MIT's CityCar project - Hiroko unveiled

One can tell from the pictures that every part of this car is purposefully focused on practicality and reducing space consumed by its entirety. Three of these autos can fit in a single parking lot with ease because when folded upwards, the cars’ length turns into the width of an ordinary automobile, that’s some seriously effective space management. To add to the ingenuity, the folding takes place in the parking itself and does not require the passengers step out of the vehicle. The length of the vehicle which is otherwise 2.5 meters is reduced to a scant1.5 meters when folded up.

The Hiroko's front windshield also is the car door, so you can park the car facing the sidewalk without having to worry about walking into flowing traffic; one would simply step out on the sidewalk in this case. The key feature of the Hiriko is its “Robot wheels” which allow the car to turn about more or less on the spot itself. This is due to the motor, the steering actuators, suspension and raking, all being incorporated in the wheels via a drive-by-wire system. Also on a single-charge, the car packs enough juice for a healthy range of 120 km. The steering wheel was a wide screen LCD panel in the centre of it that may be used for the different functions it possesses.

The Hiriko is the brain-child of MIT's CityCar project, in collaboration with Denokinn, the Basque Center for Innovation and a consortium of Spanish business. The word Hiriko itself derives from the Basque words hiri which means town or city and kotxe which is car - so the name essentially is merely English to Basque translation. More than a car the vehicle should be thought of as an individual tour guide as it is also capable of directing you to your favorite eatery or landmark in town.

The price of a single unit of the Hiriko is estimated to be at US$17,430 which broadly agrees with other figures that have been suggested earlier. The car will be popular with general city authorities and they may buy fleets of the Hiriko for hire schemes within a particular city. Apparently big cities like San Francisco, Berlin, Barcelona, Malmö, and Hong Kong have all sown interest in the scheme. Unveiled at the end of January by the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, the Hiriko is expected to hit European streets by 2013.