Wheels from the future

The next time someone tells you, “Let’s roll”, make sure you double check with them to see if they’re talking metaphorically or literally. Because a brand new type of self-balancing, motorised scooter has been taking the world by storm, and Hyderabad has been catching on to the trendy tech as well.

Celebrities like Wiz Khalifa, Justin Bieber, Rita Ora and even Shah Rukh Khan have been spotted using it. The gadget doesn’t seem to have a set name yet — people have been calling it a megaboard, an upboard, a mini-segway and even a hoverboard. But that hasn’t stopped Hyderabadis from picking the gadget up themselves. Anindith Reddy, a 25-year-old racer from Hyderabad, says his mother picked one up for him from Dubai.

“I have two younger brothers, and we’ve always been into pretty much anything with wheels,” he says, “If you take 30 seconds to just stand on it and get a feel of it, within the first minute you can start moving around. Five minutes more and you feel like a pro. It’s pretty easy.”

Greenpark Hotels’ director Damodar Reddy also ordered one for himself online and it was delivered a week ago. He too says it’s not very hard to use, but isn’t too sure about its usability. “It has very low ground clearance and can’t go on rough terrain.” He adds, “If they increase the ground clearance and make it tougher, it can be used in the real world too, for delivery boys, as support for older people...”

M.D. of 3 Koll Venesh Reddy, who bought the mini-segway in Florida, says, “I skateboarded as a kid so it was easier for me. You have to trust the machine,” adding that the only trouble is that you’ll have to “stop and get down and put it back up every time you come across a pavement”.

But the board could also lose its sheen soon. Varun Reddy, COO of Country Club, hasn’t bought one himself yet but has used his friends’ boards. He says it’s “too much fun” but it will be forgotten when the next cool gadget comes along: “I think it’s novelty, you’ll get bored of it soon. The first few weeks, it’s awesome, just like those parrot drones — no one used it after a while”

But be careful around water bodies, as Anindith’s friend Vishnu learnt that the hard way. He says, “I got it a few months ago from LA. One of my friends couldn’t handle it and he fell into the swimming pool, it stopped working after that.”