A Japanese inventor has created a mode of transportation so small it can fit in your backpack — skateboards, beware.
Called the WalkCar, the laptop-sized transportation looks like a sleek scale with four small wheels. The invention is the brainchild of Kuniako Saito, the head man at Cocoa Motors, a report by Reuters said.
The WalkCar weighs in between 4.4 and 6.6 pounds and comes in two models: indoor and outdoor. While the foot-car doesn’t boast impressive top speeds — 6.2 miles an hour — it’s designed to travel a little more than 7 miles before its battery dies.
Saito was quoted as saying his intention was to design something “we could just carry” in a bag or backpack.
If we could just carry our transportation in our bags, wouldn’t that mean we’d always have our transportation with us to ride on?
Saito went on to say that, in most cases, the Japanese take a concept created by Americans and then improves upon it. But, he was quoted as saying, in the case of the WalkCar, he’s made something “totally new” that he “started from scratch.”
The WalkCar is a totally new product I have started from scratch (…) I want to show the world that Japan can also be innovative.
According to Fortune, Saito’s WalkCar will be released this autumn and will cost about 100,000 Japanese Yen, which is about $800.
The transport boards are scheduled to ship in the spring of 2016.
A video of the WalkCar shows a demonstration of the battery-powered board. A person carrying shoulder shopping bag pulls the device out of the bag and lays it flat on the ground.
When he comes to a staircase, he simply steps off the board, walks down the stairs and gets on the board again.
The video also shows the same person leisurely riding up an incline.
