Mazda suitcase car, a portable three-wheeled vehicle that fits in the luggage
designboom.com101 points by tlyleung 2 days ago
101 points by tlyleung 2 days ago
The cookie consent banner here is the ultimate dark pattern. No deny all option, and the options are impossible to determine. Is the first toggle to turn on or off? I assume on, but that's not labelled anywhere. Based on convention, I'd assume to the right is enabled, but it's entirely against their interests to have it default to off.
> but it's entirely against their interests to have it default to off.
It's been a long while since I've seen a cookie banner, but I always understood the law as that the user has to explicitly do something to opt-in which is why the customize options default to off and the "accept all" button is usually made the prevalent option instead. Not sure displaying non-essentials all default to on would really be in compliance, but to be honest I'm not sure anyone really cares enough about all of this anyways or the law would have been amended by now to block this kind of crap.
Just for fun I disabled my blocker to see the atrocity. They hid the "real" customize your choice in the bottom left, and (if you can ever find it) it's one of the better. The buttons do seem to be left is disabled/right is enabled on both pages. An impressive amount of work went into making this one as complex and confusing as can be, they should enter a competition!
I clicked save & exit, since save & exit obviously does not imply consent, so if they're doing something wrong with it, they're criminals.
Interesting how Japanese companies were pursuing these compact mobility solutions. One other example is Honda made two of them:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_Motocompo in 1980s and
- https://motocompacto.honda.com just a few years ago. This one is electric.
It's notoriously hard/expensive to get a car/standard bike parking space. Even at home, and probably wherever you go if the place has any popularity. Think about parking car in Shibuya.
So a small vehicle has a real intrinsic value, not as simple as a parking a bicycle, but pretty close.
PS: Honda also makes the Monkey, which is ultra cute and pretty popular
I think I've seen that Honda one around NYC. Had no clue what it was. It just looked like someone was riding a brief case and that's basically indeed what it is.
FortNine made a really great video about the Motocompacto last year! https://youtu.be/WQAe7EtVi-4
He opens with an entertaining sketch then digs into some of the history around these portable vehicle concepts.
O sweet times when it was imaginable to have a combustion engine weighing 32 kg in your check-in luggage.
I sincerely wonder if this wasn't hazmat back then?
Pre-2001 was... different.
I was stopped by the metal detector at an airport. I didn't know why. Then the guy in the lane next to me said, "Oh, I'm wearing steel-toed boots."
I said, "Oh, I am too." (True)
Without any further questions or checking, they let us both through.
"That? It's just a giant, red, spherical Christmas ornament, with a string to hang it by, that happens to smell of gunpowder... and the monogram 'TNT' on the side."
I remember pre 9/11 walking right up to the gate my mom was departing out of because she was nervous to go through it. I don't even remember going through security because we didn't have a ticket, they just let us through?
My first time flying myself was a school trip in January 2002, so a lot of the security theater hadn't started yet. There was more security, and I had to remove my jacket and belt, but it was still just a metal detector, and potentially a pat down (saw someone getting pat down).
By the time I was flying a lot for work (2006-2012), it was the full shebang (shoes off, using 3 different bins per person - and waiting for more bins, no jackets, no belts, no hats, no facial expressions as TSA looked at your ID).
Now when I fly it seems like the security takes no time anymore. When I last flew in October, I didn't even give the agent my ticket. Just my passport that they scanned and handed back to me without even looking at me. Same with Customs in the UK and US, scanned my OWN passport, and a gate opened for me to pass through, no border agent or anything.
> I remember pre 9/11 walking right up to the gate my mom was departing out of because she was nervous to go through it. I don't even remember going through security because we didn't have a ticket, they just let us through?
Pre 9/11, IIRC security checkpoints was a metal detector and an x-ray for bags, but they didn't check IDs or tickets. Boarding passes were checked at the gate, maybe sometimes IDs were checked, depending on airline policy; but you often did need to stop at the check in counter to get a boarding pass and drop bags and ID might be checked there... you could also check in at the gate if you didn't have any bags to check.
But you could absolutely walk your friends/family to the gate for departures or meet them at the gate for arrivals. My local large airport now has a visitor pass program for 300 people a day [1], which is maybe a start of a return to the old ways? You can also get passes to accompany minors in the airport that will be flying unaccompanied.
[1] https://www.portseattle.org/page/sea-visitor-pass-program
Yeah, those were different times.
On one of my first flights alone, 16-year-old me had forgotten I had a knife in my backpack. X-ray guy took it with him to a back room, measured the blade to be shorter than, idk, 12 cm or so, and just handed it back.
Another time I found a long wood screw on the floor at school, and out of boredom during class, I just drove it sideways into my boot's heel. Months later it gave the metal detector guys at the airport a bit of a pause. They asked me to remove the boots, x-rayed them, came together to admire my long-forgotten idle work, scratched their heads and had me proceed.
