Work + Play
For the road less taken! Have a safe journey
THE GOODS
FIRST PERSON
An entrepreneur’s nightmare? Winter fog and flight delays. For shorter distances, driving
often ends up being the safer option for business travellers. Here are five technologies that help new-age business people to travel by road. Have a safe journey! —A.C. RUN-FLAT
Developed by BMW, this technology makes punctured tyres a thing of the past. No more changing tyres by the side of a road. If a run-flat tyre loses pressure, its strengthened sidewalls allow you to continue to a service station, at a maximum speed of 80km per hour. In certain cars (including the Z4 roadster), the run-flats can be driven upto 250kmph, even after a puncture. It makes the spare tyre obsolete, reduces weight and frees up boot space. Found in all BMW four-wheelers. NIGHT VISION
Sometimes, a day trip continues well past sundown. That’s where Night Vision fixed in Bimmers can help drivers get past poor lighting. This optional system reveals objects up to 300 metres, thanks to an infrared camera that transmits images to the control display. Intelligent algorithms look specifically for pedestrians, highlighted in yellow on the LCD screen. This is where the Matrix meets James Bond. Found in BMW 7 Series, X5 and Z4. CITY SAFETY
The technology developed by Volvo has made the driver almost redundant. Imagine a car that applies brakes on its own, since you were busy texting, or sleeping. At speeds up to 30km per hour, this laser-based technology can sense if a vehicle (6m to 8m) ahead is standing still, or moving slower. If City Safety senses an impending collision, the brakes are pre-charged to act faster on your response. If you don’t brake, it automatically does so and switches off the throttle to help avoid or mitigate a collision. Time for drivers to retire! Found in Volvo XC60. ANTI-SKID SYSTEMS
The anti-skid takes the “adventure” out of driving. The system helps prevent fishtails, spinouts and rollovers, as you apply emergency brakes. At the system’s core, sensors register the car’s direction and roll rate and compares this with steering wheel movements and the actual wheel rotation. The system is able to detect a potential skid and helps counteract this by reducing the engine’s power output, or braking on one or more wheels. If you love rash driving—avoid cars with tags that say EPS, traction control or DSTC. Found in Mercedes-Benz, Volvo and BMW.
COURTESY COMPANY (5)
PRE-SAFE SYSTEM
Using this is like buying life insurance, against the ugliest of accidents. Depending on the driving situation and vehicle equipment, the system can initiate measures for passenger protection when it detects dangers. These include reversible belt tensioning or automatic closing of side windows or even optional tilting sunroof. The all-important information is provided by sensors of various systems (read brake assist that can register critical driving situations). At the end, you walk out safe like Bruce Willis did in The Unbreakable. Found in Mercedes-Benz (GL-Class).
My favourite tool for making presentations maureen carroll co-founder, lime designs san francisco
My consulting company helps businesses and educational institutions develop problemsolving techniques related to the design process. I've never been a fan of traditional slide presentations, because they encourage linear thinking. When I first saw Prezi in action a year ago, I was blown away by its ability to facilitate new ways of thinking. My partner and I have been using it ever since. Prezi is a web-based tool that lets you map out a presentation, including text, graphics, and embedded PDF files and videos, in a single large layout. Instead of clicking through slides during a presentation, you zoom in on relevant information in the layout, then zoom out. Prezi is especially helpful during Q&A sessions, since it lets me quickly zero in on a relevant talking point rather than plod through 20 slides. Prezis are created and stored online, so I can share them with clients by sending a link via e-mail. I also hold realtime presentations with clients online. I like the fact that I can download the presentations to my desktop as well, so I always have them on hand. We pay $59 a year for our Prezi account, which lets us create unlimited presentations and store up to 500MB of data online. Unlike the free version, it does not require us to make presentations public on Prezi's site.—As told to J.J. McCorvey
FEBRUARY 2011
|
INC.
|
25