Why didn't the Segway catch on?

@ossobuco,

Quote:

I'm pretty much for all of the design efforts. Ok, ok, wholly for.

Here here!....there is too much ugly in the world, lets spend a few more bucks and a little more time to make things look cool. Women, products, the view from my window........I want them all and more to be visually appealing. By biggest beef with green energy is how all the wind mills and power lines ruin the viewshed. Driving through the Cascades on I-90 is much less cool now, for example

2 Replies

@hawkeye10,

windmills will have a 20 year extended niche."clean" energy isnt. It takes a whole lot f coal and oil fired crackers to lead to plastics and metals. Tidal generators are much more efficient and we are within 25 years of available initial fusion . Ive nbeen reading the Kivermore and Sandia Technology literature and most of the big problems are being addressed now.

2 Replies

@farmerman,

Quote:

Tidal generators are much more efficient and we are within 25 years of available initial fusion

That is great, can we ever generate enough to do us much good re transmission losses? We lose 50% every 115 miles correct?

1 Reply

@hawkeye10,

SO? T losses are unimportant for such renewables as solar . Its a matter of overcoming them via developmental tech. We can trnsmit electricity via microwave with much less line losses(Only problem is people keep walking into the beams and getting fried)

0 Replies

@hawkeye10,

So then why are you so down on the Segway?

I mean, even if you think it's a rather silly idea that doesn't serve a purpose, if you love design it seems that you would love the Segway.

To me it is kind of a Rube Goldbergian thing -- unnecessary but elegant if only for the thought that went into it.

1 Reply

@boomerang,

Quote:

So then why are you so down on the Segway?

I dont think I am, what I am is needling those who think this thing should be popular. Anything you might want to do with this thing something else does better and a lot cheaper. I am not down on either the inventor or the design, only the business...those who invested in this thing.

0 Replies

@boomerang,

boomerang wrote:

Have you ever ridden a Segway?

I had a chance to ride one last week. It is so much fun and such a great way to get around. It only takes about 5 minutes to learn how to operate one. They're small, quiet, and don't use any gas.

They are, however, pretty expensive so I'm guessing that's why they didn't inspire the revolution that the inventor thought that they would.

Why do you think it didn't catch on as a mode of transportation?

My guess would be that they look like they take brains to run, and people being the most honest judges of their own ability if there is no one to impress, admitted to themselves their ignorance... If they would be so honest in regard to politics, the country might make some progress, and by progress, I mean good progress...

0 Replies

I've also seen them used in warehouses, for order pickers and the like. I can see them being useful in large buildings where staff have to walk great distances like the pentagon or air craft hangers. I think Segways work well in some situations but I don't ever see them taking off for the general public. I remember it creating quite the fuss when a local cop took a swan dive off one. They don't seem all that safe to me.

0 Replies

...they are simply to expensive, and battery inefficient... give it a decade more and we will have all kinds of electric short distance vehicles...

1 Reply

@Fil Albuquerque,

Fil Albuquerque wrote:

...they are simply to expensive, and battery inefficient... give it a decade more and we will have all kinds of electric short distance vehicles...

You know what they said when the Wheel was invented: Feet, will be obsolete... -All you with a will can find some asses to wedge yours into if the world isn't changing fast enough for you... And don't worry about the smell... There is nothing about **** that is not an improvement over the smell of most feet...

1 Reply

@edgarblythe,

edgarblythe wrote:

The pictures of President Bush falling with one could not have been good advertising, also.

It was almost enough to make me buy one immediately!

0 Replies

@Fido,

...oh dear...what the heck does that has anything to do with anything ?
...I myself love to walk...did you sleep well ? are you OK ? geeeee...blaming technology is just lame...

0 Replies

@boomerang,

boomerang wrote:

Why didn't the Segway catch on?

Because Apple didn't build it and call it the iSegway.

0 Replies

@farmerman,

farmerman wrote:

we are within 25 years of available initial fusion . Ive nbeen reading the Kivermore and Sandia Technology literature and most of the big problems are being addressed now.

I took a tour of the Tokomak at UT when I was in middle school.

In 30 years, we've come from being 30 years from workable fusion to 25 years to workable fusion....

0 Replies

Even Dean Kamen didn't expect the Segway to revolutionize travel in the U.S. He expected it to revolutionize city planning in emerging countries.

The U.S. is already planned out for cars.

1 Reply

Actually we've come 60 years since workable fusion was 10-15 years away. The whole time they were convinced they'd solved most of the problems.

0 Replies

If you look back a century, electric cars then were supposedly capable of a 70 mile range at 25 mph. The electric self-starter for gasoline engines pretty much killed the electric car market. But with the advances in electric motors, battery technology and lightweight materials since then we ought to be able to build something better than would be an ideal urban car. Hell, just rebuild a 1919 Rauch, which was in the Harrah automobile collection and is supposed to have done that.

0 Replies

@boomerang,

boomerang wrote:

In Oregon you're classified as a pedestrian when riding one so you can go anywhere.

Even in stores like mobility scooter?

Sounds a bit tricky, if so.

1 Reply

@Reyn,

Why?

They take up less room than a scooter and you are a lot more visible.

1 Reply

@DrewDad,

Quote:

He expected it to revolutionize city planning in emerging countries.

This is really interesting. I'd like to know more about what he had in mind. I'm trying to envision how they would change the way a city is planned.

Maybe more places would be like my neighborhood. I live in a strange little pocket of my city. You can do just about anything within a mile and a half from my house -- it's almost like a small town. While things aren't too far to walk to, it's a bit of a chore to walk back. I can see how a Segway might be nice if we had wider, smoother sidewalks.

I'm guessing he had that type of community in mind.

1 Reply

Why didn't the Segway catch on?

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know