Footomobiles
I was recently reading through newspapers from around 1898 to 1901. In a collection of articles from midwestern papers predicting what life would be like in the year 2000, I found this cartoon:
(Brown County Democrat, December 28, 1900.)
The label on the device reads ‘footomobile’. Words fail me.
Now, I have ridden a Segway (or, as I guess I have to start saying, ‘Footomobile’), and it’s actually tremendously fun. But of course they’re too expensive to be practical. Instead, I’ve found an alternative: electric skateboards.
They’re like Segways, but without all that silly safety stuff. I bought two cheap ones off eBay for about $40 each and tried them out. They were fun and worked well for getting around campus, so when I moved to Boston and got rid of my car, I bought a nice one from Exkate for $330 — the Raptor 3.0 model (I swear I didn’t pick it because of the name. They’re just everywhere!). It has a 10-mile range, travels pretty fast (10-15 mph), and recharges quickly. There are other longboard models with longer ranges and top speeds of 20 mph. Zero to twenty in four seconds. Yes.
The boards are heavy — mine is 28 lbs, and it’s the lightest they have. They still use lead-acid batteries because they can’t find cheap-enough lithium-ion packs. If they could switch to lithium-ion batteries, they could cut the battery weight in half and up the range to 60 miles. Sixty miles. Man. (Side note: if anyone has lithium-ion packs sitting around and wants a cool project, if you document it well, Exkate might be willing to send you some boards at cost to play with.) Their website isn’t the best, but if you have any questions, give them a call. The guys there have been really helpful, and they’ll give you any additional specs you’re looking for. You can also visit their shop in southern Orange County.
Now, the bad stuff: my board has suffered from various mechanical failures, and eventually I had to send it in for repairs. They said it’d take 2-3 days and it’s ended up being a month. I’m still waiting, in fact, but I think it’s finally on the way. Also, I’m a little disappointed the boards don’t hover like the ones in Back to the Future. But I’ve looked at some other companies and Exkate seemed like the best.
So, electric skateboards are magical. They’re practical for getting around cities or campuses, and they’re just plain fun to swoop around on. There’s nothing like carving up a hill. I hear Ryan North of Dinosaur Comics rides longboards and might be interested in getting one like mine, so maybe we can start a webcomic-author electric skateboard club. Practically everyone I know has a crush on Ryan, so it’d be interesting to see which was a more effective accessory for picking up girls — the skateboard or Ryan North.
September 5th, 2007 at 1:42 am
It’s good to see that both the bowler hat and the monocle will live well on, into the 21st century, and beyond.
September 5th, 2007 at 2:04 am
I’m glad that they thought to put a cowcatcher in front.
September 5th, 2007 at 2:06 am
It’s fun to note that our driving skills are about as described also…
just one of those things I suppose
September 5th, 2007 at 2:38 am
I’m just glad to see that brawling is still in style. And swearing. Check the guys in the background.
September 5th, 2007 at 3:29 am
@Grant: is that a cowcatcher? To me it looks like a coupling, so that — if you want to move with your footomobile, and not just stand around looking silly on a box — some kind of tractor (or horse-car) could be coupled onto the footomobile and set you in motion ;-)
September 5th, 2007 at 4:07 am
Yeah…I’ve got some Pocket PC batteries I could wire up to those bad lads.
September 5th, 2007 at 4:37 am
Skip lithium ion and replace the lead acid cells with lithium polymer cells. Over the last few years these have come into widespread use for electric-powered model aircraft, and hence become affordable.
A 3-cell series pack runs between 9 and 12.6V, making a good drop-in replacement for a 12V lead acid cell and has significantly less weight. You just need a suitable charger.
What is the capacity of your current battery and the peak current draw of the motor? Let me know and can suggest you a setup.
September 5th, 2007 at 5:55 am
ZOMG, January has *31* days in the future!
September 5th, 2007 at 6:02 am
yeah, crazy huh? like that’s ever gonna happen - wait a second…
September 5th, 2007 at 6:23 am
We shouldn’t laugh too much at their “predictions” of transportation or clothing styles. They were, at least, numerate enough to discuss the twentieth century in the future tense on December 28th, 1900 - a distinction way beyond the comprehension of most alive on December 28th, 2000.
September 5th, 2007 at 6:34 am
ZOMG, December has *28* days in the future!
September 5th, 2007 at 7:35 am
I predict that in the year 3007, footmobiles will long be replaced by “legzoomers”.
And they will totally float like the ones on B2TF.
September 5th, 2007 at 8:03 am
The first available year that the January shown could fall in would be 2002. January 2000 starts on a Sunday and ends on Monday, 2001 starts on Monday and ends on Wednesday. Which if you consider that the Seqway was first revealed at the end of 2001, makes the predictions of “footmobiles” in 2002 seem like a pretty good vision.
September 5th, 2007 at 8:07 am
[...] Would Jules Verne have written about a Segway? Might have. [...]
