The electric self-balancing vehicles use the gyroscope effect, which is well-known to mankind already from the 19th century. To put is simply, gyroscope effect lies in the fact that a rapidly rotating disk always tries to maintain a stable position in space. The simplest example of this effect is the common toy spinner that falls if it stands still, but remains upright if it spins.

At the beginning of the 20th century, applications based on gyroscope effect started to be used in shipping, aviation, war industry. Gyroscope compasses and gyroscope aiming devices for military aircrafts were taken into use. Nowadays, the gyroscope principle finds use in very many aspects of life, be it in orientation during space flight, or in everyday life; for example, smartphones have a gyroscope sensor, which changes the direction of data displayed on the screen when you rotate the phone.

In self-balancing vehicles, the gyro sensors of the wheel understand when the balance moves either forward or backward and automation reacts so that the wheel is trying to get back to the balance point. This leads to the effect where tilting the pedals of the wheel forward makes it move forward and tilting backward makes the wheel go backward. Thus, it is not possible to lose balance forward or backward.

The self-balancing vehicles can have one or two wheels. They all have an electric motor or motors, a gyroscope senor, a battery and electronics with a control program.

The models fit for mass use came on the market around 2010, now they have spread like wildfire all over the world. Nerds’ toy has quickly become a commodity that will help solve the need for movement in the urbanising environments while saving the natural environment. They have also appeared at the disposal of law enforcement agencies, for example, two-wheelers are used by the police patrol service in Latvia and the Czech Republic. Another area where self-balancing vehicles are very common is city tourism, where they are used in organising city tours. They are the most popular in the United States and in Asian countries.

Different countries have highly different regulations for self-balancing vehicles. Since the phenomenon is relatively new, there are many countries which legislation says nothing about them. There are countries where the two-wheelers are equivalent to a moped, which manages their operational requirements. There are restrictions as on which roads it is allowed to move around using these vehicles, also about the required accessories. There are no fixed regulations yet in Estonia.