Check Out This New Skateboard (AKA-WalkCar)

Well here is a nifty way to travel. Looks like an ipad on wheels but alot more fun. It's a little too pricey for me, but I still wouldn't mind having one just for the hell of it. Would be nice if it could travel a little farther than 7 miles on one charge, but I guess that is good enough when you don't feel like walking. Source

A Japanese engineer just invented a nifty new way to travel: A transporter called a “WalkCar” that’s small, light and apparently easy to use.

The product is battery powered and is about the size of a laptop. And although it looks like it can hold much weight and is made from aluminum, it can apparently have as much as 265 lbs on board.

VentureBeat reported that it can go up to 6.2 miles per hour for up to 7.4 miles. It needs three hours to charge.

Saito says customers will be able to reserve their own WalkCars from autumn 2015 on the crowd-funding website Kickstarter. The futuristic skateboard will have a price-tag of around 100,000 Japanese Yen (approx. $800 USD). Shipping is expected to begin by spring 2016.

looks boring and utterly useless. Would need a perfect surface to be used. One stone would cost you teeth. If it had bigger wheel it would be more sensible.

I doubt anyone would buy this.

I can see a lot of pranks ensuing because of this. I suppose on the one hand it's nice the we can do this technology, but on the other what purpose does this actually serve? Most love the original skateboard ( myself included ) so who would this be for? Especially with the news of a company working on a hoverboard.

a reply to: theyknowwhoyouare
Yep, I guess it could be used in shopping malls as long as you didn't try to cross a threshold to a store. It does look a little unsafe to me. Might degenerate to a kid's toy.

Why can't they do this to skateboards? They should get the most powerful miniature engine they can produce and put it on a skateboard. Hell, they could probably make it generate energy too. Charge it for a few hours, as fast as a bike.

a reply to: TheLaughingGod

I always wanted to mount a little nitro r/c plane motor on a long board, would that cool or what?

a reply to: RealTruthSeeker

Where's the seatbelt?

Are people really getting so damn lazy that they'd even consider buying something like this? I have no faith in our future...

They will need to increase its payload, all these ways to stop what little exercise people get anyway will surely lead to a fattening.

I'm trying to think where I hate walking to that I would prefer to get there without taking a step...i take the train to work and the Bus occasionally, so it could reduce parking fee's if I wanted to stand on this thing for an hour?

Actually, the only thing I would use it for is to help disabled people in manual wheelchairs up slight inclines but perhaps it would be better to rip this and attach to wheelchairs as a motor assist?

Disabled...actually not a bad idea if you could somehow incorporate it into one of those walking frames and make it look cool? IT seems slow enough not to run over people.

a reply to: bananashooter

They are already doing that! link

I mean that's cool until the obesity pushes people passed that 265lb mark. I'm the weirdo who parked in the back of a lot that was wide open and fast walk while the fools are chasing that open spot 10 seconds closer. Well that was before I realized the automobile is part of the problem. This would do nothing for a crackhead like me.

originally posted by: TheLaughingGod
Why can't they do this to skateboards? They should get the most powerful miniature engine they can produce and put it on a skateboard. Hell, they could probably make it generate energy too. Charge it for a few hours, as fast as a bike.

Well battery tech is getting better and it doesn't even need to be attached to the board, you could wear a small battery backpack with a wire to the board, if you come off and the wire un clips the board will stop.

Not sure about generation though, I'm assuming you never had Dynamo lights on your push bike but check out the Simpsons episode where Bart has one, it's not far wrong!

Get a stronger motor and hook a little ball hitch up and you can hook up all kinds of things...lol

A little red wagon for grocery shopping...
package deliveries....

I wonder if you would get a DUI on one??

*trails off in incoherent babbling about flaming wheels and hauling kegs*

originally posted by: theyknowwhoyouare
looks boring and utterly useless. Would need a perfect surface to be used. One stone would cost you teeth. If it had bigger wheel it would be more sensible.

I doubt anyone would buy this.

Like RC vehicles this will have mods.

a reply to: jaws1975

No I said nitro, you know a glow engine. Brraaaaaaaaappppp!!!

originally posted by: bananashooter
a reply to: jaws1975

No I said nitro, you know a glow engine. Brraaaaaaaaappppp!!!

You would be surprised at the torque you can get with some brushless motors and Lipo batteries. It's just a matter a gearing. And you can find RC gearboxes as well.

originally posted by: proob4

originally posted by: bananashooter
a reply to: jaws1975

No I said nitro, you know a glow engine. Brraaaaaaaaappppp!!!

You would be surprised at the torque you can get with some brushless motors and Lipo batteries. It's just a matter a gearing. And you can find RC gearboxes as well.

Damn right! I have an RC Helicopter, and if power is applied to fast it strips the teeth of the gears! The motor is about one inch x one inch, and draws about 22amps from a lipo.

a reply to: proob4

I just love the smell of nitro in the morning.

a reply to: bananashooter

I gotcha, but I have to say electric is the way to go, I have an electric bike that will do 28 mph no assist. I'll be going up hills and people will be looking at me like who's this guy Lance Armstrong, lol.

Now everyone will build one for themselves for 100 bucks or whatever the price is for the battery and motor ...also add a tiny bicycle seat on a telescopic 50 cm pole and a single foot slider for forward/stop/reverse and you're set.