A Streetcar Named Hyundai

A STREETCAR NAMED HYUNDAI.

A Streetcar Named Hyundai is a world first initiative from Hyundai Motor UK that involves driving, photographing and filming over 2,000 miles of central London’s streets as defined by the world-famous cabbie ‘Knowledge’. The drive will be undertaken in the Hyundai ix35 Fuel Cell – a car that emits nothing but water and is the world’s first commercially-available hydrogen fuel cell car – and it will create the first ever single mosaic image of up to 650,000 street pictures, and a 200.5 second time lapse video of the whole journey.  This will mark Hyundai’s journey from 2005.

The 50 day journey will be undertaken in a zero emission hydrogen fuel cell car, mapped by the Ordnance Survey team responsible for the Olympic torch route and completed by Hyundai employees. It launches on 29th September and runs to 19th November 2015.  More information can be found at www.astreetcarnamedhyundai.com.

Hyundai is creating entirely new software to capture the drive. This software will control the camera shutter, based on the car’s speed, distance travelled and angle of travel to capture the entire journey photographically. The camera will take pictures every 6-7 metres delivering an estimated 650,000 images – that’s 8,000,000MB of data.  The images will be woven into a world-first photo mosaic and a time lapse video. A bespoke software engine will also sequence, align and blend the images in real time creating a continuous image that will be available online at the end of the challenge.

The final eight x two metre mosaic image will be exhibited to the public in London’s City Hall after the challenge has been completed.

Matthew Pencharz, Deputy Mayor for Environment and Energy, said: “I am thrilled with Hyundai’s progress in bringing fuel cell vehicles to the streets of London and I’m looking forward to seeing the results of their latest venture in the fantastic mosaic.

“As we look towards the introduction of the world’s first Ultra Low Emission Zone; hydrogen vehicles can play a huge role in improving air quality and reducing carbon emissions in our city, all of which supports our goal of protecting the health of Londoners, and lengthening our lead as the greatest city on earth.”