September 5th, 2007 at 8:50 am
ZOMG, December has *28* days in the past!
September 5th, 2007 at 9:56 am
Let me know when you start reading newspapers from 1901 to 1904… there are some doozies there. Just curious, why were you reading ancient newspapers?
September 5th, 2007 at 10:24 am
Damnit! I want my hoverboard!
September 5th, 2007 at 11:06 am
To those asking, the board I have uses two 12V cells in series, supplying a total of 13-16 amp-hours (note: the discharge curve is such that they lose voltage gradually, so a nicer battery would be an improvement even if it didn’t have more total capacity).
September 5th, 2007 at 11:07 am
Do you stop by stepping on the tail? Is that tricky? Safe in traffic?
I commute in Manhattan on (human-powered) skates and it’s great. Faster than either cabs or subway if there’s any traffic or walking on either end of the subway stops which there always is.
And certainly kicks your skateboard’s ass. (Top speed ~50km/h (30mph) on flat, >60km/h (40mph) downhill. As for range, I’ve done 180 km (110 miles) in a day, but not without “recharging”.) Fast bikes kick my ass, but not nearly as light and portable.
September 5th, 2007 at 11:31 am
I think some are confused… or maybe just me. Aren’t they talking about the “new century” as 20th century, which is 1901 to 2000?
September 5th, 2007 at 12:24 pm
FYI, UBC Engineering Physics runs a couple of senior project courses and a team in the past developed their solution to the expensive segway: a servo controlled skateboard. Their sensor solution was more cost-effective too in comparison. Here’s a link to entrepreneur’s site (it’s further down the page and there are videos at the bottom too):
http://www.ebikes.ca/projects/Emanual/
September 5th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
I’ve had the pleasure of test-driving an electric motorcycle. Looks the same as a regular cycle except for
1) A large drum around the rear wheel
2) What would normally be gear levers was actually a simple knob - forward for faster, back for slower.
3) An LCD display on the crossbar showing your speed
4) A battery pack just behind the seat.
We took turns, and back then I weighed 94 kilos (207 lbs) and it still took me at 10 kmph (6 mph) up a gentle slope. (Now that I weigh 73 kg / 161 lbs I suspect it would do better :) ).
Best bit was that like a hybrid car, the batteries recharged while braking. I don’t know what the range was, though, but we took six rounds around the block without re-charging.
The electric skateboard looks cool, I’d want one!
September 5th, 2007 at 1:20 pm
They weren’t too far off about the “no one will walk” part. In some rural areas (such as where I live,) you have to use a car or else you’ll get run over. Also, you’ll be too tired by the time you get to the store.
September 5th, 2007 at 6:11 pm
Actualy somebody has made a promising breaktrough in Lithium-ion batteries. Chrysler will use that new version in their hybrid car which is due in 2010, so that could be a very nice future for the electrical skateboard!
I shall look into the details of this.
September 5th, 2007 at 6:14 pm
What’s the learning curve on those things? Can an uncoordinated person pick one up and be confident to enough to use it in an hour or two? Does it get tiring standing up? Do you feel safe?
September 5th, 2007 at 6:30 pm
um…
…you’re kind of my hero.
September 5th, 2007 at 7:10 pm
1. Design electric skateboard with Li+ batteries
2. ???
3. PROFIT!!!
September 5th, 2007 at 7:16 pm
XKCD in a webcomic-mashup. I thought Chex was dead, but check out the Checkerboard Nightmare site as of 05 September, 2007 (http://www.checkerboardnightmare.com/index.html)! I can’t tell if Chris Straub is a fan of XKCD or not.
September 5th, 2007 at 7:52 pm
Well, that’s a funny prediction, but I, like Tom, think it’s for the 20th century, not the 21st, which actually makes it marginally funnier.
September 5th, 2007 at 10:02 pm
So, I dunno if anyone has brought this to your attention, but at PAX last weekend, Wil Wheaton was the Key Note speaker, and we around all weekend to sign autographs. Take note of his shirt on Saturday?
http://flickr.com/photos/puja/1260405514/
Thought that might make your day. :)
September 5th, 2007 at 10:05 pm
Wow I must be really tired because there are at least 3 mistakes in that last post. Sorry about that. PAX was not LAST weekend, and “we” should be “was.” >.
September 5th, 2007 at 10:45 pm
i totally want an electric skateboard now, just so that all my friends can laugh at my totally uncoordinated ass when i fall off. a lot.
until then, they’re simply going to have to do with watching me try to play games on the Wii. :D
September 5th, 2007 at 11:17 pm
I was the MIT Flea this past weekend. There were two kids showing off a homemade segway project. They said the parts cost them about $600 and it worked really well from what I saw. It was also a lot lighter than the commercial model.
September 6th, 2007 at 1:15 am
Random thought: I love the Segway in Scifi Channel’s new Flash Gordon series. The one ridden by Ming’s assistant with the long black coat.
