Author: Brett Venter

Autonomous vehicles are the up-and-coming thing and, as this drone race shows, frequently AI-controlled craft are able to beat humans working in identical circumstances. Researchers at the University of Zurich’s Robotics and Perception Group have created a new algorithm capable of outperforming human quadcopter pilots on an identical track. That’s no mean feat, considering there’s a drone Grand Prix with a very large cash prize out there for the very best human pilots. Try not to drone on too much https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPI8U1uSJUs This algorithm was tested against the “…fastest lap of two world-class human pilots on an experimental race track”, according…

Joby Aviation is joining all of those other tech companies attempting to put a flying taxi in the skies, only this particular electric VTOL craft might have a little distance on its rivals. The company’s electric vertical take-off and landing taxi has just successfully competed its first 240km (150 mile) test flight. Good job, Joby Aviation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RpqYuce6Ao There are a few things that you need to know about Joby’s flight though. It’s thought to be the longest electric VTOL flight achieved, using a full-sized prototype of the proposed six-rotor flying taxi design. The 240km distance was covered in an hour…

Remember the Artemis Lunar Lander contract NASA awarded to SpaceX in April this year? Yeah, Jeff Bezos, the very rich man who very recently went to space on his own rocket, still wants that contract. So much so that he’s offering NASA $2 billion to let Blue Origin (and the others involved in their pitch for the lander) build the freaking thing. At least, that’s what the open letter by Bezos, published on Blue Origin’s website and addressed to NASA administrator Bill Nelson, says. Specifically, the company has offered to save NASA’s Human Landing System (HLS) program money “…by waiving…

When you hear Mark Zuckerberg talking about something called a ‘metaverse’, it’s a little disconcerting. He sits at the top of the most data-hungry company the world has ever seen (give or take a Google or two), one with a terrible track record of keeping its users’ information safe. Why on Earth would anyone trust this man to build a metaverse? To answer that question, it helps to know what Zuck is talking about. He hasn’t gone all Reed Richards and starting building his own universe or anything like that. The metaverse is Zuckerberg’s vision for the future of Facebook.…

LG might be out of the smartphone game but their Tone true wireless headphones are sticking around. And, in typical LG style, they’re evolving a little — the company spent a lot of time putting audio first in its handsets before the Big Close, and that innovation seems to live on in its headphone lineup. Setting the Tone The South Korean tech-maker has announced a new batch of its in-ear buds, as well as a collection of new features not seen in the lineup before. There are three sets of buds making their way to “key markets” (that’s all we’ve…

It’s not just upstart startups taking on the space race. Boeing’s in the game with its Starliner crew capsule, which was supposed to be a little further along by now. Quite a bit further along, actually, but the capsule has been grounded since it didn’t manage the orbit it was supposed to in 2019. Starliner has a shot at redemption this month, however, as 30 July will see the Boeing-designed-and-developed capsule return to space in an attempt to rendezvous with the International Space Station (ISS). Starliner goes a little old-school NASA has determined, following a flight readiness assessment, that Boeing’s…

Being an astronaut is a big deal (even if it does have ‘naut’ in the name). There’s been some debate whether space tourists like Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos, and others with enough money to travel really high in the sky on a rocket of some description, deserve the title. America’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which takes care of this sort of thing, has finally weighed in. Bringing space tourists back to Earth See, it’s not enough to go really, really high up. If that was the case, just about anybody with a large enough fuel source could manage it.…

Bose, Sennheiser, Jabra, Sony — those are the names we associate with audio tech. Louis Vuitton, not so much, but its new Horizon wireless speaker, with its internal lights and totally-not-cribbed-from-a-UFO design really, really wants you to notice it. The LV Horizon Light Up speaker is supposedly inspired by the company’s Toupie handbag (whatever that is) but we’re also seeing some influence from the closing scenes of Indiana Jones and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull there. What’s that on the Horizon? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-79cvOzcuJI But it’s not a UFO, it’s yet another piece of very expensive audio gear from the French fashion…

Are you prone to verbal excitement whenever someone does something completely expected? Then being a ring announcer for the WWE might just be the career you’re looking for. Normally that sort of job interview is out of reach of the typical South African but if that was the case here, we wouldn’t be writing about it. TikTok and the WWE are looking for a ring announcer (or announcers) for the upcoming SummerSlam event in August this year. They’re looking, rather obviously, on TikTok, because what better way to hunt for talent in 2021 than to turn it into a massive…

Last month the Hubble space telescope hit a glitch that powered down the long-lived scientific instrument. Objects in space stop working all the time, but this issue became remarkable because it took ages for NASA to get it fixed. But the folks at the American space agency are nothing if not resourceful and the telescope, launched into space in 1990, is taking photographs of the the stars again. Hubble no longer in trouble Above you can see a couple of the unusual sights Hubble has seen since it was powered back up last week. On the left is ARP-MADORE2115-273 (cool…