Campus Ideaz

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AutoVac - Turning every road clean and green

Problem:

India's urban roads face a persistent crisis problem of litter and micro-waste: plastic wrappers, paper, leaves, dust, and small debris.Despite municipal street sweepers , these machines cannot cover every street daily. Grabage builds up, blocking drains, creating pollution, and worsening the urban environment.

Current solutions ( street sweepers, manual cleaning) are:

  • Slow and costly - Require municipal workers and fuel-intensive machines.
  • Infrequent - Only main roads get cleaned, leaving bylanes and residential streets ignored.
  • Ineffiicient - Miss smaller debris like wrappers, cigarette butts,  or microplastics.

The Idea: AutoVac

A smart vaccum attachment that mounts beneath vehicles to collect road debris passsively while driving. AutoVac transforms commuters into contirbutors to cleaner cities.

It's Core Mechanism:

  • Low-clearance suction skirt under the vehicle.
  • Electric-powered suction system (quiet, efficient).
  • Filtered debris chamber with easy clean design.
  • Sensors to prevent clogging or ingesting large objects.
  • Whether it's a daily office trip or a weekend drive, every car helps clean the streets with zero extra-effort.

 Market Gap:

  1. Street sweepers are limited and operate on main roads.
  2. Manual labor is expensive, slow, and inconsistent.
  3. Micro-waste is often ignored.
  4. AutoVac fills the gap by using sheer volume of urban vehicles, over 40 million people in Indian cities can handle micro-waste in real time. 

Who benefits?

  1. Governments: Reduced cleaning costs , improved sanitation.
  2. Automakers: Green branding, ESG alignment.
  3. Citizens: Passive participation in Swachh Bharat, cleaner surrrounding.

 Why this problem matters to me:

I see so much garbage on the roads every day, and it makes our cities look dirty and messy. I always wondered why we can’t clean as we go. That’s why I think AutoVac is a cool idea. It lets cars help clean the streets while just driving like normal.

AutoVac is a citizen-tech solution that makes every driver part of the solution without changing their behaviour. It's about democratizing cleaniless making sustainable impact accessible and scalable.

Ultimate goal: Validate at small scale, refine design and develop regulatory and municipal partnerships for broader rollout.

Votes: 20
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Comments

  • I personally think your idea makes cleanliness effortless by turning every car into a mini street-cleaner! And I love how it empowers ordinary citizens to contribute to cleaner cities just by driving. It’s simple, scalable, and perfectly aligned with sustainable urban living.
  • AutoVac is a brilliant, low-effort solution that turns everyday driving into a powerful tool for cleaner, greener cities. Great job!!
  • E-Cell
    This is a really smart idea! To make it practical at scale, the machine should be durable enough for rough roads, easy to maintain so users aren’t burdened, and energy-efficient so it doesn’t drain the vehicle’s power. These points could make adoption smoother and ensure long-term impact.
  • This is a very thoughtful idea and should be implied because India genuinely could use clean roads, so quite a thoughtful idea.
  • Really like this approach-practical, scalable, and citizen-driven. It’s great how AutoVac empowers people to contribute just by going about their routine. The key challenge I see is user convenience in cleaning the filter chamber, but if that’s solved, the impact could be huge.
  • Very smart solution, and also a very important problem in india! This has the potential to get rid of the pollution in the roads, one challenge would be getting everyone to use the AutoVac and pay for them.
  • Your idea tackles a real, visible problem with a creative citizen-driven approach. However, challenges include retrofitting costs, power consumption, maintenance burden on car owners, and municipal regulations for waste collection. Pilot testing is crucial to prove feasibility and adoption.
  • Brilliant concept that makes cleanliness effortless and impactful. Truly a creative step toward greener, smarter cities
  • Interesting concept! Biggest challenges I see are feasibility (power, uneven roads) and adoption (maintenance, cost). Maybe piloting with fleets first could make it more practical.
  • Great idea aanya! This sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie. I have a quick question though, how will you create enough suction such that there is no drag to the vehicle?
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