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Buy a Segway... Please
aedunn writes "Wired has an article about everyone's favorite Human Transporter - Segway. Seems as though the company is looking at some hard times. Among other things, the article cites Segway's price, low speed and tightened spending in the corporate world as reasons for Segway's slow sales."
knew this was going to happen. It's the dotcom bubble all over again; useless products at high prices, with expectations inflated by hype and spin. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
A company with an overpriced useless product and no business plan is having trouble surviving. Film at 11.
Tis a shame that the economy has hit a downturn, but there's an interesting site that a happy owner has up, about how he's losing weight and saving money with his: The book of Seg.
The Right Reverend K. Reid Wightman,
What a time to try selling these things, right when the Northeast US has been hit by blizzard-like snows. Not so Segway-friendly, I imagine. Probably the #1 reason why I thought they were a bad idea in the first place.
Trolls lurk everywhere. Mod them down.
People don't like wobbling down the sidewalk looking bloody stupid after all.
They might as well give away a big red hat that says "Tool"
That they're rather pointless and only marginaly more usefull than a $50 bike?
I have been saying since day one that this is one of the worst inventions I have ever seen. I'd love to see a segway owner try to get around Manhattan this week. The only value I have seen in something like this is possibly for mailmen who normally walk their route or in large warehouses. Those are pretty niche groups and I don't see anybody making a huge profit from them.
Who did they think would by one of these? Corporates? Until suits see everyone else riding one they'll keep away. Suburbanites? They wont get you anywhere - you need an SUV to travel. Kids/Students? Can't afford it. Urban? Sidewalks are too crowded, and too slow for roads.
Basically, imagine the limited marketshare that scooters/rollerblades/skateboards occupy (as transportation, not as stunt vehicles), then make it way more expensive.
I almost bought one and then I realized that I could get a bicycle for a fraction of the cost.
And it is more fun to recharge the power source for the bicycle.
Seriously... How lazy can people be? They should give these things away to people that buy Hummer H2s (read:idiots).
Life is the leading cause of death in America.
"I wouldn't have predicted the mountain would be so big," Kamen says, "and that there would be so many hills to cross to get to the top."
This guy makes more money than I do?
I've only seen those things in use in bad sitcoms. They're ugly, awkward, expensive, and completely unneccessary for living today. I've seen fifth graders come up with better inventions.
"I only speak the truth"
Karma: null(Mostly affected by an unassigned variable)
The fact that you have to STAND while riding a Segway!
If they just stuck a seat on it everything would be different.
It's Christmas everyday with BitTorrent.
The Segway, no matter how advanced it is, is not something people were anxious to have. Maybe there are uses for it, but people don't see them, and they don't want them.
Toss in the down economy, and it's no surprise.
I don't think the plans for selling Segway were any more than "it's so cool and the guy behind it has a great reputation," and that is NOT enough.
It's basic economics.
"The Sage treasures Unity and measures all things by it" - Lao Tzu
Read the article. I see Wired is still bandying about vocabulary with abandon.
So, anyone outside of Wired's offices know what a Stirling engine is?
Its funny, if he hadn't had such high expectations, he could have a small but profitable and growing company, it sounded like he had orders for 10 per week or 520 per year, if he had not leased a 70,000 sq. ft. manufacturing facility, and planned to revolutionize the world selling thousands a week, which increased his fixed costs, and the numbers he needed to sell to be profitable, this would be a completely different story. Google did it right, grow at a sustainable rate, and do not try to get too big too fast.
Degaussing scares the bad magnetism out of the monitor and fills it with good karma.
As for other markets, when I worked in a industrial plant in the Netherlands, the foreman and others who had to go a long distance had bikes with banana seats. Very low tech but usable.
And I don't think that too many folks in the NE of the US are going to be able to use theirs for several weeks.
Back in the early/mid eighties in the UK there was a scientist/inventor/businessman called Clive Sinclair. He had a string of successes in consumer electronics, starting with a digital watch and progressing to home computers. One of his final products was a revolutionary electric one person "car", incorporating lots of new and clever technology. It was predicted that it would be huge success, as where most of his other products. But it was a dismal failure. Nobody wanted one. It looks like history is repeating...
I thought they were not selling these to the general public yet. Rather, only to business and municipalities and such. If not, then perhaps they should try something that all the cool businesses are doing nowadays: ADVERTISE! MARKETING! BTW: I said when I first saw this thing that it was not going to be a big hit. It's a scooter! Yes, it is probably the most revolutionary scooter. Yes, it is cool technology. Yes, it would be neat to own won. But it's still a $3K+ scooter! The general public will not get past that. Replace the car? Hardly! Joe Dirt has no where to carry his case of Bud. >
Anothe strike against the company, backlash from all the hype. We were promised an earth shattering, mind blowing, world changing "it" of an invention. "Something people would design cities around." Instead we get an expensive scooter that you can't take with you on public transit, use on many city streets, drive on the street, or fit in your car to take with you. After a year of magical mystery hype about this wonderful invention and "leaks" about the nature of it, even if it cost $50, I'd probably not buy one out of spite.
Think of the benefits: Less people driving cars! Unless more than one person wants to travel, and unless they want to carry luggage or groceries or anything else for that matter, or if they want to listen to the radio while they travel, or if they want to go more than a dozen or so miles...hmm, lets try this again.
