Even Smaller Electric Vehicles: Dawn of the PMD (Personal Mobility Device)
Some time ago, I wrote about tiny electric vehicles and their inherent efficiency advantages. The less the vehicle weighs, the less electricity you need to move it, the smaller your battery can be for a given range.
But the vehicles I covered in that article were not the absolute limit of EV miniaturization. I selected most for practicality, including considerations like being enclosed so the rider is insulated from the weather. What if you don't care about that?
What if you just want an electric vehicle of some kind for the lowest possible price, with the smallest footprint so you can store it anywhere? So you can pick it up and take it inside with you to charge, even carry it onto buses and trains rather than having to hoist a heavy ebike up onto the front rack?
If there is an appetite for something, and it is technologically feasible, Capitalism will fill that niche every time. So it should come as no surprise that itty bitty, hyper-efficient electric people movers already exist in a wide variety of forms.
The hoverboard won't be discussed much in this article. Not because it isn't a valid way to go, but because everybody already knows about them. They've accumulated some stigma as an obnoxious kid's toy as a result, not deservedly but nevertheless that makes them a less than ideal option in the minds of most adults.
I also won't be discussing electric kick scooters either as they were covered adequately in the last article. We're going smaller than that this time. Yes, smaller than an electric kick scooter. How? Gyroscopes.
The Kiwano K01 self-balancing monowheel is something like a single wheeled Segway. Somehow in the process of losing the other wheel and shrinking the remaining one, it's become remarkably less dorky looking. The handle makes it more stable and easier to learn how to ride than a hoverboard, and at $800 it's in the same price range.
Kiwano claims a 20 mile range and 20mph top speed. Probably the top speed is legitimate as it's the legal limit for vehicles of this type in the US, but I have doubts about the range. Still, the form factor is enticing and it's possible to pick up and carry with one hand.
Of course, the idea of a self-balancing monowheel vehicle is not new. The Solo Wheel did it first, many years ago, from the same guy who invented the original hoverboard (originally the "hovertrax"). The problem being it's difficult to learn how to balance properly on it. I can't count the number of journalists I've seen fall off this thing. If I wanted a small EV that I need to learn to ride, I'd buy an electric skateboard.
This brings us to the Acton Rocket Skates. Each one is basically a little single foot hoverboard, self-balancing on two wheels, one on either side of each foot. Offering a range of 10 miles at 12mph, they're not the quickest option on this list, but you can walk with them on. You don't carry them while not in use, you wear them.
Still, for $700 that kind of performance will be a hard sell for many people. When the K01 is just $100 more and offers much more substantial range and speed, the value proposition of strapping little electric vehicles to each foot comes into question. There's also numerous reports that these are tough to master, and you can expect many painful falls until then. I can't fault the aesthetic styling though, they sure look slick.
What got me interested in PMDs was an idle daydream about an electric transport that would fit into my solar backpack, and charge from its built-in flexible solar panel. The only one I could find that would actually fit in a backpack was the WalkCar, from Cocoa Motors.
Top speed is a leisurely 10mph, range is measured in minutes for some odd reason (60 minutes specifically) which works out to somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 miles, about right for a vehicle of this size. In many ways it's just a more elegant looking hoverboard, but the small wheels are less capable of handling bumps and cracks in the sidewalk.
It's more suited to indoor use. Scooting around an enormous mall, office complex, or perhaps the well kept concrete surfaces of a theme park or university campus. That's a rather limited use case given the price, a cool $1,280.
That's a shame, isn't it? I really love the design of this one. But with the small wheels, low range, low top speed and high price, this one is difficult to recommend unless you absolutely need it to fit in a backpack or messenger bag, and you'll be using it only in large indoor spaces.
There's still a lot of room for growth. As cities become more walkable, car ownership continues to decline and the next generation looks for some way to have their cake and eat it too, PMDs offer privately owned personal transportation that's purely electric (with all the benefits that entails) at a price that, in most cases, won't destroy your finances.
Even Honda is getting into this game, with their Uni-Cub concept PMD. Unique in that it uses an omni-drive wheel, the tire of which is made out of many smaller wheels aligned perpendicular to the main wheel they are a part of, it can "strafe" side to side without turning. Thanks to a small perpendicular rear wheel it can also turn in place without moving.
With a top speed of 3mph and a range of just 3 miles it's probably for the best that you can't go out and buy this anywhere. It's just a concept and likely intended to eventually become a mobility base for office robots, related to Honda's famous ASIMO project.
Honda's other PMD effort is called the U3-X. Resembling a flattened peanut or two thirds of a fidget spinner, it's just as speed and range limited as the Uni-Cub but with a more appealing, compact form factor. Designed to fit into an alcove in the door of a concept electric car which never made it to production, believed to be a nod to Honda's 92 pound folding MotoCompo scooter, which fit easily into the trunk.
The MotoCompo was a classic beloved by many, but odds are the U3-X will never reach the market. That's something of a shame. The omni-drive wheel in both the Uni-Cub and U3-X is honestly groundbreaking. Something tells me that the Uni-Cub and U3-X are not the last we will see of this omni-directional wheel technology.
Toyota's got their eye on the PMD market as well with the "Winglet", a sort of mini-segway type vehicle that comes in three configurations depending how much stability you feel you need. One is basically identical to a hoverboard. The next can be gripped with your knees. The last has a full scooter style handlebar.
This trio of options seems like a wise direction to go in. A ten year old can fall off his hoverboard and be fine, but a seventy year old man can't do the same without a trip to the hospital. That danger shouldn't prevent the elderly from benefiting from the potential of PMDs to offer a more dignified mobility solution which keeps them standing, and at eye level with those around them (unlike existing mobility scooters).
The Winglet is also not for sale however, and I've not heard anything more about this project from Toyota for many years. In that time the hoverboard came out and was a huge sales sensation however, so don't be surprised if big name companies start taking a keen interest in this segment of the transportation market again in the coming years.
Will there be a format war? Which configuration is actually the most practical? Consumers will decide. Which type of PMD appeals to you, and why? Where would you use it, primarily? Do you see a role for these compact, efficient little devices in the increasingly congested cities of tomorrow?
Nice! Can't wait till we get flying cars :D
have you seen this?
Haha, no. That's delightful. I wonder how they got ahold of those Uni-Cubs.
I think the music video was filmed at Honda HQ. I did not know they are not for sale. That's very interesting.
Some of the devices are getting pretty interesting but I feel like a person has to be pretty young and fit to utilize most of them which accounts for about 1.5% of the US population these days. LOL P.S. 79% of stats are made up on the spot.
technology on the motion.... it is growing continuously
I, for one, am a big fan of electric bicycles. You charge them up, you ride them like normal, and if you need a boost, you use it. You could pedal on flat ground and everywhere else and then suddenly you approach a giant hill. You can try to go up the hill if you want, pedaling, or you could use the electricity to get up, aiding you without you even breaking a sweat. I think this sort of thing could be huge if the costs could be a cut a bit. The best part is that there is still that human/manual element to it so people don't have to rely 100% on it.
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