Chinese £3,200 budget electric car takes on Tesla. US airline set to buy flying electric taxis for airport runs. Nuro set to be California's first driverless delivery service. Putting a jetpack to the test. The forklift truck drivers who never leave their desks. Driverless taxis to be available in Phoenix 'in weeks' Should your accelerator pedal curb your speeding?
Image copyright PA Car makers and safety experts are arguing about the best technology to curb speeding on Europe’s roads.
The EU is proposing kit that renders the accelerator pedal temporarily unresponsive when the speed limit is reached. Jet suit paramedic tested in the Lake District 'could save lives' Media playback is unsupported on your device A jet suit for paramedics which would see patients reached in minutes by a "flying" medic has been tested by the Great North Air Ambulance Service.
After a year of talks between GNAAS and Gravity Industries, a first test flight was carried out in the Lake District. Andy Mawson, director of operations at GNAAS, came up with the idea and described seeing it as "awesome". Canada Tesla driver charged over 'napping while speeding' Image copyright Alberta RCMP A Canadian man has been charged with dangerous driving for allegedly taking a nap while his self-driving Tesla car clocked up more than 90mph (150km/h).
Police said both front seats were fully reclined, and the driver and passenger were apparently asleep when they were alerted to the incident in Alberta. The Tesla Model S was doing 140km/h but sped up to 150km/h when a police officer turned on his emergency lights. Plug-in hybrids are a 'wolf in sheep's clothing' Image copyright Getty Images Carbon dioxide emissions from plug-in hybrid cars are as much as two-and-a-half times higher than official tests suggest, according to new research.
Plug-in hybrid vehicles are powered by an electric motor using a battery that is recharged by being plugged in or via an on-board petrol or diesel engine. They account for 3% of new car sales. Uber's self-driving operator charged over fatal crash. Image copyrightReuters The back-up driver of an Uber self-driving car that killed a pedestrian has been charged with negligent homicide.
Elaine Herzberg, aged 49, was hit by the car as she wheeled a bicycle across the road in Tempe, Arizona, in 2018. Tesla Autopilot detects speed limits and green lights. Tesla cars in the US can now read speed limit signs and detect green lights, following a new software update.
The vehicles' Autopilot system generates a speed limit warning on the dashboard display and sends a notification if the car is sitting still at a green traffic light. The features were released in the latest update of Tesla's "full self-driving" version of Autopilot. Elon Musk says full self-driving Tesla tech 'very close' Image copyright Getty Images Tesla will be able to make its vehicles completely autonomous by the end of this year, founder Elon Musk has said.
It was already "very close" to achieving the basic requirements of this "level-five" autonomy, which requires no driver input, he said. Tesla's current, level-two Autopilot requires the driver to remain alert and ready to act, with hands on the wheel. Segway: End of the road for the much-hyped two-wheeler. Image copyright Getty Images Segway is ending production of its original two-wheeler, which was popular with city tour guides and some police forces - but not the public.
Launched in 2001, the much-hyped self-balancing vehicle promised to revolutionise personal transport. The Segway, invented by US engineer Dean Kamen, debuted with much fanfare, but struggled to make a profit. Accidents didn't help with the Segway's popularity, and the company was bought by Chinese rival Ninebot in 2015. Made at a factory in New Hampshire, in the US, production of the Segway Personal Transporter will end on 15 July. How Elon Musk aims to revolutionise battery technology. Image copyright Reuters Elon Musk has perhaps the most exciting portfolio of businesses on the planet.
There's SpaceX with its mission to Mars, and Tesla with its super-fast hi-tech electric cars. He claims his Hyperloop concept could revolutionise public transport. And even his Boring Company is kind of interesting - it aims to find new ways to dig tunnels. How Regenerative Braking Works. Every time you step on your car's brakes, you're wasting energy.
Physics tells us that energy can not be destroyed. So when your car slows down, the kinetic energy that was propelling it forward has to go somewhere. Most of it simply dissipates as heat and becomes useless. Tesla Autopilot crash driver 'was playing video game' Image copyright Reuters An Apple employee who died after his Tesla car hit a concrete barrier was playing a video game at the time of the crash, investigators believe. The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said the car had been driving semi-autonomously using Tesla's Autopilot software. Tesla instructs drivers to keep their hands on the wheel in Autopilot mode. But the NTSB said more crashes were foreseeable if Tesla did not implement changes to its Autopilot system. The authority has published the results of a two-year investigation, following the crash in March 2018. Self-driving delivery van ditches 'human controls' Image copyright Nuro The first self-driving vehicle designed without basic human controls such as steering wheels, pedals or side view mirrors has been granted permission to test on US roads.
