There was a guy who showed up on the monday bike ride with one of these. The unit could go 75 miles on a charge. He had a rope on his belt, to tow his buddy, who was on inline skates.
A few years ago, I did a project with an engineer who worked on the ones without hand-controllers.
The algorithms were very fiddly, since they had to detect (in realtime) not only changes in terrain, but figure out your angle of lean forward and back, and translate that to throttle or brake. Last thing you wanted was a software crash that either locked up the wheel at full speed, or created a runaway. I was way too paranoid to try riding one. Still am.
These share a lot of similarities with Segway, and the inventor of that was a pretty smart, stand-up guy. Still, he died tragically riding his Segway off a cliff.
You're right, I knew that and still mixed it up. And the real tragedy is the guy was a super stand-up guy that doesn't at all deserve the sort of mockery his death prompts.
Friend of mine has one of these, and he loves it a liiittle too much. He was riding it around helping people set up/clean up his wedding ceremony. He married an actual person, but I remember wondering who the true love was.
28 Comments
ceenote@lemmy.world · 43 pts · 179d
There's no telling: they just went in a tunnel driving a car, there was a series of crashing sounds, and they came out the other side on this.
tetris11@feddit.uk · 1 pts · 164d
Not to worry, there's a clothes line up ahead that will spin them a few times and launch them towards the scrap yard
agingelderly@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 179d
Whenever I see someone on those I think Gizmo lost his armour. (I've never seen anyone on one of these in real life)
Edit: That would make a great Halloween costume though. Where the 40+ old cosplayers at?
Edit2: Ok it's been done
teft@piefed.social · 12 pts · 179d
A securitron would be a good cosplay for one of those monowheels too.
TrickDacy@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 179d
I feel like they also imagine they are Gizmo Duck.
partial_accumen@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 179d
He was just a really big fan of the 1980's classic Commodore 64 game "Quest for Tires"
noxypaws@pawb.social · 3 pts · 179d
pretty decent graphics for the time!
RamenJunkie@midwest.social · 2 pts · 179d
This is exactly what I thought of.
dalekcaan@feddit.nl · 14 pts · 179d
tetris11@feddit.uk · 2 pts · 164d
Surprisingly relevant. I guess I should give TT:Go a chance
dalekcaan@feddit.nl · 2 pts · 164d
To be fair, I never watched Go. I just think that clip's funny.
Atelopus-zeteki@fedia.io · 11 pts · 179d
There was a guy who showed up on the monday bike ride with one of these. The unit could go 75 miles on a charge. He had a rope on his belt, to tow his buddy, who was on inline skates.
Lembot_0006@programming.dev · 7 pts · 179d
But they stubbornly continue their journey.
Atelopus-zeteki@fedia.io · 1 pts · 179d
"...none the less, She persisted."
fubarx@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 179d
A few years ago, I did a project with an engineer who worked on the ones without hand-controllers.
The algorithms were very fiddly, since they had to detect (in realtime) not only changes in terrain, but figure out your angle of lean forward and back, and translate that to throttle or brake. Last thing you wanted was a software crash that either locked up the wheel at full speed, or created a runaway. I was way too paranoid to try riding one. Still am.
leverage@lemdro.id · 4 pts · 179d
These share a lot of similarities with Segway, and the inventor of that was a pretty smart, stand-up guy. Still, he died tragically riding his Segway off a cliff.
Every time I see one of these, my brain goes between that story, and https://southpark.wiki.gg/wiki/IT
Speculater@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 179d
If I remember correctly, it wasn't the original inventor of the Segway that fell off the cliff, but the CEO who has bought the brand.
leverage@lemdro.id · 3 pts · 179d
You're right, I knew that and still mixed it up. And the real tragedy is the guy was a super stand-up guy that doesn't at all deserve the sort of mockery his death prompts.
https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/cautionary-tales/the-hero-who-rode-his-segway-off-a-cliff
AzuranAurora@piefed.ca · 5 pts · 179d
He's just a big fan of Fallout New Vegas, he's on his way to a fan meet but forgot the rest of his Securitron costume.
FloatingAlong@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 179d
Not to worry. He's still riding half a bike.
rants_unnecessarily@piefed.social · 4 pts · 178d
They're was a penny farthing
IntrovertTurtle@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 179d
Friend of mine has one of these, and he loves it a liiittle too much. He was riding it around helping people set up/clean up his wedding ceremony. He married an actual person, but I remember wondering who the true love was.
tetris11@feddit.uk · 2 pts · 164d
This is funniest comment I've read all day
sudoMakeUser@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 179d
This happened to a guy, he crashed his car in some desert and made his car into a motorcycle and rode out on that.
tetris11@feddit.uk · 2 pts · 164d
Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 179d
Jack Sparrow with the precise single bail to get his sinking ship the last inch to the dock... "Welcome to Port Royal, Mr. Smith."
myfunnyaccountname@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 178d
Around me they ride them with full face helmets. Cause they are cool or something. I dunno. You do you.
DScratch@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 179d
Play Steampunk Rally!