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MIT Reinvents Transportation With Foldable, Stackable Car
alphadogg writes "Parking in a downtown area is one of the least enjoyable elements of driving. MIT researchers may have found a solution: a car you can fold up before parking. The boxy conveyance folds in half, and the plan is for the vehicle to fit eight in one conventional parking spot. 'Franco Vairani, a Ph.D. candidate at MIT and one of the original designers in the City Car project, said his team is taking a vending-machine approach to city travel. In his vision of the future, people would find a stack of electrical-powered City Cars on nearly every block in the city. When a user would want to drive somewhere in town, he would swipe a smart card or cell phone across an electronic reader and take a car out of the stack. When he gets to a business meeting across town, a shopping mall or their doctor's office, the driver simply leaves the car in a stack at his destination. The drivers don't own the cars. They simply rent them. It's fully self-service. The next person takes a car out of the stack, and off he goes.'"
this was only on here a few days ago, nice going ZONK
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
The "car" looks like four-wheel motorbikes. It seems convenient but I have to have about its security concerns if accident happens. Maybe we should allocate special lanes for these "cars".
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/05/2055234
appleguru.org
I don't want to be in a rush for an early morning business meeting, get the next car out of the vending machine and find the previous renters were a bunch of college students on a party mission the night before...
Nice idea and reducing number of vehicles in cities is definitely a great goal, though I think the team would have to pay close attention to lessons learned by other projects that have tried to set up publicly shared but autonomous individual transportation mechanisms - that's where I think it would be won or lost. Urban bicycle schemes like the Amsterdam white bikes or neighbourhood car pool sharing comes to mind.
/. invents identical stackable stories. Take one, and the next identical one is available in line. The idea was copied from MIT as reported on /. some days ago.
Seems ingenious. But remember to GET OUT of the car before parking it.
Visit http://ringbreak.dnd.utwente.nl/~mrjb/growingbettersoftware to download your free copy of the book
In soviet russia, foldable cars dupe YOU, slashdot!
The American educational system; where you get to sit on the couch smoking weed all day and end up in major news outlets.
;-)
Yes, all these unused cars taking up space. Boy. Let's think. What about all those unused dishwashers? Or for that matter homes? Maybe we should be thinking of foldable homes, since they sit empty for a good part of the day. And wait! It coincides with offices _not_ being empty at roughly the same time. If we built them side by side, WE COULD JUST MOVE A WALL BACK AND FORTH!!! OMFG!!! Who's got the cheetos?!
Sorry, but seriously, non-stories get silly replies, that's how it works
I had an idea for these things like a car but bigger, with maybe 20 or even 40 seats. The plan is that they'd circulate around or maybe go backwards and forwards between two points. You get on, pay some money, and then get off when it's close to where you're going.
It's true I tell you, feller at work's next door neighbour read it in the paper.
those rentable carts you see at the mall or the airport. It's an interesting idea but I think this will go the way of the Seguay... It's a neat idea in theory and on paper (and it works with the aforementioned carts) but IMHO people are going to reject such contrivances on a mass scale in our individualistic society. As I said, IMHO mind you, I'm not about to give up the option of picking up my girl/kid with my throaty V-8 coupe at the airport/bar/school/work/etc over some envirocentric/socialist's wet dream of public/personal transport. I can see this in an amusement park ride ala Ebcot center maybe, but as an every-day contrivance? Nah, sorry, pass.
There is simply too much glass..
Try the Toyota PM (Personal Mobility) Circa 2003.
http://www.viewimages.com/Search.aspx?mid=51436188
http://www.japantoday.com/jp/picture/1008
.
Great! Another silly solution to a simple problem. You americans are really crazy - instead of making good and cheap public transport system, you are inventing things as carpool lanes and foldable cars. I am from Prague, and we have quite good subway here, which transports one Prague's population per day. It's like with those electronic voting machines (we use traditional ballots, and usually get the results in 6 hours after closing the polls) or healthcare system (we have socialized one with not much problems for patients, but efforts to dismantle it are unfortunately underway).
and Slashdot reinvents articles.
=(
Tell me something...it's still "We, the people"... right?
I agree with you. I was able to take public transport when I lived in a large metro area and I discovered that driving causes me a lot of stress - I HATE IT! One of the things I love about Europe the most is when I visit; I don't have to drive!
I prefer Flambe as apposed flamebait.
