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ICYMI: Airbus and Italdesign exhibit a Pop.Up future

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's an autonomous modular flying concept car!

Today on In Case You Missed It: Airbus and Italdesign demoed yet another flying car concept at the Geneva Auto Show this week. Dubbed "Pop.Up" the modular and autonomous vehicle can transform from a four-wheeled car to a quadcopter, depending on your destination and habits. The Pop.Up system uses an AI to determine which form will result in the most efficient travel method, and will then attach itself to air or ground pod modules to get you there. While the broader idea is to produce a fleet of Pop.Up's that can be summoned at will by users, the concept faces some significant challenges in actual development such as battery technology and legal regulations.

Meanwhile, Italian artist Norma Jeane and the engineers at Codame have introduced a robot with an unusual mission to the Sonoran desert. The ShyBot's only objective is to stay as far away from human beings as possible, at all times. For six days, the six-wheeled bot roamed the Coachella Valley area and was able to successfully avoid everyone -- even the drones being used to track the experiment. GPS technology was used to track ShyBot in real time, and a camera on it transmitted its point of view to a San Francisco art gallery.


As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.