Monthly Archives: November 2016

Otto, an autonomous truck of Uber’s subsidiary, made its first delivery

Reading Time: 2 minutes
In the United States, Colorado, a truck without a driver made the first delivery of goods on a 200-kilometer journey. The technology that equips the truck was developed by Otto, a young shoot recently acquired by the transport service with driver Uber who feeds big ambitions in this field.

 When one speaks of autonomous driving, that is to say when the vehicle’s journey is directed by the on-board computer, the very first image that usually comes to mind is that of cars. Inevitably, the communication of the automobile industry on this subject is at least sustained. However, this technology is also very widely deployed in other means of transport.

As Futura has already had the opportunity to say, autonomous trucks have a future at least as large, if not more at first, than cars without drivers. It is a very attractive prospect for transport companies to travel long distances by freeing themselves from the rest time requirements of drivers. A market that is so attractive that actors outside the sector are very interested. This is the case of Uber, the service of transport car with driver (vtc) which made this summer the acquisition of Otto.

This innovative, US-based company is developing kit equipment to equip existing trucks with autonomous driving functions. Otto announced that a truck without driver equipped with its technology had made a delivery of goods, in this case beer. A world first.

Wired magazine, which devotes a report on this subject, recounts that the system used by Otto is not yet able to manage the entire course alone. If he is able to operate on motorways without the help of anyone, he still needs the help of a driver to negotiate the most delicate parts of the journey, whether it is insertion on a Fast track or city driving.

The autonomous truck, in which a human driver was present to intervene in the event of a problem, traveled 200 kilometers between Fort Collins and Colorado Springs, Colorado, on the highway. The autonomous driving kit, which includes cameras, lidar and ultrasonic radars, costs $ 30,000 and can be installed on any truck equipped with an automatic transmission.

Uber, which is working in parallel with the development of an autonomous car in partnership with Volvo, has already created a freight transport service called UberFreight which invites interested companies to participate in its experiments. But the vtc company is not the only high-tech actor to be interested in trucks. Tesla Motors recently announced its intention to develop a self-propelled truck, the Tesla Semi. Constructors and designers are also working on this concept, which you can see in our article on trucks of the future.

Sources :

Li-Fi : 100 times faster than standard Wi-Fi

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Li-Fi has often made the news in recent years but has never been commercially materialized. However, things should start to move with the announcement by the French company Lucibel of the marketing of the first Li-Fi luminaire. Developed in partnership with the Scottish company PureLIFI and manufactured in France, the product is in the form of Led ceiling lighting connected to the Internet via an RJ45 (Ethernet) cable and a transceiver that provides modulation and Receives the signal sent by the connected terminal. The latter uses a Li-Fi USB stick to receive the data.

Résultat de recherche d'images pour "LI Fi"

The lifi, for light fidelity is “the internet by light”.

The term Li-Fi was invented by Professor Harald Haas of the University of Edinburgh at a TED conference in 2011
“Internet by Light” is the way Cedric Mayer -one of the co-founders of Oldecomm, a French start-up that sells this application to the general public- calls it.
The big advantage of the Li-fi (Light Fidelity) is to be able to emit 1GBit per second, 10 times faster than Wifi.

How does Li-Fi work?

Li-Fi and Wi-Fi are quite similar as both transmit data electromagnetically. However, Wi-Fi uses radio waves while Li-Fi runs on visible light.

As we now know, Li-Fi is a Visible Light Communications (VLC) system. This means that it accommodates a photo-detector to receive light signals and a signal processing element to convert the data into ‘stream-able’ content.

An LED lightbulb is a semi-conductor light source meaning that the constant current of electricity supplied to an LED lightbulb can be dipped and dimmed, up and down at extremely high speeds, without being visible to the human eye.

For example, data is fed into an LED light bulb (with signal processing technology), it then sends data (embedded in its beam) at rapid speeds to the photo-detector (photodiode).

The tiny changes in the rapid dimming of LED bulbs is then converted by the ‘receiver’ into electrical signal.

The signal is then converted back into a binary data stream that we would recognise as web, video and audio applications that run on internet enables devices. (http://www.techworld.com/big-data/what-is-li-fi-everything-you-need-know-3632764/)

 

Résultat de recherche d'images pour "How does Li FI WORKS"

Advantages of LiFi

  • LED bulbs are increasingly used (we find them everywhere: car, house, city, etc.)
  • This makes it a potential access point
  • From an economic point of view, this technology is cheaper than radio technology
  • The LiFi has a theoretical transmission potential well above radio wireless (x10,000). At present, the bit rates reached are 10 Gbit / s
  •  Unlike its WiFi counterpart, the light does not cross the walls. It will therefore be easier to protect access to its network

    BUT….