This is the formatted version of the above post:
You're post while hyperbolic, isn't too far off the mark. You talk about dishwashers and the idea of sharing them with other people, but what about laundromats? Isn't that basically your idea except with clothing instead of dishes? Some ideas that don't work when it comes to sharing:
* Houses - most people like to be in a house at roughly the same time (i.e. at night when they're sleeping) so they're going to all need to be "unfolded" (or inhabited for a more realistic option) by everyone at a particular time of day.
* Dishwashers - Most people will use these at the same time of day (around 7:00-8:00 pm).
Some ideas they do work with:
* Laundries - There's no set time that most people will use these.
* Toilets - In ancient London (i.e. 1940s) these were communal and shared by a block of flats. Although most people would prefer to pay more and get a clean toilet (males will know why. Is it so hard to piss into the bowl?!?!?!?)
A more realistic option with cars would be to take away the foldable part and simply have car pick-up places spread throughout cities with cars able to be driven from one point to any point in America (you simply have to say how long you plan on taking it for and pay for it. There'd be a grace period and you'd also have the ability to phone ahead). Each car would be cleaned before the next person used it so if you left anything behind they'd put it aside for you. There'd also be a complimentary bus to take you to and from your home. If you drove a LOT within a typical day this would be more expensive, but for many it would turn out to be cheaper (there'd be a threshold where one hour you break even, the next its more expensive).
I believe there is another idea with some communities that do have communal cars, but from the lack of widespread news on them I'm guessing the idea hasn't caught on.
Personally the idea of communal cars doesn't exactly excite me. Considering how clean trains and movie theatres are, I'd rather stick with a car I own.
Too many people are too concerned about what other people think, but then again, Europe is generally much more densely populated than the US and A, and so bike riding is a more feasable option.
..........FULL STOP.
Doesn't it snow in Massachusetts? Rain heavy? High winds off the Atlantic?
... the ability to take people exactly where they're interested in going. ... It's about how people move in the city." -- That is: when 'exactly where' is busy enough include a car-stacking area.
I'm all for thinking about better transport, but we've had lightweight impracticals like the Peel for 40 years now. How about some research into things that can work?
[Please don't bring up any as-good-as or better-than-a-bicycle talk -- I've been a courier in Toronto. I know intimately what can be done in heavy weather! It's just that can-be-done is not the same as practical. Practical means transport that allows people to show up for work, and dressed for work. On time, and not soaked through the skin with slush/sweat and wearing sports clothes. A base requirement for a real alternative is equivalent comfort, all-year-reliability, & safety to walking, driving, & public-transit. A lightweight folding car is "sunshine-thinking" if you know what I mean.]
Back to Vairani: "It's not going to be as efficient as mass transit, but it combines the advantages of personal mobility with
In other words, it doesn't offer anything that a well-run tube & tram system doesn't already. Nothing at all.
I don't mean to be a shithead - I'm just really disappointed to see this sort of 'research' getting showcased. We're way past the open-thinking Archigram stage. I'm not seeing anything here but a warm-over of inquiries from that era.
The key to this system is that one can travel only from one renting point to another, all of which will be in the city centre. It's all about travelling from A to B within the same city. But people will still need altenative transportation to get from home into and out of the city, so they'll still be taking their cars to work every day, which of course will still be taking up parking space somewhere. Well, presumably they could drive the folding car home and take it back the next day, but that would defeat the point as renting would become prohibitavly expensive and the vehicle wolud not be available for use by another. So, it seems it won't do anything to relieve parking congestion, and it's not an alternative to mass car ownership either, but just another form of local public transportation, a bit like a taxi, but one you have to drive yourself, but not really like a taxi as you won't get dropped off at the door. Why not simply allow people to own these things, then they could leave their 'big' car at home.
The USA has some wide open spaces but I believe it is also the home of the skyscraper, there are some urban areas there as well.... I'd guess a few folks live in urban environments there as well as in Europe. Manhattan and Santa Monica seemed pretty similar to European cities in terms of layout last time I was there: I think as another poster has suggested, the reasons for bikes not being attractive in the USA is as much to do with cultural and social reasons as geographical ones.
instead of reading the newspaper or chatting on the phone or something else that is important to you.
So what kinds of jobs are the taxi drivers going to get?
Taxis are usually nice cars in American big cities.
Tell me again why I'd want to rent a shitbox instead of riding in the Shiek's Crown Vic or driving one of my own BMWs.
