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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.
The design is really, really cool. But other than that, I don't really see the advantage of this. It seems to give no advantage compared to a normal bike, and has quite a few disadvantages (less space, more complexity). Throwing in a fuel cell-based drivetrain could just as easily (if not easier) be done for a two-wheeled bike as well - and would incidentally be a pretty good idea (with the electric motors in the wheels, you would get rid of the chain, and could have practical two-wheel drive).
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
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?
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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.
but I can't see it being stable if you have to stop quickly. How would it resist the inertial force of a 200lb person being thrown forwards?
When I am king, you will be first against the wall.
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.
From the article: The vehicle is designed as a guess at what transportation in the year 2025 might look like.
This might be pretty darn accurate. The thing that sets this apart from the Segway is one crucial element: Speed. If a Segway malfunctions you're not going wery fast... but with a vehicle like this you're pretty much doomed if there is a serious malfunction. At the very least the car behind you will run you over.
Current vehicles like cars and motorcycles can be stopped safely if you run out of power/propulsion, but something like this has to have safeguards which keeps that from happening.
Back to the whole 2025 thing: In order to make this stuff safe it requires testing, testing and some more testing. An that requires time.
Don't get me wrong... I love the idea, but it has to be done correctly and without compromises.
.: Max Romantschuk
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.
It's so sad we've come to calling an idea "stupid" simply because it is easily conceivable as to how someone could hurt themselves with it. Whatever happened to assumption of risk? Those hoverboards in back to the future 2 (and 3) could really hurt someone if they're not careful, that doesn't mean it is something mankind should never get to voluntarily experience. Products liability is a good thing, but there has to be limitations. Wear a fucking helmet and don't cry when you get hurt. Products liability is holding us back... it's like intellectual property in that respect. It hinders innovation. Will we get sued for infringement? Will we get sued because people will hurt themselves? The bottom line is unavoidably unsafe products are too risky to develop nowadays, and that's a shame because they're quite often the coolest, most innovative, interesting things man ever makes.
Stupid people make stupid things profitable.
Hordes of clowns have been waiting YEARS for innovation in the unicycle industry.
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.
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.
Blah blah, ha ha, motocycles kill. Dude, look, shit happens no matter what you drive. I know people that have driven a motorcycle daily for 20 years or better that have never had a wreck, and I know people that can't keep their cars out of the shop. It's all in the driver.
'Standards' in computing only impress those who are impressed by things like 'standards'.
The Wheelman is much cheaper and appears to have about the same risk level. Its only $1500 for a motorized device that you stand on and doesn't have anything to hold on to. I've seen these in action and the seem to work well.
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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