Tag Archives: transport

Ambulances of the future

sc_shellSome elegant concept design for ambulances of the future, produced by the Royal College of Art and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council here at the BBC:

The idea of emergency on-the-spot community treatment was introduced by the government in 2001. However, experts say research into new technologies needed to support this new role is still lagging.

Mr Thompson continues: “We are looking at enabling technologies to help ECPs do their job.”

One such design is called the shell concept. It has a removable ‘shell’ that can slide off the main vehicle to create an expanded treatment space, or left on the scene for extended periods of time.

Other proposals include a soft continuous silicone interior which morphs to the shape of the patient and allows for infection control as well as a deployable tent allowing 360 degree access to patients.

[image by Rui Gio from the Royal College of Art]

Maglev + space elevators + Moon = Big Dumb Object

moonA classic Big Dumb Object is discussed in Short Sharp Science: a space elevator combined with a maglev launcher to propel prospective lunar colonists into orbit:

The lunar elevator doesn’t actually reach the regolith. Instead, the elevator ribbon ends 10 kilometres shy of the lunar surface so that no lunar mountain peaks hit the end, or terminus, of the orbiting elevator.

So how do astronauts make that 10 km jump to the elevator’s dangling tail? Easy: as the terminus passes overhead, they are fired in a magnetically levitated train along a track that’s been laid across the lunar plain and which gradually eases upwards to become vertical.

If they are fired at just the right time – and I wouldn’t like to be the person specifying or writing the software to do that, they are caught by some kind of robotic grappler at the terminus, which attaches the train to the ribbon.

[image from Hamed Saber on flickr]

Coding for cars

road_lightApparently the media and navigation systems of a high-end Mercedes now require more lines of code than a 787 Dreamliner:

Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner, scheduled to be delivered to customers in 2010, requires about 6.5 million lines of software code to operate its avionics and onboard support systems.

Alfred Katzenbach, the director of information technology management at Daimler, has reportedly said that the radio and navigation system in the current S-class Mercedes-Benz requires over 20 million lines of code alone and that the car contains nearly as many ECUs as the new Airbus A380 (excluding the plane’s in-flight entertainment system).

There is a considerably more awesome car than an S-class described in Heavy Weather by Bruce Sterling, but I can’t find my copy to tell you how many lines of code that needed (I remember it was specified somewhere).

[via Charles Stross][image Aitor Escauriaza from on flickr]

GM to make own batteries

merbraWith the wind firmly in the sails (lolwhut?) of hybrid cars auto giant GM is to get into the electric battery business:

The company also plans to increase its in-house battery development by building a 31,000-square-foot battery lab and hiring hundreds of battery engineers. GM is also working with a battery-engineering program at the University of Michigan to train new engineers. The lack of qualified and experienced battery engineers in the United States has been one of the big challenges facing battery startups such as A123 Systems. Most advanced battery production takes place in Asia, and this could hold back a switch from conventional vehicles to electric ones in the United States.

Technology Review have also created an interesting infographic of how a hybrid car works.

[from Technology Review][image from jaqian on flickr]

US government refuses support for Teh tubes… in 1908

From the possible future of the past: a report into the possibility of US government-support for the widespread adoption of pneumatic tubes for the delivery of mail, reported here in The New York Times in 1908:

That it is not feasible and desirable at the present time for the Government to purchase, to install, or to operate pneumatic tubes,” is one of the most important conclusions reached by a commission appointed by the Postmaster General to inquire into the feasibility and desirability of of the purchase and operation by the Government of pneumatic tubes in the cities where the service is now installed.

This reminds me of the story of the atmospheric railway as told in Paul Collins’ excellent book Banvard’s Folly in which he tells “thirteen tales of renowned obscurity, famous anonimity, and rotten luck.”

[via Slashdot][image from Jef Poskanzer on flickr]