All Segways recalled

AP ^ | 9/26/2003

[presidio9]

The maker of the Segway Human Transporter has agreed to recall the motorized scooters because riders have been injured falling off when its batteries are low. The Consumer Product Safety Commission announced the recall Friday, saying that three people had been injured. One suffered a head wound and needed stitches.

[Darksheare]

I still seem to remember hearing that the woman who claimed the loss of use of her husband as being slated to get a monetary reward.
Do you remember, was she slated for it and they proved she was full of malarkey?

[js1138]

is it easier to walk?"

Depends on whether you are young an healthy. I suspect this is far more practical and mobile than motorized wheelchairs for folks who can stand but can't walk easily. I look for this to catch on as the boomers get older.

[Green Knight]

Wasn't this the thing that the inventor said cities would be built around? *snicker*

[discostu]

I don't think she was slated for any money, she sued and pretty much got snickered out of court. With McD's it's pretty easy to tell what the deal is, if they think a claim is even mildly legit they'll settle out of court, if they don't settle expect the person to get crushed by McD's attorneys (who are very expensive and very good).

[Calvin Locke]

I said I agreed with you why it would probably fail. Yes, plugging in the sucker in the middle of nowhere is a problem.

But you don't go repelling down a cliff without sufficient rope either. Or hiking without water. Pick an analogy.

Yes, the gyros need power to keep it upright. Not too much you can do about that, except to be in a position to not to be on it when the juice expires.

The assumption of no common sense is but another nail in the coffin of what used to be a pretty good society.

[discostu]

Actually to Kamen's credit he's not the one that said that, some other shlub (Gates, Jobs, somebody he showed it to) said that after they got a private viewing. I don't think Kamen has the kind of long view to contemplate things like that, he's a gadgeteer with flair and skill and has a lot of contagious enthusiasm but that's about his limit.

[Darksheare]

OKers.
Thanks again.

[discostu]

But with the Segway's limited range, and severe problem with hills (a few months ago one was taken up some big hill and given the number of battery changes it looked like a 30% grade resulted in about 90% degredation of efficiency) it's practical range is still guess work. So running out of juice, especially when still learning the device's capabilities, could be fairly common place. Same kind of thing happened with early cars, and people STILL run out of gas sometimes even decades later.

But there IS something they could have done (and are now doing) to make running out of juice graceful instead of potentially catostrophic. All you've got to do is make the dumb thing freewheel instead of locking up, if you want to get really cool you can have it expend the final juice slowing and swinging upright before going into freewheel mode.

The lack of common sense here is all at Segway. They built a device that couldn't gracefully stop when running out of juice. It's not a terribly difficult puzzle to work out and should have been done in DESIGN time, not after mass production and distribution.

[Final Authority]

All the makers of airplanes need to recall their aircraft because they tend to fall out of the sky when they run out of fuel.

I must say, It is fitting that this is the end of Kaymen's 15 minutes of fame. From direct experience, he has been an arrogant player in the arena of technology. You only need to talk with all the engineers and technicians who have designed and built the machines of his desires and dreams. Apparently, he comes across as a know-it-all, requires major technical support, and at the same time takes all of the credit.

I always thought the Segway wasn't going anywhere and now it still won't.

[discostu]

Actually planes glide when they run out of gas. Some don't glide well but with a good pilot and some luck you can still safely land.

Now helicopters... but they fly through sheer force of will anyway, you expect bad things to happen when they run out of will.

[Final Authority]

Gyros do not keep it upright. They only are sensors that detect the acceleration of the device. The main motors are servo'ed by the control system that receives signals from the gyros keeping the device stable. The gyros in this case are MEMS devices that are solid state. They are a derivation of the accelerometers used in airbag deployment systems in cars. FYI

[Final Authority]

Does the plane fall or will you argue that it will remain aloft? 'nuff said.

[Bobby777]

Cap'n! ... the dilithium crystals are deteriorating! and there's nothin' I can do about it! I canno change the laws of physics!

[discostu]

Red herring question. The Segway locks up potentially throwing the driver from the vehicle. A plane will glide giving the pilot an opportunity to land or bail, a car wil coast giving the driver a chance to pull over and stop. That's the difference: planes run out of fuel in a way that gives an opportunity for safe recovery, Segways do not. Also planes require many hours of training before one is allowed to fly them, a Segway is supposedly usable right out of the box.

[SpinyNorman]

Couldn't they just snap some training wheels on that thing? How about a battery charge indicator?

[1Old Pro]

Tripping over your own feet?

That's why I upped my umbrella policy. I figue the next time I trip over myself I can sue myself and get millions.

[Conservababe]

They've banned them and like scooters from our Veterans Home here citing dangerous speeds in hallways. I have heard that some towns are wanting them banned from city sidewalks.

[Jack Wilson]

Its a good thing the Consumer Product Safety Commission wasn't around during the days of the Model T.

[Calvin Locke]

It's not a terribly difficult puzzle to work out...

True, but I guess it is the designers' expections of intended use, not actual use.

Okay, South Park reference: "...so the controls on the side [of "IT"] do the same thing as the oral/anal
controls? Uh, yes. Then, can I get one without the oral/anal controls? Uhhh, well I suppose..."

[discostu]

Which is exactly my problem with it. Lots of geewhiz from designers, no thoughts of grim reality from QA. Being in software QA that's my forte in life and I get irritable when I see products that should have been stopped cold by QA out in the world.

That South Park episode was brilliant. "Well it's better than dealing with the airlines."