EO Smart Connecting Car 2: A Smart Solution to Parking Woes

Searching for a parking place in overcrowded cities has become one of the frustrating tasks for many people around the world. This search burns around one million barrels of fuel every day, resulting in a loss of money, resources and increase in air pollution due to car emissions.

As the global population continues to urbanize, if not planned properly, these problems may worsen in the near future. The smart parking solution is the best option to overcome this problem. This system involves low cost sensors, smart meters and mobile phone enabled automated system to book and pay for parking in advance. The sensors and smart meters give real time data about parking occupancy and user can access this data accordingly to book and pay for parking in advance, thus reducing extra fuel cost to search parking place. In cities, most of the individuals prefer to have their own mode of transportation to go to work despite having a good public transportation system in place. Consequently, all cities are facing major problems of the shortage of parking place and traffic congestion during peak hours. The situation gets worse when individuals drive big cars for their comfort which are hard to park in small and tight parking places.

The Robotic Innovation Centre (RIC) of Germany has developed highly flexible modular robotic car termed as EO Smart Connecting Car 2 as an answer to the above problem. This fully electric car has some unbelievable features like apart from normal driving, it can drive sideways and diagonally, it can turn 360 degrees around and it can shrink in size so that it could be parked in small places. This car is equipped with sensors, cameras, computer assisted navigation system and 3D scan technology to enable it to drive and park in autonomous mode. All wheels are powered by an individual motor and car can achieve a top speed of 40 mph (60 km/hr). This car can travel up to 30 to 44 miles (45 to 65km) on single four hour battery charge. This car has a foldable docking interface for charging, which while not charging fits into the car body and act as an interface for connecting other passenger modules or range extenders.