We’re a lot like you: We love tiny glimpses into the future. This week, WIRED Transportation got several tiny glimpses into the future. We previewed a new payment system for New York City’s subways and buses, which could allow the city to, say, give you a refund if your train is running late. We observed the takeoff of air taxi startup Alaka’i Technologies, which believes hydrogen fuel cells will power the flying cars of the future. We used a pending patent applications to peer inside Dyson’s plans for an electric car. And we checked out Ferrari’s hybrid supercar, which should be the fastest thing to ever come out of its Maranello factory.
It’s been a week. Let’s get you caught up.
Headlines
Stories you might have missed from WIRED this week
- Eight words: Liquid-hydrogen-powered! Five-passenger! Electric! Flying car!
- Four more: Hybrid! 211 mph! Ferrari!
- A new report finds that 7 percent of the new cars sold in the first quarter of 2019 came equipped with some kind of semiautonomous tech. So it’s disturbing that no one is sure if drivers actually understand it—or even know what to call it.
- Three patent applications offer insight into Dyson’s first electric car. (Yes, that’s Dyson as in Dyson the the vacuum company.)
- Yeah, it’s cool that you can now pay for some New York City subway rides with your iPhone. But the coolest part of the city’s new payment rollout could be what its does with all its new transportation data.
Transportation Crossover of the Week
Love tiny electric cars? Love gigantic airplanes? Love tiny electric cars and gigantic airplanes? Spend a few moments in the Frankfurt Airport, where a prototype of the 2020 MINI Cooper SE recently pulled a 150-ton Boeing 777F freight airplane.
Stat of the Week
50,000
The number of self-driving car rides that a partnership between ride-hailing company Lyft and automotive tech company Aptiv have provided to passengers in Las Vegas, according to Lyft. Crucial reminder, though: The cars still havesafety drivers in the front seats, ready to take over if (and when) their systems don’t work exactly as they should.
Required Reading
News from elsewhere on the internet
- Check out Quartz’s very helpful guide to Uber’s quarterly earnings report, in which the company revealed that it lost $1 billion and brought in $3.1 billion in revenue.
- Uber execs say they’re experimenting with turning Eats customers into ride-hail customers, and vice versa.
- Uber starts deactivating riders with low ratings.
- Your final Uber item: The Information dives into the messy history of the relationship between former CEO Travis Kalanick and major investor Bill Gurley, and how that rivalry lives on inside the company today.
- Chinese electric vehicle startup NIO says it’s postponing the rollout of its electric sedan.
- Ride-hail drivers are making extra cash spotting real estate for house flippers.
- DOT Secretary Elaine Chao didn’t divest of the shipping company stock that she said she would.
In the Rearview
Essential stories from WIRED’s canon
Mass surveillance! Genetic tampering! President Bill Gates! Here’s a list of the futuristic stuff that scared the crap outta WIRED back in 1995.
More Great WIRED Stories
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- Building a bus map when there are no set routes or stops
- Why I (still) love tech: In defense of a difficult industry
- An AI pioneer explains the evolution of neural networks
- “If you want to kill someone, we are the right guys”
- ? Torn between the latest phones? Never fear—check out our iPhone buying guide and favorite Android phones
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Source:WIRED