Son of Segway....

[Beeping-Sleauty]

or perhaps could be the 'Segway sit-down'

never seen or heard of this PUMA before, but it has 2 wheels & a lithium battery, so not strictly 'off topic',

see the gallery for more photos

Autoblog

 

[the_killjoy]

It looks like a cross between an invalid carriage and an accident waiting to happen, wonder how it does in a crash test?

 

[flecc]

Could have been more popular than the Segway given it's a two seater, but like the Segway, most countries will ban them for public roads or pavements.
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[SEATALTEA]

I'd have one, but then again I always fancied a BMW C1.

If limited to 30mph it could well be used as a moped with the correct lights etc, the major factor with Segway will always be the price.

The Segway has always been three times the price that would allow it to sell in large numbers.

That and the image..........

YouTube - Paul Blart: Mall Cop - In Theaters 1.16.09

 

[JohnofCambridge]

Could have been more popular than the Segway given it's a two seater, but like the Segway, most countries will ban them for public roads or pavements.
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That leaves off road or the race track. Hmmmmmn - formula segway - hasn't much of a ring about it!

 

[Straylight]

It seems that the powers that be only ban these things as they have no frame of reference to categorise them. Perhaps with the governments stated commitment to a "low carbon economy", heralded today by announcements about the forthcoming budget, may force a rethink of transport policy. I do hope so. Maybe one day we'll see these (or an adaptation of them) in major cities as an alternative to black cabs/ those rickshaw things that are so ubiquitous in London, particularly as 35mph is amply fast for such places.

 

[flecc]

It seems that the powers that be only ban these things as they have no frame of reference to categorise them.

Switzerland and Germany have high speed e-bike classes and here in the UK we have our very liberal single vehicle type approval scheme, indicating that the authorities are not completely blinkered, so I think there is much more to it than this.

For example, pavement vehicles like mobility vehicles and pedestrian controlled vehicles are limited to 4 mph (UK) and 6 kph (EU) simply because that's the fastest normal walking speed, so ensuring safety for pedestrians. Anything like the Segway will obviously be unacceptable for pavement use from the very first thought of creating it.

In on-road use, such as the mobility vehicles are limited to 8 mph due to their limited controllability at speed, again breached by Segway like designs.

There's also a well founded mistrust of complex systems where safety is concerned. Two examples. Cars have to have mechanical handbrakes, rod or cable operated to give reserve braking, since these have an inherent reliability that other means like hydraulic can never have. The London Taxicab designs must use castellated nuts and splitpins on critical joints like steering ones, since plastic insert binding nuts wear and become unreliable with repeated uses.

In contrast, vehicles like the Segway are totally reliant on very complex gyroscopic systems and electronic controls to be able to stop quickly in emergencies, so clearly having more chances of technical failures. This new design has reserve tilt forward and backward wheels to cope with such events, but both are non-steering so remove the ability to swerve in emergencies, an obvious failing.

The message is clear. Designers of such projects must do their homework and be more tuned in to the realities from the drawing board onwards, ensuring they have a chance of meeting real world safety standards.
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[Beeping-Sleauty]

..succinctly appraised Mr Flecc,

pretty sure this Puma would fail the pothole test, never mind the Elk test.

it just don't look safe.......

more in the news today:

BBC NEWS | Business | GM and Segway create new vehicle

 

[Straylight]

Looks safer to me than flying downhill at 25 - 30mph on an e-bike with barely sufficient brakes, and I'd guess there are many of us here who've done that!

Let's hope that with GM's involvement this can become more than a rich kids’ toy. There is an obvious reluctance in society to step away from the conventional automobile, and consider more practical modes of personal transport. I believe that oil, being a finite resource, should be conserved for uses for which its high energy capacity is a actually required. I mean what's the point of lugging around over a ton of metal, in order to get yourself to work? But then I'm probably preaching to the converted here

I also think that if they're serious about this concept, then fitting it with a secondary cable operated braking system would be a trifling matter in engineering terms, and that the issue of non-steering wheels could be solved with a decent set of castors.

 

[torrent99]

Can someone explain to me the advantage of these single axle vehicles? As flecc points out they are extremely complex (read expensive and prone to failure). Is it just road footprint (compared to 4 wheels)? Turning circle? What merits all that extra complexity?

 

[Straylight]

I guess you hit the nail on the head with tuning circle, such a vehicle can turn on the spot, and is hence incredibly manoverable.

 

[flecc]

Can someone explain to me the advantage of these single axle vehicles? As flecc points out they are extremely complex (read expensive and prone to failure). Is it just road footprint (compared to 4 wheels)? Turning circle? What merits all that extra complexity?

