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Bombardier's Hot Wheel

Posted by timothy on from the dorky-or-cool dept.

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."

4 of 358 comments (clear)

  1. Seen it, thought it was cool but.... by kidgenius · · Score: 4, Informative

    I saw this in PopSci about a month or two ago. Personally, I think this is friggin awesome!!!!! But, it's also dangerous as hell. You think it's hard to see a motorcycle, or hell, even a car in your blind spot? How about someone on a vehicle who's helment (if they so chose to wear one) would probably not even get higher than the side window of car. You'd be sideswiped before you got five minutes from your house.

  2. Controls (vs. Segway) by dekashizl · · Score: 1, Informative
    From the article (emphasis mine):
    To move forward, the rider activates a trigger on the left handlebar. The landing gear retracts when the speed reaches 20 km/h. To turn, the rider leans in the desired direction. The brake is activated by a trigger on the right handlebar.
    It's somewhat interesting that the two main axes of control (hand motion and leaning) are conceptually reversed as compared to the Segway. On Segway, the hand turns and the body controls forward/backward. Here, the hand controls forward/backward and the body turns.

    I rode a Segway for the first time a few weeks ago, and it was pretty intuitive to move around, though the hand turning took a bit to get used to.

    I get the sense that turning by leaning might be more intuitive, but also much more error-prone and dangerous. For example, if I accidentally lean forward on Segway I'll go a little faster, but accidentally lean on this thing and you might turn into a wall at 20 mph.
  3. Not a Prototype by bjornte · · Score: 3, Informative

    This /. poster has misunderstood the meaning of the term "prototype". Bombardier has not announced a prototype. A prototype, from an engineering perspective, has to work. This is a design concept. Which means it is about as operational as a Star Wars X-wing.

  4. Almost newsworthy by woom · · Score: 3, Informative

    If this was something more than a clay mockup and some clever writing, it might actually be news. As it is now, it's just plain stupidity let loose by a bored marketing dept.