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Honda has their own fuel cell scooter: http://world.honda.com/news/2004/2040824_03.html and is working Plug Power on a Home Energy System http://world.honda.com/news/2004/4041116_b.html using natural gas.

Dammy

Honda has their own fuel cell scooter: http://world.honda.com/news/2004/2040824_03.html and is working Plug Power on a Home Energy System http://world.honda.com/news/2004/4041116_b.html using natural gas.

Dammy

190 miles on a tank of gas in http://world.honda.com/news/2004/4040729.html a FCX is far more then I typically drive in several days, let alone a single day. As for high electric bills, I've stated I'm going solar cell to power the water cracker. The only power that I get from the grid will be for the fueling pump and it won't be on for that long of a period of time. High water bill? How many thousands of gallons per month will I be using for one vehicle?

dammy

they even programmed it to recognise faces and a few words of japanese. You can instruct it verbally to follow you around, its quite an achievement.

Yeah, I found the image processing of the ASIMO to be quite amazing.

This reminds me, at the recent ASIMO demonstration that I went to this Thursday at my college, they played a movie. In this movie, they were trying to prove the importance of how the robot looks determines how the public will accept it. And at some point they threw in a picture of a touch screen voting machine and mentioned "Florida" and "elections." I was too caught up in my selective hearing to know why these were mentioned in a video about trusting machines, but my friends and I had a good laugh. After all I have read, I could never trust this failure of a company. They need to fold, tuck their tails and find something else.

Something that's really struck a nerve with us is the explosively popular 50cc motorcycles (ex. The Honda CR50 ) that you can rent similar to go-karts and race around a closed short track. They are fast enought to be fun and provide a little competition, but not so fast as to be seriously dangerous or scary. Not only can you physically blow of some steam, but it's always something that produces a ton of laughs and is an instantly casualizing experience. The place where we do it (grrrr, no website) rents the bikes and all the necessary equipment at a nicely discounted corporate rate, and offers a spacious picnic area for non-riders to socialize and everybody to congregate afterwards. Those who don't ride take digital pictures which we can laugh about during the week and give each other funny nicknames and stuff based on what happened. As well as it's gelled our group, it may be worth a try.

Take a look at this: Passive Dynamic Walking. A few guys at Cornell University built a walking robot that depends on gravity alone. Be sure to check out the Video Collection; notice how natural the robot's gait appears. It's eerie how this unpowered robot seems so human as it walks, and interesting how the walking mechanism is built right into our skeletal frame.

"Ie: a biped robot that can beat a human on a mile stretch, etc"

oh, im pretty sure asimo could take me at a mile stretch.

I hear ya on that one, but I seem to remember (keep in mind I'm an old geezer in computer terms - 33) that to alleviate that, you could just upgrade the 'graphics accelerator'. I may be wrong, but couldn't a PII with a good ole' Diamond Viper V550 or V770 do the trick?

Plus the fact, that every new OS or software version magically requires more and more power. GRanted some of this is necessary, but how much is really necessary? Some people use ALL of the features of a package, but most don't even scratch the surface. Alot of folks consider me a computer 'Guru', and though I probably know more than most, I am far from it. It's like buying the Hyabusa, when all you want to be capable of doing is riding on two wheels

I know somebody with a Sparrow, but I just can't stand it. Very pretty, but I would rather have one of these for even less than 14k. Certainly more interesting to drive!

-WS

Realdoll + Asimo + aforementioned milking machine = alpha build of the sex slave android.
Seriously, Honda, stop it with the freaky looking spaceman shit, and give us some Six of One.

