WalkCar: The Car That Fits in Your Backpack

The Smart Car is small, but it’s got nothing on a new Japanese prototype called the WalkCar. In this amazing video demonstration, we see 26-year-old designer Kuniako Saito grab what looks like a MacBook Air with four tiny wheels out of a small bag, set it on the ground, hop on and zip off.

The WalkCar, which weighs a scant 6.6 pounds, can hold up to 265 pounds, can travel about 7 and a half miles on a 3-hour charge at a top speed of just over 6 mph. You turn simply by adjusting your weight from side to side.

The most amazing part of the video is when we see Saito on the WalkCar briskly pushing a full-size adult who is sitting in a wheelchair. That means it has to have some significant power and torque. Plans are to launch the project on Kickstarter soon and have it for sale sometime next year for about $800. Call it the Segway Killer.