Honda recently unveiled the Uni-Cub, a personal mobility device along the lines of the Segway. It can be steered hands-free by tilting one’s weight or via a smartphone app. The Uni-Cub is the first device to make use of the Honda Uni Drive System, which allows the Uni-Cub to turn in all directions (forwards, sideways, and backwards) on its two wheels with ease. Balance is maintained using technology first developed with the Honda ASIMO family of robots. It has a top speed of 6 km/h, and a maximum distance of 6 km on a single charge. Honda says it’s designed for “barrier-free indoor environments”.
Let’s cut to the chase. It looks ridiculous, or, in the words of a friend, a “mobile toilet.”
Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way…
Ergonomically, it appears that the person is perched on the edge of a bar stool. There is no armrest, no backrest, and the little foot rests seem insufficient at keeping the person anchored to their seat. On the other hand, the people in the videos seem perfectly comfortable operating their Uni-Cubs. I’ll withhold judgment for now.
The operation of the Uni-Cub could be problematic. One steers it by shifting body weight forwards and sideways. In layman’s terms, you steer it with your butt. Alternately you could steer it with your smartphone. However, Ontario’s laws currently prohibit driving and gadgeting, so this poses a few problems. If a Uni-Cub rider hits a small child at 6 km/h while gadgeting, could they defend themselves by claiming that they were only gadgeting to steer the Uni-Cub?
The market potential for these devices is questionable. The Segway, godfather of the personal mobility device for able-bodied people, can go up to 20 km/h and travel 60 km on a single charge, while its standing rider position makes it suitable for mall cops and other security organizations. The Uni-Cub, on the other hand, puts one in a lower, more vulnerable sitting position and has far less mobility and distance capacity than the Segway. Having the Uni-Cub rider at eye level with a pedestrian is a nifty idea but is a feature unsuitable for mall cops and their ilk. Both vehicles have difficulty going up and down curbs and stairs.
The Uni-Cub is also obviously unsuitable for widespread use by disabled people, because it requires a set of working posterior and back muscles.
If this is intended to be an office or shopping product, then I worry about the health problems this would aggravate if the Uni-Cub ever came into wide use. We are a sedentary society. Sitting everyone down on a fleet of Uni-Cubs isn’t going to tone any leg muscles at all. Furthermore, the range of the Uni-Cub is, again, problematic, and too short to justify the use of a Uni-Cub to save your poor, aching leg muscles. Walking 6 km is peanuts, and if you need to get there in more than an hour, there are alternate sources of transportation that don’t involve squatting for dear life on a slower version of a Segway.
Perhaps I’m being too harsh for a product that hasn’t even been released. Honda will demonstrate the Uni-Cub at Japan’s National Museum of Engineering in June. I’ll gladly reconsider my initial reservations against the Uni-Cub, provided that Honda sends me a complimentary device for review.
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