Slashdot Mirror
My Segway HT "Month-iversary"
Phillip M. Torrone writes "I didn't realize it, but I've been using a Segway HT for one month as of 01/04/03. To put it simply--it's been great and the HT has exceeded all expectations, I'm cautiously optimistic that this was a great purchase and look forward to the next 30 days. You can read, see and hear about my experiences here: http://www.bookofseg.com." I have yet to see one of these in real life, but they do look fun.
I think all the people who are saying "electric scooter, big whoop. $3,000, yeah right" are slightly missing the point. Yeah, it's kind of wimpy for the price tag. Yeah, it's kind of expensive, and it's questionable who would want to use it.
But this is just the first model. It's more sort of a proof of concept--a demonstration that the scooter can work, and looks as neat as all get-out in motion. As time goes on, the performance will improve and the price will fall.
Look at the Palm (Pilot). The first model was, what, 128K? With no backlight, no infra-red, or anything? And how high was the price tag? And now the Visor Deluxe, which was at one time the wet dream of anybody who even looked at a Palm, is only $130 brand new.
Look at the DVD player. The original models were expensive enough, the first bunch of discs were glitchy enough, that a lot of people scoffed and made snide remarks. But the DVD went on to become the fastest-adopted new consumer technology ever.
So here we have a relatively slow, electric-powered self-stabilizing scooter, for $3,000. Are very many of us going to buy it? Do very many of us have the money to sink into that sort of gee-gaw? No and no. I know I'm not going to be spending three grand on something like that myself, either. Nor would I be likely to spend two grand, or even one grand.
But by the time it gets to about $500, sign me up.
That thing only has a range of 15 miles. That's really not very far if you're not in college or living in Manhatten. It's 7 miles round trip for me to get to a grocery store. Beyond the grocery store (and a gas station), it's well more than 15 miles to get to anything else.
Before you ask: no, I don't live in the boondocks. I live in a metropolitan area (Tampa, FL, US).
Sure, you can look at the Segway as another excuse not to walk or ride. But the truth of the matter is, for distances greater than 3 city blocks, most people will hop in their cars and drive. This leads to community designs without sidewalks, an absence of shops that can survive outside of a mall, shopping, strip, or otherwise, and other omissions (shade trees, pedestrian crossings, etc.) that tend to reinforce the impulse to drive.
In this light, the Segway is an ideal tool for getting people who otherwise would have driven the mile or so distance to the grocery store, video rental place, or local strip mall, and putting them on the local streets. Consider this a way of boosting pedestrian traffic by extending the 3-block distance people would choose to walk, and thus displace auto travel. This is what Jobs and other people who saw the Segway meant when they said that cities would be redesigned around them.
Sure, I'll walk, or ride my bike, or ride the bus. But then again, I don't own a car. If a Segway can displace cars for short-distance travel, then all the more power to them, fat lazy Americans be damned!
BTW, 15 miles on a single charge is far more than many people tend to commute, even in their cars, in highly urbanized areas. Hell, I used to bike the 15 miles from West LA to Burbank and back (up the Cahuenga pass and back every day) - that trip took me 1.5 hours (each way). If you're willing to bike that much, more power to you, but complaining 15 miles isn't enough range for a Segway is missing the point - 15 miles is overkill for the purpose the Segway is meant to serve - bridging the gap between the 3 blocks most people are willing to walk, and when they whip out their car keys and start contributing to traffic, pollution, and parking problems.
Also, if you think about it, you get a lot more exercise standing on a Segway than you do sitting in your car...