Show Notes:

GM reveals Ultra Cruise “hands-free” system that covers “95 percent” of driving scenarios | The Verge (01:40)

• General Motors is finally pulling the curtain back on its next-generation “hands-free” driver-assist technology.
  • Called Ultra Cruise
• The new system uses sensors like cameras, radars, and lidar to control a vehicle’s steering, acceleration, and braking.
• According to GM, this system can be used on 2 million miles of paved roads and in “95 percent” of driving scenarios. 
  • With the capacity to grow up to more than 3.4 million miles.
• What vehicle models will this be featured in?
  • Not sure yet, but GM says it will be available in a handful of premium vehicles in 2023
• GM’s first-generation advanced driver-assist system (ADAS), Super Cruise, which was in the same line as Tesla’s Autopilot.
  • So what is the plan with Super & Ultra Cruise?
• GM says Super Cruise will coexist with Ultra Cruise, with the former available in more “mainstream” vehicles, while the latter is reserved for GM’s luxury models.
• Jason Ditman, chief engineer at GM, elaborated on Ultra Cruise’s capabilities:
  • “Drivers will be able to travel hands-free across nearly every paved road, including city streets, subdivision streets, and rural paved roads”
  • While also describing it as a “route following feature” that maintains headways and follows the speed limit. Supporting automatic and on-demand lane changes, left and right hand turns, avoid close objects, and enable parking in residential driveways.
• Ultra Cruise won’t be able to handle every driving scenario.
  • For example, a roundabout. A light bar in the steering wheel will communicate to the driver when they need to control, sending signals through escalating lights and haptic feedback. 
• GM says it still considers Ultra Cruise a Level 2 system meaning it can handle acceleration, steering, lane change, etc. but falls short of full autonomy because a human sits in the driver’s seat. 
• Few Comments I enjoyed under the article:
  • RPadTV : “[T]his sounds very promising. [I]t wouldn’t surprise me to see GM UC surpass Tesla FSD in the near future. Tesla going camera-only seems like a huge mistake. [I]’d have more confidence in a system that uses cameras, radar, and lidar than one that uses cameras only, no matter how much data is collected.”
  • SomeGuy123456: “It’s lucky that GM [has] pretty much given up trying to sell cars in Europe if their system can’t handle roundabouts.”

SpaceX Is Doubling Its Number of Astronaut-Carrying Spacecraft  | Futurism & Teslarati (10:27)

• SpaceX is doubling the size of its fleet of astronaut-carrying spacecraft — as well as doubling the number of cargo-carrying ones — according to SpaceX officials.
  • Significant expansion that will widen SpaceX’s already head start over competition 
• The Crew-3 mission is set to launch on October 30. Sending astronauts on board a brand new capsule, the third in the company’s lineup, to the ISS.
• Because they never stop, SpaceX’s Crew-4 mission is scheduled for April 2022 and will also make use of a brand new Crew Dragon capsule, the fourth in the company’s lineup.
• On top of that, the space company has plans to add two new Cargo Dragon 2 spacecraft to its fleet, bringing the total number of uncrewed spacecraft to four.
  • 20 trips total to the ISS to date. 
• As long as the ISS remains operational, SpaceX will likely continue to deliver cargo biannually, requiring around 12-18 more Cargo Dragon launches between now and 2030. 
• You may be thinking, “What happens when Starship is operational & NASA-certified?”
  • It is possible that Starship would replace Dragon for routine crew and cargo missions, but that milestone is several years away at best, likely ensuring that Dragon will continue to operate for at least the next 5-10 years.
• So in the meantime SpaceX is growing its collection of flightworthy spacecraft from four to eight, with the addition of two new Crew Dragon and two Cargo Dragon 2 spacecraft.

