📌 TOPINDIATOURS Breaking ai: Video: BYD’s electric hypercar hits 308 mph, surpasse

China’s BYD has introduced the Yangwang U9 Xtreme as its ultimate performance flagship, redefining what an electric hypercar can do. 

Once known as the Yangwang U9 Track Edition, the track-focused model made its public debut during a live online event and quickly backed up the hype with certified test results. 

In September 2025, Germany’s Automotive Testing Papenburg verified a blistering top speed of 308.4 mph, the highest ever recorded for a production car.

The U9 Xtreme also conquered the Nürburgring Nordschleife in 6:59.157, beating the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra’s production-EV record. BYD says production will be capped at just 30 units for buyers around the world.

U9 Xtreme outpaces Bugatti and leaves Aspark Owl in the dust

BYD’s Yangwang U9 Xtreme has vaulted to the top of the speed charts, rewriting the record books for production cars. By reaching 308.4 mph, the YangWang U9 Xtreme surpassed the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+, which Andy Wallace drove to 304.77 mph (490.48 km/h) in 2019, also measured in a single direction.

Japan’s Aspark Owl, once a headline grabber, trails far behind with a 272.7 mph best. 

Even Koenigsegg’s Jesko Absolut, long touted as a potential record breaker, has only produced computer-simulated figures for its claimed top speed, though it did set a notable 0–249–0 mph acceleration and braking record in August 2025.

According to German GT racing driver Marc Basseng, who piloted the Yangwang U9 Xtreme on its record-setting run, the car’s achievement was a result of its extraordinary engineering and electric drivetrain.

As Basseng explained, the U9 Xtreme’s design allows for “unmatched stability and control, with a quiet, consistent power delivery that gives the driver full focus on the track.”

Four-motor BYD U9 Xtreme delivers 2,220 kW and lightning-fast torque control

The Yangwang U9 Xtreme transforms the already potent U9 into a track-ready missile. The hypercar wears a more aggressive aero package and rides on 20-inch dual five-spoke wheels wrapped in GitiSport e·Gtr2 Pro semi-slick tires, co-developed with Giti to remain stable at speeds approaching 310 mph.

Stopping power comes from titanium calipers clamping upgraded carbon-ceramic rotors.

Underneath, a four-motor layout using BYD’s Yi Sifang system runs on a 1,200-volt silicon-carbide platform. Each motor produces 555 kW, for a combined 2,220 kW – nearly 3,000 horsepower – and a staggering power-to-weight ratio of 1,217 ps per ton.

Advanced torque vectoring makes over 100 adjustments per second, sending power to each wheel independently for maximum grip and precision.

BYD has equipped the U9 Xtreme with advanced hardware aimed squarely at high-speed stability and track performance.

Additionally, the hypercar introduces a new track-spec lithium-iron-phosphate Blade Battery with a dual-layer cooling design, engineered for 30C discharge rates to keep temperatures in check during the most demanding run, ensuring consistent power output, enhanced safety, and peak performance under extreme conditions.

🔗 Sumber: interestingengineering.com

📌 TOPINDIATOURS Eksklusif ai: Hand signs on 1,300-year-old Maya altar could reveal

An anthropologist believes he uncovered a second script on Altar Q, one of the most famous and elaborately carved Mayan monuments, and it is unusual: sign language.

The anthropologist claims that the rulers carved on the 1,300-year-old Altar Q are not just striking royal portraits. The way their hands are posed may represent a hidden “sign language” that encodes sacred calendar dates.

“For the sake of clarity, I use ‘hand sign’ to describe this type of hand-based expression,” said study author Rich Sandoval, a linguistic anthropologist at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

If true, he deciphered a new language found throughout the vast Mayan corpus alongside their script: hands. Maya scribes would have then worked with two intertwined scripts: hieroglyphs and a hand-sign system embedded in figural art that might even fill in gaps left by the inscription. As the Mayan writing system remains somewhat elusive, this opens up a new arena of research.

Speaking with their hands

Sandoval told Live Science, “almost anywhere you see hieroglyphs, you see a figure, oftentimes in the middle, at least one, sometimes multiple, holding very unique hand forms.”

“I have deciphered these hand forms as hand signs with very specific meanings.”

Previously, researchers believed that the Mayans only had one writing system comprised of over 1,000 hieroglyphs, Yahoo News reports. Many of which have yet to be deciphered. 

Comparing Altar Q to the Rosetta Stone, Sandoval interpreted the hands and text as complementary rather than direct translations. 

Along the walls of the intriguing altar are 16 rulers. According to the study, many rulers display distinct, deliberate gestures: palms turned, fingers folded, and orientations varied in a systematic way.

As per Archaeology News, he analyzed the 16 hand signs to identify 11 numeral forms. He remarked that two gestures looked like a hieroglyph representing the number zero (but also one, two, and ten). “Their patterns of distribution with respect to the other hand signs are similar to those of zeros in Long Count period ending dates,” the study stated.

Ancient timekeeping

When strung together, these hand signs appear to form Long Count dates, the Maya system for reckoning absolute time since a mythic creation in 3114 BCE. 

Sandoval argues that each of Altar Q’s four sides encodes one such date. Crucially, these dates correspond to important dynastic events that the hieroglyphs omit — filling in the puzzle pieces scholars had been missing.

As reported by Archaeology News, he divided the 16 different hand signs into four groups, one for each side of the altar, that he believes refer to four Long Count calendar dates within the ninth b’ak’tun, a unit of time in the Long Count, or roughly 394 years. As Altar Q noticeably omitted Long Count notations in the hieroglyphs, Sandoval believes the hands are the missing piece.

Though historians have called for further research before making claims, the proposal of a script rooted in sign language might open the chance to explore a new way of deciphering Mayan art and show the ancient civilization to be even more sophisticated and efficient than scholars even knew.

Altar Q has long been regarded as a monument tied to dynastic power, tying kings to ancestors and cosmic cycles. Now, they might just be keeping time, too.

If the decipherment is correct, the Maya were not just recording history in glyphs — they were embedding a hidden “sign language” of numbers in the very poses of their rulers. It’s a reminder for modern scholars that Maya writing still holds secrets, waiting in plain sight.

The study was published in the journal Transactions of the Philological Society.

🔗 Sumber: interestingengineering.com