Amazon Hosted Secret Robotics Meeting; GM Starts Pre-Production of All Electric Bolt

Posted: March 23, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

This week in Palm Springs, Amazon hosted an invitation only conference for experts on AI, robotics, and space exploration. Geekwire.com reports the people from Toyota, Rethink Robotics, MIT, UC-Berkeley and others were present. Amazon not only has a big interest in robots….they have over 30,000 of them working in their warehouses, made by Kiva…a company they acquired in 2012.

General Motors has begun pre-production on the all-electric Chevy Bolt, just ahead of the showing Tesla plans for their Model 3. Both vehicles are intended for a mass market, with price tags under 30 grand. Thenextweb.com notes that pre-Production may mean GM isn’t far from full production, so the Bolt could possibly be out in the Fall as a 2017 model…at least 6 months ahead of the smaller sized Tesla Model 3.

Lyft & GM Roll Out Car Rental Program; Glass Goes From Clear to Opaque in a Second

Posted: March 15, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A major change for Lyft, as their partnership with GM bears fruit. Reuters.com says General Motors will begin supplying rental cars, so that Lyft drivers will no longer have to own a car. For starters, GM will provide a fleet of 125 Chevrolet Equinoxes in the Chicago area by month’s end. Drivers can rent the cars for up to eight weeks. Depending on how many rides drivers complete, the cost will range from $99 a week plus 20 cents per mile to free for drivers who complete at least 65 trips a week. Lyft and GM will pay for maintenance and insurance.

Those quickie blind making companies are going to be gnashing their teeth. Cnet.com reports that scientists at Harvard have developed ‘tunable glass,’ which can go from clear to opaque in less than a second. The problem up to now has been that this type of pane has been difficult to make and expensive. The new way has a sheet of glass sandwiched between two sheets of clear, soft elastomer, sprayed with a coat of silver nanowires. Turn on the electrical current, and presto….it turns opaque. They are working on making it turn with less current at this point. One does wonder if all the windows would turn back to clear with a power failure. You might not want to walk around naked during a storm!

GM Buys Self-Driving Car Kit Startup; Mini Fuel Cell for Drones; & Apple’s Event

Posted: March 11, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

General Motors has announced it is acquiring San Francisco based Cruise Automation, which is making sensors to turn regular vehicles into self-driving ones. Techcrunch.com reports that the price is undisclosed, but Fortune reports its over a billion dollars. GM had already partnered with Lyft. GM President Dan Ammann says the automotive giant plans to integrate the Cruise tech into its fleet of vehicle brands as soon as possible! Since GM sells about 10 million cars a year worldwide and 3 million of those in the US, that would put a substantial number of self driving cars on the roads in just a few years!

Pohang University of Science and Technology has built a miniature fuel cell they say can keep a drone in the air for an hour, rather than the usual 15-20 minutes batteries provide. Slashdot.org says the miniature fuel cells could also find their way into smartphones and other devices in the near future. The new type of fuel cell is claimed to have increased performance and higher long term durability.

Apple sent out invites to the tech media yesterday to an event at Cupertino Monday, March 21st. In their usual cryptic style, it merely says ‘Let Us Loop You In.’ It’s widely expected that Apple will show the new 4 inch iPhone SE, a revamped 9.7 inch iPad which may get the Pro designation, and new bands for the Apple Watch. Since it’s Apple, there could always be ‘one more thing!’ Stay tuned!

How Lyft Sees It’s (and Your) Driverless Future; Cup of Joe on the Go

Posted: January 27, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Lyft thinks that by 2030, they’ll be offering you driverless rides. That’s not so surprising, but what they will be IN may well be. As we’ve reported, Lyft has partnered with General Motors, with the latter pumping a half billion into the ride sharing service. According to buzzfeed.com, Lyft plans to furnish different types of vehicles to customize your ride. The vehicles will be like pods, according to the ride share service…not built around a driver as with present day vehicles. For a longer trip, you might call a napping pod, or you could hail one that offers a mani-pedi for a little spiffing up. Some may be all glass at the top for scenic routes. Other options considered may be carriage seating, where people face one another, or single pods for a quick trip across town. As predicted by others, individual car ownership may dwindle to a tiny number of hardcore driving enthusiasts. It’s only 15 years away…tech has a way of disrupting industries at warp speed.

A Kickstarter that every commuting coffee drinker will love, and Starbuck’s will hate is on the way by May. Mashable.com reports that the MoJoe mobile coffee system, which had shot for $20,000, has raised over $73,000, and will be on the way to backers by May. It looks like a Thermos, but you pour water into it, and a battery heats the water and pushes it up at 200 degrees through a mini filter full of grounds. Presto! Freshly brewed coffee in 6 to 10 minutes, depending on the temperature of water you pour in! The coffee is held in a separate chamber. The battery is rechargeable, and you can plug it in…the Thermos is designed to fit regular cup holders.

UberEATS Going Live in 10 Cities; More On iOS Nightshift and New Music Memos App; GM Launches Ridesharing Business

Posted: January 21, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

If you’re really wanting carry out, but don’t want to get out, and don’t want a pizza, there have been limited options. Uber has been testing UberEATS, where they’ve partnered with restaurants to deliver food to your door. According to thenextweb.com, UberEATS will go live in March in LA, Dallas, Seattle, Chicago, NY, Austin, Washington, D.C., Houston, San Francisco, and Atlanta. The test service has been lunch only, but in March, you’ll be able to order breakfast, lunch, or dinner delivered.