September 6th, 2007 at 1:59 am
Um…
You can get a for the same price that weighs less, goes faster, has better acceleration, and the bonus of not having everyone you know make fun of you behind your back for riding it.
September 6th, 2007 at 2:05 am
Just build your own Segway-like device: http://tlb.org/scooter2.html
Or if you feel adventurous, just build a Eunicycle: http://www.tlb.org/eunicycle.html
September 6th, 2007 at 3:25 am
Does a wheelchair or mobility scooter count? Can I be one of the cool kids now? Can I can I can I?
September 6th, 2007 at 5:03 am
Unfortunately, no–if you read this blog then you are not one of the cool kids… except on December 29 which obviously doesn’t exist. ZOMG!
September 6th, 2007 at 9:35 am
This would be fun to get as a kit. Sadly, the shipping across the pond costs almost as much as the board itself; I guess it’d be easier throwing one together myself (and possibly even cheaper, at that).
September 6th, 2007 at 10:57 am
hahaha they look like a cross between a radio flyer and a sit-n-spin. incidentally, has anyone else here ever used a wagon as a skateboard? because i sure have.
September 6th, 2007 at 11:00 am
also, the direction in which the man’s coat flaps are flying suggest that his footomobile is travelling in reverse — and yet he is cheerily facing forward. hmm.
September 6th, 2007 at 4:58 pm
In the twentieth century coat flaps are like that.
September 6th, 2007 at 5:56 pm
Hmm… I think I want to know what the capacity of the battery is and the drain at various times. It’s a DC motor in there…
I wonder how long a set of laptop batteries would last… they’ve got built in protection from overcharge as well, which is nice as Li Ion batteries can go pop…
September 6th, 2007 at 8:11 pm
I’ve been skateboarding for about 10 years, but I’ve never actually seen one of these guys in action… and now I’m curious.
I’m guessing the RC remote is used for acceleration and (hopefully) braking. Please correct me if I’m wrong!
How do they act as a normal foot-powered board if the battery were to die on me? … I don’t think I’ll be able to ollie 28 pounds.
September 6th, 2007 at 9:27 pm
I love the latest comic. I
September 6th, 2007 at 10:56 pm
Andrea: That’s because he’s slowing down. Duh.
September 6th, 2007 at 11:34 pm
Did anyone notice the two dudes in a fight in the background?
September 6th, 2007 at 11:47 pm
I’m leaving a comment because I feel like a creep anonymously reading these details about your life.
September 7th, 2007 at 12:12 am
>also, the direction in which the man’s coat flaps are flying suggest that his
>footomobile is travelling in reverse — and yet he is cheerily facing forward.
>hmm.
Well, he could certainly be stopping as well. Nobody said these footomobiles are easy. ;)
September 7th, 2007 at 12:24 am
I also have a Raptor 3.0 that I used to commute to Google this summer. It’s back with me in Manhattan and I’ll have to see how it handles NYC… as soon as I get a new drive belt (mine busted in the middle of Mountain View, had to get a friend pick me up).
The learning curve for an uncoordinated person like me was one day of scrapes and bruises, then within about a week of short trips I could go full speed no problem. Braking and acceleration is via handheld wireless remote. The brakes aren’t mechanical: it shorts the motor contacts. At low speeds you get very little braking, but careful braking from full speed: it will throw you off! And it accelerates VERY well - all beginners to this board (even regular skateboarders) seem to think, “Oh, I can handle it!” and squeeze the trigger back all the way and have the board fly out from underneath their feet.
When I called Exkate they were very supportive and helpful, and even sent me a new drive belt for free even though it wasn’t under warranty since “it wasn’t supposed to break”. I highly recommend this board! If you’d like to talk to me about it, or want a chance to ride it, email me! flyashi at gmail.
September 7th, 2007 at 12:27 am
# Nat Says:
September 6th, 2007 at 11:34 pm
Did anyone notice the two dudes in a fight in the background?
I do in fact believe that is two footomobiles crashing! It does look like they are holding on to something…
September 7th, 2007 at 1:13 am
As interesting as this is, we all know that a velociraptor can attain speeds of up to 60mph over flat, open ground. Why are these quacks content selling a mode of transportation incapable of even the most basic flight from an imminent and deadly peril!? AND WHY IS MY KEYBOARD NOT EQUIPPED WITH AN INTERROBANG?!
TRH
September 7th, 2007 at 5:43 am
About the braking (Re:Yasha): Isn’t shorting the leads a bit… archaic? The motors (from what I saw on their website) do not look like they are sporting heat dissipators, besides their own surface being black (yes, I know… visually black…). Longer braking could perhaps easily overheat the (already warm from propelling) motor.
Or perhaps I’m just not trusting these guys enough.
On a sidenote: To improve braking, people riding these …things… could wear capes like Batman… It would look pretty funny in my opinion.
September 7th, 2007 at 7:01 am
Like to point out that in January of 2000, the 1st was on a Saturday.
