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news
Video: Chinese students invent bike that rides itself
There’s often an April Fools’ Day vibe to stories about riderless bikes. Google’s self-driving bicycle was one such story, but a team of students at Tsinghua University has done it for real. Here at road.cc we are, generally speaking, very much pro cyclist – that’s kind of the point of the website – but this is nevertheless quite an impressive feat.
The team has fitted an electric bicycle with steering and speed control. While a riderless bike will steer and right itself given enough momentum, this only succeeds in keeping it upright. It takes a lot more to achieve the same thing while also directing it where you want it to go.
In the video (from 2015), we see the lonely steed circling a track, bumping over small obstacles and riding on (not especially) rough terrain.
Quite why Tsinghua University is working on this project is beyond us. They don’t appear to have a shortage of cyclists in the area. The university recommends using a bicycle for on-campus transportation, and adds: “The morning bicycle jam on the roads to the classrooms has always been a sight to behold.”
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
Latest Comments
- muhasib 5 min 16 sec ago
"the cost to rebuild the M25 junction 10/A3 Wisley interchange is £317 million. The project is expected to be completed in 2025. "
- mark1a 28 min 52 sec ago
I think they did, from memory back in the 70s/80s... haven't seen one for years though, our current milkman uses a standard van, albeit hybrid.
- qwerty360 44 min 57 sec ago
3) gaining experience using the roads at minimal risk to third parties. It's an excellent opportunity to practice hazard perception in a real world...
- kingleo 1 hour 43 min ago
I believe that straight forks that are used on carbon frames are more dangerous than the old steel forks because they are more rigid, the old steel...
- Rendel Harris 2 hours 1 min ago
That was my thought exactly, surely a business opportunity for someone to set up fitting centres in major city centre bike shops and just sell the...
- S.E. 2 hours 15 min ago
Yes, sleep apnea produces more CO... I'm not aware of any doping effect but what do I know....
- Gd29 4 hours 23 min ago
That's true enough. But doesn't address my point that the chainset you get as a replacement will not physically fit chainrings from the chain set...
- brooksby 4 hours 53 min ago
In all fairness, it almost certainly NEVER happened…
- mitsky 5 hours 13 min ago
1) I'd love to see anyone tell an EV driver that they shouldn't be on the road or move out of the way because they pay less VED....
- wtjs 9 hours 23 min ago
Many of my fellow Tories sincerely hate bike schemes, and our friends sincerely hate these schemes, and road changes create enormous noise on...
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5 comments
pretty cool, but still nowhere near as good as the cycling robot...
https://youtu.be/mT3vfSQePcs
I'm sure I could think of all kinds of valid engineering questions to ask them, but mostly I want to know why they left the pedals on?
Which will kill us all first, hunter/seeker drones from Dune, or motorbike terminators from T4:the-one-in-the-desert-with-Bruce-Wayne-Chekov-and-that-dude-from-Avatar?
I soooo need this. Just to freak the neighbours out.
Send it out once a month at 3am with a speaker putting out satanic droning.
This is the future of Boris bikes!! Pick one up from a dock, ride it to where you want to be, then set it free to its own way back to the nearest dock! No more having to find a dock with a space to return it to