The Human Powered Car
Seattle company HumanCar®, founded by Charles S. Greenwood PE, has been developing human powered vehicles for over 30 years. Their showcase creation is the human car, a 4-wheel, 4-passenger vehicle that can achieve remarkable speeds of 60+ mph! Unfortunately the car is not available to the public, the orginal prototype cost $250,000. The stated goal of the project is to develop efficient transportation alternatives that inspire a “sense of an evolving socioeconomical model”. According to HumanCar®, “The time is drawing near when all of the elements - manufacturing, marketing, and product optimization - come together in a cost effective and aesthetically pleasing form.”
HumanCar® Sales Brochure (PDF)
ImagineTM Pre-Order Information

Thanks to HumanCar® Inventor, Charles S. Greenwood PE, for providing this information, more to come!
HumanCar® Resources
- HumanCar® - Official website for the HumanCar®, A street legal human powered car.
- Overview, About, Design, Blog, FAQ, Press Releases, Team Building, Applications, Videos
- HumanCar Videos on YouTube - A fullscreen YouTube playlist for the human car.










August 22nd, 2007
zero emission - ??? what about the gaseous, liquid and solid wastes produced by the engines?
January 15th, 2008
This car is sick, where do i get me one of these?
February 21st, 2008
I say this is totally useless in some aspects. For one, it can never be a family car, where would the baby sit? It can probably be used as a method of working out but it doesn’t seem like you’d actually need a license to drive the damn thing. Younger childern could get a hold of it and it’d be a major safety risk due to the fact that it doesn’t look like it can be locked up. Not only that, but how about the elderly and disabled? Where would they be seated and how could they drive the contraption?
March 8th, 2008
I can respond to the obvious answers of the above post from Amanda. Fair questions, here’s the breakout. First, child seats, cargo, the disabled and elderly each work with HumanCar technology. In fact, adaptability is central to design. RFID lockout mode for safety. It’s usefulness is all about being used on a daily basis. In final analysis it may Increase mobility of the disabled and elderly. The form evolves….
March 12th, 2008
I think the human powered autos are great, and I also have a concept human powered vehicle, but I have no capital to investigate or explore the possibility of real life testing. If you would like to hear more or have any insight on the matter please contact me. At present i live in Germany, but plan to move to Washington state in the future.
April 25th, 2008
What happens when the people running the machine get tired? And how do you drive?
May 14th, 2008
What about rain and snow?
May 22nd, 2008
It’s a neat and novel design and idea… but not practical for any thing other than weekend tooling around…. no storage.. requires 4 people… requires constant energy from the riders…
June 17th, 2008
So negative … “Totally useless”. Geez, better than $5/gal. Car pooling in nice weather? … For safety, though, I’d be worried about merge time. Combine with electric and slap a roof on it?