Tag Archives: Truck

Business

Hyundai unveils walking truck – CNN

Leave a comment

The Hyundai Tiger X-1 has four wheels, each powered by an electric motor. Each of those wheels is on the end of a long, bendable leg. The autonomous vehicle will drive as far as it can on its wheels, but, when it encounters obstacles it can’t drive over, it will rise up on its legs and walk over them. The legs can also bend as the wheels roll over uneven terrain, keeping the cargo area level. The vehicle can also drive in any direction — forwards, backwards or side to side — using either its wheels or legs.

Hyundai envisions it being used for difficult rescue operations following natural disasters such as earthquakes. A sort of autonomous walking cargo carrier, it’s not designed to carry people, only supplies.

The Tiger (which stands for Transforming Intelligent Ground Excursion Robot with “X-1” indicating its experimental nature), could also connect to an unmanned aerial drone that can carry it to and from remote locations, Hyundai said. The Tiger and drone could also charge one another’s batteries as needed.

This concept vehicle is similar to the Hyundai Elevate, another walking concept vehicle which was unveiled as an animation at the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show. The Elevate concept art showed a larger vehicle designed to carry people, though.

This cargo-only Tiger will require at least another five years of development and testing before it’s ready for real-world use, according to Hyundai. A vehicle like like the Elevate that could safely carry people will take longer.

The Tiger is being developed by Hyundai’s California-based New Horizons Studio, a division of Hyundai Motor Group that design vehicles that can go places ordinary cars and trucks cannot.

Vehicles like this could be used to explore the surface of the moon or other planets, said John Suh, director of the New Horizons Studio. They could also be used as taxis with their legs raising and lowering the vehicle to make it more accessible to people in wheelchairs, he said.

Hyundai is in talks to take a controlling interest in the robotics company Boston Dynamics, but Hyundai executives said Boston Dynamics was not involved in this project. Instead, Hyundai worked with the design software company Autodesk and Sundberg-Ferar, a vehicle concept firm.

Read original article here

Science

A Russian ‘space truck’ just burst into flames on purpose and the photo is amazing

Leave a comment

JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi shared this photo on Twitter of Roscosmos’ Progress MS-15 cargo craft burning up in Earth’s atmosphere after deorbiting on Feb. 8, 2021.  (Image credit: Soichi Noguchi/JAXA/Twitter)

A Russian “space truck” has met its fiery doom on its way home to Earth. 

The cargo ship Progress MS-15 from Roscosmos, the Russian Space Agency, broke apart as it burned up in Earth’s atmosphere after undocking from the International Space Station yesterday (Feb. 8). The astronauts living on the space station watched the craft’s fiery demise from above and shared the experience on social media. 

“Farewell, Progress 76P MS-15! #Russian cargo spacecraft undocked from #ISS, and successfully burned up,” JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi tweeted along with a photo taken from the space station, showing the cargo craft burning up in Earth’s atmosphere below.

Related: Russia’s Progress cargo ship explained

Roscosmos launched Progress MS-15 (also known as Progress 76) to the space station July 23, 2020 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Docking with the station just 3 hours 18 minutes and 31 seconds after launch, the craft arrived in record time, according to Roscosmos. This was a routine cargo delivery, carrying over 2.5 tons of cargo to the station. Cargo missions like this deliver food and other astronaut supplies in addition to scientific equipment and experiments to the space station. 

In saying farewell to the craft, Roscosmos cosmonaut Ivan Vagner, who returned to Earth last year on Oct. 22, shared some photos on Twitter of the craft arriving to the space station this past summer. “The #ProgressMS15 cargo spacecraft undocked from the International @Space_Station at 08:21 Moscow time. Most recently, on July 23, 2020, we received it on board the #ISS. Today I want to share with you the photos taken during the docking,” he wrote. 

The cargo ship spent about seven months in space attached to the space station. Yesterday, MS-15 detached from the station, traveled away from the station, got close enough to be pulled out of near-Earth orbit and burned up in our planet’s atmosphere, a maneuver that was intentional and went as planned.

“After preparations for undocking were completed, a command was issued to open the Progress MS-15 spacecraft hooks; it was undocked from the station and sent away. After the spacecraft was withdrawn to a safe distance from the station, the specialists of the TsNIIMash Mission Control Center (MCC, part of Roscosmos) began the controlled deorbit of the spacecraft,” Roscosmos said in a statement.  

The non-combustible components of the craft landing and sinking into a “non-navigable region of the South Pacific,” Roscosmos said in another statement. 

“Non-combustible structure elements will drop in the calculated area of the non-navigable region of the Pacific Ocean. The estimated fragments drop area is approximately 1,680 km east of Wellington (New Zealand). Roscosmos has completed all the necessary procedures to flag this area as temporarily dangerous for sea navigation and aircraft flights,” the agency wrote.

The next “space truck” to deliver supplies from Russia to the space station will be Progress MS-16, a cargo spacecraft that will deliver 2.5 tons of cargo on Feb. 17. Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov are preparing for the anticipated arrival.

Email Chelsea Gohd at cgohd@space.com or follow her on Twitter @chelsea_gohd. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook



Read original article here

Business

Daimler to split in two companies, Daimler Truck to focus on EV, self-driving

Leave a comment

Germany’s Daimler AG
DAI,
+8.91%,
the company behind well-known auto brands such as Mercedes Benz and truck and bus makers Freightliner and Thomas Built, said Wednesday it plans to split into two standalone companies, spinning off Daimler Truck, which will focus on electric vehicles and self-driving. The other part of the business will be renamed Mercedes-Benz “at the appropriate time,” the company said, and aim to be the “world’s preeminent luxury car business, committed to leading in electric drive and car software,” it said. Daimler Truck “will accelerate its path towards zero emissions as the world’s largest truck and bus producer and technology leader,” Daimler said. The company’s board will start preparing for listing Daimler Truck on the Frankfurt stock exchange, with the intention that “a significant majority stake in Daimler Truck will be distributed to Daimler shareholders,” it said. The two sides of the business “will be able to operate most effectively as independent entities, equipped with strong net liquidity and free from the constraints of a conglomerate structure,” said Ola Källenius, chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler and Mercedes-Benz, in a statement. Daimler stock rose 7% after the news. Analysts at RBC Capital said later Wednesday they “applaud” the decision to list a majority stake in Daimler Trucks as “this is key in getting a proper valuation.” Future financial disclosures by Daimler Trucks could include region-specific detail, which Wall Street would welcome, the analysts said.

Read original article here