Bikes most certainly aren't, not in a pedestrain-filled environment. Moving slowly on a bike makes you very prone to losing your balance, this thing seems to handle that situation with aplomb.
Skateboards are a nice alternative, but they require balance that not all of us naturally have and practice time most of us don't want to bother with. It's easy to stop on them and carrying them is a snap. They require physical input as well, which may or may not be a bad thing. (FYI, I think skateboards are a great means of conveyance, I just have horrible balance)
Rollerblades are rarely seen and for good reason. They are not good commuter gear, inferior in just about every way to a skateboard.
<strong>Luddite? I don't think anyone here (including myself) has said anything that might be heard at your local anti-technology, UNA-bomber sympathy conference. We're simply pointing out the obvious flaws (and advancements too) of this Segway thing.
</strong><hr></blockquote>
I don't know Moogs, remember you are arguing against therapuetic cloning in another thread. .
As for "IT" I would say that it's got a lot of promise. I was vacationing in NYC a few years back and IMO, they could have gotten rid of cars back then. Well, not completely, but they certainly could limit cars to deliveries in the morning and evening and open up the streets to scooters, bikes, and segways during the day. Also, like the razor scooters there seems to be a little more tolerance for using the things indoors and they certianly would be better for elevators than bikes.
I think the only thing that will prevent these things from improving, getting cheaper, and gaining widespread acceptance are the lawyers. I can imagine class action suits from tall people hitting their heads on a doorway at 12 mph.
Seems well done technologically, but a pretty silly gimmick, and not worth 1/100 of the hype given to it. I still don't know why they kept it under such massive secrecy.
Just a heavily-overpriced scooter, is all...
Maybe they're seeing something I don't? <img src="confused.gif" border="0">
"Cars are great for going long distances," Kamen says, "but it makes no sense at all for people in cities to use a 4,000-lb. piece of metal to haul their 150-lb. asses around town." In the future he envisions, cars will be banished from urban centers to make room for millions of "empowered pedestrians"--empowered, naturally, by Kamen's brainchild.
Kamen isn't so naive as to underestimate America's long-standing romance with the automobile. ("I love cars too," he says. "Just not when I'm downtown.") And he is well aware that uprooting the vast urban infrastructure that supports cars, from parking garages to bridges and tunnels, won't happen soon. Which is why he has pinned his greatest hopes not on the U.S. but abroad, especially in the developing world.
It's estimated that American drivers take 900 million car trips per day. The EPA estimates that half of all those trips are less than five miles (8 km) long and transport only one passenger?trips perfectly suited to Segway HT.
I don't mind, really, if people don't get past the idea that segway is what it is. Or that they can't think further down the road than its introductory price tag.
However, if people want to intelligently discuss something new like this, where the creator of this device isn't out to make a couple billion dollars - but to change the world. They should at least read up a little. You know use that internet thing they got all frothy about what "IT" might be with.
The Segway website also discusses locks, pedestrian traffic issues etc. So do a lot of the articles. Use your mouse, click around a bit.
Come people you can do better research than this. Read. Comprehend. Use your imagination a little. It doesn't hurt.
The Segway does need the big rice pipes along with a spoiler which will make it go a lot faster. It also needs 20" rims so it can be on rap videos, and hydraulics.
Bikes are dangerous to real pedestrians. Cars are an inefficient means of urban travel.
----------
I think groverat hits on two of my main concerns. First it is true that bikes may be dangerous to pedestrians but where I am from they ride in the street. From what I get from the description, Ginger rides on the sidewalk and can just imagine myself getting hit from behind at 17 mph by some old man or small child. My second problem is with security. Once I got where I was going, what would I do with ginger (besides home)? can't imagine locking a $3000 device outside the grocery store with a bike protector. Or while riding down the street ( l live in an urban area) through a bad neighborhood, I can already see all the stealing that will take place. I can't imagine an easier thing to steal. Its kind of like walking down the street with one of those oversized $3000 (blank) checks in your hand.