Nuro, the company behind the design, makes autonomous delivery vans. The vehicle is Nuro's second generation of its vehicles, which it is calling R2 and will be tested in Houston, Texas. This is the first exemption to a rule requiring vehicles to have controls for human operators. Most of the rules for testing vehicles require features that allow a driver to safely take control of them. But in a statement, the US transport secretary Elaine Chao said given that the vehicle's top speed is capped at 25mph, these requirements "no longer make sense".
The Department of Transportation (DoT) will also be enforcing greater oversight of the testing. Portl's 'holoportation booth' lets users beam-in live and life-sized. CES 2020: Manta5's electric bike rides on water. Behind the wheel of a hydrogen-powered car. Image copyright Getty Images It's a question I couldn't avoid as I drove across central England in a borrowed car powered by a hydrogen fuel cell. The Hyundai ix35 was fast, eerily quiet - they've installed a little electronic jingle so you can tell when you've switched it on - and there was a reassuring 230 miles (370 km) left on the clock. And best of all, I drove with the smug knowledge that when a vehicle is powered by hydrogen, the only exhaust product is water. Quite a difference from my own 13-year-old, one-litre petrol engine: noisy, slow and undeniably dirty. So why, I wondered, is this clean, green technology lagging far behind the hybrid and all-electric sectors?
The relatively small hydrogen market is dominated by the Asian giants: Toyota, Honda and Hyundai. In early October in Tokyo amid great razzmatazz, Toyota unveiled its latest fuel cell Mirai saloon, which it hopes to launch in late 2020. European brands including BMW and Audi are also fine-tuning their own hydrogen vehicles. Electric scooters: France introduces new rules to 'restore tranquillity' Image copyright Reuters France is bringing in new rules for the use of electric scooters following hundreds of incidents involving the vehicles, including several deaths. From Saturday, riders will be required to be at least 12 and will not be able to ride their scooter on the pavement. Tesla motors make classic Ferraris go faster. Image copyright MATTHEW QUITTER Every time a Tesla hits a tree, it's a gift for these enthusiasts.
Around the world, a cottage industry is growing in converting classic cars into electric vehicles. Small firms are buying up old Nissan and Tesla parts and bolting them into Ferraris, Porsches and BMWs, making them cleaner, easier to maintain and even quicker. The basic process differs little from firm to firm: take out the engine and fuel tank and replace them with a battery pack and motor, often connecting the motor to the old gear box. They try to change as little as possible so that the process is reversible.
Hyundai releases car with solar panel roof. Image copyright Hyundai Hyundai has released a version of its Sonata hybrid that has solar panels to help charge its battery. Man crosses English Channel by flyboard. Are speed limiters the best way to reduce road deaths? How smart are Highways England's smart motorways? Electric cars: New vehicles to emit noise to aid safety. Tech gives drone the ability to avoid mid-air crashes. Robots on the road - how close is our driverless future? It was on the motorway near Phoenix, Arizona, that I realised fully driverless cars might be quite a distant dream. And that was because our Google Waymo robo-taxi seemed incapable of leaving that motorway.
Should you buy an electric car? News. Stuff Elon Musk Said About Tesla Autonomous Cars on Monday, Ranked. Elon Musk Was Right: Cheap Cameras Could Replace Lidar on Self-Driving Cars, Researchers Find. Police detectors to warn mobile phone-using drivers. Image copyright Getty Images Mobile phone detectors are to be used by police to find drivers using devices at the wheel. The Thames Valley and Hampshire forces are rolling out the technology to show when motorists are using their phones. UK train passengers offered smart tickets. Google Wing launches first commercial drone delivery service. Autonomous shuttle to be tested in New York City. The Tesla Model Y is a 300-mile-range Model 3 doppelgänger coming in fall 2020.
BMW and Daimler invest €1bn in new car venture. Emoji number plates launched in Queensland. CES 2019: The sat nav of the future has arrived. Are the days of the private car really over? Hyundai shows off 'walking car' at CES. Elon Musk launches high-speed underground tunnel. Why your pizza may never be delivered by drone. The ferry using Rolls-Royce technology that sails itself.