This thing is wild, lol. Humans are getting super lazy, aren’t we? It would probably be good for old people to get around on though.
Once you’re used to the sensations, you can zip forwards, backwards, sideways, or diagonally. The idea is to recreate the natural trajectories of a human moving through a crowd while enabling you to rapidly move sideways or diagonally to avoid sudden obstacles. Want to turn? Just dab your foot to twirl around the wheel’s axis. The whole thing feels freakishly natural, as if you were born with an omnidirectional wheel attached to your butt.
It’s that naturalness that makes the U3-X unique. Unlike the Segway, there’s virtually no learning curve for beyond remembering to relax and not overdo it. And unlike Dean Kamen’s two-wheeled folly, the U3-X allows you to move naturally and easily, traveling though and interacting with your environment in a fluid, organic way.
this is the worst / most lazy / dumb idea ever. remember when the segway first came out, and everyone thought it was going to be the next big thing? yeah. the only difference is at least you were standing up on that, this is next level lazy.
Honda is always trying to find its way into the future. Right now, the future for Japan is old people. Lots of them.
By 2020, more than 25 percent of the Japanese population will be over 65. Those old fogeys are going to have to work until a later age and their kids won’t take care of them even when they’re retired. That means they need ways to extend their lives beyond broken hips and atrophied muscles. Devices like the U3-X and Honda’s Walking Assist Devices are exploring new ways to extend the mobility of the elderly and people suffering from physical handicaps.LINK
That omni-taction system has very practical industrial applications. This product is a great vehicle to develop interest in the system commercially and internationally… If you just developed specific industrial tools with the technology it wouldnt create the same viral hype…
I think it’s cool in terms of the control scheme required to maintain balance. I also don’t think old people could handle it.
It’s too small. Old people are a clumsy bunch.
3:03 in the first vid… “both hands are free so carrying packages while moving is simple.”
same thing is possible while walking (obvioulsy they said that cuz u need hands with the segway but come on)
Japan: finding any fucking excuse to avoid immigration, even when they saw this situation pre-2000, nearly 20 years ago.
Instead of opening the gates a little more, Japan has been spending 20 years on this kind of shit as their solution to a seemingly worse situation every year. Expect the Honda Robo-Gaijin by 2020, the ultimate replacement for labour shortages, with VTEC inside to increase productivity. And the female version will probably give blowjobs too.