September 7th, 2007 at 8:09 am
I work for Kamen for his robotics competition nonprofit, and this is totally going up in my office. Footomobiles, unite!
Now if I only had a good derby hat to go with it.
September 7th, 2007 at 8:14 am
Toshiro, braking isn’t too bad. You usually only need to brake for at most a few seconds - there’s no such thing as “extended” braking, the board is stopped by then. The motor does get a bit warm after extended riding, but usually not because of the braking but just from putting out 250W or whatever for 1/2 hr. It’s a little slower than biking, but a whole lot easier - when you get there, the only part that’s tired is your finger from holding down the throttle all the way for 1/2 an hour!
September 7th, 2007 at 8:31 am
In fact, January 1st, 1901 did fall on a Tuesday. The prediction is clearly for the 20th century, and “what life would be like in the year 2000″ is a prediction for the final year of the new 20th century.
The question is: why aren’t the gentlemen e-mailing their New Year’s Greetings, rather than delivering them on their footomobiles?
September 7th, 2007 at 8:35 am
In regards to the direction of man’s coat flaps, he is not necessarily travelling in reverse. He could be pulling hard to the left (as observed by his hand placement on the steering wheel). I’d imagine the left wheels going in reverse while the right wheels accelerate, making him spin in place. What I wonder is if these footmobiles can act as battlebots. Just throw a steel plate over the cowcatcher, and you got yourself a wedgebot. Throw in a pick axe and you got yourself a stew going.
September 7th, 2007 at 9:13 am
If you ever meet someone, because they “accidentally” throw themselves in front of your skate board, scattering their books/groceries/precious bodily fluids everywhere, that’s me.
September 7th, 2007 at 10:41 am
Hey hey. Those aren’t cowCATCHERS. They’re cowPUSHERS.
September 7th, 2007 at 10:54 am
What I want to know is, if there is no walking in the future, why are there still stairs? Though, in my imagination, every footomobile has a retractable pogo-stick bottom for stairs, which is awesome.
September 7th, 2007 at 7:16 pm
Oh my god yes, Jonno! I own a footomobile, complete with cowpusher/catcher, and the retractable pogo bottom. If only they remembered to make it thin enough to fit through the door.
September 7th, 2007 at 10:08 pm
I like how the speed lines look like resistors.
How well does the electric skateboard (or neo-footmobile) perform if you need to use it like a normal skateboard?
September 8th, 2007 at 11:54 am
I’ve ridden both the Segway and Xootr’s electric version (which, sadly, isn’t made any more).
I like the Xootr lots more. Lots less money (they were around $600. I think), lighter, less complicated - and were single-track vehicles (like bicycles and motorcycles and, well, push-scooters) which made them very easy to ride - camber-thrust “lean to turn” which we mostly all learned in grade school.
Really light (20 lbs? something like that), and easy to fold up and carry into work or a store - and *very* useful to take on the subway.
One Xootr downside was that the brakes were essentially nonexistent if the wheels got wet. I never owned a Segway, and the owner drew the line at letting me take it out in the rain to see how it would do.
Another is simply that there’s no cargo space - so knapsacks or messenger bags.
September 8th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
[...] in the mood to buy an electric skateboard, if I can find one, after reading the xkcd blog. It seems like an electric skateboard would be a really neat way of getting around campus, provided [...]
September 8th, 2007 at 2:21 pm
Hey, I spoke to the guy who owned the Exkate company for the last ~5 years or so… they actually sold a replacement lithium ion pack, but it didn’t really improve the weight or range that much… weight only dropped by ~25%. I’m not a battery expert, but I suspect that the needs of laptops and the needs of personal transportation devices in terms of current are pretty different, and lion batteries probably offer more benefit in the low-current scenario.
Anyways, when they were selling the lithium ion pack, they neglected to change the charger plug, so (dumb) people would use the lead-acid charger on the lion battery, and the thing would catch fire. That, plus the negligible advantage and high price led them to drop the lion plans.
September 8th, 2007 at 3:56 pm
Say, why don’t you pair up with Exkate for an electric skateboard with comic #139 on it? Then you could call it xk8cd.
(I wrote a similar comment before but it doesn’t show up now, so either it got lost on a jammed interweb tube, or you moderated it out. If the latter’s true, I apologize for reposting.)
September 8th, 2007 at 6:29 pm
The reason the calendar matches the year 1901 is because the picture was intended to be used as a calendar for the year starting shortly after this was published (which would, in fact, be the start of the Twentieth Century). The article, and picture, is still about life in the year 2000.
September 9th, 2007 at 9:53 pm
I read through that until halfway before I thought “Wasn’t there a comic about electric skateboards already?”
Luckily you sneaked it in, sneaky bastard.
