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Segway Hits the Auction Block
fmita writes: "Amazon.com is auctioning off 3 Segways to the public. The proceeds are to go to a foundation started by the inventor. These are the first Segways to go to the public. Since there are only three, they sure aren't cheap." Women drool over a man on a Segway.
I'm sure the training involves more than just how to hop on and go. There is probably some maintenance that must be done.
One of the things I remember reading about the Segway company is that they were developing a set of "rules of the road" for their scooters. People will start cursing the scooters if the people who use them just drive like assholes all the time and don't follow any expected rules. They probably will be tring to stress those rules on the early purchasers so the scooter itself does not get a bad reputation.
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The internet is the greatest source of biased information in the history of mankind.
The balancing system is generally very forgiving. If you run into a curb or some similar obstacle, it will generally stop forward movement altogether, giving you the choice to climb it or go around it.
I can't speak however for what would happen if you were barreling ahead at full speed and not watching where you are going. The Segway is not a mountain bike, so if you try to abuse it you will get the same results as when you abuse any other piece of machinery. Just as you would pay attention when using a bicycle or a car to the state of the path in front of you, you need to pay attention to what's going on in front of you on a Segway.
bun-fhuinneog agam!
My dad came up with a good point. He works in a steel mill and when they have to travel a long distance, they use 3-wheeled bicycles. Segways would be great for them, because the bikes are slow and cumbersome.
S-T-A-B-I-L-I-T-Y
A three wheeled cheapo version of the Segway would not be nearly as stable. Why? Just look at how close the two wheels are together. Adding a castor would only be stable if you were standing perfectly upright. Otherwise you'd topple over or backwards. IANAE, but the segway is really the only stable way to make such a small mobile platform for someone to stand on. Partially, the segway is like the old seal-with-a-beach-ball routine. As your weight shifts forward, the motors move the segway forward to keep everything in balance. The gyros and sensors help a lot, but that is the basic principle. The other main stabilising feature is its low center of gravity. Take a closer look at it. You are actually standing just a few inches above the ground, and the wheels' axis is above your feet. It's a lot more stable than say, a bicycle, where your center of gravity is way up high. Just my observations.
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Perhaps you've forgotten the whole point of the steering system. Thanks to the basic setup of the device and the gyros you don't need accelerate/brake buttons -- you just lean. That can't be accomplished on a device with wheels in front and back, because it would always remain level relative to the ground in that plane.
In neighboring NH, the governor signed a bill allowing them into use on the streets & sidewalks. Not too surprising, since Dean Kamen/Segway is based in NH.
Here in VT, a Segway hireling has been demonstrating them to lawmakers--they show clips with various elected officials using them. The word is that no drivers license will be required, but you will have to be 16 to operate one.
It seems they will want to do this in a majority of the 50 states before they sell them to the public. The electric/gas scooter sales ran into a problem here in VT when the state started requiring helmets & a motorcycle license. Segway is being very smart about this.
-Bollux
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