Elon Musk hands over first 'made in Germany' Teslas

Yahoo – AFP, Florian CAZERES, March 22, 2022

Elon Musk tweeted "Danke Deutschland!" (Thank you, Germany) after inaugurating
Tesla's first production site in Europe (AFP/Patrick Pleul)

Tesla CEO Elon Musk danced for joy at the inauguration of his "gigafactory" electric car plant near Berlin on Tuesday, shrugging off two years of bureaucracy and delays to watch customers drive off with the first Model Y vehicles made in Europe. 

"Danke Deutschland!" (Thank you, Germany) Musk tweeted after the red ribbon ceremony, where he joined workers in applauding the first 30 drivers to get behind the wheel of their new cars. 

The US billionaire even broke into a little dance during the handovers, reviving memories of the slightly awkward jig he did at a launch event in Shanghai in 2020 that lit up the internet. 

The factory opening caps an arduous two-year approval and construction process that saw Tesla run into a series of administrative and legal hurdles, including complaints from locals about the site's environmental impact. 

Having started construction at its own risk, Tesla finally won the formal go-ahead from regional authorities to begin production earlier this month. 

The "gigafactory" in Gruenheide, in Germany's eastern state of Brandenburg, is Tesla's first production site in Europe and local officials are hoping it will help the region position itself as a hub for electric vehicle production. 

The Californian company aims eventually to employ some 12,000 workers at the site who will churn out around 500,000 Model Y cars annually, the firm's all-electric, compact SUVs. 

"We are extremely confident that the world can transition to a sustainable energy future with the combination of solar, wind, plus battery storage and electric vehicles," Musk said in a speech at the ceremony. 

"I really want to assure everyone that you can have hope in the future, you should have hope in the future," he added. 

'New era' 

Tesla's arrival is expected to jolt Germany's flagship car industry, setting the stage for fierce competition with rivals Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes-Benz as they pivot from traditional engines to cleaner electric vehicles. 

"The new era in the auto industry has now arrived in Germany," said analyst Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer from the Center for Automotive Research. 

Tesla's focus on Europe comes as the continent grapples with sky-high energy costs that have sent petrol prices soaring, prompting some drivers to take a closer look at electric alternatives. 

The "Giga Berlin-Brandenburg" is "one of the biggest strategic endeavours for Tesla over the last decade and should further vault its market share within Europe over the coming years as more consumers aggressively head down the EV path," analysts at investment firm Wedbush said. 

But Tesla has not been spared the pain from shortages of key materials and supply chain disruptions, linked in part to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, that are also plaguing other carmakers. 

Musk tweeted last week that the company was seeing "significant recent inflation pressure" in raw materials and logistics. 

Away from Russian oil 

Economy Minister Robert Habeck, who attended Tuesday's inauguration along with Chancellor Olaf Scholz, said it was "a special day for Germany's mobility transformation". 

In a nod to efforts to reduce reliance on Russian energy, Habeck said electric cars took Germany "one step further away from oil imports". 

He also called for more "Tesla speed" in other infrastructure projects, including the expansion of renewable energies. 

Although Musk was frequently frustrated by the red tape that slowed down his Gruenheide plans, by German standards the factory was up and running in record time. 

The inauguration was not universally welcomed, however, with environmental campaigners protesting near the site. 

Among their demands was a call for better and free public transport instead of "yet more cars", said spokeswoman Lou Winters from the Sand in the Gears environmental group.

Liberty flying car cleared for road use, talks ongoing for aviation permit

DutchNews, October 28, 2020 

Photo: Pal-V

A flying car developed by Dutch company Pal-V has been cleared for use on the Dutch roads by vehicle licensing agency RDW. 

Work started on designing the Liberty in 2012 and it has now passed stringent road admission tests allowing a prototype to drive on public roads for further trials.

‘We have been cooperating with the road authorities for many years to reach this milestone,’ chief technical officer Mike Stekelenburg said. 

‘The excitement you feel in the team is huge. It was very challenging to make a “folded aircraft” pass all road admission tests. The trick in successfully making a flying car is to ensure that the design complies with both air and road regulations.’ 

