UK government swaps paper car tax discs for its vast camera network

The paper car tax disc has had a very good innings, but it’s finally come to the end of its life. Presented proudly by UK motorists for more than 90 years, those circular bits of paper have today officially been replaced by an electronic register. What does that mean for you? Well, you’ll still need to pay for your tax the same way each year, but you’ll no longer need to fix the disc to your windscreen, even if it’s still yet to expire. Authorities can’t now physically check you’ve paid, instead they’ll fully rely on the hundreds of thousands of ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) cameras that adorn Britain’s roads. Considering replacement tax discs (well, forgetting to renew them) cost British motorists more than £7 million a year, some might be glad to see them gone. However, “velologists” (tax disc collectors) might pay a pretty penny to get their hands on one of the last ever discs, as long as you’ve kept it in top notch condition.

[Image credit: funfilledgeorgie, Flickr]

Filed under: Transportation

Comments

.CPlase_panel display:none;

The government insists airlines replace WiFi-allergic cockpit displays

A fleet of 737s and 777s are definitely in line for an upgrade, now that the Federal Aviation Administration has ordered airlines to replace their cockpits’ displays with ones not vulnerable to WiFi signals. Let’s go back a few years to understand what’s going on here. See, back when the use of wireless internet aboard airplanes was only just starting to take off, Boeing conducted a test, which discovered that WiFi signals affected 737 and 777 cockpit displays. These screens, which showed pilots important flight data such as altitude and airspeed, flickered and even blanked out completely in the presence of WiFi. In one particular bad test run, the screen remained blank for a full six minutes.

While that’s obviously not ideal, all the outages happened on the ground and only once during last year’s round of testing. So Honeywell (the displays’ maker) and Boeing just advised airlines to take their planes in and have those screens replaced — an action the FAA was content with back in 2012. (To note, Boeing has started fitting planes built in September 2012 and beyond with updated displays.) Now the FAA is changing its tune, and Honeywell wants to know what has changed since then that has compelled the agency to make the upgrade mandatory.

We’re guessing it’s because airlines are becoming more and more open to the use of WiFi devices onboard, not just by passengers, but also by the flight crew itself, and that has raised safety concerns. After all, six minutes of outage could be fatal when you’re thousands of feet up in the air. It’s unclear how many airplanes will be affected by the mandate at the moment. According to Reuters, though, around 1,300 US planes will have to be refitted with the new screens within the next five years. Since each display costs more than $10,000 each and each plane has several, the upgrade will cost airlines roughly $14 million in total.

[Image credit: Bill Abbott/Flickr]

Filed under: Transportation

Comments

Source: The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Reuters, Federal Register

.CPlase_panel display:none;

Pavlok needs your money to shock more people into breaking bad habits

There’s no way you’d use a shock collar to train your beloved dog, but you wouldn’t mind using one on yourself if it means breaking your nastiest habits, eh? If that’s the case, then your day has come: Pavlok (a wearable band that can zap you with electricity) is now up on Indiegogo, with its designer hoping to raise $50,000 to develop more features and to begin mass production. In order to train yourself to stay away from bad habits or continue doing good ones, you’ll need to program the Pavlok app — for instance, you can instruct it to zap you awake if you hit snooze twice on your alarm. The good news is that you can set the electricity the wristband zaps you with from 17 to 340 volts, so you can adjust it accordingly and make sure each it’s not strong enough to actually hurt.

According to the device’s Indiegogo page, its creator (Maneesh Sethi, a Stanford alumnus) is working on IFTTT integration and also opening up the Pavlok platform so anyone can make an app to go along with it. It even listed some possible software tie-ups, such as instructing the wristband via IFTTT to zap you if you send a message to an ex, to beep loudly and embarrass you whenever you step into a McD’s with the help of a navigation app, or to remind you to walk more when paired up with an exercise app.

When we saw Pavlok earlier this year, the prototypes cost $250 each, but now you have the opportunity to grab one for $125 via Indiegogo if you can wait until it ships out by April 2015 at the earliest. By the way, Sethi’s no stranger to the idea of receiving pain to break bad habits. Back in 2012, he hired a girl off Craigslist to, erm, slap him every time he went on Facebook — something he claims quadrupled his productivity.

Filed under: Wearables, Mobile

Comments

Source: Indiegogo

.CPlase_panel display:none;