This week we investigate a new self heating concrete that may remove the need to continually clear snow from footpaths and roads in snowy climates. We also examine a new compact sized underwater drone that is able to self navigate and investigate coral reefs and shipwrecks. Finally we catch up with the current progress on self driving cars. The hype is dying down however the progress is continuing albeit slower than initially expected.
Self Heating Concrete
A team at Drexel University has developed a concrete that can warm itself when it snows or when temperatures approach freezing. This is important in many areas of the Northern Hemisphere that endure heavy snowfalls during the winter. Preventing the freezing and thawing of snow and cutting back on plowing and salting reduces the deterioration of the surface of the concrete and extends its life.
The key is a low temperature paraffin which is a phase changing material. It releases heat when it turns from its room temperature state as a liquid to a solid as the temperature drops.
The team tested two ways of incorporating the paraffin into the concrete. They treated the pebbles and small stones used in the concrete with paraffin. The liquid is absorbed before being mixed into the concrete. The second method is inserting micro capsules of paraffin directly into the concrete.
Test modules have been outside in the elements since December 2021. The modules experienced 32 freeze thaw events and five snowfalls of an inch or more. The test modules maintained a surface temperature of between 5 and 12 C for up to 10 hours when air temperatures dipped below freezing. This heating is enough to melt a couple of inches of snow at the rate of a quarter of an inch per hour. This will not melt a heavy snowfall however it helps to deice roads and footpaths even in heavier snow events.
The test slab with the micro capsules of paraffin was able to heat up more quickly however it only maintained the warming for half the time of the test slab with the paraffin mixed in with the pebbles and stones. Further development is under way to improve the long term effectiveness of the system and to extend the lifespan of concrete.
Deep Sea Drones
Australian company, Advanced Navigation has developed a small autonomous underwater vehicle that it hopes will allow exploration, mapping and monitoring of the world’s oceans.
The underwater drone, called Hydrus, is less than half a meter long, fully autonomous and has a 4k resolution camera that is capable of 60 frames per second on board. It is capable of capturing high definition video and constructing detailed 3D photogrammetry models.
Hydrus can travel to depth of 3,000 meters. It has a range of 9 kilometers and the battery will last up to 3 hours. The Australian Institute of Marine Science has recently taken delivery of two units to explore the coral reefs off the North West Coast of Western Australia. Hydrus also produced a detailed 3D model of a shipwreck near Perth for the Western Australian Museum.
Hydrus is different to other much larger underwater explorer drones due to the pressure tolerant electronics on board. All of the circuit boards were built from scratch. Components were tested for operation under pressure in a hydrostatic pressure chamber. The batteries are recharged via inductive charging either using WiFi when above water or via an optical modem when below the surface.
Accelerometers and gyroscopes are used to track the vehicle from a known starting point. A sonar system keeps it away from the seabed and is used to measure Hydrus’ speed (via measuring the Doppler shift on echoes as they bounce back to the mother ship).
Way points are programmed into Hydrus and then it is released into the water to do its thing. Advanced Navigation hopes that Hydrus becomes the equivalent of a consumer drone. Easy to use and cheap to operate.
Self Driving Update
There was a ton of hype a few years ago about self driving cars and trucks. The hype died down as the magnitude of the difficulty of overcoming the last 5% of edge cases became apparent. One of the reasons that Apple recently gave for ditching its’ self driving car was the inability to solve that last 5% of the problems required for full self driving.
All is not lost though and there is significant progress still being made. Cruise lost its license to operate (it is a bad idea, a very bad idea to hide crash data and lie about it) whereas others such as Waymo are slowly expanding their full self driving services to new cities. Here are a few updates on other self driving projects around the world.
Waabi
Waabi is a self driving trucking company based in Toronto. Waabi was founded by Raquel Urtasun after she left Uber’s self driving division. Their approach is slightly different to other self driving companies as they have developed an AI first autonomy stack along with the usual sensors and compute hardware.
Known as the Waabi Driver, it is a trainable system that learns from the data that it encounters. This speeds up development and enables the system to learn the complex decision making required for operating safely. The traditional approach is based upon hours and hours of training data and manual code adjustment as every new challenge is encountered.
Waabi World is their virtual world approach to training the AI. The AI is exposed to a vast diversity of scenarios that allow it to hone its driving skills. This replaces thousands of test vehicles driving millions of miles to experience these situations on the road.
Waabi signed a commercialization agreement with Uber Freight in September 2023 and the Waabi Driver is scheduled to be introduced in 2025.
Japan
Nissan, Japan is planning on launching a self driving taxi service in Japan in 2027. Trials will commence in Yokohama, south of Tokyo in April this year. The Japanese Government has set acceleration of self driving technology as a key priority. Japan is facing severe labor shortages as the population ages.
In 2023 level 4 autonomous self driving vehicles were permitted to operate on public roads in certain circumstances (level 5 is full autonomy). Nissan has been testing business models for self driving since 2017.
Honda and GM announced a joint venture to begin driverless ride services in Japan in 2028. Toyota plans to launch an automated driving service in Tokyo in 2025. Details have not yet been released.
UK
Self driving cars are not yet allowed in Britain however legislation surrounding automated vehicles is currently making its way through Parliament. Automated fleets could start operations from early 2026. It will be a gradual rollout in limited areas.
China
In late 2023 a smart freeway was opened to test Tesla’s Full Self Driving (really a level 2 vehicle, it is not a level 5 fully autonomous vehicle, Tesla drivers are required to fully monitor driving and be ready to take control at any moment). The Tesla FSD beta has been used in the US for the past 3 years. The smart freeway in China is a 56 kilometer freeway with 270 sets of sensors that can communicate with cars specifically designed to help with level 4 self driving. Tesla is rumored to be testing their FSD in Australia and Europe.
Finally Waymo in the US has released a report covering the first 7 million miles of its driver only service. They report an 85% reduction in injury causing crash rates and a 57% reduction in police reported crash rates. The report compared the performance of Waymo cars to human drivers in the same area. Many smaller crashes without injury involving human drivers are not required to be reported to the police.
Paying it Forward
If you have a start-up or know of a start-up that has a product ready for market please let me know. I would be happy to have a look and feature the startup in this newsletter. Also if any startups need introductions please get in touch and I will help where I can.
If you have any questions or comments please comment below.
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Till next week.