Work on winning aviation certification with the European safety agency Easa started in 2015 and the company expects to get the green light in 2022. 

‘Over 1200 test reports need to be completed before the final 150 hours of flight testing can take place. After this the deliveries to customers will start,’ the company said in a statement. 

The Liberty is a two-seater vehicle which converts in five to 10 minutes into a gyrocopter, which can land and take off vertically in a small space. 

According to the Financieele Dagblad, some 30 people in the Netherlands have already ordered and paid for a flying car, at a cost of €499,000 each. Owners must also pass their flying certificate to be able to use the vehicle in the air.

Virgin seeks to revive supersonic commercial flight -- but faster

France24 – AFP, 3 August 2020

Virgin Galactic unveiled its design for a supersonic aircraft and announced a
partnership with Rolls-Royce to build the engine Handout Virgin Galactic/
The Spaceship Company/AFP

Washington (AFP) - Space tourism company Virgin Galactic on Monday announced a partnership with engine-maker Rolls-Royce to build a supersonic commercial airplane that flies at three times the speed of sound.

The aircraft would travel at Mach 3 -- rather than the Mach 2 speed of Concorde, the pioneering jet that operated from 1976 to 2003.

Any new supersonic plane would have to solve the problems that doomed Concorde, in particular noise and fuel consumption.

"We are excited to... unveil this initial design concept of a high speed aircraft, which we envision as blending safe and reliable commercial travel with an unrivalled customer experience," said George Whitesides, chief space officer at Virgin Galactic.

The aircraft's draft design showed a plane with a triangular "delta wing" carrying between nine and 19 passengers at an altitude of more than 60,000 feet, or 18,000 meters -- about twice as high as normal commercial flight.

The plane would take off and land at existing airport runways.

Virgin Galactic said its team would "work to address key challenges in thermal management, maintenance, noise, emissions, and economics that routine high speed commercial flights would entail."

The company signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with Rolls-Royce to develop an engine for the aircraft.

Virgin Galactic's main focus this far has been its part-plane, part-rocket craft that is being developed to carry tourists to the edge of space.

It is awaiting more test flights, and no launch date for commercial journeys has been set.

The company, which was listed on the stock exchange last year, is seeking to diversify and in May it announced an agreement with NASA to develop high-speed technology.

NASA has also been working for decades on a silent supersonic experimental aircraft, the X-59. A first prototype is being built by Lockheed-Martin in California.

The project hopes to make the supersonic boom -- the explosion caused by crossing the sound barrier -- almost inaudible on the ground.

Recycled plastic roads ready for rollout after bike paths prove successful

DutchNews, May 28, 2020 

Photo: Plasticroad.eu

Two successful trial runs of cycle paths madefrom recycled plastic waste have paved the way for larger scale projects in the Netherlands and abroad, the developers have said. 

KWS, plastic pipe maker Wavin and Total oil said on Thursday that after a 18 months of testing and developing, they now have a design suited for industrial production and that the technology is ready to be launched on the market in the first quarter of 2021. 

The first plastic cycle paths, which were built in Zwolle and Giethoorn with local council support, have proved to be able manage excessive water from rain, severe drought and everything in between, the makers said. 

The two 30 metre bike paths, which were made using 1,000 kilos of recycled plastic, were also found to have reduced CO2 emissions by some 50% to 70% compared to concrete or asphalt paths, the makers claim. 

Sensors in the paths were also used to monitor wear and tear and the paths were found to stand up well to heavy weights, like refuse and maintenance trucks. 

‘We have proven that our ground-breaking circular concept – a prefab road based on recycled plastic – is feasible in practice,’ Marcel Jager and Anne Koudstaal of the PlasticRoad team said. 

The next generation of roads will be more robust still which will make the concept a viable alternative for asphalt and concrete motorways and car parks as well pavements and school yards, the group said. 

The roll out will initially be focused on clients in the Netherlands and neighbouring countries, after which they expect to scale up to markets in other parts of the world, the makers said.

