Aston Martin’s luxury EV concept comes with a concierge

The art of burning fuel seems like it would be infra dig, or beneath the upper-class folks who regularly tool around in an Aston Martin. That’s why the maker turned up to the Geneva Motor Show with the Lagonda Vision, an emission-free electric concept car of the future.

Aston has decided to revive the Lagonda marque, with the bold claim that it will become the world’s “first zero-emission luxury brand.” Although that’s easier said and done if the only vehicle you produce is a brand new electric supercar.

Because there’s no whacking great V6-or-8 engine taking up space, the car has been redesigned to be shorter and lower than other rides. With the batteries and drivetrain built into the floor, the company claims that four adults, each one two meters tall, can luxuriate inside the well-appointed cabin.

Lagonda’s concept interior, meanwhile, was designed in partnership with David Snowdon and uses cutting-edge composites. But the carbon fiber and ceramics are then draped in old-timey materials like cashmere and silk, ensuring you’ll never want to eat or drink inside this car.

As for the doors, they open both outwards and upwards, enabling passengers to step out of the vehicle without having to bend. And if that wasn’t luxurious enough, the car will also come with a bespoke concierge service, because of course it does.

Aston Martin intends to put the Lagonda into production by 2021, and wants to cram it full of the latest advances in self-driving technology. There is a steering wheel, which can switch sides depending on which country you’re in, but this will retract if you’re in autonomous mode.

It’s hoped that the vehicle will be a full Level Four autonomous car, enabling the driver to take their eyes off the road for long periods. When doing so, the car will enable them to spin the driver and passenger to spin their chairs around to talk to anyone on the back seat.

Aston Martin claims that the vehicle will have battery storage sufficient to get you 400 miles between recharges, much like Bentley’s own planned electric grand tourer. In addition, the car will come with the latest innovations in wireless charging, since the super-rich are also too posh to pump their own power.

Visitors to the auto show will be able to see two 40-percent size scale models of the (new) Lagonda, one as a coupe, and one as an SUV. And if you’re lucky, and preposterously rich, you can start counting down the days until you can buy one… although displays of excitement are probably a bit beneath you, too.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from the 2018 Geneva Motor Show.

Source: Aston Martin

ESA’s air-breathing thrusters help keep satellites alive longer

Satellites could soon remain in orbit for years on end thanks to new technology that turns air molecules into propellant. A European Space Agency (ESA) team has developed an electric thruster that collects molecules from the top of the atmosphere and gives them electric charges so they can be accelerated and ejected to provide thrust. This could create a new class of satellites able to operate in orbit for long stretches.

Current technology means that satellite missions are limited by the need for on-board propellant. ESA’s GOCE gravity mapper, for example, managed to operate for five years thanks to an electric thruster that minimised air drag, but it still relied on 40kg of xenon — once that was depleted the mission ended. A host of companies, including NASA, ViviSat and The China National Space Administration have already demonstrated some in-space refuelling capabilities, but this is obviously a much more elegant solution.

The new electric thruster, developed for testing by Sitael, works on a passive basis (there are no valves or complex parts), and comprises an intake that’s able to collect and compress the air molecules that otherwise bounce away. According to ESA’s Louis Walpot, the research means air-breathing electric propulsion “is no longer simply a theory but a tangible, working concept, ready to be developed, to serve one day as the basis of a new class of missions.” The team says the thrusters could also be used at the outer fringes of other planets, such as drawing on the carbon dioxide of Mars, potentially opening up far-away planets for exploration in a way that’s been largely unobtainable until now.

Source: ESA

Segway’s Loomo is the robotic hoverboard nobody asked for

Hoverboards are ridiculous. They serve no purpose other than signaling that your laziness is only outpaced by your willingness to spend disposable income on fad gadgets. But if you insist on being piggybacked atop a rolling pedestal like a discount Paul Blart, you do you. Just know that it might as well be on one that also transforms into a robotic sidekick and carries your bags for you.

First revealed at CES 2016, the Segway Loomo is a $1,700 hoverboard. It operates much like those that came before it. You step onto the self-balancing platform, lean forward to accelerate, lean back to slow and reverse. But unlike its predecessors, turning the Loomo is done by pressing the knees against the unit’s center, leaning left and right, which I found to be a far more intuitive method than lifting and pressing the footpads.

