EO Smart Connected Car Could Be the Solution to Parking Problems in Our Cities

 Automotive  

The EO Smart Connecting Car 2 is a "flexible" electric concept micro car capable of shrinking, driving sideways and turning on a dime. Could this vehicle help alleviate the nightmare of parking in our major cities?

Trying to find a parking spot is a serious issue for drivers in many cities across the world, with various studies showing that people spend over 20 minutes per day looking for a parking space, which contributes to traffic congestion and consequently, air pollution. Given that cities are expected to continue to grow, this issue will only get worse, but a German research center may have found a great solution for it.

The DFKI Robotics Innovation Center of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, based in the German city of Bremen, recently unveiled a concept car that promises to fix traffic congestion and parking woes in big cities. The EO Smart Connecting Car 2 is a small, compact vehicle that features a very unusual and innovative design, that is only 8 feet long and can drive on its own, which makes it perfect for driving in congested urban areas.

One of the greatest things about this “micro car” is that it is flexible, as it can shrink from 8 to just 5 feet, so that it can fit even into the smallest parking spaces available. When the driver wants to get into a parking spot that is tighter than the car's original width, its panels can be raised to reduce its size, basically adjusting to the parking space.

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In addition to its ability to fold, there is another feature that allows the car to fit into virtually every parking spot imaginable. Since each of the car's wheels is powered by its own motor, they can turn independently, allowing the car to move sideways and diagonally, a capability that no street legal vehicle has. It only takes four seconds to shrink this car and prepare it to move sideways, so drivers won't spend a lot of time waiting for their car to transform.

This is a zero-emission vehicle, powered by an electric battery that can be fully recharged in four hours. The two seater has a range of up to 44 miles per charge, and has a top speed of 40 mph. Thanks to its autonomous parking feature, the car can even park on its own.

The EO Smart Connecting Car 2 is just a prototype at the moment, but the engineers who developed it believe that it has almost everything it needs to be street legal. However, they are well aware that it would be difficult to convince car makers to acquire the technology and start producing this vehicle in high volumes.

"The problem is for most car manufacturers, they are not really interested if they didn't invent it themselves. They may buy from Bosch or Siemens or whatever, technology parts like ESP and other things, but not complete systems," said Timo Birnschein, project manager for the vehicle, in a statement for CNN.

It took German engineers three years to develop the car, from 2011 to 2014, and in the future, they intend to make EO 2 vehicles capable of connecting to each other, so that they can form an aerodynamic train that would allow them to drive even more efficiently.

By Jordan Perch

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Author Bio - Jordan Perch is an automotive fanatic and “safe driving” specialist. He is a writer for DMV.com, which is a collaborative community designed to help ease the stress and annoyance of “dealing with the DMV.”