transport
Vehicles
The Contortionist Bike Is Compact, Bendy, And Oddly Sexy, Like An Actual Contortionist
8:20AM John Herrman | I don’t care that the Contortionist bike looks like it would crumple at the first curb hop, or that toting a 26-inch wheel isn’t that much more convenient than wheeling a bike. I just want to watch it fold, forever. More »
Peripherals
2UNFOLD Laptop Bag Is Too Attractive For You Or Your Computer
5:40AM Mark Wilson | Your MacBook Air or whatever is a sharp machine, sure. But it’s not timeless, handcrafted Italian leather that’s transformable into one of eight different styles. More »
Vehicles
Driverless, Electricity-Run Taxis Will Dominate UAE Eco-City
5:00PM Elaine Chow | The United Arab Emirates is planning a bunch of “personal rapid transit” devices: driverless taxis that run on electricity and could hit the streets of Masdar as early as this year. More »
Design
Hitch Suction-Cup Belt Lets You Catch Free Rides, Dice with Death
7:08PM Kit Eaton | Mixing suction-cups with the chance of a high-speed death: sounds like fun, and exactly what designer Robert Nightingale has come up with in his “Hitch” concept. It’s a smidge like the free-ride skateboard Kouriers in Snow Crash and a smidge like bad building-climbing gear from B-movies. The idea of Hitch is simply to sucker onto a vehicle that’s about to move off, using the belt and hand suction cups, thereby gaining yourself a free journey. But Robert also suggests aircraft hangers as a good hitchhiking location, which I’m pretty certain is a one-way ticket to a Darwin Award. [Yanko Design] More »
Vehicles
Jaambaaro Vehicle Puts the Rickshaw in Ambulance
2:15AM Kit Eaton | All joking aside, there are plenty of places in the world where getting speedy medical attention is difficult. And that’s where the Jaambaaro concept from designer Benoît Angibaud comes in. It’s a two-person pedal-powered ambulance, designed to get the sick and wounded to hospital in areas where motor vehicles are rare. It would have solar panels to help generate some energy, and be made of locally-salvaged materials. Great idea, though I have to admit the first thing that came to mind when seeing the stretcher’s blister canopy was a short dude in glasses, shouting “Choppers!”… [Yanko Design] More »
Peripherals
TSA Says X-Rayable Laptop Bags are Go
6:09PM Gizmodo US Edition | The director of the TSA, Kip Hawley, has spoken to the New York Times and confirmed that X-ray-friendly laptop cases will be accepted by the agency as soon as they hit the shelves, potentially bringing an end to the panic that your laptop will go astray in all the fuss at airport checkpoints. We brought you first hints of this back in May, but it looks like the process of getting the bags approved is well underway. And both Targus and Pathfinder Luggage are hoping to have products on sale as soon as September or October. More »
Vehicles
NYC Makes Buses Hijack Proof With Remote Controlled Device
7:15AM Sean Fallon | Let’s say someone put a bomb on your bus and it can’t go below 75 kph or it will explode. If that were to happen on a NYC bus you would probably be incinerated because the city has installed a new GPS device in thousands of local commuter and tourist buses. If the authorities get wind of a hijacking in progress, they can slowly stop the vehicle and prevent it from restarting via remote control. It may not work for “Speed” style situations, but for conventional hijackings, it could prove to be an effective weapon. More »
Vehicles
Folding Bike Handlebars: So Obvious, It Took This Long to Think of It
6:45AM Sean Fallon | At this very moment a bike is leaning against my living room wall taking up unnecessary space. A simple solution would be to replace the standard handlebars with collapsible versions so that the bike could be placed flush (more or less) to the wall. Thanks to designer Joe Wentworth, these retrofit folding handlebars would make a bicycle easier to store and more secure if locked into the collapsed position. Whether this concept will actually see the light of day remains to be seen–but it can’t come soon enough for me. The last thing I need is to another groin-first trip into my exposed bike handlebars. [Tuvie] More »
Design
Metrolla Strolla: Baby Stroller Gets Some Height Added
10:31PM Gizmodo US Edition | The stroller has undergone a radical redesign with this concept by designers Dan Levin and Evan Garrett, which places the baby passenger at almost normal eye-height. The design has sprung legs for ride comfort, and the seat unplugs so you can mount it easily on your bike too. Seems like a great idea, and frees the kid from having to look at endless sets of legs or ceilings rolling by, like in many normal strollers. But I can’t help but worry that it looks very top-heavy, and a topple from that height would be terrifying. Might just need bigger, badder wheels. It’s a concept, so don’t expect to rush off and buy one. [Coroflot via Born Rich] More »
Vehicles
