Rumor: Yamaha BOBBY

I only put the rumor tag because it sounds kind of hoaky, I'll give you the info, and let you do your own research, or determine based on what I give you, whether you think it's real or not. So, we have all seen folding electric bikes, well maybe not all of us, but a good number of you have probably at least heard of the things.

This is no different, the handle bars fold down, the back wheel folds up, all is good right? Till you get to the part in the imaginary instruction booklet where it tells you that you need your FeliCa enabled phone to start it.

Now, I will go ahead and admit I don't have the slightest clue what FeliCa is, I get so far that it is more or less proprietary to the country of Japan, maybe the entire oriental region, where they are about 10 years ahead of us in terms of wireless services, but using a phone, to start your slightly-larger-than-a-briefcase electric bike is just plain nuts. Furthermore, there are claims of the bike having access to the Internet, maybe so it can go all Johnny Number 5 on your ass some day in the future.

Yamaha Designs the Stupidest Commuter Prototype Ever [via uberreview]