True Spirit! CBS Interviews Jessica Watson, The Youngest Person to Sail Solo Around the World

Posted by transportgooru on September 9, 2010 in Funny Stuff, Marine/Waterway, Navigation, Ports, Travel

On May 15, 2010, after 210 days at sea and more than 22,000 nautical miles, 16-year-old Jessica Watson sailed her 33-foot boat back to land. The courageous teenager from Queensland, Australia is now entered the record books as the youngest person to sail solo, unassisted, and nonstop around the world. Ever since her return she was busy dealing withe media frenzy and somehow managed to find time to write a book, True Spirit, sharing her experiences from this journey around the globe. Recently, she was in New York to promote her book and sat down for an interview with CBS’ Early Show (shown below). Listening to her not only makes you feel proud of her achievement but also appreciate the daring sense of exploration that many of us won’t even have at our 20s and 30s. Here is her interview with Harry the Early Show’s Harry Smith:

Tags: Abby Sunderland, Australia, CBS, Early Show, Harry Smith, Jessica Watson, Oceania, Queensland, Sailing, Solo Sailing Around teh World, True Spirit, Youngest Person to Sail Around the World

Meet GM’s new EN-V , the transporter for 2030 is sleek, electric & automated

Posted by transportgooru on March 24, 2010 in Automotives, Energy, Environment, Gizmos News (via Gizmodo), Highways, Hybrids, ITS/Telematics, Navigation, Research, Society/Social Issues, Travel

Today, GM unveiled a trio of electric “urban mobility vehicles,” built with help from the über-geeks at Segway, today in Shanghai. They’re called Electric Networked Vehicles (EN-V) and they’re designed for cities bursting at the seams with traffic. The EN-V, pronounced “envy,” is GM’s latest effort to burnish its credentials as a future-focused, environmentally friendly company and shed its image as the bastion of the gas guzzling Hummer. The automaker is in the process of winding down Hummer after a deal collapsed to sell it to a Chinese heavy equipment maker. The helmet-shaped two-seater vehiclesunveiled today in Shanghai will be now showcased at world expo 2010 to be held in Shanghai starting May 1 through October 31. The pavilion will be shared by GM with its Chinese partner SAIC Motor Corp. There will be three models on display in Shanghai:

Tags: Electric vehicles, EN-V, EV, General Motors, GM, GM Electric Networked Vehicles, GM PUMA, Jiao, Miao, Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility, Segaway, Segway, Shanghai Auto Expo, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation, Vehicle Automation, Wired, Xiao

Event Alert: Invitation to the 2010 ITS America Annual Meeting and Exposition

Posted by transportgooru on March 1, 2010 in Automotives, Economy, Energy, Environment, Finance, Governance, ITS/Telematics, Infrastructure, Navigation, Public Policy, Research, Society/Social Issues, Travel

ITS America cordially invites you to actively participate in the national conference that will bring you a fresh look at emerging projects, products, technologies and services that are making America strong by helping to solve the Nation’s transportation challenges.

Tags: Cooperative Systems, Intelligent Transportation Systems, ITS, ITS America, ITS America Annual Meeting, Traffic Management

Graduating to the Grandest Challenge! Fully Autonomous Audi TTS to Race at Mad Pikes Peak Rally Circuit

Posted by transportgooru on November 3, 2009 in Automotives, Gizmos News (via Gizmodo), ITS/Telematics, Navigation, Racing, Research

Folks from the Volkswagen Automotive Innovation Lab (VAIL) are at it again. In the race to develop autonomous vehicles, VAIL-ers at Stanford Engineering flexed some serious technology muscle to notch impressive wins in the DARPA Grand Challenge and the Urban Challenge Race. This time around they built the fastest & fully automated Audi TTS—equipped with GPS, sensors, and guidance systems—and the team is all set to race on the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, a crazy 19.99-kilometer rally race circuit with 156 turns. The team that created it wants to see if they can really push performance in such a challenging environment. The modded Audi TTS—which is already the fastest autonomous car in the world, running at 130mph—will have to face gravel and paved dirty roads, with 7% grades that will take it from 4,721 ft to 9,390 ft high. In an artfully done, eye candy type of video, the team demonstrates where it wants to be in the days ahead – in the clouds atop the Pike’s Peek. Looking around, I see no serious competition for Volkswagen in this arena..