September 9th, 2007 at 10:01 pm
dudes, theyre so not in a brawl. they have managed to run into eachother. the little @
September 10th, 2007 at 2:51 am
I’ve had to use the Exkate Raptor 3.0 as a regular skateboard twice: one time when I ran out of power, and one time when I busted the drive belt. Especially with the busted drive belt, it skateboards surprisingly well despite its 30lb weight. What helped when I ran out of power was to simply remove the battery pack and put it in a backpack. It skated much easier. However, I don’t know how to skatebaord, so ….
(Yes, I don’t know how to skateboard but I ride an electric skatebord. You don’t have to push, just worry about steering, which makes it MUCH easier.)
September 10th, 2007 at 7:05 am
I’m not completely convinced yet that this is really pointing towards the year 2000, considering it was published in 1900 it seems highly probable that “the new century” is the one that has just begun, not “the next century”. Considering the lack of fashion change and the trend that most of the “2000″ prediction drawings have a whole lot more tall metal buildings, I think it’s probably referring to sometime during the twentieth century, i.e. pre-2000
September 10th, 2007 at 10:33 am
In the New Century, women will by law not be allowed operate the Footomobile for modesty’s sake: Imagine the chaos that might ensue should an ankle be revealed as skirts are whipped higher than the instep by the awesome speed the Footomobile achieves!
September 10th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
@Daniel Reeves:
“I commute in Manhattan on (human-powered) skates … And certainly kicks your skateboard’s ass. (Top speed ~50km/h (30mph) on flat… ”
Sorry, I gotta call you on that. Current world records for very short distance sprints on inline speed skates (on a track) work out to ~27 mph. There are a few inline skaters in the world who could outrun this skateboard, but not many, and not for long (short of exceeding its range).
That said, I’m with human power. Motors are for the weak. :)
September 10th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
earcaraxe: ‘…considering it was published in 1900 it seems highly probable that “the new century†is the one that has just begun,…’
As has already been mentioned here (Sept 5th at 6:23 am and 11:31 am, 7th at 8:31 am and 8th at 6:29 pm) “the new century” had not just begun in late 1900, it was about to begin. Obviously, footomobiles cause damage to numeracy related braincells.
September 10th, 2007 at 4:36 pm
In the past’s future everyone will look like the Monopoly man!
September 10th, 2007 at 6:55 pm
OK, so I could imagine importing one of these electric Skateboards. But I’d have to know first, how does it handle down hills? The 4 miles to school is all down hill- and if I can’t keep it under control…
September 10th, 2007 at 7:56 pm
@Rob says:
“Sorry, I gotta call you on that. Current world records for very short distance sprints on inline speed skates (on a track) work out to ~27 mph.”
That’s average speed from a standing start.
That said, fine, maybe I’d max out closer to 27mph.
Still kicks Randall’s ass!
September 10th, 2007 at 10:09 pm
Reeves, are you sure you’re not just an Internet Tough Guy?
September 10th, 2007 at 11:41 pm
@Yasha:
Was it just me sucking when I tried to ride the thing, or did it oscillate at high speeds for you, too? (Also, don’t your ankles get tired from balancing yourself?)
When I brought Yasha’s anywhere above 1/3 throttle, it started oscillating back and forth — it felt like if I went any faster, it would oscillate badly enough to throw me off of the thing.
September 10th, 2007 at 11:44 pm
I beat up 1000 Internet Tough Guys one afternoon. It wasn’t that hard. I don’t see what the big deal is.
September 11th, 2007 at 1:07 am
wait, so, you’ve been electro-skating around boston, the town i live in currently, and i didn’t know about it? well mr. xkcd…
prepare to be ++***HASSLED***++
-jan
September 11th, 2007 at 2:05 am
Electric skateboards, pshaw! I want one of these.
September 11th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
They failed to predict the enormous fat behinds Americans would get from not walking anywhere.
September 11th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
zOMG, phoebe, a sky-car! That’s so fucking awesome.
September 11th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
Josh: It takes a while to get used to. Ask a real skateboarder for advice. If you put your back foot all the way back then you get great control and good stability without oscillations, even at full speed. If you plant your feet right (for me, my toes would hang off the end) then balancing isn’t a problem either. In fact, I got so used to holding the throttle all the way down, my finger would hurt after 1/2 hr of riding (and wishing the damn thing would go faster, but understanding that if it could, it would be heavier as well).
Fer: I had to go over a few overpasses and while uphill was much better (more controlled), downhill isn’t too bad - it’s just kinda scary. The braking works great, but if you brake too hard, hit a rock or bump in the road, then you may fall off. I learned to jump off when I feel it getting out of control. One thing to note: you may or may not make it 4 miles UPhill without recharging it at school. Fortunately the charger is small - a bit bigger than a laptop power supply.
September 11th, 2007 at 6:07 pm
http://www.slkelectronics.com/DeWalt/packs.htm nuff said
September 11th, 2007 at 9:27 pm
Sorry to post so much, but on the topic of batteries, A123 cells, while great, are prohibitively expensive. A more reasonable solution are V-28 packs, from Milwaukee Electric. To get the same Amp-hour that the Raptor 3.0 has now would cost about $600 but you’d get a little more voltage (28v vs 24v) and less weight, at the price of double the skateboard with SLA batteries, all to shave a few pounds.
