you keep track of your data . Most of these are hidden deep inside the My Account dashboard, which many users don’t really know of. These hidden tools may reveal interesting details about your usage of Google’s many services. We’ve compiled a list of important Google URLs of some hidden tools that carry information of what you did with Google, mostly from the searches that you have made on their many products, the voice searches and typed out Google searches that you have made. Are you ready to find out what how Google knows about you ? 1. Google Dashboard Google Dashboard offers transparency and control over the personal data stored with your Google Account. You can view and manage the data gener...

New record energy efficiency for artificial photosynthesis

As the world moves towards developing new avenues of renewable energy, the efficiencies of producing fuels such as hydrogen must increase to the point that they rival or exceed those of conventional energy sources to make them a viable alternative. Now researchers at Monash University in Melbourne claim to have created a solar-powered device that produces hydrogen at a world-record 22 percent efficiency, which is a significant step towards making cheap, efficient hydrogen production a reality. Efficiency records for solar-powered hydrogen production have continued to rise over the years, and much more rapidly as the technology and techniques improve. Even as late as December last year Gizmag reported a solar-driven hydrogen record efficiency at the time of just 12.3 percent, so this new record shows a very healthy 10 percent improvement on that and beats out the previous record of 18 percent. Splitting water using electricity to produce hydrogen and oxygen has been a...

Daily Tech News

Search This Blog