Kozminski Techblog

Reading Time: 2 minutes

The German automaker says it’s moving forward with making the idea a reality

Volkswagen says it’s made a prototype of the electric vehicle charging robot concept it first showed off in proof-of-concept form in late 2019, and that it plans to keep developing the idea. The giant German automaker apparently liked the concept so much that the prototype charging robot looks almost identical to the concept version, complete with blinking digital eyes and R2-D2 noises.

“A ubiquitous charging infrastructure is and remains a key factor in the success of electric mobility. Our charging robot is just one of several approaches, but is undoubtedly one of the most visionary,” explains Thomas Schmall, Volkswagen Group Components’ CEO.

The robot works simply enough in theory. The charging robot – started via an app or Car-to-X communication – operates totally autonomously. It independently steers the vehicle to be charged and communicates with it: from opening the charging socket flap to connecting the plug and decoupling it. The entire charging process takes place without any human involvement whatsoever. To charge several vehicles at the same time, the mobile robot moves a trailer, essentially a mobile energy storage unit, to the vehicle, connects it up and then uses this energy storage unit to charge the battery of the electric vehicle. The energy storage unit stays with the vehicle during the charging process. In the meantime, the robot charges other electric vehicles. Once the charging service has ended, the robot independently collects the mobile energy storage unit and takes it back to the central charging station.

It’s a fun idea, though there are a number of possible points of failure that Volkswagen didn’t address in the press release. For one, the charging robot depends on cars being connected to an overall network of some kind (known in the industry as V2X or “vehicle to everything”) in order to communicate with the robot. But that’s an idea that has yet to take hold, and one that is fraught with unglamorous but nevertheless foundational problems, like arguing about which standard to use.

Also, calling this version of the charging robot a “prototype” implies that Volkswagen has got a working version, but the company didn’t actually show it in action as part of the announcement. Instead, Volkswagen merely released a “first glimpse,” involving just a glossy commercial for the robot and a few photos.

The business unit is currently working on a complete DC charging family. The flexible quick-charging station will be launched onto the market in early 2021. 

Sources:

https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/28/22202913/volkswagen-charging-robot-electric-cars-vw

https://www.drive2.ru/e/CAXSwEAABrk

https://www.volkswagen-newsroom.com/en/press-releases/initial-contact-the-mobile-charging-robot-presenting-a-vision-6736

https://media.vw.com/en-us/releases/1452

Reading Time: 3 minutesPorsche, Siemens Energy and a lineup of international companies are developing and implementing a pilot project in southern Chile that is expected to yield the world’s first integrated, commercial, industrial-scale plant for making synthetic hydrogen-based climate-neutral fuels (eFuels). What is more, as part of Germany’s national hydrogen strategy, Siemens Energy will get a grant of some 8 million euros from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy in support of the project.

In the pilot phase, around 130,000 litres of eFuels will be produced as early as 2022. In two further phases, capacity will then be increased to about 55 million litres of eFuels a year by 2024, and around 550 million litres of eFuels by 2026. Porsche will be the primary customer for the green fuel.

If this project successes, eFuels can become not only a good substitution for the traditional gasoline, but also an opponent for electric systems, taking into consideration the fact that a huge variety of cars are perfectly adopted to gasoline systems. Consequently, it is much easier and more profitable to switch to eFuels.

In the automotive industry opinions concerning the synthesized carbon-neutral fuel have splitted. Porsche (and generally the Volkswagen concern) considers such projects to be promising. The same point share McLaren and Ford. But the bosses of Mercedes-Benz / Daimler recently abandoned this idea, considering it unviable, at least in the medium term.

Sources:

https://newsroom.porsche.com/en/2020/company/porsche-siemens-energy-pilot-project-chile-research-development-synthetic-fuels-efuels-23021.html

https://www.porsche.com/central-eastern-europe/ru/aboutporsche/pressreleases/?id=619733&pool=international-de

 

Reading Time: 2 minutesIn 2018 Mark Zuckerberg announced the creation of a division dedicated to blockchain and David Marcus, Facebook vice president, was moved from Facebook Messenger to a new division.  Confirmation that Facebook intended a cryptocurrency, known as”Global Coin” or “Facebook Coin”  first emerged in 2019. Libra was formally announced on June 18, 2019 as brand-new currency tied to a basket of fiat currencies and securities. Many central banks and regulators have been concerned about this project. That’s why the Libra Association, the consortium created by Facebook, changed course and started working on several single-currency stable coins. According to a report from the Financial Times, cryptocurrency Libra could launch in January 2020.