September 11th, 2007 at 11:33 pm
@Phoebe
Do some digging. Moller has been using that Skycar to scam investors for decades. It is perpetually “a few years away” and will never be complete. Every time it looks like a deadline is approaching, he tears down half of it and starts from scratch, so that he never has to meet any requirements.
Electric skateboards are here, available now. The Skycar is science-fiction.
Besides, for “vapourware flying-car vehicles” I prefer the Pal-V.
http://www.pal-v.com/
September 12th, 2007 at 12:22 am
Grant Hutchins:
What makes you so sure it’s a cowcatcher? Maybe they were the forerunners of modern ricers. ☺
September 12th, 2007 at 7:15 am
i think it’s so amazing that you learned Braille, xkcd! today’s comic is definitely ftw!
September 12th, 2007 at 12:53 pm
Over at Utopie, there’s a ‘chromolithographie’ of what the world of 1910 thinks the world of 2000 will be like. Apparently they predicted electric roller skates, as well as men crawling on the ground towards jaunty green hats.
http://expositions.bnf.fr/utopie/grand/3_95a3.htm
September 12th, 2007 at 6:02 pm
I think it’s pretty clear that the guy on the ground crawling towards said hat has just experienced a predicted accident, and is cursing the people that predicted it, while retrieving his hat. Let us be glad that footomobiles did not become common, or 2/8 of us would be involved in an argument over a footomobile accident at any given moment. The electric skates therefore seem better, as only 1/6 of the people shown using them are recovering from an accident, and the accident is less serious, or the guy on the ground would also have profanity coming from his mouth.
Electric skateboards are, of course, perfectly safe, since none of the persons depicted using them in http://xkcd.com/139/ are involved in accidents.
(sorry if this posts multiple times, behind a very unstable connection)
September 12th, 2007 at 6:32 pm
I’m shocked people are asking “why?” about the old newspapers.
Remember that reprinted 1902 Sears catalog in your school library? Read to tatters and always checked out and little groups huddled together in the halls and classrooms reading it?
Why wouldn’t you expect that if someone saw a bunch of lat e19th century newspapers, he would immediately become fascinated and start reading them?
September 12th, 2007 at 9:42 pm
You have to love the “electrical” bolts shooting out of the thing, and the cow catcher. I love the Radio Shack catalog with the $500 1.3/megapixel camera and like a 64mb memory chip.
September 12th, 2007 at 11:45 pm
@Daniel:
“That’s average speed from a standing start.
That said, fine, maybe I’d max out closer to 27mph.”
Acceleration time might be significant in the shortest sprints, but it’s pretty trivial at longer distance. Check out the table here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inline_speed_skating
and do some math. If you can hit 27mph on level ground, you are better than most people in the Olympics.
September 13th, 2007 at 9:02 am
well, it shouldnt be too hard to retrofit your footomobile in the future. just get your hands on some lithium ion or nimh batteries when you get a chance and wire that stuff up.
September 13th, 2007 at 5:01 pm
Heeh, I’ve bought one of these, and a lot of that is to do with Comic 139 and this ;-)
I’ll let you know how I get on, both with skateboard and with women. (Although, my girlfriend might not be too pleased if I start cruising for the ladies on it)
September 13th, 2007 at 7:42 pm
@Rob:
“Acceleration time might be significant in the shortest sprints, but it’s pretty trivial at longer distance. … If you can hit 27mph on level ground, you are better than most people in the Olympics.”
No no no, either the distance is short and acceleration matters or the distance is long endurance matters. Those tables say nothing about what Olympic-level speedskaters (note inline is not an olympic sport) can hit as a max speed. It’s *easily* in the 30s.
Put anyone comfortable on rollerblades in a pair of inline speedskates and they will beat Randall’s top speed of 20mph, not to mention the 10-mile range.
Human-powered skates beat an electric skateboard, with current technology.
That’s all I’m saying.
September 14th, 2007 at 11:21 am
Excuse me, I didn’t get how do you control it?
Does it have some kind of wireless remote or maybe you can start and stop it using your feet?
By the way, have you ever had any accidents with this board?
Thank you.
September 14th, 2007 at 11:24 am
Whoops, I probably got it =) That gun-like stuff on a picture IS the remote controller…
September 14th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
Martin Lithium Polymer battery’s are popular in RC vehicles because of their high discharge rates. Regular Lion cells are still cheaper then polymer battery’s, and the skateboard would not draw more current then they could handle.
Unfortunately the Rapor 3 and 4 use regenerative breaking so it would be more complicated then simply dropping in some lithium battery’s because of their unique charging requirements
I emailed Exkate for more details on the electrical specs but they havn’t responded :(
http://www.batteryuniversity.com/ is an excelent site if you want to quickly brush up on your general battrey knowledge
September 14th, 2007 at 5:26 pm
hear hear, I’ve been using inline skates as my only shoes on campus since I started going to school in 2002. Best way to get around.
