MIT developing carbon-free, stackable rental cars

Sure, we know you love actually owning a car, but let's be honest -- in large cities with condensed layouts, your H3 doesn't make a lot of sense. A group of researchers at MIT have been hard at work developing a solution that's kind on the planet and your scrawny legs. A team called Smart Cities have designed a small, two-seat, electric vehicle -- which they call the City Car -- that can be "stacked" in convenient locations (say, just outside a subway stop), and then taken on short trips around urban areas. The cars -- which are based around an omnidirectional "robot wheel" that encases an electric motor, suspension, and steering -- can be "folded" and attached to a group of other cars for charging. The lineups of rentable vehicles would be accessible from various points around a city, with six or eight cars occupying just a single "regular" car space. Of course, you'll have to forgo your 24-inch rims... but that's life.

[Via Technology Review]

[Mark @ Nov 2nd 2007 12:02PM]

I think cities would prefer you just take the bus or subway and walk the rest of the way...This would just make traffic congestion worse. This could possibly work in Disney World, or resorts, but not a city.

[Wesburl @ Nov 2nd 2007 12:43PM]

What is the crash test rating on one of these?

-2 stars??

[dj-kenpo @ Nov 2nd 2007 12:44PM]

depends what city. in toronto this would be great. for alot of peopel the subway onl gets you half way there, and the bus sucks in the way all buses do. I can easily see this leading to more people riding the subway, perhaps more congestion in the city, perhaps not. less congestion coming into the city though for sure.

[JCA @ Nov 2nd 2007 2:32PM]

Would be fantasical if cities would subsidize these things in exchange for a hunk of the rental profits. You drive ur normal car to a parking lot near your house where these guys are stored, jump in and then drive somewhere close to your destination and "dock it." Of course this would never work unless rental rates were on par with taking the bus/subway and if there were assloads of them.

[Naveen John @ Nov 2nd 2007 4:44PM]

Watched a presentation about this online at MIT World the other day
http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/442/

[Turkeyjerky @ Nov 2nd 2007 12:04PM]

First!

[IrishGandalf @ Nov 2nd 2007 12:06PM]

i was tempted to say that but didn't coz i'd look like a fool if i wasn't first. whaich i wasn't.

[R @ Nov 2nd 2007 12:10PM]

People who post only to say "First!" look like fools regardless of whether they were first or not.

[Landor @ Dec 1st 2007 10:47AM]

This is a posting about a car. You're supposed to yell, "Shotgun!"

[Erik @ Nov 2nd 2007 3:26PM]

Well, what do you expect from a guy named Turkeyjerky?

[IrishGandalf @ Nov 2nd 2007 12:05PM]

One problem, wouldn't the last one in the pile have the least amount of charge (because it was the most recent to be returned), this would only work if you had a system of take from the top of the stack and return to the back.

[John P @ Nov 2nd 2007 12:15PM]

Well, from the looks of the picture and from a logic standpoint, it seems to be a FIFO configuration. Why would you take a car from the back of the queue when there is one at the front? It's like taxis lined up - you take the first one or they get very upset.
I think this is a good idea, but I do see problems. First, how do they stack? Most people can't park well as it is, and this seems to need some amount of precision, especially to make sure they charge. Also, you're kind of limited in that you need to pick up and drop off the car in certain locations.

[Chris McDannold @ Nov 2nd 2007 2:47PM]

Yeah, I see this working like the ubiquitous SmartCartes at airports worlwide. Pull from the front is the rule with those as the track system they are stored on is one-way. However, there would also need to be a safeguard so that the charging unit locks down until the front car is at full charge. Otherwise, you are asking for public rejection when their rental craps out after 10 miles of use. Also, the batteries need to have some kind fo self-monitoring system that detects when it is not filling up to or holding its maximum charge so it can be reconditioned/serviced.

[trankzen @ Nov 2nd 2007 12:14PM]

Renault made a somewhat similar concept car 15 years ago

http://www.conceptcar.co.uk/concept-cars/concept-car-27.php

Electrical, 2 seater, retractable rear wheels. I wonder if this is a coincidence.

