Mobility is not yet electric, but it is already facing a transformation process that, although it is still in an early stage, will be unstoppable.

On a day-to-day basis, it is the most common means of transport that we see on the street that show the change most clearly, with more and more cars (such as the Volkswagen ID.3, the first CO2-neutral car in Spain). its complete life cycle) and zero-emission motorcycles circulating integrated into the traffic of our cities, but it is not the only sector that is pointing in that direction.

Electric cars have always felt more comfortable in the city due to their design and operation, because by driving at low speeds and being able to take advantage of braking to regenerate energy, they can increase their autonomy.

However, in the last 10 years they have doubled their range and are starting to position itself as a perfectly valid alternative for many private users to face long-distance trips.

This, applied on a larger scale, has made electric technology begin to be a viable option also for long-distance transport of both people and goods, which has resulted in a good number of companies developing models both of buses as of trucks to face these new tasks.

For both tasks, the most common technology is the hydrogen cell, which has some advantages for this type of heavy vehicle compared to conventional batteries, such as a faster recharge time than that of a conventional electric, something vital in trucks and buses that need large capacity energy ‘depots’.

There are already units rolling on the roads of Europe that homologate 400 kilometers of autonomy, but models that exceed 1,000 kilometers in range are also being developed and that are expected to arrive on the market for the second half of this decade.

However, the conventional battery option has also been implemented in vehicles of smaller size and volume, such as vans and light trucks, designed for medium-distance transport, which can travel up to 400 kilometers without going through a recharging point and, once in it, they can recover 80% of their autonomy in just 90 minutes.

Using vehicles with a clean and ecological propulsion system makes even more sense in the water, which is where waste from cities and industries often ends up without being properly treated beforehand.

In this field, electricity, whether in the form of batteries or as a hydrogen cell, is presented as an alternative to consider, because it provides a quieter navigation without sacrificing performance and, above all, much cleaner and more ecological.

This is the case of models such as the Q-Yatchs Q30 or RAND Leisure 28, which in the latter case allows speeds of up to 40 knots (74 km / h) with autonomies of up to 140 nautical miles (225 kilometers). The HYNOVA 40, meanwhile, combines both systems, counting on a hydrogen extender to increase the autonomy of its batteries.

Another peculiar alternative is that of the SeaBubbles, some vehicles capable of navigating on water at speeds of up to 6 knots (11 km / h) and, from there and up to 13 knots (25 km / h), they rise above its hydrofoils, “gliding” over the liquid surface. They have been conceived mainly as taxis to offer an alternative type of travel in places such as the Seine river in Paris or the beaches of Saint Tropez, and have a range of 40 kilometers.

Conquering the skies has always been one of the dreams of the human being, but the new electrical surge has provided the real opportunity to implement air transport within cities, with the aim of decongesting traffic and, at the same time, helping to eliminate pollution.

In such crowded spaces a very particular type of vehicle is required, which does not need large surfaces to land or take off, so the morphology of the popular drones, which perform both maneuvers vertically (its acronym in English are VTOL, ‘Vertical Take-Off and Landing ‘), is perfect for the job and has been adopted by most’ flying taxi ‘projects.

Companies such as Airbus, Uber, Boeing or Lillium (the latter with a design more similar to that of a microplane) have been working on their air taxis for months and even years, which at the moment promise ranges of up to 100 kilometers, with speeds of up to 170 km / h and maximum autonomies of 30 minutes.

Some are developing autonomous driving systems in parallel so that it can fly on its own (lowering the cost of the trip by not needing a pilot) but others have opted for a more conventional format, with a professional at the controls and capacity for up to four passengers .

According to different studies, from the middle of this decade the sector could emerge, although this also requires adequate legislation to regulate the air traffic of this type of vehicle.

The Spanish laboratory says it is in a position to produce 600 million doses per year to meet demand from outside the United States

The Spanish pharmaceutical laboratory Rovi has reported this Monday that it is prepared to begin manufacturing the vaccine of the American biotechnology company Moderna from early 2021.

Specifically, Rovi estimates that the transfer of technology from Moderna (a company without its own production capacity) will occur in the first quarter of next year, as reported by Rovi in ​​a presentation sent to the CNMV on the occasion of its Market Day of Capitals 2020.

Since then, Rovi has a manufacturing capacity of 600 million doses per year that will be destined for markets outside the United States, according to the update of the company’s strategy.

“Rovi will provide vial filling and packaging capacity through the acquisition of a new production line and equipment for compounding, filling, automatic visual inspection and labeling to support the production of hundreds of millions of doses of the candidate vaccine,” the presentation reads. Posted by Rovi.

Among the markets that could receive the vaccine produced by the Rovi laboratory is the European Union, since Moderna is in advanced talks with the European Commission to supply Europe with 80 million doses of the vaccine against Covid-19 (whose name is mRNA-1273 ), plus a purchase option for up to 80 million more doses.

For its part, Canada has exercised the option to purchase 20 million doses of the vaccine and Japan has signed a contract to receive 50 million doses. Finally, Qatar also has a supply agreement with the American biotech company.

