Discover, September 28 2010.
A human-powered monorail system called Shweeb won $1 million from Google’s 10^100 innovations contest. The company that manufactured the Shweeb is one of five to be awarded a total of $10 million from the competition. They will use the money to develop the Shweeb for use as a city commuter transport option. The Shweeb efficiently uses human power from a rider sitting in the recumbent seat, pedaling the bubble-shaped pod through the air. This vision for public transportation is a little out there, but the Shweeb has some promise, says Gearlog.
Like all truly forward thinking ideas, Shweeb seems completely nuts at first glance. As a tech blogger I’d love nothing more than to mock Google and it’s choice of Shweeb with its poor-man’s take on the Jetsonsopening sequence. But the more you read about it, the more Shweeb’s innovative take urban transport makes a whole lot of sense. Read More >