[Timm]

A fascinating new technology that almost certainly won't sell outside of a small niche in the consumer market.

In case any of the inventor's claims sound familiar, it's because they mirror the claims made by hopeful city planners over the past three decades. Any minute now, we've been told, cities would wake up and ban cars from city centers and make everyone walk, ride a bike, or take a bus.

Whatever it is you think of such planning schemes, the important point for present purposes is that the reason these things have not yet happened is not that planners said, "yeah, it would be a really great idea to close off city centers to car traffic. The problem is people will just keep falling off their scooters. If only there were a way to prevent that..."

We already have bikes, busses, running shoes, and scooters. Now that we have slow scooters you can't fall off of-- for only $3,000 plus electricity and maintenance--I wouldn't expect things to change very much.

Is there anyone out there interested in an alternative to sitting in a car in a city? Try a plain old bike. Despite what you might think, cycling on a plain old bicycle on public roads is safer per hour than driving a car. No, you can't carry a whole lot on one, but if you just want to get yourself from A to B without parking and other problems you probably already have an alternative in your garage.

[Semper911]

No offense man, but there are like 3 threads about this. Let the search feature be your friend.

[Bubba_Leroy]

Today where I live it was drizzing all day and about 40 degrees. Yeah, I'm going to trade my nice warm car in on a $3,000 scooter. When monkeys fly out of my butt.

[CdMGuy]

Pure hype. Here today, gone tomorrow. Wow, I can't wait to scoot around town on a gyro balanced scooter. Wait a minute, I already can scoot around town on a non-gyro balanced, gas or electric motor scooter. So why is nobody doing it now other that a handful of teenage boys? Because it is not practical, that's why. What a joke. Leave it to Time magazine.

[ijk]

The Segway is a self-balancing people mover - powered by batteries and controlled by tilt-sensors and five solid state gyroscopes - that looks like a rotary lawnmower. The magic is in the balancing act ð no matter how hard you try, it won't let you fall.

VAAAGGGUUUEEE!!!

Can anyone else make sense of that description?

[billbears]

"Cars are great for going long distances," Kamen says, "but it makes no sense at all for people in cities to use a 4,000-lb. piece of metal to haul their 150-lb asses around town

Considering my car only weighs 3200 lbs and I get to listen to the radio while driving, makes perfect sense to me to haul my tail around town in it rather than your enviromentally friendly scooter. Can it go over 80? Wouldn't want it anyway. Just another enviro-whacko friendly device brought to you by the 'save the ozone' nuts

[martin_fierro]

YAWN. Drudge swallowed the hype BIGTIME on this one.

[DoughtyOne]

This should be interesting. It may be a flop. It may not. The technology is interesting. We shall see. I'm not convinced it will be the hit they thought it would be. But I'm not convinced it won't make them a lot of money either.

[Dialup Llama]

As Chris Farley might say if he were still alive,"Well la-dee frikkin da." I thought it was some kinda of fuel cell, but noooo! Its a scooter. The scooter fad already came and went.

[Fred25]

This “invention” is idiotic! This is hype to try to raise money for something that doesn’t work. A “brilliant” invention goes right on the market and starts selling right away. This is a hoax.

[dr gene scott]

Hmm - cars banned from downtown areas - forcing people to buy his thing (or else - do a controlled fall on your own two feet). I can envision the huge parking lots outside of downtown where you swap your car for IT. this dude becomes richer than Bill Gates...is he a Dem? Oh no! If so they will fight like hell to get laws passed to pave the way for this thing. Then of course he will make huge contributions to the Democratic party, money that was squeezed out of the public. I think one of these could be useful in a industrial setting but PLEASE lets keep them off the sidewalks.

[Post Toasties]

Wonder what the reason is for the phonetic spelling of 'segue'?

[Post Toasties]

"Cars are great for going long distances," Kamen says, "but it makes no sense at all for people in cities to use a 4,000-lb. piece of metal to haul their 150-lb asses around town."

Guess this shmo Kamen hasn't thought out what would happen to somebody riding the 'segway' (sic) at International Falls with 4" of snow and ice on the ground @ 10 below with 40mph wind gusts.

[Rockyrich]

Is this the same gizmo that was on South Park a couple weeks ago? In fact, I thought they called it, "IT." It was for a single person, balanced by gyros, ran on batteries, but had a dildo-type apendage that the person sat on, etc. It was to go about 300-400 mph and compete against the commercial airline companies.

[Grut]

I repeat myself, but: bugger 'It'. And bugger Harry Potter, too.

[Walkin Man]

Dean Kamen's long-awaited, secret invention, the Segway "will be to the car what the car was to the horse and buggy," he tells TIME on the eve of his product's unveiling.

Yeah right! When its 20 below zero I'm gonna hop on my 3000 dollar scooter and ride to work, praying that I don't freeze to death or get robbed while scooting through the downtown! That quote above is some major league HYPE!

[A CA Guy]

Recession world wide is a great time to unviel this. NOT!

[Long Cut]

Word has it, Ford is re-introducing the Mach-1 Mustang next Fall. 320 H.P., all the bells & whistles. Hmmm... that, or this contraption? I cannot wait to pass one on the street, especially after some exhaust modifications. And I'll be warm and listening to Rush on the radio.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

A fascinating new technology that almost certainly won't sell outside of a small niche in the consumer market.

Reminds me about what the CEO of IBM said about computers, when first asked about them. He said that he wasn't interested, since at their multi-million dollar cost, there would never be more than half a dozen computers in the country. When the first IBM PC's came out they were on sale for about $2000, in 1980 dollars, much more than the price of this machine. Today you can get far more advanced machines for about $200, used.

A reasonable assumption is that a high tech machine becomes 90% cheaper every decade. That would make this thing $300 in 2010 and $30 in 2020. I would think that you could get some market penetration at that price. The reasons against comparing this gadget to a bike are in the article. I would think that there would be a large potential market for this device among those unable to walk more than a few steps, the folks you see driving around on those motorized wheelchairs. Those things are not very agile, whereas apparently with this thing, they could go anywhere a person could walk or climb. I'm going to be very interested in this gadget.

[VetoBill]

I really don't have enough information, but there could be big problems if IT is allowed to operate on sidewalks.
Highway and street usage looks like suicide.
If IT is successful, would cities have to put in special IT paths?
Just what we need more ways to spend taxpayer funds.

BTW I wonder if these motor vehicles will need to be licensed and registered.

[njmaugbill]

But, can I use my Cell phone, and Walkman while scootting down Fifth AVe., in the rain?

bill