There are inventions that have greatly simplified our lives. Starting from the wheel and ending with dishwashers and mobile phones, useful inventions for the better our way of life, allow us to transfer many routine tasks to smart assistants and simply entertain. However, there are new items, looking at which I want to ask the question "well, why is this necessary?"
We present you the rating of the most useless inventions made in 2017. It was composed by experts from the popular resource Gizmodo.
7. Flying taxi
Uber, the most valuable startup in the world, intends to launch a flying taxi service in Los Angeles in 2020. Unmanned helicopters, which Uber engineers are currently working on, will carry passengers.
However, only rich people can afford such a walk through the air. The cost of the trip will be $ 129, although the company says that subsequently the price of such a flight will be reduced to $ 43, and then to $ 20.
To Uber's credit, this was one of the smartest things the company did this year.
6. Horizontal building
You can call this building 11 floors high "office building." You might want to call it the corporate campus. However, Google calls its invention a “horizontal skyscraper.” Now such a skyscraper is being built in London, its length is 330 meters, and it is designed for 7,000 employees. Estimated construction price is $ 1.3 billion.
While the largest megacities in the world are choking on the abundance of people and need tall skyscrapers to make the most of the space that the city always lacks, Google decided to use the purchased territory extremely inefficiently.
However, American futurologist Emmy Webb disagrees with Gizmodo experts and believes that such horizontal skyscrapers may become more common, if not in London, then in other places where there is a lot of land for building buildings.
Future employees will be able to move around the building with elevators that move sideways, and not just up and down. This technology has already been tested in Germany, where ThyssenKrupp recently sold the first elevator that can move up, down, sideways and diagonally.
5. Transport service Lyft Shuttle
The first five useless inventions of 2017 are opened by a multi-seat car that travels along a given route. He makes stops along the way, and you can get into it and go to your destination. As other people travel with you, the cost of the trip is reduced. This is the essence of the invention, "born" in the famous Silicon Valley.
And if you decide that city buses do the same thing a long time ago, then you will be right. In addition, a bus ride is cheaper, more people are accommodated in it, and this transport is financially viable for low-income passengers.
The biggest difference between Shuttle and the city bus is that the Lyft service will only appear during times of high demand for a particular route and fewer passengers will be accommodated in the car.
4. Super expensive communal apartment
Of all the expensive startups, WeWork is probably the weirdest one. This project, worth $ 18 billion (more expensive than SpaceX), does not offer any useful ideas.
WeLive is a communal housing unit. That is, many people live in one place and use common facilities. According to WeWork, it looks like a comfortable “cohabitation”. In reality, this is called a "communal apartment." The only difference is that a communal apartment, as a rule, is not so well furnished.
3. Smart teapot from Teforia
Teforia was touted as the only “tea making machine” on the market. For these devices, specially packaged tea was offered, costing from 1 to 6 dollars. And special algorithms were supposed to ensure the preparation of an ideal taste beverage.
However, one of the Gizmodo users found that a teforia teapot for $ 300 made worse quality tea than could be done with a convenient infuser for $ 7. And none of its internet features were useful. Having wasted $ 17 million, Teforia closed.
2. Anti-stress tent
Long days at the office, lack of sleep and chronic stress make people feel terrible. But there is a solution to all the problems called Pause Pod from Odd Company. This is a small "personal space free of stressful moments." In fact, this is the tent that you put in the center of the office. And let colleagues and the boss wonder who snores inside Pause Pod like that. The main thing is to relieve stress.
1. Juicer
The leader in the list of the most ridiculous ideas of 2017 was an invention that expertly imitates ... human hands.
Juicero juicer squeezes bags of prepared fruit or vegetable juice. Such an invention (along with packages of juice in the kit) costs $ 400 and what it does is quite affordable for an ordinary person. Bloomberg experts found that a special package from which Juicero gadget squeezes juice so well is enough to squeeze with your bare hands to squeeze the drink.
After five months of existence and 118.5 million dollars of investments, the Juicero project was turned off. Apparently, there were few who wanted to squeeze juice out of packages for $ 400.
