Driverless cars? No, the future belongs to the Riderless Bicycle

[thomdunn]

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/04/29/driverless-cars-no-the-future-belongs-to-the-riderless-bicycle.html

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[FGD135]

What’s really funny about this is that with the right pitch to the right people you’d get money from investors.

[Grey_Devil]

Possibly. Bikes could be set up with gyroscopes to stay upright and selfdrive over to a desired location when a user leaves it a bad drop off spot or if there is a need for the bike elsewhere. That said, conceptually it seems doable but in reality it would be a headache with people knocking over bikes or driving into them. People already have a blindness of people on bikes (and sometimes a grudge), so driverless ones would make things so chaotic.

[generic_name]

There’s an interesting connection between driverless cars and driverless bikes. . .

Ghost bike

[Otherbrother]

@FGD135

What’s really funny about this is that with the right pitch to the right people you’d get money from investors.

That may have already happened? As far as I can tell, this video is not a parody:

Weel Introduces Self-Balancing, AI-Copiloted Electric Bike of the Future

[anothernewbbaccount]

That Riderless CEO is a dick for one more reason. His subtitles don’t know the difference between cue and queue.

@Grey_Devil and @Otherbrother seeing as both Yamaha and Honda have offered self-balancing motorbikes I’m sure a pedal bike is possible. And I’m sure I’ve seen some ‘wacky inventor’ video somewhere in the distant past about something jury-rigged up with gyroscopes.

And then I found this:

SELF BALANCING BIKES / Gyroscope wheel / New way to teach a child to ride a bike coming soon

[KowboyBob]

Driverless cars…Riderless bikes…just wait until Skynet takes over and these vehicles turn homicidal…

Rubber (2011) - Official Trailer [HD]

[adamrice]

It’s been done for real: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCL2d7wZjU8

[gatto]

i went look for the youtube version… turns out not only is it 6 years old…

First there was the Driverless Car, Now there is a Riderless Bike | CBC Radio (Comedy/Satire Skit)

there’s actually a google april fools from 8 years ago it appears to be based on:

Introducing the self-driving bicycle in the Netherlands

( both are super funny in their own way )

[Tellurium128]

I find it hard to believe that a tyre like that was just abandoned in the dirt. So much remaining tread! No obvious sidewall damage! It is a stone bridge too far for me to get over.
Besides, 2011 was not a good year for retreads of motel murder movies.

[anon3072533]

Reminds me of this song and video (cued to a relevant section)

Mark Ronson, The Business Intl. - The Bike Song (Official Video)

[Purplecat]

And as we can see in the video, the riderless bike technology is so advanced, it gives pedestrians the full experience of dodging them on the pavement.

Take that, auto industry. With this invention, we can truly maximise vehicular usage of the public realm.

[bobsyeruncle666]

You could just go old school and put your cat to work.

What could possibly go wrong?

[Karyudo]

*cue…