September 14th, 2007 at 6:34 pm
I suspect on a small vehicle like this regenerative braking is probably not that much of an efficiency gain, unless you’re spending a lot of time going down steep hills. I recall seeing a figure somewhere that said it was usually only 30% efficient at best. Of course, if you don’t use it, then you need a resistor bank to dump the braking energy into heat, like locomotives use.
September 14th, 2007 at 11:22 pm
Are you accessing these old papers online or in a more archaic fashion? Because I would really love to read those articles.
September 15th, 2007 at 2:11 pm
Judging by the two men behind/beside the building, magic exists in the 21st century.
September 16th, 2007 at 4:06 am
lol..ur comics rock!(not much to say i know…but meh…..)
September 16th, 2007 at 8:32 am
The best part of your comix is the little stick figure drwings of chicks. They are so appealing and sexy.
September 17th, 2007 at 8:25 am
Okay, so interestingly enough, my friend and I were on the bike path in Davis Sq. and someone on one of these boards rode by. And the kid behind him was on a regular skateboard hanging on to a string tied to the first guy.
September 17th, 2007 at 8:26 am
on second thought, the bike path is not necessarily IN davis, as much as it goes out toward somerville.
September 17th, 2007 at 9:32 pm
Goose, she’s lost it, man.
Aw, shit. I hate it when she does that.
September 18th, 2007 at 2:55 am
Why were you poking through newspapers from the late 1800’s?
September 18th, 2007 at 11:20 pm
111 comments and not one mention of Y.T. or Snow Crash? Stephenson fans, you disappoint me.
September 19th, 2007 at 1:27 am
iirc, lithium ion batteries kind of suck for high-current draw applications — too much internal resistance. You may be able to go further, but probably won’t have as much acceleration, and your top speed won’t be as high. You could probably wire the cells up differently to combat this though.
Don’t quote me on this though. I’ll wait for someone else to respond with the actual research. I love the Internets…
September 19th, 2007 at 2:29 am
I just read 113 posts to make sure no one had posted this yet. I think it was worth it.
http://www.engadget.com/2007/03/09/meet-the-one-wheel-balancing-scooter-suck-it-segway/
September 19th, 2007 at 9:28 am
Finalised version of the previous comment: http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/19/islide-the-skateboard-segway-hybrid/
Skateboard meets segway, perfection.
September 19th, 2007 at 10:01 am
Not a comment on the skateboards - just letting you know Raptors *are* everywhere - including spreading to other webcomics…
http://www.pbfcomics.com/?cid=PBF231-Baby.jpg#214
-Jb
September 19th, 2007 at 10:02 am
Charly:
That’s a different product designed by a different person. As far as I can tell it’s a student design project (http://www.hadassah.ac.il/Site/TechEn/Departments/Industrial/Gallery/finalProject/gallery07b.asp#) and not in production or even prototyped. I saw both posts and found the finished homebrew more interesting, as the guy designed it himself over several years and has a video of it actually working.
It looks like a hell of a lot of fun to ride, if maybe a bit hard to turn.
September 19th, 2007 at 10:40 am
[...] an interesting post from XKCD about predictions of the future coming true. The author, Randall Monroe, has recently been spending [...]
September 19th, 2007 at 12:37 pm
[...] Predicting the Future Cartoons seem to be a pretty good way to predict the future… [...]
September 19th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
Speaking of raptors, have you seen the latest Perry Bible Fellowship comic?
http://www.pbfcomics.com/?cid=PBF231-Baby.jpg#214
September 19th, 2007 at 11:12 pm
I don’t know if anyone noticed, but the 20th century starts in 1901 and ends in 2000…. so basically, they were predicting how life would be in 4 days…
Year 2001 to 2100 is the 21st century.
Not sure if anyone mentionned that already, i haven’t read through the 120 posts, but i think it was good for everyone to know…
September 20th, 2007 at 9:44 am
I guess I’m kinda late to the party here, but if anyone is still interested in awesomely retro newspapers/magazines: http://blog.modernmechanix.com/
September 20th, 2007 at 6:56 pm
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/09/20/feathered.raptor.ap/index.html
September 20th, 2007 at 7:05 pm
I am too late!!
I *was* going to post the CNN story, but alas, Nathan beat me to it.
*sigh*
September 23rd, 2007 at 4:28 pm
Next time you have mechanical issues, you should just give it to some MIT kids…they’re probably more reliable anyway ;-)
September 23rd, 2007 at 5:16 pm
Sooo….
http://www.xkcd.com/240/
September 23rd, 2007 at 6:00 pm
OMG I MISSED DREAMGIRL =(((( AND I’M LIKE RIGHT THERE
September 24th, 2007 at 1:03 am
@Craig: possibly just because they’re awesome. I know I like to drop by my university library occasionally and flip through old publications just for the heck of it.
