I came across something at Maker Faire in San Mateo and immediately thought "Wow, what is that? What's it made of? How soon can I own one?" You could tell from its size that it'd be very efficient and would probably be cheap. It could be fun and fast and safe. It looks like a super evolved Peel P50 (see video here) instead with a motorcycle as its basis. Of course it's gyroscopically stabilized to run with 2-wheels and uses a steering wheel. It's like a private city car with big windows. This model was electric and according to the manufacturer's site, it could travel 120-240 miles (I believe was the number). I think this is the future of human transportation, or at least one possible sensible future. If you were to ask me to describe the ideal future car, I'd say it would be as small as possible to transport 2 or 4 people, have enough room to sit comfortably for up to an hour, have some protection from the elements (plus a sound system / interlink with mobile devices) and safety. I would also guess it has 4 wheels and sits low to the ground. Maybe you could make it lower, longer if needed and you could lay down like an F1 driver. This makes more sense though: With the right construction materials, safety would be very good at reasonably high speeds assuming a correctly built egg shape and supporting materials, strong windows -- that is assuming it's not going to be sideswiped by a Ford Excursion doing 80. On the other hand, if just about everyone else had a vehicle just like yours, you could minimize that kind of danger. The bike would balance itself and the way these auto-drive cars are going, I could image vehicles this size with sensors controlling distances between each other etc. Promo video: ! The electric version is in development and will be for sale soon according to their site. You can put down a deposit... For more info check: http://litmotors.com/c-1/ Also showing at Maker Faire was this bare aluminum prototype version: I'm guessing this was an aluminum prototype and the final model will use a plastic/carbon fiber shell, but I could be wrong. A couple more videos I found: http://www.smartplanet.com/video/li...ll-electric-fully-enclosed-motorcycle/6294274 This thing's a lot smaller than the Aptera! You could probably fit 6 of these in my garage. Maybe they'll make an RS version. More info on the official page: http://litmotors.com/
Pretty awesome. The only downside I can think of is that while the bike is sitting stationary isn't it still drawing current to maintain the stabilization? I'm guessing there's a kickstand of some kind.
