Abstract: The invention herein is a method and system for controlling a fleet of autonomous vehicles (300) for ridesharing, wherein the method comprising the steps of: receiving a request (S1) from a first user or group of users for pick-up by an autonomous vehicle out of said fleet of vehicles (300), said user request further comprising a privacy setting, controlling the state of a privacy barrier device (310a, 310b) of a first autonomous vehicle (301) according to said privacy setting, and controlling said first autonomous vehicle (301) to pick up said first user or group of users.

Abstract: A thermal storage system, capable of storing and releasing thermal energy, with a radiative heat exchange outer surface and a method of operating the device to cool a room-space without using a circulating refrigerant in the room cooling step.

Abstract: A thermal storage system, capable of storing and releasing thermal energy, with a radiative heat exchange outer surface and a method of operating the device to cool a room-space without using a circulating refrigerant in the room cooling step

Abstract: A system for staging a mobile device is described. The mobile device includes a processor that executes a software application. A memory stores a unique identifier for the mobile device. The unique hardware identifier is readable by the software application and unreadable by any system that is external to the mobile device. The mobile device also includes a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag associated with the mobile device. The RFID tag stores a unique serial number that is readable by a staging system external to the mobile device and by the software application. The staging system encrypts a staging profile using both the unique serial number and the unique hardware identifier to create a device-specific key. The staging system writes the encrypted staging profile to the RFID tag.