The Silicon Valley Smart Kart Has Arrived

Wifi, GPS, crash avoidance, and an all-electric powerplant.

byWill Sabel Courtney|
The Silicon Valley Smart Kart Has Arrived
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Let’s face it—being an adult rocks. As a grown-up, you can drink alcohol! Shoot guns! Have sex! Vote! All without condemnation!

On the other hand, if you’re between the ages of 5 and 9, you can now blast around your neighborhood in a miniature Formula E race car. Point: Childhood.

Yeah, it’s safe to say that if the Actev Motors Arrow had been around when we were in short pants, we’d be a lot more gung-ho on the idea of a future full of electric cars. Sure, it runs out of steam at 12 miles an hour, but if you’re six years old and sitting two feet off the pavement, that’s gonna feel like light speed.

And since we’re sadly closer to the age of parenting than fitting in this thing (Speak for yourself—Ed.), we do appreciate the Arrow’s safety features. Being able to geo-fence in the kart’s range, govern the top speed, and shift it into park at the tap of an app can help helicopter parents protect by remote control. And since collision avoidance systems are probably going to be standard across the board by the time today’s elementary schoolers join the diminishing ranks of teenagers with driver’s licenses, they might as well get used to them now.

The Arrow Smart Kart arrives this summer. Technically speaking, it starts under $600, but that doesn’t include the sexy miniature racecar body. (Or any kind of body panels, actually.) The “Formula E Appearance Pack,” as we dubbed it just now, runs $99.95, and offers a choice of an Italian shade of red we’re calling “Rosso Sorta” and a Mercedes-like silver for maximum Stirling Moss effect.

Also, for $49.95, you can buy a drift kit consisting of plastic covers that snap over the rear tires. Who do we talk to about ordering those for a Focus RS?

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