Meet Autonomo, the half-width autonomous car that just might foreshadow the next generation of personal mobility in crowded cities.

Able to split a lane and equipped with object recognition sensors, Autonomo relies on the principles of swarm robotics to quickly move as many vehicles as possible in the smallest available space. Like schools of fish, groups of Autonomos could quickly move in tandem to maximize free space on a highway.

The project is the brainchild of Charles Rattray, a design student in Melbourne, Australia who first saw the need for a whole new kind of car after living in Los...