Why such a high tech solution for something easily solved by adding another wheel? If he's using it as a proof of concept for his gyro system for another more appropriate use, it's fine by me, it sure seems to work well. To pay $3000 for it, seems to me to be a waste of money. With the addition of another wheel, he could eliminate the electronic and mechanical complexity and use the power consumed by the gyro systems to extend its range, not to mention, lower the cost and weight. If someone gave me one, I'd ride it for a while and since I'm a guy I'd take it apart to see how he's accomplishing the balancing act and the supposedly low power consumption, then I'd sell it to get some aluminum heads for my old Vette.
Allow me to go out on a limb and state that in its present form, It won't change the world although the application of its gyro technology might. Sure I'd like to have it at an airport or a mall but they could just as easily rent an electric skateboard type of transportation, too. Yet they don't. If they have a passenger with special needs, they always accommodate them with a manual wheelchair pushed by a no doubt unionized employee unless you get lucky and they stick you on one of those little electric cars. I was just at the mall and the only two things they had that were rent-able were Larks and manual wheelchairs.
It will be interesting to see how these work out for the post office, maybe now my mail will arrive before 17:00 :)
How's that?
Linear motion is to this thing what banking is to an airplane or motorcycle (or bicycle). How would you like to make high-speed turns on a bike that has three wheels, incapable of leaning into a turn? Or a fighter jet that can't bank, and can only make flat turns?
Two wheels provide more stability than three wheels. This is the first device to capitalize on that principle with two parallel wheels.
If he comes out with a one-wheel model (which he's already patented), it'll be incredibly stable in hard turns as well as forward/stop/reverse movement.
And I'm just suspicious enough to think it likely that the original device he showed off to Bezos and Jobs was in fact a one-wheel version. It would explain their off the charts enthusiasm, and the unanticipated delays in bringing it to market (it's got to be harder to iron the bugs out of something that's clearly much more complex to handle -- so I suspect that at a certain point, they tabled it, and decided to bring the two-wheel "lesser" model out first).