DAILY INNOVATION BREF by Maryanne Kane, Journalist

 DAILY INNOVATION BRIEF              

By Journalists Edward Kane & Maryanne Kane

PERSONAL FLYING MACHINE TO REPLACE CARS

Source:  Zapata

• French entrepreneur Franky Zapata, the man who flew his hoverboard over the English Channel, has designed a personal flying machine that anyone can fly with minimal training
• Here's what we know:

1. Called the Airscooter
2. Developed as an alternative to cars
3. Cockpit is egg-shaped
4. Flies as high as 9,800 feet
5. Travelling at 62 mpg, Airscooter could take 10 minutes to complete a 2-hour car commute during peak traffic
6. Uses 6 hybrid-powered rotors for propulsion
7. Its carbon footprint is close to that of a passenger car
8. VTOL that doesn't need a runway
9. Range of 2 hour flights
10. Only 1 person can fit inside
11. Maximum payload 242.5 pounds
12. Currently the company has no plans to sell Airscooter
13. They do have plans for people to pay to fly it by themselves for 40 minutes
14. First flight center will be in Lake Havasu, Arizona

• This new personal aerial vehicle is getting ready for a big takeoff with its first flights for paying operators in Arizona.

ADDING SOLAR PANELS TO EVs - NEW MEGATREND

                                                                    Source:  Stock

• A new ecofriendly automotive megatrend is developing:  more and more automakers are adding solar systems to their EVs to extend the range with free sunshine
• Here's what we know:

1. Toyota's next-generation Prius has an option of a solar roof that can charge the EV's battery
2. Hyundai's Ioniq 5 offers a solar roof option that adds 1,200 miles of range a year
3. Mercedes plans to offer the Vision EQX with a solar roof by the end of 2023 which will add 3,750 miles a year
4. Fisker offers a full solar roof that adds 1,500 miles a year
5. Sono Motors has covered the roof of its 5-seat Sion with solar panels, giving it 5,700 miles of free additional range
6. Lightyear is putting solar panels on the roof and hood of its cars adding 500 free miles of range between charging
7. Trucks, buses and trains are being outfitted with solar systems

• This is an emerging megatrend that will only grow bigger as solar systems advance and more vehicles become fully powered by solar power alone.

DIDN'T KNOW I COULD SPEAK 30 LANGUAGES!

                                            Source:  Stock

• New York City-based ElevenLabs' AI Voice Generator can convert your voice into 30 languages that you didn't know you can speak
• Here's what we know:

1. ElevenLabs, which specializes in AI voice intelligence, has developed a new Multilingual V2 model that can produce "emotionally rich" audio of a voice in 30 different languages
2. 2 AI tech tools are being offered: text-to-speech and VoiceLab, which imports fragments of a voice to create a voice clone
3. ElevenLabs says it has addressed any deep fake issues by requiring users to verify the voice is their own
4. This is a controversial zone of AI usage as voice cloning technology has been used to impersonate the voices of well- known people and attribute the content to them
5. ElevenLabs claims to have installed protections against it.

"Daily Innovation Brief" © By Edward Kane