Snow problem
A self-driving snowplow has been maintaining sidewalks in Grand Prairie, Alta., making the city the first in Canada to send the new device into action.
Dubbed the ‘snow bot,’ the RT-1000 was put to work in mid-December, clearing a seven-kilometre walking trail in the city’s Bear Creek Reservoir.
The snow bot uses GPS, radar and 360-degree cameras to follow a pre-programmed path and to avoid humans and other potential obstacles. The device is manufactured by Colorado, U.S.-based Left Hand Robotics and can allegedly clear up to 25 kilometres of trails on a single tank of fuel.
According to the city, having a self-driving machine takes the weight off ever-tightening municipal budgets, as the machine frees up city crews, giving them more time to handle more complex problems.
“Obviously, the machine can’t be as perceptive as an actual person, but it does a really good job on the longer, more monotonous trails,” said the spokesperson.
The machine does have limits, however—any snow deeper than eight centimetres requires human intervention.
“That’s where you’ll need a plow truck or one of the larger pieces of equipment,” a Grand Prairie spokesperson told CBC News.
If the pilot project works out, the snow bot will be out mowing city sports fields this summer and could eventually be responsible for salting and sanding the entire 13-kilometre network of Muskoseepi Park trails in the winter.
Automotive acoustics
On Monday, Nissan unveiled its new lightweight sound insulation material, which it says can help make car cabins quieter while simultaneously boosting energy efficiency.
Nissan demonstrated its new technology—known as acoustic meta-material—last week at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada. According to the company, the material’s combination of lattice structure and plastic film controls air vibrations to limit the transmission of wide frequency band noise (500 to 1200 hertz) such as road and engine noise.
Currently, most materials used to isolate this frequency band consist mainly of heavy rubber board. Nissan says its meta-material weights one-fourth as much as these materials while providing the same degree of sound isolation.
The brand has been working on meta-material research since 2008—back when meta-material was being used in high-sensitivity antennas used for electromagnetic wave research. Since then, Nissan has worked to extend the applicability of the meta-material technology to include sound waves, leading to the invention of the acoustic meta-material.
The Waymo way
Waymo, the self-driving unit of Alphabet Inc., says its vehicles have covered more than 20 million miles (32.2 kilometres) on public roads since its creation in 2009.
“It took us a decade to drive the first 10 million miles,” the company said in a statement. “But it took just over one year to complete these last 10 million.”
According to Waymo, large tech companies, big automakers and well-funded startups have been testing self-driving vehicles, but for the most part real passengers have not been included in the plan.
Waymo has now begun offering a limited number of fully automated rides for the public without backup drivers in its cars.