  •    LiFi is currently a unidirectional technology. It must therefore be coupled with another technology (CPL, WiFi) or be used in specific cases (need only downflow);
  •  Obviously to operate the light should always be on and visible from the receiverConclusion : Thanks to advances in throughput and architecture, the LiFi becomes an increasingly credible and promising wireless technology. Despite the fact that it is unidirectional at the moment, the possibilities of use are numerous (road network, geolocation, underwater communication, etc.).

 

Sources: http://www.oledcomm.com/fr/product-overview

http://www.futura-sciences.com/tech/actualites/internet-li-fi-internet-haut-debit-lumiere-arrive-marche-maj-59745/

http://www.techworld.com/big-data/what-is-li-fi-everything-you-need-know-3632764/

 

 

 

 

Haters and fake convent provided via social media.

Reading Time: 2 minutes

 

Dear Readers

Today in the wake of the huge popularity of sharing the content via social media, when people felt much more anonymous, they basically means as much as their signs, emoji or nicknames, which identify them. It caused that they are feeling much more free in providing their posts, which very often are offended or fake. Facebook representative still tries to reduce this kind of problem, but its scale is huge and difficult to control. They mostly concentrated on fake ads, which sometimes we can notice during opening fb web or in the message folder called “ different”. As written in techcrunch.com Mark Zuckerberg said that the fake news are in the minority of the general content provided via Facebook, but as we can easily notice false information takes place pretty often. I am one of the moderator of the music band fun-page, where people are able to provide their opinions, comments, adds. What I observed is the fact, that minimum once per week what happened is sharing the negative, even as I mentioned above offended and fake comments. 99 percent of them are sending from the unreal accounts, which used strange names or pics taken from google- graphs or someone’s Instagram ,what is basically under the law. How we are fighting with that?

Well, the solution is pretty simple and for now that is the only solution, which is coming into my minds. It  is basically blocking, cause every critiques, (of course best if it is constructive criticism) are welcomed, but the curse or racist comments are not allowed. Probably many of us met, with this kind of negative experience in our life, especially if we are giving something publicly.

You re more than welcome to share Your feedback and opinions, how You are dealing with haters in the social media, or other platforms, where You re sharing Your content, ideas of simply Yourself.

If You are more interested in the issue, how Facebook currently is dealing with that staff check the link

https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/19/zuckerberg-reveals-plans-to-address-misinformation-on-facebook/

Thanks for reading and see You soon.

Magda Skorodzień.

Tagged , , , , , ,

Get anything you want from anywhere in the world!

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Moving from your home country in search of a new adventure is exciting! It’s something more and more people are doing. Whether it be students studying abroad for 3 years or professionals who move indefinitely, there is one thing that connects them all. That is that we all miss specific things from home. This is what inspired Daria Rebenok with the idea for Grabr.

Grabr is a peer to peer shopping and delivery marketplace. They make it possible for travelers to make money by shopping for and delivering products to people all around the world. Grabr uses these travelers to bridge the gap in the global shopping market. This way shoppers can have access to goods that are either unavailable or overpriced in their country. Travelers use the extra room in their suitcase to bring the products from point A to point B.

So who is this service for? There are two answers. The first is the shopper. Shoppers are people around the world who want or need to shop internationally. The second would be the travelers. These are people who are traveling, for whatever reason, and want to make some easy extra money.

To put it simply, someone wants something they can’t find locally. They post their plea for someone to bring it to them for a price that the two decide on (usually between $5-$20). Grabr takes a 7% cut of these fees. So you’re in L.A. but want macarons from your favorite cafe in Paris? Easy! Just post your request and connect with someone who is making the trip from Paris to L.A., agree on a price, and you’ll be enjoying those macarons in no time!

It can be argued that a service like this facilitates the sale of illegal goods. Grabr does impose restrictions as to what can be bought through their site. In their terms of service there is a list of prohibited items that includes illegal drugs, human remains, counterfeit currency, and live animals. Items imported without a customs declaration are also banned. Stolen property  or anything the U.S. government deems hazardous are also prohibited. But the question still remains as to how users will be monitored. However, companies designed as peer to peer, such as Airbnb, say they’re only facilitating the person to person connection via technology. This therefore lets the people and not the company take care of the arrangements, which in turn makes the company not liable for any illegal transactions.

Regardless of the things that can go wrong, I know that I will definitely be using this to get all of my favorite foods from the U.S. delivered here to Warsaw!

