In 2003, Prof. William J. Mitchell organized a research team to explore new ideas for vehicles in the future. The goal was to re-think the car as a design object and redefine the relationship between people, cars and cities.

Prof. Mitchell gathered a multidisciplinary team of people to participate in a workshop, with backgrounds as diverse as urbanism, architecture, industrial design, mechanical and electronic engineers, as well as software programmers. The workshop offered a blue sky to study any kind of ideas related to the future of transportation, far from the constraints of the automotive industry. Over several semesters, the group produced a large number of concepts -not all displayed here- which ranged from performance vehicles to communication devices and mechanical components.

The workshop is hosted by the Smart Cities group at the MIT Media Lab, where General Motors is a sponsor. Representatives of GM participate actively in the workshop as guest critics.

Early on, students Patrik Künzler and Peter Schmitt started working on the idea of packaging the critical functions of the car into the space of the wheel.
The development of the robot wheel would be a critical contribution to the group. Many concepts in the workshop -including the CityCar- would incorporate two or four robot wheels in different configurations to create new designs.

In short, these Robot Wheels are modular elements that eliminate the need for a traditional engine block, and provide the vehicle with all necessary functions to move. Each wheel includes an electric motor, steering, braking and suspension. The operation of the vehicle is possible through a number of microcontrollers that respond to a central computer. The CPU of the car translates the input of the driver into the necessary actions that each wheel has to take to accomplish the goal.  This is known as a drive-by-wire system, since there are no mechanical linkages between the driver and the wheels that move the car.

The rapid development of the automotive industry has forced cities to adapt quickly, and massive structures (paved streets, highways, parking lots, etc) have been built to meet the demand of vehicular transportation, that continues to grow.
One of the goals was to reverse this approach and instead of designing cities that adapted to cars, we wanted to design a car that would adapt to the city.

A small team within the Smart Cities group quickly focused their research in the major challenges of urban transportation. We became interested in preserving the advantages of personal mobility that the automobile offers, while increasing its efficiency as a transportation system. We immediately started thinking of ways to reduce the wasted space that vehicles take up when they are not being used.

Franco Vairani and William Lark Jr. collaborated again to tackle this problem by creating a collapsible and stackable frame on wheels, very much like shopping carts found in a mall or luggage carts at the airport.
The first iteration was just an open cabin for a single passenger. The design was bulky and left many issues unresolved. However, it clearly explained the concept and showed the potential of this idea.

Animation
(1mb - Quicktime)

The Bit Car, designed by Franco Vairani, is a system for urban transportation based on those premises.

Bit Cars are shared vehicles for short trips within a city. Users are members of a system by which they have access to a car when they need one. These small electric vehicles for two passengers would be parked in stacks throughout the city. Users simply take the first car of the stack and drive away, and then return it to the back of another stack when they reach their destination.
Car stacks eliminate the residual space between cars, reducing the required space for parking to a ratio of even 8:1 (up to 8 bit cars can fit in the space taken by one standard vehicle).
Car stacks are also a docking station which allows Bit Cars to recharge its batteries while parked. This overcomes the problem of electric cars' limited range. Stacks could be located virtually anywhere within the electric grid, with critical mass in popular destinations within the city, such as dense residential complexes, malls, recreational areas, etc. More importantly, they can be easily combined with multimodal points such as airports, subway stops and train terminals to extend the coverage of mass transit and provide personalized mobility.

The design uses a simple pivoting mechanism to fold the structure in almost vertical position. Additionally, the back wheels are closer together, which allows for the next car to be interlocked.

Bit Cars are part of the physical network of the city, but they also act as communication agents, exchanging information with the information network.

Animation
(4mb - FlashVideo)

The designs aspects for the Bit Car as a an urban transportation system is the main topic of discussion in Franco Vairani's PhD dissertation.

in 2006, the design of the Bit Car was recognized with an award by ID magazine in their annual student design review.

The "CityCar" project is a collaboration between the MIT Media Laboratory and the new MIT Design Lab, and with the participation of students and researchers from different departments. The work is coordinated and supervised by professor William J. Mitchell.

There are several groups researching and developing some of the technologies for the city car, such as the drive train (robot wheels), recharging batteries, the control system, the user interface, communication systems, etc.; as well as studies on the relationship with the city, including models of one-way vehicle sharing, impact on paved surfaces, case studies in different cities and others.

The work is currently in display at the MIT Museum.

More information about the project can be found in the Smart Cities website (http://cities.media.mit.edu)