Facebook Connectivity unveils robot that can speed fiber deployment | Venturebeat (16:28)

• Facebook Connectivity showed off new technologies designed to help bring the next billion people online to a faster internet.
  • Main attraction: A robot called Bombyx
• Bombyx can rapidly install fiber-optic cable over telephone wires in a fraction of the time it usually takes.
• Goal is to slash the time and cost required to roll out fiber-optic internet to communities.
  • Installing the fiber costs between tens of dollars and hundreds of dollars per meter
• Could Facebook reduce the cost?
  • On of the presenters Karthik Yogeeswaran explains the thought process behind solving this problem:
    • “To answer this question, we first thought of medium-voltage power lines, the familiar three wires you see at the top of a utility pole … In most of the world, medium-voltage power lines pass down almost every street. If we could find a way to add fiber to those power lines, we would have a solution that could be applied globally.”
• Could this result in the biggest drop in the cost of terrestrial fiber deployment?
  • Maybe since they are combining innovations in the fields of robotics and fiber-optic cable design to increase the amount of terrestrial fiber on land 
    • No expense of trenching to lay fiber underground.
• The robot has shifted from operating semi autonomously to fully autonomously when going over an obstacle 
  • Operators supervise and direct the robot’s movements as it crosses borders.
• Once fully autonomous, technicians will be able to load Bombyx onto the line and then allow the robot to plot a course.
• Thanks to newer technologies, a single fiber can serve up to 1,000 homes, so 24 fibers would be able to serve all the homes and businesses into which each power line feeder passes.
• Showcased another technology that seems to be in conjunction with Bombyx called Terragraph. 

• A wireless tech that can deliver fiber-like wireless networking in the “last mile” in areas that are harder to reach with cables. 
• Built with a plethora of nodes, which are attached to lampposts and rooftops in a multi node network, creating a resilient mesh that can reroute the signal if necessary.
• Already brought high-speed internet to more than 6,500 homes in Anchorage, Alaska. 

New Sustainable Material Combines C02 With Recycled Concrete  | Interesting Engineering (23:01)

• A press statement on Eureka Alert, revealed a new type of concrete that could greatly reduce emissions from the construction industry. 
• This new calcium carbonate concrete was developed by researchers at the University of Tokyo, and is made by combining waste concrete and C02 that can be sourced using carbon capture technologies. 
  • In 2018, the main ingredient in concrete is responsible for about 8 percent of global C02 emissions. 
  • Largely due to the use of calcium in cement production
• Professor Ippei Maruyama, one of the study’s authors, talks about the method:
  • “Our concept is to acquire calcium from discarded concrete, which is otherwise going to waste … We combine this with carbon dioxide from industrial exhaust or even from the air. And we do this at much lower temperatures than those used to extract calcium from limestone at present.”
• The calcium carbonate concrete is very stable, meaning it has great potential as a construction material. 
  • More sustainable than traditional concrete as it utilizes recycled concrete and C02 sourced from the air using carbon capture technologies.
• Unfortunately, it is not as strong as concrete, meaning that — in its current state — it’s unlikely to be used for anything other than minor construction projects.
• Professor Takafumi Noguchi, another one of the authors, is excited about their creation:
  • “It is exciting to make progress in this area, but there are still many challenges to overcome … As well as increasing the strength and size limits of calcium carbonate concrete, it would be even better if we could further reduce the energy use of the production process. However, we hope that in the coming decades, carbon-neutral calcium carbonate concrete will become the mainstream type of concrete.”

Making surgical instruments from medical waste | Phys.org (27:25)

• Researchers in the Netherlands have devised a method to melt down this blue polypropylene wrapping paper, seen in hospitals, and turn it into a new medical device. 
• This is in response to Dutch hospitals where over a million kilos of blue ‘wrapping paper’ is used each year to keep medical instruments sterile. 
  • Creating an enormous mountain of waste
• The researchers worked with the waste management company Renewi to collect the blue wrapping paper from operating rooms at several hospitals.
  • Then tested to see the effects of heating it at various temperatures, and figure out what they can make.
• This led to the development of 
  • Instrument openers: tools to keep medical instruments that contain a hinge open during the cleaning process.
  • Handles for a new line of reusable and steerable instruments for advanced keyhole surgery.
• Melting down medical waste into a new raw material is one of the ways we can tackle the global hospital waste problem.
  • Due to the increased use of disposable products.
• One of the researchers, Tim Horeman explains how beneficial the method is:
  • “[W]ith this method, our research team has created a circular chain that fully coordinates the technical, medical and logistical processes. This is the only way to process waste into high-quality new medical instruments, for example, without having to use additives. And this is just the beginning as far as we are concerned.”