Sources: http://www.inc.com/christine-lagorio/grabr-launches-anything-delivery-peer-network.html

                https://grabr.io

THE ERA OF INTEGRATED SUSTAINABLE ENERGY JUST BEGUN!

Reading Time: 3 minutes

TESLA OFFICIALLY AQUIRES SOLARCITY.

Couple weeks ago (28.10.2016) Tesla in cooperation with SolarCity presented new solar powered ecosystem for private houses and small businesses. Tesla’s new green energy system is entirely sustainable and more cost-effective than regular grid system.

 

Power generating Roof Tiles are more durable, less costly and almost indistinguishable from traditional roofs. With this design and cost-efficiency Tesla is undeniably a forerunner in emerging market of accessible photovoltaic roofs.

Tesla, Solar Roof tiles

 

That day Tesla also announced Powerwall 2, energy storing lithium-ion batteries for private use. Powerwall 2 is capable of powering a two-bedroom house for 24 hours entirely without power from the grid. Tesla’s approach to product design is also very visible with this one. Powerwall 2 has very aesthetical design making it the most elegant home battery on the market.

Tesla, Powerwall 2

 

Tesla’s solar system allows households to be more energy independent and save thousands dollars on their annual energy bill. According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the Powerwall 2 “may be the cheapest lithium ion battery for the home ever made.” This is making Powerwall 2 an approachable home battery system of now and today.

Solar Roof and Powerwall 2 combined with Tesla’s electric cars creates cost-efficient, zero-emission ecosystem of the future.

Tesla, zero-emission ecosystem

 

Tesla new ecosystem presentation caused widespread buzz in the media and was a first sign of upcoming event.

Last Monday (21.11.2016) Tesla acquisition of SolarCity was officially announced.

SolarCity is the biggest provider of commercial solar panels in the United States. It has its own direct sales force and the best installation team in the industry. Moreover, SolarCity has developed innovative financing options making solar energy more accessible and affordable.

 

Just one day after the acquisition Tesla published this mind blowing one-minute video showing their new solar-powered microgrid that can supply whole energy demand of beautiful Tau Island located in American Samoa.

Thanks to combined effort of Tesla and SolarCity Tau Island is able now to entirely abandon diesel generators and become sustainable, remote Island powered fully by renewable energy.

 

Acquisition of SolarCity made Tesla a truly integrated sustainable energy company. They are now able to produce energy (Solar Roofs), storage it (Powerwall 2) and efficiently use it for transportation (Tesla cars). With those resources Tesla is giving people possibility of living zero-emission, entirely sustainable, green lifestyle.

This is the beginning of revolution in the way we produce and consume energy and Tesla just made another big step towards the world free of fossil fuels.

 

Sources:

https://www.tesla.com/blog/tesla-and-solarcity?redirect=no

http://blog.solarcity.com/island-in-the-sun/

https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/17/shareholders-approve-tesla-acquisition-of-solarcity/

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-31/no-one-saw-tesla-s-solar-roof-coming

 

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

Is the golden era for gasoline cars over?

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Some people might say that Elon Musk is the man who killed the gasoline car through his company Tesla. It’s impossible to argue that Tesla have not opened the eyes of the big masses and in some ways revolutionized the car industry. The public view of electric cars has changed with the introduction of Tesla model S, the electric car can be stylish and fast. However, how much has really changed? According to statistia.com1 the number of electric cars sold has gone from about 100 thousand in 2013 to estimates suggest that about 1,3 million has been sold in 2016. Tesla has sold approximately 170 0002 cars since the introduction of the Tesla Roadster in 2008. To put this number in perspective, the total number of sold cars in 2016 amounts to roughly 75 million3 this makes the number of electric cars to about 1,7% of the total.
To me this suggest that the golden era of the combustion powered car has not come to an end rather than a new phase. It’s said that sport cars are usually ahead when it comes to technology, if this is true we will see a lot of more hybrid cars and they will be more advanced than ever. The last few years all large sport cars manufactures have released new cars. Ferrari introduced their La Ferrari, McLaren came up with their extreme P1, Porsches contribution was the 918 Spyder and perhaps the most extreme came from Swedish company Koenigsegg when they introduced the all new Regera. Christian von Koenigsegg the CEO and founder of Koenigsegg states that there are much more to be done with the development of the traditional combustion engine. For example, Regera4 has no gearbox which is very unorthodox. Christian is involved with other companies and subsidiaries of Koenigsegg that develop new technology to improve the efficiency and performance of the traditional engines.
There is no doubt that the trend suggests an increase in the numbers of electric cars being sold, but that does not take into consideration the already existing stock of traditional gasoline powered cars. So even if media may suggest that the combustion engine is dead, it will take a very long time until won’t be around anymore, and until then we will see more new inventions that will make the combustion engine better in every way.

