Green petite cars tempt tourists in southern Spain [BBC]
The narrow, cobbled streets of Cordoba in southern Spain are no place for a car, but Alfredo Romeo, a Spanish entrepreneur wanted to change that and set up a business with “blobjectsâ€, electric hire cars that are proving popular with tourists.
Romeo has been taken with the idea of blobjects ever since he heard technology guru Bruce Sterling discuss them in a speech.
Each Blobject car comes with a touch-screen computer system, based on open-source software, mounted in the dash. Through a USB port, you can plug in a flash drive containing information on Cordoba in Spanish, English or French.
By using GPS technology, the computer keeps track of exactly where you are in the city. When you pass a certain landmark, the computer then knows to display the appropriate text, audio and video information about that landmark on the screen.