And now for something a little different: About 30 minutes ago I had just turned on the TV and saw a fellow riding a skateboard down the streets of San Francisco with what appeared to be little effort. The story was that he was riding an Li-ion battery powered electric skateboard made by a new company called Metroboard. They apparently have several models, starting at $500, and the one shown has a speed range of between 3 an 19 mph. The motor's speed is controlled by a cordless handheld controller and the device has regen, which is probably helpful when slowing down. I didn't notice what sort of brakes it had, if any. It is not the sort of thing that I would want to ride on the potholed and deteriorated streets of San Francisco, but it did seem like a pretty cool gadget and the price seemed to be reasonable. I wonder how steep a hill it would climb and does it work in snow
?
The fellow that they interviewed used the board to commute to work every day and charged it up from the wall outlet at his office desk. I take it that he lived in town.
