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Transformer-Style Scooter Lets You Ride Your Briefcase To Work
cartechboy writes "If you're going to sell a brief case for $6,000, there better be a pony inside — or at least an electric scooter. Who wouldn't want to transform their boring old briefcase into an electric scooter and zip off to (or away from) work? The Commute-Case, as it's known, is essentially a briefcase you can ride to work. While in briefcase mode, if you extend sections of the front and back, wheels, handlebars and a step for your feet pop out. In 3 to 5 seconds, your briefcase is now an electric scooter that can go up to 25 miles on a single charge and weighs 27 pounds. Don't count on actually carrying stuff to work with this briefcase (there's a scooter inside)."
Really... it's 2014. A Briefcase?!
I want a flying car that folds into a briefcase like George Jetson.
Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
It has been done before. I think it was in the 90's I saw a briefcase scooter/gocart thing. The new part is that this one is electric and they bless it with all sorts of environmental friendly words.
I can't see this used as a real form of transportation. Those small wheels looks like they handle low speed only, which makes me wonder about top speed. Speed isn't mentioned in the article, only range. This might end up as a replacement for walking only. At least it has no emissions and can be used indoor.
Cool? Maybe, but not $6000 cool.
A: the very same people who ride scooters of course.
Either the built-in storage compartment doesn't count or Soulskill didn't even bother to watch the video.
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You're supposed to ride this thing standing up, sitting on the handle or sitting at the back of the briefcase?
At least it makes charging a breeze.
Boss: Hey, why is your briefcase plugged into the wall?
You: My work laptop is inside it and I don't want people to steal it, I'm protecting the company property, sir!
Boss: Carry on, then!
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Business professionals such as attorneys and executives are the only people still using briefcases, middle management and your average run of the mill desk jockey might buy one of these as a toy, but not at this price point. You'd have to get it down to the sub-$500 level to hit that target market. This thing is defective by an order of magnitude on many levels.
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Anyone remember that shit? Blue tooth. Briefcase with gas powered go cart inside. 14 years too late and the shit don't work anyways. Balls to it I say... balls.
I don't get it, it looks like a horrible scooter, a horrible briefcase, and a horrible travel case. It probably weighs a ton to carry, and it costs $6,000?
This looks like an idea better left in a cartoon. It's not compatible with the real world.
had a similar concept that fit into the trunk. was cool, but not very useful.
Didn't Mazda do a car in a suitcase?
In Shanghai, I saw scooters for sale >in a retail store 3-4K RMB (so divide by 6) that actually function as scooters, with comfortable seats and enough storage place.
I guess the idea behind this design is that you should sit on the handle sticking up your ass, like in the South Park "The IT"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RLUP2lLsVg
and that's the stupidest thing I ever heard.
A Scooter would be "GoBot-style". *scoots away*
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Come, now, someone tell me I'm not the only one to think of the scootercase in The Wizard of Speed and Time. =:D
i could buy a good motorcycle
there is no way i would spend 6 grand on a electric minibike that folds in to a briefcase
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I'm still waiting for someone to invent a magic bag of holding!
If I remember correctly, Gobots was the one with kind of scooter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
I remember reading about a briefcase car a long, long time ago. Mazda had one in 1991:
http://www.roadraceengineering.com/suitcasecar.htm
I am not sure where you live, but I can think of a perfect place for this - Manhattan.
Every banker/lawyer in the city carries a leather case (if they are men) or a bag (if they are women). Every one of them commutes from the outer boroughs or from out of state by train. Once they get to the city, it would be perfect for them to be able to ride a scooter to work rather than use the city bikes they have now or to take the subway. The picture in the article has a man in a suit carrying a briefcase, and except for the design of the briefcase, this is what every guy at Grand Central looks like at 8 in the morning. They also can afford the price, after all they spend the same amount on their Hermes ties.
That said, 27 pounds sounds heavy. It is pretty much what a lightweight road bike weights.And metro north/MTA is pretty bike friendly.
If they have a product, they should use actual images of those. Their homepage has fake pictures, done poorly. The man boarding a train? Probably not their market, and his reflection in the train clearly shows no "transformer" scooter. The lady in the airport? Looks like an out-of-place runway model, with unnaturally straight features. Man by the bus, he also has some unnatural characteristics. I understand using props for marketing, or prototypes. To do "press releases " with poor photos is bad form. Then again, I'm not sure who will use this product either, and if it exists beyond a designer's computer.
...and you'd still have to carry your old briefcase!!
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Retailer: http://greenenergymotors.com/
Price $6k (but atm its 50% off)
Max speed is 12Mph (based on 1 mile per 5 minute claim) so 19.31kmph (fast run)
All the images are Cgi/photoshopped I cannot see 1 pic of the actual scooter the group that also apprently collabrated with them on the design/build http://livingstonproducts.com/ has no images of the product either.
Features include:
Power and mounting for GPS type system or phone (And not enough power to power the device)
Cup holder (where)
Electronic Horn (but no button in the concept art)
Brakes (but no breaking mechanisms on the wheels or cables)
oh and it weighs 10.5 Kg's without the contents.