well, all i have gotten to see of the segway today was badly artifact'd real video and still photos... but now that i have gotten home and seen it live on cnn... damn. i'm sorry, you can't not be impressed by this. you might not buy one. you might not even think it lives up to its hype, but it is way, way, way cool. the mechanism that keeps this thing upright is friggin' neat! and meanwhile cnn devotes whole segments to how georgia tech has made a better olympic flame that won't go out. and they're gonna make over 1100 of 'em, too... whopp-de-friggin'doo
the video they showed had it going up a 30 degree grassy hillside (well, 30 degrees is my estimate... they had someone walked next to them, which is what i base that off of), through several inches of water (i'd say deeper than ankle deep), and people just FLYING around and stopping on a friigin' dime. basket and saddle bags... this just screams cool to me. weather and elements a factor? sure, but they've been a factor to bike riders for a long damn time, but no one's made a bike enclosure (please don't post links to bike enclosures -- i relaize someone probably has made one, but it hasn't seen wide acceptance). i kinda wish it had more tread, like mountain bike wheels, but the heavier the tread, the more effort to make it go, which would drain the batteries quicker. i totally see this thing getting used by the postal service, when they are looking to save every dime, if these things use no fuel and are sturdy enough, they could make the postal service efficent again (hear that, post office?!?! stop delivering my mail weeks late! you have no excuse anymore!!!)
anyway, if i had an extra $3K and was looking for transportation, this thing would be high on my list.
oh god... slight, um, segue... cnn just said how steve jobs' said the segway would change the world, but continually to passive-aggressively poke fun at the device -- and by extension, steve's claim. i really hope steve's prediction doesn't make him and apple look bad. ugh. figures -- pop media can't find anything to make fun of steve in a business sense, so they'll use this backdoor method. sigh... thankfully, cnn's and headline news' production values have been in the proverbial sh!tter since they tried to be more touchy-feely in august, so maybe they won't be taken to seriously...
It won't go far in American cities likely (we love out big honking Ford Excursions after all). It's too small, too slow, too efficient, too quiet, too dorky. As long as America is rich and "fat," it won't sell here.
But other cities' populations could very well get hooked. I'd like to see how it fares in places like Rome and its notorious Vespa traffic, or Shanghai with its notorious "critical mass" bike traffic. No sale in LA until it gets 100 miles per charge. That will get you to the neighbor's house at least.
hehehe... i understand, señor rotto. does anyone else find it ironic that one of the biggest... and i mean BIGGEST... S.U.V.'s being sold these days is named sequoia, (i.e. after a tree)? a neighbor of mine just got one - the thing has it's own zip code.
grover, his point was that once yer already halfway to yer destination or whatever, u cant just say "ok, ill just stop for some gas....errr..."
cause u need a freakin wall outlet--what if yer stranded somewhere and out of juice??? its not as easy as stopping at a gas station to fill up. which means that u have to plan perfectly how long yer gonna be out and how far yer gonna travel--i dunno about u, but thats a pain in the ass. grover, stop jumping all over people fer a sec and think about the whole perspective of the issue...</strong><hr></blockquote>
Stranded where?? You going to cruise across the country on this thing?? Too bad they didn't put a firewire port on IT. If they had, you could recharge it with an iPod...
The Segway does need the big rice pipes along with a spoiler which will make it go a lot faster. It also needs 20" rims so it can be on rap videos, and hydraulics.</strong><hr></blockquote>
<strong>well, all i have gotten to see of the segway today was badly artifact'd real video and still photos... but now that i have gotten home and seen it live on cnn... damn. i'm sorry, you can't not be impressed by this. you might not buy one. you might not even think it lives up to its hype, but it is way, way, way cool.</strong><hr></blockquote>
That was my reaction too. When I saw people using it I "got it". Turns on a dime. Stops on a dime.
Comments
- Pook
Walking is safer than Segway, what else is?
Bikes most certainly aren't, not in a pedestrain-filled environment. Moving slowly on a bike makes you very prone to losing your balance, this thing seems to handle that situation with aplomb.
