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This Idea Wasn't All Wet: The Sensing Water-Saving Shower Head Debuts

Cars That Think

In 2012, with California in the midst of a severe drought, Schneider, then a mechanical engineering graduate student at Stanford University , once again tossed out a “cool idea.” He imagined a shower head that would sense when the person showering moved out from under the stream of water. You’d waste more water than you saved.

IDEA 89
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Heating Buildings With Solar Energy Stored in Sand

Cars That Think

As we try to objectively study nature, we are often reminded of how natural forces affect us personally. When we turn up the heat in our homes and workplaces, we must balance our personal need for warmth with the global impact of burning fossil fuels like oil, gas, coal, and biomass. Sand is efficient, nontoxic, portable, and cheap!”.

Store 90
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Interim assessment finds Volkswagen’s “Think Blue. Factory.” program reduced resource consumption by average 24.3% since 2011

Green Car Congress

day, representatives from all Volkswagen sites presented their ideas and the measures they have already implemented to reduce the use of resources. The Volkswagen foundry in Hanover uses waste heat from the cooling system in various applications such as heating offices in winter or to heat up drinking water.

2011 150
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Ford 2017 trends report: disruption the status quo, “never more difficult” to find objective information

Green Car Congress

In an on-demand world, patience has become less of a virtue; there now are more ways to rationalize how we spend our time—rather than declaring it “wasted”. Sustainability Blues (2014): The 2014 trend book addressed the world’s increasing concerns about water. This trend has not subsided.

Ford 150
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Four Startups Aim to Change the Climate Tech Game

Cars That Think

That’s what John Hennessy, Stanford professor (and former president) and chairman of Alphabet , told attendees at the Stanford Global Energy Forum , held in-person this month on the Stanford University campus. Four startups presented particularly unique ways of addressing the challenge of reducing the use of fossil fuels.

Climate 98
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AI’s Threats to Jobs and Human Happiness Are Real

Cars That Think

Kai-Fu Lee , an AI expert who leads the venture capital firm Sinovation Ventures , and Chen Qiufan , a science fiction author known for his novel Waste Tide. Charles Simonyi , the person who created Microsoft word. If you expect an assembly line worker to become a robot repair person, it isn’t going to be so easy." —Kai-Fu

Personal 140
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Lotfi Zadeh and the Birth of Fuzzy Logic

Cars That Think

As a child, Zadeh was surrounded by governesses and tutors, while as a young adult, he had a personal servant. He had heard from a colleague that Zadeh had been toying with the idea of leaving Columbia. At the time, though, he had no clear idea how this would work. That idea came in July 1964. The Golden Fleece.