..sit on the damn thing.
I don't mean this to be a Debbie Downer, but...This is not a briefcase, it's just made to look like one. The storage space on here would barely hold a phone and a snack, there is no space for a legal pad or laptop. So if you are attorney you are going to either be lugging 2 briefcases (and this one is 27lbs unloaded) or more likely a backpack and this because at 27lbs it's unwieldy at best.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
Before you correct, remember that there is a difference between Legal and Letter and they show a spiral notebook (letter) in the cargo space.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
that's retarded.
It's nice to know that Segway guys can finally point to something that would instantly make someone 12 times geekier-looking than a Segway ever could.
Business professionals such as attorneys and executives are the only people still using briefcases, middle management and your average run of the mill desk jockey might buy one of these as a toy, but not at this price point. You'd have to get it down to the sub-$500 level to hit that target market. This thing is defective by an order of magnitude on many levels.
Not really.
I live in Toronto, Canada, and there are ten of thousands of folks who take commuter rail into the central rail facility (Union Station). From there, many then take the subway for ~5 minutes (a few stops) to their offices which would otherwise would be a 30 minute walk (especially given the winter we've just had). The subway costs about $5 per day. So if you work about 250 days (5 days/week, 50 weeks/year), that's $1250 per year. (Though many people do just walk to/from offices in the warmer months, and we do have the underground walkway system).
So if you get the $3000 "early bird" price, the ROI is less than three years. And you generally don't have to put up with the the (admittedly, relatively few) subway delays we have.
$6000 is probably too much, but getting down to $500 is certainly not needed.
The discouraging thing is the one guy in the entire world who owns one of these contraptions is taking the train!!!
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I was thinking this would make a great tool for an lawyer who might want to make a quick getaway. Too bad Linoel Hutz is no longer with us.
God spoke to me
Mike Jittlov
I want a flying car that folds into a briefcase like George Jetson.
Me, too.
Other "prior art" occurs in the 1988 feature movie version of Jitlov's The Wizard of Speed and Time.
See 1:05:25 throug 1:11:10
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Mike Jittlov.
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save $4000 and get a solowheel
http://inventist.com/soloindex.php
you know the only place this kind of scooter is good for is INSIDE A FUCKING BUILDING. there it's a fun toy.
on road this is as useful as a kickscooter. which costs 40 bucks. you can go just as fast.
and for 6000 bucks you can buy a 150cm^3 engined 60kph scooter so wtf..
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
This is all well and good, where do you stand on the thing. Standing on something with such a raised narrow platform would have you bending quite a bit at your back and struggling to balance. Lets give it a mind of its own and it will just follow you around and save the scooter part.
Did anyone think it looks like this? Going to work with an Osborne Personal Business Computer.
Now too you can swing a bulky and extremely heavy "briefcase" around like it's 1981, pretending it's lightweight or you're so manly you can handle it like it's feathers inside.
I don't know how it feels like, might be awesome but I would risk breaking windows or tripping on the ground in bad ways.
...if you have $6K to spend on a briefcase that doesn't actually act as a briefcase, then you can afford to hire a car and not put up with MetroNorth.
Tomorrows World a UK science show demoed a fold up suitcase car decades ago
http://www.roadraceengineering...
better link to single page of images and videos of the Mazda Suitcase Car
I like microcars
You better ride that on a very smooth surface or you're going to break it into the first hole in the pavement. And I don't mean this http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix... but this http://www.nydailynews.com/new...
Cool, but I'd rather see more companies just issue workers a cell phone and laptop, so they can telecommute from home.
Uh, Linux geek since 1999.
So reminded me a bit like the old Jetson's cartoon where the flying car pops
out of George Jetsons brief case. A flying car would make this cool!
In my country using a car is cheaper than taking the train, unless you're talking about short commute trips only.
Even more so with websites where you can meet and share a car for one particular travel.
I don't mean this to be a Debbie Downer, but...This is not a briefcase, it's just made to look like one.
It's a folding bike. So it would make more sense to compare it with other folding bikes. Both pedal and electric...
Scooter wasn't a transformer, he was a Go-Bot. :-P
Guys should have tought of something more useful than just a briefcase. Hauling beer has always been an important matter to society and hobbyists have been more than helpful in both the crafting and transport of this godly nectar.
I see lots of marketing junk but where is the real info? What is the average battery run time at normal use? How long does it take to fully charge? What is the top speed? What is the max weight it will handle? What is the expected overall life-span of the battery before replacement is required and what is the cost of doing so? Also, I would like to see someone actually riding it, because if it's used the way I imagine, it would be uncomfortable for long rides (which makes me worry that it's battery life may not be good enough to matter).
That thing weighs in at 27 lbs. That's a lot to carry around with one hand for us older folks who can afford a $6000 toy.
As a point of reference, I recently bought a real scooter for $1400 that goes 35 mph, has a ton of storage, and doesn't look like a death wagon. I commute to work on it. It gets about 125 mpg.
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