Weekend In Tech Trends

Tech Trends- April 23-24

Shell’s car of the future, the plane of the future, an effort from Google to retain employees and more in this week’s Weekend in Tech Trends.

Tech Trends 1) Shell is designing a city-concept car based entirely on efficiency

A part of Shell’s Project M, the Shell Concept Car could become the city car of the future. It was designed using Formula 1 technology and would be constructed from recycled carbon fiber. This little car has a top speed of only 110 kilometers per hour (68 mph), but it can go up to 62 miles on just 2.6 liters (.68 gallons) of gas, which is roughly 91 miles per gallon.
Shell was really focused on designing a car that maximized energy efficiency. “You could build this car and drive it for around 100,000 kilometers before consuming the same energy it takes to make a typical SUV,” said engineer Bob Mainwaring, Shell’s Technology Manager for Innovation, who is leading the project. Check out the video below to see the behind the scenes of designing the concept.

Source: Mashable

Tech Trends 2) Google may be starting an in-house startup incubator

In an effort to retain some of their top talent, the company is reportedly starting an in-house incubator. What is known internally as “Area-120”, the plan is to allow existing Google employees and their teams to develop some of their ideas with a chance to potentially branch that idea out with Google as an investor.
Executives Don Harrison and Bradley Horowitz are believed to be in charge of managing the incubator. Sources say that after drafting up a business plan, teams would be able to work on their idea full-time with the ability to branch out as an entirely separate business if they reach that point. According to The Information, Google hopes that the incubator could stem the flow of talent to competing companies.

Source: TheVerge

Tech Trends 3) The Solar Impulse 2 is setting the stage for the future of air travel

A flight from Hawaii to Mountain View may be the beginning of the future of air travel. A solar powerd plane called the Solar Impulse 2 completed a two and a half day flight from Hawaii to Mountain View, California (after a previous flight from Japan to Hawaii), all without using a single drop of fuel.
“It’s a new era. It’s not science fiction. It’s today,” Swiss explorer and psychiatrist Bertrand Piccard, who piloted the Solar Impulse 2 told CNN shortly after landing. “It exists and clean technologies can do the impossible.”
Currently the Solar Impulse 2 is making its way around the world promoting clean energy and the future of flight. Who knows, maybe in the next decade we will see commercial jets run solely off of clean energy.

Source: DigitalTrends

Tech Trends 4) The Apple Car is still searching for a development partner

German business publication reported last week that both Mercedes-Benz parent company Daimler and BMW terminated talks with Apple surrounding the development of Apple’s car. With the project being based in Berlin, Apple is reportedly looking for a German technology and manufacturing partner to help with the car’s production.
“Sources said the talks with both German carmakers collapsed over the key questions of who would lead the project,” Handelsblatt reported. The report stated that since Apple wants cloud computing to play a large role in their car, that companies could not agree on who would own the data. So as of now the “iCar” could have hit a dead end, but knowing Apple they will eventually pull something off. It’s not really a matter of if but rather a matter of when.