Forget electric vehicles and check out these electric shoes made for faster walk

The world of mobility is being taken over by battery-powered options - cars, bikes, cycles, hoverboards and even ships and planes. Walking itself may become obsolete, fear some, unless you plan to strap on a very special kind of shoe, an electric shoe!

Innovated by a US-based startup called Shift Robotics, these electric shoes claim to make the wearer walk twice as fast than what he or she would wearing conventional shoes. In the real world, a wearer can 'walk' at speeds of up to 11 kmph! But the company clarifies that these are indeed shoes and not skates.

Called Moonwalkers, how these electric shoes essentially work is by relying on battery power to ensure that each time one takes a step, the stride is longer and quicker. Think of it as assisted pedal on electric cycles - you have to make the effort to pedal but that effort is a lot less than usual. “Thanks to an intuitive AI drivetrain, the shoes adapt to your gait. There’s no new skill to learn or complicated technology to understand," explains the company. "They’re not something you lace up and wobble away on – they’re highly engineered additions to your shoes that you strap on." As such, it is also vastly different from walkalators at airports or malls.

There are downsides though. Each shoe weighs around 2 kilos and a pair costs $1,399 (approximately ₹1.16 lakh). These are also only available in a single size option - EU 42-45 for men. And the maximum weight of the wearer must not be more than 100 kilos. But on the flipside, charge the pair via a USB type C port and you can get assisted fast walk for up to 10 kilometres in one go with the brushless DC motor that comes built in. The company even claims that these can be used on most urban rough-road conditions and are IP45 water resistant which essentially means they would be safe during rains and in puddles.

Check out Upcoming EV Cars in India, Upcoming EV Bikes in India.