Results tagged “prototype”

Since the Segway never really took off, there's hope that Honda's new personal mobility device (the U3-X) won't either. It's function? Helping you meet your ultimate laziness potential; moving at 3.7 mph, it'll "scoot you from spot to spot with out having to worry about wearing out your precious leg muscles." It's just a prototype now, but Honda's head honcho himself says "I might really use it if my legs grow weaker." The U3-X: the cause of and solution to all of life's problems.

Unlike lucky Carrie Melago at the Daily News, we did not have the opportunity to test-drive the P.U.M.A.—a new battery-powered prototype from Segway and GM—but this HD video is the next best thing. Watch in wonder as the bespectacled white guy cruises through Brooklyn Heights at top speeds of 35 m.p.h., then, through the magic of Hollywood, winds up by the Flatiron building with a gal pal! Too bad there's no footage of his death-defying P.U.M.A. ride over the Manhattan Bridge.

      

We're all for environmentally sustainable motor vehicles, but can you imagine picking up your date in one of these? Yet this could be our dorky urban future, which even the most fanny pack-bedecked European would have no choice but to point at and laugh. But the joke's on them, because this compact ride's got a totally bad ass name: P.U.M.A., which stands for Personal Urban Mobility & Accessibility. The prototype, developed by G.M. and Segway, was tested yesterday on the streets of New York, and, miraculously, no cabs or Hummers plowed into the thing, though the drivers presumably sustained some damage to their dignity.

New York, meet the bike rack of the future. Today the DOT announced that after a lengthy design competition, a jury of six—including sodden cyclist David Byrne—chose "Hoop" (pictured) out of the ten finalists. It's the work of two Copenhagen designers, Ian Mahaffy and Maarten De Greeve. "Constructed of cast metal, the design is elegant yet sturdy enough to withstand New York cyclists’ harsh treatment," the DOT said in a statement.

          

The Department of Transportation's design competition for the next generation of bike racks entered its final phase yesterday with the installation of ten design prototypes around New York City. Nine of the ten finalists' prototypes were installed at Astor Place, and as of 6 p.m. yesterday they were almost entirely unused. It'll probably take a day or two before more cyclists discover the next-wave locking options in the Alamo island there, so for now it seems there's plenty of free parking.