Waymo is Upping Its Game.

Google's Waymo Shows Off Video Of Driverless Car Passengers Texting And Yawning

Last month, Arizona officials OK'd a plan by Google's self-driving car unit Waymo to operate the first driverless ride-hailing service in the U.S. Now, the company's showing off what the passenger experience will be like when that service launches later this year. It's a small, wild glimpse of the future.

 From article, (The commercial ride-hailing service would mark the latest development in Waymo’s autonomous car efforts in the Phoenix area, which began in earnest in early 2017, when the company picked members of the public to participate in a pilot program. The so-called “early riders” could hail one of Waymo’s cars using an app, and were then carted around town to run errands or get to work.

By November, the company removed the driver from the equation and deployed a fleet of fully-autonomous, driverless cars on the road. Last month Arizona approved a permit by Waymo to operate the first commercial driverless ride-hailing service.

At first, the plan is to launch the service in Phoenix—bolstered by a deal with Fiat Chrysler to eventually add thousands of autonomous cars to Waymo’s current fleet of 600 vehicles—and, eventually, expand into other cities. To date, Waymo has tested autonomous cars in 25 cities.)

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How People Riding in a Self-Driving Car May React.

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Going back to the Moon is not just about fuel for rockets and probes, its to stimulate the Moon economy to produce other side economies, like Tourism. Astronomy, Mining. Basically, to not have to be continually funded by a Space Agency on Earth. To live off the land, so to speak.

Why are we going to the Moon, again? Oh right, to make it into a "gas station for outer space"

Space travel is back on the United States' radar in a big way, with the Trump Administration declaring in October 2017 that it wants the U.S. to be a leader in the space industry. This includes going to the Moon and being the first country to send astronauts to Mars.

From article, (Space travel is back on the United States’ radar in a big way, with the Trump Administration declaring in October 2017 that it wants the U.S. to be a leader in the space industry. This includes going to the Moon and being the first country to send astronauts to Mars.

Speaking to CNBC’s Squawk Box about the country’s future commercial space projects, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said our future successes largely depend on what we accomplish by going to the Moon, such as turning it into a refueling station by establishing a lunar colony.

“I think a lot depends upon how successful we are in turning the Moon into a kind of gas station for outer space,” Ross told CNBC. “The plan is to break down the ice [found on the Moon] into hydrogen and oxygen, [and] use those as the fuel propellant.”

Ross foresees a scenario in which rockets are launched from Earth with the intent of going to the Moon first, rather than traveling directly to, say, Mars or deep space. Once at the Moon, the rocket would refuel and take off once again for another planet or asteroid. This subsequent launch would require less thrust since the Moon’s gravitational force is much lower than the Earth’s.)

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Me, "What is being missed here is not just that the Moon will become a gas station for rockets and probes going out into the solar system, but that the Moon needs a major economic source to sustain operations there.

 You can have, Tourism. You can have Observatories for Astronomic research. You can mine for certain materials needed back on Earth. But to do any of this, there needs to be a major economic pusher. Providing Fuel for Rockets and Probes is like what the Middle East does with Oil, using the funding from it to encourage other economic businesses." 

Volkswagen To Out Manufacture Tesla on Electric Cars. But it will take a few years. Can Tesla Survive?

VW maps plan to overtake Tesla in electric cars

BERLIN-- Volkswagen AG has pulled into Tesla Inc.'s rearview and vowed to overtake the electric car pioneer with a massive rollout of battery and hybrid models over the next five years and production facilities around the world.

 From article, (Volkswagen's brands are planning to launch 50 new electric models and 30 new hybrids by 2025 and to create electric versions of its entire range of more than 300 models by 2030.

Volkswagen aims to sell three million electric vehicles a year by 2025.

By comparison, Tesla sold 102,807 cars last year, mainly its high-end Model S sedan and Model X sport-utility vehicle. Production of the Model 3, the company's first large-volume family sedan, began last year, but Tesla has struggled to meet production goals. It has taken about 500,000 orders for the Model 3 but is well below its target of building 250,000 cars a year.

On Tuesday, Volkswagen Chief Executive Matthias Müller said that his company, which owns a dozen brands including VW, Audi, Porsche, Skoda, Bentley and Lamborghini, would launch a new electric vehicle "virtually every month" from 2019.

Global demand for electric cars is still only a tiny fraction of new car sales and it is far from certain that the huge investments Volkswagen and other car manufacturers are making is going to pay off.

"The absolute numbers are still small," Mr. Müller told reporters Tuesday. "But that will change at the latest when the first models of the next e-generation come to market."

The company has already invested nearly half the EUR50 billion it has earmarked for batteries as it ramps up electric vehicle production to three million cars a year by 2025.

It has secured battery supply from China's Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. and South Korea's Samsung SDI Co. and LG Chem Ltd.

Traditional auto makers' aggressive push into electric cars is putting pressure on Tesla. While the technology leader is having trouble ramping up production of its Model 3 , Volkswagen already has a global network of more than 100 factories and years of experience.

new electric car plants are expected to be built inside existing factories and will use standard underlying technology to create greater scale and cut costs. It is the same strategy Volkswagen used to create savings in production of its conventional cars.)

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