Tesla’s Elon Musk told Automotive News that flying cars are possible now except for the safety and noise concerns fomented by swarms of airplanes aloft. In the same article Toyota acknowledged it is doing research on something like a “hover” car. Media Daily News writes that Google’s Chief Business Officer, Nikesh Arora, told attendees at the Lions Festival in Cannes levitating cars could be one of the big innovations to come from technological advancements in the next five to 10 years. The eNewsletter writes that Arora and Google chief Larry Page discussed ways to relieve the traffic congestion they saw as they were flying across the country. Arora said, “increasing the dimensional footprint that cars could drive in — up as well as across,” was one of the solutions. He cautioned however, “it’s not going to happen anytime soon.”
The Royal Oak Tribune reports that Dan Gilbert, the man who is buying downtown Detroit building by building, plans to acquire Gas Station TV based in Birmingham, Mich. That company claims 50 million monthly viewers at its gas pump screens installed at 2600 stations in 42 states. Content is provided by ESPN, CNN, Bloomberg TV and AccuWeather. . . . Auto Channel has returned to the Boston market, exec. Vice president and co-publisher Mark Rauch, reports. Many years ago the Auto Channel show was seen weekly in the middle of the night. Now it will be seen on Channel 3 from 1-5 pm and 8-11 pm EST and various cable systems in the area . . . . Yahoo is set to launch a big new video platform to rival YouTube. Wayne Friedman reports in TVWatch that in an effort to catch up with YouTube, Yahoo is offering content creators a better financial split, more freedoms and will not demand exclusivity as YouTube does. According to Friedman, Yahoo plans to introduce two half-hour comedies next year.
