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This Flying Car Could Soon Be Yours for $279,000. It seems like something out of The Jetsons, but it's real. Or at least it will be soon. Terrafugia is perhaps just a few regulations and one very powerful battery away from clearing most of the hurdles it needs to create a flying car that consumers in the market for the equivalent of a super luxury sedan could afford. It's a dream that Carl Dietrich, the company's co-founder, CEO and CTO, has been working at steadily since at least 2006.

"I think it's ridiculous we don't have these things out there, right now," Dietrich said, speaking of the flying cars he's helping to design. "There is so much potential for an economic benefit to society if we have things like this. So, that's part of the reason why Dietrich and Terrafugia want your car to take wing, but it's also been part of his lifelong passion for flight. The Transition: Prototype for the Terrafugia Vision "We're flying a second-generation prototype, right now," Dietrich said of the Transition.

TF-X: Next Steps into the Air. Google driverless car. States that allow driverless cars public road testing. In addition, a law proposed in Texas would establish criteria for allowing autonomous motor vehicles. Toyota Prius modified to operate as a Google driverless car driving a test course.[1] The U.S. state of Nevada passed a law on June 29, 2011 permitting the operation of autonomous cars in Nevada.

Google had been lobbying for robotic car laws.[5][6][7] The Nevada law went into effect on March 1, 2012, and the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles issued the first license for an autonomous car in May 2012. Technology[edit] Google's robotic cars have about $150,000 in equipment including a $70,000 LIDAR (laser radar) system.[12] The range finder mounted on the top is a Velodyne 64-beam laser. This laser allows the vehicle to generate a detailed 3D map of its environment.

Road testing[edit] Incidents[edit] In August 2011, a human-controlled Google driverless car was involved in a crash near Google headquarters in Mountain View, CA. Videos. How Maglev Trains Work" If you'v­e been to an airport lately, you've probably noticed that air travel is becoming more and more congested. Despite frequent delays, airplanes still provide the fastest way to travel hundreds or thousands of miles.

Passenger air travel revolutionized the transportation industry in the last century, letting people traverse great distances in a matter of hours instead of days or weeks. The only alternatives to airplanes -- feet, cars, buses, boats and conventional trains -- are just too slow for today's fast-paced society. However, there is a new form of transportation that could revolutionize transportation of the 21st century the way airplanes did in the 20th century. A few countries are using powerful electromagnets to develop high-speed trains, called maglev trains. Maglev is short for magnetic levitation, which means that these trains will float over a guideway using the basic principles of magnets to replace the old steel wheel and track trains.

Highspeedrail. Startup Elio Motors Doesn't Get To Buy Ex-GM Plant After All. Elio Motors 84 mpg 3-wheeler [Image: Elio Motors] Elio Motors’ tiny three-wheeled, 84-mpg vehicle already has a significant following, but before Elio can turn those fans into buyers, it needs to secure a place to build it. Startup company Elio intends to build cars in a disused General Motor assembly plant in Shreveport, Louisiana, but over the past few weeks, that plant’s future has been up in the air.

The plant’s current owner, RACER Trust, reportedly threatened to bring in the wrecking ball, which led the Caddo Parish Commissioners to vote for a $7.5 million purchase of the former GM plant by the local government. Elio Motors’ intended home is thus safe--but the startup does not own it. According to KSLA News (via Gas2), Caddo Parish is just as interested in the plant’s scrap value as the RACER Trust.

A commissioner said the buildings’ steel and copper justified the amount of taxpayer money invested in saving the plant.