Something that I realized this year is that I like pondering the future -- looking way out and imagining how the world will be different, what things people will be doing, etc. This probably stems from my interest in technology.
Tesla 7.1 Software: Summoning Car From/To GarageJanuary 10, 2016
Tesla has released the next iteration of their software, and videos are cropping up of people summoning their cars to or from their garage. The car even autonomously opens their garage door.
These "firsts" are really delightful for us tech folk. They bring a smile to my face. Well done Tesla people.
Hyperloop ProgressJanuary 9, 2016
The Hyperloop is of course one of those ideas that is very uncertain. Will it ever turn into a reality? Maybe?!
But things suddenly seem to be heating up -- this week a picture showed up with 20 or so massive tubes sitting out in the desert, ready to be assembled into a test track. Word is that they want to have a prototype track (3 km?) setup by late 2016 or into 2017. That's coming up fast.
That photo for me, I think, was the inflection point. It's when I went from feeling hopeful but skeptical to feeling even a little bit confident that, yes, this thing is going to happen.
And that's a bit startling, because... well, this is the Hyperloop, and it's a very wild and crazy thing to be real.
I'm trying to imagine this miles-long tube, with something whizzing through it at 500+ miles per hour. It feels so imaginary! Time will tell, I guess.
The Air-taxiJanuary 9, 2016
Perhaps a year and a half ago, as the public became more interested in drones, and as the dream of autonomous cars continued to more forward, I had a moment of clarity when the concept of an air-taxi came to mind.
This week at CES, a Chinese company announced their work on a very similar concept:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vGd1Oy7Cw0For now, there's no "taxi service" element to it, but that would obviously be a layer that could be applied to the idea.
It will be interesting to watch this space over the next 20 years to see if any companies are able to make the idea fly.
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