It’s become pretty clear that flying cars aren’t going to be a thing for a long, long time, so how exactly are modern cities going to solve the problem of public transportation as populations continue to boom? Engineering firm Dahir Insaat believes it has the answer, and while it doesn’t fly, it’s just as futuristic. The company, and chief inventor Dahir Semenov, believe gyroscope-equipped vehicles are the answer, and boy do they look weird.
The “gyrocars” that the firm has dreamt up are big, disc-shaped busses that balance on narrow legs and cruise in between regular lanes of traffic. Equipped with powerful gyroscopes, the vehicles maintain their balance even while towering over the vehicles and pedestrians below.
The stilts on which the monorail gyrocars stand on are also heigh-adjustable, allowing them to slip above or below one another when passing on the same stretch of roadway. Solar panels on the top of the discs are married to a pair of generators and a backup battery to provide continuous power while ensuring that the gyroscopes never stop spinning. That’s pretty important, because if the gyroscopes stop functioning the disc will be unable to keep its balance, which would be bad news for anyone on board (or standing below).
It’s a unique idea, and the mechanics of how the vehicles would function are feasible — for example, a gyroscope is what lets the self-balancing Segway remain upright — but the infrastructure required for a gyroscopic monorail system to operate in any major city would be an incredible investment of both money and manpower. We might be better off just waiting for hovercars.
