A team of students from the Eindhoven University of Technology has built a prototype electric car with a built-in toolbox and components that can be easily repaired or replaced without specialist knowledge.

cross-posted from: https://lazysoci.al/post/40677034

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/24122615

A team of students from the Eindhoven University of Technology has built a prototype electric car with a built-in toolbox and components that can be easily repaired or replaced without specialist knowledge.

The university’s TU/ecomotive group, which focuses on developing concepts for future sustainable vehicles, describes its ARIA concept as “a modular electric city car that you can repair yourself”.

ARIA, which stands for Anyone Repairs It Anywhere, is constructed using standardised components including a battery, body panels and internal electronic elements that can be easily removed and replaced if a fault occurs.

With assistance from an instruction manual and a diagnostics app that provides detailed information about the car’s status, users should be able to carry out their own maintenance using only the tools in the car’s built-in toolbox, the TU/ecomotive team claimed.

  • 474D@lemmy.worldEnglish
    10·
    6 days ago

    Pretty great concept but my immediate concern is how feasible it is to get this type of car street legal. Like, is safety being compromised to fit a modular design? A single central body is pretty important for surviving highway speed accidents.

    • Mucki@feddit.orgEnglish
      3·
      5 days ago

      That is not the students’ task I guess. That should and will be done by the industry. The concept could possibly be adapted to an existing electric car platform (chassis, frame,…).

      My guess is that some company will buy them out and bury the plans.

    • Gsus4@mander.xyzOPEnglish
      3·
      6 days ago

      I was imagining that the chassis is one piece, but everything else is diy: battery, motor, etc. Most cars these days are technically diy, because any mechanic can fix them without asking the manufacturer, but manufacturers don’t seem to like it.

  • wieson@feddit.orgEnglish
    4·
    5 days ago

    And it doesn’t look like a fucking toaster but more like a golf 4. Huge plus for me. It’s actually car shaped

      • P00ptart@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        6 days ago

        I wish more vehicles had scissor doors. Here in America the giant trucks always wind up parking way too fucking close.