Status: Weird News
Sheilas’ Wheels, a UK-based auto-insurance company that caters to women, has announced the invention of a
"buddy on Demand": "a blow up man that inflates at the flick of a switch if and when a passenger is needed to be used whenever a woman driving alone after dark needs an instant passenger."
It doesn't sound like a bad idea, and it would be very useful for carpool lanes as well. I suspected the whole thing was a joke since I couldn't find any picture of this "Buddy on Demand," and it's not for sale yet, but in their press release Sheila's Wheels notes that "The 'Buddy on Demand' was designed and created by Inflate, with all design rights owned by esure services Ltd." That sounds official enough to make me believe they really did create this thing.
Update: Found a picture of the Buddy. (Thanks, VL)
Comments
The article (in Dutch): http://www.standaard.be/Artikel/Detail.aspx?artikelid=DMA25072006_010
The pictures:
Motorists in the Virginia suburbs of Washington have been using dummies to get around traffic congestion for years. It's probably been officially declared illegal. Go back in the files of the Washington Post and you'll find lots of stories about the police catching people doing this.
Erm, coit, in the UK the driver's seat is on the right and the passenger seat is on the left.
It seems like it wouldn't have been that hard to make the face a little more realistic, though.
P.
They had a similiar tech in the movie "Men In Black 2" iirc.
I'd be funny if someone forgot to remove it and some guy get on the passenger seat without noticing, and then suddenly it deploys by accident. Oops!
Heh heh.... I was just kidddinnngggg.
not me."
--Tom Waits
Bon Voyage, Cherry