Originally published at: Volkswagen's office chair travels at 12 mph | Boing Boing
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No, it drives at (up to) 20 km/h.
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The towing hitch was a nice touch. You could hitch up a similarly tricked out desk and take it with you if your office neighbour was being too annoying.
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it’s a floorwax. it’s a dessert topping.
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I can imagine this being used in a factory assembly line.
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I can imagine a lot of mobility impaired people would love this.
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My first thought, too. Which makes me wish they had just committed to improving the state of actual mobility vehicles instead of a one-off vanity project.
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I work from home in a 2 bedroom apartment.
Is it wrong that I still want one of these?
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I think a tractor hitch would be more useful than a ball hitch indoors.
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I’m happy to let them play for now. By putting it in an expo a lot of people are going to see it, comment on it, test drive it, and they’ll be able to figure out what kind of demand there is (or isn’t).
My guess is this was just a couple of engineers fooling around hot-rodding an office chair, and a video went viral within the org. Someone from marketing said “ooh, pretty that thing up and we’ll put it in the expo.” I’m pretty sure it was seen as a nerd toy, not a mobility platform. But “the street finds its own uses for things”, and if a comfy fast chair is useful to enough people in the disabled community, then they’ll be happy to sell to them as well.
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I thought the sales pitch (or the punch line) would be about enticing remote workers back to the office.
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I’m imagining all of the hallway traffic at break time. Maybe eliminate the employee break room and line up the vending machines in a drive-thru arrangement…
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Me (impersonating Jim Carey impersonating Matthew McConaughey): That’s pretty good for a Volkswagen.
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Perfect for VW management when they need to make a quick getaway after being caught in the next scandal.
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Take a look at this.
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That’s awesome! I love how they’re addressing not just the mechanical needs, but the socio-emotional needs of their users.
“When users are seated, the hands-free wheelchair descends to a low position, and it ascends to a certain level when it is used for moving. Unlike ordinary wheelchair, UNI-ONE is smart enough to know when it should stop rising and reaches the eye level of other people.
“This gives the users a sense of not being looked down at and helps them communicate at the same height.”
Beautiful. It also looks really narrow in certain configurations with basically a zero-turn radius, which I’m sure would give users more autonomy. Current motorized designs are very bulky and realistically just barely meet ADA dimensions, which very often requires the help of an aide for simple things like navigating a doorway.
Yeah, it’s very cool. I had just dumped my morning tea on myself and was grumpy. They aren’t mutually exclusive endeavors and my crabbing is as useful as most internet noise. Your framing is the right take.
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I liked that too. The fact that it brings people up to eye-level. Very good indeed.
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Finally, someone thinking about the tough problems that need solving 