I guess you hit the nail on the head with tuning circle, such a vehicle can turn on the spot, and is hence incredibly manoverable.

But so could a castor front wheel equipped as straylight mentions, and indeed three wheelers can turn on the spot as well, remember the Bond Bug three wheel cars anyone?

No, the real reason for these is for someone to show their technical expertise in doing what superficially seems impossible. As a technical exercise they are clever and no doubt fun for the designers, but they are completely unnecessary since a three wheeler could do the same without all the complexity.

I do appreciate your points straylight, but as said, the same can be achieved with no energy and materials wastage on gyroscopes and complex controls, so even more environmentally friendly. And there are still the safety points I've mentioned which are likely to bar them however open minded an administration is. The lack of a cable operated braking isn't the safety problem, it's the reliance on the gyroscopic system to keep it on it's wheels when braking that is.

I cycle downhill at up to 45 mph eek and my brakes can stop me within a reasonable distance and have to at one point where I sometimes do it, but they are simple reliable mechanical brakes and don't depend on such complexity as software controlled gyroscope drives. There's two of them as well, where the Segway relies on one system to keep it upright during rapid deceleration.
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[Beeping-Sleauty]

....and now, the vid.

....shows what it can do in a small space....

GM, Segway Take Puma Electric Vehicle on Today Show - Auto Industry Tracker - WSJ

 

[Straylight]

I agree that a simpler system would have the same benefits, and so is done more as a technological curiosity than anything else, but here's where the PR consultants step in. The only way to prise the car keys out of the hands of most people is to make the alternative as attractive as possible, and that means, in this case, giving them something to be noticed and admired in/on. In my view, a developed version of this would go some way to filling the criteria, particularly for young, vain, professional urbanites, who are evidently the target market.

Put it this way - it looks more fun than a g-wiz .

Enlightened ones such as ourselves should be encouraging more of these concepts into reality, and out of the toy cupboard that they're currently regarded as inhabiting.

 

[flecc]

....shows what it can do in a small space....

It could do exactly the same with three wheels and no gyroscopic system though. The main two wheels moved a little back instead of the outrigger wheels at present, and a smaller front wheel with 180 degree rotate from left to right. Less energy use, far less complication, more practical, but it wouldn't create a "buzz" of course.

As for GM's involvement, no wonder the US government is unwilling to bail them out further if this is how they spend cash.
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[flecc]

Put it this way - it looks more fun than a g-wiz .

Enlightened ones such as ourselves should be encouraging more of these concepts into reality, and out of the toy cupboard that they're currently regarded as inhabiting.

Just seen your further post. Yes, anything is more fun than a G-Wiz.

But sorry, I can't encourage something that's both impractical and wasteful.

As said, where can it be used? On the pavements definitely not, and on the roads they would be hopelessly disruptive and dangerous. On a separate cyclepath system they could work, but cyclepaths aren't by most roads and couldn't be without a massive scale of building demolition.

Concepts are only any good if practical.
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[Straylight]

II fail to see how they would be any more disruptive or dangerous in an urban environment than say cycle commuters or mobility scooters, in fact I think less so given the relatively high top speed, and that it would be easier to see given its size. Also, as the man said in the video, what we're seeing is an early prototype, with safety features yet to be developed.

I think that in order to promote an evolution of alternative transport there has to be something of a Darwinist approach, in that there must be a wide customer choice. This would force innovation via competition, as well as a certain ubiquity required to alter the thinking of the mainstream consumer.

Sadly though, I fear the whole exercise is more about GM’s corporate image than anything else.

 

[SEATALTEA]

Electric transport is certainly in the news today.

Video review: Gocycle, the electric bike - Times Online

Segway + Hyperion Power Generation = common sense

We need nuclear power, simple as that.

 

[flecc]

as the man said in the video, what we're seeing is an early prototype, with safety features yet to be developed.

And once the safety features were developed and the silly gyroscope concept dropped in favour of three wheels, what would we be left with?

Depending on it's size, either the bubble car or the velomobile.

As they say, there's nothing new under the sun, and a repeat of the bubble car in electric form would fail yet again. Equally an attempt to popularise the velomobile would be the Sinclair C5 failure all over again. Small and very dissimilar vehicles really only succeed safely on their own territory, not mixed with current traffic. We've more than enough evidence of this with bicycles already, as todays tragic news of an orphaned 10 year old lad illustrates only too sadly.
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[flecc]

We need nuclear power, simple as that.

Seconded.
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