Article by Martin Gibson – Twitter – 08.04.2010

Honda UX-3

The Honda UX-3 is a bizarre contraption which rivals previous efforts like the Segway to become the next lightweight personal mobility solution.

The UX-3 is still at a prototype stage at the moment, but Honda intends to continue research and development of the vehicle to test the marketability and efficiency of the design. The UX-s features Honda’s omni-directional driving wheel system which enables smooth front, backward and side to side movements. This driving wheel system comprises of many smaller motor controlled wheels which help the vehicle travel side to side, but when in line make a much larger wheel which propels the vehicle forwards and backwards. These drive systems can work simultaneously to help the vehicle travel diagonally in any direction.

Anthropometrically the Honda UX-3 places the user at eye level with other walking pedestrians keeping a level hierarchy when in conversation. To move the vehicle in a particular direction the user just has to lean to his/her desired side. The vehicle miraculously manages to balance itself using the same sensor technology that powers Honda’s popular ASIMO robot. The product weights less than 10KG and utilises a lithium ion battery which should power the device for approximately 1 hour of operation.

Purpose and market appreciation aside, the industrial design from an aesthetic perspective is truly beautiful. It has a real space-age-look in finish and form. It is an object that has been designed in a real 3d manner with every orthographic viewing angle offering something visually interesting and dynamic. In future iterations of this design more work should be placed in some kind of handle for the user to grasp onto. Even the beautiful young girl in the marketing photos looks somewhat jittery in balance and there is a sense of awkwardness in where she places her hands.

Yike Bike

Secondly the Yike Bike which is a bit further in its design and production lifecycle aims to tackle congestion, pollution head on. It is the first commercial expression of the mini-farthing concept since the ingenious work of the great father of cycles James Starley in 1870 first paraded his 1.5m diameter wheels down main street. The design uses a fusion of an electric motor and user generated pedalling to propel the user to top speeds of 25km/h. The designers sat down and tried to answer the following questions:

• What is the simplest way to get from A to B with the aid of a machine?
• What is the smallest wheel you can have to get a stable, safe, comfortable ride?
• Can you make something small enough to be able to go with you anywhere in a city?
• Wonder if we could make a unicycle dramatically easier to ride and fold?

The product enables city dwellers a fast, safe and easy way to navigate their environment. The design is of course far more commercially viable for mass production compared to the Honda UX-3 but in saying that this design uses a lot of mouldings to give it that harmonious surface finish. The form of the bike is interesting, and the collapsable nature of the bike is clever, but the cost of all those carbon fiber parts is daunting. In fact, $4500 US daunting. It would be excellent to see a cheaper cast component like aluminium used and a bit more experimentation in colour from the jet black stereotypical prototype look it currently exhibits.

Compared to the big budget concept project by Honda, which by the way will highly likely never see the light of day, the Yike Bike is a realistic and worthy competitor from Christchurch, New Zealand.