Category

Transportation

RTV 31 Hovertrain

The 1960s and 70s were an era of grand projects from landing on the moon to Concorde and passenger hovercraft. It was a golden age of engineering when anything seemed possible, even if projects were over budget, technically ambitious and late to deliver. Long-time readers of GNC will remember I covered France's Aérotrain, a high-speed hovertrain using aero engines to propel

Translink Brings Zero Emission Public Transport to Northern Ireland

On a sunny spring evening in April, Translink kindly hosted members of EVANI (Electric Vehicle Association of Northern Ireland) at their bus depot Milewater Service Centre in Belfast. Translink is the public corporation for public transport in Northern Ireland and manages a fleet of 1,400 buses, coaches and trains carrying 1.5 million passengers every week.  With key emission targets for

Uber Sells its Self-Driving Car Unit to Aurora

Uber Technologies Inc. sold its self-driving-car unit to a Silicon Valley competitor, Aurora Innovation Inc., The Wall Street Journal reported. This appears to be an attempt by Uber to deliver on a promise to his shareholders to become profitable. The two companies on Monday said that as part of the deal for the self-driving-car unit, known as Advanced Technologies Group,

Xiaomi Ecosystem Updates for the UK

Xiaomi launched in the UK back in November 2018 and has made considerable progress in brand recognition and product availability - I know a couple of people who have bough Mi phones or Smart Bands and say good things. Certainly there's probably an element of benefitting from Huawei's misfortune but I think that does a disservice to Xiaomi's products which

China’s ‘Straddling Bus’ is Stranger Than Fiction

From an American perspective, China can look like a very strange place. While the Asian country has absorbed many Western traits into its culture, China is still different in many ways. I experienced this recently when I came across news of a new public transit vehicle being tested in China. The vehicle's technically known as the Transit Elevated Bus (TEB)

Stebles Carbon-Fibre Bike at Gadget Show Live

Continuing GNC's coverage of the British Inventors' Project at Gadget Show Live, I met Mark of Stebles Bikes and his interesting road bicycle with carbon-fibre mudguards integrated into the bike frame. Mark tells me more about his new design and the problem it's trying to solve. As an enthusiastic cyclist himself, the thinking behind Mark's idea was "more riding, less

BikeDeck Stores and Transports Bicycles for Modern Living at Gadget Show Live

Today's apartments and smaller houses aren't always conducive to bicycle ownership. Bikes don't stay upright, handlebars mark walls and transporting them can be awkward. They're all wheels and finger-nips. Mark and Julie's BikeDeck looks to solve these problems and I chat with him as part of the British Inventors' Project at Gadget Show Live. The BikeDeck is a free-standing bicycle