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Awesome tech you can’t buy yet, for the week of November 1, 2013

At any given moment there are approximately a zillion different crowdfunding campaigns happening on the Web. Take a stroll through Kickstarter or IndieGoGo and you’ll find there’s no shortage of weird, ambitious, and downright stupid projects out there – far too many for any reasonable person to keep up with. But here at DT we are not reasonable people. We spend an inordinate amount of time poring through crowdfunding sites and product blogs in search of the next Oculus Rift or Pebble Watch, so we’re here to bring you a quick roundup of the best projects that are currently up and running.

Lock8 – smart bike lock

lock8This project bills itself as the “first smart bike lock,” but that’s not entirely true. Bitlock sort of beat them to the punch on that one, but that doesn’t mean it’s not an awesome idea. Lock8 is probably the most full-featured bike lock we’ve ever laid eyes on. In addition to smartphone-activated locking and unlocking that triggers automatically when you walk away from it, Lock8 features an alarm system that will sound if a thief tries to cut, melt, freeze, or remove it in any way. It’ll also shoot you a notification on your phone as soon as it detects something happening, so you can dash out and catch the culprit before he pedals away. Check out the full description on Kickstarter – this thing has way too many cool features for us to list here.

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Grass Printer – robotic lawn mower

grass printerThere are already a handful of robotic lawn mowers on the market, but this one takes things to the next level. Rather than cutting your grass in flawless, robotically-precise lines, it can be programmed to mow out predetermined patterns – like text that reads, “KEEP OFF, HOOLIGANS!” or something equally charming. Currently the design is only a concept, but it won a Red Dot Award this year, so there’s a good chance its creators might have a working prototype built in the near future. Practical? Probably not. Awesome? Absolutely.

Sprav – wireless water meter

SpravThe easiest way to waste water is undoubtedly under the warm, comfortable stream of a shower. The average shower blasts out around two gallons per minute, and depending on how long you spend washing up, you could be running up your water bill substantially. Sprav hopes to solve this problem. It’s a wireless meter that tracks both your energy consumption and water usage while you shower, and gives you realtime feedback via LED lights to let you know when you’ve been in for too long. And the best part? It doesn’t require any tools to install. It senses temperature through the pipe and uses acoustic feedback to monitor flow, so all you’ve got to do is clip it onto your shower head and go.

Pixelstick – programmable LED stick for light painting

pixelstickIf you’re not familiar with light painting, leave this post immediately and go have yourself a Google Images sesh. It’s amazing. By creatively using lights and long exposure shots, photographers can create abstract 3-dimensional artwork in thin air. People who do it generally use stuff like fire and single LED’s to draw images, but the guys at BitBanger Labs (the creators of the Remee lucid dreaming mask we recently reviewed)  have developed a crazy new programmable LED sitck that takes the light painting to the next level. Using Pixelstick, users can draw anything from single-color lines to wild, rainbow-hued murals – it all depends on how you program it. Check out the Kickstarter campaign to check out the awesome 8-bit art and 3D gifs that BitBanger made to show off what Pixelstick can do.

Wristify – personal cooling system

wristify MITDeveloped by a team of engineers from MIT, Wristify is an ingenious wearable cooling device that leverages a clever physical phenomenon called the Peltier effect to gradually lower your body temperature. When placed against the skin, the device makes you feel cooler by intermittently drawing down your wrist temperature a few fractions of a degree per second. Over the course of a few minutes, this causes you to percieve a whole-body cooling of a coulpe degrees celsius. If this device were to gain widespread adoption, it could drastically reduce our dependence on air conditioning and heating systems. Check out our full post to find out more.

xNT – NFC implant

xNT NFC chipAspiring cyborgs take note – if this IndieGoGo campaign reaches it’s goal, you might soon be able to get that implant you’ve always wanted and wirelessly control all the tech toys in  your life. Forget about all this wearable tech nonsense, these guys are ready to develop technology that goes inside your body. That might be off-putting to some, but think about the possibilities – you could log in to your computer, turn on your lights, pay for goods, and a zillion other things just by waving your hand or walking into a room.