Nightshift, the new feature coming to iOS that dims the blue portion of screens evenings so users don’t disrupt their sleep so much, may be available on the Control Center pull up. Macrumors.com says it has showed up on Apple Canada’s iOS 9.3 preview page there. It may not fit on the smaller iPhone screens, but there’s room on the Plus models and iPads. Apple also rolled out a nice companion app to GarageBand. Music Memos lets musicians and songwriters record, analyze, and manipulate uncompressed audio on iPhones and iPads. You can also overlay the tracks with added bass and drums…it calculates the correct tempo and chords. GarageBand has added Live Loops, a visual feature to help in loop creation, and gesture controlled DJ type effects.

Just days ago, we reported that General Motors quietly bought defunct ride sharing business Sidecar, and previously had put $500 million into Lyft. Now, detroitnews.com reports that GM has launched Maven, a car sharing brand, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The citywide service-something like Zipcar- features GM vehicles in 21 spots around the city a person can rent for as low as $6 and hour. Although the auto maker sees private car ownership continuing for some time, they note that 5 to 6 million people right now already use transportation sharing services. The cars are equipped with 4G wireless internet, and sync smartphones with Apple Pay and Android Auto while the owner uses the GM shared vehicle. Price includes insurance and fuel.

Apple Investigates Li-Fi for Mobile Devices; GM Quietly Buys Sidecar

Posted: January 19, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Not long ago, we reported on Li-Fi, and how it could use light to replace Wi-Fi, only with much more speed and bandwidth. Now, thenextweb.com has found a reference to Li-Fi compatability in Apple’s iOS 9 code and iOS 9.1 firmware. This, along with an Apple patent dug up from 2013 that appears to be a Li-Fi transmitter point to Cupertino baking it in to iOS devices. Don’t look for it by the iPhone 7, though…the infrastructure doesn’t even exist yet…no one’s built a Li-Fi router, for example.

Recently, General Motors dropped $500 million into Uber rival Lyft. The plot thickens, and now it’s been revealed that they have quietly purchased failed rival Sidecar for $30 million. Most of the employees are moving over to GM. It looks like their plans to build autonomous vehicles specifically for ride sharing are heating up. Ford and Mercedes are also working on similar projects. Uber has lots of valuation and a head start, but it looks like the car makers are getting serious about not going the way of the buggy whip.

German Car Makers Heating Up on Hydrogen; Samsung New Smartwatch/Fitness Tracker?

Posted: January 18, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Audi and Mercedes are getting excited about hydrogen fueled cars. For Mercedes, it’s back to the future…they first had a fleet of them in 1980, but with a 150 mile range and 45 minutes to fuel up, killed the project. Now Audi has showed it’s h-tron Quttro fuel cell SUV at the North American International Auto Show, and according to arstechnica.com, Mercedes has green-lighted production of it’s fuel cell version of the GLC SUV to sell in 2017. BMW has showed an i8 and a 5 series with fuel cells, but neither is set for production so far. General Motors has partnered with the Army to investigate suitability of fuel cell EVs for military use. Toyota and Honda are well along in hydrogen fuel cell tech, too. Toyota has the 2016 Mirai that’s actually for sale. California…where you can buy a fuel cell EV, has now increased the subsidy on them up to $6500 on top of any federal incentive. A combination of hydrogen fuel cell and electric may be the wave of the automotive future…along with driving by Jarvis, apparently.

Details are sketchy, but Samsung may be about ready to launch new wearable, possibly to replace the less than exciting Gear Fit. It’s called SM-R150 for now, and a watch version has a rotating bezel like the Gear Fit. The interesting thing is a picture with one on a shirt…like a removable that you don’t have to keep on your wrist. Engadget.com points out that leaks so far don’t indicate if it will be a full blown smart watch or something more like a Fitbit, but expect it to be revealed in the coming months.

Facebook Tests Yelp Killer; GM Ahead of the Pack with Apple CarPlay

Posted: December 15, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A fair amount of movement at Facebook of late. On the heels of successfully splitting off private messages to their Messenger app on mobile, Facebook is doing the same now with their Photo Syncing, making users use their Moments app instead. But there’s something being tested out that may be a ‘Yelp’ killer, according to thenextweb.com. It’s called ‘Professional Services,’ and it helps you search for businesses around you, then shows you ratings and recommendations on where to go. You can search for things like dentists, pizza or veterinarians, type a city, and results appear with a star rating and a review. Contact details and a map are included. Right now, it’s only on the desktop, but if they launch it for mobile, Yelp and Foursquare could take big hits.

Giving people what the want…what a concept! It’s working for GM, and dealers say it’s helping them sell cars. What ‘it’ is is Apple CarPlay. Appleinsider.com reports that General Motors has rolled out CarPlay faster and across more models than competitors, and dealers are reporting that it’s helping close deals. For 2016, GM has added 14 Chevrolet models and now most Cadillac models have the system…for a total of 27 models with CarPlay…far more than any other auto company. Apple Maps is a big selling point, as navigation systems usually run around $1000, and you get navigation free with CarPlay. Users report GM’s CarPlay works better than those in BMW or Porsche.

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