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Friday April 27, 2007
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 The Onion News Network has a short, but hilarious segment up today; a roundtable discussion on how radically our lives have changed since the introduction of Segway six years ago. They talk about the first time any of them saw a Segway, "I was riding a horse," says one panelist, about "having sex on a Segway" and even "Segway chase scenes" in movies. Most panelists agree that they cannot remember life before the Segway.
I'm laughing, you're laughing and somewhere in Manchester, New Hampshire, Dean Kamen is crying. The dungaree-shirt and-pants-wearing- always-Segway-riding maverick inventor never really said that the Segway Human Transporter (formerly known as "It" and "Ginger") would change the world, but he did little at the time to dampen down the hype.
Six years later, Segway is a model of innovation. It's in use throughout the world and upgrades have made it more dependable (we all remember stories about riders getting pitched off the rolling platform when the batteries unexpectedly died) more versatile (have you seen the Segway gold-cart?) and easier to use (now you can lean to steer). Even so, Segway remains a niche product that has not, as evidenced by The Onion's razor-sharp (albeit too short) satire, changed anything.
Check out the video and then I invite all of you to talk about whether or our society's new-found love-affair with all that's "Green" could help the Segway fulfill its early promise. I know Kamen's out there somewhere riding his Segway and crossing his fingers.
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April 27, 2007 3:18 PM
Interesting! I love the Segway, and they still garner crowds everywhere they turn up - I was even at an IT and Homeland Security expo a couple of years ago and one of the vendors had a Segway obstacle course to promote their product - it attracted a HUGE line. Imagine it - watching federal agents and sales people in suits trying to ride a Segway.
Anyway - if the Segway would come down in price at all, it might be an effective mode of transportation. Green or no green, I'm dead certain that the only thing holding the Segway back is its cost - it's simply not cost effective, and even if you do buy one, you can't exactly get it repaired anywhere. Even so, people still pay big bucks out here for Segway tours of the nation's capitol, and there are even Segway "hikes" in the woods along dusty paths. People love them, we just know we can't have them practically. ;)
April 27, 2007 7:44 PM
Most people totally miss many of the advantages of the Segway. First off, it can be totally green if charged at night when energy is going unused (they don't turn off the turbines). If you can eliminate one vehicle in a family by making a short commute by Segway or using it instead of a car to run down to the store for a carton of soy milk, the savings of car payment, insurance, maintenance, and gas can easily offset the cost of a Segway. I get the equivalent of about 750 MPG with current costs of electricity vs gasoline.
It is ironic to hear the ill-informed yelling obscenities at Segway riders from the pickup truck about the Segway rider being lazy. They don't understand, but the Segway is not an alternative to walking a block or two -- it is an alternative to driving that pickup up to 20 miles. And there is lower body exercise involved as well.
But I'd be less than honest if I failed to mention the feeling of just thinking you want to move in a given direction and having this device automatically glide you where you are looking -- it becomes an extension of your body. A golf pro recently concluded a round on the new x2 Golf and proclaimed that it was the most enjoyable round of golf he'd EVER played. And try doing a 20 mile tour of a city on foot; you'll have to take the next day off to rest. As our bodies age it gets a bit difficult to walk miles and miles to see this wonderful country, but there is an alternative . . . now.
The writer says that the Segway has not changed anything -- he's totally wrong -- it has changed lots of things for people lucky enough and open enough to try one. The writer also didn't get his details correct on the sofware upgrades to protect people from themselves even if they tried to act like rodeo stunt riders jumping on and off a a moving Segway.
April 28, 2007 11:11 AM
When you are way ahead of your time, as Dean Kamen certainly is, people, like the dopes here, tend to laugh at you. Dean Kamen will have the last laugh.
At a time when we continue to send billions of our treasure to petro-fascists who help fund terrorists, one would hope any attempt to stem this tide would be met with applause. But no, we're dealing with some read brain dead mofos.