Transportation – Lifeboat News: The Blog

May 23
2017

Self-driving cars could cost America’s professional drivers up to 25,000 jobs a month, Goldman Sachs says

The full impact of self-driving cars on society is several decades away — but when it hits, the job losses will be substantial for American truck drivers, according to a new report from Goldman Sachs.

When autonomous vehicle saturation peaks, U.S. drivers could see job losses at a rate of 25,000 a month, or 300,000 a year, according to a report from Goldman Sachs Economics Research.

Truck drivers, more so than bus or taxi drivers, will see the bulk of that job loss, according to the report. That makes sense, given today’s employment: In 2014, there were 4 million driver jobs in the U.S., 3.1 million of which were truck drivers, Goldman said. That represents 2 percent of total employment.

May 22
2017

Moogfest Day Three Highlights: Robot Car, Immortality Bus & Particle Physics

Here’s a write-up of Moogfest that has a section dedicated to the Immortality Bus and transhumanism:

The ExitEvent team is all hands on deck for the next four days as we try to capture all the cool stuff going on in downtown Durham for Moogfest. We’ll post photos, videos, stories and soundbites as we get them. Feel free to submit your own captures as well!

Thanks for following along!

(photo above, credit to Moogfest)

May 21
2017

Uber vs Google: And now, the self-driving car war gets nasty

There’s just not enough tech talent out there.

May 20
2017

A trip in Airbus’s flying car will cost the same as ground taxi

Airbus has revealed a trip in its flying taxi will cost ‘the equivalent of a normal taxi’ — from $1.50 to $2.50. The firm is set to release a working craft in 2020 to alleviate the ever-growing issue of traffic jams.

May 20
2017

Volvo’s Self-Driving Garbage Truck Wants Your Trash

The truck also offers “major environmental upsides,” Volvo said, since “gear changing, steering and speed are constantly optimized for low fuel consumption and emissions.”

Volvo plans to test the autonomous truck with Renova through the end of the year.

“There is amazing potential to transform the swift pace of technical developments in automation into practical benefits for customers and, more broadly, society in general,” Stenqvist said. “Our self-driving refuse truck is leading the way in this field globally, and one of several exciting autonomous innovations we are working with right now.”

May 19
2017

U.S. Air Force Sends Robotic F-16s Into Mock Combat

The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratories and Lockheed Martin have demonstrated a mixed formation of manned and unmanned F-16s in a simulated combat environment.

The Have Raider demonstration at Edwards Air Force Base in California included two phases, Lockheed announced on April 10, 2017. The first phase, Have Raider I, focused on formation-flying. Have Raider II sent the pilotless F-16 on a mock bombing run through “dynamic” enemy defenses.

“This demonstration is an important milestone in AFRL’s maturation of technologies needed to integrate manned and unmanned aircraft in a strike package,” Capt. Andrew Petry, an AFRL engineer, said in a Lockheed press release.

May 19
2017

Tomorrow I give a 90-minute talk and Q&A at Moogfest on the cross-country 4-month Immortality Bus journey

My event starts at 4:30PM and is at: Carolina Theatre, Cinema 1 309 W Morgan St, Durham, NC 27701 The Immortality Bus, despite controversy and resistance from some transhumanists, defied many odds and has become one of the widely discussed pieces of art and events in the futurist world. Come watch never before seen slides on how the bus, science activism, and my presidential campaign made its way across America and delivered the Transhumanist Bill of Rights to the US Capitol. http://sched.co/AGbE & https://moogfest2017.sched.com/artist/info6094

May 18
2017

Uber’s new app for truckers could disrupt one of America’s core industries

Uber launched a new app on Thursday called Uber Freight, which matches trucking companies with loads to haul.

The formal launch of the app marks Uber’s long-anticipated move into the trucking industry — potentially disrupting one of the most popular professions in the U.S.

With 9.73 million workers, transportation and material moving is the fourth-largest employment group in the U.S., behind office staff, salespeople and food preparation workers, according to May 2016 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Of transportation workers and movers, general freight trucking and specialized freight trucking are among the industries with the highest employment levels, the BLS said.

May 17
2017

Plasma jet engines that could take you from the ground to space

Jet engines that compress gas into a plasma have been successfully tested at ground level for the first time.

May 17
2017

Elon Musk Finally Confirms What The Boring Tunnels He’s Making Are Actually For

The Rand Corporations 1960’s plans for an underground hypersonic tube train transport system. The plan back then was from NYC to LA in about 20 minutes.

We now have an idea of just what Elon Musk’s Boring Company is going to be for. Yes, it’s to solve traffic, but it looks like it isn’t meant just to be your usual tunnel for cars. In a new update today, the company asserts that it’s actually building a tunnel that can also run the Hyperloop.

Serial entrepreneur Elon Musk is ready to conquer space, roads, roofs, and now even tunnels. What started out as a simple musing on Twitter has become a full-blown startup aptly named The Boring Company. Today, the company added an FAQ page to their website, which offers an abundance of new information about their specific goals.

The most notable announcement that was finally confirmed? The Hyperloop.