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Speaker 1: Welcome to How Stuff Works Now. I'm your host, Lauren Vogebum,

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Speaker 1: a resear turn writer. Here at How Stuff Works. Every week,

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Speaker 1: I'm bringing you three stories from our team about the

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Speaker 1: weird and wondrous developments we've seen in science, technology, and culture.

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Speaker 1: Today we explore two big questions. It's a future without

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Speaker 1: gasoline and other petroleum products closer than we thought and

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Speaker 1: less terrifying. Lee Could a Mars colony also be closer

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Speaker 1: than we thought? But first? Senior writer Jonathan Strickland looks

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Speaker 1: at proposed legislation in New York State. If it passes,

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Speaker 1: a police officer on the scene of an accident could

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Speaker 1: give your phone the equivalent of a breathalyzer. If you

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Speaker 1: live in New York and the proposed legislation, known as

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Speaker 1: Evans Law, passes, you will State Senator Terrence Murphy filed

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Speaker 1: the act back in January, and a company called Celebrate

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Speaker 1: is developing a device that police could use to enforce

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Speaker 1: the law. Here's how it would work. A police officer

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Speaker 1: comes to the scene of an accident and suspects that

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Speaker 1: at least one person may have been distracted by a

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Speaker 1: personal electronic device connecting Celebrates gadget to each person's phone.

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Speaker 1: In turn, the officer can see if anyone had been

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Speaker 1: using their phone immediately before the accident. According to the

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Speaker 1: proposed legislation, the device wouldn't record or analyze what the

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Speaker 1: phone was doing. It would just log that an activity

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Speaker 1: had taken place. And since it's illegal in New York

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Speaker 1: to operate a personal electronic device while driving, this information

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Speaker 1: could lead to an arrest. It's sort of like the

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Speaker 1: smartphone equivalent of a breathalyzer test. The Act argues that

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Speaker 1: each driver has given implied consent to hand over a device,

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Speaker 1: just as they have given implied consent for a breathalyzer

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Speaker 1: test if an officer requests it in New York State.

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Speaker 1: So what happens if you refuse to hand over your phone?

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Speaker 1: The state suspends your driver's license for at least a year,

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Speaker 1: unless you've refused to hand over your phone before then

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Speaker 1: it's a minimum of eighteen months, plus you may phase

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Speaker 1: a fine of five hundred dollars for the first offense

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Speaker 1: or seven fifty dollars for subsequent cases. This is in

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Speaker 1: addition to any other legal action taken against you due

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Speaker 1: to the accident itself. Senator Murphy argues that since the

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Speaker 1: Celebrate device doesn't access your data, it doesn't violate the

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Speaker 1: Fourth Amendment guaranteeing protection against illegal search and seizure. There

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Speaker 1: are lots of questions left to answer. Will the Celebrate

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Speaker 1: device be able to determine if the phone was being

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Speaker 1: used in hands free mode? In New York, it's legal

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Speaker 1: to operate personal electronic devices if you aren't holding them

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Speaker 1: in your hand, And since Celebrates other major products can

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Speaker 1: scrape a phone for data and activity, some people are

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Speaker 1: concerned that this law could lead to more invasive searches

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Speaker 1: in the future. It's important to remember that distracted driving

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Speaker 1: is a legitimate problem. According to the CDC, about eighteen

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Speaker 1: percent of all crashes in which someone was injured also

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Speaker 1: involved distracted drive, and according to Senator Murphy, scent of

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Speaker 1: drivers admit to using their cell phones while driving despite

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Speaker 1: knowing the dangers involved. But is this the right way

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Speaker 1: to solve that problem now? Head video writer Ben Bollan

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Speaker 1: digs into the news that Saudi Arabia is getting out

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Speaker 1: of the oil business. Aside from having a huge impact

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Speaker 1: on the global fossil fuel market, what does their plan

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Speaker 1: indicate about the future of oil in general? On April sixteen,

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Speaker 1: Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed Ben Salmon announced the beginning of

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Speaker 1: the Vision Initiative, which aims to steer the country away

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Speaker 1: from its current economic addiction to cheaply produced oil. This

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Speaker 1: plan requires Saudi Arabia to float stakes in their massive company,

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Speaker 1: while also setting up one of the world's largest investment

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Speaker 1: funds and trimming those sweet, sweet perks the govern has

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Speaker 1: historically provided to its citizens. The Kingdom spends an estimated

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Speaker 1: sixty one billion dollars on these benefits alone each year.