Artists impression: KWS 

Related Article:

No burning rubber here: plastic road opens in Zwolle

Schiphol tests speed limiting system for super fast e-bikes

DutchNews, February 25, 2020 

Photo: Depositphotos.com

Schiphol airport is to test an automatic braking system to reduce the speed of fast e-bikes and speed pedelecs around the airport to improve safety, airport officials announced on Tuesday. 

The test is part of a plan introduced by Schiphol with construction company BAM Infra and bike maker Gazelle in 2018. The aim is to ease congestion and promote cycling, including a 22km cycling route especially for fast bikes  Only 4,000 of the airport’s 66,000 staff currently cycle to work. 

The system, called the Intelligent Speed Assistent (ISA), would automatically limit the velocity of the bike to normal peddling speed on approaching the airport via a link to the GPS network. 

Cyclists would be warned that they are approaching the lower speed zone and, if they have an ISA fitted, the motor power would prevent the bike from travelling too fast. 

If the Schiphol test is successful, speed limiting systems could also be used to reduce problems caused by fast electric bikes in the centre of Amsterdam as well, Kees Bakker of cyclists organisation Fietsersbond told the Parool. 

Automatically limiting the speed would make it possible for people using super fast bikes to use the cycle paths. They are now required to use the main road. 

Asked if an outside intervention in their speed would be an infringement of cyclists’ freedom Bakker said e-bikes are already limited in how fast they can go. ‘You should look at it from another perspective: the system allows you to go faster where it is possible.’

Boeing's new 777X airliner takes off on first flight

Yahoo – AFP, Jason REDMOND, with Christophe VOGT in Washington, January 25, 2020

The snow-covered Olympic Mountains are pictured in the background as a
Boeing 777X airplane takes off on its inaugural flight at Paine Field in Everett,
Washington in the United States on January 25, 2020 (AFP Photo/Jason Redmond)

Everett (United States) (AFP) - Boeing's new long-haul 777X airliner made its first flight on Saturday, a step forward for the company whose broader prospects remain clouded by the 737 MAX crisis.

The plane took off from a rain-slicked runway a few minutes after 10:00 am local time (1800 GMT), at Paine Field in Everett, Washington, home to Boeing's manufacturing site in the northwestern United States.

Weather conditions had already twice delayed the inaugural takeoff of the plane, which sports blue and white company colors and is emblazoned with the Boeing name.

High winds led to its postponement on Friday, and the company blamed weather for an earlier delay on Thursday, which was rainy.

"Yes!" shouted Boeing spokesman Josh Green as the plane's wheels finally lifted off the tarmac as its two powerful engines sent up huge clouds of mist.

Minutes earlier, the pilots had deployed the plane's winglets -- folding wing tips -- designed to improve the craft's fuel efficiency and make it possible for the plane, with the widest wing span ever from Boeing, to be accommodated at more airports.

A Boeing 777X airplane taxis before taking off on its inaugural flight at Paine 

Field in Everett, Washington in the United States on January 25, 2020 (AFP Photo/

Jason Redmond)

The 777X quickly disappeared into the clouds; after a flight lasting several hours, it was to land later at Boeing Field in a Seattle suburb, some 30 miles (50 kilometers) to the south.

The 777X was originally to take to the skies for the first time in mid-2019, but that was postponed due to problems with the new engine, manufactured by General Electric, and difficulties with the wings and software.

Saturday's flight was to be the first of a series of in-flight tests. If they go well, Boeing will officially file for approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

With Boeing facing a crisis over its top-selling 737 MAX following two deadly crashes, the 777X is supposed to compete in the long-haul aircraft market with the A350 made by rival European aircraft manufacturer Airbus.

Major airlines including Emirates, Lufthansa, Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines and Qatar Airways have placed some 340 orders for the 777X.

The first deliveries of the new model, with maximum capacities of 384 to 426 passengers depending on the configuration, are not expected before early 2021, instead of mid-2020 as initially planned.

