Important Innovations

  Goes from Driving Car to Flying Car in 3 Minutes Source:  Klein Vision AirCar V5 Travel Innovation on the Cutting Edge A team of engineers at Slovakia's Klein Vision have created a next generation flying car, the AirCar V5 that transitions from a road vehicle to an air vehicle in just three minutes.  That transition from driving to flying is triggered by the push of a button. The flying car has been successfully tested and flown.   Successful Test Flights AirCar completed two 1500 feet flights in Slovakia this week that included two takeoffs and landings - all successful.  Klein Vision took their flying car concept and turned it into a flying prototype in just 18 months.  They plan on delivering 2 seat and 4 seat models, a twin engine version and an amphibious version. The AirCar tested is the two seat model.  According to a company news release, it has a powerful BMW 1.61 engine that has a power output of 140 HP and a range of 621 miles.  In the air it can reach speeds of 124 mp

   Metal Asteroid Valued at $10,000,000,000,000,000,000                                                        Source:   NASA 16 Psyche Asteroid 16 Psyche Asteroid Discovered by NASA's Hubble NASA just struck gold!  NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has discovered a rare, heavy and tremendously valuable asteroid called "16 Psyche".  The metal asteroid is located between Jupiter and Mars in the Solar system's main asteroid belt.  It's about the size of West Virginia and is 230 million miles from Earth.  Unlike most asteroids that are rocky or icy, 16 Psyche is almost entirely metal. The research team that made the discovery thinks it may be made of iron and nickel.  Given its size and metal content, 16 Psyche is valued by experts at $10,000,000,000,000,000,000.  That is 10,000 times more valuable than the value of the global economy. New Psyche Mission In 2022, NASA Discovery Mission Psyche will launch atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.  An orbiting probe will reac

  Where There Is Water, There May be Life                                                                                          Source:  Moon Stock Image Big Scientific Discovery Push Is Underway NASA's SOPHIA Telescope has discovered water on the Moon.  That is a very big finding because the presence of water holds the potential of the presence of life.  Areas with the presence of water on the Moon and on other planets are the prime locations that NASA targets to search for new forms of life in space. NASA's Critical New Questions NASA is now asking a series of critical questions about the findings.  How much water is there in the places that SOPHIA has spotted?  How can the water be used by future astronauts in the 2024 Artemis mission to the Moon?  NASA says it is using rovers, spacecraft, telescopes and more in pursuit of answers to these critical questions. What We Know Now & What's Upcoming in 2028 NASA findings have already confirmed that there is more water o

  Partner to Develop Self-Driving Semi Trucks                                                            Source:  Daimler Trucks and Waymo Driverless Big Rigs Daimler and Alphabet/Google Waymo announced today that they are collaborating on the development of self-driving Class 8 semi trucks.  Specifically, they plan on incorporating Waymo's automated system into Daimler's Freightliner Cascadia semi trucks.  These are very big rigs capable of hauling 33,000 pounds. Big Win for Waymo This is a big win for Waymo which has been trying to collaborate with major, established automakers.  Waymo CEO John Krafcik, during a conference call about the deal, said it will take some time to develop the braking, steering and other technologies needed to bring fully self-driving semi trucks to market in high volume.   Highly Competitive Traffic with Tesla Daimler and its competitor PACCAR control more than 70% of the Class 8 semi truck market in the US.  But, the competition is heating up.  In

  Going for Global Investor Gold Source:  Ant Group $34.4 Billion IPO  Chinese financial technology giant Ant Financial Services Group is launching a dual listed IPO on the Shanghai and Hong Kong Stock Exchanges.  The IPO is aiming to raise nearly $35 billion. That would be the world's largest share price offering in history. Investors are racing for a piece of the fast growing company.  Ant is Alibaba's financial affiliate. Alibaba is a giant China-based technology and e-commerce multinational company. Ant offers a suite of financial services, including the widely popular Alipay digital payment system, known as China's wallet. The IPO deal would value Ant at more than $313 billion.  That is more than the world's biggest bank by assets, The Industrial and  Commercial Bank of China. Regulatory and Trade Concerns Overshadowing the market debut is a threat by the US State Department to add the company to its trade blacklist.  There is also some concern over growing regulat

  Elon Musk Says Solar Roofs are His Next Killer Product                                                  Source:  Tesla Tesla Hiring Hundreds of Roofers Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk says the company's next killer product is solar roofs.  He made the announcement during his Q3 2020 conference call.  He says solar roofs will be very hot in 2021. Tesla is hiring hundreds of roofers to get ready.  Musk promises a future of beautiful, tough, resilient solar roofs alive with energy.  Musk feels that is an energy future that we all want and he's building it into a big business.  The Tesla solar roof is composed of solar tiles not solar panels.  It provides the protection of a roof but also generates solar powered electricity. Green Energy Business Ratcheting Up Musk says his solar roof business is accelerating.  Deployments more than doubled in Q3 2020 to 57 MW compared to the previous quarter.  Musk told investors and analysts on the conference call that roof deployments are almo

  Hitting Financial and Sales Targets                                                  Source:  Tesla Rolling Out Full Self-Driving Software With Caution Tesla, the world's largest electric vehicle automaker, and CEO/founder Elon Musk are on a roll.  The company just recorded its 5th quarterly profit and it sold and delivered 139,300 vehicles in Q3 2020.  That puts it on target for selling 500,000 vehicles for the year 2020.  That is a milestone that CEO Musk has been pushing hard to achieve.  Meanwhile, Musk has just started a high stakes rollout of his Full Self-Driving (FSD) software for autonomous driving Teslas. FSD's High Stakes Beta Testing Musk has started limited beta testing of his software architecture re-write of FSD with a small group of selected Tesla customers. This new version of FSD provides more advanced autonomous perception capabilities of stop signs, traffic lights and a higher degree of driver assist on city streets.  It also has another new feature - Navi