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Speaker 1: This all sounds pretty ambitious, right to quote Billy Mays. Wait,

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Speaker 1: there's more. According to the Deputy Crown Prince, the Kingdom

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Speaker 1: aims to rid itself of oil dependency by twenty twenty,

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Speaker 1: a move that experts like Capital economics Jason Turvey find

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Speaker 1: dubious to say the least. But the Kingdom is putting

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Speaker 1: actions behind this rhetoric by selling five percent of the

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Speaker 1: world's largest oil company in an I p O. The

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Speaker 1: government is also laying bare the books of a notoriously

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Speaker 1: secretive global operation. And all of all of this leads

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Speaker 1: us to a bigger question. Is oil on the way out?

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Speaker 1: Currently the world runs off fossil fuels to the detriment

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Speaker 1: of the environment. While alternative forms of energy do exist,

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Speaker 1: We've got solar, nuclear, hydropower, wind and so on, none

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Speaker 1: have as of yet been able to match the efficiency

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Speaker 1: and profitab ality of good old crude. Recent breakthroughs in

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Speaker 1: oil extraction technology, such as fracking, have driven a drop

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Speaker 1: in prices for energy exporters like Saudi Arabia and for

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Speaker 1: that matter, of Russia. This spells bad news on the

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Speaker 1: economic front. This might not be a symbolic gesture, but

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Speaker 1: a matter of survival and what happens If Saudi Arabia succeeds,

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Speaker 1: will other countries follow suit, diversifying their economies and attempting

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Speaker 1: to kick the fossil fuel habit. For now, it seems

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Speaker 1: like a pipe or should I say, oil pipeline dream,

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Speaker 1: but it's getting less and less implausible. For decades, we've

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Speaker 1: known that an oil powered global economy is not sustainable

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Speaker 1: over the long term, but now it seems that the

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Speaker 1: end of the bubble maybe closer than we thought. Finally, today,

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Speaker 1: senior writer Robert Lamb reports on Elon Musk's plan to

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Speaker 1: launch a mission to Mars as soon as eighteen A

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Speaker 1: Sex is in for a busy couple of years. That's right,

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Speaker 1: in just two years, we might well see the first

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Speaker 1: private Mars landing in history, the first big step in

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Speaker 1: Musk's epic dream for an off world colony, dubbed the

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Speaker 1: Red Dragon Mars. Mission SpaceX intends the endeavor to serve

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Speaker 1: as the first test flight of the upgraded Capsule, a capsule,

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Speaker 1: according to Musk, designed to land anywhere in the Solar System.

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Speaker 1: Its predecessor, the Dragon one capsule, made history in twelve

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Speaker 1: when he became the first commercial spacecraft to successfully deliver

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Speaker 1: cargo to and from the International Space Station, and they

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Speaker 1: hope to start moving human cargo with it over the

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Speaker 1: next couple of years. Now you're probably wondering why eighteen

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Speaker 1: while it all comes down to what scientists call Mars oppositions,

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Speaker 1: convergences in the orbits of Mars and Earth that shortened

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Speaker 1: the distance between the two worlds by hundreds of millions

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Speaker 1: of miles. The maximum distance between the two planets is

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Speaker 1: a colossal two hundred and fifth d million miles with

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Speaker 1: the Sun in between us. The average distance is more

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Speaker 1: like a hundred and forty but the closest possible distances

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Speaker 1: is tantalizing. Thirty three point nine now July eighteen will

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Speaker 1: give us thirty five point eight, which ain't bad at all.

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Speaker 1: We won't beat that again until the year twenty thirty five,

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Speaker 1: and then only by about half a million miles. The

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Speaker 1: Mars opposition window is important, but the hard part won't

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Speaker 1: be getting to the red planet. It will be successfully landed,

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Speaker 1: a tricky task no matter who you are. Much like

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Speaker 1: the Curiosity Rover's nail biting descent in two twelve, Dragon

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Speaker 1: two will hover down to the surface via eight hover rockets.

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Speaker 1: It's super draco propulsive landing system, which SpaceX has already

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Speaker 1: tested planet side. Still, a great deal of work remains

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Speaker 1: to be done here, and Musk intends to announce more

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Speaker 1: details later this year, but if successful, SpaceX could very

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Speaker 1: well be on the way to hitting Musk's previously touted

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Speaker 1: go for human Mars exploration, beating NASA to the honors decades.

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Speaker 1: That's all for this week. Thanks so much for tuning in.

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Speaker 1: any feedback or you know, really killer knock knock jokes

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