A MAN claims he has created a car that might solve the world’s traffic congestion problems. Rick Woodbury from Spokane, Washington USA, is the president, founder and sole employee of ‘Commuter Cars.’ The carmaker’s flagship model is the 2005 super slim two-seater Tango T600, a high-performance electric car that preceded Tesla. Rick told us: “I started this company 21 years ago – it was based on an idea that I came up with in 1982.” He was inspired by the shocking traffic congestion he had to face on a daily basis. “I used to drive a Porsche from Beverly Hills to Hermosa Beach every day and the traffic was horrendous,” explained Rick. What really made Rick think about a solution was the fact that in most of the cars he would see in his commute were occupied by lone drivers. “I noticed that everybody around me was a single occupant in a car, taking up the whole lane,” Rick said. Living and working in Los Angeles also helped inspire Rick’s unique creation. “I thought, everyone wants to get from point A to point B efficiently, and in cities like Los Angeles there’s really no centre, there’s no hub, everybody goes everywhere,” explained Rick. For him, there is a simple solution, and that is reducing the width that vehicles take up on the road so that 2 can fit comfortably in a single lane. “I don’t think there’s any other answer except doubling lane capacity,” said Rick. With a length of 102 inches this micro car can be parked just about anywhere, just like you would with a motorbike. Rick said: “The length is the same width of a semi-truck so I can park perpendicular to the curb.”The selling point of this vehicle is that it can drive in-between cars better than any other car. “The coolest feature for me to that it can get through traffic faster than any car in history,” said Rick. Much like a motorbike, the Tango T500 can drive right up to the stop line of traffic lights.
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MotorTranscript
00:00 The coolest feature to me is that it can get through traffic faster than any car in history.
00:04 We get so many reactions from people watching it, it's amazing.
00:08 Hi, I'm Rick Woodbury. I'm president and founder of Commuter Cars.
00:15 I started this company 21 years ago.
00:20 It was based on an idea that I came up with in 1982.
00:28 I used to drive a Porsche from Beverly Hills to Hormosa Beach every day and the traffic was
00:37 horrendous. And I noticed that everybody around me was a single occupant in a car,
00:41 taking up a whole lane. So I thought everybody wants to get from point A to point B efficiently.
00:46 And in cities like Los Angeles, there's really no centre, there's no hub,
00:50 it's just everybody goes everywhere. I don't think there's any other answer except doubling lane
00:56 capacity. This is the Tango Car, a super slim electric vehicle that has created Rick's answer
01:01 to congested city driving. Well, the coolest feature to me is that it can get through traffic
01:05 faster than any car in history. Same width as a Harley Davidson motorcycle. You just come up to
01:11 stoplight, but instead of waiting in line behind all the other cars, you just go right up the line
01:16 in between and you filter. On the inside, well, it's very comfortable. You're right in the centre
01:22 of the car. You're on the driver's side on both sides. So it's very convenient. You can look out
01:28 either window, you've got better visibility, you can see exactly what's happening around you.
01:32 You've got better visibility than any car I've ever had. You can fit two people. This has a
01:36 Momo steering wheel. This is actually used by race cars, the Motec Dash. Four-point shoulder
01:42 harness. The pilots of commercial aircraft use these exact harnesses. With a comfortable and
01:47 easy to drive interior, what is it like to drive a car like this? It handles really well. We know
01:53 it has a super low centre of gravity, being that it has a dry sump engine that's opposed, so it's
01:59 got a lower centre of gravity than just about any other car. I've had it up to 120 miles an hour,
02:04 so the length is 102 inches, the same width of a semi-truck, so it can park perpendicular to the
02:10 curb. This is the chassis, and this is the roll cage that is certified by FIA for a 200 mile an
02:23 hour race car. There's about four times more impact protection here than there is in a standard
02:28 production car. To me, this car is safer than any other car on the road, because it can avoid
02:33 accidents better than any other car. This has the same rollover threshold as a 911 Porsche.
02:37 It turns instantly, unlike a motorcycle, which has to counter-steer before it can turn to avoid
02:42 a collision. The Tango debuted in 2005, and after actor George Clooney bought one, the car became a
02:48 runaway success. Due to the nature of the build, the company can only produce a certain amount.
02:55 It took ten employees about three years to get nine and a half cars built, and this is number
03:00 ten. It's been quite a few more years, but also it's a lot more complicated. We've spent a couple
03:06 of years just developing the new lithium pack for this one, but there have been constant upgrades
03:12 over the years just to get the lithium batteries and the management systems to handle them.
03:16 This is the car that we sold to a customer in Perth, Australia, and it's in the process of
03:26 assembly, but mostly it's waiting on completion of the battery pack. The battery box is here.
03:31 This whole, the whole bottom of the car is battery. There's 90 kilowatt hours of battery in
03:35 there, which will give us about 300 miles of range. With all the work needed to create these slender
03:41 vehicles, the production costs can't be that cheap. These cars have cost an average of $420,000 each
03:47 to build. And unsurprisingly, out on the road, this car gets a lot of attention.
03:51 Hi, sure, of course. Yeah, this is so cool. You got this done. I'm so impressed with you.
04:04 We get so many reactions from people watching it. It's amazing. Sometimes we have two people,
04:08 both the driver and a passenger, both photographing the car as we're going down the highway.
04:12 Grabbed a lot of attention.