Sick of having to walk from meeting to meeting, or lecture to lecture, or from the Green Room to the stage? To save your legs Honda has demonstrated the UNI-CUB Personal Mobility Device. Unlike the Segway, the UNI-CUB is aimed more for indoors use. Using Honda’s patented Omni Traction Drive System, it has a maximum speed of 6kph ( 3.7 mph), and its lithium-ion battery pack will keep it running for around 6 kilometres. The UNI-CUB is steered by shifting your weight, and one of the “advantages” touted by Honda is that it is easy for the rider to maintain eye-level conttact with other pedestrians.
“This configuration promotes harmony between the rider and others, letting the rider travel freely and comfortably inside facilities and among moving people.”
Of course what self respecting gadget doesn’t come with a smartphone app these days, so it will also come with touchpanel control via your smartphone or other device which means you can actually “call up” your UNI-CUB to you.
Will our legs become vestigial organs ? 🙂
Honda hasn’t released any production dates yet, however public test drives will start in Spring 2013.
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I want one of these so I can get fatter and fatter and fatter……..
@Rick Like in WALL-E!
Oy, we can’t be bothered to walk to the corner store, and now we won’t even walk down the hall. Just how fat do they want Americans to be.
When walking is just too hard.
So…do we call AAA when it breaks down or should I just call the neighbor’s kid to bring their powerwheels to give me a tow?
Honda…why not just make something more useful like that hoverboard in Back To The Future…or better yet…a Mr. Fusion….
…and after hard days of work and avoiding walking, we go to gym and climb up tread mills…..so the story goes…
Its all fun and games until you get to some steps, and have to lug it up them!
@Ian “Will our legs become vestigial organs ?” that was my first thought, too.
I can see where older or the disabled could use these, and not some healthy beautiful Japanese woman as in the video (she looked to me like she was going to break out laughing at any moment). I thought it was kinda amazing how it seemed to float across the floor with the slightest bit of leaning.
As for stairs; the Americans with Disabilities Act has made most public places accessible to the disabled and aged, which is a good thing 🙂
I hope you guys are never in a position where you can’t do the things you want to do because you can’t walk that far.
@vladimir. If they were showing people with disabilities, I’d agree with you. But they seem to be positioning this for happy, young, healthy office workers. That’s the ridiculous part.
“Will our legs become vestigial organs ?”
Insert visuals of human space denizens of WALL-E.
HONDA: Making people fatter, and lazier, one idiot at a time…