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Japanese Engineer Develops 'WalkCar,' a Mini-Segway
rtoz writes: A Japanese engineer has developed a portable transporter small enough to be carried in a backpack that he says is the world's first 'car in a bag'. The lithium battery-powered "WalkCar" device is the size of a laptop and resembles a skateboard more than a car. According to the Reuters report, the slender WalkCar is made from aluminum and weighs between two and three kilograms , depending on whether it is an indoor or outdoor version. The aluminum board and can take loads of up to 120kg., and it reaches top speeds of 10 kilometers per hour, for distances of up to 12 kilometers after three hours of charging. When a rider stands on it, the WalkCar starts automatically, while simply stepping off stops the vehicle. To change direction, the user just shifts their weight.
So, you commonly walk at 10 kph? Your legs must be ripped as hell....
Who needs something that can move short distances at walking speed, but can be carried around when walking?
Some people with medical issues like arthritis can find if much less stressful on their joints to just 'stand' rather than actually walk... Chronic joint inflammation that gets made worse by the repetitive stress of walking. Just because someone is capable of walking doesn't necessarily mean that comes always easy to them. For example: With arthritis, you can be perfectly fine walking around at one moment, with excruciating pain in your joints the next. Any further ongoing joint movements at that point increases or prolongs that pain. A personal transporter that can keep you from rotating your ankle or hip joints unnecessarily can make a huge difference, both in pain control and personal independence.
Also, it could be useful if you have a morning commute by public transportation -- you still need to get TO the train/subway/bus station after all, and from the last stop to your final destination. This is something that can take you the first and last parts of your trip, while easily carried on board of the bus in a bag without taking up a ton of room.
You need to envision what a commute is like in transit-intensive Japan. You go everywhere on trains, but there's a "last kilometer" problem in needing to walk between your home and a station, and then from the station to your office. In Tokyo, where the next guy on the train is pressed against you holding a newspaper folded to the size of a handkerchief over your head, there's no room for a folding bike. People carry nothing larger than a briefcase or a laptop. A folding bike is no more portable in this context than a steamer trunk.
If you live out in the country, you can take a bike to the station. Not a folding bike, a regular one, because you leave it at the station during the day. You see thousands of them at rural stops like Ozaku or Kawagoe, all unlocked.
But in the city, the cheapest apartments and small businesses are packed into a dense cube around each transit station. If you live in a good neighborhood, your high-rise condo ("manshon" will be a couple of kilometers away from the station, by a spidery network of streets that in some cases are narrow enough that an American can stretch out his arms and touch the walls on each side. Your WalkCar would come in really handy on this part of your commute, and you can carry it to the office. If you work in a neighborhood where the streets are not too crowded, you can ride it at that end also.