The Loomo is surprisingly stable, even when leaning back to stop quickly, though the company does insist that users wear a helmet while riding. It took me only around 10 minutes to get comfortable atop the device (and figure out the whole knee-turning thing). It has a top speed of 11 mph and a range of around 22 miles; its battery can be refilled using a standard outlet in about three hours. What’s more, it can handle up to 15-degree inclines as well as some light off-roading across grass and soil, but you are going to want to avoid running it off curbs and down flights of stairs because, again, it’s a 42-pound, $1,700 hoverboard.

But the Loomo isn’t just for riding — it’s also a robot. Simply tap a button on top of the device and it will extend an emotive touchscreen face, converting from a hoverboard to a package-porting companion-bot.

Actually having it carry your bags can be a bit of a challenge. One can’t simply hang a pack off the Loomo’s back without upsetting its balance. The solution is to simply set the parcels on the unit’s footpads. The Loomo can support up to 200 kg but there is precious little space for broad or wide boxes. There’s no word yet on whether the trailer the company is offering as part of the Loomo Go program, which is designed to deliver packages through office buildings will be made available to regular customers as well.

Situated above its, erm, knee paddles, is an Intel RealSense ZR300 camera as well as a bevy of ultrasonic, infrared and touch sensors. The data they collect are fed into its Detection and Tracking System (DTS) and Human Understanding System (HUS). The DTS helps the Loomo detect and avoid obstacles while in robot mode, the HUS enables it to recognize its owner’s face and track them through crowds.

You can also control the Loomo using voice commands or a smartphone app, leveraging the bot and its onboard 1080p camera to act like a remote-controlled security guard. It even offers a text-to-speech function so that you can communicate with whomever the Loom is looking at. But, again, you’re going to want to keep it away from stairs, especially those leading toward any water features.

Our D.C. office building got a security robot. It drowned itself.

We were promised flying cars, instead we got suicidal robots. pic.twitter.com/rGLTAWZMjn

— 🚀🚀 (@bilalfarooqui) July 17, 2017

Unfortunately, both the voice command and facial-tracking features were rather unreliable during a demo. In a quiet room with three other people, the Loomo repeatedly lost track of me, locked onto someone else even though I was the one speaking to it and ignored my verbal commands half the time. We’re talking sub-Siri levels of listening skills here.

That said, the company is actively working to not only improve the Loomo’s auditory acuity but also expand the number of commands you can issue. There are fewer than six available commands, such as telling it to transform between riding and robot functions or instructing it to follow you. Those software improvements will be pushed out via OTA updates as they become available.

Segway is offering the Loomo through Indiegogo, with a discount for early adopters. Company reps told me the campaign is primarily designed to elicit user feedback and, once it ends, the units should begin shipping sometime around May.

I’m not entirely certain why anyone would think they need a hoverboard as a means of personal transportation to begin with, much less one that costs more than my first car did. That said, the Loomo Go program does sound rather exciting, should the company continue to improve its visual acuity and auditory responsiveness as promised, especially if the robots offer the option of carrying office workers across, say, expansive tech-company campuses — akin to an automated personal shuttle bus — while making its delivery rounds.

Jaguar’s all-electric SUV will start at $69,500 in the US

Pre-orders for the Jaguar I-PACE may have been available starting March 1st, but there was a problem: We didn’t actually know how much the electric crossover SUV would actually cost in the US. Jaguar released that information today at the Geneva Motor Show, and it will start at $69,500.

Considering the I-PACE starts at €63,495 in the UK (roughly $87,216), that pricing is pretty good. It’s especially reasonable when you remember that it’s a Tesla Model 3 competitor, and that electric SUV’s base price is $10,000 higher, $79,500.

The SUV is equipped with a 90 kWh battery and has a range of around 240 miles. Additionally, the car can be charged from zero to 80 percent in 40 minutes using a 100kW DC fast charger, or in 10 hours from a 240V AC wall box. Customer deliveries for the I-PACE are scheduled to begin in the second half of 2018 in the US; you can register your interest in purchasing one of these SUVs at Jaguar’s website.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from the 2018 Geneva Motor Show.

Rimac unveils the 1,900 HP Concept Two electric hypercar

After a shadowy tease, Rimac has unveiled the Concept Two, a hypercar EV with an off-the-wall crazy 1,914 horsepower. That’s about 500 more than pundits were expecting, and will accelerate it to 258 mph in 1.85 seconds, Rimac says. Yes, those figures seem carefully calculated to outdo Tesla’s upcoming next-generation Roadster, which is supposed to hit 60 mph in 1.9 seconds and top out at 250 mph. As a dose of perspective, 1,914 horsepower is 400 more than the Bugatti Chiron, currently one of the world’s fastest, if not the fastest supercars.

