Baidu Pushing to Expand Robotaxi to 30 Chinese cities by 2023-2024

Baidu plans to expand its robotaxi ride-hailing services across 30 cities in China in two to three years to serve a wider range of users. Robin Li, founder of Baidu, said at the 2021 ABC Summit. Currently, there are about 500 test vehicles in the Baidu Apollo self driving program and they are the first …

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What Works for the Homeless Problem

Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada has had functionally zero homeless for about six years. Japan, Singapore and Denmark also have been very successful in dealing with homelessness. Singapore is a multi-ethnic society with about 6 million people. Hamilton, Canada ( a city with a population of 750,000) has also has great success reducing homelessness. Medicine Hat’s …

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Self-Driving Trucks Will Create a Megaregion Economic Boom

Urban areas are richer and more productive. Research shows that doubling the population and increasing urban density boosts productivity by about 15%. Roman cities were connected by the distance someone could walk in one hour. Self-driving cars, trucks and buses will be able to eliminate traffic jams and then have steadily increasing safe operating speeds. …

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SpaceX Starlink Will Cover World With 300 Mbps and Sub-20 millisecond Latency Coverage in 2021

Starlink has opened preorders for service expected to be available in the second half of 2021. Elon Musk expects Starlink to achieve 16ms to 19ms by the summer of 2021. SpaceX will reach 10 gigabits per second download speeds eventually. For $499, Starlink users get a terminal package to communicate with the constellation. Beta participants …

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Big Thinker of Inflatable Weather Modification Mountains and Femtotechnology Ideas Has Died

Nextbigfuture has covered many of the ideas of Alexander Bolonkin. Bolonkin He was a Russian-American scientist and academic who worked in the Soviet aviation, space and rocket industries. He died on Christmas day 2020 at the age of 87. Bolonkin held 17 patents. He proposed the idea of domed cities as a protection against nuclear …

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