The Future Of Transit: The Stackable Car?

2 January 2006 - 1:00pm

MIT's Smart Cities team proposes a "stackable car" to be used as part of a public transportation program, much like those bicycle-sharing programs in Europe. [Includes photos.]

From the Guardian:

"It is not every day that a concept car re-writes the rules of more than 100 years of motoring. In development for four years by a team of architects and engineers led by William Mitchell, former head of the school of architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), as part of his Smart Cities research group, a new MIT car is borne of a complete rethink of people's relationship with their cars in the ever-expanding cities of the future."

From Engadget:

"The wheels turn 360 degrees and contain the suspension and motor, so, along with providing a level of mobility fit for a city, they allow a new type of passenger compartment, replete with customizable displays and seats with "fingers" to catch you in a crash. It all sounds well and good, but we'll have to see see how much of this tech makes it into the final prototype, which is to be built by GM upon the MIT group's completion of the design."

Source: The Guardian, December 30, 2005
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There is lots of theory, and lots of wonderful mathematics, and even lots of dealmaking. But the financial engineers are not real engineers who take responsibility for the bridges that fall down. They have no notion of a safety factor.