The electric cars that talk to each other

City cars of the future will need to be small, clean, energy-efficient and, given the increasing number of vehicles, able to communicate with each other to make best use of limited road space.

A team of designers has applied this brief to an existing prototype by Segway and come up with what they call an Electric Networked Vehicle (EN-V), a two-seat, electric vehicle that balances on two wheels.

A car that can drive itself

The EN-V is a concept vehicle but it is far from science fiction as the technology it employs is already proven.

The EN-V can be driven like any conventional car but is also able to use a combination of sensors, cameras, wireless communication and GPS navigation to communicate with other vehicles and drive up to 30 miles on a single charge without any input from the driver.

Five EN-Vs can be parked in the space occupied by one large car.

The EN-V

A spokesperson for the Environmental Transport Association (ETA) said: “If the private car is to survive in increasingly crowded cities it must evolve into something with the qualities of the EN-V.”

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