Reinventing the Automobile – Personal Urban Mobility for the 21st Century
MIT Press by William J. Mitchell, Christopher E. Borroni-Bird, and Lawrence D. Burns
The cars we drive today follow the same underlying design principles as the Model Ts of a hundred years ago. In the twenty-first century, cars are still made for twentieth-century purposes. They’re well suited for conveying multiple passengers over long distances at high speeds, but inefficient for providing personal mobility within cities—where most of the world’s people now live.
The authors reimagine the automobile, describing vehicles of the near future that are green, smart, connected, and fun to drive. They roll out four big ideas that will make this both feasible and timely.
Four Big Ideas That Could Transform the Automobile:
– Base the underlying design principles on electric-drive and wireless communications rather than the internal combustion engine and stand-alone operation
– Develop the Mobility Internet for sharing traffic and travel data
– Integrate electric-drive vehicles with smart electric grids that use clean, renewable energy sources
– Establish dynamically priced markets for electricity, road space, parking space, and shared-use vehicles
Post by Nancy Bendtsen