Posted on 12/03/2001 4:17:56 PM PST by spycatcher
If "cities are built" around it, there won't be any subways to lug it onto. There'll be nice, flat-floored (taking care of the ground-surface issues people have raised), plexiglass-domed "tunnels" at ground level, and perhaps above, when necessary, sort of "pedestrian superhighways". Heated in the winter, air-conditioned in the summer (taking care of the "raincoat" questions I've seen raised). They'll link "complex" to "complex". Office complexes will be built like shopping malls -- lots of "inside space", so weather won't be an issue.
I don't know that it's gonna happen, but if it happens, it seems pretty obvious that that's how it'll happen.
I hear ya. I couldn't attract any fast-food clerks either. I had to settle for a schoolteacher.
But good luck to ya in finding that woman of your dreams. Perhaps burger-flippers won't be quite so turned-off by a guy on wheels?
I suspect the limiting factor is located in the pit of the stomach. I felt perfectly safe (even though I wasn't :)) riding down the road at 95 MPH on my motorcycle. I think I'd be shakin' in my boots going down the road at 95 MPH standing on a shoe-sized platform, holding onto a glorified joystick. Maybe if it had a rocket-assisted ejection pod... :)
I've seen pictures of them in his patent filings. Three wheels per side around a common "axle".
I read the Time report and it was okay but not real deep or imaginative. Plus they missed...
How's that?
Linear motion is to this thing what banking is to an airplane or motorcycle (or bicycle). How would you like to make high-speed turns on a bike that has three wheels, incapable of leaning into a turn? Or a fighter jet that can't bank, and can only make flat turns?
Two wheels provide more stability than three wheels. This is the first device to capitalize on that principle with two parallel wheels.
If he comes out with a one-wheel model (which he's already patented), it'll be incredibly stable in hard turns as well as forward/stop/reverse movement.
And I'm just suspicious enough to think it likely that the original device he showed off to Bezos and Jobs was in fact a one-wheel version. It would explain their off the charts enthusiasm, and the unanticipated delays in bringing it to market (it's got to be harder to iron the bugs out of something that's clearly much more complex to handle -- so I suspect that at a certain point, they tabled it, and decided to bring the two-wheel "lesser" model out first).
All in all, an interesting invention. We'll see if it lives up to the hype.
Think "fuel cells". Hydrogen and air in, water out. Range limited by tank size.
"This piece of metal and guano does 15 miles on an overnite charge? I can drive my Jeep 15 miles on the Diehard in it now (of course, the starter burns out)
"This has to be one of the most impractical, dumbest inventions I come across since I met a guy working on an asparagas harvester."
Translation: "Get a horse!"
Some things never change, I guess.
BTW, I've been working on (in my head) ideas for an asparagus harvester for several years now. If I can come with one that does "almost" as good as migrant pickers, I'll be retiring in luxury shortly thereafter. I live in "asparagus country", and let me tell you, it's been rough for the asparagus farmers the past few years, thanks to NAFTA and Clinton's Chinese friends. For the past two years, quite a few farmers didn't pick at all, they just mowed their crop down. It would have cost more to pick than they'd be able to sell it for.
It used to be that asparagus was the crop that lifted farmers out of "dirt poor" condition into very comfortable income. People with 40 acres lived like kings. All it took was sandy, well-drained soil and the right climate.
Those asparagus fields are still there, and if they can be economically harvested, a lot of farmers will be able to once again make decent livings.
A caster is by definition an uncontrolled, passive device.
Comparing this scooter to a caster is like ridiculing powered flight by asking Orville Wright if he'd ever heard of a falling apple.
Can I have yours? I've got a wrecked spine, neck, knee, ankles, and heart, and I fondly remember the days when I could walk anywhere I wanted without taking my life into my hands, hurting like hell, and ending up drenched in sweat after a hundred yards.
Now imagine stopping on a dime with that vehicle -- without getting skidmarks on your nose.
A three-point device is very stable -- when stationary. Abrupt starts or stops will get ya. Inertia and momentum are your enemy.
This vehicle uses those forces, rather than having to work around them.
You lean back to brake. You'll only feel downward force on the soles of your feet. Neat, eh?
Or, fuel cells.
Personally, I'm expecting the next major improvement to be a single-wheeled model, for greatly improved turn-handling at higher speeds.
You'll lose the ability to do an in-place 180, but you'll gain the ability to bank into turns.
PS: that's nothing that hasn't been heard before.
Get a grip, you sound like you're about ready to stroke out.
First off, the guy financed it himself, and only let in a few deep-pocketed investors who provided additional financing with their money. He turned down plenty of would-be investors who formed a conga line of money begging to land in his plate. So much for the idea that the taxpayers are paying for this.
Second, as to your complaint that the postal service will be buying it, what are you, Simon Legree? Do you think they'd be more efficient walking 20 miles out to the countryside instead of driving Jeeps? Sounds like your idea is that if the work isn't punishing -- and the more, the better -- then they workers need to be.. punished! Man, I'm glad I'm not working for you, sheesh!
Finally, as to your assertion that this isn't new technology because electric bicycles have been around for a hundred years, good grief you're a hoot! I can see you throwing rotten tomatoes at the Wright Brothers because kites and balloons have been around for a hundred years.
As to the venom, well, thanks for 'fessing up to it, but frankly, you couldn't hide it if you tried, so it's not like there's some major self-disclosure going on there.
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