Hyundai Motor Company’s engineers revels a unique ideas for single-person future mobility, designed for use in congested cities globally. Prototypes have been created by engineers working at the company’s research and development (R&D) centre in Korea for an internal contest called the ‘IDEA festival’.
Ideas submitted for the IDEA festival 2012 included:
- A multi-rotor flying car – powered by four electric motors and propellers which means the car can hover above the ground, keeping the driver above congestion
- A spare tyre electric bike – a spare tyre that quickly folds out into an electric bike. Can be used in the event of a puncture when traffic is heavy, or can be used for leisure
- A portable transforming car –you can carry this around with you and driver can control it with their brain waves using mind control
- A five-jointed car–has five joints giving driver great flexibility to manoeuvre around tight spaces – driver only need a one metre radius to turn. The joints also enable the car to climb up steps!
- A road car/ bike –recognises the owner’s voice so they can talk to the car using a wireless head set – can be told to change seating position which will turn the car into a bike
- A wind bike –main motor powered by four batteries, propellers powered by the wind
- The E4U egg car
Key features of E4U:
- The E4U has an egg-shaped, streamlined body and is a new concept of future mobility for one person
- The name E4U embraces 4 Es; Egg, Evolution, Electricity and Eco-friendliness
- It is designed to be driven at low speeds on narrow roads in urban areas
- Both its speed and steering can be controlled with one electric motor in the hemisphere structure, which simplifies the system and makes it light
- A driver can control the pivot of the hemisphere structure, which spins in one direction
- Its speed and steering can be controlled depending on which direction he/she turns and how much he/she tilts the hemisphere
- Its rear legs can be folded, and the side parts are also detachable, which minimizes required parking space
