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The Japanese have just perfected the skateboard

By
Benjamin Snyder
Benjamin Snyder
Managing Editor
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By
Benjamin Snyder
Benjamin Snyder
Managing Editor
Down Arrow Button Icon
August 7, 2015, 5:52 PM ET
Photo courtesy of WalkCar

A Japanese engineer just invented a nifty new way to travel: A transporter called a “WalkCar” that’s small, light and apparently easy to use.

The product is battery powered and is about the size of a laptop. And although it looks like it can’t hold much weight and is made from aluminum, it can apparently have as much as 265 lbs on board.

VentureBeat reported that it can go up to 6.2 miles per hour for up to 7.4 miles. It needs three hours to charge.

Creator Kuniako Saito told Reuters in an interview, “‘What if we could just carry our transportation in our bags, wouldn’t that mean we’d always have our transportation with us to ride on?’ and my friend asked me to make one, since I was doing my masters in engineering specifically on electric car motor control systems.”

Per VentureBeat:

Saito says customers will be able to reserve their own WalkCars from autumn 2015 on the crowd-funding website Kickstarter. The futuristic skateboard will have a price-tag of around 100,000 Japanese Yen (approx. $800 USD). Shipping is expected to begin by spring 2016.

You can see WalkCar in action here:

About the Author
By Benjamin SnyderManaging Editor
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Benjamin Snyder is Fortune's managing editor, leading operations for the newsroom.

Prior to rejoining Fortune, he was a managing editor at Business Insider and has worked as an editor for Bloomberg, LinkedIn and CNBC, covering leadership stories, sports business, careers and business news. He started his career as a breaking news reporter at Fortune in 2014.

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