Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/10/folding_car/
MIT plans to roll out 'folding' car
'We have reinvented urban mobility'
Posted in Environment, 10th March 2008 11:26 GMT
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Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are planning to knock up a full-scale model of their "City Car (http://cities.media.mit.edu/projects/citycar.html)" - an experimental vehicle which "folds" itself in half and snuggles up to other City Cars in the manner of supermarket trollies.
(http://web.mit.edu/francov/www/citycar/)
The MIT team, led by architecture professor Bill Mitchell, reckons its revolutionary wheels would solve urban transportation problems at a stroke, with pollution-free electric drive and the ability to park in one-eighth of the space of a conventional car. Mitchell declared: "We have reinvented urban mobility."
The designer of the vehicle's foldable frame (http://web.mit.edu/francov/www/citycar/), Franco Vairani, explained to Reuters that hundreds of the City Cars could be parked around cities at charging points and available for hire with a quick swipe of the credit card. Team engineer Peter Schmitt added that the car would boast "independently powered robotic wheels and be controlled using a computerized drive-by-wire system with a button or joystick".
While MIT will soon unveil its full-scale City Car, and Mitchell says he'd like to see it in production within three or four years, a key project consultant has cautioned against overenthusiasm.
Christopher Borroni-Bird, director of the Advanced Technology Vehicle Concepts at General Motors, said: "What we have is a very intriguing concept. It is certainly a very promising idea, but I don't want to say it is ready for production... there's still a lot of work yet to take it from concept to production." ®