The London district between Lambeth North and Elephant and Castle tube stations, where Project42's office is located, is experiencing a construction boom. Timur Artyomov, co-founder of Euroset, shows a Vedomosti correspondent how he gets around the city on a unicycle. According to him, the main advantage of this mode of transport is saving time. The wheel can be carried in a bag or backpack and charged from a regular socket: a full charge takes 120 minutes and costs about 10 rubles. It is controlled by leaning the body: "Lean forward – the wheel goes. Lean back – it stops."
Artyomov claims that the device his company is developing will be lighter than existing analogues (the lightest unicycle currently weighs 13 kg), will be able to travel 10 km without recharging and reach speeds of up to 16 km/h. "When we bring our wheel to market, developed by British engineers, which will be much lighter than the others... and at an affordable price... a revolution will begin on the streets of major cities, because a unicycle is more convenient than a bicycle or a Segway," the publication quotes the entrepreneur as saying.
From idea to buying the technology
Artyomov first saw a unicycle brought by a friend from the US in 2013. He bought the same one and started riding around London. When the wheel broke, he contacted the manufacturer and offered to buy the business, but they could not agree on a price. Then, according to him, he decided to make his own product: "I grew up surrounded by radio components; my father teaches theoretical foundations of electrical engineering. That gave me reason to believe that I was capable of releasing an iPhone in the unicycle market." He assembled a team of 10 engineers from leading automotive companies. Later Artyomov returned to negotiations with the American side and bought the unicycle production technology. His company's employees sign a non-compete agreement.
Plans and obstacles
The presentation of the first generation of the wheel is scheduled for early December. Artyomov understands that at first the product will be a toy for the rich, but gradually it will reach the mass market thanks to its practicality. The company's goal is to make the unicycle a mass-market means of transport and change the way city dwellers get around. The only problem he encounters on the streets is people trying to stop him to find out what it is and where to buy one.
1
