Future tech

The engineers at Tesla Motors have designed a new single-speed transmission for its sports car that will let it hit the promised zero to 60 mph in four seconds.

The transmission won't come out on the first Tesla Roadsters coming off the line, the company said in a press release. Those early production cars will have a two-speed transmission that will only let the car get to 60 mph in 5.7 seconds. Problems with the transmission were part of the reason the company delayed the cars from the middle of last year until now. Some modifications to the … Read more

January is diesel engine month, it seems.

Following announcements from EcoMotors and Transonic Combustion, San Diego's Achates Power has said on its Web site that it's creating a clean, light, fuel-efficient diesel engine.

The company has also received investments from Sequoia Capital, a relative newcomer to energy investments, Rockport Capital Partners and Interwest Partners. (VentureWire has a brief interview with Achates CEO James Lemke.)

Achates has not said how its engine will work, the company has three patent applications on file with the U.S. Patent Office. Two of the patents describe what's known as an opposed … Read more

First Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo unveiling and now a new jetpack? Somebody forgot to tell me that it's Worldwide Wacko Futurist Pipe-Dream Week.

A company called Thunderbolt Aerosystems announced this week the release of the Thunderpack, which "represents more than a decade's worth of effort to apply modern rocket fuels and propulsion technologies to create a practical and economical personal air vehicle." It'll fly you around for a total of 75 seconds. That's certainly an improvement over a jetpack at the Wirefly X Prize Cup in 2006 that could stay aloft for a mere … Read more

The University of Texas at Dallas has entered the race to produce a more powerful semiconductor using a $1.75 million grant from DARPA to develop a microchip that is "faster than anything" on the market today.

The new technology will still be silicon-based but will use photons rather than electrons to speed things up, according to a UT press release.

"This research is intended to produce a completely new class of components that could have a revolutionary impact on information engineering," Professor Duncan MacFarlane said. "The photonic integrated circuit (PIC) we're developing will … Read more

MORGAN HILL, Calif.--What do you do if your company has raised $291 million in venture funds and you're still waiting for your market to take off?

You buy replica robots that starred in movies from the 1950s.

At least that's what Alien Technology, based here, did. The company's previous CEO bought these two gems, which sit in the headquarters lobby. (The company is currently headed up by Fujitsu and Apple alum George Everhart.)

The roundish one, that looks like Bib the Michelin Man wearing a hat that pipes beer from two cans into your mouth, is … Read more

Popular Mechanics has compiled a lovingly researched gallery of all the Terminator models, from the original Schwarzenegger model to the present-day, and even speculating into the future of the television and film series. Carefully cataloged according to model number, chronological sequence, nanoscale composition, special skills, and fighting techniques, as well as fairly sophisticated cross-references to historical works of science fiction, this might go down as the definitive listing.

Ah, it all makes me nostalgic...not.

As much as I loved the first two movies back in the day, as much as I played the video game, I just can't … Read more

A company with the unwieldy name of Making Virtual Solid has developed a new way for drivers to follow GPS directions, a virtual line projected onto a car's windshield. The technology, called Virtual Cable, uses existing heads-up-display components and standard GPS navigation systems, but would have to be factory-installed. From videos on the company's site, the system looks very usable, and a big improvement over current route guidance systems. The beauty of Virtual Cable is that it shows route guidance over real streets, as opposed to navigation screens, which show arrows on a map that the driver then … Read more

Even before full-HD reaches mainstream, the Japanese government is already embarking on an ambitious joint project to develop the next-generation high-definition TV system. Dubbed Super Hi-Vision or 8K, this new visual technology boasts 7,680x4,320-pixel or 33-megapixel clarity. That's 16 times the resolution of today's 1080p panels and a fourfold enhancement over the latest commercial 4K displays. The latter, in fact, is barely making its presence felt in Asian cineplexes with Spiderman 3 being one of the first 4K movie releases.

Japan's communication ministry is expected to inject 300 million yen ($2.7 million) into research … Read more

EcoMotors is working on a futuristic diesel engine that's similar in concept to something Charles Lindbergh may have once used.

The company, which came out of stealth mode over the weekend, wants to bring what is called an opposed piston/opposed cylinder diesel engine to market. In ordinary engines, pistons pop up and down (or back and forth if laying down) inside an individual cylinder capped by a cylinder head. Gas is injected into the chamber and gets combusted by the action of the piston, among other factors.

In EcoMotors' engine, there is a double-length cylinder with a piston … Read more