Drew Prindle
Former Senior Editor, Features
Drew Prindle is an award-winning writer, editor, and storyteller who currently serves as Senior Features Editor for Digital…
Zoox recalls robotaxis after Las Vegas crash, citing software fix
zoox recall crash 1739252352 robotaxi side profile in dark mode

Amazon's self-driving vehicle unit, Zoox, has issued a voluntary safety recall after one of its autonomous vehicles was involved in a minor collision in Las Vegas. The incident, which occurred in April 2025, led the company to investigate and identify a software issue affecting how the robotaxi anticipates another vehicle’s path.
The recall, affecting 270 Zoox-built vehicles, was formally filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Zoox said the issue has already been addressed through a software update that was remotely deployed to its fleet.
Zoox’s robotaxis, which operate without driving controls like a steering wheel or pedals, are part of Amazon’s entry into the autonomous driving space. According to Zoox’s safety recall report, the vehicle failed to yield to oncoming traffic while making an unprotected left turn, leading to a low-speed collision with a regular passenger car. While damage was minor, the event raised flags about the system’s behavior in complex urban scenarios.
Establishing safety and reliability remain key factors in the deployment of the relatively new autonomous ride-hailing technology. Alphabet-owned Waymo continues to lead the sector in both safety and operational scale, with services active in multiple cities including Phoenix and San Francisco. But GM’s Cruise and Ford/VW-backed Argo AI were forced to abandon operations over the past few years.
Tesla is also expected to enter the robotaxi race with the launch of its own service in June 2025, leveraging its Full Self-Driving (FSD) software. While FSD has faced heavy regulatory scrutiny through last year, safety regulations are expected to loosen under the Trump administration.
Zoox, which Amazon acquired in 2020, says it issued the recall voluntarily as part of its commitment to safety. “It’s essential that we remain transparent about our processes and the collective decisions we make,” the company said in a statement.

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Mitsubishi’s back in the EV game—with a new electric SUV coming in 2026
mitsubishi bev 2026 momentum 2030 line up

Mitsubishi is officially jumping back into the U.S. electric vehicle scene—and this time, it’s not just dipping a toe. The company confirmed it will launch a brand-new battery-electric SUV in North America starting in summer 2026, marking its first fully electric model here since the quirky little i-MiEV left the stage back in 2017.
The new EV will be a compact crossover, and while Mitsubishi is keeping most of the juicy details under wraps, we do know it’ll be based on the same next-gen platform as the upcoming Nissan Leaf. That means it’ll ride on the CMF-EV architecture—the same one underpinning the Nissan Ariya—which supports ranges of up to 300+ miles. So yeah, this won’t be your average entry-level EV.
Designed in partnership with Nissan, the new model will be built in Japan and shipped over to U.S. shores. No word yet on pricing, battery size, or even a name, but Mitsubishi has made it clear this EV is just the beginning. As part of its “Momentum 2030” plan, the company promises a new or updated vehicle every year through the end of the decade, with four electric models rolling out by 2028. And yes, one of those might even be a pickup.
Mitsubishi says the goal is to give customers “flexible powertrain options,” which is marketing speak for: “We’ll have something for everyone.” So whether you're all-in on electric or still into gas or hybrid power, they're aiming to have you covered.
This mystery EV will eventually sit alongside Mitsubishi’s current U.S. lineup—the Outlander, Outlander PHEV, Eclipse Cross, and Outlander Sport—and help the brand move beyond its current under-the-radar status in the electric world.
In short: Mitsubishi’s finally getting serious about EVs, and if this new SUV lives up to its potential, it might just put the brand back on your radar.

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Toyota unveils 2026 bZ: A smarter, longer-range electric SUV
toyota bz improved bz4x 2026 0007 1500x1125

Toyota is back in the electric SUV game with the 2026 bZ, a major refresh of its bZ4X that finally delivers on two of the biggest demands from EV drivers: more range and faster charging.
The headline news is the improved driving range. Toyota now estimates up to 314 miles on a single charge for the front-wheel-drive model with the larger 74.7-kWh battery—about 60 miles more than the outgoing bZ4X. All-wheel-drive variants also get a boost, with up to 288 miles of range depending on trim.
Charging speeds haven’t increased in terms of raw kilowatts (still capped at 150 kW for DC fast charging), but Toyota has significantly improved how long peak speeds are sustained. With preconditioning enabled—especially helpful in colder weather—the new bZ can charge from 10% to 80% in about 30 minutes. Also new: Plug and Charge support for automatic payment at compatible stations and full adoption of the North American Charging Standard (NACS), meaning access to Tesla Superchargers will be standard by 2026.
Under the hood, or rather the floor, Toyota has swapped in higher-performance silicon carbide components to improve efficiency and power delivery. The AWD version now produces up to 338 horsepower and sprints from 0–60 mph in a brisk 4.9 seconds.
Toyota didn’t stop at just the powertrain. The exterior has been cleaned up, with body-colored wheel arches replacing the black cladding, and a sleeker front fascia. Inside, a larger 14-inch touchscreen now houses climate controls, giving the dash a more refined and less cluttered appearance. There’s also more usable storage thanks to a redesigned center console.
With the 2026 bZ, Toyota seems to be responding directly to critiques of the bZ4X. It’s faster, more efficient, and more driver-friendly—finally bringing Toyota’s EV efforts up to speed.

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