Challis Hodge’s UXblog

Sometimes an idea just feels right. Maybe I’ve spent too much time in airports!?

Imagine bringing your own shopping cart to the supermarket every time you needed groceries. According to Franco Vairani, driving your own car in the city is just as inconvenient, which is why he, along with MIT’s Smart Cities think tank, developed the Bit Car concept. Ideal for short distances, the compact two-seater features an outer shell that collapses like the legs of a baby carriage and enables the cars to fold into one another when parked. Stored in parking lots or other high-density spots, the vehicles would be available for borrowing, like airport luggage trolleys. Williams pointed out that the option would be especially attractive to drivers who are averse to public transportation. “People love their cars, but this way they can keep a private enclosure without having to own it,” he offered. “It’s proposing a radical new set of behaviors, but it could definitely work.”

Ron Patrick is approaching the age of 50, a time when many men begin thinking about minutiae like pensions and second homes and third cars. But Patrick is far more interested in telling you why it is that he has stuck a big jet engine in the back of a prosaic silver Volkswagen.

He’s standing out in a parking lot, waving his arms with wild enthusiasm, pointing at the car as if he were a 15-year-old who’s just had his first ride in a Corvette, his eyes spinning in delight. This car consumes him, he loves the completely outrageous idea behind it, and for a moment, his infectious mood makes you think, gee, anybody could do this and it sounds like a great way to spend a few years, not to mention $250,000.

Patrick is a 48-year-old Stanford-trained (Ph.D.) engineer who owns ECM (Engine Control and Monitoring), a Sunnyvale firm that makes electronic instruments used by auto manufacturers to calibrate their engines for performance, fuel economy and emissions. He knows cars. He knows how they work. He’s an animated man who has a seasoned sense of humor, a wry view of the world, mixed with a dash of the absurd and an absolute passion for things like, well, jet-powered cars.

Honda will soon become the first auto manufacturer to include, as standard equipment in some models, technology that enables drivers to converse with their cars about where to go and how to get there.

Using voice-recognition and text-to-speech technology from IBM, the 2005 Acura RL, available in October, and Honda Odyssey, available in September, will produce maps and “speak” turn-by-turn directions from the navigation system.