Dean Kamen should round up Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Doerr, et al, slap them silly and muzzle them all. Not for springing leaks months ago, but for insanely inflating expectations. “Bigger than the Internet” ??? I GOTTA have some of whatever Metcalf was smokin.
They ruined Segway’s launch.
I spent a day joining in on the dissappointment. No it doesn’t replace walking, or biking, or driving. It can’t handle cargo, or bad weather. It’s too heavy & expensive, and can be stolen…
then I imagined that I’d never heard any of the hype, and that someone just sprung this thing on me. What if I saw one coming around a street corner having never had a preconceived notion of what it should be?
Oh my god, it’s beautiful. I can’t deny the elegance of its design. The great creativity in actually inventing a novel way of getting around. Now how often does that happen? I don’t know which niches it will eventually call home. The market will decide that. I don’t really care. It’ll be around, get cheaper over time and I hope to have one someday.
And there will certainly be variations - I could see it becoming a real sports toy. Imagine a speed model? Give it to someone athletically gifted & see the creative ways they could move with it.
So forget about redesigning cities around it, is there anoyone out there who wouldn’t just love to try one?
Thanks Tuckerfan and Sunspace for bringing up the wheelchair. I have met Dean three times (through the robotics competition he started) and he seems like a good guy. From what I know and what I have heard about him though, he does projects like this to see if they can be done. I would say that he is not particularly interested in seeing that they sell.
I had never heard of these things before today (I was wondering what was going on on South Park. . .) so I haven’t heard any of the hype. Intiial reaction: Oh, God. What’s wrong with using a god damned BICYCLE, for crying out loud? “Amazing new technology that gets you around faster than walking, up to 12 mph!” Uh, Yeah, We’ve had that since about 1860. Sure, I can understand people with limited mobility going for these, but otherwise they are pretty damn impractical for the average Joe.
Small wheels without the kind of size-suspension of a bike, top-heavy inertia of a standing body, hitting a pot hole or thick twig, the false sense of security of standing on your balanced feet, and lack of a helmet, and I forsee a lot of bleeding skulls.
Personally I was creeped out by all those users who were dressed up in the exact same manner using it. Made me think “Dear God! It’s A Brave New World.” Very freaky.
If it was $200 I’d pick one up. I’d use it to go to school. Although they’d have to speed it up a bit.
I think it’s a pretty neat toy, and nothing more. -A lot like a stair-climbing wheelchair: interesting to watch but not something most ordinary people need or will pay for voluntarily.
Being battery-operated (and having small batteries at that), it doesn’t have enough speed or range to be useful as transportation to most people.
As for using it inside factories, I can tell you right now that’s a crock: industry already uses little battery-powered carts to get around in big buildings. Those carts usually resemble tiny flatbed trucks (with platforms for carrying stuff) and have at least 3 wheels, for one very good reason- slippery floors. (Smooth) factory floors get slippery from oil, water, dust or whatever, and any two-wheeled vehicle is not going to be able to stand up safely. - DougC
Just $0.02 from somebody who doesn’t need his short distance travel revolutionised…
For Chrissake, what’s wrong with a bicycle. You can do 12 mph no problem, it’s a whole lot cheaper and you get some exercise. It also has the added advantage of not making you look like a complete gobshite.
You can’t fall off a Segway.
You don’t need training to use a Segway.
You don’t arrive sweaty and stinky with a Segway.
The Segway takes up less space.
Don’t be too sure – DEKA (Kamden’s R&D group) already has that wheelchair which can stand on two wheels and ride on all sorts of terrain (the onboard computers sense wheel slippage and shift power accordingly). Wouldn’t surprise me at all if the Segway handles oil, grease, and ice without any effort.