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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.
And what else does P. M. Tyronne endorse?
:)
XBox live, for one...and the iPod...and large doses of Flash, apparently. This gentleman is a one-man press release
A reasonable bicycle can be had for around $100 and will get you anywhere you want to go, and get you into better shape as well. You won't sweat on your bike if you travel at segway speeds either.
I really don't see the appeal of this $3000 upright motoroized wheelchair--what will it do for me that my bike won't?
Can it hop curbs? Is it easy to lock up on the street? I just don't get it, sorry.
The domain "bookofseg.com" is registered to Phillip Torrone. (listed on the about page as well). According to his site , this guy works at Fallon , an advertising company devoted to "generating disproportionate results for our clients through a unique combination of rigor, relentlessness, and surprise" .
What I'm getting at is, how do we know that this site isn't just a plant by Segway's marketing agency?
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).
Incidentally, does anyone know how much weight the Segway is designed to handle?
From the How Stuff Works Website:
Weight capacity: 250 pound (110 kg) person with 75 pounds (34 kg) of cargo.
(Good link about more Segway stuff without all of the marketing hype at Howstuffworks, too.)
I would have to say that explosives are the most abused technology in all of history.
New hobby for those of you with too much money and spare time! Segway modding! New mods include:
Hate me!
A lot of people may not know this, but the segway, in addition to being a means of transportation, is also a testbed for technologies used in Dean Kamans latest invention, the iBOT. Its a new wheelchair thats being tested by the FDA, but most of its technology has been proven in the non medical(meaning it didnt have to be tested by the FDA) Segway HT. The iBOT is a revolutionary wheelchair with that can climb stairs and raise a person up to normal eye-level. link link link link
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
What do you mean "how do we know it isn't a plant"? Of course it's a plant.
I don't mind the dupes. I don't mind the mistakes. But blithely posting underhanded ad pitches on the front page cross the line.
I like Slashdot, and I've never before stooped to bitching at the editors... But I can't take it anymore: what the fuck is the matter with you guys? I know VA Linux stock ain't doing all that well, but for christ's sake, you have jobs unlike a lot of Slashdot's readership. If you don't care about this site-- which seems to be the case-- why don't you step down and let someone else take over?
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...
Just last week, Reuters bought and CNN published as a front page story this Amazon /Segway press release. Reuters must not employ any of those hard-driving investigative reporters we loved in old 30s movies.
For example the "story" "reports"
- "pre-orders already place the high-tech scooter in the top half percent of sales" Yeah? Each Segway costs $5000, while the average Amazon item costs maybe $50. So if Amazon sells 100 Segways in a month, it's in the same percentile as a book that sold 10,000 copies in the same month--that's pretty impressive sales for a book, pretty lousy sales for an item that got the publicity buzz Segway did, an item featured on Amazon's front page.
- "It's selling better than many of our digital cameras" Yeah? And is Amazon the only retailer selling digital cameras, the way it is the only retailer selling Segways? In fact, do you know anybody who would go to Amazon to buy a digital camera?
- "Frazier declined to provide actual pre-sale numbers" I am sure the carefully phrased hype provided is much closer to what CNN readers care about.
What got left out of the "news story" is also interesting. There is no mention of the financial stake that Amazon has in pumping up Segway sales by releasing phony hype aimed at making the product look more popular than it is. Jeff Marshall at Mercury News has some interesting background on the financial ties involvedSome Reuters Clark Kent may have added one note of reality in the final sentence: "in San Francisco a debate is raging over whether the human transporter should be allowed on that city's streets. " That debate stopped raging a week before this press release came out. According to the Dec. 20 SF Chronicle , after extensive public discussion 9 of 11 supervisors have voted to ban the Segway, enough to overturn the mayor's veto if he decides to try one.
Making trouble today for a better tomorrow...
From the article:
washington is one of the 32+ states that have specific legislation that states that the segway ht can go anywhere a pedestrian can go
Fascinating that they can pass a law that allows the Segway to go up ladders.
Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
The interesting thing about talking to Mr. Kamen while he was standing on the Segway, aside from the fact that he was of course towering a full head above everybody else in the crowd, was the fact that he is one of those people who likes to lean towards you as he talks. As I learned firsthand, talking to one of these people who happens to be standing on an electric scooter that is controlled by leaning your body means that you are constantly being semi-run-over by the thing, in direct proportion to the intensity of the point the other person is trying to make! He kept having to back the thing up a couple feet, like it was an overly-friendly horse that wanted to lick my face (instead of an overly-pricey scooter that wanted to run over my feet).
(I would have liked to have a go with his scooter though, as I was not relishing the prospect of having to slog all the way back across the show grounds to the car yet again!)
mcb
In Soviet Rush, today's Tom Sawyer gets high on you.
You mean like this?
http://www.everythingisnt.com/features/segway.html
I live up on a slight hill about 3.5 miles from work.
For about a year, I had an older (mid-70's model) "Tomos" 2-cycle 50cc "scooter". (Similar to this, but older and needed pre-mixed fuel.)
Except during the winter when the wind on my face and hands were a bit too cold, I really preferred to take my trips to work and to the grocery store on my scooter. I liked the open-air feeling of gliding on the scooter, and also felt better about not lugging a 3000 lb. car just to carry myself. I was getting about 50 miles to a gallon of fuel + a cup of oil.
One thing that I didn't like about the scooter was having to drive on the street (along the side, like a bicycle) while cars whizzed by me at 45+ mph. On the uphill stretches going home at night, that got scary sometimes. (My uphill speed was about 15-18 mph; flats around 25; and downhill around 32 mph.)
I also didn't like having to worry about the bike's chain maintenance (needed frequent cleaning), and the fact that it was a 2-stroke polluter (today's 4-stroke mopeds should be pretty good in comparison).
When an axel bearing crunched away I couldn't find a convenient place to fix it, I gave it up.
Since then, I've been thinking about buying another, more modern moped. But I just sorta never did. I toyed with the idea of getting a real motorcycle, and got my class-M permit; but I really didn't want a bike because I would have to be IN traffic, and I prefer not to be in between two cars (or SUV's as is likely to happen around here).
When the Segway was first revealed, I thought "neat, cool gadget". But I dismissed buying it for myself.
But, I've been missing that open-air gliding feeling for some time now. The Segway would allow me to get that feeling back (though at 12 mphs, it's a bit slower than I would have liked compared to when I used to pull 20-30). And, since I can used it on sidewalks, I would feel much safer. Since the sidewalks around here (L.A. suburb) are pretty much open, I think I can safely travel at the top speed for most of my travel.
The only concern I have now is the TCO. While a "full charge" is 11 to 17 miles of range, and costs about $0.10, that translates favorably to my car which gives about 20 miles to the gallon at $1.70. But the batteries are rated only for 300-500 full-charge cycles, or about 3,000 (worst case) to 8000 (best case) miles. The power train is supposed to be a "lifetime" design needing no servicing, so I'm hoping that the supposed 5-(active use)-year lifetime of the Segway holds.
It's not clear how much a battery replacement will cost... But I'm guessing it'll be about $1,000. So that then pushes the cost up to as much as $0.55 per mile. Even if the battery is $2,000, that's favorable compared to my 3,000 lb. car.
I can already tell some of my co-workers will approve, and some of them will scoff and ridicule me. But I used to own a scooter, and I liked it. And I've pre-ordered a Segway, and I expect to like it when it arrives. (Yes, it is a small leap of faith.)