Electric and Fun – Futuristic Unicycle From Honda
25 September 2009 | Green Cars | No Comments
Imagine the shape of the infinite sign. Now picture one of the “loops” as a wheel and the other one as a place to sit on. This is, vaguely, how the new experimental unicycle, which was presented by Honda Motors on Thursday, looks like and . In order to keep its balance, the unicycle took some of the technology from their robot, ASIMO. The steering is simple and functions just by moving your torso in the desired direction – forward, backward or even diagonally.
Named U3-X, the unicycle’s single wheel is composed of more smaller, perpendicular placed wheels, that, when used together, shift the machine diagonally. The little stylish gizmo can function for about an hour, if fully charged, and moves around at about the same speed of a normal walk, roughly 6 km/h (3.7 mph). It is pretty lightweight (under 10 kg) and with a height of 65 cm, it can prove pretty practical to carry around in the back of the car.
After the looks of it, it seems fun to ride. Even it is only experimental this little electric “toy” already has sparked the imagination of many, so the company is planing to further research it, and, as a next step, to test it in the real world.
Tags: ASIMO, electric, experimental, fun, gizmo, Green Technology, Honda, u3-X, unicycle, wheel