Energy-saving BrightCharger automatically gives phones just the right amount of power. I remember the question, in the distant technological past, in a Carphone Warehouse outlet on the Marylebone Road in London. I was picking up my first, clunky mobile phone. “And is it possible to overcharge the phone?” asked a customer alongside me. The assistant… Continue reading
Browsing Category Environment
Could the Fleet flow again in Central London? New life for a lost river
A group of young workmen take their leisure by the River Seine, in an industrial suburb west of Paris. It’s the best-know depiction of riverine ease anywhere in art. You can see it, Georges Seurat’s Bathers at Asnieres, in the National Gallery in London. Is it possible we might see a real, 21st Century, recreation… Continue reading →
German postal service’s electric delivery van goes mainstream
Update, April 13th, 2017. Deutsche Post announced (Apr 11, 2017) that it is to expand production of its electric delivery van, the StreetScooter, aiming to double production capacity by the end of 2017 from 10,000 to as many as 20,000. Deutsche Post developed the StreetScooter electric van itself, for its own deliveries. Such is its… Continue reading →
From La Rochelle to a street near you – rapid rise of self driving vehicles
A House of Lords report on self driving vehicles (“Connected and autonomous vehicles: the future”) led the BBC Radio 5 morning news bulletin today (Mar 15, 2017). The advance of this CAV technology over the past five or six years has been phenomenal, and it’s hard to see what could prevent it from dominating the… Continue reading →
Shell warned about climate change in 1991 then lost interest
In 2017 Dutch independent news site The Correspondent published a forgotten public information film by Shell made in 1991 in which the oil major warned of the dangers of climate change and the need for urgent action. (This is an edited version of a piece I first wrote in March 2017.) In 1991 Shell, yes Shell,… Continue reading →
KPMG survey points to revolution in autonomous driving by 2025
Watch a prime-time drama on ITV on a Sunday evening and it will be crammed with car adverts. We are offered a pleasurable experience with friends and family in comfortable seats, supported by vaguely useful in-car gadgets and, always, the promise of the open road. It’s flannel and fluff, and we all know it. We… Continue reading →