Boeing employees and others watch as a Boeing 777X airplane taxis before taking 

off on its inaugural flight at Paine Field in Everett, Washington in the United States 

on January 25, 2020 (AFP Photo/Jason Redmond)

The aircraft encountered significant problems during pressurization tests in September.

Business down

Boeing's business has also been weakened by a lack of firm orders from Chinese airlines for its 787 Dreamliner, which is expected to see production cuts.

The 777X has a range of 16,200 to 13,500 kilometers depending on its configuration and the number of passengers aboard, according to the Boeing website. It is also extremely fuel-efficient, an important consideration at a time when passengers are increasingly concerned about carbon emissions.

Its list price is between $410 million to $442 million, though customers often negotiate discounts.

US air safety regulators could clear the 737 MAX to return to service before mid-year, a person close to the process said Friday.

A pilot gives a thumbs up as he taxis a Boeing 777X airplane before taking off on 

its inaugural flight at Paine Field in Everett, Washington in the United States on 

January 25, 2020 (AFP Photo/Jason Redmond)

The plane has been grounded since March following two deadly crashes, in Ethiopia and Indonesia. On Tuesday, Boeing announced that it did not expect to win regulatory approval until mid-2020.

Boeing suspended production of the MAX this month but Chief Executive David Calhoun said this week the company plans to begin ramping up production of the model in anticipation of winning regulatory approval to restart service.

Calhoun began as CEO earlier in January following the ouster of Dennis Muilenburg, who tenure was rocked by the MAX crisis which led to deteriorating relations between the company and the FAA.

Calhoun aims to turn the company around, and has highlighted restoring Boeing's reputation with regulators, customers and other stakeholders as an imperative.

Tesla value hits $100 bn, triggering payout plan for Musk

Yahoo – AFP, January 22, 2020

Tesla chief Elon Musk, during the delivery ceremony for the firm's China-made
Model 3 in Shanghai in January 2020 (AFP Photo/STR)

New York (AFP) - Tesla's market value hit $100 billion for the first time Wednesday, triggering a payout plan that could be worth billions for Elon Musk, founder and chief of the electric carmaker.

Shares in Tesla rose some 4.8 percent in opening trade to extend the gains in the value of the fast-growing maker of electric vehicles.

Under a compensation plan approved by Telsa's board in 2018, Musk is to be paid in stock awards based on the value of the company, which could be worth as much as $50 billion if Tesla reaches $650 billion.

Musk agreed to the plan, which would pay him nothing until Tesla's value reached $100 billion.

The package, using shares which "vest" based on certain criteria, gives Musk stock worth around one percent of the company for each of 12 milestones over a 10-year period.

For achieving the first milestone, Musk will get shares worth $346 million if Tesla shares hold above $100 billion over six months, based on the formula.

In announcing the plan in March 2018, the company said Musk "would receive no guaranteed compensation of any kind -- no salary, no cash bonuses, and no equity that vests simply by the passage of time" without the rise in value.

In 2019, Tesla sold some 367,000 vehicles, a rise of 50 percent from the prior year.

That is a fraction of the 10 million sold by leading global automakers Toyota and Volkswagen, but investors have pushed up Tesla's value in the expectation that it is changing the industry.

Tesla has begun manufacturing in China and has announced a new plant in Germany that could start production by 2021.

The Tesla Model 3 electric car is designed to be more affordable than its earlier models -- around half the cost of the $70,000 models -- and is fueling expectations of stronger growth.

Analyst Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities offered an upbeat view of Tesla in a research note Wednesday.

"In our opinion, the company has the most impressive product roadmap out of any technology/auto vendor around (which the market cap reflects vs. its traditional auto competitors) and will be a 'game changing' driving force for the EV (electric vehicle) transformation over the next decade with Model 3 front and center," Ives said.

Hyundai to make flying cars for Uber air taxis

Yahoo – AFP, January 7, 2020

A model of the S-A1 electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft is shown at
the Hyundai news event where Hyundai announced its partnership with Uber to create
an air taxi network, during the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas
(AFP Photo/DAVID MCNEW)

Las Vegas (AFP) - Hyundai announced Monday it would mass produce flying cars for Uber's aerial rideshare network set to deploy in 2023.

