Electric car concept can hoover up the pollution from other vehicles - Money

A driverless electric car concept is capable of hoovering up pollution left by other vehicles as it drives along, leaving clean air in its wake, its designers claim.

The Airo is being designed by British Heatherwick Studio for the Chinese green-vehicle firm IM Motors and could go into production as soon as 2023.

It features a dining room-style space inside the cabin that can be turned into a double bed, allowing passengers to continue to slumber during a commute to work.

The vehicle will run on electric power, producing no fossil fuel pollutants as it moves around the city. But the car goes further in its environmental ambition.

Heatherwick confirmed it would be equipped with a state-of-the-art HEPA filtering system attached to the under-carriage that can clean up pollution particles.

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The vehicle will run on electric power, producing no fossil fuel pollutants as it moves around the city. But the car goes further in its environmental ambition.

London-based Heatherwick Studio has unveiled its concept for the Airo electric car for IM Motors that will ‘vacuum up pollutants from other cars’

It features a dining room-style space inside the cabin that can be turned into a double bed, allowing passengers to continue to slumber during a commute to work

FILTERING THE AIR UNDER THE VEHICLE

The Airo will include a HEPA filter attached to its under-carriage.

Inside the filter will be a mesh that traps pollution particles of various sizes.

As pollution is generated by fossil fuel vehicles it enters the air and flows under the Airo.

It hits the filter and traps each size of particle in a slightly different way.

Large particles are trapped in the first mesh and medium particles intercepted by the fibres.

Small particles become trapped through a zig-zag pattern.

The HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) filter will be stuck to the bottom of the vehicle and, through a mesh system, will trap harmful particles.

Polluted air, carrying particles of harmful chemicals generated by other vehicles on the road, passes under the Airo and enter the HEPA filter.

The particles of various sizes are then trapped inside its fibres, and through a series of more intricate traps are removed from the flowing air, leaving clean air behind.

Inside, the car is has a customisable interior that can be configured into multiple functional spaces including a moving room or space for your life, the firm said.

The seats rotate from a traditional forward-facing driving position to face each other for social activities such as dining on the four-leaf table which neatly folds away to transform the space into a lounge.

A foldaway screen turns the interior into a gaming-pod and ‘when you’ve exhausted yourself, the beautifully contoured seats fully recline to form a spacious double bed,’ the firm explained in a press release.

‘Using the latest technology in glass, the fully glazed roof becomes opaque on command for total privacy.’

Thomas Heatherwick, Founder of Heatherwick Studio said the car was designed to be more than just ‘another electric car that doesn’t pollute the air.’

‘Instead, using the latest HEPA-filter technology, it goes further by also vacuuming-up pollutants from other cars as it drives along.

‘Designed to simultaneously address the global space shortage, Airo is also a multi-functional room with extra space for dining, working, gaming or even sleeping.’

Alongside the car, Heatherwick Studio has also designed a charging station for IM Motors that will become part of the infrastructure of the city

As polluted air, carrying particles of harmful chemicals generated by other vehicles on the road, pass under the Airo and enter the HEPA filter

Heatherwick confirmed it would be equipped with a state-of-the-art HEPA filtering system attached to the under-carriage that can clean up pollution particles

Thomas Heatherwick, Founder of Heatherwick Studio said the car was designed to be more than just ‘another electric car that doesn’t pollute the air

‘As a new room for our lives, with a changing view, Airo is a car intended to transport us to a cleaner and better future.’

Stuart Wood, Partner and Group Leader at Heatherwick Studio said transportation and mobility was going through a technological and social revolution.

‘There’s a new ethically conscious generation who expect a car to do so much more than just offer transportation from one place to another; they want a device that fulfils and expands upon their functional needs and meets their values.

‘Until now, the functionality of a car has been narrowly defined as a fuel and space guzzling luxury that none of us can afford to continue. We conceived Airo to re-imagine the lifestyle-car-environment balance.’

Stuart Wood, Partner and Group Leader at Heatherwick Studio said transportation and mobility was going through a technological and social revolution

Inside, the car is has a customisable interior that can be configured into multiple functional spaces including a moving room or space for your life, the firm said

Alongside the car, Heatherwick Studio has also designed a charging station for IM Motors that will become part of the infrastructure of the city.

Formed from industrial materials including weathered steel, the charging station aims to become part of the urban fabric for decades to come, It has a retractable wire, and an ergonomic handle for easy connection to electric vehicles.

The concept for IM Motors Airo designed by Heatherwick Studio is expected to go into production in 2023.

SELF-DRIVING CARS ‘SEE’ USING LIDAR, CAMERAS AND RADAR

Self-driving cars often use a combination of normal two-dimensional cameras and depth-sensing ‘LiDAR’ units to recognise the world around them.

However, others make use of visible light cameras that capture imagery of the roads and streets.

They are trained with a wealth of information and vast databases of hundreds of thousands of clips which are processed using artificial intelligence to accurately identify people, signs and hazards.

In LiDAR (light detection and ranging) scanning – which is used by Waymo – one or more lasers send out short pulses, which bounce back when they hit an obstacle.

These sensors constantly scan the surrounding areas looking for information, acting as the ‘eyes’ of the car.

While the units supply depth information, their low resolution makes it hard to detect small, faraway objects without help from a normal camera linked to it in real time.

In November last year Apple revealed details of its driverless car system that uses lasers to detect pedestrians and cyclists from a distance.

The Apple researchers said they were able to get ‘highly encouraging results’ in spotting pedestrians and cyclists with just LiDAR data.

They also wrote they were able to beat other approaches for detecting three-dimensional objects that use only LiDAR.

Other self-driving cars generally rely on a combination of cameras, sensors and lasers.

An example is Volvo’s self driving cars that rely on around 28 cameras, sensors and lasers.

A network of computers process information, which together with GPS, generates a real-time map of moving and stationary objects in the environment.

Twelve ultrasonic sensors around the car are used to identify objects close to the vehicle and support autonomous drive at low speeds.

A wave radar and camera placed on the windscreen reads traffic signs and the road’s curvature and can detect objects on the road such as other road users.

Four radars behind the front and rear bumpers also locate objects.

Two long-range radars on the bumper are used to detect fast-moving vehicles approaching from far behind, which is useful on motorways.

Four cameras – two on the wing mirrors, one on the grille and one on the rear bumper – monitor objects in close proximity to the vehicle and lane markings.