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Awesome tech you can’t buy yet, for the week of August 10, 2014

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Image used with permission by copyright holder
At any given moment there are approximately a zillion different crowdfunding campaigns happening on the WebTake a stroll through Kickstarter or Indiegogo and you’ll find there’s no shortage of weird, useless, and downright stupid projects out there – alongside some real gems. We’ve cut through the Pebble clones and janky iPhone cases to round up the most unusual, ambitious, and exciting projects out there this week. Keep in mind that any crowdfunded project — even the best intentioned — can fail, so do your homework before cutting a check for the gadget of your dreams.

Leif — Motorized drift board

LeifEver wished you could snowboard on asphalt? Well guess what, homeboy — you dreams just came true. Leif is essentially a motorized longboard that’s been modified to shred on pavement the same way a snowboard shreds down a snowy slope. Thanks to a set of casters located on the underside of the board, braking speed checking, and sliding around tight corners (things that typically take years of practice to master) can all be done the same way they’re done on a snowboard, using the same motions and muscles you already know intuitively. It’s not the first time we’ve seen a board like this, but unlike some of the others that came before it, Leif is completely motorized. Using a wireless controller that commands a pair of 2000W brushless electric motors, you can propel yourself forward at up to 20 mph without ever setting foot on the ground. They’re a little steep — early-bird backers can lock one down for about $1,300 — but damn if they don’t look fun!

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Tiny Tesla — Tesla coil speaker

Tiny TeslaTesla coils know how to put on a good show. You probably already know that they can provide quite an electrifying visual display, but did you know they can also sing? The electrical arcs the coil puts off heat up the surrounding air and create pressure waves that we can pick up with our ears. If you modulate the frequency at which the lightning pulses, you can effectively modify the sound it creates. In other words, with the right hardware, you can turn a Tesla coil into a low-fi speaker. Tiny Tesla is basically a special kit designed to help you make one of these coil speakers on your own. The company behind it, oneTesla, designed the kit to be a sort of educational tool to teach people about electronics. If you back the project now, you can snag up a Tiny Tesla for about $150, or spring for the bigger, badder, and louder model, the oneTeslaTS, for $400. The project has already crushed its funding goal, and expects to ship the first kits as early as September.

Vyper — Vibrating foam roller

VyperIf you’ve never experienced the glory that is rolling on a foam cylinder after a workout, you’re missing out. On the list of most amazing feelings known to man, it’s right up there next to peeling the protective plastic off of new electronics, finishing a long book, and getting your skull scratched by somebody with long nails. It’s also really good for your muscles. By applying pressure to specific points on your body after a workout, you can accelerate the recovery of your muscles and assist in returning them to normal function. Really, any old foam roller will probably do the trick, but if you want to spring for the Cadillac of rollers, check out Vyper. It’s a foam roller outfitted with a special vibrating core, which, in addition to probably feeling rather incredible, also helps to improve blood circulation. All the earlybird backer rewards have already been snagged up, but if you back the project now, you can still lock one down for about $200 bucks.

ProGo — Propane-powered scooter

ProGoGas-powered scooters are probably the most horrible form of transportation ever invented. They’re loud, they’re horrible for the environment, and they make you look absolutely ridiculous while you ride them. But this one is different. Instead of running on gasoline, its 25cc four-stroke engine is powered by much more environmentally friendly propane gas. This means it burns much cleaner, and (more importantly) much quieter than any other gas-powered scooter in the game. To get it going, just screw in any standard Coleman-style 16.4 ounce propane tank and give the ripcord a good yank. The engine requires no pumping, priming, chokes, or carburetor cleanup, and can provide about 3 to 4 hours of riding time on a single canister. The scooter tops out at around 20 mph — just fast enough to propel you beyond earshot of judgmental bystanders, so you’ll never even hear all the giggling and ridicule that will undoubtedly ensue shortly after you zip by.

QuarterWave — Bluetooth speaker

QuarterWaveEven if you’re not an audio geek, it’s difficult not to fall for the QuarterWave on sheer looks alone. We’ve seen wooden speakers aplenty, but even so, the rich finish and smooth curves that round out the center of the Quarterwave’s cabinet offer a fresh feast for the eyes. Don’t be fooled though — those rounded lines aren’t just for aesthetic value alone; they also serve a purpose. According to the the QuarterWave’s Kickstarter page, the twists and turns inside the box are designed as acoustic waveguides, which serve to delay the sound waves that resonate through the center of the cabinet to prevent interference and distortion (there’s even a sound wave diagram in the company’s logo). In fact, using the kind of sound principle lingo you’ll hear in a Bose infomercial, the site claims the speaker is able to leverage the interior resonance for “constructive interference” creating a “loud and undistorted live sound.”

Drew Prindle
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Drew Prindle is an award-winning writer, editor, and storyteller who currently serves as Senior Features Editor for Digital…
Waymo’s Hyundai robotaxi deal may steal the show from Tesla
A Hyundai Ioniq 5 is equipped as a robotaxi.