Built of carbon fiber, the Rimac Concept Two cuts a dramatic figure. Despite the integrated batteries and other touches designed to lighten things, it still tips the scales at 1,950 kg (about 4,300 pounds), which is a lot for a supercar. It will still corner like its on rails, Rimac says, thanks to torque-steering that’s fully independent on each wheel.

If you get tired of regular cornering, the Concept Two also rocks a full “drifting mode,” letting you switch between the axles and enable your inner rally driver. At the same time, it’ll make sure that you don’t get into trouble thanks to advanced, intelligent traction control.

It’s not just about the pure horsepower. The Concept Two will have Level 4 self-driving capability, according to Rimac founder Mate Rimac, though we’ll believe that when we see it (there are currently zero road cars with that capability). To aid in that, it has eight cameras, a lidar, six radars, and twelve ultrasonic sensors.

That’s just the start of the tech craziness. The hypercar will use facial recognition to unlock the ignition, for one. It can even scan your face to determine your mood and tell whether you might want some high-speed fun or a more relaxed ride. If it feels you’re looking for the “fun” part, the touchscreen will display racing lines you might want to try. If you look like you’d rather not drift around a hairpin, it can set the Concept Two for “cushy.”

Rimac said it will build 150 copies of the Concept Two, which would be a massive output compared to the eight copies it sold of the original. Also, I wouldn’t count on the Level 4 autonomy, unless Rimac has some thing up its sleeve that other, much larger, automakers, don’t. There’s no word on price, but expect to see up to seven digits in that figure.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from the 2018 Geneva Motor Show.

Dyson to go all cordless with vacuums, starting with the Cyclone V10

Between the DC30 from 2009 and the more recent V8 series, Dyson’s handheld vacuum cleaners have barely changed on the outside, so color us surprised when Sir James whipped out a very different-looking machine today. Dubbed the Cyclone V10, this new vacuum resembles an enlarged conventional hair dryer thanks to its repositioned cyclones and bin — these are now in line with the head attachment and exhaust. Together, these form a linear airflow path from front to end, which ends up boosting suction power while also reducing noise. The new bin also benefits from a larger capacity, along with a more intuitive dirt eject mechanism: just remove the head, point at a trash can and push the eject button. It’s literally just point and shoot.

Of course, the star of the show here is really the new V10 digital motor, which boasts eight poles for faster switching, a redesigned impeller for greater airflow efficiency, plus a specially crafted ceramic shaft to reduce weight while still coping with spinning speeds of up to 125,000 rpm — a bump from the V8’s 110,000 rpm but at around half the weight. Combining this powerful core with the redesigned body, the Cyclone V10 is claimed to be lighter yet 20 percent more powerful than the V8. In fact, Sir James went as far as saying that he now has a handheld vacuum with the same performance as its full-size counterpart, such that “it is the reason why I’ve stopped developing full-size vacuums.”

The interesting thing about the V10 motor is that it can adapt to different altitudes, in order to deliver a consistent performance no matter where. Apparently the altitude between different floors in the same household can already affect a vacuum cleaner’s performance, let alone living in “a high altitude city like Mexico City and Denver” versus “a low lying city like Amsterdam,” according to Dyson.

Another major upgrade here is the battery life. The new 7-cell lithium battery packs more power yet weighs the same as before, and with the low power mode aka “suction mode 1,” it can let the Cyclone V10 run for up to a whole hour. If you need more power, you can now switch to either the new medium power mode or the familiar max power mode, but you’ll obviously have to sacrifice some battery life there. Another addition on this end is a new battery level indicator on both sides of the battery, along with a filter indicator in case it needs to be replaced or reattached. It’s unclear how long it takes to fully recharge a Cyclone V10, but at least this step is a little more convenient now thanks to the new wall cradle: simply slide the vacuum down to plug it in, as opposed to pushing upward first like before.

Dyson sure is keen to get its latest machine in the hands of consumers, so you can already go ahead and buy one in both the US and the UK, with prices starting from about $500 or £400, respectively.

Source: Dyson

Washington is the first state to pass its own net neutrality law

Net neutrality is safe in Washington. Governor Jay Inslee has signed House Bill 2282 into law, which will expressly protect the state’s residents from the rollbacks the FCC passed in December. The bill requires (PDF) any person selling broadband internet access to publicly disclose how it runs its network by putting things like network management practices on a “publicly available, easily accessible” website. That last bit is key — the FCC tried obfuscating the comment page for Title II provisions last year.

