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The Original Segway Is Officially Being Retired On July 15:
When first revealed to the world back in December of 2001 Dean Kamen’s Segway promised to revolutionize urban mobility. But sticker shock, and cities quickly banning the self-balancing standing scooter, meant the Segway never came to close to realizing that dream. Nineteen years later, on July 15, the original Segway will officially roll off into the sunset.
[...] Dean Kamen, its creator, eventually sold Segway to a Beijing-based robotics startup called Ninebot back in 2015, who has continued to create and sell self-balancing ride-ons under the Segway brand, as well as scooters and other electric-powered car alternatives for getting around a crowded city where streets are often jammed with traffic.
[...] Ninebot has decided to retire the Segway PT, as well as the Segway SE-3 Patroller (a larger three-wheeled version often used by security in airports), and the Segway Robotics Mobility Platform (RMP).
The decision also results in 21 people being laid off from the company’s Bedford, New Hampshire plant, and it marks the end of one of the more ambitious and promising approaches to finally replacing gas-guzzling cars crowding big cities.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 24 2020, @07:38PM (6 children)
The dream, that is, of every lard-ass American to get from living room to McDonalds without having to move your legs.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday June 24 2020, @07:45PM (1 child)
Home delivery, which has exploded during COVID, continues the dream, and soon drone delivery. Maybe even drone delivery directly to the food hole.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday June 25 2020, @09:50PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 24 2020, @07:52PM (2 children)
Seems to me the dream of every PR flack ever was fulfilled--some months before the original Segway was made public. It was code named "Ginger" (after the dancer Ginger Rogers) and made the cover of Time Magazine. Might have been a slow news week, but even then, getting a new product hyped to the point of making Time was extraordinary. Maybe the PR company pulled in old favors with someone at the top of Time Inc? (or to use a timely reference--blackmailed someone at the top of Time Inc with Jeff Epstein dirt(grin)).
I rode one at a party--it was brought by one of the factory trainers and she patiently showed a bunch of us how to work the controls. For me the direction knob had the wrong polarity (compared to my expectation) and I nearly high-sided a couple of times (fell outward on a turn) before adapting.
Since it required training for new users, it clearly didn't live up to the hype of "intuitive to use", at least not in my case.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Thursday June 25 2020, @01:59AM (1 child)
Whereas if you just slap a battery on an existing low-tech scooter and run it via an Android app you can flood the world, or at least the world's sidewalks, with them.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Thursday June 25 2020, @07:01PM
Interesting... I was going to compare it to ebike conversions.
in 2001 an ebike conversion required the ownership and skilled use of a metal lathe and probably a milling machine and lead acid batteries with 10 mile range.
in 2020 the legal ebike conversions are bolt on from Amazon for $500 or so, and the illegal conversions ranging up to $3000 will give you 50 miles range and multiple KW of power. By 2015 COTS illegal conversions could already reach if not exceed the strength of bike components and the skill of the rider.
The legal situation for ebikes is weird and depends on federal state local and park laws, and is generally a mess. I don't feel like F-ing with the legal system enough to do a conversion but maybe sometime.
(Score: 1) by gmby on Wednesday June 24 2020, @08:32PM
The dream, that is, of every lard-ass Troll (see above for example) to get from living room to McDonalds without having to move your legs.
Bye