"IT" Revealed - (Ginger)

TIME.Com ^ | 12/2/2001 | JOHN HEILEMANN

[Enlightiator]

The Time article:

"Reinventing the Wheel"

The "flash" view.

[HAL9000]

I want one!

Me too.

[umbra]

It doesn't levitate up the stairs with a hydrogen engine?

[RedBloodedAmerican]

They would be sealed and shock mounted, like an aircraft gyro. Yep. It could work.

[JeepInMazar]

Hehe nothing looks lamer then someone wearing a bike helmet.

ROTFLMAO. I've always thought the same thing but never actually said it.

[rintense]

Really. And there's no place to hold my beer.. um, I mean coffee.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

LOL!

And don't forget, using a cell phone while trying to control the piece of IT? Nope, not gonna happen.

I need to get into the Law practice and make money of these bozos

[BansheeBill]

It flippin runs all day on five cents of electricity at a comfortable walking speed?

It will be interesting to see what kind of battery or batteries it uses and what their useful life is. I'm guessing they will use high tech batteries like used in laptops (you know, the real expensive ones).

[Induhvidual]

What they are working on for next is likely the one wheel version...there were photos of that design leaked earlier in the year. Turning by leaning instead of goofy handle bars.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

I'll wait until they come out with the Linux off-road version. Guaranteed to never crash.

[Enlightiator]

It doesn't levitate up the stairs with a hydrogen engine?

I was surprised to find out it was battery powered- I had read articles indicating that it would be hydrogen powered. Maybe thats a future model ...;) I believe that the levitating (or "hovering") version is a future model as well, like another 100 years into the future, lol...

[Enlightiator]

It flippin runs all day on five cents of electricity at a comfortable walking speed?

Yer right - I wouldn't want to be the farm on this claim, lol!

[OldFashionedAmerican]

OK, so they apparently have got the balance thing down. How does it do in, say, Boston? Does it climb hills??? Are we gonna flaten Boston for the sake of IT??

Also, this taken from the TIME article (I mentioned a world full of Jerry Nadlers in an earlier response to this)

A device that reduces the need for walking, one of the healthiest activities known to man, may strike many people as the last thing our culture needs. (Kamen scoffs, "Because I give kids calculators doesn't make them stupider.")

Oh? It doesn't??? How many of these so called high school grads of today, working at any of our fast food palaces, do you think would be able to accurately calculate change if that functionality died in their computerized cash registers????

[Green Knight]

If this guy thinks this is gonna replace the car, then he just isn't living in reality. What happens when it rains? Do I end up showing up at work completely soaked cause this thing doesn't have a roof? How about taking kids to school? Where am I supposed to put a baby? And he thinks cars are only good for long distance trips. What a goon. Amazing how someone can be so intelligent when it comes to engineering, but be so completely and utterly stupid when it comes to common sense.

This thing will fill the same niche currently occupied by bicycles and scooters. That's it. Even THEN, it won't replace them. Not for that price tag. And no one's gonna give up their car for it. And since there'll still be cars, NO ONE'S gonna dare take this thing on the road. It only goes 17MPH, right? Oh yeah. That'll get me to work on time.

'IT' is damn near useless. The only people that'll benefit from it are little kids with rich parents who'll buy it to zoom around the neighborhood, and rich old people to replace their scooters with. That's pretty much all it's good for.

[KC_Conspirator]

Just think of all the "Why are fat chicks like IT's?" jokes that this new invention will breed?

[BushCountry]

Yea and home computers will have clock cycles exceeding a billion cycles per second (an impossibility a few short years ago). Wait they do! We live in amazing times, whether this has impact or not doesn't matter, amazing things are coming, get use to it. From the posts, I don't know why everyone here is so fearful of new technology. I say wait and see, then judge, we are all talking out of our butts right now.

[abigkahuna]

Actually I want one. Looks like cool technology.

A lot of unimpressed boo-hoos here on FR. Its not a scooter at all, but a new transportation device. You "think" to stop and it stops, you do the same to turn, etc. Segway pick up on those muscles inflections and obeys you commands so to speak.

While at first this is just a single person vehicle, who knows what the future will bring. Very exciting...too bad many here on FR can't see the potential and possibilities.

[bayourod]

Where did you get 17 MPH? I had heard one rumor that it could do freeway speeds.

They won't be able to keep up with the orders.

No engine. Just like walking is a "controlled fall", this thing is actually powered by the force of gravity produced by leaning the way you want to go.

[Freedom of Speech Wins]

Not sure, but stay out of his way!

[Captain America]

Great point!

At the very least, this thing can replace bicycles, and there are probably a half billion to a billion of those in the world...

It's totally 21st century...in the future, people won't want to go for a nice bike ride along a wooded trail or the beach and have to pedal, they'll rather glide effortlessly...isn't that where our society is headed anyway--making everything easier and more leisurely?

[chuckles]

"IT" probably works as advertized, but what happens when the gyro's burp, or the battery goes dead? "IT"'s roadrash lawsuits will make the McDonalds coffee in the lap thingy look measely.