The Self-Balancing Electric Unicycle: Silly or Innovative?
Are you an electric vehicle-loving balance guru? Then you should get in line for Focus Design’s self-balancing unicycle (SBU). The unicycle can blaze down the street at 8.5 MPH, and can go for 12 miles on a single charge. At 25 pounds, it can easily be carried to a charging station.
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The unicycle rider controls the vehicle’s speed by leaning forwards or backwards to go faster or stop. There are no pedals—only foot rests.
According to Focus Designs, even balance-challenged riders may fare reasonably well on the SBU. The vehicle stays upright using “accelerometers and gyroscopes with sophisticated balancing algorithms”. Riders will need to stay at least partially upright by themselves, though—the company says that the SBU is about half as difficult to ride as a regular unicycle.
The SBU is coming out in limited production next month for $1,500. If you’re interested, start boning up on your interview skills now— the first ten buyers will be chosen on the basis of order date and the quality of a personal interview.
Will the release of the SBU spawn an electric unicycle trend? Probably not. But it’s definitely a fun addition to the rapidly growing canon of electric vehicles.
Photo Credit: Gearlog
I dont know if a unicycle will catch on majorly, but electric bikes are really popular right now both the off road varieties as well as the kind where you fit an electric motor to your bicycle.
get a bicycle people - exercise promotes good feelings.
segway?
I live in Boulder, CO and I can see myself whipping around town everyday on one. What a great idea. Not entirely practical, but it would turn heads without a doubt.
So it’s a one wheel segway, without the handlebars.
“the company says that the SBU is about half as easy to ride as a regular unicycle.”
Please tell me that this there should be a ‘twice’ instead of a ‘half’ - I can’t see anyone wanting to make unicycle riding more difficult
“…the company says that the SBU is about half as easy to ride as a regular unicycle.” Doesn’t that mean that it’s more difficult to ride? Twice as difficult, actually? One would hope that a self-balancing unicycle would be twice as easy to ride as a regular unicycle. ;]
Cool idea! Everybody seems to be jumping on-board the electric motor bandwagon.
It’s half as easy to ride as a regular unicycle? A standard unicycle is hard enough.
I like to ride my human powered unicycle in triathlons while wizzing the cheese.
With this baby, I could focus my efforts on wizzing the cheese while the electric motor does the other work.
Genius.
Silly or innovative? I’ll cast my vote for silly.