“A person engaged in the provision of broadband internet access service in Washington state… may not: Block lawful content, applications, services or nonharmful devices, subject to network management; impair or degrade lawful internet traffic; engage in paid prioritization,” the bill reads.

Washington is the first state to establish a law protecting Net Neutrality. HB 2282 will be put into practice 90 days from now (by June 6th) or whenever the FCC’s Restoring Internet Freedom order takes effect, whichever comes first. While executive orders are how some states are dealing with the unpopular decision, net neutrality becoming a law in Washington should make it harder to undo or challenge in court. Here’s to hoping more states follow Washington’s lead — an open internet is too important to not protect.

Source: Jay Inslee (1), (2) (PDF)

Netflix’s ‘Lost in Space’ doesn’t look like the show you remember

Netflix has released the first full trailer for its Lost in Space remake, and it definitely isn’t a retread of the 1960s TV show… or the 1998 movie, for that matter. While the core premise remains intact (the Robinsons have been stranded following a colonization mission gone wrong), much has changed in the past few decades. It’s not just the modern special effects or the grittier (if still family friendly) tone — the show is tinkering with important characters.

The most obvious change is to Robot, which now has alien origins and is potentially dangerous, not just the friendly helper from before. You also get to see the radical change to Dr. Smith, who’s played by Parker Posey. Showrunner Zack Estrin noted to EW that his version of Lost in Space will answer some questions about Smith that weren’t addressed the first time around, such as why the doctor is there and why the Robinsons would keep someone the audience knows is duplicitous.

Netflix debuts the new series on April 13th, and it joins a sci-fi push that includes Altered Carbon, more Black Mirror episodes and Duncan Jones’ noire-like movie Mute. The streaming service clearly wants to corner the market for the genre, and that means attracting big-budget productions that could easily rival what you’d see on broadcast networks.

Via: Entertainment Weekly

Source: Netflix (YouTube)

Engadget giveaway: Win a pair of Sonos One speakers courtesy of TurboTax!

It’s that time of year again: Tax season! But don’t fret, with all the intelligent services being offered now, there’s less to worry about than ever. The Intuit TurboTax app and web interface let you complete your taxes without even leaving the house — but you can if you use the mobile app and can even finish later on your PC. The household name in e-filing services has also launched its TurboTax Live feature this year. Now you can get virtual assistance from a network of certified tax preparers, just in case you hit a snag or really want to get the most out of your refund.

There’s even an Alexa Skill to check the status of your refund. So this week, TurboTax has provided us with a set of Sonos One smart speakers so you can keep track of that money just by asking, plus a gift card for TurboTax Live support which can give you some assistance maximizing your refund while minimizing any potential issues. All you need to do is head to the Rafflecopter widget below for up to three chances at winning this speaker and tax preparation combo — along with some peace of mind!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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International Women’s Day Activity Challenge Requires Apple Watch Owners to Double Their Move Rings

Apple has debuted a new Activity Challenge for Apple Watch wearers today, this one focused on celebrating International Women’s Day. To complete the challenge and earn the achievement, you’ll have to double your Move ring on March 8, the day that commemorates the movement for women’s rights around the world.

The award for completing the challenge will be a set of still and animated stickers you can send to friends and family members within Messages. You’ll find the new Activity Challenge by opening the Activity iOS app, tapping the Achievements tab, and tapping the icon for the International Women’s Day Challenge achievement, which should be located at the very top of the page.

The new challenge follows one from February that encouraged users to close their Apple Watch’s exercise ring for seven days in a row as a promotion for Heart Month. Apple has regularly added Activity Challenges to the Activity app on iOS over the past few years, marking major holidays like Thanksgiving and New Year’s with challenges that encouraged users to avoid staying sedentary during each holiday.

Apple Watch isn’t the only area where Apple has been celebrating International Women’s Day, with the company debuting a series of female-focused spotlight categories in the iTunes Movies store earlier this week on iOS, macOS, and tvOS. The “Leading Ladies” section offers films like Wonder Woman, Mean Girls, Mad Max: Fury Road, and Room for under $10 for a limited time.

In Apple Music, a “Celebrating Bold Women” card has been featured in the Browse tab for the past few days, linking subscribers to playlists, essential albums, up-and-coming artists, women who made history, and a breakdown of Leading Ladies in musical genres like pop, jazz, rock, and more.

Related Roundups: Apple Watch, watchOS 4Tag: Activity ChallengeBuyer’s Guide: Apple Watch (Neutral)
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