Could commuters be driving a foldable car in the future?
Scientists at MIT are working on creating a car that can not only drive on it’s own but also fold and stack in a similar manner to shopping carts. The concept is to create a vehicle that will help the environment while also solving traffic congestion and reducing the space needed for parked cars in cities around the world.
Franco Vairani designed the vehicle’s foldable frame and believes that it will take up an eighth of the space needed to park the average car of today. The car will run on a rechargeable battery and will connect to an energy grid while parked to recharge the battery. The cars could be stacked around the city and "you would just go and swipe your card and take the first one available and drive away," Vairani said.
Bill Mitchell, a professor in architecture and director of the project at an MIT think tank in Cambridge, said he would like to bring the car to the manufacturing stage within three to four years. Although, Christopher Borroni-Bird, director of the Advanced Technology Vehicle Concepts at U.S. automaker General Motors Corp, said he doesn't think City Car is quite ready yet for the road. "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."
While I applaud the concept, I don’t believe the foldable car will become the world changing invention that the MIT scientists envision. I am personally not a car enthusiast and as long as it gets me from point A to point B I am pretty happy. Many people love their cars though and they would be hard pressed to not only use a car that is practically disposable but that provides no unique identity. I do realize that this car is not meant to be the family car that you use to go grocery shopping or go out to dinner locally. That may make all the difference in the eyes of the commuter but why not just create an automated highway system that allows any vehicle to participate in a more efficient commute. You can then have the choice to use a vehicle that is similar to the foldable car or a car that is your own.