Have We Become That Lazy? Company Invents Automatic Refueling System
Technology has really made people lazier over the years as many activities have become automated, freeing up our time for other things. One activity that had remained intact was filling up the car with fuel, a thing that especially men like to do – because you know, it makes us feel like men.
Well, it looks like the near future may change that as well, because Husky and Fuelmatics have developed a robot that can fill up the gas tank on its own. The only condition is to have a capless fuel tank – and of course, to park the car with the fuel door towards the robot. The new equipment has been demonstrated at the 2013 Petroleum Equipment Institute (PEI) convention in Atlanta, Georgia.
According to Husky, the robot shortens refueling by 30 percent. You can watch it at work in the video below.
Don’t forget to tell us your opinion in the comments section.
By Dan Mihalascu
California Cop Hands Woman Ticket for Driving with Google Glass; Was He Right or Wrong?
Many believe that using Google Glass while driving can be, if not a direct safety hazard, certainly a distraction (even automakers have admitted that it is), but is it currently illegal to wear them? A California cop certainly thinks so as he handed out a ticket to a woman who was reportedly initially pulled over for speeding.
On the ticket, the unnamed officer wrote that Cecilia Abadie was "Driving with Monitor visible to Driver (Google Glass)."
According to a CNET report, Abadie said the actual law informs motorists not to "drive a vehicle equipped with a video monitor, if the monitor is visible to the driver and displays anything other than vehicle information global mapping displays, external media player (MP3), or satellite radio information."
Abadie posted a photo of the ticket on her Google Plus page along with a post in which she's asking for help to understand whether the officer was right or wrong:
"A cop just stopped me and gave me a ticket for wearing Google Glass while driving! The exact line says: Driving with Monitor visible to Driver (Google Glass). Is #GoogleGlass illegal while driving or is this cop wrong??? Any legal advice is appreciated!! This happened in California. Do you know any other #GlassExplorers that got a similar ticket anywhere in the US?"
Without claiming to be legal experts, if you ask us, a lot depends on whether she was using the Google Glass (and for what use) or simply wearing the device. What do you think?
Mercedes-Benz Develops Nav System that Works with Google Glass
Leave it to Germany's luxury carmakers to pick up the latest and fanciest tech gadget that comes out and find an application for the automotive industry. Today we learn that Mercedes-Benz has developed a new navigation system that utilizes Google Glass with a voice-activated interface on one of the lenses.
Speaking with Autonew Europe, Johann Jungwirth, head of Mercedes' North American R&D division, confirmed the news and said the automaker will offer the Google Glass application as soon as the tech giants makes Google Glass commercially available. Currently, the wearable device is available only to a handful of developers for $1,500, but will likely go on regular sale next year.
"This is an example of a seamless transition as you stay connected when you get to your car, when you drive, and when you leave your car," said Jungwirth.
The Google Glass will be able to guide drivers to their cars, transfer a destination address to the vehicle's navigation system and even offer infotainment applications.
Over the long run, Mercedes wants drivers to access all information stored in their smartphones, tablets, computers and other digital devices in their cars.
While Jungwirth wouldn't divulge more details, Konrad Wessner, general manager of Germany-based market research agency Puls, told the publication that drivers could use Google Glass for more applications.
"Drivers can access the Internet and infotainment applications with less distraction," he said. "Normally, you must take your eyes off of the road and look at a car console screen, but with Google Glass, your line of vision remains on the road."
If you're thinking about safety, you're not alone as Mercedes itself admits there could be some problems. "We obviously don't want people using Google Glass when they drive," said Jungwirth.
Augmented Reality System Allows Drivers to See Through Large Vehicles [w/Video]
We just learned about a new interesting augmented really assist system called 'See-Through' developed by a team from the University of Porto, in Portugal, led by Prof. Michel Ferreira. The principle that drives it relies on an a transparent LCD panel that covers the driver’s view of the windscreen and makes itself useful by playing images from a forward-facing camera mounted on the vehicle that makes overtaking perilous.
The software that runs it is set up to automatically detect when the driver’s view is impaired and to cut a hole for him or her to see through – one could say it’s a picture-in-picture effect, where the pop-up shows the live feed from the leading vehicle.