September 24th, 2007 at 4:02 pm
So… was there a flash crowd at that playground in North Cambridge yesterday or what?…
September 25th, 2007 at 9:04 am
check the forum for more commentary, but:
yes.
September 25th, 2007 at 4:11 pm
Find the story “the machine stops” by E.M Forster (Forrester?) it’s online somewhere, the guy pretty much nailed the internet, and it was written in the 1920s or earlier
September 26th, 2007 at 8:29 pm
The internal resistance of Li-ion batteries is much higher than that of lead acid, this is why they are not as good with high current loads, especially the peaks that are created when you start a motor. There is a simple way around that in the form of supercapacitors. The internal resistance of supercapacitors is pretty much zero, so they can be used to buffer the current draw from the batteries when pulses of current are needed (such as when starting the motor). They are light, but they are expensive, making Li-ion an even more expensive option.
Also, since the battery charging circuitry needs to be built into the cell for lithium ions, adding regenerative breaking wouldn’t be too big a deal.
The cells alone for a 25v 15ah battery pack would be about $350 + at least $50 for the control/charging circuitry (if you could find one) + $100 for supercapacitors makes that one expensive skateboard. But the battery pack would weigh about 8lbs and have a flat discharge curve.
September 27th, 2007 at 12:09 am
@Sam: If it really was that cheap, I’d go for it!
September 27th, 2007 at 2:46 am
The 23rd has come and gone. Did you really go to South Boston and find nothing?
September 27th, 2007 at 10:07 am
Cells
These are the same batteries used in most laptops, there are better batteries for this but they would be much more expensive and nearly impossible to get.
supercapacitors
The calculations for what is actually needed in a battery pack were done very quickly, so I may be way off in terms of how many cells or caps would be needed.
Really the problem is the charge/controller. Li-Ion batteries need to be recharged individually, and without a well designed charger they tend to burst into flames.
September 27th, 2007 at 10:08 am
sorry, I messed up the link for the cells
Cells
September 27th, 2007 at 4:36 pm
Man I just noticed the alt text just as I was seriously considering trying this sleep cycle thing. It doesn’t sound so insane as the overman sleep cycle, since you do get solid 8-9 hour chunks of sleep. So I think I’ll give it a whirl. I already eat at and go to sleep random times so all this requires is changing the times I wake up at.
September 28th, 2007 at 3:51 am
I like the comic about women on the Internet. It reminded me of countless times I get on Ventrilo only to hear some guy say, “Whoa, it’s a girl! Girls play WoW??? Wanna get married?” Hehe.
September 30th, 2007 at 12:18 am
From xkcd.com headline (Sept 29):
“You can use http://forums3.xkcd.com/ to access the forums untill [sic!] DNS updates.”
Just thought I’d let you know…
September 30th, 2007 at 3:22 pm
Me needs that thing.
October 23rd, 2007 at 6:14 pm
Powered by body motion. From the 1950’s.
http://blog.modernmechanix.com/page/10/
October 30th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
greatings…
wonderful post…
October 30th, 2007 at 3:13 pm
The Raptor is fun to ride, but very problematic. Excate has pretty weak customer service (don’t bother trying to contact them by e-mail), and seem to be incredibly lazy about shipping.
Hopefully the next models will be less troublesome.
November 16th, 2007 at 3:39 pm
[...] 105 years ago, they thought everyone would be able to afford Segways. The gender roles in the illustrations are not surprising, but I always find that sort of thing ironic in folks priding themselves on predicting the future (see also, Ray Bradbury’s Mars stories). Via XKCD. [...]
November 20th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
It is very good!
Thanks
January 9th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
hmm… I wonder how hard it would be to make one of those electric skateboards.
February 2nd, 2008 at 3:16 am
Eric…
Thanks for the info. By the way, I am a big fan of your site. Keep up the great work….
February 25th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
I’m in the market for an electric skateboard; what was it about exkate that made you decide it was superior to eglide?
March 14th, 2008 at 9:30 am
[...] For anyone interested in buying a board, I recommend going to eBay and looking for a cheap used one to try the idea out. My first board, a vaguely toy-like e-skateboard ($31 on eBay in 2004) had an 80-watt motor (still surprisingly powerful — it managed to tow four people at one point). I bought a few other cheap used ones, and then, having decided these things were indeed awesome, I decided to spend some more money on a proper board for getting around the city. I got a 250-watt Exkate Raptor 3.0 for $320, which I talked about in an earlier post. [...]
March 14th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
I think, in case there’s any question left (I haven’t read all of the posts), that this calendar is definitely referring to the 20th century. The calendar in the cartoon matches that of January 1901, with the 1st being a Tuesday. Also though, were they predicting that the 20th century would be only one month long?
April 23rd, 2008 at 1:58 pm
rgr4t…
classic scorched earth…
May 13th, 2008 at 10:47 am
Thanks, very interested story. Thats’s impressive! :)