Re:Japanese mini Segway “WalkCar”
by revelation on Saturday August 08, 2015 @01:30PM
(#10027983)
And promptly face plant at any kind of pothole. These wheels are tiny.
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Re:Japanese mini Segway “WalkCar”
by david-given on Saturday August 08, 2015 @02:22PM
(#10028180)
I suspect that what's more likely to happen is that the board will wedge in a hole, stop moving, and you'll simply find yourself stepping forwards off it.
The standing posture means that you're braced for a step anyway, and the speed is totally compatible with your mark I human undercarriage system. It's not like you're on a skateboard going at 30kph. Plus you're not fastened into it.
I actually think it's a really interesting and subtle piece of design. I want one. (Plus I have to admire anything that looks quite that stupid.)
Agreed. As a 20 year+ street skateboarder, I can tell you that even with larger and softer urethane (85-90A) wheels, a pebble the size of a tic tac will send you to ground rapidly.
The key is to over time develop skills of controlling weight on your board. I suppose this design could be modified some, but more likely that the driver/rider will need to learn some skills from skateboarders :)
I have a piece of titanium in my orbital bone from when I ran over a little rock when inline skating. If this thing hits a rock you'll go flying. Really hard.
Where really hard is 10kmph.
Re:Japanese mini Segway “WalkCar”
by jchavannes on Saturday August 08, 2015 @03:15PM
(#10028355)
I'm not sure why this isn't one of the top comments. The wheel size is a nonstarter.
In the video he does run on tiled stones even and over a small gap, see 0:39 to 0:49. It looks like he's not struggling but it's such a closeup that you cannot see if he lost balance or not afterwards. I'm still very skeptical though, that gap would be quite hard to cross on a skateboard without a small jump and on a skateboard your center of gravity is almost 2 feet further back than on this thing. Maybe the propulsion in the wheels help.