Billionaire Elon Musk’s grand scheme for underground car tunnels will require elevators to get the cars in those tunnels – and tonight he shared a video of a prototype elevator being tested next to SpaceX’s California HQ:
Tag: Transportation
The hundreds of thousands of customers who have plunked down deposits for the mass-market Tesla Model 3 electric car are finally getting a glimpse of what they’re buying.
In a pair of tweets, Tesla CEO Elon Musk showed off “Production Unit 1” for the Model 3, which rolled off Tesla’s assembly line in Fremont, Calif., and went through final checkout.
As you can see, the car is basic black. In a follow-up tweet, Musk noted that Ira Ehrenpreis, an early investor in Tesla who’s also on the company’s board, had the rights to the first Model 3 because he was the first to put down a full deposit.
However, Musk added in Twitter shorthand that he “gave those rights to me as my 46th bday present. Tks Ira!”
Categories
Tesla Model 3 car is ready for its debut
Tesla’s billionaire CEO, Elon Musk, says the first production model of the company’s anxiously awaited mass-market Model 3 electric car will roll off its assembly line on July 7.
Pre-production prototypes of the car have been spotted over the past few months, but in a series of tweets on July 2, Musk said the model met all of its regulatory requirements two weeks ahead of schedule and is ready for purchase.
Musk said the first 30 customers would get their Model 3’s at a party on July 28, and that the production rate at Tesla’s plant in Fremont, Calif., would ramp up to 20,000 cars per month by the end of the year
If filmmakers ever decide to do a remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds,” with drones instead of birds, they could use Amazon’s concept for a drone-dominated fulfillment center in their set design.
The artwork, included in a patent application published today, shows a nine-story hive that’s swarming with drones. I’d hate to be the stick figure standing beneath that swarm.
A team of six Amazon inventors filed the application in 2015 with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 2015. Their intent isn’t to stir up nightmares, but to secure the rights to a design that optimizes Amazon’s traditional fulfillment centers for drone deliveries in an urban environment.
Categories
Small is big in Boeing’s 20-year plan
EVERETT, Wash. – Boeing’s 20-year outlook for the airplane market is as sunny as ever, even though some analysts worry about a shift from more profitable wide-body jets to smaller, more economical single-aisle jets.
The way Boeing sees it, a steady rise in commercial air traffic and the start of a new replacement cycle in the 2021-2023 time frame will take care of any glut in the wide-body market. And between now and then, a hefty backlog of orders should bridge the gap, according to Randy Tinseth, vice president of marketing for Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
Tinseth accentuated the positive in Boeing’s latest Current Market Outlook, a 20-year forecast that was released today in connection with the Paris Air Show. He previewed the forecast for reporters earlier this month at Boeing’s Everett plant, on the condition that the information was held back until the show.
This week’s Paris Air Show started off with a zoom, in the form of Boeing’s launch of the 737 MAX 10 jet — the longest version of its fuel-efficient single-aisle airplane family.
Today’s kickoff of the sales campaign was totally unsurprising, but the more than 240 orders announced at launch made for a “surprisingly strong showing” on its face, Leeham News and Comment’s Scott Hamilton reported.
He added that “the 240 orders were more than had been expected — and less than advertised.”
If you like airplanes, you’ll love Boeing’s teaser video for the Paris Air Show, which puts a 787-10 Dreamliner and a 737 MAX 9 jet through a series of moves worthy of a ballet.
The video preview has become a tradition for Boeing’s presence at the big show, which plays out next week. In the video, the planes take off at dizzyingly steep angles and fly in close formation with Pacific Northwest peaks serving as a backdrop.
Don’t expect those kinds of aerobatics in Paris – but do expect the 737 MAX 9, which made its first flight in April, to participate in a flying display. (Lockheed Martin’s controversial F-35 fighter jet will also take to the air.)
More than 5 million guests have toured Boeing’s airplane factory in Everett, Wash., which ranks as one of the Puget Sound region’s top attractions – but far fewer tourists have been inside the area’s other Boeing assembly plant, south of Seattle in Renton.
A new multimedia presentation is aimed at evening the score, at least virtually: “Incredible: The Story of the Boeing Renton Site” combines mouse-controlled 360-degree views, videos and photo galleries to show how Boeing builds the world’s best-selling commercial jetliner, the 737.
The tour starts with a 360-degree video shot outside the assembly building. As trucks drive by and workers stroll past, a narrator explains what you’re seeing – and invites you to look inside.
Categories
Amazon proposes ‘virtual safety shroud’
What happens if a child or a dog wanders into range while a drone is dipping down to make a delivery? Amazon has an answer: a “virtual safety shroud” that the drone creates, potentially based on readings picked up by its propellers.
The detect-and-avoid system is described in a patent application published today. Among the inventors is Gur Kimchi, the vice president and co-founder of Amazon Prime Air’s drone delivery operation, so you know it’s serious.
Amazon traditionally doesn’t comment on its patent applications, but here’s how the safety shroud would work, based on the description in the application, which was filed in February.
Categories
Boeing studies pilotless plane concepts
EVERETT, Wash. – The Boeing Co. says it’s on a path that could ultimately lead to self-flying commercial passenger airplanes, starting with simulations and ground-based experiments this year and progressing to flight tests by 2019.
“In commercial air transportation, we are not yet in this business,” Mike Sinnett, vice president of product development at Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
However, he said aviation industry trends are pushing the company to look into autonomous options.