Smart helmet maker Lumos is raising the bar on its own award-winning design with a new high-tech helmet that offers front and rear lights, turn signals, and even technology that responds to your basic hand gestures.
"Our mission is to make it really easy for you to stay safe so that you can make riding a bigger part of your everyday life," Eu-wen Ding, co-founder and CEO of Lumos Helmet, told Cheddar on Tuesday.
The Matrix is the newest helmet in the Lumos product line and started selling in select Apple stores worldwide on Tuesday. The headlights are 2.5 times brighter than the original, it has animated turn signals, and a corresponding app.
"The back is now a whole matrix, which is where the name comes from, of LEDs so it can make animated signals as well," Ding said.
"Wouldn't it be great if somehow the helmet could sense when you are giving your hand signals and just activate it automatically?" he asked. So that's what the company set out to create, with the new helmet featuring Lumos Gesture Recognition technology, which allows turn signals to be synced to an Apple Watch and respond to riders' basic movements. The advanced app offers a library of animations to choose from.
The high-tech helmet company is responding to the rise of personal transportation options like bike and scooter sharing. "When I started the company, like, four years ago, none of that was around, and very quickly in the last 18 months this whole microbility segment has skyrocketed like crazy," Ding said.
However, as more people get on e-scooters and bikes, cities often fail to keep up with the infrastructural changes needed to keep people safe.
"I think more people would do it if there was better infrastructure, if it was safer," Ding noted. "Hopefully, as more people get on the roads, the city will start paying attention to that stakeholder and start investing in infrastructure."
A big-screen adaptation of the anime “Chainsaw Man” has topped the North American box office, beating a Springsteen biopic and “Black Phone 2.” The movie earned $17.25 million in the U.S. and Canada this weekend. “Black Phone 2” fell to second place with $13 million. Two new releases, the rom-com “Regretting You” and “Springsteen — Deliver Me From Nowhere,” earned $12.85 million and $9.1 million, respectively. “Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc” is based on the manga series about a demon hunter. It's another win for Sony-owned Crunchyroll, which also released a “Demon Slayer” film last month that debuted to a record $70 million.
The Federal Aviation Administration says flights departing for Los Angeles International Airport were halted briefly due to a staffing shortage at a Southern California air traffic facility. The FAA issued a temporary ground stop at one of the world’s busiest airports on Sunday morning soon after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy predicted that travelers would see more flights delayed as the nation’s air traffic controllers work without pay during the federal government shutdown. The hold on planes taking off for LAX lasted an hour and 45 minutes and didn't appear to cause continued problems. The FAA said staffing shortages also delayed planes headed to Washington, Chicago and Newark, New Jersey on Sunday.
Boeing workers at three Midwest plants where military aircraft and weapons are developed have voted to reject the company’s latest contract offer and to continue a strike that started almost three months ago. The strike by about 3,200 machinists at the plants in the Missouri cities of St. Louis and St. Charles, and in Mascoutah, Illinois, is smaller in scale than a walkout last year by 33,000 Boeing workers who assemble commercial jetliners. The president of the International Association of Machinists says Sunday's outcome shows Boeing hasn't adequately addressed wages and retirement benefits. Boeing says Sunday's vote was close with 51% of union members opposing the revised offer.
The stunning indictment that led to the arrest of more than 30 people — including Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and other NBA figures — has drawn new scrutiny of the booming business of sports betting in the U.S. The multibillion-dollar industry has made it easy for sports fans — and even some players — to wager on everything from the outcome of games to that of a single play with just a few taps of a cellphone. But regulating the rapidly-growing industry has proven to be a challenge. Professional sports leagues’ own role in promoting gambling has also raised eyebrows.
At the core of the ongoing government shutdown is a fight over the decision to end subsidies that let some 12 million Americans get health coverage.
Tesla, the car company run by Elon Musk, reported Wednesday that it sold more vehicles in the past three months after boycotts hit hard earlier this year, but profits still fell sharply. Third-quarter earnings fell to $1.4 billion, from $2.2 billion a year earlier. Excluding charges, per share profit of 50 cents came in below analysts' estimate. Tesla shares fell 3.5% in after-hours trading. Musk said the company's robotaxi service, which is available in Austin, Texas, and San Francisco, will roll out to as many as 10 other metro areas by the end of the year.
