Unveiling of Pollution-Eating Car
Vehicle Can Be Used for All Purposes, Eat, Sleep, Work and Entertain When Not Being Driven
A new vehicle has been designed to remove the pollution from the surrounding air as it drives along on the road, and its prototype has been shown to the public during the Goodwood Festival of Speed. The pollution-eating car has been created by Thomas Heatherwick, who is a British designer, and it is currently being hoped that the Airo would be going into production in the year 2023 by China, with the plan to make about a million units.
The radical design of the pollution-eating car is with the intention to address not only the issue of increasing pollution in our environment but would also help in solving the issue of the ‘space crisis’. The critics are not yet completely convinced that it would not be able to become more than just a concept vehicle.
Despite being able to give a unique design to the newer version of the iconic Routemaster bus of London, Thomas Heatherwick is publicly known for his architectural projects, such as the headquarters of Google located in London and California.
He said that while he had never once designed an automobile before, he was intrigued by this brief option of designing a pollution-eating car. When he grew up, the design valued used to be manifested through vehicles, whether it be a Ford Sierra in the decade of 1980s or the Fiat Panda; some of the majorly unique ideas were able to emerge through automobiles.
He also said that when IM Motors approached him from China, his firm said that they are not designers for cars, but the company said that this is the reason they were contacting him.
Interior design of pollution-eating car
The pollution-eating car, which was initially shown to the public at the Shanghai car show in the month of April. The car has a large rood made of glass, and the interior design is made to look like a living room and has been installed with adjustable chairs that has the feature to be converted into beds if desired, and the table in the center is placed for the intension to conduct meals or meetings without hassle.
The hidden steering wheel in the dashboard of the pollution-eating car, while the exterior of the vehicle is textured with a series of ridges and ripples for added impression.
Thomas Heatherwich said that the car manufacturing firms are falling over themselves for the production of electric vehicles, but the newly developed electric vehicles should not be just another similar car with a slightly different exterior design, and they want innovation in styling. Long with requiring to reflect the airflow over the vehicle in the ridged exterior designing, the front grill is to be fitted with an air filter that would be able to collect particulate matter of about the worth of a tennis ball per year.
This might sound a lot of quantity, but imagine a tennis ball that is stuck inside your lungs and is contributing towards the cleaning of air, and by having about a million units of the pollution-eating car across China alone, then it adds up.
By incorporation of this innovative technology, they are going up towards the next stage of development. The pollution-eating car has been planned to have both modes of autonomous driving and driver-controlled vehicle.
Contribution to the environment
The professor of business and sustainability at the center for automotive industry research by the Cardiff Business, Peter Wells, said that he is unable to see the contribution expected from this car for resolving the multiple problems that are associated with the ownership and usage of a car.
The contribution which would be made by this pollution-eating car is to help clean the increasingly polluted urban city centers, but it would be so small and almost impossible to be measured.
It would become evident almost immediately if a comparison is to be made between the amount of air that is likely to pass through the air filters installed in the car with the air volume of the atmosphere.
The second idea that is big behind the designing of the pollution-eating car is an alternative car space for the owner to utilize. Due to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, the space crisis has become raised. As many of the people are living in apartments or houses and require further space for a separate study or office. The car designer was inspired by first-class seats in an aircraft that are used to eat, sleep, work, and even entertainment. Due to this, the car could be converted into a communal space for times when it is not being driven.