To check this, I did a comparison against the Honda Civic Hybrid versus the CIVIC LX Sedan. All data taken from Honda's website

MSRP:
Hybrid: $19,650
LX: $15,360
difference: $4,290

Average Fuel Economy: (EPA Highway + City / 2)
Hybrid: 48.5 MPG
LX: 35 MPG

Gas bill per year (estimating driven 15,000 miles/year, Fuel cost $2.00/gallon)
Hybrid: $618.56
LX: $857.14
difference: $238.59

Years to recoup price difference in gas savings:
17.98 years

Note this is using relatively high mileage and (until recently) gas costs, which work in favor of the hybrid. Similar comparison against the top-of-the-line Civic EX @ MSRP of $17,260, 34.5 avg MPG brings the recoupment time down to 9.5 years. Futhermore, it does not take into account any additional maintenance costs (if any) associated with the hybrid subsystems.
Thus, there is no motivation to buy a hybrid for strictly economic reasons, since the recoupment period probably exceeds the lifetime of the vehicle. The only reason someone should buy a hybrid is for environmental satisfaction.

Disclaimer: I drive a Honda Civic, get avg 38 MPG, am very satisfied with my car, but can't wait to get into hybrid once the prices are more rational...

This was mentioned previously, but I'll expand on it by saying that Honda has mandated that, by the end of this year, 95% of the products and materials be recyclable. This is on top of Honda of Canada (as an example) recycling 98% of their manufacturing waste.

As an aside, if you're a manufacturing geek and you ever get a chance to visit a Honda plant (such as the one in Alliston, ON), take it. The place is absolutely spectacular.

This little guy is impressive. I couldn't get a lot of information from the website, but it looks to be controlled by computer. But, how autonomous is it? Im sure it won't look as good as the programmable, but I would like to see if it can do all of these things as an autonomous robot. As long as the slashdot effect isn't immediate, you should view the videos of the robot picking up the ball and throwing it overhanded, also, the one of him doing a handstand is incredible. Why can't asimo do all of this yet?

Don't forget the buggy whip manufacturers. That industry was decimated by technology and foreign competition. It may never recover.

Maybe it is just some audio player, with some preset mechanical actions, in some look nice cover.

I mean, how is it different from Honda ASIMO Humanoid?

Honda has had the Asimo for about 5 years now, which looks like a bitchen little robot. http://asimo.honda.com/. I would love to get my hands on one of those :).

Btw, what is 500,000 yen in US Dollars?

Yes, Honda has ASIMO, or Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility. I remember first seeing ASIMO walk around, looking a little creepy, since it walked with a relatively "human" style. It also "...turns sideways, climbs up and down stairs, and turns corners." And it's starting to look more and more human with each new prototype.

Yes, Honda has ASIMO, or Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility. I remember first seeing ASIMO walk around, looking a little creepy, since it walked with a relatively "human" style. It also "...turns sideways, climbs up and down stairs, and turns corners." And it's starting to look more and more human with each new prototype.

Honda is even working on a Business Jet.

...Cross the T-52 Support Dragon with the Honda Asimo maybe we'll get This?

>> while their Roomba units are extremely cool, I thought it would be a bit of a leap for them (or anybody) to be releasing a humanoid robotic assistant in the near future.

Right! Your first humanoid robotic assistant will come from Honda or Sony.

'iBo' anyone?

We are not that far away from seeing robotics in consumer environment on a regular basis. This trailer is identical in format to the Honda ads, doesn't really say anything and just kind of gives you the "cool stuff, coming soon" feel.

Honestly, some of you really put the 'eek' in 'geek'.

Followed shortly thereafter by "Do not listen to ASIMO. He is inferior."

Sony Claims First Running Humanoid Robot Hasn't Honda's ASIMO been around for a couple years? ASIMO was walking and dancing bipedal-y since it was built...maybe I'm missing something...ASIMO and this thing look a lot alike as well.

It's also the iPod, the mac, and the PS2. And the TV, and the games for #2 and #3, and the music CDs, and the 2x a week you drop $60 on dinner for you and your SO, and insurance for your car/apt/health/life/cat, and TAXES.

It's not just the car, although that's a good percentage of it. It's the American lifestyle. It's a trap. Don't fall for it. If you work for a living, you become a slave. Not to the company you work for, you become a slave to your paycheck. It's tempting to spend your paycheck on all these little niceties, but if you spend that paycheck tomorrow, you'll be spending your paycheck for the rest of your life. If you do, then that's fine, but recognize that some people make ends meet with far less money. It's a lifestyle thing though. If you're stuck in it, and you're not happy, then change.

