Kent Larson: Brilliant designs to fit more people in every city 

All the people you describe use bikes on a daily basis in bicycle friendly cities around the world. I happen to live in Amsterdam, and there's ladies in pencil skirts riding bikes (although yes, pencil skirts are less popular because of the biking; but changing a cities infrastructure to allow women to wear pencil skirts is not good policy). My boss is pregnant and she bikes to work. All my ladyfriends bike with high-heels. Elderly who are not fit have an electric wheelchair for bike lanes.

A vehicle useable on bike lanes, accesible to buisinessmen, women in skirts and the elderly, already exists; it's called, 'the bicycle'.

I love stuff like this. So cool, innovative, creative, and, like he said: Solving problems that don't exist yet. Depth of vision is an admirable thing.

Love the ideas from towards the end of the video. If they can do those things now, I want them now!

These are the talks that make me love Ted, one day I'll see it live n__n

Solvin' complex problems with more complexity!

I do like much of what Kent Larson have to say however I strongly believe that congesting bike lanes with all sorts of autonomous electric vehicles does not solve obesity, congestion or energy issues. If anything ti can only move them to another dimension.

This was so far my favorite Ted talk so far this year.

These are the type of things that make me excited fro the future, not robots that do our job for us, but people making things for people to make human other existential natural life better.

In short; don't think so much of bicycling; you can be old, pregnant and/or sexy even while cycling. It's a great lifestyle if there's well connected and safe infrastructure.

"I think you need to build dumb homes and put smart stuff in them". Genius.

thank you for a brilliant video, this has really inspired me to be smarter in design and not just design because it's pretty.

I do agree that his solution seems to draw ever more on energy use. Just about everything in the small customizable apartment has to use electricity. Perhaps if tiny Thorium plants could be at the center of every 20-min walk radius^2 if would be feasible. The problem at that point is what sort of jobs are going to be available to pack so many people into small spaces?

I believe the idea is to have shared use. And that would mean that you don't need to get a specific car. You just need to get any car. That way there is no issue with cars being in the way of eachother.

I think its meant to be used in the case of shared vehicles. Your'e not going for one specific car, your'e just going for the first car you can reach.

That kind of makes sense. Still, one problem is someone needs to make sure all of those cars are serviced and roadworthy; and whose going to pay? Some car's service will be more expensive than others. But I get your point; I can see it working, but it would become very complicated I think.

Can you build a city so I can go live in? Love it.

3:55 Why is the sign backwards but the writing on the pavillion isn't?

I went to a pillow fight, I was released from prison just now. Apparently suffocation was "not the intended method of pillow fighting." I scored 18 kills though, so I won at least. :/

show a demo of how that mini auto works on winter roads , like where the snowploughs come by . or the steep city winter streets , where's the studded tires.

Although I strongly support decentralization, this is a great idea to start working with a cell structure, to make a big blob many minor districts within an area, it seems to take away several of the negative aspects related to living in crowded cities. It seems some misunderstand what it told here, they work on a solution to handle overcrowded cities where more people try to get in an already full area, by using the areas better we can remove the feeling of living as fish in a barrel.

Some great ideas. However in Holland we had those shared cars and bikes. Didn't work though. People rather use other means of transport and there was a lot of vandalising :( The adaptable homes could work.. I'd rent one for sure

Fantastic ideas. I love the future!

it does not charge itself! (@8:51) it might plug into the power net or put up a solar umbrella...

AMAZING! But shouldn't the picture at 5:11 say 1 mile diameter?

The main concern i have with high population density is noise pollution from neighbours and traffic. There's going to have to be some revolutionary new materials to absorb sound energy of all frequencies which can fit into a thin wall.

Although I'd like to see how they make these concepts affordable enough for the general population, but it will probably work, much like the plummeting price of digital storage and the like.

It's call canberra in the act that is a small cell city. It's strange driving from one town to the next.

I understand what you mean, don't worry. As much as it is a very valid point, it is also important to remember that even with jobs of all sorts available there is still lack of jobs. Many people in the lower spectrum of the economy have to deal with this way too often. People want to work, even if it is in a McDonalds or as a janitor to work an honest living, but it is hard even then. The amount of jobs per person is in a very small percentage, and it is being proven more and more that the

they could simply add a system of number plates or even just a thumb scanner and you register the vehicle as yours for a select amount of time..

