Baby Steps Toward Autonomy…

Companies, like Google and Tesla, didn't even exist when Toyota introduced the Prius in1997. However, they have become major 【小题1】 in the auto industry recently. Both of them aim to introduce fully autonomous cars ---that is, cars that drive themselves---within the next several years.

Self-driving cars are expected to be much safer than human-driven ones. But even if the first robot cars 【小题2】 the roads in the next few years, most of us probably won't give up driving entirely for at least another 15 or 20 years. In the meantime, 【小题3】 cars will gradually take over certain aspects of driving.

Companies have been adding 【小题4】 features to cars since the 1990s---things like adaptive cruise control, which uses sensors to adjust a car's speed based on the traffic in front of it, and automated parallel parking. Some cars automatically stop—or at least slow down—if a driver doesn't step on the brake in time to avoid a crash. In a certain model developed in 2017, the driver will be able to change 【小题5】 simply by hitting the turn signal for two seconds (the car will take care of the rest). Within a few years, cars may be able to determine when an accident is likely and make 【小题6】to the cabin---moving seats, closing windows , retracting the steering wheel.

Even better than preparing for a crash, of course, is 【小题7】one. Some vehicles 【小题8】 warnings when they detect, through cameras and sensors, that a driver is getting sleepy. Future cars might take over for 【小题9】 drivers---or automatically pull to the side of the road and shut down. Biometrics(生物识别技术）could aid this process. If a car has sensors that can measure a driver's breath and heart rate, it could 【小题10】 into self-driving mode when a driver has a heart attack.

E-Scooters

Over the past two years, electric scooters have become ever-present in many of Europe and America’s biggest cities. Britain is the last major western European country to hold out against the 【小题1】 . E-scooters are not allowed on public roads, though people do ride them on cycle 【小题2】 and pavements . But where they are permitted, the number of e-scooter sharing companies soars 【小题3】 . To their 【小题4】 , e-scooters are revolutionary: the “iPhone Of urban transport”. To their critics, they are dangerous, anti-social and very annoying.

As with a dock less(无桩) bike, scooters are fitted with GPS trackers and wireless 【小题5】 . Customers download an app and scan a QR code on the scooter to unlock it. They are then 【小题6】 a small amount. Bird, which launched its e-scooter in Santa Monica, California in September 2017 charges $l plus 15 cents per minute, on average, in the US-to travel where they want to go, at a maximum speed of around 15mph. At night, the scooters are rounded up, charged and returned to popularity.

E-Scooters have the potential to solve some of the worlds biggest transport problems. Most cities are already dangerously polluted and heavily congested, and it is simply not an option to put more cars and taxis on the streets. Scooters are efficient; one kilowatt hour of energy carries a car 【小题7】 by petrol less than a mile, and an e-scooter 80 miles.

Scooters are clean, cheap, and they require little new infrastructure. For a country like car- 【小题8】 America, they could genuinely transform an 【小题9】 60% of US journeys under six miles. Even in European cities, which 【小题10】 have good public transport systems, they are very useful for travelling the“final mile”. According to Bird, 40% of taxi-riding journeys in London are under two miles, so e-scooters could help take a lot of cars off the streets.

Lego: One Step Closer to Being Sustainable

The Lego Group is one step closer to reaching its goal of making all its products from sustainable materials by 2030.

The Danish toymaker revealed a prototype (雏形) brick made from 【小题1】 plastic. In a news release, Lego said the PET plastic from 【小题2】 bottles makes up the first brick to meet the company’s “strict quality and safety requirements.” One way the company 【小题3】 safety is by sourcing materials from suppliers that use processes approved by the US Food & Drug Administration and European Food Safety Authority.

“The biggest 【小题4】 on our sustainability journey is rethinking and innovating new materials that are as long-lasting, strong and high quality as our existing bricks—and fit with LEGO elements made over the past 60 years,” Lego Group Vice President of Environmental Responsibility Tim Brooks said. “With this prototype we’re able to【小题5】 the progress we’re making to the public.”

It will be “some time” before bricks made from used materials can be 【小题6】, Lego said. The company will continue to test and develop the PET formulation (配方) and decide whether to move to the 【小题7】 production phase, which is expected to take at least a year. One factor the company is testing is how the material can be 【小题8】.

“Experimentation and failing is an important part of learning and 【小题9】. Just as kids build, unbuild and rebuild with LEGO bricks at home, we’re doing the same in our lab,” Brooks said.

The move follows last year’s announcement that the company was making a $400 million investment over three years into sustainability 【小题10】. It included phasing out the single-use plastic bags from its boxes and instead using recyclable paper for its packaging.