You know that feeling, right? It’s Monday morning and you just barely have the energy to get out of bed to face the day. You groggily down your coffee just so you can open your eyes enough to drive yourself to work. But what if it didn’t have to be that way? What if there was an Uber service that could let you finish your sleep on the way to work? Well, my friends, it appears that’s exactly what the masterful engineers at Alibaba have come up with. And this primo specimen of ingenuity on China’s largest online shopping platform is perfect for the latest entry of the Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week.
You might think it was a golf cart at first glance.
You might think it was an evacuation tool or a Fisher Price My First Ambulance®.
But no, my friends. At least not for the creative.
Because what you are feasting your eyes on below is nothing other than the world’s first nap time cart, purpose-built to ferry sleeping adults around on time without rising them from their slumber.
Hark! We truly are living in the future!
I love the way the designers have really thought of everything there. All the necessities are designed in from the start. I’ve seen a lot of weird Alibaba stuff in my days, but the designers really outdid themselves this time.
The bed has a nice thick mattress with a built in pillow so it doesn’t fall out in the turns.
There are also safety straps for the same reason. You wouldn’t want to be rudely awoken from your slumber by being dumped out from a sharp turn on Fifth Ave. (Fun fact: I hear the straps were an improvement on this V2 version after the first model’s bed proved incapable of properly retaining its guest during high G maneuvers.)
And there’s even a cargo bed on back to store your briefcase and other important things you might need after arriving at work, well-rested and ready to take on the day.
The nap cart is priced at a reasonable $3,300, making it easier than ever before to start your own nap time taxi service.
It comes with a peppy 5 kW (6.7 hp) motor, which should be plenty to get it up to its top speed of 30 km/h (18 mph). At first, that speed seemed a little bit slow to me, but the more I thought about it, the more it seemed like a prudent design choice.
If you go too fast, you won’t have enough time to nap!
There are even lights on top of the vehicle to let everyone know it’s in service. That way someone won’t try to hail the nap Uber while it’s occupied. Boy, would that be embarrassing!
And the bed even seems removable, which is likely for an add-on service. If you arrive at your destination and just aren’t ready to get up yet, they can pop off your bed and roll you all the way into the building. One freight elevator ride later and they’re dumping your groggy bottom directly into your office chair – your feet never even touched the ground!
Alright, Alright. I get it. It’s not really a nap cart. I guess it’s some type of simple ambulance cart. Perhaps it could be useful at festivals or some other type of large, sprawling event where you might need to occasionally do rounds and drag back the drunk or dehydrated or both for a little field care.
But Zeus help me if I ever find myself in need of a ride in one of these things. I’m sure they mean well. I guess it even has a passenger seat for the ride-along medic to work on you while you careen at jogging speed towards the local hospital. But something tells me this “ambulance” isn’t quite outfitted with the same state-of-the-art medical equipment as my local EMTs. If your problem can’t be solved with some chest compressions or breathing exercises, I’m not sure this ambulance is anything more than a powered-bed.
If I ever called 911 and this thing showed up, I might just rather take my chances with a Lyft.
Oh, and before I go. I know what you were really hankering for was a full-on walk-around video of this thing. Don’t worry, I may tease along the way, but I always leave you smiling and satisfied.
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