You know how people go out and hike past their skill level?
Yeah, i don’t see how this could go wrong when the battery runs out either.
They mention “great battery life!” without any details. Will it get me in 36 kilometers and a total of 2k vertical elevation, over 4 days? With a 122 kg load?
These sorts of specs are a bare minimum to tell me whether this will be useful for me or not; my backpacking trips tend to fall in a specific range - I don’t vary them much. Similar terrain, similar distances, similar time frames. I’ll rarely exceed those specs, but I’ll frequently hit pretty close to them. More specific numbers would be helpful in letting me know whether I should follow this or not. What I absolutely do not want is to find myself hiking out of back country with an additional 15 kg of bulky dead weight. On my pack.
No, no, the battery life is great…
…ly exaggerated.
They have a little bit more detail than just great battery life, although I’m not sure how accurate they can ever be since variance in people’s weight and the slope of uphill/downhill is vague. There will of course be far less energy regained on the downhill slopes.
Are you worried about running out of juice mid-hike? Fear not. The MO/GO’s battery lasts for over three hours of continuous uphill walking at maximum assistance. Plus, it recharges automatically during downhill walking—talk about efficiency. For those extra-long adventures, you can quickly swap out the battery on the go for extended range.
I’m guessing that means single digit km on a steep slope and who knows what past that. Certainly not multiple days, which should be obvious for any kind of battery powered device.
One day I hope to hike the AT again but this time with a robot dog to carry my pack 🤣
I just want to see it’s fancy little trot while carrying my water and food. I’ll carry myself thank you very much.
Robot slackpacking
I prefer to be lazy, which is why I love bicycles :D
Add a backpack mount and you have my interest.
Imagine feeling 30 pounds lighter while tackling that steep trail.
Sounds good, but…
How much does this thing weight? And if you have to lug it around because it stopped working for some reason, is that doable or are you just leaving it out in the backcountry?
Also, does having “powered pants” mean that someone will just load more stuff in their backpack, creating more back strain than normal?
Granted, I’d love to see this being used to help otherwise disabled or older folks enjoy hiking, but only if the pros outweigh the cons.
Why are these $4500 while the Dnsys X1’s are $750?
The article covered it. “Innovation”