The South Korean manufacturer said it would produce the four-passenger electric "vertical take-off and landing vehicles" at "automotive scale," without offering details.

The deal announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas could help Uber, which is working with other aircraft manufacturers, to achieve its goal of deploying air taxi service in a handful of cities by 2023.

Jaiwon Shin, head of Hyundai's urban air mobility division, said he expects the large-scale manufacturing to keep costs affordable for the aerial systems.

"We know how to mass produce high quality vehicles," Shin told a news conference at CES.

Eric Allison (L), Head of Uber Elevate, and Jaiwon Shin, Head of Urban Air Mobility 

at Hyundai, talk about their companies' partnership to create an air taxi network, 

during the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas (AFP Photo/

DAVID MCNEW)

He said he expected the partnership to allow for the short-range air taxis to be "affordable for everyone."

Eric Allison, head of Uber Elevate, appeared at the CES event with Hyundai to discuss the partnership.

"By taking transportation out of the two dimensional grid on the ground and moving it into the sky, we can offer significant time savings to our riders," Allison said.

He said that because of its other app-based transport options, "only Uber can seamlessly connect riders from cars, trains and even bikes to aircraft."

People take photos of a model of Hyundai's S-A1 electric vertical takeoff and 

landing (eVTOL) aircraft built in partnership with Uber to create an air taxi network,

during the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas (AFP Photo/

DAVID MCNEW)

Uber has announced it had selected Melbourne to join Dallas and Los Angeles in becoming the first cities to offer Uber Air flights, with the goal of beginning demonstrator flights in 2020 and commercial operations in 2023.

Hyundai is using CES to show the S-A1 model aircraft with a cruising speed up to 180 miles (290 km) per hour.

The aircraft utilizes "distributed electric propulsion," designed with multiple rotors that can keep it in the air if one of them fails.

The smaller rotors also help reduce noise, which the companies said is important to cities.

The Hyundai vehicle will be piloted initially but over time will become autonomous, the company said.

Promise and peril for German carmakers in Tesla's Berlin touchdown

Yahoo – AFP, Florian CAZERES with Yann SCHREIBER in Frankfurt, November 13, 2019

Tesla would be the first foreign car company to set up shop in Germany
"in decades" sector analyst Stefan Bratzel says (AFP Photo/John THYS)

Hopes are high that US electric pioneer Tesla's first European factory just outside Berlin will boost German carmakers, but it also ups the pressure on homegrown manufacturers to raise their battery-powered game.

Elon Musk's Tuesday announcement that his Californian firm is coming marks the first foreign car company setting up shop in Germany "in decades," said analyst Stefan Bratzel of the Center of Automotive Management -- "symbolic for the new world and the reordering of the industry."

Economy minister Peter Altmaier trumpeted "a great success," saying Germany had prevailed in "intense competition" with other European countries.

Musk unveiled Tesla's European touchdown at an industry event in Berlin, saying he had picked a site in Brandenburg for the factory, which is expected to bring roughly 7,000 jobs.

Slated for an area southeast of the German capital, the plant "will build batteries, powertrains and vehicles, starting with Model Y" SUVs, Musk later tweeted.

Production is to start in 2021 at the earliest.

"I think it's a good thing, it will create jobs and electric cars are good for the environment," said Mathias Wirth, who lives in Gruenheide, set to host the Tesla plant.

"It's a big opportunity for people living here," agreed fellow resident Iris Siebman.

Musk said the German state of Brandenburg offers "a lower than average paid workforce

 in the former East Germany" and space to expand (AFP Photo/Tobias SCHWARZ)

'Pressure on the Germans'

Tesla accounts for almost one in three electric vehicles sold in western Europe, and worldwide sales of its Model 3 have already overtaken those of BMW's 3 Series sedans, although "German sales remain disappointing", according to analyst Matthias Schmidt.

