Bike teams up with monorail

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    It is a pity only in the future.
    Two years ago, Google launched the 10 to 100 Degree project , which promised to fund ideas that would change the world. 150,000 applications were sent to the contest, and last week Google announced a list of five winners.

    It included a company called Shweeb , which proposed the construction of monorails equipped with small personal capsules, the movement of which is provided by a person inside using pedals of a recumbent bicycle. Google gives the company $ 1 million to research and develop the “Shweeb Urban Technology Testing.”

    Simply put, Google considers the other 149,996 offers to be worthless. Monorail definitely looks cool in an amusement park such as Disneyland, and recumbent bicycles not designed for daily driving around the city. But probably only the worst science fiction writer could combine these two things.

    Can you imagine how sweaty and smelly these booths will become? If I have to pedal in order to get somewhere, why not use an ordinary bike, which is designed for this? In addition, they are likely to be very slow, and require a large staff of attendants, like in amusement parks, so that people can safely move with their help.

    Shweeb is about to announce where the first public transit system will be installed. Surely, it would have looked nice in Miami Beach, where tanned people could travel with them from the hotel to the beach in bathing suits, showing off their liposuction and injecting collagen through Plexiglass glass capsules. Perhaps it would come in handy in Portland, Oregon, where with it, bearded programmers could move from one beerhouse to another. Or perhaps replace the miniature and defiantly painted bikes on which Goggle engineers move around the Mountain View campus. We will see.

    However, other laureates of the contest look more worthy.
    The most recognized fighter for transparency and openness of the government on the network, Karl Malamud, will receive $ 2 million for his law.gov project in order to make national legal materials available free of charge to the network for anyone.

    Khan Academy , a non-profit educational organization that “will provide high-quality, free education for anyone, wherever he may be, through an online library of over 1,600 instructional videos,” will also receive 2 million. This will help increase the number of courses presented and translate them into different languages.

    FIRST, a nonprofit organization that organizes team competitions to advance science and technology, will receive $ 3 million to promote student teams developing controlled robots.

    The African Institute of Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), which launched a one-year program to help university graduates prepare for graduate school and PhD studies. Google gives him $ 2 million to popularize graduate education in the exact sciences in Africa.

    All of these applicants have proposed great initiatives. And how will Shweeb look against their background? Time will tell.

    via Wired

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