Blogs / 80beats

Honda’s robotics division has unveiled the prototype of a strange new helper: a “walking assistant.” Honda says the robotic legs could restore mobility to the elderly or infirm, and could help prevent factory workers from straining their muscles–if they don’t mind being joined to the strange looking device. The user would employ the device by stepping into a pair of shoes attached to jointed legs. The legs support a mildly-scary looking U-shaped saddle, which cups the wearer’s groin and buttocks firmly to deliver solid uplift…. Honda say that the machine reduces load on the hip joints, and helps not just with walking but also standing - and especially with maintaining a crouched position [The Register].

The device, which weighs about 14 pounds and is powered by a motor and Lithium ion battery, is the result of Honda’s nine-year-old initiative to develop mobility-assisting technologies. The creation of the device borrowed heavily from the walking research that went into Honda’s advanced humanoid robot, ASIMO [Daily Tech]. Honda hasn’t yet announced plans to begin selling the walking assistants, but tests of the prototype will begin this month.

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Earlier this month, the much-hyped electric car company Tesla Motors admitted that the hard financial times were taking a toll, and scaled back its goals to mass-produce flashy electric sports cars and sedans in the next few years. In that announcement, company founder (and space entrepreneur) Elon Musk revealed that the company would cut staff, close a Detroit office, and postpone production of its next generation vehicle, the Model S. Now the company has acknowledged that it was forced to cut almost 25 percent of its workforce, and analysts are wondering about its future.

The company is reportedly reeling because a number of investors withdrew their support or demanded tougher terms as financial markets collapsed over the past month. The company restructuring means that the Model S, a four-door sedan, won’t be ready until 2011, and the startup could lose its first-mover advantage: By 2010, everyone from General Motors to Toyota Motor, Nissan Motor, and Daimler expects to launch their own electrified vehicles. James N. Hall, who runs the auto consulting firm 2953 Analytics, sees trouble ahead. “If the market wants [electric cars] in the number Tesla is talking about,” he says, “a larger auto company will bury them on cost” [BusinessWeek].

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Engineers have unveiled designs for a rocket- and jet-powered car that they say could bust the land-speed record wide open, potentially traveling faster than 1,000 miles per hour. The vehicle, called the Bloodhound SSC, is being designed by the same team that built the first car to ever break the sound barrier, the Thrust SSC, which clocked in at 763 mph when it zoomed across Nevada’s Black Rock desert in 1997. That vehicle currently holds the land-speed record.

The 42-foot long Bloodhound will be powered by an “exotic combination” of jet, rocket, and piston-engine power…. From what we understand, the rocket’s charged mainly with propelling the car to high speeds. Though it’s good for that, it’s unable to hold selected speeds, hence the addition of a Eurojet EJ200 jet engine kicks in. The piston engine? We hear the 800-hp V-12 engine serves mostly as an auxiliary power source and a fuel pump [Automobile].

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Chrysler, the smallest of Detroit’s Big Three automakers, surprised the industry this week by revealing three new electric vehicles, the first of which it plans to begin shipping to dealers in late 2010. In unveiling a minivan, a Jeep Wrangler and a sports car, Chrysler’s executives spelled out plans for a future in which most, if not all, automobiles would use electric motors for propulsion — essentially sounding the death knell for the internal-combustion engine [Los Angeles Times].

The car company has struggled financially over the past decade, so the ambitious plan surprised analysts, many of whom thought Chrysler lacked the size and financial resources to develop an electric car on its own [The New York Times]. By announcing that its first electric models will hit showrooms in 2010, Chrysler puts itself in direct competition with General Motors, which has a similar timeline for its electric car, the Chevy Volt, which was unveiled last week. Nissan is also working on several electric cars of its own.

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Google and General Electric have announced a partnership aimed at upgrading the United States electric power grid and pushing forward the development of renewable energy. The companies plan to conduct a joint lobbying effort in Washington to encourage the government to invest in developing a “smart grid,” and will also work together on projects like geothermal energy systems and integrating plug-in electric cars into the grid. The deal combines each company’s strengths: GE will make the hardware — from wind turbines to metering switches, and Google will make the software — applying network technologies to the grid [Portfolio].

The announcement follows a speech given two weeks ago by Google CEO Eric Schmidt, in which he laid out a blueprint for how the United States could switch over to generating 100 percent of its electricity from renewable energy by 2030, while also eliminating half of the gasoline-powered cars from the roads. While Google hasn’t offered to follow through on that comprehensive proposal, which carried the hefty price tag of $2.7 billion, the partnership with GE seems to indicate that Google wants to put many of its suggestions into practice.

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During a celebration to mark the 100th anniversary of General Motors, the company unveiled a prototype of its long-awaited electric car, the Chevy Volt. Experts say the Volt, which is expected to hit showrooms in late 2010, has the potential to both revitalize the struggling car company and to change American’s expectations of what an automobile can do: GM has said that the Volt should be able to drive 400 miles on a full charge and a full tank. “We’re reinventing the automobile,” [GM executive Rick] Wagoner said…. GM has placed huge bets on the car, reportedly investing at least $500 million in its development [Los Angeles Times blog].

The Volt’s technology differs from the system used in Toyota’s hybrid Prius, which has two motors. The Volt will have only one electric motor, powered by its new battery, and will go up to 40 miles without using a drop of gas. For the nearly 80% of Americans who drive less than 40 miles a day, that would mean they could effectively eliminate gasoline from their lives. After 40 miles, the Volt’s gas engine switches on, but unlike the Prius’s, it doesn’t make the car move so much as an inch [Time]. Instead, the gas engine generates electricity to charge the car’s battery, allowing the driver to go several hundred more miles before either filling up the gas tank or plugging in the car.

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Cars powered by hydrogen fuel cells could be commercially viable in 15 years, according to a new report, but only if engineers overcome technological hurdles and the government pumps $55 billion into their development. The primary barriers to adoption are high costs and the absence of an infrastructure to distribute hydrogen [CNET], according to the federally funded study.

Several car companies are already leasing their experimental fuel-cell cars, but the report says they won’t be a mass-market hit until 2023 at the earliest. Automakers don’t disclose the costs of the few hundred fuel cell vehicles on the roads — but generally say it costs $1 million to $2 million to produce one in such low volumes. The main expense is the platinum in the fuel stack, which accounts for 57 percent of the fuel stack cost [The Detroit News].

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That’s right, the Japanese automaker is on a air freshening mission. In a bid to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases its vehicles pump into the atmosphere, the company is working on a plug-in hybrid car, and hopes to bring it to market by 2010.

Toyota announced its intentions today at a press conference touting its full slate of environmental initiatives. The company already has a line of hybrid cars that are powered by a combination of gasoline and electricity; they get better gas mileage than standard cars because the battery recharges through the vehicle’s motion.

The plug-in will take another step in efficiency. With a more smaller and more powerful lithium-ion battery, the engine could store more energy and go farther before requiring the gasoline-powered motor to kick in. The battery would be recharged by plugging the car into any standard power outlet.

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