Skateboards are a nice alternative, but they require balance that not all of us naturally have and practice time most of us don't want to bother with. It's easy to stop on them and carrying them is a snap. They require physical input as well, which may or may not be a bad thing. (FYI, I think skateboards are a great means of conveyance, I just have horrible balance)
Rollerblades are rarely seen and for good reason. They are not good commuter gear, inferior in just about every way to a skateboard.
Uhhh, yes.
The key stores preferences as well, so you can get different behavior out of the Segway depending on which key you start it with.
<strong>You're disappointed because you committed yourself to idiotic speculation.
This thing is great.
[ 12-03-2001: Message edited by: groverat ]</strong><hr></blockquote>
AAAAAHHAHHAHHA
Or put 40" Chrome wheels on that sucker.
IT BE THE DOPEST!!!
<strong>Luddite? I don't think anyone here (including myself) has said anything that might be heard at your local anti-technology, UNA-bomber sympathy conference. We're simply pointing out the obvious flaws (and advancements too) of this Segway thing.
</strong><hr></blockquote>
I don't know Moogs, remember you are arguing against therapuetic cloning in another thread.
As for "IT" I would say that it's got a lot of promise. I was vacationing in NYC a few years back and IMO, they could have gotten rid of cars back then. Well, not completely, but they certainly could limit cars to deliveries in the morning and evening and open up the streets to scooters, bikes, and segways during the day. Also, like the razor scooters there seems to be a little more tolerance for using the things indoors and they certianly would be better for elevators than bikes.
I think the only thing that will prevent these things from improving, getting cheaper, and gaining widespread acceptance are the lawyers. I can imagine class action suits from tall people hitting their heads on a doorway at 12 mph.
[ 12-03-2001: Message edited by: Nordstrodamus ]</p>
<a href="http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/011203/n0371251_2.html"; target="_blank">http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/011203/n0371251_2.html</a>;
For $3000? No thanks.
Seems well done technologically, but a pretty silly gimmick, and not worth 1/100 of the hype given to it. I still don't know why they kept it under such massive secrecy.
Just a heavily-overpriced scooter, is all...
Maybe they're seeing something I don't? <img src="confused.gif" border="0">
you sure do a good job at being an ass
<strong>Moogs,
you sure do a good job at being an ass</strong><hr></blockquote>
welcome to the conversation applenut...
yer contributions are almost as significant as those of grover...
"Cars are great for going long distances," Kamen says, "but it makes no sense at all for people in cities to use a 4,000-lb. piece of metal to haul their 150-lb. asses around town." In the future he envisions, cars will be banished from urban centers to make room for millions of "empowered pedestrians"--empowered, naturally, by Kamen's brainchild.
Kamen isn't so naive as to underestimate America's long-standing romance with the automobile. ("I love cars too," he says. "Just not when I'm downtown.") And he is well aware that uprooting the vast urban infrastructure that supports cars, from parking garages to bridges and tunnels, won't happen soon. Which is why he has pinned his greatest hopes not on the U.S. but abroad, especially in the developing world.
Its intended purpose is to empower pedestrians. From the Segway.com website, under <a href="http://www.segway.com.edgesuite.net/consumer/vision/environment.html"; target="_blank">'vision'</a> (something many people on these boards apparently lack):
It's estimated that American drivers take 900 million car trips per day. The EPA estimates that half of all those trips are less than five miles (8 km) long and transport only one passenger?trips perfectly suited to Segway HT.
I don't mind, really, if people don't get past the idea that segway is what it is. Or that they can't think further down the road than its introductory price tag.
However, if people want to intelligently discuss something new like this, where the creator of this device isn't out to make a couple billion dollars - but to change the world. They should at least read up a little. You know use that internet thing they got all frothy about what "IT" might be with.
The Segway website also discusses locks, pedestrian traffic issues etc. So do a lot of the articles. Use your mouse, click around a bit.
Come people you can do better research than this. Read. Comprehend. Use your imagination a little. It doesn't hurt.
