BBC Focus

OCTOBER 2016

CARS

PHOTO: FACEBOOK, GET T Y, PRESS ASSOCIATION, NEWSPRESS

Back in 2013, Nissan introduced a concept

electric sports car called the BladeGlider.

It was originally slated to go into

production, but then any such plans

were quietly shelved.

Now, though, Nissan has been

showing off a working prototype of

BladeGlider, fuelling speculation that

it may one day hit showrooms after

all. Let’s hope so, because with a top

speed of 185km/h (115mph), the ability

to go from 0-60 in under five seconds

and, perhaps most importantly, very

cool butterfly doors, this is one electric

vehicle that should spare you all the tree-hugger

jibes... even if the three-seater’s triangular shape

is a little bit odd.

Electric cars: not just

for tree-huggers

The glide of your life

TRANSPORT

Back in May, at t he Beijing Inter national

High-Tech Expo, Chinese engineers

showed off a radical public transport

vehicle called the Transit Elevated Bus

(TEB) that straddles roads, running on

rails like a tram while cars pass freely

underneath. And now, just a few months

later, a working prototype has been

demonstrated, completing a 300m

test-drive in the city of Qinhuangdao on

the northeastern coast of China.

On this first outing, the bus travelled

extremely slowly, but the engineers say

t hat eventually t he 22m-long bus, which

sta nds 4.8m tall a nd measu res 7.8m

across, could attain speeds up to 60km/h

(37mph) while carrying 300 passengers.

Chief engineer Song You Zhou even

suggests it could be running regular

TEB services by the end of this year.

However, some experts have cast

doubt on the bus’s ability to deal with

real-world hazards such as pedestrian

crossings and bridges, while there’s even

been speculation in the Chinese press

that the whole project may be part of an

elaborate financial scam. We’ll keep you

posted on further developments.

Augmented reality could soon be saving

lives, thanks to researchers at New York’s

Mount Sinai hospital. They’ve developed

an app that enables a surgeon to look

through the surgical microscope and see

video overlays of, for instance, the precise

location of key blood vessels, even if t hese

are physically hidden from view.

Joshua Bederson MD, of Mount Sinai’s

Dept of Neurosurgery, compares the

system to sat-nav in you r ca r. “We k now

where we’re going most of the time,” he

says, “but if we have a map that’s updated

in real time, and can see the position of our

ca r in relation to t hat map, t hat ca n ma ke

the drive more efficient. We’re trying to

bring in other lines of information that

make doing these procedures even safer.”

AR comes to ER

China test-drives elevated bus

HEALTH

The AR system helps

make surgery safer

Imagine that looming over

you while cycling to work...