Transportation

Alvin, the submarine operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, has been used since 1964, but it’s finally getting an upgrade. Currently, Alvin can dive down to a maximum depth of 2.8 miles, but new replacement, which is costing $50 million to build, will be able to go over four miles underwater. With the added distance Alvin can ...

If any of our francophone readers happen to be in France soon, be sure to let us know how your trip was. More specifically, we want to know if French transit company SNCF has expanded it’s trial RFID program. Passengers will receive a USB drive with an RFID chip inside it. You can add money to the account via RFID ...

Video games aren’t the only things I dream I’m in. Occasionally I’ve been known to have absurd notions that I am sponsored by a skateboard company and that it puts my eyes on a deck it calls “Private Eyes”. Then the realization that that’ll never happen brings me home. Now, Zazzle.com is making my dreams come true (minus the getting ...

A private product design firm in Glendale, Arizona is now offering a $200 set of construction plans that will allow anyone to build a plug-in hybrid that gets 225 miles per gallon. Dubbed the XR3, Robert Q. Riley Enterprises says the car has a 100-mile range can use different drive trains to make it either all electric or a diesel-based ...

Stop the fucking presses and grab your dick and hold on, ’cause you’re in for a ride my main man. Turns out some dude is auctioning off a real Batmobile from the original Tim Burton flick on eBay. With gas the way it is nowadays, I can’t blame him for selling the car but wow, what a beauty! It’s almost ...

It seems wind records aren’t the only vehicular-based records being broken this year. Pictured above is the 66-pound unnamed unmanned flying machine that broke a world record for the longest-lasting unmanned flight. It remained airborne for an unbelievable 83 hours and 37 minutes. That’s three and a half days of non-stop flight thanks to it’s power source: lithium-sulfur batteries charged ...

Brady Clark and Mykle Hansen made this nifty DIY speed vest for bikers that displays a light-up readout of the wearer’s speed. The vest works thanks to an Arduino open source computer, wheel speed sensor, nine-volt battery, and electroluminescent display. Hansen and Clark describe the speed vest as a “bicycle safety device and advocacy tool.” I don’t really see how ...

Swiss “Fusion Man” Yves Rossy who debuted his jet powered wing suit back in May wants to fly across the English channel from Callais to Dover. Rossy is confident that his wing can make the journey. Last week he took a 22 mile test flight in Switzerland. His planned channel route should be approximately 29-30 miles. Rossy launches his jet ...

We’ve seen a skateboard mixed with a surfboard today, but how about a skateboard mixed with BMX? The Dirtsurfer Freestyle is just that: it’s got the speed of a freestyle BMX with the agility of a skateboard. Speed is controlled via a brake which is a simple lever-activated disk brake mounted on the rear wheel. Simply lean backwards and you’ll ...

This is the Greenbird. It might not look like much but it’s going for the world record of fastest wind-powered vehicle. It was designed by Dale Vince of Ecotricity and engineer Richard Jenkins. The current world record is 116.7 MPH and Dale Vince hopes to crush that speed at the dry salt flats at Lake LeFroy in Western Australia. Using ...