Electric vehicles more broadly have fallen short of ambitions, with Chancellor Angela Merkel this year targeting one million on the road by 2022 -- two years later than she had previously aimed for.

"Elon Musk's decision in favour of Germany... adds more momentum to electric mobility than 100 summits called by the chancellor," said Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, head of the University of Duisburg-Essen's Center for Automotive Research.

"Competition has always made people better and faster, so it's good news for Volkswagen, BMW and Daimler too," he added.

But there is also no doubt Musk's move "puts pressure on the Europeans and the Germans," said Christoph Schalast, professor at the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management.

German giants are behind in adapting fleets to meet new European emissions limits, and have left it until late to commit to electric drive in a big way.

In the near term, bosses "won't be losing too much sleep, but the danger is if they wait too long with their own credible electric vehicle offerings, they may begin to lose some of their credibility," analyst Schmidt said.

A German car industry source told AFP they were relaxed about Tesla's announcement, hoping the competitor's arrival would accelerate the country's electric transition.

Elon Musk hailed hailed "outstanding" German engineering as a factor in his 

choice of a site near Berlin (AFP Photo/Jörg Carstensen)

'Made in Germany'

On stage Tuesday, Musk hailed "outstanding" German engineering as one factor playing into the choice for Berlin.

The capital can lend "creativity" and English-speakers, "the engineering and programming hipsters," while Brandenburg offers "a lower than average paid workforce in the former East Germany" and space to expand.

But Schmidt warned the Californian risks running into "bureaucratic hell" in Germany, with Musk's new site just a few kilometres (miles) from the Berlin-Brandenburg airport.

The planned hub is almost a decade behind schedule, largely down to problems with its fire suppression system.

Even without such dramatic delays, Tesla is unlikely to throw together a factory in the one year its new Chinese site required.

Work is to start in early 2020 with a budget of several billion euros (dollars), Brandenburg's economy minister was quoted by the news agency DPA as sayin

The machine that made the Moon missions possible

Yahoo – AFP, Issam AHMED, July 12, 2019

The astronauts would input two-digit codes for verbs and nouns, to carry out
commands like firing thrusters, or locking on to a particular star to re-align
the ship (AFP Photo/Handout)

Washington (AFP) - We've all been there: you're working on something important, your PC crashes, and you lose all your progress.

Such a failure was not an option during the Apollo missions, the first time ever that a computer was entrusted with handling flight control and life support systems -- and therefore the lives of the astronauts on board.

Despite an infamous false alarm during lunar descent that sent Commander Neil Armstrong's heart rate racing, it was a resounding success that laid the groundwork for everything from modern avionics to multitasking operating systems.

Here are some of the ways the Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC), millions of times less powerful than a 2019 smartphone, shaped the world we live in today:

Microchip revolution

Integrated circuits, or microchips, were a necessary part of the miniaturization process that allowed computers to be placed on board spacecraft, in contrast to the giant, power-hungry vacuum tube technology that came before.

The credit for their invention goes to Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments, and Robert Noyce, who co-founded Fairchild Semiconductor and later Intel in Mountain View, California.

Integrated circuits, or microchips, were a necessary part of the miniaturization process

 that allowed computers to be placed on board spacecraft, in contrast to the giant, 

power-hungry vacuum tube technology that came before (AFP Photo/HO)

But NASA and the Department of Defense -- which needed microchips to guide their Minuteman ballistic missiles pointed at the Soviet Union -- greatly accelerated their development by producing the demand that facilitated mass production.

"They had these incredible, absolutely insane requirements for reliability that nobody could possibly imagine," Frank O'Brien, a spaceflight historian and author of "The Apollo Guidance Computer: Architecture and Operation," told AFP.

In the early 1960s, the two agencies bought almost all the microchips made in the US, roughly a million all told, added O'Brien, forcing the makers to improve their designs and build circuits that lasted longer than their early life cycles of just a few hours.

Multitasking

Modern computers, such as the smartphone in your pocket, are generally capable of doing a myriad of tasks all at once: handling emails in one window, a GPS map in another, various social network apps, all the while ready for incoming calls and texts.

