A Dutch engineer has built a tiny car for his pet goldfish, Blub, and the fish drove it far enough to set a world record. Thomas de Wolf created the four-wheeled vehicle in the Netherlands and used a water tank as the driver’s seat. The special car turns by studying how Blub moves inside the tank. When the goldfish swam in different directions, the vehicle responded and changed course.
Blub drove the car for 40 feet and 3.46 inches in one minute. That was enough to earn a Guinness World Record for the greatest distance covered in a motion-sensing vehicle by a goldfish in one minute. De Wolf said he wanted to make his serious engineering job more fun and entertaining. He explained that his work is usually quite repetitive, so he decided to create something unusual.
Even though a goldfish driving a car may sound silly, de Wolf said the technology behind it could be useful. He believes motion-sensing systems like this might one day help people with disabilities. In particular, he hopes the idea could support people who have trouble moving around on their own. He said the project was meant to show what this kind of technology can do, even in a playful way.
After the record was set, de Wolf joked about how he would tell Blub that he had become a world record holder. The unusual invention has made people smile, but it has also shown how creative ideas can lead to important new tools.
