Magnificent Decay: Detroit by Drone

Urban ruin porn has gotten so ubiquitous it’s morphed into a dedicated genre, and no other city seems to garner the attention of amateur shooters cataloging a metropolis’ decline more than Detroit. But how do you take it to the next level? Cue the drones.

YouTube user Tretch5000 took to the skies to show the beauty and blight of one of the U.S.’ former industrial hubs, flying his modified quadrocopter with an HD camera over abandoned homes and factories, the majestic Michigan Central Station and the lush grounds of Belle Isle nestled within the Detroit river.

It’s an eclectic mix of modern and decayed Detroit, blending the new with the old, all while showing off Tretch5000′s FPV flying skills. We’re suitably smitten, and would like to hear more about his quadrocopter setup.

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Measuring Mobile-Data Burn on the Road

Streaming music and other data-intensive content are coming to more cars via tethered smartphones and their apps. That’s the good news. The bad news is that without an unlimited data plan these connected features could cost you some serious coin if you blow past your pre-set data limit. But how much you pay largely depends on how much time you spend commuting — and how much you use data-draining features such as internet radio, navigation and other apps on your smartphone.

To get an idea of the real-world data usage while on the road, we took a Motorola Droid Razr Maxx along on a recent drive from LA to San Diego and back, all the while playing Pandora internet radio (using the service’s standard audio quality, 32 kbps) and running the Google Maps Navigation (Beta) app. We covered roughly 250 miles roundtrip, and spent about three hours driving down and about four hours on the return. Gotta love gridlock on the 405 freeway.

All told, we found that if you commute about five hours a week — and depending on your data plan and smartphone habits — you can probably just let the streaming music play without having to worry what you’ll pay. But anything more, and you get into the danger zone.

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Video: Precision-Landing Rocket Flies Higher Than Ever

Masten Space Systems is flying rockets higher than it ever has before with the latest flight of its Xaero. The rocket launched from the company’s Mojave test pad and reached an altitude of 444 meters (1,457 feet) before returning to the pad for a precision landing. At first glance, launching a rocket a quarter-mile into the sky might not seem like much of an accomplishment. But right now Masten is focused more on the precision control of its rockets than on maximum altitude.

The company believes that precision landing capabilities poses one of the biggest challenges in the space program, and the task isn’t being met by many of the other next-gen space companies. Many rocket systems currently being used rely on a ballistic re-entry, basically free-falling back to earth under parachutes within a target range that can be many miles in diameter.

Masten has developed a family of small rockets in recent years aimed at reducing the target landing area from miles to inches. The company won the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge back in 2009 using its Xoie rocket with a flight that kept the landing area to within eight inches.

The latest flight of the Xaero rocket used a new set of landing gear Masten says saved them weight and reduced complexity and the associated replacement time for quick turnaround flights. And unlike many of its predecessors, the new Xaero features body work giving a classic, almost retro rocket look.

The Xaero rocket has been submitted for NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program with plans for suborbital flights carrying scientific payloads.

Video: Masten Space Systems/YouTube

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Visualizing 1 Billion Cars

Between 1950 and 1970, the number of vehicles in the world roughly doubled every 10 years. That trend began to shift in the mid-1980s, when the vehicle population reached a staggering 500 million vehicles in 1986. Twenty-four years later, we’ve eclipsed the 10-digit mark, with more than 1 billion vehicles registered worldwide. That’s enough for one vehicle for every 7 people in the world.

Most of the growth is taking place outside the world’s largest auto market — the United States — where vehicle registrations only grew by 0.3 percent between 2009 and 2010. As you’d expect, the countries where a burgeoning middle class is on the rise — China and India — are snatching up inexpensive wheels at a rapid rate, with the former posting an astonishing rise of 27.5 percent and the latter growing vehicle registrations at an impressive 8.9 percent.

China has already surpassed the Japanese market, with 78 million vehicle registrations compared to Japan’s 73 million. But the spread of vehicles-to-people is still heavily weighted in the Rising Sun’s favor, with 1.7 people per vehicle compared to China’s 17.2 people per vehicle. But nothing compared to the U.S.’ 1:1.3 ratio.

Check the graphic above for all the stats, and remember, these figures are for 2010. It’s likely that the world has added another 30,000,000 cars in the last 12 months — not including off-road and heavy-duty vehicles.

Infographic: Michael Cerwonka/Wired

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BMW ConnectedDrive Blitzkrieg Includes LTE Connectivity, Android Compatibility and new iDrive Touch

Photo: BMW AG

For better or worse, BMW has been on the cutting edge of in-car technology. On the upside, it was the first automaker to offer in-dash navigation back in 1994. A decade later, BMW introduced iPod integration at a time when some competitors still had cassette players in the dash. On the downside, BMW’s pioneering iDrive was pilloried as a convoluted and confusing interface when it debuted in 2001, although it’s since become the template for center-console controllers used by several luxury automakers.

But the automotive infotainment landscape has shifted rather drastically, with mainstream brands such as Ford and Toyota providing some of the most cutting-edge connected, app-oriented systems. While premium European brands like BMW and Audi haven’t stood still, aside from advanced safety systems, paying top dollar no longer guarantees top-shelf tech – as anyone who’s been in a late-model Mercedes-Benz S-Class or Lexus LS can tell you.

This week BMW released a blitzkrieg of in-car tech that will appear in future models and seeks to re-establish the brand as the benchmark for embedded technology and infotainment. Under the umbrella term ConnectedDrive that BMW coined to include infotainment, navigation and Web-enabled services, the latest introduction encompasses everything from a refined touch-based iDrive controller to a removable LTE hotspot.

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