There's no shortage of electric skateboards jostling for attention, but the XTND board seems to have a good claim to being the complete package. Jammed inside the lightest e-board out there is a decent battery range, top speed and charging time, but its real selling point is the artificial intelligence that's riding shotgun. With some machine learning magic, the company says that the XTND board can adjust its settings to match rider style, suggest better routes, help you track its location and lock itself when you're not standing on it properly.
Pronounced "extend" (because vowels aren't cool), the XTND weighs a breezy 3 kg (6.6 lb) – a featherweight compared to the Blink Lite, which previously claimed the title of lightest board at 3.5 kg (7.7 lb). The swappable 99 Wh battery can apparently be fully charged in under an hour, and will give riders a range of 20 km (12.4 miles) at speeds of up to 45 km/h (28 mph). The in-wheel brushless motors give it an output of 1,800 W of power, which are all decent but not exceptional specs.
The thing that sets the XTND apart is the board's brains. Hooked up to a phone or smartwatch app, it's designed to track rider movements, learn regular routes and suggest better ones with smoother terrain and less hill-climbing. These factors, the company claims, will help the battery life last longer, and like other machine learning systems, XTND should get better at these tasks the more it does them.
Through the app, riders can set different modes, customize settings and if the board is lost or stolen, it can be tracked and locked from a distance. To prevent any accidents mid-mount, pressure sensors are designed to lock the wheels until the rider is standing on it properly, and if you jump (or fall) off while it's moving, the board will automatically slam on the brakes.
Also on the safety front, the board is reportedly capable of smoothing out the "speed wobbles," and has ambient light sensors that automatically switch on front and rear lights when it gets dark.
All control, including turning it on, is handled through either the app or a remote, which magnetically sticks to the board for storage and to recharge.
XTND is currently being funded through Kickstarter, and has already reached its $100,000 target, with 44 days remaining on the campaign. Super early bird pledges start at US$999, which is a fair saving off its projected retail price of $1,749. If all goes to plan, the super early birds will receive their orders in January next year, while other backers will have to wait until March.
Check out the campaign video below.
Source: XTND