Advances in the fight to find a vaccine.Moderna announced last week that it is in the final stages of its vaccine trial , which has shown 94.5% effectiveness in preventing coronavirus infections.

A week before Moderna, Pfizer also announced that its vaccine is 95% effective . In addition, Pfizer has already initiated the procedures to obtain regulatory approval for it.

The last Western laboratory to announce its advances has been Astrazeneca, which works in collaboration with the University of Oxford, and which has also announced that the effectiveness of the vaccine reaches 90% depending on the type of administration that is made.

Once the hurdle of finding a vaccine is overcome, the next challenge will be the vaccination campaign. For this, the conservation conditions will be key. Moderna’s vaccine is less demanding on cold conditions, but Pfizer’s should be stored at minus 70 degrees.

The two main workhorses of electric cars have been autonomy and recharging time. The first has already been solved with higher capacity batteries, such as those of the Volkswagen ID.3, which with alternatives of 58 and 77 kWh, offer up to 420 and 549 kilometers of range, respectively.

The second is still in process, and although it is progressing with the deployment of an increasingly widespread public charging network, there is still a long way to go. And that’s where a reliable and well-performing charging infrastructure at home becomes almost essential.

Because it will be our private gas station to supply us with electricity in less time than with conventional household plugs.

To meet that need, Volkswagen offers all plug-in hybrid or electric model customers with ID wall chargers. Charger, a simple solution, easy to use and with affordable prices. Above all, Volkswagen offers a qualified, personalized and professional installation and assembly service.

The equipment consists of a wall device (it can also be placed on other fixed surfaces) with a modern design and contained measurements (about 40 x 30 centimeters).

And it’s available with three trim variants, each with different customization options. In addition, it is even compatible with models from other manufacturers that use a type 2 charging connection, that is, with practically all European electric vehicles.

The customer can choose between three variants, all of them compatible with single-phase recharges of 7.4 kW (80% load between seven and eight hours for the ID.3) and three-phase of 11 kW (80% in six hours for the same model ), which can be chosen depending on the electrical installation of each home.

The first alternative is the ID. Charger (399 euros), the most basic model, which has an integrated charging cable to facilitate the process and avoids the hassle of taking it out and picking it up after the car and having a place to store it when you finish at home.

The ID. Charger Connect (599 euros) is the intermediate solution and adds additional functions, such as access protection via RFID, a radio frequency identification and communication system that, for example, prevents someone else in a community garage from using the charger.

And also Internet connectivity, either by Ethernet cable or by Wi-Fi, and all from a mobile application, either to control the charging processes, give permission to other vehicles so that they can use the charger, etc.

Lastly, the ID. Charger Pro (849 euros) includes all of the above and adds a meter with MID (Measurement Instrument Directive) certification, which allows you to accurately calculate and record electricity consumption, a very useful function for cars and company fleets.

The hiring process is very simple, it can be done online and allows you to configure the different options of the charging station at the click of a button: choose the 4.5 meter cable (free) or the 7.5 meter cable (per 50 euros), select the load capacity and specify the type of home where it will be installed.

Installation prices vary depending on whether it is a single-phase or three-phase system, whether it is a single-family home or a flat, and the chosen charger. And they cover a range that goes from 950 to 1,430 euros.

In the case of single-family homes, they do not depend on anyone outside to do the installation, but in garage spaces in neighboring communities it is necessary to connect the charging point to their own electricity meter and, although their approval is not required, they must notify the president of the community or the administrator 30 days in advance.

The service offered by Volkswagen includes a technical verification to assess the feasibility of the installation, home inspection, installation and configuration of the ID.

Charger and 24 months warranty. In addition, the price includes 15 meters of cable if it is a single-family home and up to 25 meters with its pipeline if it is a community of neighbors, a maximum of two wall steps, electrical protections and an electrical panel with IP sealing 65 – IK 09 – Class II and lock in case of floor installation.

If additional items, materials or services are required that are not included in the initially described standard package, additional costs may be incurred directly with the Volkswagen installation partner.

their physical work centers has been constant and growing. The end of telework, or at least its preferential nature, is just around the corner.

And it still happens that many workers have health and safety concerns about this situation. For this reason, companies are developing systems and technologies that guarantee work environments free from the threat of contagion.

“When we talk about a covid-free space, we mean that it is for people, employees and customers,” says José Daniel García Espinel, Director of Innovation at Prosegur, a company that works in the field of security.

“There are two types of technologies: some focused on the work environment, the building itself; and others focused on the specific safety of the employee ”. According to García Espinel, these systems, with a clear practical approach and far from science fiction, will soon reach most work environments.

“They are safe-employee technologies . The idea is that they give peace of mind and minimize the risk of contagion ”, he summarizes.

One of the measures that we could see shortly is the so-called digital company passport. Using a color code, this functionality, available on mobile phones, will indicate to employees whether or not they can enter the work environment when they are at access control.

The color code marks three different levels. If the passport is green, the employee can access. If it is in yellow, a case that occurs if the employee has been in contact with someone infected or has suspicious symptoms, he or she must telework and go to a health center to get the relevant checks. If it is red, the employee will not be able to access.