I think my oldest BMW, made in 1994, is safer in a crash (ie. I am more likely to live) than any small car, even one that was built yesterday. I'd like to see what happens to that sub 1-ton car when it hits something at the 100mph+ speeds they are expecting.
Someone at MIT must have read Mel Gildens "Hawaiian UFO Aliens" (or was it one of his other books?), one of the story elements is a foldable car from a vending machine. Another seemingly crazy idea from sci-fi making it into the real world.
Carbon based humanoid in training.
While I salute progress, it is tiring to see all the stupid ideas that emerge from time to time where the creator clearly disregarded customer demand, human nature et cetera.
Historically, most every time the car business present an alternative like electric cars they tend to stuff the new technology in the most ridiculous outfit they could conjure. Three-wheeled contraptions made from edible plastic or some such.
Monorails, maglevs, shuttles that you wrap around your body - one more preposterous than the other, all dropping like bat guano from the ivory towers by old men who - when pressed on the subject - admit that they don't really expect anyone to actually WANT one of these things.
Putting on my tin foil hat for a moment, these kind of displays seems to me only serve one purpose, and that is to show us consumers that we should be grateful for how cars look today, because - behold the laughable only alternative we could invent!
How about presenting a REGULAR DAMN CAR that runs on electricity instead? It is a thing so simple I can build one in the basement.
Parvez Musharaff
Abu Nidal
Muktada al-Sadr
Mahmood Ahmadinajad
Osama Bin Laden
In a joint statement they said, it will make their operations more efficient and because their limited access to capital this project will be a boon to them and they will be able to expand their operations more places to serve their customers better. The signatories form a loosely connected organization (ticker symbol ALQD) and this press release contains information based on forward looking projections and should not be considered investment advice. PRNewsWire.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
You know you're doing well as a Slashdot editor when your article's tags are:
zonkcantread, zonkisanidiot, zonksucks
So much love!
Then give it the perfect name: The Hindenberg TMI Iron Maiden.
I wrote parts of this stuff
As usual with 99% of the science/tech articles slashdot links to theres no bloody pictures. When I read something like this, I want to see a damn picture of what they're talking about!
How hard is it to get a small picture of the item they're talking about and put it in the article somewhere. Lazy, lazy, journalists.
My cold dead hands.
No thanks, car ownership is part of the independence of the American way.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Pics here.
I hade this mental image of George Jetson's brifcase scaled up to the size of a phone booth, but that's pretty cool. It's not really folding the car up, it's more pivoting it vertically.
That pitted a 15-year-old big Volvo stationwagon vs a Renault Modus compact. The compact demolished the Volvo.
I also like this Smart crash test.
or it didn't happen.
Ok, for one moment assume people decide to take good care of the cars even though they don't own them, and that some sort of cleaning and maintence routine is figured out. Now, all of this aside, what is one of the most annoying things about vending machine systems? They run out! How much would you rely on a system that depends on the ratio between incoming and outgoing traffic to get you where you need to go? I can just see the bussiness men and students, late to classes and meetings, rushing up, only to find that someone else has taken the last car.
Americans are simply concerned that the bicycle frame will collapse under them. If you want widespread adoption in the US, you'll have to do three things:
- Reinforce the frames
- Install cupholders (follow the lead of the automakers)
- Install a sausage dispenser
Install a sausage dispenser
American, not gay-european.
speaking as a seven year winter-biker in toronto canada --
foldable cars are nice and all -- but why!?!?
you've got manufacture and maintain all the equipment.
it always amazes me how much money is wasted on big monster solutions
when cheaper and better alternatives have long existed -- why not offer bicycles??
seriously -- they're cheaper, less problems, it always gets you there, and enjoyable!
bicycles are the solution to the nation's energy and over-weight problems.
break down less, and are especially for localized urban commuting.
for the winter -- covered 'bike tunnels' would take the edge off,
and would still cost less than building a road, or several hundred
foldable cars.
really!!
We Euro-types haven't had bike handle cars for about 25 years now. Try Taiwan or India....
>"I don't know how safe they are"
Well they only did about 20 miles an hour so...safer than a moped.
No sig today...
The roadster was rubbish...good riddance to it. Horrible plastic interior, zero performance, and very very expensive.
The ForFour was also very overpriced and offered nothing special. A Mini was way better and cost less.
The original Smart (now called "ForTwo") is the only model which made any sense and had a reasonable price tag.
No sig today...
I saw many similar vehicles in use on Mote Prime, and the had a heck of a traffic problem. Sig No Sig
with all our military action and spending, you would think we could have 2-3 more by now.
