Part sporty convertible, part shopping cart–the Concept Car, proposed by the MIT Smart Cities Project, is creating a new view vision for the future of personal urban transport.
As part of the Smart Cities Project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), researchers propose a stackable, foldable Concept Car designed to revolutionize urban transportation networks and improve transportation efficiency. The two-passenger car–still on the drawing board–can be stacked at key points of convergence throughout a city, near subway and bus lines, for example, allowing commuters the flexibility to combine public transportation with personal mobility. The electronically charged cars would be similar to luggage carts at an airport and to innovative bicycle sharing programs common in European cities. Users simply occupy the first car in the stack, and return it to any other stack throughout the city. Designed not as a substitute for but complement to personal vehicles and other forms of transport, the Concept Car will, it is hoped by its MIT innovators, promote a more “socially responsible and effective means of urban transport.”