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General Motors has sponsored an MIT Media Lab project to address “the last mile” of public transportation. The carbon-free, stackable, electric rental car will debut next week at the EICMA Motorcycle show in Milan. “The MIT group sees the vehicles as the linchpin in a strategy that aims to mitigate pollution with electric power, expand limited public space by folding and stacking vehicles like shopping carts, and alleviate congestion by letting people rent and return the vehicles to racks located near transportation hubs, such as train stations, airports, and bus depots,” Technology Review said. The issue with public transportation is that it’s great for getting you from point A, to point B, it just so happens to no one lives at either end. It’s that last mile that’s the tricky part. How do you get from the train station to your house when there’s no bus? That’s the problem GM is looking to tackle.  The Smart Cities group at the MIT Media Lab is working on two low-cost electric vehicles that it hopes will revolutionize mass transit and help alleviate pollution. Next week, the group will unveil a prototype of its foldable electric scooter at the EICMA Motorcycle Show, in Milan. A prototype for the team's foldable electric car, called the City Car, is slated to follow next year.
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