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Comparing this scooter to a caster...

RTFP! I was responding to spycatcher's following dim post, not "comparing the entire system to a caster:"

Two wheels gives it a turning radius of zero which is one of the breakthroughs.

And of course, a turning radius of zero is nothing new, look at any industrial lawn-mower which uses two drive wheels for direction and one or more uncontrolled, passive casters to support the weight! Zero turning radius. Nothing new.

You are of course correct, though: A caster is by definition an uncontrolled, passive device.

Just as the Road&Track people mount casters as safety catches on rollover tests on SUVs, so will this magic device in actual production, I predict. There will be some fall-forward limit skid or caster/bumper to protect from real world object or terrain collision or power failure, if not immediately, at least after the first personal injury lawsuit.

I'm a cynic, because God made me an engineer (or is it the other way around?) I do not detract from the innovator, I've just seen the actual design cycle after a product is dumped into the real world and made "idiot proof." (Take Dianne Sawyer's bungling of the device with simple idiotic behaviour, for example.) At production time, this product won't appear as elegant, even if it is fully functional and innovative.

Three points define a plane. -- Anonymous

You're stretching your imagination. Your "extra wheels are better" design is superfluous to the more compact elegant 2 wheel design that rotates around it's center axis. You have too many ground contact points and will need more power to overcome the friction. And you will need even more power because you can't use your body lean to generate force. No way is it more efficient. You say you're an engineer?

"(Take Dianne Sawyer's bungling of the device with simple idiotic behaviour, for example.)"

I was quite impressed with the way it accomodated itself to her idiocy. While the rapid shaking visible (the control "stick" was flapping back and forth at a rapid clip) looked like it would toss her into low earth orbit, it was actually exactly what was necessary to keep her from falling off the machine. She did her best (inadvertently) to get herself tossed off the ride, but it was able to put itself through crazy lookin gyrations that were precisely measured and timed to protect her from herself.

Pretty impressive idiot-proofing IMO.