Today, while browsing the web, I came across an interesting article about cars! Since I really love cars and I try to keep myself most up to date with the latest cars, I found this article quite striking to me.

Meet the Urbee

Although that video was posted in 2011, it gives a general background on the Urbee. Engineer Jim Kor has successfully used 3D printing to print the Urbee. The mechanism behind 3D printing is that makes a three dimensional object or shape from a digital model. What’s so special about making this Urbee through 3D printing is that can printer can add thickness and rigidity to specific sections of the car that you want focused on. However, the 3D printing of the Urbee takes approximately 2500 hours to complete. In my opinion, I think 2500 hours to print a single car is highly inefficient, but is a starting for the future of manufacturing cars. According to Jim, 3D printing could revolutionize the way we are currently producing cars, which is typically through an assembly line with robotic arms doing all the welding and such, by having a warehouse of plastic spraying printers producing “light, cheap, and highly efficient automobiles.”

I think the design and values of the Urbee is going is great, as it’s trying to be eco-friendly and trying to be practical using 3D printers. However, my problem is that I wish it would look more like an ordinary car, like a typical sedan, as I feel that a car with that size does not look very safe to me if a car accident is to happen.

For instance, the Tesla, a brand of premium electric cars just clique with me since it’s eco-friendly (all electric car), is a sedan, and seems a lot more safer to drive in.

If the Urbee was to go on the market anytime soon, I would definitely not buy it at a cost of $50,000 (estimated cost of the Urbee prototype) as I feel that is just way too expensive for a car of that size and specifications. Even though it is a very eco-friendly car (or that’s what its vision is), I’d much rather get a Toyota Prius with an MSRP of approximately $26,100. Also, if I really wanted a small car, I’d even look at the MINI’s, Smart, and Fiat, all which I could buy for less than $50,000. If they really wanted the Urbee to enter the already competitive automobile market, I believe they need to rethink the most obvious: its price.