Get your own Human Powered Fred Flintstone Car Right Here!
Image collage from Ecoble
Check out this amazing and inspirational feat of engineering called The HumanCar. A human powered car that is, I am sure, inspired by the famous foot powered Flintstone mobiles.
It apparently can reach speeds of 80 miles per hour (128.75 Km/h) and is designed to make driving a participatory experience. The four riders need to work together to get it going as well as steering by leaning into a turn. A rechargeable battery and motor, jumps in when you feel like taking a break.
Though it is safer than a bicycle, due to its road safe impact resistant skeleton, I do wonder about its ability to be handled by one person, its lack of seat belts (80mph come on!), and weather protection. Regardless, it is a marvel of engineering especially with the way the rowing movement is converted and transmitted to the car’s forward motion.
Check out the images from the official press release:
The HumanCar Inventor Charles Greenwood and his prototype
Where the magic happens, the transmission box.
The drive shaft that transmits the energy to the wheels.
The HumanCar’s exoskeleton prototype.
Check out the very cool video on how it works.
It can be yours for $15,000 and they are taking pre-orders at the official HumanCar website. Looks like good clean environmentally friendly but sweaty fun!
Via: Ecoble
Trend Insights
February 14, 2008 at 7:11 pmI want one too! Looks superb!
Jacob Cass
February 15, 2008 at 12:20 amWow, that is pretty nifty.
justin (pusha)
February 15, 2008 at 9:25 amWow. That is amazing. I would totally rock that car. I work from home and drive very little. I bought a new car last year and finally just hit 3,000 miles in 11 months. That’s total grandpa style I know;) Lockheed Martin was working on a prototype a long time ago that had cars working on magnets on the freeway, I don’t know if it included Gas usage though.
Design Digest Vol.4 » Yanko Design
August 28, 2008 at 11:17 am[…] Human powered car by Charles Greenwood. Via: Design Sojourn […]
onthelang
October 9, 2010 at 5:56 pmWow, Id love one of these! Will keep and eye out!
Bart
September 10, 2011 at 7:16 pmThat is WAY cool! love it!
J.R delaluz Navarro
October 23, 2011 at 4:46 pmIts a great,great idea!!!!I think that its a really,a !!!!!SMARTCAR!!!!!!!
You Can Own The Moden Day Flintstones House [26 Photos] | The Roosevelts
September 23, 2012 at 1:08 am[…] Does modern life have you stressed out? You might need to take a trip back to the Stone Age where up to the second news cycles and addictive, fast paced social networking websites didn’t exist. If you have a cool $3.5 million available this house can be yours. It looks like it belongs in Bedrock but in all reality it’s located in Malibu and used to be the former residences of radio icon Dick Clark. A high price tag yes, but it includes 23 acres of spectacular 360-degree views of the Pacific Ocean, Boney Island, Channel Island, the Serrano Valley & the bright lights of Los Angeles and plenty of room for your foot powered Fred Flintstone car. […]