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Autonomous Boats Seem More Solvable Than Autonomous Cars

Cars That Think

Where autonomous vehicles have had the most success is in environments with a lot of predictability and structure, which is why I really like the idea of autonomous urban boats designed for cities with canals. MIT has been working on these for years , and they're about to introduce them to the canals of Amsterdam as cargo shuttles and taxis.

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Q&A: Inside DARPA’s Subterranean Challenge

Cars That Think

DARPA designed the competition to advance practical robotics in extreme conditions, based around three distinct underground environments: human-made tunnels, the urban underground, and natural caves. A series of three preliminary circuit events would give teams experience with each environment. IEEE Spectrum. Can you talk about that?

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False Starts: The Story of Vehicle-to-Grid Power

Cars That Think

Early utility companies like Boston Edison and New York Edison organized EV fleets, favoring electric trucks for their comparatively capacious batteries. In the early years of the automobile, battery-powered electric cars were competitive with cars fueled by gasoline and other types of propulsion.

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Video Friday: Mini Pupper

Cars That Think

MIT ] Among the first electronic mobile robots were the experimental machines of neuroscientist W. His battery-powered robots were models to test his theory that a minimum number of brain cells can control complex behavior and choice. Grey Walter.

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Xerox Parc’s Engineers on How They Invented the Future—and How Xerox Lost It

Cars That Think

The Open Environment and How It Changed PARC started with a small nucleus—perhaps fewer than 20 people. The first personal computer developed in the United States is commonly thought to be the MITS Altair, which sold as a hobbyist’s kit in 1976. Nine came from the Berkeley Computer Corp.,

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How Carmakers Are Responding to the Plug-In Hybrid Opportunity

Tony Karrer Delicious EVdriven

The utility.will get a Ford plug-in hybrid vehicle by the end of this year and as many as 20 by some time in 2009 to test their durability, range and impact on the power grid, said Susan M. Cischke, Ford senior vice president for sustainability, environment and safety engineering. "By By partnering with these two industries.

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