Tag: transportation

Tesla Is Starting a Certified Preowned Program

cartechboy writes Most luxury automakers have a Certified Previously Owned (CPO) program. Tesla isn’t like a normal luxury automakers, in fact, it’s not really like any automaker out there. It doesn’t have franchises and it sells its own vehicles through its network of galleries. Now, it plans to create its own CPO program. There are a great deal of Model S sedans out there currently under lease contracts. When those cars are ready to come back, Tesla has guaranteed that it will purchase them for a figure that falls somewhere between 43 and 50 percent of the original purchase price. This is exactly how Tesla’s going to create its CPO fleet. Tesla seems to do everything in an unconventional manner, so we’ll have to see if its CPO program behaves like every other automaker’s, or if it’s different somehow as well. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Tesla Is Starting a Certified Preowned Program

Man Walks Past Security Screening Staring At iPad Causing Airport Evacuation

First time accepted submitter chentiangemalc writes While Australia is on “high alert” for terror threats a man walked past a Sydney Airport security screening while engrossed in his iPad and delayed flights for an hour. From the article: “This event was captured on CCTV and unnerved officials so much that they evacuated passengers. As the Sydney Morning Herald reported, the man found himself (or, perhaps, didn’t) going into the terminal through an exit passage that clearly was convenient for him, but less convenient for the hordes of passengers who not only had to be removed from Terminal 3, but also re-screened. A spokeswoman for Qantas told the Morning Herald: ‘The man disembarked a flight and left. It appears he wasn’t paying attention, was looking at his iPad, forgot something and walked back past (the security area).'” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Man Walks Past Security Screening Staring At iPad Causing Airport Evacuation

Why Would Walmart Make Continuous 53-Foot-Long Carbon Fiber Panels? For Their Supertruck Prototype

Everyone loves to bash corporations, but few talk about how much good they can do in this world. Their immense fortunes and longevity means they can undertake radical, expensive experiments that smaller outfits simply couldn’t sustain. A good case in point is Walmart and their Advanced Vehicle Experience concept truck . Built earlier this year as a testbed for their fleet efficiency program, it features a 53-foot trailer whose roof and sidewalls are made from single-piece 53-foot-long panels of carbon fiber. This confers a weight savings of some 4, 000 pounds, meaning it can carry an extra 4, 000 in cargo to burn the same amount of fuel, or carry the same weight of cargo as before and save a tremendous amount of fuel. Creating carbon fiber panels of that length is fiendishly expensive, and a company would have to ship a lot of cargo indeed before they’d make their money back on fuel costs. In other words, you’d need a Walmart to do something like this. With 6, 000 trucks crawling our continent and logging millions of miles, the overall, long-term impact would be substantial. (more…)

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Why Would Walmart Make Continuous 53-Foot-Long Carbon Fiber Panels? For Their Supertruck Prototype

3 Recent Flights Make Unscheduled Landings, After Disputes Over Knee Room

The AP reports that American airplane passengers, squeezed by increasingly tight seating aboard planes, are lashing out, actually getting into in-flight fights over knee room: Three U.S. flights have made unscheduled landings in the past eight days after passengers got into fights over the ability to recline their seats. Disputes over a tiny bit of personal space might seem petty, but for passengers whose knees are already banging into tray tables, every bit counts. … Southwest and United both took away 1 inch from each row on certain jets to make room for six more seats. American is increasing the number of seats on its Boeing 737-800s from 150 to 160. Delta installed new, smaller toilets in its 737-900s, enabling it to squeeze in an extra four seats. And to make room for a first-class cabin with lie-flat beds on transcontinental flights, JetBlue cut the distance between coach seats by one inch. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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3 Recent Flights Make Unscheduled Landings, After Disputes Over Knee Room

Microsoft Black Tuesday Patches Bring Blue Screens of Death

snydeq (1272828) writes “Two of Microsoft’s kernel-mode driver updates — which often cause problems — are triggering a BSOD error message on some Windows systems, InfoWorld reports. ‘Details at this point are sparse, but it looks like three different patches from this week’s Black Tuesday crop are causing Blue Screens with a Stop 0x50 error on some systems. If you’re hitting a BSOD, you can help diagnose the problem (and perhaps prod Microsoft to find a solution) by adding your voice to the Microsoft Answers Forum thread on the subject.'” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Microsoft Black Tuesday Patches Bring Blue Screens of Death

Disney Research 3D-Prints Figurines With the Most Lifelike Hair Ever

3D printing can make an action figure copy of your body and face, but the hair usually ends up looking like a Lego minifig wig. The mad scientists at Disney Research just solved that, with an algorithm so powerful it can trace your hair’s shape and color with ultra-realism. Read more…

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Disney Research 3D-Prints Figurines With the Most Lifelike Hair Ever

Onboard Storage Design: Why Vikings Never Fought For Overhead Bin Space

Vikings loved to brawl, with both their enemies and with each other. Viking sagas are filled with tales of even longstanding friends happy to settle disagreements with steel. But as they piled onto their longships to go pillaging, their boarding process was a good deal more civilized than the melee that is modern air travel. For one thing, their storage was one-to-one; when 30 Vikings got onto a ship, there were 30 places to store things. That’s because they carried their seating on board with them, and their seating doubled as their storage. Prior to boarding, the decks of a ship were bare. Each Viking plunked his chest down at his own rowing position. Enough Viking chests have been found, and replicas made, that we can take a look at their design. It’s both intelligent and purposeful. The first thing you notice is that the tops were rounded to shed water, and perhaps to provide a modicum of comfort. (more…)

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Onboard Storage Design: Why Vikings Never Fought For Overhead Bin Space

Find Out Your Uber Passenger Rating with this Script

Uber is a great way to get a ride without having to hail a cab. When you finish a ride, you get a chance to rate your driver and your experience. However, the drivers get to rate you too. Here’s how to find out your rating, which is normally a closely-kept secret. Read more…

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Find Out Your Uber Passenger Rating with this Script

Research Shows that Seven Hours of Sleep Might Be the Sweet Spot

Eight hours of sleep. Six hours of sleep. Seven hours of sleep. It seems like every year we see a study that claims that some amount of hours is better than another. The Wall Street Journal collects together a few studies that show data suggests that seven hours might be the sweet spot these days. Read more…

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Research Shows that Seven Hours of Sleep Might Be the Sweet Spot