STEM Blogs with Ram

Tesla has just announced that they’ll be switching all of their new Model Y and 3s ordered after May, and later their Model X and S’s, to use new technology for their autopilot called Tesla Vision. This replaces radar, which is what Tesla and most car companies have been using for their driving assistance and is based on cameras, rather than lasers creating maps which is what Lidar uses. While all car companies are transitioning away from the radar, everyone else is moving to lidar, except for Tesla and Elon, who famously said that Lidar is a “fool's errand.” But how do all of these work and why is Tesla so stubborn to use LiDAR? Radar has been used in cars since the 1980s, and works by sending an EM wave from a transmitter which reflects any objects back into a receiver’s antenna and tells the processor how far away and where any obstacles are from the car. Nowadays, more and more cars are actually moving to use radar as a supplement to more advanced technology, like lidar and vis...

  If you've ever tried to wait for a PS5 resupply, or even gone to a store to see if it's in stock, you'll probably have seen the dreaded, but now expected three words, "Out of Stock." It's now basically impossible to find a PS5 at retail prices since the only ones available to buy are at ridiculous prices offered by people, but why is this? Let's start with the production of PS5s with the first big reason, a shortage in parts due to the pandemic. The most notable part is the semiconductor, which has a global shortage due to the coronavirus. Semiconductors are an essential piece in every electronic, and the world's largest semiconductor company is TSMC, in Taiwan, which makes semiconductors for tons of companies, Sony included. Therefore when a drought happened in Taiwan and the pandemic started, TSMC couldn't keep up with orders for semiconductors causing a low supply of electronics, from Playstations to Teslas. As well as the semiconductor shorta...

 Starlink is a division of SpaceX constructing a constellation of satellites to provide satellite internet. This is revolutionary since it will provide low-cost, high-speed internet to people globally. While it is only in the beta stage now with 1500 satellites launched, it plans to have around 42,000 in space. It is meant for rural areas that don’t have access to the internet currently since it can reach it with its constellation, however, major cities will struggle to use it since there are too many people to share with and obstacles that get in the way of the signal. To use it, you need to set up a satellite dish on top of your home for $499 and pay $99 a month, which is quite expensive compared to other options. The upfront cost for the equipment should get cheaper as the program increases, but the plans won’t change for the sake of simplicity. Starlink is unique because, unlike other satellite internet solutions, its satellites are in Low Earth Orbit, allowing a faster signal ...