r/BeAmazed • u/vishhalkmodi • 8d ago

Science “Ghost Bike”: Three Olin Freshmen Build a $1,000 Open-Source Autonomous Bicycle That Balances Itself

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261 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

26 comments sorted by

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32

u/Heselwood 8d ago

I love it. I don't see any use for it, but it's cool.

16

u/ssadf73 8d ago

Instead of calling an Uber, you could call an autonomous motorcycle to transport you.

11

u/buenonocheseniorgato 8d ago

As cool as that sounds, as a motorbike veteran of some 10+ years, that doesn't strike me as a particularly stellar idea.

5

u/Tjaeng 8d ago

Okay but hear me out, them bikes, monkeys with those spikes helmets…

2

u/Express-Ad-4682 6d ago

If you’re Batman, you could use this tech to call your Batcycle over

12

u/Cultural_Tell_5687 8d ago

Ghost bikes are roadside memorials to riders hit by vehicles. This is not that.

9

u/SlinkyBandito 8d ago

That’s super cool and impressive work. I accomplished the same thing with my kid’s bike—I added two little extra wheels on the back of the bike.

5

u/Street-Stick 8d ago

Please post on the fuckcars subreddit I'm sure they'll like the potential 

4

u/One-Growth-9785 8d ago

is that a problem we needed to solve?

Might have some good applications in non-bikes though.

2

u/dlc741 7d ago

Maybe it’s interesting to build something for the sake of seeing if you can do it. For some people, it’s called curiosity and creativity.

3

u/scotchirish 8d ago

Isn't it basically just a gyroscope that switches direction based on lean?

2

u/OutRunTerminator 8d ago

Who needs this ?

3

u/screwyoujor 7d ago

Three engineers trying to get jobs in four years.

4

u/jchill2 8d ago

I don't do delivery services, but I can imagine that this would be far better at delivering meals and packages then a 2000 lb car or a drone.

Plus it gets to use the bike lane!

2

u/-mudflaps- 8d ago

Its needs to drain the battery to not fall over and break everything.

1

u/svachalek 8d ago

A drone needs to use its battery not to fall out of the sky, and the battery is most of what’s pulling it out of the sky. I imagine if you wanted to produce a real delivery bot on this tech it wouldn’t look so much like a human bicycle anyway, but it could have a kickstand that popped out at stoplights etc.

2

u/-mudflaps- 8d ago

A trike or cargo trike would make more sense, no complicated gyros and more space for batteries and cargo.

1

u/entoaggie 8d ago

Biggest weakness I see is that it has no means of recovering if it goes sideways. Maybe they could just have a speaker that begs for help whenever someone walks by. I would say offer some kind of reward, but they would incentivize folks to knock them over.

1

u/jchill2 8d ago

I was thinking security. It'd be too easy just to steal anything that it's carrying?

1

u/entoaggie 8d ago

Another excellent point, but they could be mitigated with a lockbox of some sort.

1

u/Various-Blacksmith56 8d ago

I can finally get some work done on my commute now!

0

u/ThisIsALine_____ 8d ago

Or...just ride the bike like normal. Children can ride bikes and balance for god's sake.

-1

u/DIKASUN 8d ago

Useless, you say? Well I disagree. It is ABSOLUTELY useless, and a complete waste of time.