[Dax @ Nov 2nd 2007 2:08PM]

I wouldn't be caught dead riding around in a little Euro-pussy modile like this.

[kevjohn @ Nov 2nd 2007 12:14PM]

H3? What are you, some kinda hippie??
It's an H2 or nothing, pal!

[R @ Nov 2nd 2007 12:25PM]

Screw dat. Dah Governator can only be seen in dah Hummer. Hear me now and listen to me late-ah, girlie-man.

[Lee @ Nov 2nd 2007 3:51PM]

Dah Governator's hummer is also hydrogen fueled...

[Jotenks @ Nov 2nd 2007 2:47PM]

Go with the H1 or the H3. The H2 is just a tacky piece of shit.

[bombastinator @ Nov 2nd 2007 2:55PM]

I remember fondly the video of the guy who took an h2 to a jeep jamboree. He got stuck in the parking lot next to the port-o-potties.

[Evan Brom @ Nov 2nd 2007 12:25PM]

this would be great as in many suburban cities the jobs are all central(ish) yet it often takes an transfer from an express bus to a local and all of that fuss and time discourages people entirely. If I could take a Express bus / train to avoid the freeway and just do 2 miles of city driving in this it would be great. What if cities even dis allowed all non mini cars in the downtown areas and setup large lots with little rentals at the perimeter?

[-Tj- @ Nov 2nd 2007 12:27PM]

Dibs on the red one!

[Paul Nicholson @ Nov 2nd 2007 12:32PM]

Um...if it is electric, then it isn't really "Carbon-free" is it? Unless the charger uses solar, or a little nuclear device. Most cities still get the vast majority of their power from some sort of carbon-producing process. It is certainly "green" but a long way from "carbon-free".

That's not even getting into the production of the plastic body...

[James @ Nov 2nd 2007 1:36PM]

Yes, but you're "centralizing" the carbon-emission problem. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I assume it's easier to minimize the carbon-per-unit-of-energy ratio for one huge turbine/reactor/whatever than it is for a hundred or a thousand or whatever individual car engines. It's probably also a lot easier to keep it maintained and running efficiently. And that's not to mention how much easier it is to do "green" energy (nuclear, hydro, wind, whatever) on a massive scale outside the city, rather than miniaturized to fit in your Volvo.

I don't think pure electric will have wheels (see what I did there?) until we solve the battery problem -- they're heavy as hell, expensive as hell, and possibly worse for the environment than the emissions from the vehicles they replace -- but once we get there, it's a useful shift IMHO.

[Joe Mamma @ Nov 2nd 2007 4:32PM]

Wouldn't "Carbon free" mean that this car doesn't contain any steel components?

[Dr Buzz0 @ Nov 2nd 2007 12:36PM]

Is there any work on carbon free transportation that's a bit more comfortable and less.... (How do I put this without offending homosexuals?).... prissy/underpantsy/foofoo/tippy-toeing around a pink painted room full of lace frillies while crying

[blackfeather @ Nov 2nd 2007 1:26PM]

I think you nailed it.

[bombastinator @ Nov 2nd 2007 3:04PM]

You could always paint it camo with flaming skulls and duct tape a gun rack to the back window.

[zedzeo @ Nov 2nd 2007 12:38PM]

um bicycle anyone?

and in most places, electrical does not mean carbon free.

[Chrismix @ Nov 2nd 2007 12:45PM]

Praise to the editors sarcasm.

I think this idea is good and bad. I agree with the fact that it may congest traffic even more, but as for city transport, I have taken the bus for years and its not all that reliable, and it doesn't take you everywhere.

This is part of our ever changing future I think, and eventually cities might be ale to adapt.

[9bit @ Nov 2nd 2007 12:50PM]

The vast majority of those cars by weight is carbon. Most polymers are.

[Fruition @ Nov 2nd 2007 12:59PM]

I can see it now: "I want the red one."

