You Could Be Taking The Wheel Of Technology

As you know, we’re not one to shy away from some new gadgets in the office (in fact, we love our Google Glasses) and this new piece of technology could make getting around the office very interesting.

The AirWheel is a new personal transport vehicle that helps one person get from A to B on a single wheel. The vehicle is half Segway and half unicycle and it has definitely got us interested.

It uses a gyroscope and attitude control stabilisation in order to stay upright on its single wheel and doesn’t use any other support. It’s clever but it is going to set you back quite a bit. Priced at £799, the AirWheel Q3 will be at the top of the range, but if you can’t afford that, the cheapest will be around £510.

If that hasn’t quite convinced you to replace your bicycle yet, then maybe the 800w motor and the 340 battery that will help you travel 24 miles of about-town, will help change your mind? On a good downhill slope the AirWheel can also reach speeds of around 16kph, so it’s no slouch.

Similar to the Segway, it has a platform for you to stand on, only the AirWheel is on two separate platforms either side of the one wheel. This can affect the stableness of it though, and as there are no handlebars you will have to make sure you keep moving or you could end up falling off.

Learning to ride a bike is something you did when you were a child but now it seems you will have to restart a similar learning curve with this piece of kit, but that will all be part of the excitement. One thing that will definitely take time getting used to is the way you turn a corner – you do this by leaning to one side – as this is much different to the Segway.

These models are fairly bulky, weighing up to 13kg. But, if you’re looking for a quicker way to get to work and would rather carry the AirWheel with you inside the office instead of leaving your bike locked outside, then we could be seeing a lot of these around city centres very soon.