This article was taken from the November 2012 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by <span class="s1">subscribing online. "Right now", says Kent Larson, "we need to get rid of private, polluting vehicles." It's a bold idea, but 54-year-old Larson is director of MIT Media Lab Changing Places group, and its CityCar project may have a solution.
The Hiriko is a lightweight, foldable two-passenger electric car for short journeys. The team is working with suppliers in Spain ("hiriko" is Basque for "urban"), where the car is entering trials and is likely to form a kind of shared-use, cycle hire-style city fleet. Safer than bikes and with room for shopping, the Hiriko also frees up space because it can be folded when parked - allowing three cars to fit in a single parking space. "There are no large mechanical elements," explains Larson.
Independent drive motors, steering motors, braking and suspension are integrated into each wheel. Dubbed "robot wheels", they enable software-only drive-by-wire control and agile turns (the car can spin on the spot). "The focus is less on the particular vehicle, and more on what sorts of new mobility scenarios it enables," says Praveen Subramani, graduate student and researcher at the Changing Places lab. "Things like being able to pick up the vehicle best suited for your trip, whether that's a car, an electric scooter, or even a vehicle which we have not yet designed." Now, if they could just reinvent traffic wardens...
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
