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Bombardier's Hot Wheel
Anonymous Chris writes "Following the release of the Segway, Bombardier (the makers of such things as Ski-Doo and Lynx snowmobiles) announce their prototype Embrio - a motorcycle-like unicycle that uses gyroscopes to balance itself and runs off hydrogen fuel cells. It also features a landing gear that automatically retracts once you reach 12 m.p.h. The story is at Forbes. You can also get more information directly from their website."
This is just the perfect thing for everyone who already has a motorcycle, and has been routinely frustrated with their inability to donate organs.
Because those segways were selling like hotcakes we thought we'd get in the market too.
Any bets that front wheel was added after Segways with dead batteries started dropping people on their faces?
If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. - James Madison
This just in, thousands of anti-abortionists are protesting outside of Bombardier headquarters, claiming that the Embrio was meant to stay in the womb.
Until Slashdot fixes the funny modifier, use insightful or interesting. The poster knows your intentions.
From the manufacturers page:
the EMBRIO uses a complex series of sensors and gyroscopes to balance one or more human passengers on a single wheel.
Judging by the picture on the same page, I'm really rather curious where the "or more" would fit.
Let me see... one wheel... rider above wheel... "a high-performance braking system,"
Dental insurance?
Hordes of clowns have been waiting YEARS for innovation in the unicycle industry.
It has a rather striking resemblance to T-Bob from M.A.S.K. doesn't it? That's cool - now I want one. :-)
zWhat would an EWOULDBLOCK block, if an EWOULDBLOCK could block would? -- me
That is why they are "aimed at the 18 to 45 age group" (from their web site). They don't expect users to survive longer than that.
I stole this
The basic design is very similar.
Yeah, by 2025 we'll all need something like this to carry as a spare for when the flying car breaks down.
KFG
Just imagine what the clowns could do with all the custard pies they could carry if the unicycle they're on can balance itself!
"a guess at what transportation in the year 2025"
By then they'll have phased out a few things like:
- the weather
- sand and gravel on roads
- need to carry anything more than a briefcase or purse?
The future is going to be WAAY cooler than I thought....
-Styopa
Loads of free publicity?
If I seem short sighted, it is because I stand on the shoulders of midgets
So you have a unicycle that retracts its wheel when you reach 12mph, awesome!
They actually make those all the time.
In a sense, you can call the Bombardier concept vehicle the perfect followup to the segway in the sense that the Bombardier concept vehicle and the Segway are both big sellers in an alternative universe.
In this alternative universe--where mechanical complexity is viewed as the most esthetically pleasing art form--the Segway's problems are completely negated by the fact that it is an expensive, non-functional item.
In quantum anomaly MH-16607G, the fact that the Segway is too complex to be functional and robust enough for it to be a commercial product in our universe is one of it's greatest selling points and, in quantum anomaly MH-16607G, the Bombardier concept vehicle is a brilliant product, available today as an empty shell that opens to reveal a seven-hundred and sixty page bound volume of Rube Goldberg cartoons which give the owner some clue as to how the thing might be made to work decades ahead in the future.
In the America of MH-16607G, the Bombardier concept vehicle outsells the segway three two one.
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"Yeah. It smells, too..."
car is metal around meat. motorcyle is meat around metal.