Just days ahead of Tesla’s much anticipated robotaxi event on Thursday, Hyundai unveiled a partnership with Waymo that will add Hyundai’s Ioniq 5 to the fleet of the robotaxi operator.In the first phase of the partnership, Waymo will integrate its sixth-generation fully autonomous technology, called the Waymo Driver, into the all-electric Ioniq 5 SUV, which will be added to the Waymo One fleet over time.On-road testing with Waymo-enabled Ioniq 5s is due to start in late 2025 and become available to riders of the Waymo One robotaxi service the following year.Alphabet-owned Waymo currently operates the only functioning robotaxi service in the U.S., with a fleet of about 700 self-driving vehicles already on the road in Phoenix, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The service is also being tested in Austin, Texas.Last year, General Motors’ competing robotaxi service Cruise had to stop operations after one of its vehicles struck a pedestrian in San Francisco. Cruise’s GM vehicles are nonetheless expected to resume operations next year through a partnership with Uber.Driverless vehicles have stumbled on two main obstacles on the road to commercialization: The complexity of the technology and tight safety regulations.For now, Waymo’s existing footprint gives it a marked advantage over its competitors. Its sixth-generation technology is said to handle a wider array of weather conditions with fewer on-board cameras and sensors. In their joint statement, Waymo and Hyundai emphasized the proven safety of both the Waymo technology and the Ioniq 5. Waymo’s technology relies on pre-mapped roads, sensors, cameras, radar and lidar (a laser-light radar). It's an approach that might be very costly but has met the approval of safety regulators. All this adds pressure on Tesla to deliver the goods with the launch of its robotaxi -- expected to be called the Cybercab.Tesla’s ambition has been to eventually provide full driverless capacity directly to consumers. Tesla owners can already buy software called Full Self-Driving (FSD) that operates like an advanced driver assistance system and requires constant driver supervision.Tesla’s FSD relies on multiple onboard cameras to feed machine-learning models that, in turn, help the car make decisions based on what it sees.The technology, however, has not yet convinced all current and former traffic safety officials.

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Tesla reveals price range for Optimus Gen2, its ‘robot without wheels’
Tesla's 2022 Optimus robot prototype is seen in front of the company logo.

“The future should look like the future”, CEO Elon Musk said at the Tesla "We Robot" special event held in Burbank, California, earlier this week. Sure enough, Tesla’s much-anticipated autonomous robotaxi, the Cybercab, and its large-van counterpart, the Cybervan, seemed straight out of celebrated sci-fi movies. But as the name of the event hinted at, a vision of the future would not be complete without robots: Several of the Optimus Gen 2, Tesla’s latest version of humanoid-like robot, were found serving drinks, holding conversations with guests, and even dancing at the event.Tesla has recently pitched the Optimus as a potential replacement for factory workers in China and elsewhere. Musk previously said he expects the Optimus to start working at Tesla factories in 2025 and to be available to other firms in 2026.
Yet, at the event, the Tesla boss revealed his expanded vision of a household robot that can do “everything you want: Babysit your kid, walk your dog, mow your lawn, get the groceries, just be your friend, serve drinks”.He also gave a closer estimate of the robot’s price tag: Once produced "at scale," Optimus should cost somewhere between $20,000 and $30,000. Musk had previously said the robot’s price would be about half that of a car. 
Staying true to his sci-fi vision, the Tesla CEO referred to Optimus as a cross between R2D2 and C-3PO, the famous droids from the Star Wars film series.
Ever since the first generation of the Optimus was revealed in 2022, Tesla has emphasized the continuity between its cars and the robot. “Everything that we’ve developed for our cars -- the battery power’s electronics, the advanced motor’s gearboxes, the software, the AI inference computer -- it all actually applies to a humanoid robot,” Musk said at the event. “A robot with arms and legs, instead of a robot with wheels.”
Tesla would not be the first to offer a domestic robot on the market. Hyundai-owned Boston Dynamics has already commercialized a home service-type robot called Spot with a hefty price tag of $74,500. BMW and Open AI are backing robots made by Figure, a California-based company. Meanwhile, Nvidia is developing Project GR00T to also deliver humanoid robots.Earlier this year, Goldman Sachs forecast that the annual global market for humanoid robots could reach $38 billion by 2035, with robot shipments of 1.4 million units both for industrial and consumer applications. It also said that robots could become more affordable as their manufacturing cost has been decreasing more than expected -- leading to faster commercialization.

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GM launches PowerBank, a battery that could rival Tesla’s PowerWall
gm launches powerbank a battery that could rival teslas powerwall energy home system bundle

Competition to provide the best energy savings to EV owners is heating up between auto makers.General Motor’s unit GM Energy has just released PowerBank, a stationary energy storage battery pack that gives electric vehicles (EV) owners the ability to store and transfer energy from the electric grid, and allows integration with home solar power equipment.The PowerBank, which comes in 10.6kWh and 17.7kWh battery capacity variants, can power up a home when there is an outage or help offset higher electricity rates during peak demand, GM said. In addition, customers can also use PowerBank to store and use solar energy, supplement the charging of EVs and provide power to a home without an EV being present.GM says that combining two of its 17.7kWh PowerBanks can provide enough energy to power the average American home for up to 20 hours.The PowerBank can be bought as part of two bundles: the GM Energy Storage bundle at $10,999, or the GM Energy Home System bundle at $12,700. The latter includes a bi-directional EV charger that can provide up to 19.2kWh of power. By comparison, Tesla’s energy storage system, PowerWall 3, can store 13.5kWh of energy and has a price tag of $9,300.According to GM Vice President Wade Sheffer, one key advantage of the PowerBank it its “modularity,” which allows for easy integration with existing technology.GM announced in August that it would provide vehicle-to-home (V2H) technology on all its model year 2026 models. It will now also offer vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology, which can provide additional energy and financial savings.
Energy savings coming from the integration of electric vehicles, solar-powered homes, and energy grids are increasingly at the center of EV manufacturers' offerings.
Nissan, BMW, Ford, and Honda have grouped together to offer the ChargeScape V2G software, which connects EVs to utilities and the power grid. EV owners can receive financial incentives to pause charging during peak demand or sell energy back to the grid.While Tesla has so far backed off from embracing V2G technology, CEO Elon Musk has hinted that V2G tech could be introduced for Tesla vehicles in 2025.

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