【推荐1】Sky Drive Inc. conducted a successful test drive of its new flying car on August 25 at the Toyota Test Field, one of the largest in Japan and home to the car company’s development base. The car, named SD-03, manned with a pilot, took off and circled the field for about four minutes. It was the first public demonstration for a flying car in Japanese history.

“We are extremely excited to have achieved Japan’s first-ever manned flight of a flying car in the two years since we founded SkyDrive... with the goal of commercializing such aircraft,” CEO Tomohiro Fukuzawa said. “We want to realize a society where flying cars are an accessible and convenient means of transportation in the skies and people are able to experience a safe, secure, and comfortable new way of life.”

The SD-03 is the world’s smallest electric vertical take-off and landing vehicle and takes up the space of about two parked cars, according to the company. It has eight motors to ensure “safety in emergency situations”. “In designing an unexplored, new type of transportation known as the flying car, we chose the keyword ‘progressive’ for inspiration,” Design Director Takumi Yamamot said. “We wanted this vehicle to be futuristic, charismatic and desirable for all future customers, while fully including the high technology of SkyDrive.”

The company hopes to make the flying car part of normal life and not just a product. More test flights will occur in the future under different conditions to make sure the safety and technology of the vehicle meet industry standards.

The success of this flight means that it is likely that the car will be tested outside of the Toyota Test field by the end of the year. The company will continue to develop technologies to safely and securely launch the flying car in 2023. However, no price has been announced so far.

【推荐2】HONG KONG-Cross-border buses operated by Hong Kong companies on Friday started trial runs on the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (HZMB) in preparation for the bridge’s upcoming opening.

“The trial runs, arranged by the governments of the Chinese mainland, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) and the Macao SAR, would last for three days and aimed at testing the readiness of boundary crossing facilities (设施) of the three places,” the Hong Kong SAR government’s Transport and Housing Bureau told Xinhua.

Two major cross-boundary coach trade associations in Hong Kong were invited to send buses and members to participate in the trial runs.

Freeman Cheung, secretary of Hong Kong Guangdong Boundary Crossing Bus Association, said his association would run one bus with about 10 passengers on Friday and Saturday respectively as part of the trial runs.

“Our bus started at noon from the Hong Kong Boundary Crossing Facilities and ran all the way to Zhuhai in about 40 minutes,” he said, adding that “the journey was smooth.”

Alan Chan, secretary of another trade association who participated in the trial runs as a passenger, said the clearance procedures at boundary crossing facilities of the three places all went on well and smoothly.

“The boundary crossing facilities of Zhuhai and Macao, in particular, are operated in a collaborative (合作的) way, which helps remarkably shorten the time needed for the clearance procedures,” he said.

The HZMB, situated at the waters of Lingdingyang of Pearl River Estuary, is a mega-size sea crossing linking the Hong Kong SAR, Zhuhai city of Guangdong Province and the Macao SAR.

The 55-km bridge is the longest bridge-and-tunnel (隧道) sea crossing in the world.

The bridge is meant to meet the demand of passenger and freight land transport among Hong Kong, the Chinese mainland and Macao, and to establish a new land transport link between the east and west banks of the Pearl River.

【推荐1】The fact that over 1.24 million people lose their lives each year in road accidents is a horrifying statistic that could soon be prevented. It should be of no surprise to understand that the autonomous vehicle industry is predicted to be worth $2.6 trillion a year within 15 years.

What's the future of personal transportation? Well, you'll likely be spending a lot less time behind the wheel, for one. The rise of self-driving cars means that some scenes out of science-fiction flicks（电影）（think Total Recall or I, Robot）are now reality—and even more will be available soon.

Cars today already include many semi-autonomous features, like assisted parking and self-braking systems. And completely autonomous vehicles—able to operate without human control—are rapidly becoming more of a reality. You're probably familiar with Google's version, which has made headlines with its Google Chauffeur software, which the company hopes to bring to market by 2020.

The pros of autonomous cars are many. "The sensors in a self-driving car are always observing, are not affected by the state of the driver（sleepy, angry, etc.）, and can scan in multiple directions simultaneously（同时地）," says Dr. Dominique Freckmann, an automotive engineering manager at TE Connectivity, "Autonomous driving is a key aspect of the industry's drive toward safer roadways."