If you want to spend less money, itemize everything you pay money for in a month, and realize that you could ELIMINATE 95% of it if you absolutely had to. People do. Not that you should, but you could. And if you did, even for a couple of months, you'd probably realize that it's not too bad, and that if you're going to spend your life working, you'd better have something more to show for it than enough money for an iPod and to pay the bills. Because if that's all you have, then WTF are you doing it all for?

I suspect it's because you don't know another way. It's the American lifestyle. It's a trap.

There are other ways.

.

And as for the subway system, there are plenty of cities in America that are perfectly accessible by bicycle and bus (you can put your bike on the bus, you know). Or if you live too far from work, buy a scooter, pay $20/year for liability insurance, and enjoy the 60MPG you get. Parking's easy too.

Asimo is one of the first bipedal walking robots that really scared the crap out of a lot of people. How many generations of advancing tech before their bodies and AI are up to snuff for jobs like: construction work, plumbing, McJob customer service, worldcup soccer, sucky-fucky, ... world domination? :)

--

Next they ought to combine efforts with these people, and with these folks to set up a recruitment program for pilots...

The tzero does 0 to 60 mph in 3.6 seconds. The VFR will do it in 3.0 seconds

It also has a limited range of 280 to 300 miles at 60 mph on a single charge. I get about 200 miles at 75+.

The company expects a price somewhere between a Porsche and a Ferrari, but Forbes says it carries a $220,000 sticker price. The VFR was $11,000 new, out the door, all taxes, fees, and other California bullshit included.

Now if this were a useful car, something with 4 doors and a trunk and a roof, I'd be impressed.

Next project will be hooking up DDR to Honda's ASIMO over a net connection so you can dance with someone remotely... hopefully no one gets trampled by it (approx 43kg).

Crap, does that mean I have to replace my honda HRE464?

here's another pic of this baby, i love it
Just look at the guy riding it, it looks extremely comfortable; fat tyres, nice sitting posture, and high enough and wide enough handles. It also has automatic transmission, so all you gotta do is just ride and enjoy the ride. It's obviously fast. It's got a quiet, highly efficient engine that's a marvel of Honda's design. It's got solid, sturdy steel frame structure. It's just way so cool.

i really don't understand this whole fascination with the segway, i can't think of any other product that generated as much buzz for no otherwise good reason as this.
Just tell me, in what way is a segway better than a Honda Ruckus for example? I, myself, if given a choice between a segway and a honda ruckus, i would definintely take the ruckus. First of all, it's well established technology, it'll fill up anywhere, and it'll take you a long way on a tank, and you can fix it almost wherever you want. It's not particularly noisy, not the modern machines. It's extremely reliable, i'd totally be willing to take one to commute to work and make it on time, around town and do some shopping, on a highway, up a mountain and into the wood, along a beach strip, or heck, i can even go on an around-the-world forest-gump-style trip on one, i swear, it's that reliable. It's also fast enough, and flexible, it'll negotiate almost any reasonable terrain. It's also seems more comfortable, you actually SIT DOWN on it rather than commute standing up. As for the segway, it's damn slow, i just find it bizarre that some people say they commute to work on one, and also for some reason i feel it'd emarrass me a lot to be seen on a segway. I also find the Ruckus cooler in a no-nonsense way.

The segway is just damn not practical as a commuting machine. I am yet to understand why postal workers or other public workers for examples were purchased segways rather than a honda ruckus which costs less than third the price. I realize that some people might argue that it's a machine that can be used inside buildings, but, i just think that's way too silly. Just walk dude, and if you have a problem with comfort get a pair of Birkenstocks. If you have a problem with walking then maybe you'll also likely to have a problem with standing up for the length of your journey. Can anyone give me a reason that makes sense why segways, at their current price, make any sense?

I am sure it must be a fad.

First, the good news: I drive my car about 40 miles a day (driving commutes suck!) and get around 55 miles per gallon. My commute is about 70%/30% highway to city driving. When I drive it around the city (which I generally try _not_ to do - Boston is bike-friendly enough, plus I live near the T), I get mileage closer to 50 mpg, and when I've gone on longer roadtrips it's up near 60 mpg.

