It became official when online donors blew the doors off a second-chance crowdfunding
campaign: Modobag, the corniest wait-maybe-I-actually-need-that invention of the year is going to be a reality. Its inventor, Kevin O'Donnell, had a vision of commuters puttering around airport concourses on a carry-on suitcase powered by an electric motor. If you need proof that America is and always has been great, look no further than his invention, straight out of a Saturday Night Live spoof ad, raising a third of a million bucks this summer.
Watch for the bags -- and the owners who love to sit on them -- to be whizzing around American airports at 5mph as soon as November. In January, the big shipments begin. For O'Donnell, the final steps to becoming a motorized-suitcase mogul took him through the worlds of motorcycle racing, FAA regs, and Paula Abdul talent shows.
Truly, if the path to bringing the world the first hybrid luggage/quadricycle/mobile-charging station were easy, someone would've done it already. We asked him how he went from wheeling around his luggage like a peasant to becoming the Steve Jobs of carry-ons. https://www.thrillist.com/travel/nation/modobag-the-motorized-carry-on-suitcase-you-can-ride-is-coming-soon/tech
