Heatherwick's autonomous EV concept also cleans up polluted city air

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By Matthew Griffin Future Transport 30th July 2021

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

Turning our cars into a giant network of air purifiers might help move the dial on urban pollution …

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Recently Elon Musk launched a $100 Million XPRIZE with the aim to encourage entrepreneurs everywhere to develop new ways to capture Carbon Dioxide from the air with the objective of eliminating the gases harmful effects on the climate. Now, getting one step closer to that vision London-based Heatherwick Studio has unveiled its concept for the Airo electric car for IM Motors that will “vacuum up pollutants from other cars.”

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Revealed today at the Shanghai Motor Show, the vehicle for newly formed Chinese car brand IM Motors was designed by Heatherwick Studio as its first car.

Named Airo, the electric car will be fitted with a HEPA – high-efficiency particulate air – filtering system that will actively clean pollution. It will have both autonomous and driver-controlled modes.

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“Airo isn’t simply another electric car that doesn’t pollute the air,” said Thomas Heatherwick, founder of Heatherwick Studio.”Instead, using the latest HEPA-filter technology, it goes further by also vacuuming up pollutants from other cars as it drives along.”

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The car has been designed with a flexible interior with rotating seats so that it can be reconfigured into a “multi-functional room.” With the seats facing each other a four-leaf table can be unfolded to create a dining space or a screen extended to watch films or play games.

The car’s interior can also be turned into a bedroom, a little like the autonomous travel suite concept I discussed a while ago, as the contoured seats fully recline to create a double bed. In this mode, the glass roof can be made opaque using the “latest technology” to create a private space.

“Designed to simultaneously address the global space shortage, Airo is also a multi-functional room with extra space for dining, working, gaming or even sleeping,” said Heatherwick.

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“As a new room for our lives, with a changing view, Airo is  a car intended to transport us to a cleaner and better future.”

Alongside the car, Heatherwick Studio has also designed a charging station that it describes as “oozing with character”. These curved stations will be built from weathered steel and have a retractable wire for charging.

The car, which is set to go into production in 2023, was designed for IM Motors – a car brand created by Chinese car company SAIC Motor, online retailer Alibaba Group and the Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Group.

Matthew Griffin / About Author

Described by NASA as a "Walking Encyclopaedia of the Future" and one of the world’s most in demand keynote speakers Matthew Griffin, Founder and Futurist in Chief of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures advisory firm, is a multi-award winning Futurist and strategic foresight expert, author, lecturer, mentor, podcast and YouTube host.

With a distinguished career running global business units at Atos, EMC, and IBM today Matthew helps leaders and titans of industry from all over the world explore the impact of the inter sections of technology, culture, and leadership, then helps them create high performance organisations that can continuously disrupt, outpace, and outthink their competition.

15 times author of the hit series the Codex of the Future series Matthew's ability to identify, track, and explain the impacts of hundreds of emerging technologies and trends on global business, culture, and society has earned him a powerful reputation and a roster of clients that include royal households, world leaders across the G7, G20, and G77, and many of the world's most recognised and exceptional organisations including ABB, Accenture, ABN Amro, Adidas, AON, ARM, BCG, Centrica, Citi Group, Coca Cola, Deloitte, Dentons, Disney, Dow, EY, Google, KPMG, Lego, Microsoft, Legal & General, LinkedIn, Nokia, Paramount, PepsiCo, PWC, Qualcomm, RWE, Samsung, T-Mobile, UBS, Visa, WIRED, WPP and hundreds of others.

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