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This is IT?
Dave (picked at random) and 8000 other slashdot readers wrote in to tell us that they too had been overcome by the relentless hype machine that is IT, Ginger, Segway, whatever. Read about IT in your favorite hype-dispensing media outlet, each of which thinks that it has an exclusive on the story of IT. Flash diagram of IT. Time. NY Times. Reuters. And don't forget to watch the advertisement, errr, "demonstration" of IT on Good Morning Consumers tomorrow. Update: 12/03 13:37 GMT by T : Segway's webmaster John Grohol points out the segway website as well.
The most important part of this is the "just think about stopping" part, the advanced system that mimics human movement.
While I predict this will be at BEST a fad, we can now finally take the core technology and start building robotic war mecha.
ZOMG I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS ON MACINTOSH VERSUS WINDOWS, VI VERSUS EMACS, AND HOW YOU'RE NOT A DORK
Steve Jobs has seen it and he said it would change the world. Remember the last time he said that? He was introducing the iMac.
This thing is probably expensive and weighs a ton. Oooh, it stands up on its own, how have I lived without it! If you want an electric personal transportation device, TH!NK about one of these instead.
My street is 45mph, it only does 17mph. I only live 5 miles from work, but we dont have bike lanes or sidewalks for me to use it. Most of the people at work live 20+ miles, not doable. And my laptop bag is too heavy to carry that far.
Really, the only thing I could use it for is short trips to the store, but where would I carry my groceries?
Before I could use it daily, need the roads to have bike lanes, and I need to carry a payload.
It doesn't have an engine but it has two electric motors per wheel (4 total). Each wheel is independent so it can turn on a dime (no axel). Also, if one motor goes out the thing can still work with just the other one. It also has redundant "sisterboards". Also, the gyroscopes/accelerometers (5) are redundant in that their results are checked against each other.
http://www.time.com/time/2001/segway/index.html
Seriously... it's an interesting piece of tech, but I'll take my bike anyday.
---If you can't trust a nerd, who can you trust?
Yeah, I was one of the faceless posters that spammed /. about the unveiling of IT tomorrow morning, and got my story axed like everyone else. As stated somewhere above, if this many people keep posting about it, then why the fuck wouldn't the news-mongers of Slashdot post it sooner? And why the hell does everyone want to immediately bash the damn thing? Are you really that pissed that it's been over-hyped? I haven't heard anything about it since the first of the year, and had actually forgotten about it until the SouthPark episode the other week.
/.'ers don't either). It worries me that if this does catch on, will we all become bigger fatasses if we stop walking everywhere? I think there's more implications than just changing the world of transportation (if it really does go that far)...
I for one would love to at least try one of these out--looks like it may be fun. The price is way to high for me, and probably for the rest of America for quite some time. On the other hand, I'd like to consider the fact that I don't get much exercise as is (and probably most
Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.