Taurus Balance Vehicle: Segway or Sexway? [Transportation]

Now I’m pretty sure that the whole Segway fad is over, but it looks like others have different ideas in mind. While this unusual horse-like vehicle looks interesting on paper, I’ve got trouble looking at it and thinking about transportation.

Designed by Erik Lanuza, the Taurus is supposed to be the Segway of the future, replacing cars and motorcycles as transportation in the inner city. One thing is for sure: from the looks of the photo above, the future will be sexy.

Honestly, it makes me think more of some kind of kinky sex-horse than anything else. What do you think?

[technabob via Wired]

Honda unveils a home solar hydrogen-producing station

Despite its current impracticality, Honda keeps plugging away at its hydrogen vehicle prototype. The company just revealed a component that brings its hydrogen vehicle closer to reality — a more compact solar hydrogen-making machine that you install in your personal garage, turning water into hydrogen fuel .

The Honda Solar Hydrogen Station uses solar power to perform this alchemy, able to produce a half a kilogram of hydrogen during the day (or using cheaper electricity at night), and refueling that car when you park it in the garage that night.

The idea is to create enough hydrogen for a car to make its round-trip daily commute without using any fossil fuels. We can only hope mass production will someday bring the price of each vehicle below the hundreds of thousands of dollars it costs now.
[DVICE via Ubergizmo]

DARPA's Iron Curtain Detects, Explodes RPGs From a Moving Humvee [Military]

DARPA's created what it's calling the Iron Curtain, which is a system that mounts on top of a Humvee and takes out any rockets shot in its direction. It's pretty nuts.
They've been working on these Active Protection Systems for a while now, but this is the first that works on a moving vehicle. It uses radar, optical sensors and some other secret elements to detect projectiles. It then destroys them right before impact, creating an explosion but one that is much less harmful to the vehicle.
But don't take my word for it, check out the bananas video of it in action above.
[Gizmodo via Iron Curtain via Danger Room via BotJunkie]

Renault unveils space buggy-style Twizy Z.E. concept vehicle

Renault rocked the auto world today by showing off the new Twizy Z.E. concept vehicle. The car's futuristic design brings to mind visions of a space exploration surface buggy, sporting hexagonal wheel coverings and headlights as well as neon yellow trimmings.
The company's CEO, Carlos Ghosn, said, '[Twizy's] distinctive layout combines advantages of both two- and four-wheel vehicles, offering maximum agility with stability.' Renault won't commit to releasing this exact vehicle design to the public, but hopes to use the 15kW (20hp) electric motor that powers the Twizy in vehicles scheduled to hit the market in 2011.
Via Renault