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To help find a solution to the ever-growing problem of parking in highly congested areas, the car company Ford is on their way to creating a vehicle which also houses a motorcycle.
Just last month, Ford filed a patent for a concept car that has a detachable motorcycle, which will be placed in between the driver’s and the passenger’s seat. According to the American-based multinational automaker, people can leave their vehicles in urban centers where there’s a lot of parking space, eject the motorcycle and bring it to places where there’s limited space.
The designs showed were similar to a Ford Focus but inside, the motorcycle is equipped with an electric motor and “securing apparatus” to attach it to the car. They also plan to make at least one portion of the center console part of the bike.
Instead of gasoline, the motorcycle will be packed with a rechargeable battery to power it up. (Related: Self-driving cars could easily turn into self-crashing cars that deliberately target and kill humans, expert warns.)
This concept, according to Ford, can also address the issue of internal combustion engine restriction in some places. “A common solution to this problem could be, for example, to take along a bicycle in the vehicle comprising an internal combustion engine, driving to a parking space outside the inner city region, parking the vehicle comprising an internal combustion engine there and riding to the desired location on the bicycle,” Ford said.
In addition, the company explained that this can be the “improvement” for what many are doing right now; using unicycles and bicycles or putting motorcycles at the back of the car.
According to their patent, the concept car is “A multimodal transportation apparatus comprising a passenger car with a driver seat, a passenger seat and a center console; a motorcycle equipped with and autonomously driven by an electric motor; and a securing apparatus that is releasable, fixedly secure the motorcycle to the passenger car. The motorcycle is arranged between the driver seat and the passenger seat in a direction of travel.”
Because of the concept’s futuristic details, many are saying that it is the real-life version of the “Batmobile.” However, unlike the one in the movies where the motorbike shoots out of the moving car, in this case, the vehicle should be parked first. Then, the driver must open the car’s hood, eject it, and it will slide out through the guide rails.
Currently, everything is still just a concept. There is no word yet from Ford whether they will soon be creating such cars. So far, this is the company’s second highly-advanced concept car.
The first one Ford had patented was the “Robocop” car which they presented as a vehicle that can help catch over speeding drivers. They said it can hide behind trees and buildings so offenders won’t be able to spot the car.
The “Robocop” is said to be equipped with immense surveillance capabilities. Ford sees the car connected to a database where drivers’ records can be accessed to verify drivers’ licenses. However, no matter how great the concept is, many are criticizing the concept as it may raise privacy issues, and/or lead to power abuse.
Find out what other cool things are being invented at FutureScienceNews.com now.
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