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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.

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..."

All you've got to do is make the dumb thing freewheel instead of locking up...

Where does it say the wheels lock up? In the article I read - from the Taipei Times - there was no mention of that. Instead it said A Segway tends to tip forward when the batteries are low.

Before that happens the article states ... " A user who has such an accident must first ignore a number of signals from the Segway to get to the hazardous tipping point. The machines have a prominent battery level indicator built into the handlebars, and as power drains below a certain level, a light comes on, an alarm sounds, and the handlebars vibrate."

Segways are far from perfect but I do see some very valid applications. They really weren't meant to replace a car, or bike. They are a "personal transportation device" best suited, I would think, to warmer climes with farily level ground.

Even so I could sure use one instead of walking two and a half miles to work. It takes me 40 minutes now. with the Segway I could do it much faster and not be tired when I arrive.

Expensice? Yes, but prices should come down eventually.

prisoner6