Whill’s all-terrain wheelchair is built for rough surfaces

Danielle Kent rode her wheelchair toward a black ramp at the Las Vegas Convention Center, where CES is taking place. She gently pressed on a small controller on the right armrest before the powered wheelchair went over a three-inch bump to climb the incline. Seconds later, Kent made a smooth turn onto a stone-covered path. The personal vehicle, designed by a wheelchair-making company called Whill, navigated the bumpy end of the ramp with ease.

Over two million people rely on wheelchairs in the US alone. Still, accessibility vehicles like wheelchairs have seen little improvements over the years. While some companies have been building powerful machines that can help people with disability navigate the streets, most electric wheelchairs continue to be too bulky for public doorways and tend to get stuck on turns and rough surfaces. The limitations keep many manual wheelchair users from switching over to powered machines. The latest model from Whill, however, is designed to instill confidence in the users so that they’re able to move independently.

Model M is an all-terrain EV with omni-wheels and a sturdy build. It enables people with multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injuries to use the same machine both indoors and outdoors. According to Kent, the director of product marketing at Whill, the new design takes up almost the same amount of room as her old manual wheelchair. The compact machine pushes the wheelchair to run at three speed modes plus a stationary mode that keeps it stable in case someone knocks into it. But that’s not all the machine will do.

The company also has plans to introduce autonomous driving for people with disabilities, suggesting the built-in software has the potential to evolve as driverless technologies become more capable of moving wheelchairs. Additionally, Whill has a mobile app in the making that will wirelessly help control navigation for safer mobility.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017.

The Engadget Challenge: 2017 edition

The most ridiculous spectacle to ever grace the Engadget stage is back as the Engadget Challenge returns for 2017. This time out, we’re testing to see if people’s knowledge of tech companies is as deep-rooted as their love of fast food. After all, since most toddlers can identify the McDonald’s logo from 30 paces, we should be able to guess Twitter from a couple of vague hints, right? Right?

Our second challenge is a fan favorite from last year, as we examine if it’s possible to be an active participant in life through social media. You may not have been out clubbing last night, but if that celebrity Instagram star was, you can kinda feel as if you were, too. So, we’re going to ask our contestants if we can accomplish something through the eyes (and hands) of another person. Yup, it’s the cocktail challenge, back for another year.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017.

Amp’d Energy hopes to make pollution-prone diesel generators obsolete

Under normal circumstances, I would’ve assumed the gleaming white, person-sized box standing next to me was some kind of high-end appliance. Things are rarely so straightforward at CES’s Eureka Park, though. It was actually what Hong Kong startup Amp’d Energy calls a “silo” — turns out, the thing I had casually rested my camera on top was an array of 1,792 batteries designed to keep critical buildings up and running without the nasty environmental effects that come with using diesel generators.

According to co-founder Brandon Ng, a single, 17kWh silo can power a 10-person office for between three and four hours before running dry. Need even more power? Up to three can be daisy-chained together (for now, anyway) to keep even larger buildings running when the power goes out, and they should kick on with incredible speed — it’s possible people inside those buildings won’t even notice the transition. People outside won’t notice either, which Ng says is crucial to the company’s vision. For a startup so physically close to China’s crazy air pollution, the appeal of helping dial down noxious emissions is one that can’t be denied.

And yes, as I pointed out earlier, the Amp’d Silo is surprisingly pretty. It clearly draws more inspiration from home appliances and modern consumer tech trends, making it what might be the friendliest backup power solution out there. Consider how you keep tabs on silos in action: the team ultimately wants to build a way to manage them remotely, but for now you just walk up to a unit and start fiddling with a clean, touchscreen interface. Seriously: it looks like something you’d find on a pricey bit of connected home kit. In a way, though, Ng hopes you never have to use the touchscreen. The silos were designed with a system of micro-fuses that’ll trip to prevent massive failures, and since the whole thing is solid state, the risk of breakdown should be minimal.

The concept has proven popular enough that the team recently locked down $3.7 million in seed funding, which is pretty damned substantial for as far as Hong Kong startups go. For now, though, the team’s focus is on building around 1,000 first-run units to test in Indonesia, India and the Philippines in early 2017.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017.