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CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — It’s a humble home for what might be the future of urban transportation. Locked in an office here at MIT’s Media Lab is the latest prototype of the RoboScooter, delivered just one month ago from Taiwan. Outside this room, the Media Lab is almost too eccentric for words: an open space lined with offices, teeming with art and an explosion of plant life. It’s the exact opposite of this austere little space, where the scooter’s detached seat is sitting on the floor and wires snake from the cavity where the removable battery pack should be. The rear wheel is clamped in place, and under the fluorescent lights, in these cramped quarters, the RoboScooter looks like a hospital patient. Its immediate prognosis is still up in the air, but here’s the good news: Whatever it eventually looks like, and whatever it actually does, this vehicle is going to make it.
And then, there’s the inevitable bad news: The first-gen RoboScooter will not be very robotic. The original concept developed by the Media Lab’s Smart Cities research group called for wheels that were essentially self-contained robots, with dedicated processors that could optimize braking and suspension. In a four-wheel configuration, these wheeled bots would also control steering. The group’s City Car design, for example, allows each wheel to turn independently. For a scooter, computer-controlled steering isn’t necessarily more efficient than old-fashioned handlebars. But for now, the point is moot, because the first RoboScooters to hit the streets won’t have wheels any more intelligent than a Vespa’s.
But here’s what makes it smarter: The RoboScooter will be entirely electric, with at least one lithium-ion battery pack that can be swapped out for another, fully charged one. And although the exact mechanics haven’t been finalized, the scooter will have the ability to fold into itself, with its rear wheel sitting alongside the front one. That covers the cool stuff that might convince you to eventually buy or rent one. But the RoboScooter’s biggest innovation—one with the real potential to change the state of urban transportation—is on the assembly line. “A traditional internal combustion vehicle might have 1200 to 1500 parts,†says William Mitchell, director of the Smart Cities research group and a professor of Architecture & Media Arts and Sciences. “RoboScooter has 150.â€
Hybrid vehicles are even more complex, sometimes requiring upwards of 25 percent more parts than their internal combustion counterparts. “Hybrids have a niche in the short term,†Mitchell says. “But in principle, they’re going in exactly the wrong direction. They’re doubling the complexity instead of what we should be doing, which is halving it.†The RoboScooter trims parts by way of being all-electric, but also with its straightforward, borderline minimalist design. “We are religiously pushing the proposition that we should get rid of the sheet metal that usually encrusts a scooter,†Mitchell says.
This dramatic reduction in parts could mean dramatically cheaper production costs for Taiwan-based manufacturer Sanyang Motors (or SYM). It could also have an impact on similar electric vehicle projects, like the City Car. While that design hasn’t found a partner willing to commercialize it, a low-cost, streamlined production process could allow small firms, both in the United States and abroad, to seriously consider getting involved. To Mitchell, everything is riding on RoboScooter.
Today, however, no one is actually riding the scooter, and it’s hard to tell when anyone will. The prototype is a work in progress, and the researchers at MIT still have to finalize its electric propulsion—and how to collapse it. The final product won’t be able to shape-shift Transformers-style at the push of a button. But the driver won’t be expected to wrestle it entirely on his or her own—the scooter might have spring-loaded components, or the kind of hydraulic system that allows car trunks to open themselves. Also in question is how the vehicle will be charged. Developers originally envisioned charging racks distributed throughout a city, which could double as rental stations where users would buy a one-way trip. If SYM ever decides to take that leap, adopting a business model that’s a cross between services like Zipcar in the U.S. and the successful Parisian bicycle rental program, it could be the biggest endorsement yet of one-way, short-trip vehicle rentals.
If—and let’s be clear, it is a very big if—the RoboScooter takes off when its introduced in Asia, the benefits could quickly snowball. The wheels may not be robotic now, but the architecture is already in place for future generations of the scooter; the wait now is for computer-controlled components like the electric brakes currently being developed by Siemens. And if a RoboScooter rental system turns a profit, it could not only prove that short-trip, one-way electric vehicles are feasible, but possibly change the current perception that EVs will only become useful when they have the range to travel cross-country. One potential upside might be a battery lease model for the scooter’s swappable li-ion packs, reducing the cost of ownership and solving the complicated warranty issues associated with plug-in vehicles.
As excited as Mitchell is about the RoboScooter, he has no delusions about where it will be successful. “Scooters are perfect for Asian, European markets. They aren’t a good model in the States. They’re trendy for art directors,†he says, “but the expectation of safety is higher here.†For the United States, Mitchell has a very different vision from the near-term impact of a City Car-like electric vehicle. It’s a more ambitious, multi-modal, one-way rental model. A user might rent a scooter or bicycle to get to the supermarket, and then rent a car to bring his groceries back home. Far-fetched as that scenario sounds, every one of its components is entirely within reach, from a technological standpoint. The hard part will be convincing companies to take the initial plunge. For its part, the Smart Cities group expects to present what Mitchell describes as a “good, working prototype†of RoboScooter to SYM by April 1. If all goes according to plan, the scooter could hit the market in Asia as early as next year.