[ 12-03-2001: Message edited by: seb ]</p>
The Segway does need the big rice pipes along with a spoiler which will make it go a lot faster. It also needs 20" rims so it can be on rap videos, and hydraulics.
Bikes are dangerous to real pedestrians. Cars are an inefficient means of urban travel.
----------
I think groverat hits on two of my main concerns. First it is true that bikes may be dangerous to pedestrians but where I am from they ride in the street. From what I get from the description, Ginger rides on the sidewalk and can just imagine myself getting hit from behind at 17 mph by some old man or small child. My second problem is with security. Once I got where I was going, what would I do with ginger (besides home)? can't imagine locking a $3000 device outside the grocery store with a bike protector. Or while riding down the street ( l live in an urban area) through a bad neighborhood, I can already see all the stealing that will take place. I can't imagine an easier thing to steal. Its kind of like walking down the street with one of those oversized $3000 (blank) checks in your hand.
the video they showed had it going up a 30 degree grassy hillside (well, 30 degrees is my estimate... they had someone walked next to them, which is what i base that off of), through several inches of water (i'd say deeper than ankle deep), and people just FLYING around and stopping on a friigin' dime. basket and saddle bags... this just screams cool to me. weather and elements a factor? sure, but they've been a factor to bike riders for a long damn time, but no one's made a bike enclosure (please don't post links to bike enclosures -- i relaize someone probably has made one, but it hasn't seen wide acceptance). i kinda wish it had more tread, like mountain bike wheels, but the heavier the tread, the more effort to make it go, which would drain the batteries quicker. i totally see this thing getting used by the postal service, when they are looking to save every dime, if these things use no fuel and are sturdy enough, they could make the postal service efficent again (hear that, post office?!?! stop delivering my mail weeks late! you have no excuse anymore!!!)
anyway, if i had an extra $3K and was looking for transportation, this thing would be high on my list.
oh god... slight, um, segue... cnn just said how steve jobs' said the segway would change the world, but continually to passive-aggressively poke fun at the device -- and by extension, steve's claim. i really hope steve's prediction doesn't make him and apple look bad. ugh. figures -- pop media can't find anything to make fun of steve in a business sense, so they'll use this backdoor method. sigh...
[ 12-03-2001: Message edited by: rok ]</p>
It won't go far in American cities likely (we love out big honking Ford Excursions after all). It's too small, too slow, too efficient, too quiet, too dorky. As long as America is rich and "fat," it won't sell here.
But other cities' populations could very well get hooked. I'd like to see how it fares in places like Rome and its notorious Vespa traffic, or Shanghai with its notorious "critical mass" bike traffic. No sale in LA until it gets 100 miles per charge. That will get you to the neighbor's house at least.
<strong>
grover, his point was that once yer already halfway to yer destination or whatever, u cant just say "ok, ill just stop for some gas....errr..."
cause u need a freakin wall outlet--what if yer stranded somewhere and out of juice??? its not as easy as stopping at a gas station to fill up. which means that u have to plan perfectly how long yer gonna be out and how far yer gonna travel--i dunno about u, but thats a pain in the ass. grover, stop jumping all over people fer a sec and think about the whole perspective of the issue...</strong><hr></blockquote>
Stranded where?? You going to cruise across the country on this thing?? Too bad they didn't put a firewire port on IT. If they had, you could recharge it with an iPod...
:cool:
<strong>What's your fascination with me, gomer?
The Segway does need the big rice pipes along with a spoiler which will make it go a lot faster. It also needs 20" rims so it can be on rap videos, and hydraulics.</strong><hr></blockquote>
what the hell is gomer??
<strong>well, all i have gotten to see of the segway today was badly artifact'd real video and still photos... but now that i have gotten home and seen it live on cnn... damn. i'm sorry, you can't not be impressed by this. you might not buy one. you might not even think it lives up to its hype, but it is way, way, way cool.</strong><hr></blockquote>
That was my reaction too. When I saw people using it I "got it". Turns on a dime. Stops on a dime.