Palla moped, Shanghai street, late September 2024 (ironically, perhaps not even electric?)

Small Vehicles of Shanghai — DeepSeeking the city (1/3)

How cheap, open, distributed and diverse systems, like the electric motor, could transform the bruteforced city and our approach to AI, via the possibility of ‘intermediate technologies with a human face’.

Part 1 of 3. This first part explored how Shanghai’s streets are co-produced via diverse and inventive arrays of everyday small vehicles. The second describes their alternative, the bruteforced Australian and American cities. The third explores the alternative; that is, metaphorically at least, DeepSeeking the City, bringing together design, culture, technology and urbanism. This is in itself number three in an occasional series, following Small Vehicles of Tokyo and Small Vehicles of Sandham, and preceding the forthcoming Small Vehicles of Bangkok. These are part of my series exploring technology and the city, But What Was The Question?

“The device is so efficient that it can take the place of three men; moreover, it is safe and steady when passing along dangerous places (cliff paths, etcetera). Ways which are as winding as the bowels of a sheep will not defeat it.”

This being an observation about Chinese small vehicles, perhaps it’s only in choosing the…