More good news: It's a real car. It seats five. It has a reasonable sized trunk (not huge, though). With a few exceptions, it's very similar to the non-hybrid Civic, so my car is comfortable, well equipped (CD player, power everything, ABS, etc.) and pretty well designed. I wasn't interested in the Insight 'cause it's small and somewhat awkward and not what I call a "real" car.

The not-so-good news: The one large complaint I have about the car is that the back seat does not fold down (that's where they stashed the batteries).

Some economics: I spent a little less than $20K on my car. The hybrid is about three or four thousand more than the regular Civic. I'll get a $2000 deduction on my 2003 income tax (giving me about $600), and I'll save some (but not tons) on gas vs. the regular Civic that probably adds up to over about $1500 over 100,000 miles. So basically, I break even. If I had bought a used car, I would've spent far less money, even in the long run.

I think I made the right decision when I bought my car because:

• I wanted a car
• I wanted to pollute less and use less gasoline than the average car
• I wanted to support hybrid technology and send the message to auto makers that people were interested in these cars
• I happened to have enough money to do the above

So, the bad news is that supporting hybrid technology and being good to the environment (while still owning a car) is an expensive proposition right now. The good news is that the more and more people are buying the cars and that if you can afford them, they're quality automobiles.

I'd be happy to answer questions about the Civic or my decision-making process. I also collected some links and made some notes about the car - you can see those here.

And I'm a fool.. That should have been Asimo.

*slaps self*

I've noticed another interesting detail in the Asimo development path - didn't he used to be a lot taller? Like, 6 feet instead of 4?

Check this page. It contains the timelines of the robots tehnology up to ASIMO.

Just saw the videos of the robot climbing the stairs and walking backwards. It's awesome, didn't think something like this can be accomplished in the current time.

When will they start making C3PO?

As slashdot has reported before the iBOT is Very good at balancing, you can sit in it and it'll hold you up right all by itself, quite impressive. If they can do it with an iBOT theres nothing to say they can't do it with this. Although working with wheels is a lot easier than an exoskeleton. Its just a mathmatics in the end and whether the skeleton can respond fast enough. Interresting point, I look forward to seeing how well it balances.

Also checkout Asimo which shows brillant balance technology, being able to stand on one leg and compensate if its pushed.

iBOT

"The functions of Honda's humanoid robot are defined as follows: An operational system that autonomously performs typical operations under known circumstances. If an extraordinary operation is required under unknown circumstances, the robot will be supported by an operator... [The P3, 1,600mm in height and 130kg in weight, features a computer unit, motor-drive system, battery and wireless apparatus inside the body section. This more sophisticated robot can achieve freer movement, go up and down stairs and push a vehicle.]

[Future Development will focus on]:

• Further dimensional and weight reduction.
  
• Improved dynamic performance.
  
• Improved operability.
  

For items 2 and 3, it is extremely important that through the evolution of hardware we achieve physical autonomy by improving dynamic performance and adaptability to wider variations of working conditions. Also important is the pursuit of studies in artificial intelligence systems, which will provide the solution for improved autonomy."

The Brains: CYC

"The Cyc product family is powered by an immense multi-contextual knowledge base and an efficient inference engine. The knowledge base is built upon a core of over 1,000,000 hand-entered assertions (or "rules") designed to capture a large portion of what we normally consider consensus knowledge about the world. For example, Cyc knows that trees are usually outdoors, that once people die they stop buying things, and that glasses of liquid should be carried rightside-up."

And of course, lots of little other things, like targeting systems, healing systems (like this article), a CNS to link these higher-level functions to the motor control systems of the robot, um.... GUNS, MISSLES, etc..

Yeah, maybe not such a good idea. Of course, if we truly believed it a bad idea, we'd work for treaties now against robotic warfare, before one of our county's governments builds these and the rest are "forced" to catch up.

That is, if it hasn't started already. Clone wars!

Perhaps Disney could license some biped robotics technology and create a walking talking puppet with a faux wood finish. See an artist's conception.

