McLaren is talking about applying some military grade fighter jet technology to their road cars to eliminate the need for windshield wipers.  The system would use a high frequency (~30kHz ultrasonic) transducer to repel water, insects, even snow and ice.  It’s hard to say how serious they are…but when you look at the technology in their latest road cars the 12C and the P1, this isn’t quite as far-fetched as it might sound.  The biggest challenge might be making this technology street-legal…windshield wipers are currently a requirement, and car companies have a hard time bringing new technologies to the road (adaptive headlights, for example).  (via The Sunday Times)

Elon Musk today unveiled the much anticipated details of his conceptual Hyperloop transport system.  Designed for relatively short distance trips (<1000 miles), he claims it can be built at a fraction of the cost of systems such as California’s high speed rail project.  Looking at the design concept and the simplicity, it does make you wonder if maybe he’s right.  The pods travel in a low pressure tube (challenge #1 – design and build hundreds of miles of pressure tight tubing), with a large fan on the front feeding fans that not only reduce resistance to moving through the tube (by sucking up the air that would otherwise cause resistance on the front of the pod), but also blow downwards to create a cushion of air for the pod to ride on (challenge #2 – batteries to power the fan for the length of the trip, or how to charge it enroute).  Magnetic propulsion, naturally, as one would expect for a sci-fi like transport system such as this.  🙂  There are definitely some big design details to figure out, but here’s hoping that some entrepreneur picks up this project and runs with it (Musk himself is too busy to do so).  You can read more about it over at the official blog page.