rides

An experimental internet school bus may soon be the norm. Empire High School outside Tucson, Arizona has a yellow school equipped with a mobile Internet router provided by Autonet Mobile at a cost of $200 plus a $60 per month Internet service contract. Autonet Mobile has also provided routers for schools on Florida, Missouri, and Washington, DC, which will enable students to access the Internet.

Rolling Study Hall Homework for the road
Image Credit: Joshua Lott/NYTimes

Empire High has made other digital innovations in the past as well - such as issuing laptops to students instead of textbooks since 2005, and by offering strong Internet signals in every classroom as well as on the football field. In Empire`s experiment, at least, the internet bus is responsible for eliminating nearly all behavioral problems on the bus.

Source: New York Times

01.20.10 NASA will officially unveil its newest ride, which will quite possibly illustrate how electric flight can revolutionize personal transportation. The most limiting characteristic is that it has a range of only 50 miles. However, batteries are growing more dense by the day, so in years to come, the range will be drastically improved.

Being electrically propelled means the craft requires no air intake, which in turn means (in theory) it can reach 30,000 feet before battery power limitations would force it to descend. Obviously, a human pilot would require a pressurized cabin.

The aircraft is a conceptual design focusing on the ability of a redundant electric propulsion system to provide new capabilities for Vertical Takeoff and Landing aircraft. Specifically utilizing electric motor variable rpm to accomplish a low tipspeed prop-rotor (400 ft/sec tip speed at hover and 200 ft/sec at cruise) to accomplish an order of magnitude reduction in community noise for close proximity operations (30-40 db reduction). The variable rpm capability also achieves a 25% improvement in prop-rotor efficiency through operation at optimal advance ratios.

The Ford Fusion Hybrid is a gasoline-electric hybrid powered version of the mid-size Ford Fusion sedan developed by the Ford Motor Company, and launched to the U.S. market in March 2009 as a 2010 model, together with its twin the Mercury Milan Hybrid. The Fusion Hybrid is manufactured at Ford’s Hermosillo Stamping & Assembly plant, located in Sonora, Mexico. Ford set a modest sales target of about 25,000 vehicles a year for the Fusion Hybrid and the similar Mercury Milan.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ratings for the Ford Fusion Hybrid are 41 miles per US gallon (5.7 L/100 km; 49 mpg-imp) for city and 36 miles per US gallon (6.5 L/100 km; 43 mpg-imp) for highway. When driving electric-only mode (EV mode) the Fusion can achieve 47 mph and up to 2 miles of continuous EV driving. In city driving a full tank delivers 700 miles (1,126.5 km)

2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid In Depth Interior and Exterior Overview

Ford is going to turn its rides into rolling WSiFi hotspots via its next generation in-car connectivity technology, SYNC. SYNC will utilize the owner’s compatible USB mobile broadband modem (air card). The SYNC platform will produce a secure wireless connection - which will be accessible to anyone within the vehicle equipped with a Wi-Fi-enabled device. However, drivers would be prudent to resist temptation.

Doug VanDagens, director of Ford’s Connected Services Solutions Organization outlined the plan in a statement, “The speeds with which technology is evolving, particularly on the wireless front, makes obsolescence a real problem. We’ve solved that problem by making SYNC work with just about any technology you plug into it. By leveraging a user’s existing hardware, which can be upgraded independently from SYNC, we’ve helped ensure forward compatibility with whatever connectivity technology comes next.

Ford SYNC security is set to WiFi Protected access 2 (WPA2). It requires that users enter a randomly chosen password. Piggybacking is prevented by requiring every new device SYNC sees for the first time to be specifically authorized by the user to join the network.

New SYNC real-time information delivers personalized news updates to drivers mobile phones while helping them navigate around trouble spots, saving time and fuel. Other features include: traffic, direction and information, industry-leading voice-recognition software, integrated GPS technology and a customers Bluetooth-capable mobile phone. Debuting this spring, it will provide simple hands-free access to personalized traffic reports, precise turn-by-turn driving directions and up-to-date information including business listings, news, sports, and weather. The models equipped with the latest version of SYNC have yet to be revealed.