GoCar is a two-seater, 3 wheeled vehicle that runs with a 49cc size scooter engine. It is legally classed as a scooter to drive on the roads. The GoCars were created with the purpose of being rented to tourists as a different way to see a city.

GoCar Attributes

GoCars run with a 49cc Scooter engine, made by Trigger Technics BV of

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...

, in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. GoCars have an integrated audio

GPS system The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of the global navigation satellite sy ...

which runs through the patented navigation software "FoundAround". This allows the cars to give driving instructions to passengers around specific routes, at the same time as providing a tour guide-style commentary around a city. The tour is played to the passengers through two 4-inch speakers inside the Gocar. The software is custom designed for GPS Tour creation and uses a "Tour Logic" to render to the user pertinent, contextual information. The

fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cloth ...

-bodied cars are 92 inches long and weigh 380 pounds. For registration purposes, the vehicle is considered a motorcycle, but because it has three wheels, it can be driven by anyone with a regular Class D

Driver's license A driver's license is a legal authorization, or the official document confirming such an authorization, for a specific individual to operate one or more types of motorized vehicles—such as motorcycles, cars, trucks, or buses—on a public ...

. According to the

California Department of Motor Vehicles The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) is the state agency that registers motor vehicles and boats and issues driver licenses in the U.S. state of California. It regulates new car dealers (through the New Motor Vehicle Board), com ...

, they are approved for use on surface streets, but can't be driven on

freeway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms ...

s or roads where the top speed is 45 mph.

History

The GoCar Concept was conceived, developed and created by Nathan Withrington and Alasdair Clements in 2003 and the tour service was launched in April 2004

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, United States. The software that drives the GoCar tour was

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

ed in 2005. GoCars started being used as modes of transport available to rent in April 2004 by the company "GoCar Rentals Inc.". The company then became a

franchise Franchise may refer to: Business and law * Franchising, a business method that involves licensing of trademarks and methods of doing business to franchisees * Franchise, a privilege to operate a type of business such as a cable television p ...

and soon opened in

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

and

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

. GoCar has since expanded into

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, launching in 2008 in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

and

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

, followed by

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...

in 2009 and

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

in 2010.

The Concept

The routes are created in order to navigate tourists around the largest places of interest that the city has to offer. The "FoundAround" software allows whatever type of

commentary Commentary or commentaries may refer to: Publications * ''Commentary'' (magazine), a U.S. public affairs journal, founded in 1945 and formerly published by the American Jewish Committee * Caesar's Commentaries (disambiguation), a number of works ...

to be added along the tour, from informative sound bites to jokes and music, all in a number of different

language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...

s. The GoCar plays each

audio file An audio file format is a file format for storing digital audio data on a computer system. The bit layout of the audio data (excluding metadata) is called the audio coding format and can be uncompressed, or compressed to reduce the file size, ofte ...

when it passes through one of the pre-recorded GPS trigger points along the tours, travelling in the default direction of the tour. Each audio file has its own unique trigger point along the tour to ensure that the correct file is played throughout the duration of the tour. If the GoCar defects from the route, the GPS will pass through a trigger point that plays a track notifying the driver that they have left the tour, and giving an instruction to return to the tour if the driver so wishes.

References

{{Reflist Motor scooters