A solar-powered airplane finished crossing the United States on Saturday, landing in New York City after flying over the Statue of Liberty during its historic bid to circle the globe, the project team said. The spindly, single-seat experimental aircraft, dubbed Solar Impulse 2, arrived at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport at about 4 a.m. local time after it took off about five hours beforehand at Lehigh Valley International Airport in Pennsylvania, the team reported on the airplane's website. Such a pleasure to land in New York! For the 14th time we celebrate sustainability," said the project's co-founder Andre Borschberg on Twitter after flying over the city and the Statue of Liberty during the 14th leg of the trip around the globe. The Swiss team flying the aircraft in a campaign to build support for clean energy technologies hopes eventually to complete its circumnavigation in Abu Dhabi, where the journey began in March 2015. The solar cr...
The 30km (18.6 miles) test route required a modified BMW 3 Series to navigate "complex road conditions", including human drivers, the firm said. The car executed a range of manoeuvres, including U-turns, lane changes and merging into traffic from ramps. Baidu has amassed a library of 3D road maps to guide its autonomous vehicles. "Fully autonomous driving under mixed road conditions is universally challenging, with complexity further heightened by Beijing's road conditions and unpredictable driver behaviour," said Wang Jing, senior vice-president of Baidu and general manager of the company's Autonomous Driving Business Unit. Baidu's highly automated driving (HAD) maps capture road data in 3D to within a few centimetres of accuracy, according to the company. The car is able to detect vehicles, road lanes and objects in its path.Separately, South Korean firm Samsung announced that it would be launching a new division which will make car component...