1 https://www.statista.com/statistics/270603/worldwide-number-of-hybrid-and-electric-vehicles-since-2009/
2 http://www.hybridcars.com/chinas-byd-becomes-worlds-third-largest-plug-in-car-maker/
3 https://www.statista.com/statistics/200002/international-car-sales-since-1990/
4 http://koenigsegg.com/

HIPPO ROLLER: when you didn’t need great innovations to make life easier

Reading Time: 2 minutes

HIPPO ROLLER is the perfect example of product not so innovative about the technological aspect that can make life easier. As you can see on product’s website, the company is the first to consider it a simple innovation.

Let’s start observing where this product was born. In my opinion, it isn’t a case that is an idea from two south-african guys, because the water crisis is a recurring problem in Africa. African people (generally women and children) spend a lot of time to provide themselves water since that they have to do many travels up to the springs. So this product is a brilliant idea since that now they can do less travels and take more water than before. In this way they have more time to spend in other things like go to school, work or farm.

Now, the first question is: what is Hippo Roller and how does it work?
Hippo Roller is a device for carrying water more easily and efficiently than traditional methods, particularly in the developing world. It consists of a barrel-shaped container which holds the water and can roll along the ground, and a handle attached to the axis of the barrel.
Hippo Roller makes it extremely easy to collect water in tough rural conditions – up to 5x more water than a single bucket, by simply rolling it along the ground. Then, this product has a filter to have cleaner water.

CIF Malawi - Nov 2016

IMMEDIATE IMPACT!

Most benefits enjoyed are experienced immediately: The Hippo Roller improves health and hygiene and makes more water and time available for education, household tasks and food production.

Benefits:

  • time savings (fetching water can be very time consuming in some poor rural environments);
  • reduced effort;
  • reduced strain (carrying heavy weights on the head every day for years puts strain on the body, particularly the vertebral column);
  • increased water availability, with benefits for health and perhaps even enabling vegetables to be grown;
  • hygienic storage due to the sealed lid on the roller.

Problems:

  • the biggest problem is financial. A Hippo Water Roller costs $100 plus shipping costs. That’s a pretty steep price for a South African or for a charity that wants to buy a large amount. Most use donated money to buy them. In other cases, corporations will buy some and donate them to a nongovernmental organization or a village.

To conclude, I want to use company’s mantra because lets you understand their philosophy and my opinion in this case:”Simple ideas. Changing lives.”

Sitography:

HYPERLOOP: 150 km from Dubai to Abu Dhabi in just 12 minutes!

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Few global companies are investing to make the Hyperloop concept come real. The main investor is the Start-up Hyperloop One, which is a US founded company in 2014 in Los Angeles. It is producing low-pressure tubes in connection with electromagnetically levitated pods to ensure humans a quicker and more comfortable transportation possibility. The vehicle can speed up to 1000km/h in complete silence. Nowadays they are developing passenger transporting systems in Finland, the Emirates, US, Switzerland and Russia. In the next year the company would like to present its first Hyperloop in the Nevada dessert.

As the main investor of the company is the Dubaian port operator DP Word Group, the company decided to introduce one of their project for goods transportation in the port of Dubai. Now the Hyperloop One presented another project in the Emirates: Dubai and Abu Dhabi should be connected by a Hyper speed-train.

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7A7GsAPR3J0

Few of the details are already known as Hyperloop started the cooperation with the transportation authority of Dubai. The basic and most valuable issue is that the distance will be passed in just 12 minutes. Now the travelling time between these two cities takes 2 hours, therefore the speed train would improve incredibly the travelling comfort among this two metropoles. The train will be available for passenger transport. These will have the possibility to order a capsule at the Hyperloop One Portal via App. Each session 4 capsules are going to be transported via the pipe.

The passenger cabin and the Hyperloop one pipe

 

The Hyperloop gate

Up to date there are no high-speed trains in the Emirates

Besides the Hyperloop One also the consulting company McKinsey and the architecture company Bjarke Ingels are participating at this project. The inventors suggest that the train connecting Dubai and Abu Dhabi will be launched in October 2020. The precise time line and plan are not available yet. They will be created when the first Hyperloop-test in Nevada succeeds. Indeed are the Arabic Emirates very suitable for introducing that kind of technological newcomer. On the one hand they have enough funds for the project and on the other hand there is a lot of unused land with a very limited rail network. Therefore the Hyperloop would not be a competitor to other high-speed trains.