[blackfeather @ Nov 2nd 2007 1:21PM]

It looks like it would be easy (and fun!) to tip these over. It will be a rite of passage for our city-dwelling agriculturally-challenged youth of the future.

[Mark @ Nov 2nd 2007 1:50PM]

Damn those things are small. Did the MIT researchers take into consideration the expanding waistlines of Americans? no one can fit in those things!

[Jared @ Nov 2nd 2007 2:05PM]

I am *all* about PRTS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_rapid_transit), personal rapid transport systems. I'd love to see something like the SKYWEB Express (http://www.taxi2000.com/) become popular. Maybe these MIT cars will set us on the right path.

[Snively @ Nov 2nd 2007 2:21PM]

The plan is to have solar panels on neighboring roofs and to charge the cars through induction (I know several people on the team).

[johnzilla @ Nov 2nd 2007 2:24PM]

Seems like a good idea at first, but not in practice.

Imagine paying your money and taking the first one off the stack, and it just happens to be the one last used by a vomiting drunk, or intravenous drug user, or insert-your-disgusting-human-behavior-here.

Civil disobedience would take on a whole new meaning...you'd have groups of people urinating in the cars whenever the price went up, or whatever. I think the idea is great, but I don't think I'd be too eager to open the door on one of these things. No telling what I'd find.

[bombastinator @ Nov 2nd 2007 3:16PM]

Anyone who has ever had to clean city buses can attest to this. And in those things not only is it a public place, but there is a driver in there with you. With the privacy provided by an enclosed vehicle a whole new level of horror may be contemplated.

[Ian @ Nov 2nd 2007 5:07PM]

I live in Washington DC and I have no use for a car generally except when I want to get out of the city or the occasionally run to a store that isn't accessible. I am currently a member of a car sharing group (the two biggest ones Zipcar and Flexcar just combined) but the problem is you have to pick up and return the car to the same place so when you are outside of the car you have to pay for it to just sit here. This type of system could possibly be a solution to that if they were well spread out. (These would a lot cheaper to put in then digging a metro or buying a staffing a bus that runs every 20 minutes) In terms of keeping the inside clean the Zipcar works by using an RFID that unique to you and your account so they can tell who had the car last and if you have a problem with the car (trash or a dent) you call the service and they get you another car and charge the person who was in it before hand. I feel this would work better as a private system that might be subsidized a little the same way these car sharing plans are being subsidized

[Argot @ Nov 2nd 2007 3:27PM]

Great car in a pile up collision!

[Meltz; @ Nov 2nd 2007 4:21PM]

no joke, they're just like a bunch of shock absorbers!

[Evan @ Nov 2nd 2007 3:38PM]

I second the bike notion.

[Rami Selim @ Nov 2nd 2007 4:03PM]

Did anyone notice that in the picture...the man is "embedded" into the sidewalk? Photoshop skills ftl

[Egisto Soldi @ Nov 2nd 2007 4:12PM]

Marvellous but... 2 problems: 1) how much does it cost for rent? 2) are we sure parking in simple? http://autonovita.blogosfere.it/2007/11/auto-elettrica-a-noleggio-il-mit-ci-prova-ma-quanto-costa.html#more

[Meltz; @ Nov 2nd 2007 4:17PM]

I still say we get parking lots like in I, Robot

[LukeA @ Nov 2nd 2007 4:27PM]

But they're fucking ugly.

[Mark @ Nov 2nd 2007 5:39PM]

In most big cities the problem won't be making them carbon-free, it'll be keeping them urine-free.

[Mads @ Nov 2nd 2007 6:38PM]

Ok! I drive the car to a "stacking" lot, get out of the car and wait for it to stack itself? Or do you have to do the stacking yourself? If yes, then how heavy is the car...

[JB @ Nov 2nd 2007 6:49PM]

weren't these the same things shown in one of the episodes of 2057 on the discovery channel?

[Odolyte @ Nov 2nd 2007 6:52PM]

I'm not sure that toyota will like this... MIT watch out !!

http://www.jama.ca/photos/auto2003/tokyo/gallery.asp?pic=38