Hyundai is apparently branching out into a very different kind of transportation. The Korean carmaker is developing a robotic exoskeleton that increases the wearer’s strength significantly.
The company compares its creation to the Iron Man suit in a Korean blog post, but the Hyundai exoskeleton seems more like the Caterpillar P-5000 Powered Work Loader from Aliens than Tony Stark’s tech. It consists of a backpack with leg and arm attachments, including claw-like appendages that help the machine do heavy lifting. Hyundai claims the device allows its wearer to lift objects weighing “hundreds of kilograms.”
Hyundai actually has some previous experience with robot suits. Last year, it unveiled the H-LEX “wearable walking assistant.” This was a much lighter-duty apparatus meant to help senior citizens walk. The company also showed a scaled-down version of its new exoskeleton, with leg pieces only, designed for a similar purpose. The larger version could be used by factory workers, who already use standalone robots to do their jobs.
Read more: Home-brew exoskeleton uses piston power to lift cars
And that’s what Panasonic has in mind for its own exoskeletons. The Japanese electronics company is also interested in the technology because of its potential to make factory workers’ jobs easier, and to give the elderly and the disabled greater mobility. Over the past couple of years, Audi and Daewoo have also experimented with different forms of exoskeletons for factory workers, and in 2014 DARPA began funding development of a “soft exoskeleton” for soldiers.
Some carmakers, including Honda and Toyota, have taken things even further and created complete robots. You may have seen Honda’s Asimo attempting to walk up stairs or perform other simple tasks in one PR video or another. If those robots ever go rogue, it looks like we’ll be calling on Hyundai for the hardware to fight them with.
BYD has launched the third-generation Qin Plus DM-i in China, and the first thing that caught my eye is its price. According to CarNewsChina, the plug-in hybrid sedan starts at 79,900 yuan, which is about $11,980. That’s an incredibly low price for a brand-new car, especially by US standards.
What’s even more impressive is the range. The Qin Plus DM-i can drive up to 137 miles on electricity alone, which should cover most people’s daily commutes without using a drop of gas. Once the battery runs out, the 1.5-liter engine takes over. Thanks to its 17-gallon tank and roughly 91 mpg with a drained battery, the combined range reaches up to 1,423 miles.
Apple won the PC market’s worst quarter, but that’s not the entire story. It won the race by stumbling less than everyone else.
PC makers shipped just 57 million computers worldwide in Q3, which might look good, but it’s a 21% year-over-year plunge (via Counterpoint Research). And despite Apple’s Mac shipments falling by 11%, to 5.6 million, its market share rose from 8.7% to 9.8%. How did that happen?
Update (October 22 23:54 PT): In response to our query, GM clarified that offline recording support is already available on eligible vehicles. Like Tesla's Sentry Mode, it requires owners to connect a USB drive to save incident recordings, which can be viewed on the vehicle's infotainment screen. The upcoming Connected Cameras feature will build on this by giving owners remote access to these recordings via the revamped OnStar app, allowing them to check footage without walking out to their car.
General Motors has announced plans to add a new Connected Cameras feature to its OnStar service starting next year, giving drivers a way to monitor parked vehicles remotely and capture footage of certain incidents.