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Page added on November 6, 2015
Vehicle of the Future Might Be an Electric Tricycle
The latest solution for congested cities is an electric, autonomous tricycle for adults.
The challenge of moving people and things around the world’s dense, growing major cities is bad and getting worse. Ninety percent of the world’s population growth in this century will be in “megacities,” and cities will soon account for 80 percent of global carbon emissions, according to the United Nations Environment Program. Much of that will come from idling cars stuck in miles-long traffic jams.
Ryan Chin, a research scientist at the MIT Media Lab, specializes in dreaming up solutions to urban transportation problems. His latest invention, unveiled at the EmTech conference earlier this week in Cambridge, Massachusetts, tries to marry the three dominant trends in urban automobiles: autonomy, vehicle sharing, and electrification.
But it’s not a car; it’s a three-wheeled EV that Chin has dubbed the “persuasive electric vehicle,” or PEV.
With a carbon fiber exterior shield, a foldable canopy, and a 250-watt assist motor, the autonomous tricycle is “persuasive” in that it’s designed to “encourage positive modal shifts in mobility behavior in cities.” It has a top speed of 12 miles per hour and operates in bicycle lanes. It can be adapted for a human rider or for package transport, and it has the sensors and intelligence to operate autonomously. As opposed to most shared bike systems, the PEV would “redistribute itself,” as Chin puts it—traveling autonomously from the drop-off point of one passenger to its next user’s location, thus solving the problem of shortages and oversupply of bikes at different times in different locations. And it could become a pervasive mode for urban package delivery, moving easily through crowded streets and reducing congestion and carbon emissions from gas-powered delivery vehicles.
That sounds good, but Chin concedes that major thoroughfares in many big cities, particularly in Asia, lack bike lanes in which the PEV could travel. Pedaling a tricycle, even a motor-assisted one, is not likely to be the next trend in a hilly, humid city like Hong Kong—or in a windy, chilly one like Beijing in winter. And who would answer for an e-trike totaled by a heedless New York cabbie? Low-powered autonomous vehicles will likely be a part of the urban fabric of the future—but it will take a while.
20 Comments on "Vehicle of the Future Might Be an Electric Tricycle"
dave thompson on Fri, 6th Nov 2015 6:10 pm
An interesting concept, what kind of difference a vehicle of this sort might make is anyone’s guess.
ghung on Fri, 6th Nov 2015 7:17 pm
I never understood why people keep re-inventing the electric golf cart. A little reconfiguration, perhaps, like bigger wheels, but for urban environments we already have solutions. Modern motors, batteries, and control systems make the basic golf cart an eminently practical mover of people and smaller things.
Makati1 on Fri, 6th Nov 2015 7:57 pm
Future vehicle: Feet. Yours or an animals. Bicycles of any type require factories. Factories require extensive supply chains and centralized labor. Centralized labor requires extensive supply chains of food and necessities. Supply chains require vehicles to move the supplies and materials. They require other factories and on and on…
More techie dreams…
If you want a picture of future life, barring a nuke exchange or drastic climate change, research the 1700s, pre factory.
Davy on Fri, 6th Nov 2015 8:26 pm
Nope Makster, you did not establish a time frame nor do you have a clue when, where, and how a global decline will take place. There are too many possibilities. Bikes can last a lifetime with proper maintenance and spare parts. If we go into a long emergency many items will be kept alive by salvage.
You are stuck in Manila in a high rise apartment. Around where I am from we are already making things work with what is available. Did you see G-Man’s earlier comment on his homlite saw? I am using old oil field well pipe casing for my corner posts and H-braces for my grazing system fence.
Peak Oil Prognosticator on Fri, 6th Nov 2015 9:06 pm
We will get the energy and inputs for these vehicles from thin air. Like every other future energy project it can violate thermodynamics because it feels good. Perhaps the U.S. government should invest now in physicists that know what they’re talking about.
apneaman on Fri, 6th Nov 2015 10:27 pm
How fitting. Now the green tards can ride their tricycles from Kool-Aid stand to Kool-Aid stand.
apneaman on Fri, 6th Nov 2015 10:33 pm
Guanterred sales if they come out with a special edition “East Coast” amphibious model.
