⚡️ A flying car just took it's first flight!

Welcome, Tech enthusiasts.

The Samson Switchblade, a street-legal vehicle that transforms into a small plane, just achieved a pivotal first successful test flight.

Are flying cars finally moving from fiction to reality? Let’s get into it…

In today’s tech rundown:

• Samson Switchblade flying car takes first flight

• Ceiling sensors track food waste in kitchens

• 10 new products

• 7 quick stories

Read time: 3 minutes

TODAY’S HEADLINES

TRANSPORTATION

🛫 Samson Switchblade flying car takes first flight

The Rundown: The Samson Switchblade, a street-legal vehicle that transforms into a small airplane, successfully completed its first test flight after 14 years of development.

The details:

• The Switchblade flies at 200 mph with a 500 mile range (35 gallon fuel tank), and converts from a motorcycle to a plane in just 3 minutes.

• Over 2,300 reservations have been made for the $170,000 vehicle since its announcement over a decade ago.

• The model qualifies as both a motorcycle and experimental aircraft to simplify regulations.

• The first flight reached 500 ft altitude and lasted 6 minutes before landing safely in Moses Lake, WA.

The relevance: Once thought of as just science fiction, the Switchblade concept shows the potential (and demand) for a practical flying car. Though production, infrastructure, and regulations are still likely years away.

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SUSTAINABILITY

🍽️ Ceiling sensors track food waste in kitchens

The Rundown: A startup called Positive Carbon is installing camera and lidar sensors in commercial kitchens to track exactly what food enters the trash bins, helping reduce waste by 50%.

The details:

• The sensors are mounted on the ceiling above the food waste bins to autonomously monitor what is discarded.

• Advanced data analytics are then run to uncover trends and patterns in what is being over-ordered, over-prepped, or over-served.

• After a $2.3M funding round, Positive Carbon plans to expand to capabilities like tracking nutritional content in real-time.

Our thoughts: Automated waste tracking is a clever way to cut costs and litter in kitchens — and the potential is limitless for AI to further optimize the food chain while reducing environmental impact.

NEW PRODUCTS

📄 DocuPull- Automate the loan application process & share with lenders (link)

🔒 PrivacyGPT- A firewall for ChatGPT prompts (link)

🎥 VidScrolls- Transport YouTube videos to your Kindle or email (link)

📊 Tabliner- Collect data from spreadsheets without error (link)

⚙️ Bardeen- A no-code automation tool to enhance workflow productivity (link)

👩‍🎨 Looka- AI-powered platform to design a logo and build a brand in seconds (link)

🎤 Castmagic- Turn long-form audio into ready-to-use content assets, instantly (link)

🛠️ 60sec.site- Generates beautiful landing pages for you in under 60 seconds (link)

🗣 Speechify- transcribe everything into audio for you to listen to (link)

🎙Toasty AI- AI content creation for podcasts (link)

Browse the most popular tools ever featured with our tool database.

SNIPPETS

Apple plans to introduce a new 12.9-inch iPad Air and update its entire iPad lineup in early 2024, with a focus on different display technologies and chips.

The Swedish startup Minesto is set to install the world's largest tidal energy 'kite', capable of powering 1,000 homes, as part of its innovative underwater renewable energy generation.

SpaceX is facing scrutiny for high injury rates among workers, attributed by employees to CEO Elon Musk's prioritization of Mars over safety protocols.

Threads users now have the option to prevent their posts from appearing on Instagram and Facebook.

The SAG-AFTRA actors union reached a tentative deal with studios after a months-long strike, securing protections around consent and payment for use of members' likenesses created via AI.

The UK Competition and Markets Authority received complaints about Google's upcoming Chrome IP address cloaking, alleging it violates commitments and harms competitors' fraud prevention.

Newport Wafer Fab, the UK's largest chip plant, was sold by its Chinese-owned operator Nexperia to US firm Vishay for $177M, after the UK ordered a divestment citing national security concerns over the China ties.

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THAT’S A WRAP

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