Vehicle Technology

The Real Case for Driverless Mobility: Putting Driverless Vehicles to Use for Those Who Really Need a Ride explores solutions for providing mobility for the unserved/underserved, including those who cannot drive themselves, afford transport alternatives, or who live in areas where neither public nor private transport is offered. The book synthesizes the career-long activities of the authors and the Princeton SmartDrivingCars Summits and assesses whether cars without drivers can deliver an affordable and more effective alternative to mass transit and taxis.

Megatrends such as climate change, urbanization, new work practices, and aging populations are starting to impact how we move and how we transport goods, as well as the decisions we make about consumer transportation and logistics. The Flagship Experience discusses how Software-Defined Vehicles and AI will enable automakers, transportation providers, and transportation planners to reimagine the mobility customer experience, and presents a framework for implementing it.

The untold story of five women who fought to compete against men in the high-stakes national air races of the 1920s and 1930s - and won.

At least as far back as the ancient myth of Icarus, humans longed to fly - but it wasn't until December 17, 1903, on the windy dunes of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, that the dream finally came true. And it was all thanks to Orville and Wilbur Wright, two former bicycle mechanics who built their first toy plane - a rubber-band powered rotary - when they were just children.

In a time when people believed flying was impossible, Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier proved that the sky wasn’t the limit. When most thought horseback was the only way to race, Bertha and Karl Benz fired up their engines. From the invention of the bicycle and the passenger steam locomotive to the first liquid-fuel propelled rocket and industrial robot, inventors across the world have redefined travel. Informative and celebratory, this collective biography tells the story of the experiments, failures, and successes of visionaries who changed the way the world moves.

Although Orville and Wilbur Wright are celebrated today as heroes for their revolutionary contributions to science and engineering - they are acknowledged as the first men to successfully achieve powered, piloted flight - their success was hard-earned. In fact, it took the self-taught engineers years of work and dozens of crashes before they managed a single 12-second flight! In this first installment of the brand new Epic Fails series, Ben Thompson and Erik Slader take listeners through the Wright brothers' many mishaps and misadventures as they paved the way for modern aviation.

Eddie Rickenbacker was a World War I Flying Ace, a Medal of Honor winner, and even a racecar driver. But did you know that his first attempt at flying was to ride his bicycle off the roof of his house while holding an umbrella?

In May 1869, the U.S. railroad network unified when the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads came together in Promontory, Utah. The Transcontinental Railroad: The Gateway to the West discusses this important milestone in the expansion of the United States and its impact on the nation, both positive and negative. This book tells how the east-west railroad played an integral role in opening western markets to the residents of the eastern United States, but it also examines how the railroad led to the demise of many American Indian groups in the West.

Space vehicles are out of this world! But how do they fly out into space? How do they carry people safely? And what parts do these amazing aircraft have? Find the answers inside this book!

As young boys, Orville and Wilbur Wright loved all things mechanical. As young men, they gained invaluable skills essential for their success by working with printing presses, bicycles, motors, and any sort of machinery they could get their hands on. As adults, the brothers worked together to invent, build, and fly the world's first successful airplane. This is the fascinating story of the two inventors and aviation pioneers who never lost sight of their dream: to fly, and to soar higher!

Both Thomas Edison and Henry Ford started off as insatiably curious tinkerers. That curiosity led them to become inventors - with very different results. As Edison invented hit after commercial hit, gaining fame and fortune, Henry struggled to make a single invention (an affordable car) work. Witnessing Thomas' glorious career from afar, a frustrated Henry wondered about the secret to his success.

Emma Lilian Todd's mind was always soaring—she loved to solve problems. Lilian tinkered and fiddled with all sorts of objects, turning dreams into useful inventions. As a child, she took apart and reassembled clocks to figure out how they worked. As an adult, typing up patents at the U.S. Patent Office, Lilian built the inventions in her mind, including many designs for flying machines. However, they all seemed too impractical. Lilian knew she could design one that worked.

Beep! Beep! Here comes a dump truck! Young students can learn basic facts about these load-bearing machines through simple text to support listeners who are just starting out.

Did you know that the world's first submarine traveled the Thames River in England way back in 1615? Or that early cars had three wheels instead of four? Get ready to learn the fascinating stories behind inventions you use every day. From the motorcycle inventor who died while riding his creation, to the engineers who figured out a better way to launch humans into space, you'll find out how we got the transportation inventions that get us where we're going.

In Nerdy Babies: Transportation, follow our intrepid babies when they’re on the go. Experience skating on rollerblades, flying on air balloons, exploring underwater in a submarine, and riding cross-country on a car. Plus, learn about how different air, land, and sea travel can be in this simple text written in question-and-answer format.

How does iron turn into a brand-new car? Follow each step in the production cycle - from digging up iron ore to hitting the road - in this fascinating book!

Helicopters can take off from almost anywhere and change directions quickly. They can even hover. But how do they stay in the air? And how do pilots control these special aircraft? Listen to this book to find out!

How does steel become a shiny new bicycle? Follow each step in the process - from shaping the steel to testing the finished bike - in this fascinating book!

Amelia Earhart refused to accept no for an answer; she dared to do what no one had ever done before and became the first woman to fly a plane all the way across the Atlantic Ocean. This audiobook follows her from childhood to her first flying lessons and onward to her multi-record-breaking career as a pilot.

Flight. Loneliness. Fear. Danger. Courage. Charles Lindbergh considered all these things and more when he set out for Paris on the morning of May 20, 1927, with only two compasses and the stars for his guides. Experience all the drama of Lindbergh's history-making flight with startling intimacy as you travel along with the first pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic, and follow the courage and endurance of one man who dared to make his dream come true.