The Frankentides are Coming — US East Coast to See Season of Flooding From El Nino + Sea Level Rise This Winter
“According to preliminary reports from NOAA, this Fall, Winter and Spring will likely bring an abnormal number of flooding tides to the US East Coast. These emperor and king tides are primarily driven by sea level rise — a knock on impact of human-forced warming. But during an El Nino year, as with this year, wind patterns along the East Coast tend to drive tides even higher. At El Nino times, lows tend to form off the US East Coast. These lows tend to generate a consistent northeasterly wind that pushes against the northward flow of the Gulf Stream. This action reduces the Gulf Stream’s ability to pull water away from our shores, and some of that water rebounds against the US East Coast.
During a normal year, this would somewhat increase the height of East Coast tides. But, due to Greenland melt pumping fresh water into the North Atlantic, the heat and salt driven circulation that generates the Gulf Stream is weakening (See Signs of Gulf Stream Weakening). So this year’s series of El Nino lows are forming over seas that are already rebounding against the US East Coast. Forming in seas that have already risen due to the melting of glaciers around the world. A NOAA press release from September notes that recent findings:
“…build upon two nuisance flooding reports issued last year led by NOAA scientists William Sweet and John Marra. The previously published reports show coastal communities in the United States have experienced a rapid growth in the frequency of nuisance tidal flooding, a 300 to 925 percent increase since the 1960s, and will likely cross inundation tipping points in the coming decades as tides become higher with sea level rise”
“We know that nuisance flooding is happening more often because of rising sea levels, but it is important to recognize that weather and ocean patterns brought on by El Niño can compound this trend,” said Sweet.”
more
http://robertscribbler.com/2015/11/06/the-frankentides-are-coming-us-east-coast-to-see-season-of-flooding-from-el-nino-sea-level-rise-this-winter/
makati1 on Fri, 6th Nov 2015 11:49 pm
Davy, decline is already underway and picking up speed. We are fast approaching the end of the financially paved road and moving onto the rubble of antiquity.
Anything you buy new today may be the last one you ever buy. Especially vehicles. Sorry, bikes do not last forever. Tires wear out, especially on unpaved surfaces. The roads of tomorrow. Rims bend, gears wear out, chains, etc. When they are gone, replacing them may be impossible. When? Maybe 10 years max. Nothing is made to last these days. Planned obsolescence is the norm.
I see the crash and the end of factories in general by 2025 at the latest. Maybe sooner. After all, we have built a computerized, globalized, just-in-time, ‘Swiss watch’ of a system that will collapse all at once, not gradually.
The toy mentioned above is just that, a toy. Electric is the first clue. Carbon fiber is another. Exotic materials will not be available. Like electric cars, it has no future.
If you want to buy, say, a mattress
here, they do not deliver it in a truck. If you live a few blocks away from the store, it is brought to you on the head of one of the delivery boys who walks. If it is farther, it goes on a push cart or by bus with the same delivery boy. You would be amazed at what goes down the streets of Manila by manpower alone.
Only companies get truck deliveries, or malls. Usually not individuals, for things that can be moved by hand. Our new A/C unit was delivered on a push cart by two young men. The store is 4 blocks away. Different world, yes?
makati1 on Fri, 6th Nov 2015 11:58 pm
Davy, using junk is nothing new here. Nothing goes to waste until it is totally useless. But you would not know that as you feel good about using a few scraps here and there.
Have you ever seen someone going thru the trash collecting plastic bottles to recycle for cash? Glass bottles? Empty cartridges from printers? Cans? Paper? I do everyday.
My used printer paper goes to a shop owner friend in a nearby town where they fold it into small pouches for nails and other small items they sell in their little hardware store. Just a few examples of the 3rd world of minimum waste. Recycling and reuse was common in the US when I was young. The people who lived thru the Depression never wasted anything. Now…
theedrich on Sat, 7th Nov 2015 3:23 am
This trike is meant to be a small help, not a total solution. As the global economy declines (barring a massive disaster), it is possible something like this can ease the transition in locations with relatively flat terrain and non-criminal populations. If the rider pedals instead of merely riding effortlessly all of the time, it may also help in reducing the grotesque, Walmart-type, elephantine obesity so often seen in the West and now even in some Oriental cities. Certainly it is more efficient and cheaply maintained than the standard, traffic-choking car.