Tags: Autonomous Vehicles, DARPA Grand Challenge, Stanford University, VAIL, Volkswagen Automotive Innovation Lab, VW Automotive Innovation Lab

Game Changer! Google Unveils Free Map Navigation Service; Throws a Dagger in the Heart of SatNav Market

Posted by transportgooru on October 29, 2009 in Automotives, Economy, Gizmos News (via Gizmodo), ITS/Telematics, Navigation, Research, Society/Social Issues, Space, Travel

After enjoying years of seemingly unassailable popularity with gadget fans and travelling salesmen, those little gadgets hanging on your vehicle’s Dashboards could become redundant excesses because of the threat from a new breed of mobile phones that feature the sort of mapping technology that wouldn’t look out of place on the most expensive TomTom. Google just released a beta version of Google Maps Navigation for Android 2.0. operating system, a new tool, based on Google’s existing road maps platform, that will provide turn-by-turn directions, automatic re-routing and 3D street-level views. In short, pretty much everything your satnav can do, but without the need to worry about an extra bit of kit when you load up the car.

Tags: Android 2.0, Garmin, Google Maps, Google Maps Navigation, Real-time Traffic Conditions Data, Satellite Navigation, SatNav, Street View, Tom Tom, Traveler Information

BART makes history by becoming the first transit agency on Foursquare! Promotes Mass Transit

Posted by transportgooru on October 22, 2009 in Education, Energy, Environment, Gizmos News (via Gizmodo), ITS/Telematics, Infrastructure, Navigation, Rail, Society/Social Issues, Transit, Travel

Mashable.com reports that the Bay Area Rapid Transit system (BART) in San Francisco has just made history as the first transit agency to partner withFoursquare, the location-based application and game that we think has the potential to be as important as Twitter (they also just launched 15 new cities).

We’ve already seen local businesses take the plunge, offering up special location-based deals that Foursquare automatically serves up to users as they check-in, but now BART is getting in on the action to encourage more public transit use.

Tags: BART, BART-themed badge, Foursquare, Gaming, Location Based Application, Mass transit, Promoting Transit, Social Media Applications

Getting paid to watch the Taliban have sex with goats – Esquire goes deep into the world of UAVs!

Posted by transportgooru on October 14, 2009 in Aviation, Defense/Military, Finance, Gizmos News (via Gizmodo), Governance, Infrastructure, Navigation

Every so often in history, something profound happens that changes warfare forever. Next year, for the first time ever, the Pentagon will buy more unmanned aircraft than manned, line-item proof that we are in a new age of fighting machines, in which war will be ever more abstract, ever more distant, and ruthlessly efficient.

The Air Force now has 138 Predators and 36 Reapers. The military’s overall UAV inventory has swollen to seven thousand, from hand-launched Ravens to jet-powered Global Hawks, which can fly twelve miles high and monitor a swath the size of Kentucky in a day. And the revolution has just begun. Within the next twenty years, the Air Force envisions unmanned planes launching tiny missiles in hypertargeted strikes, swarms of bug-sized UAVs, and squadrons of networked unmanned fighters, bombers, and tankers, many of which will fly autonomously. And the enemy will have unmanned planes, too. More than forty countries currently fly them. In February, an American F-16 shot down an Iranian drone flying over Iraq. And Hezbollah has used them to spy on Israel and attack a ship during fighting in 2006. They can be built cheaply, with off-the-shelf software and hardware, a natural progression for insurgents who have been building increasingly sophisticated bombs.

