In this week’s episode of the Engineering Update starring Editor Kasey Panetta (@kcpanetta), Digital Editor Jason Lomberg (@JasonECNMag), and WDD’s Editor-in-Chief, Janine E. Mooney (@JMooneyWDD):
A VTOL plug-in hybrid-electric flying car
It’s fair to say that flying cars have excited the public’s imagination since at least the 1920s when Henry Ford produced a flimsy aircraft that garnered press but ultimately killed its pilot. And the excitement continued throughout the 20th century, aided and abetted by everyone’s favorite prognosticator of futuristic technologies, science fiction.
The world’s first digital, smartphone-controlled micro-roaster
Introducing the world’s first digital, smartphone-controlled micro-roaster. Designed and developed by a London-based startup, the Ikawa countertop machine can roast green coffee beans in 3 to 10 minutes, ready to be dropped in your smartphone-controlled coffee machine. The beans are roasted using a cyclone system. The process is started with a push of a button on the device itself, but can be adjusted using your smartphone.
Daimler Trucks’ autonomous 18-wheeler
Autonomous vehicles are all the rage right now. Whether it’s the fastest car, the smartest car, or the lightest car, everything is about autonomous cars. Rarely do you hear a story about a self-driving 18-wheeler. And by rarely, I mean never. But Daimler Trucks North America recently debuted it’s Freightliner Inspiration Truck at Hoover Dam.
