Mercedes-Benz is working on a system that may help emergency workers quickly and safely rescue trapped occupants in wrecked vehicles. The system pairs rescue sheets that show firefighters, police and paramedics information on exactly how and where to use rescue sheers to extract trapped passengers, the location of major hydraulic lines, air bags and electrical cable,s as well as other important vehicle data with QR codes. Using two stickers with the codes prominently displayed, rescue workers can scan the code and instantly pull up the necessary information quickly with an internet connection. The plan could reduce rescue times and help save lives.



Currently, rescue workers have to rely on hard copy rescue sheets or must look up the information online, assuming the sheets are available at all. Mercedes-Benz has waived the right to patent the system in the hope that other automakers will take advantage of the technology. You can read the full press release below for more information.

When is $ 20 million not equal to $ 20 million? When, for some, it’s an interest payment and, for others, it’s all they’re worth. Here’s how that one number means two totally different things to two different green car companies.



Speaking to Bloomberg Television about the early repayment of Tesla Motors’ DOE loan, CEO Elon Musk said today that, “ultimately, the US taxpayer actually made a profit above $ 20 million on this loan. For this loan at least, people’s tax bill actually went slightly down.”



Musk said that, now that the loan has been paid back, more people might take a look at Tesla. “We were attacked a lot in certain quarters for having some government debt,” he said. “I think that actually matters to some consumers out there, whether or not a company actually does have government debt, and being able to say we fully repaid that debt with interest, I think it is helpful to some number of people out there in thinking about buying a car.” So, for Tesla, which recently raised over a billion dollars, $ 20 million is an easy price to pay to potentially sell more EVs.



Now, let’s look at Fisker Automotive, which is still fending off bankruptcy. We learned this week that VL Automotive and Wanxiang made an offer to buy the troubled automaker for an undisclosed sum. Word out today is that the amount that the two companies are willing to pay for Fisker is, you guessed it, $ 20 million. That’s about one percent of Fisker’s $ 2 billion-plus value back when the Karma plug-in hybrid was launched, according to Reuters. It’s unclear how a potential Fisker buyer will have to deal with the outstanding DOE loan amount of $ 171 million and other issues, but the $ 20-million offer a striking contrasts to Musk’s statement on Bloomberg Television, which you can watch in the video below.

Frenchman François Gissy has laid claim to a new land speed record using a rocket-powered bicycle. Yes, you read that right. A rocket-powered bicycle. Gissy and his bicycle managed to hit a mind-boggling 163 miles per hour (263 kilometers per hour) over a vacant stretch of highway in Munchhouse, France over the weekend.



The rocket was built by Swiss company Exotic Thermo Engineering, and it provides its thrust using liquid hydrogen peroxide – much more concentrated than what you’d find at your local drug store, so don’t go trying this at home tonight – that is broken down to generate steam at 650 degrees Fahrenheit.



Watch Gissy’s record speed run in the trio of videos below, and take special note of the speeding cars and motorcycles he lines up against in two of them.