The Future of Self-Balancing Vehicles

[swvision]

I wanted to know what you guys think will happen within say 10 more years. It seems that electric cars are becoming more popular since tesla stepped into the market, just goes to show what may become acceptable as time passes. What do you think it will take for society to find a self-balancing machine more practical than say a 4-wheeled car or suv?

Here's what China's been working on:

http://twowheelscar.com/index.html

 

[swvision]

 

[Hunka Hunka Burning Love]

Lit motors has been working on that two gyro stabilized motorcycle for quite some time now.  It's interesting to see China take that idea and create their own version, but it's bound to happen as development in America is such a slow and expensive process.  It's probably going to be exactly like what happened to Solowheel.  Inventist created the idea, China copied it, and ultimately the Chinese beat them over the long run with cheaper products and in larger quantities.  Who dominates the EUC scene now?

I've been following the progress of the Lit team for some time, but I'm not holding my breath for a production model to come out at a reasonable cost.  Unfortunately it is so expensive once you factor in the research, development, and investment money put into a major project that they end up with a cool product that usually is priced way out of people's price ranges especially when competing products are available from China.  With a full fledged motor vehicle, I don't think China will be mass exporting to the west, but they likely will develop a nice market at home and to countries with less strict regulations and certification requirements.

For Solowheels running over $2000, it's difficult to justify the cost when more competitive products are available.  I think it can be a losing battle trying to compete with a mega giant like China when it comes to cranking out products quickly and on a budget.

[Mono]

6 hours ago, swvision said:

What do you think it will take for society to find a self-balancing machine more practical than say a 4-wheeled car or suv?

Pretty much the same it will take to find a bicycle or an e-bicycle to be more practical than an SUV. 

To my feeling "society" adopts what is more practical. If we have, say, wide bike-lanes all over the place people just will (start to) use their bikes for trips shorter than, say, 5km. Before, it is hard to convince a majority of something which is just not so comfortable and practicable to do and even feels dangerous.