Posted on 12/02/2001 7:17:04 AM PST by Leroy S. Mort
Just a headline so far.....Matt must be writing the copy now
That was my first concern. Great minds think alike.
You've got to be able to haul your "stuff" around....
And, it solves the problem of windows that can't roll down!
When I got back home, I researched the first date they used that name, and lo and behold, it was shortly before the first date that I'd used it. Groan... Needless to say, I quickly came up with a new name for my company and its main product.
So, they may have a bit of a problem with that tradmark.
Put your browser into offline mode (in IE, File menu, then Work Offline). Then, go to the URL. If it's in your cache, it'll come up.
I was smarter than that. I crashed an old motorcycle and only wrecked my knee. (Of course ten years later, some twit in an Olds '98 rear-ended my Chevette at an intersection, and there went my other knee, my neck, my back, and scads of other "less important" bone-cartilage junctions. Argh...)
Wouldn't that hurt when you sat down?
"You've got to be able to haul your "stuff" around...."
Buy two, and tether the second one behind as a trailer. I betcha you can link as many as you like into a train by running a "bus" cable from the lead vehicle that would serve as a controller, and daisy-chain the trailing vehicles. Just speculation, but I would not be surprised if something like happens.
Also it doesn't take much energy to move since the object already has forward momentum.
It'll be a low-powered and agile glorified scooter from what I can discern.
I'm thinking... lash four together for a "car" pool. A "segpool" maybe. Wonder if you could use the HOV lanes that way?
You've got to be able to haul your "stuff" around....
Another issue: Security. This thing will cost several thousand dollars. that means that it will have to have a lock of some sort to prevent unauthorized use. Fine. But what about parking? It's sufficiently small that one can't leave it parked on a street overnight. Someone will just throw it into the back of a truck and drive off. For this thing to take off, it's going to need the equivalent of bike racks located whereever people want to go. In many cases, using this thing will be more hassel than it's worth.
Course, so far, it seems that there would have to be some "power" to provide the movement is used to counter the fall.
All sorts of interesting speculation, most without real facts. Will be interesting to see what it actually does. But I tend to agree that the underlying technology will actually be the revolution, not the "scooter" itself.
Cancha just imagine the "scooter" it would take for the FedEx/UPS guy to take the load of boxes/packages and deliver them 10-20 miles from the distribution center? Ummmm, I think the "revolution" in that would be the massive change it would take to make the distribution process accomodate the "scooter" method of delivery... industrial strength scooters or not.
I saw a cartoon of what would be required for a cowboy to ride a horse of OSHA wrote the regulations. I seriously doubt that the licensing [functional operating worthiness, license plate, license tabs], safety requirements [air bags, seat belts, helmets, etc.], operator licensing [competence tests, fingerprints/retina scans, age limits, visual requirements, physical requirements, etc., etc.], environmental elements [freezing cold, rain, snow, obstacles, winds, etc., etc.] will make this tremendously viable method of transportation.
The ideal place for something like this would be enclosed malls, enclosed or protected areas of the cities [Las Vegas' covered street comes to mind], Disneyland/World, and those type of environments. For some reason, I just can't see this thing (scooter) working in winter Minnesota, rain soaked Seattle or Rural Anywhere. Having ridden motorcycles for years, I don't see that many motorcycles being used for massive transportation errands, even in moderate weather/terrains. Why would anyone want to submit themselves to unpredictable and hostile environmental elements with this thing? Doubt they will.
But the very first thing that popped into my head reading about the "balance/motive" part of this thing, I could see many uses in the space/aircraft industries, and in many other things that don't necessarily have anything to do with moving a "human". So maybe the underlying technology may be like the internet: something so simply innocuous and "simple" that virtually nobody could dream of the impact it has made on the world and the economy.
Isn't that pretty much how it usually works? Somebody comes up with an idea, and then serendipitously it is transformed into a world transforming technology- which nobody would have ever predicted.
Will be interesting to watch over the next few years.
ROTF!! How long before some wisea$$ hacker invents a virus to screw up your hi-tech ride? Can you download a patch to make it go faster?? heh heh
I can vouch for that. I can't imagine what NYC would be like if people starting using these things.
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