Foldable Cars: How Kent Larson and POLITICO’s “What Works” Are Reimagining Urban Mobility
A special thanks to POLITICO Magazine for including this topic in their What Works: Urban Innovators series. This ongoing project spotlights leaders who are challenging the status quo and developing creative solutions to urban challenges. One of those leaders is Kent Larson, a scientist whose work in mechatronics—the fusion of computing, engineering, and robotics—is reshaping the way we think about cities, transportation, and sustainable living.
The Challenge of Urban Living
Cities are growing faster than ever. According to UN data, over 55% of the world’s population lives in urban areas today, a figure projected to climb to nearly 70% by 2050. That growth puts enormous strain on infrastructure, housing, and transportation. Space becomes a premium commodity—especially in dense city centers—forcing urban planners and innovators to rethink how people live and move.
At the same time, car ownership continues to rise. Traditional vehicles take up a disproportionate amount of space for the number of people they carry, and they sit unused most of the time. Parking is scarce and expensive. Traffic congestion leads to lost time, wasted fuel, and increased emissions. For cities already dealing with poor air quality and climate commitments, the status quo is unsustainable.
Enter Kent Larson
Kent Larson leads the City Science research group at the MIT Media Lab. His team explores how advanced technology can make cities more livable, efficient, and adaptable. The idea is simple but powerful: use innovation to do more with less—less space, less energy, and fewer resources.
Larson’s work spans everything from driverless ride-share systems to foldable cars and transformable apartments. His vision is not limited to technology; it’s about designing systems that make sustainable choices the most convenient, attractive, and practical options available.
“The challenge is really public acceptance and education. People don’t like change,” Larson says. “But when technology improves quality of life, change becomes easier to embrace.”
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Foldable Car Concept
First of all, the foldable car isn’t science fiction. That’s because it’s a real prototype developed by Larson’s team. Officially known as the CityCar or Hiriko, it’s a small, electric vehicle designed specifically for urban use. Unlike traditional cars, it can fold its chassis to reduce its length by about a third, making it far easier to park in tight spaces. This innovation could allow several foldable cars to fit into a single conventional parking spot.
The vehicle is also fully electric, reducing emissions and noise pollution. Its lightweight design makes it more energy-efficient, and it’s optimized for short, intra-city trips rather than long highway drives. In theory, fleets of foldable cars could be deployed in shared mobility programs, reducing the need for private car ownership and freeing up valuable urban space for parks, bike lanes, and pedestrian areas.
Rethinking Housing: The City Home
Larson’s innovations extend beyond transportation. His City Home concept is a transformable apartment system that uses architectural robotics—sliding walls, hidden storage, retractable beds—to change room layouts at the push of a button. A single space can shift from a living room to a dining room to a bedroom, depending on the resident’s needs.
In cities where square footage is expensive, this approach could allow people to live comfortably in smaller apartments without sacrificing functionality. When paired with foldable cars, the vision is a more compact, efficient, and sustainable urban lifestyle.
Morph City: Seeing Innovation in Action
POLITICO’s Morph City segment in the What Works series dives into Larson’s projects, showing how these designs work in real-world scenarios. The video demonstrates how small changes—like switching to foldable cars or transformable homes—can have outsized impacts on urban efficiency, sustainability, and quality of life.
Overcoming Public Resistance
Even the most brilliant ideas face hurdles. People are accustomed to the familiar—traditional cars, static apartments, predictable city layouts. Shifting to foldable cars and robotic apartments requires not just technological development but cultural change. Larson emphasizes the need for public education, pilot projects, and real-world demonstrations to build trust.
Cities that have successfully introduced disruptive technologies—such as bike-share systems or pedestrian-only zones—often start with small-scale experiments, then expand as public support grows.
The Sustainability Equation
From an environmental perspective, foldable cars could help reduce a city’s carbon footprint in several ways:
- Lower Emissions: Being electric, they produce no tailpipe emissions.
- Reduced Congestion: Smaller size means more efficient use of road space.
- Shared Mobility: If used in car-sharing fleets, fewer cars overall would be needed.
- Parking Efficiency: More compact vehicles reduce the amount of land devoted to parking lots.
When paired with renewable energy charging stations, foldable cars could be part of a fully clean urban transport network.
Global Relevance
These urban challenges aren’t limited to just one region in the world. From New York to Tokyo, from São Paulo to Paris. That’s because cities face similar constraints. For example, growing populations, rising real estate costs, and pressing climate goals. Foldable cars and transformable housing solutions could be adapted to different cultural and geographic contexts. It’s helping cities worldwide become more livable.
Looking Ahead
Larson’s vision of the future includes networks of autonomous, foldable electric vehicles integrated with dynamic, adaptable living spaces. Imagine a city where your commute is in a small, silent, self-driving car that folds neatly away when parked, and your apartment shifts effortlessly to suit your activities throughout the day.
Such a future won’t happen overnight. It will require collaboration among designers, engineers, policymakers, and the public. But as POLITICO’s What Works series shows, innovators like Kent Larson are already laying the groundwork.
Check out Larson’s groundbreaking innovations in ‘Morph City’, the latest in POLITICO’s What Works: Urban Innovators video series.
What Works: Urban Innovators and explore more about Kent Larson’s projects at MIT.
Conclusion: The Future of Urban Living Is Foldable
The Hiriko CityCar and innovations like it prove that urban mobility doesn’t have to be a compromise between convenience and sustainability. By shrinking parking footprints, reducing emissions, and integrating seamlessly into shared mobility systems, foldable cars offer a clear path toward cleaner, less congested cities.
Paired with transformable apartments such as City Home, these solutions tackle two of the biggest urban challenges. That’s transport and space. It also comes without sacrificing comfort or accessibility. They represent a future where every square foot counts. So therefore, every design choice moves us closer to a livable, climate-friendly city.
The shift won’t happen overnight. But innovators like Kent Larson continue to merge advanced technology with human-centered design. Therefore, the possibilities for sustainable urban living become not only imaginable—but achievable. Cities that embrace these ideas today will also be the ones setting the global standard for resilience and innovation tomorrow.