If everything works as designed, then it sounds promising, and we have no doubt it would save lives, especially in Russia…where they regularly play overtaking roulette. The problem is that it all sounds a bit too contrived to feasibly apply on a large scale – I mean sure, new trucks, buses and coaches are now equipped with cameras for other road users to hack into benevolently, but there are plenty of old ones that don’t, so it couldn’t consistently be of use.
Then, as the NewScientist source article reads, there are the technical constraints too. Currently, the image is transmitted to the in-car screen with a 200 millisecond delay. This puts any approaching vehicle 10 meters / 32 feet further back on the transparent screen than it actually is in real life, so this, along with possible transmission glitches that could crop up keep us from fully believing this is the way to go.
We hope it is developed more and perfected, because the idea is ingenious, and who knows, maybe sometime in the near future it too will become mainstream and be added to the growing list of safety features that are mandatory for achieving the highest possible star rating.
By Andrei Nedelea
Which Console Do You Want This Xmas for Your Racing Game Needs? PS4, Wii or Xbox? [w/Poll]
The year 2013 is drawing to a close, and the all-important pine tree and Coca-Cola holiday is coming up, when all good Christians prepare with gifts and warm words for friends and loved ones, acquiring all that is needed by queuing shops for hours in a row, listening to the same carols over and over again…
One of the gifts that gets little boys’ (of all ages) hearts racing are of course, racing games, a fresh breed of which are about to debut on a new generation of gaming consoles.
So, this Christmas, not only will you be confronted with the task of sorting through the slew of new titles added to the genre, but you may also be faced with buying a new system to run them, as well. Both the PlayStation 4 (PS4) from Sony and Xbox One from Microsoft are set to arrive on store shelves next month, priced at $399/£349 and $499/£429 respectively, each with its own list of unique games, complimented by the common pool of titles.
The Xbox One comes packing a BFG in the form of Forza Motorsport 5, a game that looks gorgeous, has a growing list of cool cars and is exclusive to the Microsoft system. The chances of it disappointing are slim, given its developers' track record so far in the series - even their Test Drive Unlimited-inspired game, Horizon, turned out nice for what it is.
The highlight game for gearheads on the PS4 is DriveClub, not Gran Turismo. Sony chose to develop the next game in its primary racing franchise, number six, for the current-gen PS3 platform, therefore depriving the devs of a lot of extra processing power that they would have had access to, had they developed for PS4. If what you’re looking for in 2013 is the next-gen Gran Turismo experience, we regret to inform you that you’ll have to wait an estimated 1-2 years for the seventh installment to come out.
The upside of the above is that your old PS3 and Xbox 360 are still kept relevant this year - you can get Gran Turismo 6 for the former, and Grand Theft Auto 5, Need for Speed Rivals, Watchdogs and The Crew for both. There's even an open-world Mad Max game coming out too. It really depends on how big a holidays’ bonus you got, how many kids it is divided by and how well they behaved throughout the year.
If they didn’t behave, and you want them to know it, there’s always the sort-of new Nintendo Wii U that was released almost a year ago. It won’t be as pleasing a gift as one of the bigger consoles, but its lower official price of $299 may very well justify it – some sites offer a discount of around $30. In fact, it’s not as bad as the old Wii that was always hampered by its low specifications and the impact that had on the complexity (and visual appeal) of the games it was able to handle. Watchdogs will also make it to the Wii U, too.
This new one has a unique controller with a built-in touchscreen along with the usual physical buttons – it’s a different experience, and now you are no longer limited to playing only Mario Kart-like driving games. A special version of Need for Speed Most Wanted is available, along with more traditional Wii titles, but since the new system is more powerful, it will be able to handle games that are more demanding in the future – the promising Project Cars (Community Assisted Racing Simulator) is one of them.
Finally, if consoles are not really your style and you enjoy the freedom of PC, then you don't have to wait around for one specific commercial title to launch. There is such a huge array of games to choose for, so PC gamers are in a state of perpetual-Christmas, if you will...
You can go off-road in any number of ways, you can build a car (company) from scratch, or just drive around for the hell of it. If you have some modding skills going for you, though, you enter a world where you begin to play the kind of game you like/want, and not wish that X or Y developer had added Z feature, and spam the forums about it - if you don't like it, chances are you can probably change it yourself if you just open a specific file in a basic text editor, and mess with or add more code, at your own risk, naturally…
By Andrei Nedelea
Poll: Which do you prefer for your racing game needs?