Stable coins are cryptocurrencies that do not fluctuate in value against a specific fiat currency. This gives Libra a big advantage over bitcoin. Libra mentioned USD, EUR, GBP or SGD as base currencies for its various stable coins: 50% United States dollar, 18% Euro, 14% Japanese yen, 11% Pound sterling and 7% Singapore dollar.

Facebook will most likely launch its own Libra wallet, Novi, at the same time.

Novi is a pure Facebook project headed by David Marcus. You will be able to download a standalone Novi app on your phone. While you do not need a Facebook or WhatsApp account to create a Novi account, it will also be accessible directly in Messenger and WhatsApp — you’ll be able to tap on a button to launch a Novi menu to send and receive money through the Novi wallet. It promises instant transactions and “no hidden fees” for cross-border money transfers and local payments. It is unclear whether Novi means there will not be any fees or there will be fees but the company will be transparent about them. Novi will also act as a ramp to convert fiat money to crypto assets and cash out your cryptocurrencies to traditional fiat currencies.But the main disadvantage – only a limited set of countries will be able to access the service at first.

It difficult to say whether Libra and Novi will be successful or not as it sounds great and promising on the one hand. But, on the other hand, one similar project has already failed. It was called ‘Gram (TON)’ and held by cross-platform Telegram and Pavel Durov. Unfortunately, on May 12, 2020, Pavel Durov officially announced in his Telegram channel the closure of the TON project, which involved the use of the Gram cryptocurrency due to the fact that the court of New York banned the Gram cryptocurrency.

Taking into consideration the fact, that Libra is still awaiting approval from United States regulators, we may only wish the Libra Association all the best the and look forward to seeing how the project will be implemented.

Sources:

https://techcrunch.com/2020/11/27/facebooks-libra-could-launch-in-january/

https://techcrunch.com/2020/05/26/facebook-rebrands-libra-wallet-service-calibra-to-novi/

https://zen.yandex.ru/media/id/5b4c83a578c21800a90ae56c/gram-kriptovaliuta-ot-telegram-kakovy-ee-perspektivy-5bdaa71cc6575b00aa875d66

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gram

Reading Time: 2 minutesWe live in an age when it is impossible not to have a PC. It is needless to say that people who are connected to digital drawing, graphics or gaming have faced the problem of quite a difficult choice: to buy a tablet for sketching and graphics? to buy a gaming laptop? or just to buy a computer in order to use it for coding, working and studying? And how not to go bankrupt on the one hand but fulfil your ambitions on the other one?

This year Asus has come up with the solution and presented Asus ZenBook Flip 14.

Firstly, the sleek four-sided NanoEdge design makes ZenBook extra slim and compact, with an amazing 90% screen-to-body ratio. Its Core™i7 processor (10th Gen Intel® CPU), up to 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD, Windows 10 Pro and gaming-grade graphics (discrete graphics chip supercharges your laptop for work or play) give you effortless performance for on-the-go productivity and visual creativity.

Secondly, the 360° ErgoLift hinge. This innovation also lifts and tilts the keyboard into a comfortable typing position when the display is opened beyond 135°. Otherwise, you turn the display on 360° and, in a moment, you have a tablet in your arms. Now, all you need for sketching or graphics is taking a stylus and a couple of free hours. For this reason, the laptop has the touch display and a perfect fixation of the display thanks to well-made hinges.

Thirdly, the new ScreenPad 2.0 upgrades the traditional laptop experience, adding an interactive secondary touchscreen. Its intuitive smartphone-like interface lets you easily manage tasks and create your own seamless multitasking workflow. There are useful quick controls that improve the interactions between the main display and ScreenPad: for instance, you can now launch a video or chat box — or many other apps — onto ScreenPad to take advantage of the extra space wherever you are, and without interrupting your work on the main display.

Taking everything into account, Asus has not presented an outstanding nor unusual design of their laptop. They have not added a fantastic camera, have not invented something new instead of facial log in. Nevertheless, this laptop charms customers and it is almost impossible to find something more universal than ZenBook Flip 14 nowadays.

 

Sources:

https://www.asus.com/Laptops/For-Home/ZenBook/ZenBook-Flip-14-UX463