The only thing ridiculous about unicycling is having to constantly pedal backwards and forwards to keep yourself on the thing. So how about a unicycle where you don't have to pedal at all? Ladies and gentlemen, meet the self-balancing unicycle from Focus Designs or SBU for short.

Apparently you steer it by leaning left or right, much the same way as a normal unicycle, not that I've ever managed to stay on one for more than a clutch of picoseconds to confirm that. Other than that, you just pootle along at 8mph courtesy of the same kind of gyroscopes you find in the ever-popular, and sadly UK-unroadworthy, Segway.

Pictured above isn't a new concept car from Ferrari or whoever, but a new Moon rover designed by Carnegie Mellon University. And it looks pretty damn cool. It even has a cool name - the Scarab.

Whilst Mars may have Spirit and Opportunity plodding along like dorks, collecting samples and taking photos, the Moon may soon have this beast tearing up the craters - and I don't just mean that in the hyperbolic sense, as it is designed to get at the minerals a metre below the surface on the dark side of the moon.

I haven't wanted to own a monster truck since I was seven - not, that is, until I saw this footage of one made out of a Smart car.

It looks rather like one quick turn and the whole thing would roll over but it seems to fare ok. Perhaps there's enough weight in the tyres to keep the centre of gravity low.

What I really want to know is, can you make a monster truck out of an electric one and would it still be exempt from central London congestion charging?

(via Gearfuse)

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New MyKey technology, developed by Ford, will be rolling out next year. The development will allow parents to put limits on their kids' driving. They can implement speed restrictions, give fuel warnings, or prevent kids from using the radio until their seatbelt is fastened.

The full listing of features is over the jump, but as someone who has never driven, teenage or otherwise, the only message this sends is mistrust of your poor kids. Unless you have a particularly troublesome child, this seems remarkably unnecessary. Speeds artificially limited? Reduced radio volume? If you don't trust them not to exceed 80mph, then why let them drive at all?

Pictured above is a new very high-concept motorbike (or "bike", to use the street slang) by Jaguar, turning its corporate logo into something that can do something more useful than merely "synergise the brand".

This one fits firmly into the hobbyist category, but a bloke on a set of message boards has managed to create a little mini-Segway using parts worth about thirty quid or so. All it consists of is some Lego and an Arduino.

A mere 30 years after Arthur C. Clarke first mooted the idea of running super-thin, lightweight cables into space and tethering them to a satellite in his book The Fountains of Paradise, Japanese scientists reckon they're ready to bring all the parts together and make it happen.

For a relatively low in space travel terms bill of £5bn, the boffins think they're close to solving the carbon nanotube technology issue that could make the existence of 22,000 mile-long cables possible. That amount of rope or even Ethernet cable would snap under its own weight, but carbon nanotubes are light enough to go from Earth to a satellite. They just need to be made four-times stronger than they are today.

The Japanese scheme apparently favours stringing up an additional nanotube alongside the elevator to carry the power, allowing the cars to power themselves into space using a similar system used by the Japanese bullet trains. They are so serious about it they have registered a domain name - check out the Japan Space Elevator Association for more news. It's in Japanese, mind.

(Via The Times)

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There's been a number of attempts to invent new ways to commute over the years. There was the famously laughable Sinclair C5, the famously laughable Segway, and now designers have come up with some wheels that you put your feet in - dubbed the soon-to-be-famously-laughable "CenterSkates".

They seem to be basically a hybrid of skateboards and roller skates, in that they combine the convenience of having two separate components that you can relatively easily store in a bag and the frustration of having to ride them like a skateboard.

My bus to work currently takes me about 50 minutes - a distance of about 5 miles. Using my good old physics A-level, that means it travels at about 6.5mph. That's rubbish. Walking is about 3mph. This train, however, would shorten my commute somewhat.

It's a new bullet train, currently being built in China between Shanghai and Beijing - a distance of 1,318km. The designers reckon they'll be able to do that distance in five hours, meaning that their train is 37 times faster than my bus. In other words, if I were to take this train to work, my commute would be just 1 minute and 12 seconds. That would be nice.

Tangshan Railway Vehicles Co Ltd are the chaps developing the train, and it should be operating by 2012, just in time for the Olymp.... oh. Roll out some bullet trains in the UK, please!

Tangshan Railway Vehicles Co Ltd (via Gizmowatch)

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You've got to admire the Dutch. Besides having some of the most lenient marijuana laws in the world, they also make some amazing cars. This particular model boasts 14 speakers, from woofers to tweeters, and you can bet it makes quite a racket. It's actually a piece of artwork, designed so that it can be driven somewhere, and then decks hooked up on top as a portable soundsystem. Oh, and it's available to rent.

The creator, artist Olaf Mooij says "The idea for the DJ Mobile is inspired by the song "God is a DJ" [from faithless] and the car of our HOLY-POPE. These two things were mixed together and there it was the DJ Mobile." Brilliant. Thanks Olaf. A special place in heaven awaits you, and you can bet it'll be soundproofed.

Olaf Mooij (via DVice)

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Some say that his 19th century views on environmentalism and global warming are pushing millions of viewers down the path of climate change scepticism, and some say that his incendiary views are designed to cause a stir and cause people like me to write about them... all we know is that he's called Jeremy Clarkson.

