Lifeboat Foundation

Swiss technology company WayRay has unveiled what it says is the world’s first car to incorporate holographic, augmented reality glazing – the Holograktor. The innovation is designed around the company’s True AR technology and intended to operate with WayRay’s new ride-hailing business model. The system’s USP is its ability to render augmented reality scenes around the vehicle in real time, displayed via holographic projections.

Backed by early investments from companies like Porsche, Hyundai and Alibaba, WayRay says it is using the car to emerge from its ‘deep tech’ automotive supplier status to become a player in the world of new mobility models.

The three-seat vehicle has been conceived specifically for ride hailing and can be driven conventionally or by remote control, in the latter case via a 5G and satellite connection to a qualified driver. Its unusual single rear seat ‘throne’ layout was inspired by data showing that more than 80% of Uber trips were for one person only. “The idea is that you can choose Uber Black, Uber SUV or Uber Holograktor. And if you choose the Holograktor, your ride will be subsidized by sponsored content so that the price will be much lower,” said WayRay founder and CEO, Vitaly Ponomarev.

Skills shortages are easily brushed off as Covid collateral, but in fact, they are much more troubling signs of an education system that is not preparing people for the future of work. These issues stem from a union of education and employment that has been designed to fill specific criteria for the workforce, but the job market that young people are training for today will require a much greater emphasis on human skills to complement the repetitive tasks handled by AI and automation.

But bringing up young people with the human skills they need for a changing world of work is a mammoth task that must combine the powers of government, businesses, and dedicated organizations to reshape our education systems and integrate them with the communities they serve. I spoke with Justin van Fleet, Executive Director of the Global Business Coalition for Education (GBC-Education), about the need for a holistic and skills-centered approach to education, and how change needs to start as early as possible.

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The FlyZero aircraft is one of a range of aircraft being designed by the FlyZero program. The new concept will store hydrogen in cryogenic fuel tanks, keeping them at a temperature of minus 250°Celsius (minus 418°Fahrenheit). Two cryogenic tanks will be placed at the rear of the plane, while two smaller “cheek” tanks will be placed near the front of the plane to keep the aircraft balanced. The mid-size aircraft will have a wingspan of 54 meters, each of which will have a turbofan engine attached.

“These designs could define the future of aerospace and aviation,” said U.K. Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng in the ATI’s statement. “By working with industry, we are showing that truly carbon-free flight could be possible, with hydrogen a frontrunner to replace conventional fossil fuels.”

Continue reading “A New Hydrogen Plane Can Fly Halfway Around the World Without Refueling” »

Through a unique business strategy that shifts from traditional production practices, Arrival has been able to design and implement its own components, software, and assembly processes in unique ways to maximize all aspects of manufacturing.

This includes its Automated Driving System (ADS), as well as its own proprietary battery modules that can be used in all of Arrival’s EV platforms. With its latest announcement, we now know how Arrival plans to supply its US production lines with battery modules.

Arrival announced the news of the battery assembly plant by outlining the anticipated contributions it will bring to the automaker’s US production with its microfactories.

This year has witnessed a breakout for India’s startups. Companies going public in 2021 have raised record cash. But they also face unique challenges to grow even bigger.

For exclusive insights from Bloomberg’s technology reporters around the world, sign up for Fully Charged, a daily newsletter from Bloomberg Technology: https://www.bloomberg.com/account/newsletters/technology?utm…=quicktake.

Continue reading “How India Became the New Hope for Tech Investors” »

Following October’s news that Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin spaceflight company planned to build its own commercial space station in low Earth orbit, NASA announced on Thursday it has selected the program for funding through a Space Act Agreement to further develop the station’s design. The funding is part of NASA’s Commercial LEO Development program, which aims to “develop a robust commercial space economy in LEO, including supporting the development of commercially owned and operated LEO destinations.”

“We are pleased that NASA supports the development of Orbital Reef, a revolutionary approach to making Earth orbit more accessible to diverse customers and industries,” Brent Sherwood, Senior Vice President of Advanced Development Programs for Blue Origin, said in a prepared statement. The station would be an orbital “mixed-use space business park” that would offer any number of turnkey services as well as reduced operational costs for burgeoning low-g industries “in addition to meeting the ISS partners’ needs.”

Blue Origin is partnering with Sierra Space in this project with the former focusing on the architecture and infrastructure of the station — everything from its design and construction to managing lift logistics using the New Glenn heavy launch system — while the latter is tasked with developing the station’s LIFE (Large Integrated Flexible Environment). Boeing is also helping out, designing the operations-maintenance-science module and leveraging its Starliner crew capsule. Genesis Engineering Solutions is involved as well. It’s working on a single person spacecraft that tourists and employees alike will be able to putter around in.

Biodiversity conservation, public health and improved livelihoods — dr gladys kalema-zikusoka, founder and CEO, conservation through public health.

Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, is the Founder and CEO of Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH — https://ctph.org/), a 16-year old non-profit organization, based in Uganda, that promotes conservation by improving the quality of life of people and wildlife to enable them to coexist in and around protected areas in Africa, and she has become one of the leading conservationists and scientists working to save the critically endangered mountain gorillas of East Africa.

Continue reading “Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, Founder and CEO, Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH), Uganda” »

In yet another bid to push forward its solar business, electric vehicle maker Tesla has launched a new solar roof tile that has a higher power output while retaining the dimensions of the old one.

Tesla entered the clean energy business when it acquired SolarCity for $2.6 billion in 2016. It makes switching to solar energy sleeker by replacing regular roof tiles with energy-generating solar roof tiles, instead of having to install bulky solar panels. Tesla offers a 25-year warranty on the tiles and takes end-to-end responsibility for installing the new solar roof.

However, the company has so far struggled to make its product mainstream due to fluctuations in pricing, Electrek reported. With variations across house designs, Tesla has found it difficult to create a streamlined product and even introduced a roof-complexity factor, earlier this year to determine cost estimates.

During a keynote address today at its re: Invent 2021 conference, Amazon announced SageMaker Canvas, which enables users to create machine learning models without having to write any code. Using SageMaker Canvas, Amazon Web Services (AWS) customers can run a machine learning workflow with a point-and-click user interface to generate predictions and publish the results.

Low-and no-code platforms allow developers and non-developers alike to create software through visual dashboards instead of traditional programming. Adoption is on the rise, with a recent OutSystems report showing that 41% of organizations were using a low-or no-code tool in 2019/2020, up from 34% in 2018/2019.

“Now, business users and analysts can use Canvas to generate highly accurate predictions using an intuitive, easy-to-use interface,” AWS CEO Adam Selipsky said onstage. “Canvas uses terminology and visualizations already familiar to [users] and complements the data analysis tools that [people are] already using.”