All of this can be done using synthetic materials. My car uses 100% synthetic oil for lubrication. Tires and paint can be made out of latex. Plastics can be made from cellulose and starch. These are all thing we currently have the technology to do.

Its an autonomous system. Pick any car, the one right infront of you will do, then drive off. For parking, you get off at one point, and the car parks itself. Thats what autonomous is. Saves space.

The cars are meant for shared use... so the cars on the perimeters will get used first.

In storage for wintertime like most peoples winter tyres are :)

It's like a bus, or one of the bicycles in the row he showed earlier. It's somewhat inconvenient, but workable.

7:48 show the city car

Put bristles on the bottom of the moving wall, and viola, self sweeping floors.

I'm worried he's not thinking through the house with robotic walls. There's airflow and chemical smells in the air, your food preparation air space would essentially be the same air as your bedroom, insects could get trapped in machinery and mount up, electrical maintenance would be needed more often, having your stuff on shelves that auto-fold away would be a pain to move. There's lots more variables to think about.

We just need people, to DO those things.

Fantastic! I agree but this is not the final solution. There are many things to think........Eng. Dabiruddin

he states that most of the tech is available today. its only a matter of the city developers and planners to utilize them. some ARE applied these days just not in the multitude he is suggesting.

Consider that there will be other cars/bikes/apartments using the same technology. If everybody had the same car how would you find yours if you left it in front of the supermarket?

The first issue is policing highrises. So many people in such small areas means concentrated problems.

Beautiful ideas

how much is one of those folding cars if I want one as a POV?

The main problem with overcrowding in cities is how we manage the amount of time we have in one day. I don't know how it is in Europe or Asia, but in the Americas only a small fraction of businesses stay open 24/7. Think about it... if everything were open 24/7, you could have at least two work shifts, resulting in separate rush hour times, effectively cutting human presence at any time of the day by half. Such system is being deployed in Sweden, we'll see how it pans out.

I'd live, study, and work in one of his city-scaped designs.

0:15 Enjoy.

Detroit is beautiful this time of year.

Shared transport, meaning you just pick a car and get in it. Though typically people don't like to hare so I don't think it'd work so well

That was my concern also. Sure if you're going to 1 place, great. Any more than that and there's the problem.

I view it as presenting a superior design and letting people choose. The transition to a society most people would call utopian today should happen like this: a city is planned out, the project made public. People who want to work on the project join and try to make it work. Others look, and if they see if it suits them, they join in! No forcing people into anything - at least that's what the venus project says :)

Jobs/Work needs to be addressed. We continue to work for peanuts at things that, in the grand scheme of things, are pointless and accelerate the destruction of ourselves and our environment. That has to change. This whole talk is based around the idea that we'll continue in our current direction for another 100 years, which is very unlikely. The modern city is all about money and selling services, again something which has out lived its purpose and usefulness.

AMAZING!

Understandable. But look up countries that are running out of space. There are approximately 30 countries with 300 people per sq km and most of them don't have the financial backing to employ this alternative technology. Secondly, the purpose of car they have designed doesn't address the problem as well as you think. Yes you can get 2 people with minimal cargo from a to b and park in tight spaces but it is a HIGH DENSITY AREA.. the car isn't efficient enough like the people movers they have now.

Jacque Fresco's circular cities woooh!

great work!

Very interesting but it doesn't address two key issues. What do we do about existing infrastructure (we can't exactly demolish our current cities) and what do we do about medium distance, 100 miles say, travel for which we currently need our own full sized car.

I like how there are a lot of supportive comments rather than the usual trolling.

Easy access and energy efficiency.

the subtitles are not that accurate.

Yeah, that was what I was thinking.

00:16 Great

Shared-autonomous cars is the future of transportation in modern cities. In future cities there will be no need for cars.

I like it! Nice talk!

We need more Hong Kongs, that's it!

it looks very much like the Venus Project (zeitgeist)

not sure, but I think he was talking about "sharing" vehicles . He didn't go in depth though so I don't know how that works.