Davy on Sat, 7th Nov 2015 5:06 am
Mak, my point is we don’t know when, how, and where of collapse. A long emergency will allow a thriving salvage industry. This will allow many low tech products extended lives. We both agree a collapse will likely be harder and sooner than a long emergency but as Mark Twain said “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” When we start claiming a future we are crossing the line from researcher to prophet.
Dredd on Sat, 7th Nov 2015 9:10 am
More likely an 18-wheeler hearse.
Kenz300 on Sat, 7th Nov 2015 9:59 am
Electric vehicles, bicycles and mass transit are the future…….
How The Decline Of Cars Is Changing Cities For The Better
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/car-decline-cities_561f34dae4b0c5a1ce620dd9
penury on Sat, 7th Nov 2015 10:42 am
As I have said before, the future is foot travel.As said above parts wear out, vehicles wears out, batteries wear out. Then what? Listen to Mak, this is your or your children’s future. So I do not give a time frame, personally I do not give a furry rodents rear about what people here think is a reasonable time frame, You have been wrong before and you will be wrong again,Will there be war. Congress seems to think so. That will change all of your plans. Be prepared. For change.
Davy on Sat, 7th Nov 2015 11:00 am
Yea, pen, what about if the collapse comes slow. Then people like you and mak will have given poor advice about equipment usage. This is not about either or it is about a mix and hybrid living. Is that enough of a furry ass for you and Mak? Some day if we are only on foot most will be dead anyway.
dave thompson on Sat, 7th Nov 2015 12:04 pm
I am posting this site just to see if I am allowed to do so. http://jumpingjackflashhypothesis.blogspot.com/
dave thompson on Sat, 7th Nov 2015 12:45 pm
AND this story to wake us all up.http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_most_brazen_corporate_power_grab_in_american_history_20151106/
makati1 on Sat, 7th Nov 2015 8:08 pm
penury, I think some here are still hugging unicorns even though they claim to not be…lol.
This ‘just-in-time, Swiss watch world we live in will explode like a nuke when the SHTF. Then many will see how fast BAU turns into the Middle Ages. What is fast or slow? A year is fast if you are not prepared. A week is slow if it begins with mushroom clouds over major American cities. The drums of war are beating louder and louder in DC so the latter is closer than it has ever been since Hiroshima.
makati1 on Sat, 7th Nov 2015 8:37 pm
For your consideration:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-11-06/washington-preparing-world-war-iii
“The US military-intelligence complex is engaged in systematic preparations for World War III. As far as the Pentagon is concerned, a military conflict with China and/or Russia is inevitable, and this prospect has become the driving force of its tactical and strategic planning.
Three congressional hearings Tuesday demonstrated this reality. In the morning, the Senate Armed Services Committee held a lengthy hearing on cyberwarfare. In the afternoon, a subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee discussed the present size and deployment of the US fleet of aircraft carriers, while another subcommittee of the same panel discussed the modernization of US nuclear weapons…?
makati1 on Sat, 7th Nov 2015 8:55 pm
Or this:
http://www.shtfplan.com/conspiracy-fact-and-theory/prepping-for-hybrid-war-with-russia-nato-holds-biggest-military-exercise-in-13-years_11072015
“The biggest military exercise NATO has held in 13 years, “Trident Juncture” will end tomorrow.
DW.com claims that, even though 36,000 soldiers from various NATO countries including the U.S. have participated in the exercise to defend against “Russia’s military ambitions,” (or what other outlets are simply referring to as “Russian aggression”), the organization is actually at a big disadvantage against Russia, not only because its trying to coordinate 28 member states with different priorities, but Russia’s training events in the last two years have involved up to 80,000 soldiers, more than twice that of NATO…”