Entrepreneur Charles Boyd has been a big part of the Centaur Robotics journey – and he can’t wait to see customers using their vehicle. “I feel immense pride in helping to make this happen,” he said.
Charles, who has invested in the Centaur since 2015, said he was enthralled from the first time he saw it. “It’s all about a feeling,” he said. “Right from the start, what hooked me on this product is the simple emphasis on making people feel good about being in a chair. How the Centaur makes users feel is just my absolute driver on this.”
Charles said that people with mobility problems want to feel proud of how they look – and the Centaur does exactly that. The small footprint, the manoeuvrability – and a lifting chair that allows riders to look standing people in the eye – helps create a level playing field, he said. It also looks good, he added.
Charles has been at the forefront of the events and hospitality industry for more than 30 years. He owns 8 Northumberland Avenue, one of the most prestigious event venues in the UK, with a ballroom which surpasses that of Buckingham Palace.
“If you’re arriving on a trendy looking chair like the Centaur, your fellow guests, the staff, the suitability of the building and things are all much better with that low impact, smart, clever chair. You want to be cool.
“The space taken up by the Centaur is little more than one person with a bag in their hand. If you go into a restaurant in a wheelchair, they have to clear a path for you. These are feelings you don’t want. If people have to get out of your way, that’s not a comfortable place to be in. You don’t want these emotions, do you?
“People don’t want pity – and what I love about the Centaur is it reverses that. When you are talking to somebody, you are looking them in the eye – it’s also about making more able-bodied people want one.”
When the Centaur was recently put through its paces at 8 Northumberland Avenue, the staff loved it.
“They’re really proud to be part of the Centaur,” said Charles. “There was a lot of interest in it while the chair was here and I think every member of staff on duty that day came to see it.”
He added that the beautiful aesthetics of the Centaur, its great design, are the absolute key inspirers for him.
Cumbersome devices like mobility scooters create problems for hospitality venues. “They’re enormous and look awful,” he said. “People have to park them outside where they are often in the way and then somehow decamp to a chair. There are risks of them falling while they do that. These are important health and safety implications for venue owners.”
While the Centaur not only overcomes these problems, it enhances the user experience, adding more than just functionality.
Advanced technology has been at the heart of 8 Northumberland Avenue. It has a cutting edge lighting system and Curate 42, a state of the art digital event management programme.
“The Centaur fits with our ethos of wanting to be at the forefront of invention, new technology and good design,” added Charles. He thinks that what has been achieved so far and the Centaur Robotics team’s hard work and determination is “amazing”.
“I find it astounding that somebody hasn’t come in and put some big money behind the Centaur.
“It’s always been about those feelings. I want to be walking down a high street somewhere and see one of those chairs in front of me. And if I get to see that, it will make me a very happy man.”