In ~1997 I got stuck in a huge traffic jam on the way to Heathrow airport. I arrived about 15 mins before my UK->USA flight was to leave. At the check-in desk I handed them my extremely worn passport and the photo just fell out of the back page as they took it. They were like "Er, hold on a sec" and disappeared for a min. Then they came back, handed me the passport and the photo and said "RUN! YOU CAN MAKE IT!" and I did.
Wild times. Planes still had their ashtrays then too.
A lot of walkthrough metal detectors will miss metal below ankle height.
I remove mine to send through the xray every time though, even though I'm usually told I don't need to.
A mystery meat lithium ion battery pack from Amazon is probably more hazardous than this.
The first time after getting my driving license and having to find parking in the city, I was so jealous of George Jetson whose car collapses into a briefcase when he gets to work. Glad to see TV converging to reality.
Damn, Japan used to be the home of cool quirky consumer gadgets in the 80s-90s, I used to dream of as a kid, but sadly no more, now it's China.
Today's consumer innovations I see coming out of Japan are like "hey, wanna buy a cheaply made nostalgia-bate plastic replica of a popular 1980's digital Casio metal watch, for more than the price of a bluetooth smartwatch?"
- Double-o Seven, for this mission you will need a fast stealth escape vehicle.
- So do I get an Aston Martin?
- Well ...
UK is in a recession so James Bond needs to tighten the belt. Also, only Tesco gin and tonic for him from now on.
Missed opportunity to use the wheels for the suitcase also.
(By the way, I'm looking for a suitcase with air pressure wheels)
It looks like the wheels could stay attached to the outside of the suitcase. It means leaving it in the less standard configuration to pull around (landscape rather than portrait) but that can be overcome with a longer handle.
Yeah, if the suitcase weighs 32 kg, you'd definitely want to have some wheels on it!
Or (keeping with the technology available at the time) just go with a foldable bicycle - not as fast, but much lighter and more practical!
Out of curiosity, why do you want pneumatic wheels on your suitcase?
Sound, mostly. But also helps with vibrations if I'm carrying sensitive equipment.
One idea: Buy one of these (https://www.harborfreight.com/150-lb-capacity-foldable-hand-...) and turn it into this (https://images.turnto.com/media/t7kuhATX6jW2ChSsite/5A481415...). If you want to keep it foldable, instead of an axle going all the way through, use either a long bolt or threaded rod, with nuts and lock washers, to attach a smaller pneumatic wheel to each side (threaded rod goes through plastic enclosure, nuts/lock washers keep it locked on either side of plastic housing, wheel fixed on outside with bushings or cotter pin)
Or you could strap your bag to a kayak cart (https://www.amazon.com/Kayak-Cart-Capacity-Foldable-Watercra...)
Remember seeing this in a Donald Duck magazine in the mid 90s. Thought it was the coolest thing ever and was sure I would get it one day.
Sadly I guess an E-folding bike beats it on all parameters now; compactness, speed, environment, etc., even if its not as neat.;
Here it is in action https://youtu.be/gQT8UhS4nXI?t=35
doesn't look very practical compared to modern electrical variants eg https://youtu.be/pILMLTcy7rI?t=8
Scootcase
Is it feasible today to build out a small motor and wheels into a luggage bag? Would love for it to follow me around the airport
Reminds me of Mike Jittlov's vehicle in Wizard of Speed and Time (1988)
See also perhaps (motorcycle channel) FortNine video/skit about Honda's equivalent (the skit ends and review ends at 9m10s):
This is a go cart.
BREAKING: Nintendo sues Honda for infringing Mario Kart patent.
UPDATE: They settled out of court for an undisclosed number of giant yellow stars.
OK, but how do I load a suitcase on this thing?
There needs to be a category of "super" Chindōgu (珍道具) that fail the first rule by being possibly useful despite being impossibly impractical. Maybe 超良い奇妙な道具.
Imagine driving around a 2 stroke engine inside an airport
'car' is a bit of a stretch, but it's a cool compact go-kart.
Is the ad character inspired by, or the inspiration for, Mr Bean?
I think it was a fun PR joke that was cool and funny itself and showed they didn't take themselves too seriously.
PS: What I miss from growing up - being awoken about 7:35 am to my next door neighbor's Solar Gold LS Wankel rev shifting from 1st->2nd as he commuted to Spectra-Physics.
that full screen yellow cockie consent confirmation is next level. Is there anyway to fight back against this madness. Maybe just not using the internet anymore other than through AI summaries of websites ;(
Just hide the element with an adblocker. Most of them don’t care to disable content/scrolling under the modal.