The US military has had something like this for a while. It's a Jeep-sized thing used by special ops types. Windshield and roll bar can be folded down for stacking, so the things can be stacked two-high in a C-130. With loading ramps, you can drive one onto the top of another one.
But that's a rather specialized application.
even americans will adopt such "contraptions" when gas prices will be very high... or they will find out how much gas is wasted for finding a parking spot (40% of total gas consumption in a city, according to MIT researchers)
These vehicles are already cheap and plentiful. They're called golf carts.
You don't want a stack where, you want a queue. If you have a stack where a car is returned to the top and the next customer also gets a car from the top, the cars experience very uneven wear, since the cars at the bottom are never taken (assuming the system has sufficient capacity). You want a system where a returned car is put at the bottom of the pile and the next customer gets a car form the top (or the other way around).
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
Unfortunately, given current trends, I think that by 2020 (the cars are from the project, Smart City 2020), most Americans will be too obese to fit in these things. I have to agree with other posters: if we put this energy into accessible public transportation, we will get a much better return on our efforts.
-Adam
Computer Science is all about trying to find the right wrench to bang in the right screw. -T.Cumbo?
There was a particularly great episode of "Get Smart" a 1960s American sitcom. It was a spoof on the then popular spy movies, and in the episode I'm thinking of, "The Chief" the head of the clandestine agency for good, and his idiot assistant, end up locked in an air tight safe with a time lock. The situation is desperate, the air limited, and the idiot (his name Laribee), starts doing vigorous calisthenics! The Chief yells "Laribee, Stop, you're using up all the oxygen!!!". Laribee replies "You use your half your way, I'll use my half mine!".
To the independent person, who thinks (s)he has the right to wipe the world on his/her posterior and discard it without a second thought... this is a wake up call. You are now on a planet shared by nearly 7 billion people (and best guess says that number will hit 10 billion by century's end), and humanity today uses 30% more resources that the world can replace every year. Your self involved, self centered, antiquated, ideas about what you have the privilege of doing, vs. what the world will soon allow you to do are on the verge of a collision of truly epic proportion, and it would behoove you to get clued with all due haste.
I don't know where your dictionary was written, but social conscience is not equal to socialism. Awareness to the impact of human existence on the planet is not tree-hugging. And, the willingness to take personal responsibility for what one does, and how it contributes to or detracts from the quality of life to ones neighbors, society, species, and life as a whole on this small blue marble is not being a weenie. When did people equate machismo with being a raging ass?
I am in my heart of hearts a scientist, a pragmatist, someone who looks at hard cold facts, makes rational decisions, and chooses paths and stratedgies designed to get me the most of what I want, with the least of what I don't. To those of you who for no other purpose than your vanity drive a vehicle, the one that can dead pull the entire state of Long Island, or get's 20 gallons to the mile, or has a large enough bed to have it's own zipcode, or just goes faster than the space-time contintuum is really happy with, I invite you to consider that maybe you're the "Laribees" of our world. People who think it's their right to waste the world without any thought to what they leave behind to their neighbors and their children. Maybe its just finally time to "Get Smart".
It's another of these "my aren't those MIT people so smart and inventive" stories. I found that 'building made out of water' story amusing. Did they not think that being surrounded by 4 large waterfalls would make for a rather noisy envoironment? Did they not think that every time there's a slight breeze, everyone close to the building will get soaked?
Classic western stupidity (I live in Canada). Why do we insist on having our own transportation all the time? I'm interviewing for a job in Germany and have been told by multiple people that for about 30 dollars you can get flights to other countries there as long as you plan ahead. Why? Because Europe has always given a damn about mass transportation (or been to poor to own their own SUV).
It seems the farther east you go the more "green" the transportation is, more bikes, walking etc. Maybe if we got off our fat asses and stopped sitting behind our SUV's wheel drinking coffee and eating Cheetos things would get better for the environment.
That also means you have to share space with my cars. Dont like it, find another part of the "shared planet" to stand on. Anyone that doesnt accept that can expect resistance, forceful if needed.
Now, to the original commenter, i did politely say he could keep his bus, and that id WAVE as i passed, it was the other jerk that set me off and earns the M80s as i drive past his stop..
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Taxes are socialism. The whole point to taxes is to take from individuals for the public good. It doesn't matter whether your taxes are going to public road or public rail - it's still a socialist project. You can not in good conscience decry one and not the other.