But in the early era of computers, we thought of them in a fundamentally different way.

"There wasn't a lot they were asked to do. They were asked to crunch numbers and replace humans who would do them on mechanical adding machines," said Seamus Tuohy, the principal director of space systems at Draper, which spun off from the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory that developed the Apollo Guidance Computer.

That all changed with Apollo Guidance Computer, a briefcase-sized machine that needed to juggle an array of vital tasks, from navigating the ship to running its oxygen generator, heaters and carbon dioxide scrubbers.

Margaret Hamilton led the team that programmed Apollo's flight computer; their code

allowed the machine to prioritize crucial tasks over non-essential ones (AFP Photo/HO)

Instead of a computer operator giving a machine a set of calculations and leaving it for hours or even days to work out the answer -- all of this needed to be done in a time-sensitive fashion, with cut-offs, and the ability for users (astronauts) to give it commands in real time.

NASA felt it required an onboard computer to handle all these functions in case the Soviets tried to jam radio communications between ground control in Houston and US spaceships, and because Apollo was originally conceived to go deeper into the solar system.

All of this required a software "architecture," much of which was designed by engineer Hal Laning.

Real-time input

It also needed new ways for man to interact with machine that went beyond the punch-card programming of the time.

The engineers came up with three key ways: the switches that you still find in modern cockpits, a hand-controller that was connected to the world's first digital fly-by-wire system, and a "display and keyboard" unit, abbreviated DSKY (pronounced "dis-key").

The astronauts would input two-digit codes for verbs and nouns, to carry out commands like firing thrusters, or locking on to a particular star if the ship, which relied on an inertial guidance system to keep its pitch, roll and yaw stable, had begun to drift off course.

"The way that computer handled the overload was a real breakthrough" said Paul Ceruzzi,
a Smithsonian Institution scholar on aerospace electronics (AFP Photo/Issam AHMED)

O'Brien used the metaphor of a tourist who visits the US and is hungry but doesn't know much English, and might say "Eat pizza" to convey the basic meaning.

Passing the test

Apollo 11's most tense moment came during the final minutes of its descent to the lunar surface, when the computer's alarm bells began ringing and making it seem as though it had crashed.

Such an event could well have been catastrophic, forcing the crew to abort their mission or even sending the vessel spiralling out of control to the surface.

Back in Houston, an engineer realized that while the machine was temporarily overloaded, its clever programming allowed it to automatically shed less important tasks and focus on landing.

"The way that computer handled the overload was a real breakthrough" said Paul Ceruzzi, a Smithsonian Institution scholar on aerospace electronics.

O'Brien noted that while the AGC was puny by modern computing standards, with a clock speed of 1 Mhz and a total of 38Kb of memory, such comparisons belied its true caliber.

"With that terribly small capacity, they were able to do all the amazing things that we now think of as completely normal," he said.

Albert Heijn trials driverless robot that delivers groceries to your door

DutchNews, July 15, 2019

Coming soon: fresh ‘bezorgde burgers’. Photo: Albert Heijn

The largest Dutch supermarket chain, Albert Heijn, has begun a trial of a ‘delivery robot’ that sends groceries out to its customers without the need for a driver. 

The electric vehicle, which has a range of eight kilometres, is being tested within the confines of Eindhoven’s High Tech Campus as it is not allowed on the open road. The Aitonomi robot has been developed by the Swiss-German technology firm Teleretail. 

Staff pack the groceries into the ‘bezorgrobot’ before the vehicle makes its way to the delivery address using cameras and sensors. Customers will still need to step outside to collect their shopping. 

Andre ten Wolde, of pizza chain Domino’s, told NOS that previous test runs with delivery robots had been successful, although the vehicles struggled to get over high kerbs. 

Ten Wolde said the biggest challenge was finding a legal way to enable the vehicles to travel on public roads without compromising safety. 

‘Lawmakers will have to think carefully about it, I accept that,’ he said. ‘You don’t want accidents such as we’ve had with the Stint. Once legislators are ready for it, we’ll see them in the streets here.’