An
innovative personal transportation system designed to fit neatly into
the trunk has made the short list in a Ford challenge to create
last-mile mobility solutions – the final leg of a commute between
parking a vehicle and destination arrival – for urban areas.
Carr-E
– created by Kilian Vas, a Ford systems engineer based in Cologne,
Germany – is among 633 proposals for personal mobility solutions
submitted by Ford employees as part of the company’s Last Mile Mobility
Challenge. The competition challenges employees to develop electric
personal assistant devices to make transportation better in areas where
vehicles are not permitted or practical – helping commuters reach their
destination.
Carr-E
can transport people or objects up to 260 pounds, has a range of 14
miles and a top speed of 11 mph. It’s a finalist – along with TriCiti, a
folding electric tricycle that can be easily adapted into a shopping
cart, dolly or golf cart; and eChair, an electric wheelchair that can autonomously load itself into a vehicle.
“We
really need to reinvent the wheel, to find new approaches to mobility,”
said Vas. “When developing Carr-E, I was inspired by Ford’s expansion
into both an auto and a mobility company, but I’m also aware of
how rapidly cities are growing and how getting around urban areas will
become more complicated. I really wanted to create a device that makes
commuting easier and more fun.”
Vas
collaborated with colleague Daniel Hari and his manager Dr. Uwe Wagner,
and worked with designers from Ford of Europe and prototyping
specialists from RWTH Aachen University to create Carr-E. The
four-wheeled device is designed to complement the use of a vehicle and
support commuters along the final part of their journey.
It
can also be used to transport heavy objects. Users simply place an
object on Carr-E and it will follow an electronic transmitter they keep
in their possession.
TriCiti,
developed by James Neugebauer, Torsten Gerhardt and Robert Spahl – all
working in vehicle architecture for Ford of Europe – is designed to be
both a rideable device and all-purpose carrying assistant. The foldable
machine can be adapted to carry shopping items and even golf bags, and
can easily be taken onto public transportation or stored in a vehicle.
TriCiti has a range of 19 miles and a top speed of 12 mph.
Gunther
Cuypers, Robin Celis and David Longin – engineers at Ford’s Lommel
proving grounds in Belgium – developed eChair, a lightweight electric
wheelchair with a self-loading solution designed to offer greater
independence to people with reduced mobility.
“Innovation
and disruption is as much at the heart of how our engineers think now
as it was when Henry Ford first set about transforming the way we move,”
said Walter Pijls, supervisor, innovation management for mobility, Ford
of Europe. “Personal assistant devices can help people cover the final
mile of their journey quickly and easily, as well as transport heavy
objects they might not be able to carry.”
The acceleration in innovation at Ford – as measured by invention disclosures – is expected to reach record levels in 2016,
topping last year’s record of more than 6,000. The number of individual
Ford employees creating inventions also has reached record levels since
the start of 2015, with more than 3,500 first-time inventors submitting
new innovations.