A fundamental element of the passport is the ability to perform self-diagnostics, a functionality that will determine the access color of the passport. Based on the protocols that each company has, the employee, before going to the office, can do a simple self-check on their health status.

“From the mobile, and based on simple questions, such as if I have a fever or muscle aches, the worker can detect contagion symptoms,” explains García Espinel. “If you are infected or have worrisome symptoms, we can remotely change the color of your passport.”

If you are at risk, your access passport will automatically turn yellow. “Subsequently, you will be instructed to telework and take the relevant medical tests at your health center,” the expert adds.

“In this way, employees with a green passport have the peace of mind of being in a work environment without people affected or at risk,” explains García Espinel, who emphasizes that this passport must be combined with external care.

“The management of the passports of an entire staff is done centrally, remotely and in real time through control centers,” he adds. “Thus, in the event of any incident or question regarding access, the worker can be assisted almost instantly”.

The health authorities of many countries have dedicated themselves to retracing the path of an infected person to isolate cases of covid-19.

This method, a kind of reverse tracing, is also replicated in the workplace. And, like the self-diagnostic functionality, it will determine the color of each employee’s digital passport.

You only need two mobiles with the same software installed. “From the moment two workers are in contact [something that the program establishes based on the distance and the time they have been together], the mobiles exchange a series of random codes sent by bluetooth.

This allows you to know, tomorrow, what codes have been close to the infected person and to notify all those people who have been close to warn them that they are at risk, ”explains García Espinel.

The system traces contacts between employees in an automated, anonymous and decentralized manner. The access passport of those who have been at risk will turn yellow. “The protocol calculates a risk score based on each contact,” continues the expert, “always guaranteeing privacy.”

Geolocation allows to know precisely which corridors and rooms an infected person has traveled or which are the areas of a company with the highest traffic.

“With geolocation, it is possible to know which are the areas, within some offices, with the highest occupational occupation”, García Espinel abounds. “This is essential to focus disinfections and cleanings of the work environment in which an affected employee has been present in those places.”

Even if we go back to the office, physical distance will still be something to respect. In order not to lose sight of this security measure, there are applications that will notify us when we breach it.

“If you are very close to another employee or do not maintain the security meter and a half, the mobile, for example, will vibrate and alert that you are skipping the protocol,” says García Espinel.

These functionalities and technologies are already grouped in a mobile app that Prosegur is testing in its own work centers. An application that, according to García Espinel, will soon be commercialized in the business world with the mission of protecting workers and clients in a simple and effective way.

Of course: “Having an app without assistance in any type of incident or problem does not work”, warns the expert. “The key is that all processes are monitored in real time by professionals from their control centers. It is this combination of technology and supervision that gives value to the system ”.

Sanipoint announces the commercialization of a rapid self-diagnosis test that detects coronavirus or influenza type A and B in 15 minutes

The same day that Pharmamar reports a PCR for the diagnosis of influenza and Covid-19 , another company, Sanipoint , reports that it has another test with the same characteristics .

The difference between the one announced by the ‘biotech’ and the one marketed by this company specialized in the sale of sanitary PPE is that the Sanipoint, being self-diagnostic, the result emerges in 15 minutes.

On the other hand, Pharmamar’s, because it is a PCR, needs laboratory tests to clarify the result, so it takes several hours.

50,000 tests per month and 95% efficiency. Sanipoint estimates go through a test demand of 50,000 units per month after verifying the penetration of the coronavirus detection kits that it already had on the market, for antibodies and antigens.

According to the results of its tests in hospitals, public organizations and private companies, the company indicates that the test is more than 95% effective.

The effectiveness of Pharmamar’s is superior with a specificity of 99.7% , the company reported in its statement on the matter to the National Securities Market Commission .

Pharmamar’s kits, which have also been selling detection PCR and antibodies since the end of March, are produced by its molecular diagnostics subsidiary, Genomica . This company has commercial agreements in more than 20 countries.

In addition, the Galician subsidiary is one of the companies awarded the Framework Agreement of the Ministry of Health that the National Institute of Health Management ( INGESA ) has tendered for the supply of up to 7.5 million molecular diagnostic tests for Covid-19 .

The company has already made its new PCR available to interested parties for exclusive sale to hospitals and professional molecular biology laboratories, which requires instrumentation and qualified personnel.

The Sanipoint rapid test also requires toilets for its use and performance, since the sale of these tests to the public is not allowed.

Sanipoint sources told finance.com that the company is confident that these kits will soon be sold in pharmacies, which would exponentially improve their sales estimates .

Pharmamar kits have brought IBEX revenues of 10.40 million euros from mid-March to the end of September.

After two quarters in the market, sales have reached 5 million euros and from the biopharmaceutical they indicate that the sales guidelines will remain stable on these figures.

The listed company directed by José María Fernández Sousa detaches the arrival of the vaccine to a market of income from these sales because it considers that the detection will continue as a fundamental tool for the control of the pandemic.