Friday, March 29, 2024

Inhabitat’s Week in Green: robot wars and edible batteries

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Inhabitat's Week in Green

Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week’s most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us — it’s the Week in Green.

Tesla gets a lot of press — but just how good are its vehicles? Well, Consumer Reports just awarded the Model S P85D a rating so high that it broke the scale. The Model S also put range anxiety to rest this week by traveling a record-breaking 452.8 miles on a single charge. Are you in the market for an electric car? We just rounded up the best EVs of 2015 — from the perfect city car to a family-friendly EV and a midlife crisis sportster. Water and electricity might not mix, but EVs are also taking to the seas — check out this solar- and wind-powered self-driving boat and this all-electric personal submarine that lets you explore the ocean deep. And in Europe, Paris announced plans to go completely car-free for one day in September and all Netherlands Railways trains will be 100 percent wind-powered by 2018.

What will the electric vehicle charging station of the future look like? This week the world-renowned architecture firm Foster + Partners teamed up with EV titan Nissan to create exactly that — and we can’t wait to see what they come up with. In other energy news, researchers have developed a new battery made from materials found in nature — and they claim it’s clean enough to eat. And most cellphone batteries last a couple of days — but Intelligent Energy has created a tiny new hydrogen battery that can keep your iPhone charged for an entire week.

Few things are cooler than a giant robot — and the world’s first mega-robot duel could soon bring your MechWarrior fantasies to life. This week we chatted with Oakland-based MegaBots about its plans to take on Japan’s KURATAS mech. We also showcased an incredible life-size Transformer robot that a Chinese man made for his son from scrap metal. In other design and technology news, MIT has developed a groundbreaking new 3D printer that can create objects from 10 different materials. Ralph Lauren launched a high-tech shirt that gives you instant feedback on your vitals as you work out. We reported on the life-changing winners of the 2015 INDEX: Award, and we pondered the many downfalls of kids’ addition to technology.

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Household, Transportation, Science

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