"Recent NHTSA research shows that approximately 94 percent of accidents are caused by human error," adds Alan Amici, a vice president of automotive engineering at TE. "Cars with advanced safety features and eventually, self-driving cars, can significantly reduce the number of collisions. The impact of this innovation can be far-reaching, including reduced demand on emergency response systems and reduced auto insurance and health care costs."

【推荐2】The government has proposed to spend money developing wireless charging roads in the UK as part of a ￡40 million plan. Wireless charging roads could be developed to recharge electric cars while they drive along to solve some problems about limited equipment to encourage ownership of these vehicles and ensure better air quality. The government has promised the money to developing both on-street and wireless charging to help transformation from internal combustion engine(内燃机)cars to electric cars.

These systems work similarly to a Scalextric toy car. Wireless charging uses a process called electromagnetic induction(电磁感应)to move energy. On the ground is a pad in which electricity is passed through a set of wire to create a magnetic field. It is then moved to a receiver on the underside of the car. Once the technology works, it could mean that drivers can fill up their cars as they drive along, meaning there could be longer periods between charging.

The proposal was made in Department for Transport (DFT) and could also see charging points positioned at service stations and car parks. New homes will also, where permitted, be built with some points. David Martell, of the electric car charging company BP Chargemaster, said, "Wireless charging will make driving an electric vehicle as similar as possible to driving a petrol car but without going to the petrol station frequently."

This is not the first time that wireless charging roads have been proposed as a number of firms have developed technologies. Renault partnered with Qualcomm and VEDECOM Tech to develop a road to test the technology's capability. The 100-meter test track was said to be capable of a charge up to 20 kilowatts at speeds up to, and over, 62 miles per hour (nearly 100 km/h).

【推荐3】Your next car might drive itself. After years of trials on city streets, driverless vehicles are now nearing the live phase. Last month, a driverless bus began carrying passengers through Lyon, France. Most in the automobile industry think self-driving vehicles will be on the road by 2020 or before.

Driverless cars will at first be huddled with human-driven cars. But the first places where they will become dominant (统治的) are dense urban areas — precisely the spots most damaged by the automobile age. Many advanced cities are already reducing the role of human-driven cargo. Driverless cars will quicken that process and will bring us enormous benefits.

Driverless cars will reduce accidents by around 90 percent. That’s big—the annual death toll on the world’s roads is about 1.2 million a year. Pollution and carbon emissions will drop, because urban driverless cars will be electric. The old, otherwise they would stay at home most of the time and the disabled and teenagers will suddenly gain mobility.

On the other hand, driverless cars will bring catastrophe. The best thing about the automobile age was that it employed tens of millions of people to make, market, insure and drive vehicles. Over the next 20 years, the mostly low-skilled men who now drive trucks, taxis and buses will see their jobs reduced. Carmakers are especially scared. The few cars of the future might be made by tech companies such as Apple, Baidu and Google. Imaging the impact on Germany, where the automotive sector is the largest industry.

Dramatic change is coming, and driverless cars could arrive by 2020. But governments have barely begun thinking about it. Only 6 percent of the biggest US cities have factored them into their long-term planning.

A decade ago anyone hardly saw the Smartphone coming. It has bought an epidemic of mass addiction. Let’s hope we do a better job of handling the driverless car.

【推荐1】A student had to get his long hair cut off in a middle school in GuangDong Province. It was talked a lot among teachers and students.

In fact, all schools have their own rules. In most schools, boy students are not allowed to have long hair while girls are not allowed to dye their hair. And most school rules say that students should wear their school uniforms at school. And students must obey these rules so that they can get healthy development at school.

But some students have disagreements. They think that boy students having long hair doesn’t mean that they are not good students. They want to show their own personality. They think that they would look cool too if they had long hair and the hairstyles like their favorite stars.

A girl student thought that she would look much more beautiful if she had brown hair. So she had her dark hair dyed brown one day. When she went back to school the next day, the teacher was very angry with her. She said that she worked hard at her lessons and did well in every subject. She just didn’t know why the teacher didn't allow her to dye her hair while women teachers can.

It is not wrong for teenagers to love stars’ hairstyles or wear their favorite clothes. However, a school has its own rules for all the students to obey so that the school can be in good order. Students should not break the rules at school.