 

Sources: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3820787/High-speed-train-Hyperloop-Sydney-Melbourne-55-minutes.html

http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/132405-what-is-elon-musk-s-700mph-hyperloop-the-subsonic-train-explained/gallery

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/w8iAImk164s/maxresdefault.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7A7GsAPR3J0

https://hyperloop-one.com/

Tagged , , ,

AIRBNB TRIPS. NEW TRAVEL SERVICES APP

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Yesterday, November 17, Airbnb’s CEO Brian Chesky took the stage at the historic Orpheum Theater in downtown Los Angeles to announce the launch of a new product: Trips.

Chief Executive announced that Airbnb would offer travelers the opportunity to create customized itineraries for hours or days that afford a more authentic local experience.

“If you want to travel, you basically end up on a research project,” Chesky said. “We want to fix this.”

Through Trips, customers can book a range of local activities and find attractions that are not on the tourist circuit. The services are available now as an upgrade to the Airbnb app in 12 cities and will be in more than 50 cities next year. Flight and rental car bookings will also be part of the service eventually.

The new platform lets people offer immersions (services that either last many days) or single experiences (services for a few hours). You can also filter by categories or switch from the experience you want to have to the place you want to go.

Furthermore Airbnb says it partnered with a restaurant reservation startup called Resy to let you book a table at a popular place to eat through its platform, so you can book tables as you browse recommendations. The company is also partnering with Detour, a startup that makes app-enabled audio guides, so travelers can go on audio walks in the cities they are staying in. It also pushed out a new timeline feature under the Trips tab, which Chesky says will let the company understand where you’re going, what gaps you have in your trip, and what your preferences are to recommend activities to you.

Risultati immagini per airbnb trips

The goal is to provide travelers with a way of connecting with experiences they wouldn’t typically be able to have has a tourist. That way, more travelers think of Airbnb as a destination for finding cool stuff to do in a new place.

Airbnb is looking to differentiate itself from the competition and trips platform will potentially become an end to end travel service operator.

 

Sources:

http://time.com/money/4575413/airbnb-travel-agent-trips/

Airbnb is turning itself into an ‘experience’ machine beyond just booking places to stay

http://www.businessinsider.com/airbnb-trips-launch-2016-11?IR=T

 

 

The Polish Start-up Scene

Reading Time: 2 minutes

If you were to ask someone to name the start-up hubs around the world, they’d probably name places like San Francisco, London, Tel Aviv or Berlin first. But if you’re an entrepreneur or investor, Poland should be on your radar. This is because over the past few years the Polish start-up scene has exploded. A recent report from StartUp Poland gives more insight into the country’s digital economy.

In a poll of 2,400 start-ups, 39% identified as software development enterprises, mainly selling their products as SaaS, e-commerce, mobile app development and IoT services. All of which share the dominant B2B business model. There are a decent number start-ups in the poll who are growing more than 50% annually. Most of these companies are in business with medium-sized companies and large corporations. Just over half (54%) of Polish start-ups are exporting their services abroad mainly to the United States and the United Kingdom. 60% of the digital entrepreneurs had bootstrapped their start-ups, and reported being profitable from the beginning. However, others have used funding from the EU as well as domestic and foreign VC funding.

Here are some of the top start-ups in Poland:

  1. DocPlanner: an online healthcare platform that enables patients to book appointments with local physicians. They raised two impressive rounds of $10 million and $20 million in the last year and a half. The company plans to use their funding to expand internationally.
  2. Brainly: is a social learning network and is one of the most promising and fastest growing within the EdTech space. They’ve raised $24.5 million in funding and have over 80 million monthly users. They are available in over 35 countries and have 12 language versions.
  3. Brand24: provides easy to use, cost-effective internet monitoring. Hundreds of businesses like Panasonic, IKEA, and Air France are using Brand24 to get real-time customer insights and actionable intelligence that is relevant to their products and brands.
  4. Growbots: founded only 2 years ago, Growbots is the first all-in-one outbound sales platform. It has attracted funded and has moved part of their team to San Francisco. They offer automatic lead generation and automated email drip campaigns that can integrate with your CRM. They allow you to set up your ICP access over 200 million quality leads.

With the start-up momentum continuing to grow in Poland, it might not be long before they are viewed as a powerhouse like San Fransisco, London Tel Aviv, or Berlin.

Where are these stat-ups located?

Sources: https://startupxplore.com/en/blog/polish-startup-scene-bitinspiration-interview

  http://tech.eu/features/1877/polish-startup-scene-krakow

  http://www.forbes.com/sites/alisoncoleman/2016/05/20/poland-on-track-to-becoming-a-major-european-tech-startup-hub/#29fbc95b431b

  https://itkey.media/the-startup-ecosystem-poland-report-released