AUTONOMOUS CAR

By all accounts, the autonomous car is coming — and soon. By 2020, nations from the U.S. to Singapore will likely have self-driving cars on roadways. These road-aware vehicles will theoretically do away with nearly all traffic collisions and reduce traffic congestion. Quirky auto designer Rinspeed, however, has fixed its considerable talent on another aspect of the autonomous car: just what to do with the passengers.

Since driving will predominantly be done by the vehicle, passengers (even those in the driver's seat) won't really need to stare blankly out the windshield anymore. Instead, Rinspeed suggests an interior that functions more like a lounge than a driverless taxi. As the front seats of their XchangE concept car swivel around a full 180 degrees, the steering wheel drifts to the center of the dashboard, allowing you to recline towards the windshield. The back seat can also fold down, revealing a 52-inch gesture-controlled 4K-resolution display.

 Passengers will be able to settle in for a good movie or finish up some work they hadn't quite gotten to at the office, all while looking up through a pair of brilliant, LED-lined Plexiglas roof panels covered in a "Radiant" surface coating that reflects light in all the colors of the rainbow. If you're getting sleepy, the XchangE can even brew you up a nice cup of cappuccino.

 
 


 All in all, Rinspeed's concept, conceived as an evolution of a Tesla model S, features a record-breaking 20 different seating configurations — two of which even let you take the wheel from each of the front seats. The XchangE will be on show at the Geneva Motor Show next month.

Via Rinspeed

                                                        

FLOATING TURBINES

Floating Balloon turbines

Looking like a wayward jet engine, this floating turbine and its brethren could someday travel to every remote corner of the globe. There, they could deliver electricity and Internet connectivity to people and villages living off-the-grid. Unlike their jet-propelling doppelgangers, however, these turbines are going to need a bit of help getting from point A to B.
Think of these floating turbines as the wind farms of the future and you won't be that far off. Developed by Altaeros energies, the floating turbines are designed to take advantage of the powerful prevailing winds that exist 2,000 feet above our heads. Once they've been inflated and deployed, these floating power plants can generate twice the output of a ground-based turbine. The tethers that keep the turbine anchored in place also send that energy ground-ward.

 While in the air, the turbines can also serve as Wi-Fi, cell service hubs, and weather monitoring stations. Furthermore, the turbine's helium-inflated housing is durable enough for deployment in either the blazing sun or freezing snow. Basically, anywhere you install one of these suckers, you instantly get data coverage, electricity and local weather data, even if your previous system involved a sun dial and carrier pigeons. The things even have a cool name: the BAT. Heck, we've already got Wi-Fi and we'd like one of these floating above the DVICE offices.