Lugh

joined 2 years ago
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"China extends its lead over Europe and the US as it is the only country where EVs are on average cheaper to buy than comparable ICE vehicles."

An interesting snippet from this report. Do you know why EV's aren't cheaper than combustion engine cars in Europe & America? Because they are taxed with tariffs to make them artificially more expensive.

All of this is helping China in the long-run. Not only will they dominate in global transport manufacturing. They'll also set the technology standards in 21st energy and transport. Oh, and added bonus. With cheaper EV transport, all their other costs are cheaper & more competitive too.

Meanwhile with regional war looking more likely in the Middle East and gasoline prices probably due to steeply rise. Those cheap Chinese EVs are going to start looking even more attractive to global consumers.

Global Electric Vehicle Sales Set for Record-Breaking Year, Even as US Market Slows Sharply, BloombergNEF Finds

[–] Lugh 1 points 2 days ago

At least they're being honest about it.

[–] Lugh 2 points 3 days ago

A Swiss company is trying this, though using concrete instead of water. Wear and tear and moving parts are disadvantages though.

https://www.swiss.tech/news/giant-gravity-batteries-storage-renewable-energies

 

Ukraine's recent Spiderweb operation pointed to how decisive drones can be in modern warfare. Now here's another indication. With commonly available materials they can be built by amateurs.

20th century mass-warfare was defined by a nation's industrial might. But it seems you don't need that to build drones. They're following another 21st century trend - working from home. In traditional warfare, bombing industrial centers got results - what will it mean with drones when there doesn't have to be a 'center' - as they can be made anywhere and everywhere?

I made a 3D printed VTOL that can fly 130 miles (as a CAD beginner)

MORE INFO ABOUT THE BUILDER

 

Open Source AI seems to be setting Silicon Valley up to fail. While they pour hundreds of billions into closed AI systems in the hope they'll get a 'Unicorn' that will dominate the market, at every step Open Source AI equals or exceeds them. If this goes on long enough, eventually the Venture Capitalists are going to lose.

Is the same about to happen with robotics? This announcement is not the first time a Chinese group has open-sourced a robotics model. The US is desperate to slow Chinese technological advancement. Is this all part of Chinese counter-measures? If it isn't, is it just a coincidence it will severely hamper how Silicon Valley functions?

The Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence (BAAI), a prominent non-profit research institute, has unveiled RoboBrain 2.0—an open-source AI model engineered to serve as the cognitive core for China’s next generation of humanoid robots.

 

By 2035 I'd expect humanoid robots will also be making a significant impact in healthcare. In particular, doing a lot of basic nursing assistant/healthcare assistant tasks.

When people worry about the burden of an aging population in the 2030s & 40s, I rarely see them factor in how much robots will reduce the need for human workers to do this.

[–] Lugh 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I'd guess it's the quality of the ingredients that matter, not if its robot or human put together.

[–] Lugh 2 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Here's it in action. The dough base is pre-made.

https://youtu.be/7eunAdUqGZA

It looks believable to me that this might be far faster than a human.

 

This isn't going to shave much weight off of EV's. Typically the engine weight is only 2-5% of the total weight. But it may have a much larger effect on battery efficiency and range.

Internal combustion engine cars are now in their decline phase. We won't see any more technological innovation from them. From now on all the tech innovation is going to be in EVs, which will keep getting better and better than the old gas cars.

Core-sheath composite electric cables with highly conductive self-assembled carbon nanotube wires and flexible macroscale insulating polymers for lightweight, metal-free motors

[–] Lugh 1 points 1 week ago

The Meta Quest 3 is the one I've found most appealing. Using it as a virtual desktop or entertainment screen looks genuinely useful, though shame it still looks so ungainly.

[–] Lugh 2 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Will these be the AR glasses that take off? This tech has been 'about to take off' for some years now.

[–] Lugh 1 points 3 weeks ago

In fairness to them, if you are a government or economic body, trying to plan for these events, then you do need to get granular and look at things from specifics like demographics, age groups, gender and so on.

[–] Lugh 4 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

To add to the confusion when you click on the link to the report, it talks about generative AI, so it is not talking about AI as a whole. One of the biggest categories of jobs that will disappear is driving jobs and delivery jobs, thanks to self-driving tech. I'm guessing that these jobs are overwhelmingly male dominated.

[–] Lugh 1 points 3 weeks ago

There's good news too. It says the AI can persuade people who hold false beliefs. Maybe it can school people who've been led into delusion bubbles by misinformation?

[–] Lugh 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I thought voice might take off more, though Alexa and Siri are popular. Maybe it just isn't efficient enough for large amounts of information.

[–] Lugh 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

Yes, unethical practices seem baked in now with Big Tech, and Big Tech aspirants. I'm gratified to see open source AI keep up with the Big Tech offerings. At least it means there will be widespread alternatives. I hope it hobbles any one company from being as big as Google.

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