100% man. It's crazy but true. My mom said the exact same thing as you ;D I just enjoy winding them up lol ;D it is very sad but at least there isn't as many of them now. They will slowly die out, with a little bit of faith.(y)

Having robots doing a lot of the labor jobs (construction, garbage collection, custodial, secretarial for example) will allow others to pursue higher and more complicated fields like medicine and sciences. Or for those who prefer arts can focus on music or acting careers. When you have robotic labor, less money is required to run these facilities and people will have more freedom to do things they want. I'm not doing a very good job explaining, but I hope you get what I mean.

Amount matters. We need to build a lot of homes and a lot of transit. The most important tech is in the building to make enough cheap enough that living and traveling become affordable. Then the real limit is zoning and regulation- getting permits to build things.

8:45

I want this house and car.

You take one of the cars on the outside. They're publicly shared cars, so it's not as though you have to get to a particular car.

During WW2 Germany was blockaded and they relied on synthetic oil technology to continue their war effort.I think they used rapeseed oil and other stuff so the technology isn't new and I believe Rudolf Diesel designed his motors to run on peanut oil or something similar-certainly not petroleum or petroleum by products.So it's not cutting edge stuff.A bit like the electric car-it's old technology that hasn't been developed probably in some part due to the oil business..

This is awesome!

If you need to be able to leave things in the car you can instead install lockers next to parking where you can leave stuff.

Good point.

I live in Melbourne :P

amazing.

yes,i agree

I could not imagine a way to live a more miserable life. I'm just fine with the place i live, lovely village, house along a canal, (glad I got out of the city) working in the tech industry in a nearby city 30 mins bike ride away... got all the stores and services i could need 20 mins away oh, and the bike route to work has just 8(!) crossings with cars, even though it goes right past the city center. Half of that route is right along the canal as well, beautiful and relaxing ride to work. Internet is top notch, should i ever get a car i have access to the highway in less then 5 minutes. Really don't know what else to mention... When it comes to whatever you'd want in housing, you name it, i got it... on minimum wage. I don't see why people are so desperate to move to the cities, when just outside it works just as well.

I like some of the ideas but not all of them..some of these complex systems won’t work for all..energy efficiency and shared public spaces and vehicles r good initiatives and can be done easily anywhere♻️♻️

Well done! Isn't what he was proposing what china is already doing with city sprawl? There are different cities close together ... We can't have small towns anymore because of the global population. We need solutions for sure but assuming that medieval Paris is a good model for our current population seems idealistic. It's about the people like you said, so we need to ask them what they want and go from there first not sci-fi books.

16:20

wow this is amazing

This is so cool.

Great job, I like it.

I love the wonderful circularity of your argument. It has a certain beauty about it. There was a time that I didn't banter with theists about religion. I thought everybody paid at least some pittance of concern to the inner logic of their arguments before they brought them forward. And here the internet is, teaching me a lesson yet again. Also, I find it hilarious that, if I were popular, that would be sufficient for you to send me $10. Keep digging yourself a hole.

That is pretty damn cool.

This is what the LIKE button was created for. Things like this are meant to be liked and shared.

Your sarcasm is duly noted.

Hayek's fatal conceit: Central planners want to do good. They learn a lot in universities and then want to apply that knowledge to make the world a better place. But their plans may only be implemented by force, since at least many people don't want to follow their plans. And the central planners can never have the information they would need in order to do a good job. The knowledge tends to be highly distributed. Free markets tend to do a better job because they tap in to this dist. kn.

I understand what you mean, yes it's so true unless unless food , education are free, imganine if your parent is poor, if the education is not cheap or free, then all simple things like cashier job, waitress, are being done by robot , then how can I pay for my tuition ? or even how could I pay my rent room ? can you answer that ?

0:15

Much more optimal than his suggestion in my opinion. Disabled people might not be able to ride bicycles, so I would suggest they buy one of his contraptions. All non-disabled people (a minority, I'm sure) could ride the bike.

I like that little fucking fold-up car.

The future is teach people to want what they need.

Do laws enforce your plans? I look up the Venus Project. Thanks for the idea.

Order often arises spontaneously. Ever see the recent experiment they did in England? They turned off the traffic lights at an intersection and measured the results. Traffic got through faster than with the lights and their were fewer accidents due to mutual accommodation. But roads used to be built as toll roads with private owners. This is better. Local developers should build the streets to people's houses, not the govt.