Tesla Wants Level 4 Autonomy, Shares All Its Data and Other Tech

#ItsWednesday We’ve been really regular in posting the latest science and technology news that’s happening around the world. Let’s go to our first digest for the day.

Tesla Wants Level 4 Autonomy, Shares All Its Data

Tesla has just shared 780 million miles of Autopilot data with the US Department of Transport (DoT). It also revealed that it is adding 1 million miles every 10 hours – thanks to its fleet of 70,000+ vehicles transmitting data over-the-air. All this – just to achieve Level 4 autonomy, i.e. the next level self-driving technology where a user tells the car his destination without any other inputs, and the car executes the command perfectly.

“I think we are basically less than 2 years away from complete autonomy – safer than a human. However, regulators will take I think at least another year, which will of course depend on what part of the world you are in because they will want to see billions of miles of data to show that it is statistically true that there is a substantial improvement in safety if a vehicle is autonomous versus non-autonomous,” says Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla.

Neuron Repair Might Be Possible

Medical science has advanced to such a stage that unbelievable techniques are being developed in which would astonish an average person a decade ago. Another such study took place at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) in which researchers were able to successfully regenerate nerve cells in mice.

Although neuronal regeneration is a highly energy-demanding process, axonal mitochondrial transport progressively declines with maturation. Mature neurons typically fail to regenerate after injury,” reads an excerpt from the study, “We reveal that reduced mitochondrial motility and energy deficits in injured axons are intrinsic mechanisms controlling regrowth in mature neurons.”

“Our in vivo and in vitro studies suggest that activating an intrinsic growth program requires the coordinated modulation of mitochondrial transport and recovery of energy deficits. Such combined approaches may represent a valid therapeutic strategy to facilitate regeneration in the central and peripheral nervous systems after injury or disease,” said Zu-Hang Sheng, lead author of the study.

New Nanomaterial Shows Great Promise for Wearable Tech

Researchers from the University of Illinois and Korea have devised a new nanomaterial that is bendable, flexible, conductive, and cheap to produce. Additionally, it can withstand repeated bending and stretching by the user – paving the way for a fully-flexible smartphone.

“[This new nanomaterial] establishes world-record combination of high transparency and low electrical resistance, the latter at least 10-fold greater than the previous existing record,” says Sam Yoon, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Korea University.

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