Tags: 42nd Attack Squadron, Aviation, Combat Drones, DOD, Drones, Esquire, Holloman Air Force Base, Military aviation, New Mexico, Pentagon, Predator, Reaper, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, USAF

I See You Hiding, Sneaky Rascal! Speed Trap App “Trapster” Downloads Hit 50,000/Day

Posted by transportgooru on October 7, 2009 in Automotives, Gizmos News (via Gizmodo), ITS/Telematics, Law Enforcement/Legal, Navigation, Public Policy, Society/Social Issues, Travel

The free program uses the GPS receiver built into new iPhones to track a driver’s location and warn of nearby speed traps and red light cameras. It’s also available for phones running Google Android and some BlackBerries. Drivers can add new locations to the app by hitting buttons to mark speed traps and red light cameras for other drivers. Users can also rate the accuracy of speed trap reports, which helps weed out fake inputs.

Tags: Crowdsourcing, Distracted Driving, iPhone App, Road Safety, Speed Control, Speed Enforcement, Speed Reduction, Trapster

Event Alert: U.S.- India Aviation Partnership Summit — December 7-9, 2009 @ Washington, DC

Posted by transportgooru on October 6, 2009 in Aviation, Defense/Military, Economy, Environment, Finance, Governance, Infrastructure, Navigation, Public Policy, Research, Space, Special Events, Travel

To promote greater cooperation between the U.S. and Indian aviation sectors, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA), in cooperation with the India Ministry of Civil Aviation, Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Airports Authority of India, U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, US. Transportation Security Administration, U.S.-India Aviation Cooperation Program, and the American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE)/International Association of Airport Executives (IAAE), is sponsoring the U.S.- India Aviation Partnership Summit. The event will take place December 7-9, 2009, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. The summit will include participation from India’s three key civil aviation agencies – Ministry of Civil Aviation, Directorate General of Civil Aviation and Airports Authority of India – key industry members in the aviation sector, the U.S. government (USTDA, DOT/FAA, TSA, Departments of State and Commerce), and select members of Congress.

Tags: Airports Authority of India, American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE), Aviation Summit, Directorate General of Civil Aviation, India, India Ministry of Civil Aviation, International Association of Airport Executives (IAAE), U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA), U.S.-India Aviation Cooperation Program, United States, US-India Aviation Partnership Summit, US. Transportation Security Administration

Shout Out to Aha’s Real-Time Traffic Reports! This improved iPhone app let’s you add your own traffic commentary “Shout Outs”

Posted by transportgooru on October 2, 2009 in Automotives, Gizmos News (via Gizmodo), ITS/Telematics, Navigation, Travel

The Aha Mobile app is designed for ease of use while driving, although they stress it should only be used when traffic conditions permit (and you’ll want to check your state laws relating to cell phone use in the car as well). With large buttons and graphics in a simple interface, it’s easier to pull out relevant information at a glance than trying to make sense of a small map.

After firing up the app you’ll see 4 buttons: traffic, shout room, nearby, and settings. The latter is where you can enter your personal details, including your Facebook and Twitter accounts for pushing your shouts out to your social networks. Yes, the app itself only has four buttons! It seems to be designed with safety in mind, and with only 4 buttons it is a lot safer to use at speeds of 65 miles per hour or less. You can preset the roads into your app before you get on the road, so you can automatically access them without taking your eyes off the road to input the information.

Aha also alerts you to nearby food and drinks; pulling in information from Yelp. But if you want to find a coffee place while you are on the road, Aha will simple pull in the four, top-rated coffee shops nearest to your locations, instead of making you scroll through listings. Aha also pulls in bathroom locations from SitOrSquat and info about the locations of red light or speed cameras from Photoenforced.com.

Tags: Aha App, Aha Mobile, iPhone App, Traffic and Navigation Apps for iPhone, Traveler Information