Electronic Skateboards Open Up New Possibilities

An electric skateboard could be a new form of transportation for those who have good balance according to Mashable.com.

The report stated the following:

“With 50 percent of all trips people take in cars being under 5 miles and the last mile of public transportation routes often left for walking, manufacturers are starting to market electric skateboarding as an alternative eco-friendly way to beat traffic and save on gasoline.”

William Hurley, the co-founder of electric skateboarding company Chaotic Moon stated that the electric skateboard is becoming a valid commuting option for anyone with balance.”

Electric bikes and scooters are other options that many choose to take instead of driving and sometimes even instead of public transportation and/or carpooling.

“Several manufacturers have created new ways of interfacing with the boards, including new handheld radio controls and special inserts on the decks to allow hands-free operations,” Whurley says.

“By far the biggest innovation in electric skateboards so far comes from Sanjay Dastoor and the team at Boosted Boards, who have created an amazing board that is as beautiful from a physical perspective as it is from a technical one.”

Mashable.com reported Boosted Boards, which started as a Kickstarter project and received nearly $500,000 in funding (beating its $100,000 goal), is touted as the world’s lightest electric vehicle.

The report continued on to say that it weighs less than a bicycle at 12 pounds and can be charged through a normal wall outlet in 15 minutes.

They say that the motor itself is small enough to fit in your hand and even features parts from a toy store. It also comes with a hand-held remote so you can control acceleration and go in reverse.

Now that’s kind of cool….

The report claims that this skateboard is “so powerful you could ride the board up the hills of San Francisco at about 20 MPH.”

Dastoor said during a recent TED talk that the skateboard uses 20 times less energy for every mile or kilometer you travel than a car, “which means not only is it fast to charge and cheap to build, it also reduces the footprint of your energy use in terms of your transportation.”

Dastoor continued on to say:

“Instead of looking at large amounts of energy for each person to get around, now you can look at much smaller amounts and more sustainable transportation.

“The next time you think about a vehicle, we hope that, like us, you are thinking about something new.”

You think that’s fancy? Mashable.com reported that the boards coming out of Chaotic Moon will be the first to actually incorporate brain control technology.

What does that mean? No… They aren’t taking over your brain.

“Skateboarders wear a headset which reads your brains output in the form of brain waves (beta, alpha, theta and delta).

“It then transmits those signals over Bluetooth to a Samsung tablet computer running Windows 8, which is attached to the skateboard.

“It interprets that data and converts it into analog instructions for the board.”

Whurley says that “Electric skateboards are already becoming more popular as a means of intra-city commuting, and brain computer interfaces are growing in popularity as the price of the technologies continues to drop and the capabilities get more refined.”

While brain control technology would be cool, Whurley says their main focus for the moment is battery power and safety features.

This isn’t the only major technology news floating around, other news includes the Apple iWatch and the new iPhone Lite Shells rumor.

What do you think of the possiblitiies of an electronic skateboard?

[Image via Youtube/TomStrong67]