[DoughtyOne]

I have been in a few situations where I wished I could rent one of them. I like the idea, but thought the $4500 price was economic suicide. Hardly anyone will purchase them at that price. From the looks of the thing and the general overall elements that has been revealed to the public, it seems like the units could be manufactured for a lot less than what would demand the $4500 price. It looks right now like this is doomed.

[SamAdams76]

I'm sure they can be manufactured cheaper too but first you need to achieve some economy of scale. The "10 a week" currently being produced, according to the article, isn't going to cut it.

[TJFLSTRAT]

For $4,500 I can go out and buy a used 2001 Kia rio, or Hyndai Accent, with A/C, and CD player and everything.

[js1138]

it seems like the units could be manufactured for a lot less than what would demand the $4500 price. It looks right now like this is doomed.

Too bad, because there are a lot of partially handicapped people who could use this technology for shopping and such.

I suspect the Chinese could make one for $500, and might yet. Someone mentioned mopeds. I suspect the motor technology could be used to power a moped. No a bad thing for short commutes.

[SauronOfMordor]

I have been in a few situations where I wished I could rent one of them. I like the idea, but thought the $4500 price was economic suicide. Hardly anyone will purchase them at that price. From the looks of the thing and the general overall elements that has been revealed to the public, it seems like the units could be manufactured for a lot less than what would demand the $4500 price. It looks right now like this is doomed.

The Segway may occupy a similar historical niche as Apple's "Lisa" computer: introduced in 1983, it used a mouse and GUI interface. But with a price tag of $9,995, it failed in the marketplace. The ideas in Lisa, however, resulted in a second attempt a couple of years later which WAS a success: the Apple Macintosh computer.

The Segway will probably die out as a failure, but somebody down the road will use a lot of ideas from it to develop something that will be better able to fill a viable market niche

[Hank Rearden]

I like the idea, but thought the $4500 price was economic suicide. Hardly anyone will purchase them at that price.

Apparently, they conned Atlanta into paying $9,000 apiece (see article above) - only stupid government would be that damn dumb.

Of course, it's other people's money, so Stupid Government doesn't care a whit. They get to spend money on toys.