• a robot that could attend conferences in your behalf and allow you to communicate via video and audio applications - Asimo with a video camera.
• a software package that translates the sign language into readable English - A U-Force with a modified OCS.
• e-mailable identification documents - PGP signatures.
• some enhancements to Microsoft's operating systems - which usually either amounts to further cadging of features in other OSs or further restrictions on what you are allowed to do with your computer

what about hydroelectic cars? No batteries to replace. Unlimited range. All you need is lots and lots of fresh, clean water!

No, seriously, this car is cool and everything but I'm far more excited by fuel cell vehicles. There are already production models with a > 200 mile range. Now if the government would just give us one of the tiny hydrogen convertors on those UFO's they have stashed away...

Heh, hook up the DanceR with Honda's ASIMO humanoid robot and we'll have the world's first robotic couple!

Actually, AIBO is Sony's baby. Your thinking of ASIMO, which is Handa's.

There are very reasonable proposals for how to store hydrogen on board a car. The real problem is that most people are still scared of hydrogen because of the Hindenburg - and any quick search will reveal that hydrogen was not to blame in that disaster, but rather the skin of the Hindenburg. (for example here)

As for transportation, why transport hyrdrogen all over the country when you can make it on site. Honda has already designed and built a solar powered hydrogen refueling station.

It is wrong

Did I mention it is *really*,*really*,*really* redundant

And the parent is so stupid to assume a highly complex system would be done by someone who isn't even able to figure out problems so simple that some half-wits on /. saw them in the 5 seconds between reading the story and hitting the reply button. stupid really, stupid. Really. Stupid.

But apparently that's the way to get Karma...

(Don't mod me, mod parent redundant, thx)

The title reminds me of a body shop near my work.

It was called "Certified Collision"

I always wondered - so you get in an accident, call these guys, they come over and say "Yup, you hit him!"

Now, maybe it's just me, but I think "Crash Prevention" would be much more desirable than "Crash Detection"

That's true, but if you actually read the MSNBC article, they refer to it as a "crash-warning device", while Honda itself fomrally calls it Collision Mitigation Brake System (CMS).

Slashdot's wonderful article submission badly rephrases this as a "crash detection system", which is not surprising at all. I can imagine if there was another /.-like news service grabbing news from /. the story title would have been rephrased to "Honda introduces 'certified collision' system".

Sounds like a great idea, if a little worrying at first.

I think the article gives slightly the wrong impression; implying that the car takes control if it detects a crash is likely to happen - a good trick if a piece of hardware can predict a crash before a human can ;)

In fact the system seems to detect the liklehood of a crash and warn the driver, tightening seatbelts and readying brakes, and if the driver agrees that a crash is possible and applies the brakes, the system helps this process.

Some good info on the Honda site (good graphics too), here's a snippet:

"This system determines the likelihood of a collision based on driving conditions, distance to the vehicle ahead, and relative speeds, and uses visual and audio warnings to prompt the driver to take preventative action. " ... and I suspect that radar is not the only component.

Seems like this is part of a long term drive in Japan to make safer cars: remember the device that sprayed the driver with lemon scented water if it sensed him/her getting drowsy? Or the breath-alcohol test device that prevented drunk drivers from starting their vehicles?

Apparently, part of the CMS system will also keep the driver in their lane too.

Not sure why such systems are not more available in the West, maybe Japan's drivers are more ready to accept such restrictions on their driving freedom. Whatever the reason they seem to have reasonably safe roads even by Nordic standards

Hereâ(TM)s more from Honda:

CMS

So itâ(TM)s more than just the 300 ft test, which would be arbitrary. It looks at "distance, speed and and anticipated path".

Sounds worse than a backseat driver though.

The system is somewhat more sophisticated than described in the MSNBC article.

According to this article on Honda's site, it factors in:
the distance between the vehicles, the relative vehicle speeds, and the anticipated vehicle path to determine the likelihood of a collision.

It describes the setup a bit more:
1. Buzzer/light goes off
2. Seatbelt tightens a couple of times, brake is tapped
3. (System determines collision unavoidable) Seatbelt tightened drastically, brakes applied forcefully