This electric car can shrink itself

Finding a decent parking spot in our busy metros is a tough task. It is even more difficult to squeeze your vehicle into a tight spot in rush hour. But, now a team of German engineers have come with an ingenious solution - a small electric car that can turn on the spot, shrink in size and park itself.

The EO Smart Connecting Car 2 (EOscc2) is an innovative design from DFKI Robotics Innovation Centre, based in Bremen, Germany, where a team of software developers and designers, as well as electronics and construction engineers, have been refining the smart micro car project for the last three years.

Currently, the two-seater vehicle can be driven in the traditional way, diagonally and sideways. It can also pivot on the spot and shrink from 8 feet to 5 feet while maintaining a comfortable seating position, according to the firm. It does this because its wheels are individually powered by separate motors so that they can turn in different directions.

The car has a top-speed of 65kmph and can travel 50 to 70km on a single four-hour full charge of the battery. This car boasts of semi-autonomous features such as inbuilt cameras and a LIDAR sensor on its roof which lets the vehicle scan its environment and locate itself in it in as good as 10 times a second.

The EOscc2 is designed to link with others to form a kind of connected convoy that can save energy over long distances - such as on motorways or as a car-sharing scheme.

A team of 10 engineers built the car from scratch over a three year period. The EOscc2 is currently being tested in the cities of Bremen in Germany and Dalian in China.