If you're a fan of party-political broadcasts for the Conservative party presented by ill-informed controversialists who probably do actually use the phrase "political correctness gone mad" without irony, then you'll be delighted to hear that the BBC has launched a Top Gear YouTube channel.

The imminent 90-minute product advertisement that is Quantum of Solace has just got a little more rammed with unique marketing opportunities, thanks to car-maker Ford signing on to feature its products in the movie-cum-advert.

So as well as whoring himself dry by using a Sony Ericsson C902 to phone HQ every few minutes, Bond will also be looking on approvingly as love interest Camille rolls up in a gold Ford Ka.

"We are delighted that the launch of the film coincides with the launch of such a significant new model for Ford of Europe," said Ford man Stephen Odell, while using his sleeve to rub a little more magic off the disintegrating Bond franchise.

(Via Reuters)

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Why am I so excited by these tyres? I was going to ask you/me/the ether that very question but I've answered it even before I managed to tap it out into Movable Type. I'm excited by these tyres because they're completely brilliant. They're cool. I hate to use that word but they are. They're cool.

These tyres are cool because they're a game changer - another phrase I can't stand. Unfortunately, the game in this case happens to be military warfare but it seems some good can come out of the practise of killing people.

The NPT has been developed by Resilient Technologies as part of their $18m grant from the Pentagon (I wonder if they'd give me one of them?) and it's made of a honeycomb structure that's enough to hold up the weight of a Humvee with enough give for a little cushioning. Oh, and if you don't believe how tough honeycombs are, just go and pick a fight with a bee. They is from the streets I tell you.

Yesterday Nissan previewed a clever new sensor technology that does more than just beep when you're in imminent danger - it actually intervenes a little bit.

Sensors are put into the driver's blind spots - typically to the immediate sides and just behind the driver's seat - to detect if you're getting dangerously close to any other vehicles. Presumably if the technology is adapted for white vans, this mean will mean that everywhere but straight-ahead will be covered in danger sensors.

This week's eBay Nutcase is 58-year-old David Piper, who's put his Bentleys, Lord of the Manor title, hotel, cafe and 111-acre estate up for sale on the auction site.

You are allowed to buy and sell titles in the UK, so yes, you would be able to call yourself Lord of the Manor of Warleigh should you win his auction. And you'd be able to drive his two Bentleys, sack the staff of his cafe and burn his art collection, too, with the whole lot included in the sale.

He'll also provide you with his little black book full of contact details of all the ladies who answered his previous advertisement - for a wife. God bless Britain's eccentrics. We wish Mr Piper all the best, as he's selling all his stuff to fund treatment of prostate cancer. His life auction is currently at £375,000.

(Via Daily Mail)

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Earlier today my colleague James brought to our attention the incredible story of a man who made a life-size replica of the batmobile from bits of junk and zero help from blueprints. Amazing. But imagine my surprise when i subsequently stumbled upon the website of a man who has made real another infamous vehicle from my childhood.. the mighty black and red-striped beast that is - the A-Team van. And not only that - but it's available to hire. Really. You can hire it. The A-Team van! Excited? Me? Very.

It's a replica, so don't go thinking you'll be sitting on Face's buttock impressions, or sniffing the interior for signs of Hannibal's cigar smoke. But boy-oh-boy does it look good. Outside, the paint job is picture-perfect with 'Mud Flare bodykit and Nor Cal wing, perfect Vector wheels and Cooper Cobra tyres', and a 'gurgling 5.7L Chevy 350V8 engine'. Gurgling, eh? God, that gets me excited.

Check this out - someone has actually built themselves a Batmobile based on the version in Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. The Tumbler, to give its proper name, is a near-perfect replica featuring everything from the after-burner to the stealth-plane-esque body and, remarkably, was built merely by looking at pictures from the two films and publicity photos with no original blueprints used.

Apparently it cost it's creator, presumably single or recently divorced man Bob Dullam, between $50,000 and $70,000 to build - the sort of money it takes to go from being a "nutter" to "slightly eccentric" and "a bit of a character".

I wish I had a Batmobile to replace my slightly-less-than-macho Ford KA.

(via Gizmodo)

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One sure-fire way to come up with a new idea for an invention is to simply add "electric" to the name of a product that already exists as after all, if something is electronic it is automatically better than its predecessor. Take the electric toothbrush, for example, or even the electric chair - chairs couldn't kill anyone until someone had the bright idea of putting electricity inside them.

It's with this mantra that Shimano have improved upon the humble bicycle, by coming up with an electronic gear system that they reckon will "improve performance" and "reduce maintenance".

The Rocket Racing League launched its first ever rocket-powered racing plane this week in what it hopes will be the first of many high speed, highly combustible, aerobatic demonstrations.

The event is hopes to become the "NASCAR for the skies", presumably because it wants all the glamour, spectacle and excitement of NASCAR, not because it wants a load of planes flying around in a big boring circle for hours on end.

No longer Noddy-like, the electric car now has genuine appeal - especially when it looks like the Fiat e500.

Yes, this is essentially the Fiat 500, but with battery power - an advanced lithium-ion polymer battery to be precise. That offers a top speed of 60mph and a range of around 75 miles between charges. Aside from that, it has everything your regular 500 has - right down to extras, crash safety and warranty.

It's been re-worked by specialist Italian firm called Micro-Vett and being sold in the UK by Nice. You can pre-order one now - although as yet, there's no pricing available.

Nice (via Retro To Go)

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