MIT Offers City Car for the Masses 290
MIT's stackable electric car, a project to improve urban transportation will make its debut this week in Milan. "The City Car, a design project under way at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is envisioned as a two-seater electric vehicle powered by lithium-ion batteries. It would weigh between 1,000 and 1,200 pounds and could collapse, then stack like a shopping cart with six to eight fitting into a typical parking space. It isn't just a car, but is designed as a system of shared cars with kiosks at locations around a city or small community."
Up Close (Score:2, Interesting)
Also they have more Lego's than God at the Media Lab...that is orgasmic.
Re:It wount be accepted. (Score:3, Interesting)
The issue I see is how has this solved the problem they're trying to address? If you have to deposit the vehicle at a kiosk to get your deposit back, then unless there's a kiosk on every corner you'll have the same issue of walking every time you take a one-way trip. If you used it like a commuter service, then you'd have to set up large parking lots tied to stations of the vehicles. They didn't mention this in the article so I don't tink they were trying to fix commuting.
I suppose if you HAD a kiosk on EVERY corner in say New York, NY, then it would be okay. But isn't that an awfully large adoption ratio to assume? I suppose you could augment existing train service with kiosks at every stop, but again they didn't mention that in the article.
I think its interesting, and certainly worth pursuing as a technology, but I think someone with a little marketing savvy needs to take a look at how this fundamental change in how we think about vehicles can be adapted into our various psyches.
No Thanks.... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Moore's Law, anyone? (Score:3, Interesting)
So every 18 months they'll come out with a newer model, which folds into half the space and cost less. At the end of 12 years it will be a skateboard. Got news for them, Santa Cruz is already there.
Okay... think "Minneapolis", "January", "6:00 am", and "10 mile commute". Now do that on a skateboard.
Also, Moore's Law isn't exactly translatable to something that most people shop for based on cupholder numbers, y'know? ;)
('course, if this was all written in jest, then, err, my bad...)
Complexity (Score:5, Interesting)
Let's create a vehicle twice as complex as anything out there. Oh, and while we're at it, let's change the whole social structure of car ownership. Now, if this actually goes anywhere, super and good for them, but how many of these radical concept cars do we hear about once and never again?
Personally, I think simplicity is an important feature in machines; it means they cost less to make and cost less to fix. A beautiful example of this is in the form of some motorcyles, [wikipedia.org] elegant minimalism. If you would add a cabin [wikipedia.org] to one of these for foul weather, it should achieve 90% [jwz.org] of what the technical side of this project hopes.
Re:Because what I want is... (Score:5, Interesting)
Anyway this is how it appears to me from the pictures. I am not an engineer nor physicist, but it seems to me that this might actually have potential for conventional vehicles as well. If the rear bumper and wheels were able to slide harmlessly under the passenger area it could actually save lives.
Re:Tragedy of the Commons? (Score:5, Interesting)
Depends on where you live. Here in Melbourne, Australia the ticket machines on train stations have about fourteen different anti-vandalisation features. At Incheon, South Korea where I was working last week the ticket machines are little computers with no attempt at protection. They are cleaner, too.
Whatever happened to... (Score:1, Interesting)
bicycles -- have lanes on the road for bicycle use only and have some dedicated pedestrian/person powered vehicle zones without cars. Will also help improve people's health and cut down on pollution.
zip wire transport -- system of 'zip wires' between tall buildings which people could use to move about with. Fast, cheap and fun! Also doubles as a good method of escape from tall burning buildings (esp. for those paranoid of terrorist attacks).
air tubes -- like in Futurama. Or maybe some sort of roller-coaster type system based on conversion of potential->kinetic energy by use of tall buildings and a large spring.
These alternatives would seem to be far easier and cheaper (well, maybe not the underground tube trains) to implement than the proposed 'collapsible car' sharing scheme.
The horrors of walking (Score:3, Interesting)
Yep, that's a big problem. Walking up to a mile? Unthinkable! I'd get all sweaty and stuff.
Seriously, it's funny how fast food is always blamed for increasing obesity in the western world. I'd say we Europeans on average eat about as much fast food as Americans, but we also travel by train and bus a lot more. But riding the bus just isn't as hip as doing Atkins...
Re:It wount be accepted. (Score:2, Interesting)
I already see this sort of parking-as-incentive thing where I live (Auckland). The council-owned parking buildings have green-painted spaces, closer to the exit, set aside for drivers of small cars (by weight, I think) and hybrids.
Packet Switched Subways (Score:5, Interesting)
In short, convert circuit-switched subways to packet switched rail networks. With better supply fit to actual demand, better energy and routing efficiency strategies, better redundancy, and less room for crooks to hide in unobserved.
The NYC subway switching and signaling systems were last really overhauled in 1937, and still retain major incompatibilities between what was once 3 independent, competing subway companies (and their different tracks/routes/stations). The whole thing should be renovated for the 21st Century, including the update to packet-switching as modern as was the circuit-switching back in the early 20th Century when it transformed New York life into unprecedented convenience, safety and efficiency.