In context: YouTube’s maker community has created all sorts of wild machines over the years. The Hacksmith channel made a functional lightsaber, and the “Queen of Shitty Robots” (her words) Simone Giertz modified a Tesla Model S into a pickup truck far before Musk & co revealed the actual Cybertruck. And now, we have YouTuber Electo and his Lamborghini — sorry, Hamborghini.
Yup, you read that right. Electo created the world’s “fastest rideable Minecraft Pig” (we suspect it’s also the world’s only rideable Minecraft pig) and chose to dub his fantastic contraption the “Hamborghini.” I suppose he should get points for creativity if nothing else. And before you ask, yes, it works — pretty well, too, if Electo’s build video is anything to go by.
It’s probably not the safest method of transport in the world, though. Balancing the thing seems to be a struggle at high speeds (the Hamborghini tops out at 20 MPH), and its batteries were put together with, to use Electo’s own words, a “sketchy welder” he found on the internet. Who can blame him, though? Pre-made batteries can get pretty expensive — over $400, according to his video.
Anyway, after throwing together a makeshift battery, the next step was getting the Hamborghini to actually move and turn. To achieve the former, he broke a couple of skateboard wheels off of a deck he had lying around at home and slapped them onto the bottom of two wooden Minecraft pig-shaped legs. He selected heavily modified shopping cart wheels for the front to ensure the pig can actually turn (sort of) and then attached a motor to help the wheels themselves spin.
After that, Electo put it all together, painting the Hamborghini to look just like its Minecraft counterpart. The results are pretty impressive!
But how does one actually steer the thing? Simple: You create a real-world carrot-on-a-stick, slap an IR sensor into the pig’s “head,” and calibrate it to detect the color orange. That seems to have worked for Electo most of the time, but as a failsafe, he also added a manual controller to the side of the stick just in case the pig detects something else that happens to be orange and attempts to speed off after it.
To finish off his video, Electo raced the Hamborghini (with him valiantly mounted atop it) against his friend. Unfortunately, said friend didn’t stand a chance. As it turns out, it’s difficult for even a relatively in-shape human to outrun a 20Mph monstrosity. Still, both Electo and his pal seemed to have fun with the whole process, so more power to them.
Maybe he’ll create a working Titanfall mech next? Only time will tell.
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