ASCE has just released their every-4-year Infrastructure Report Card.
Bottom line :
The New York Times gives their synopsis.
National Review’s Reihan Salam gives his quick thoughts.
I’m downloading the iPad version now.
Wow, I hadn’t heard about this.
More than 41,000 solar panels will generate more than 15 million kilowatt hours of electric energy each year, which is enough to power more than 1,400 households.
What a surprise…
It looks like the Mercedes 2014 S-Class will be a giant leap toward automated driving. Some amazing features that are just shy of full automation similar to Google’s experiments.
Airbus is working on changing training for pilots to prevent the stall-based type of crash as seen with Air France Flight 447.
With flight simulators unable to accurately replicate the conditions after an aircraft loses lift, or stalls, wholesale changes to training regimes may be required, according to Airbus test pilot Terry Lutz. Other solutions might include giving more control to computers even in the confused conditions under which command currently diverts to the human crew.
It seems that, as of late, the automobile has gained a reputation as being a form of transportation we must surpass. The automobile isn’t fuel efficient on a per person basis compared to other modes and therefore tends to get viewed as wasteful. However, the level of freedom that the automobile gives to individuals is unsurpassed by any other form of transportation and for that reason I think future transportation developments will center on the automobile.
Virginia Postrel has a great article on the work being done in Silicon Valley to create “robocars” that drive themselves:
Now it finally seems to be happening. Google Inc.’s self- driving cars have covered more than 300,000 miles, most recently wowing the Texas Transportation Forum with a demonstration on the streets of Austin. “The remarkable thing was that it was a little unremarkable,” Coby Chase, director of the Texas Department of Transportation’s government and public affairs division, told the Dallas Morning News after his ride.
This is the right direction. At least it’s a better direction than pushing cycling, mass transit, and rail. These alternative modes of transportation are fine for some functions but simply do not offer the freedom of mobility that is necessary for people functioning in our economy today.
One comment made in the story by Brad Templeton gives an idea of where Google and others are going with robocars:
Today’s experiments, by contrast, put the smarts in the car itself. “The first rule of robocars is you do not change the infrastructure,” Templeton reminds a Singularity audience member who inquires about smart highways.
I do think that making the cars smart and not the infrastructure is the way to go. However, I also think there are some basic infrastructure improvements that can be made that will allow the robocars to truly optimize their function.
I imagine our automobile transportation system will look very similar to that shown in films like iRobot and Minority Report (coincidentally both Spielberg films). In these films the automobile was controlled by the driver until he ventured into a main thoroughfare/highway that had numerous other automobiles moving at high rates of speed. From there the car took over. The cars, now functioning as robocars on these highways, optimized safety and efficiency and speed was greatly increased. Imagine all the freedom of an automobile in terms of individual autonomy but with a lower risk of accident and shorter travel times… that is where we are going.
Our current interstate highways could easily be retrofitted with inert objects in the lanes, below the pavement, that the robocars would use for guidance. These would be “dumb” improvements but would give the robocars so much more to work with in terms of lane alignment. In addition, we’d have to guard the interstate right-of-ways from incursion far more carefully than we do today.
I think that stop-and-go city driving and residential neighborhood driving offer far too many variables to hand over the car to a computer. A human can identify the “child playing basketball in the yard adjacent to the street” scenario as a reason for caution in a way the computer can not… unless I’m drastically underestimating what the computers can do.
Boeing has given more details on their proposed fix for the 787 batteries:
Sinnett’s claim that the battery-enclosure box prevents fire altogether clearly surprised his skeptical audience of journalists.
Combatively, he insisted that the media have misreported the purpose of Boeing’s battery-enclosure box by describing it as “containing a fire.”
No, Sinnett said.
“This enclosure keeps us from ever having a fire to begin with,” he said.
Read the whole article… Good details on the overall fix.
The FAA has grounded a small aerial photography business in Minnesota. I guess the budget cuts haven’t hampered the FAA too much if they have time to pick on little guys like these guys.
These guys have rigged up their small, RC aircraft with stabilized cameras and decided to make a business of it. They rarely fly over 200 feet high and don’t fly near airports. The only thing that distinguishes their RC aircraft from those of a hobbyist is that they are taking pictures for pay… which makes them commercial… which makes the FAA entitled to ground them.
Utter stupidity.
Boeing has published a webpage highlighting the FAA Approval of their certification process.
“Working with internal and external experts in battery technology, we have proposed a comprehensive set of solutions that provide three layers of improvements in the battery system,” said Ray Conner, president and chief executive officer of Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
Boeing’s full press release can be found here.
The big news in the last week is that the FAA has approved the recertification process that Boeing has proposed for the Li-ion batteries in the 787. From their press release:
The certification plan is the first step in the process to evaluate the 787’s return to flight and requires Boeing to conduct extensive testing and analysis to demonstrate compliance with the applicable safety regulations and special conditions.
The important thing to understand is that the 787 is NOT cleared for flight. Nor has Boeing’s proposed fix been cleared for implementation. The FAA has approved a series of tests that Boeing must perform, and the Li-ion batteries must pass, to prove the proposed fix works properly.
There’s still a long road ahead of Boeing on this issue.