Think of the benefits: Easier personal transport! Unless you run into a flight of stairs, or uneven or wet ground, or want to travel for longer than 45 minutes after which you'll have to lug it around with you like so much dead weight...hmmm, this isn't working either.
How about this: The Segway is amazing! For only $5000 you can get a motorized scooter that allows you to roll where you once walked! That is truly revolutionary, unless you count the bicycle, rollerskates, rollerblades, skateboards, wheelchairs, non-motorized scooters...Aww forget it, I give up!
The Segway is just a ruse, a delaying tactic until the real Ginger is released. ;)
Yes the price is a problem. And younger people would be willing to ride a bike. But my grandma could handle one of these things, and it would actually be a big help to her. She is otherwise stranded at home, dependent on taxis, neighbors, or public transportation (which in the wide- flat- towns of central California is problematic at best.)
"The most sensible request of government we make is not, "Do something!" But "Quit it!"
Okay.. I know the segway is pretty useless for day to day life, but I was fortunate enough to actually use one in a few situations during my vacation in december...
Seadream Yacht Club (a cruise line), has 4 segways per ship for passenger use (the ships are very small, so that's actually an okay number).
We went on our cruise the week after they got them, so they were still experimenting with their itinerary. We learned how to use them in nassau, on the pier right off of the ship.
They work exactly as every test driver has stated.. Once you get comfortable on them, you just think about moving forward and you go forward. It's all based off of the weight distribution on your feet. There's a tendency to lean forward to try and make it go faster, but this goes away eventually.
Turning is a little weirder as it's geared off of your hand motion (sort of like a motorcycle throttle). If you are going full speed forward (depending on the key your using to control the max speed), and turn, you're going to fall off. That was something we had to learn to deal with..
Anyhow.. after we learned how to drive them, we got to use them in a heavy pedestrian traffic area.. Key West. We used them for a quick tour of the island, driving on the streets and sidewalks, weaving into and out of traffic, bicyclists and pedestrians flawlessly. They stop on a dime, turn on a dime, and will throw you to the ground on a dime if you're not careful.
For day to day use (for most people), they're completely useless. For people who need to interact with pedestrian traffic, they're great.
The place i'd like to see them used more is in the vacation industry. Seadream is planning on using them for tours of portofino, and other places in europe. This is where it would truly shine.
The last thing that I find a little weird is that Seadream had a decent amount of trouble actually getting segway to talk to them and sell them units. For a company thats having problems moving product, they should probably change their policy in dealin with outside vendors.
Sure they only wanted 8 or 10 of them, but given the clientele and quantity of people who will get to use/see them, it's free advertising.
If they could get them to be a little lighter (under the 86 pounds they're at now), and a little more collapsible (so you could carry it with you on vacation), and made them a little cheaper (1500 bux or so)..
I think they've got a chance.. Otherwise it's just a novelty
1) Build very expensive motor-scooter with auto-balance
2) Redesign all cities around it
3) Profit!
- For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat
...this is the best story Slashdot has posted in a long time. You don't know how happy it makes me to hear that this company is in financial trouble. This was a moronic idea from the start. A friggin $4k+ SCOOTER?
This scooter (and I love calling it that since Dean thinks it shouldn't be called such a demoralizing name) had several problems from the start.
1. Can it keep you warm in the winter? NO
2. Can it keep you cool in the summer? NO
3. Will you be able to take girls out on a date on such a thing? Possibly but no girl will agree to such an arraingement so effectively the answer is NO
4. Will you look cool on such a contraption? Yes for 5 minutes. For the rest of all eternity, NO (and yes this one matters you anti-conformist geeks. Normal people care if they look like geeks and try to avoid doing so.)
5. Is it as cheap as most other scooters? NO
6. Will it get stolen as soon as you park it next to your local trendy cafe? YES
7. Is it awkward? YES.
8. Was it overhyped? YES.
9. Will it in the words of Steven Peter Jobs, CEO and Founder of Apple and CEO of Pixar "change the way cities are built?" NO. Don't listen to Jobs. He knows Macs. He knows animation. He knows nothing else.
10. And top ten on the NDP's list of why the Segway sucks, "FAT MAN ON A LITLE SCOOTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Mac OS X and Windows XP working side by side to fight back the night.
South park. Episode 511 "The Entity". Nuff said.
I saw it yesterday and nearly choked I was laughing so hard! Look here for a still from the episode.
Summed up popular opinion at the time quite well...
Be nice to people on the way up. You will meet them again on your way down!
Really, the parallels are striking. Secrecy leading up to release that caused rampant speculation. Overhyped to the point that the public really thought that something revolutionary was in the offing. Released at the beginning of an economic downturn.
And then the let-down. "Oh, it's just a car/scooter." Then people stay away in droves.
There are many overviews of the history of Edsel. Read this one or dig up another and see if you agree.
the no
Stupidest invention ever. I own a 2002 Honda Civic, let's compare it to the Segway.
Segway:
Top Speed: 12MPH
Range : 10 Miles
Max Occupants: 1
Honda Civic:
Top Speed: 110MPH
Max Occupants: 5 (Plus a huge trunk for storage)
Range : Unlimited (or until I run out of gas money)
Considering my Honda Civic cost only 3 times as much as a segway, and I get much more utility from it. I live in Florida, so an A/C is required (or it is no better than my bike).
I want my rights back. I was actually using them when our government stole them after 9/11.
From a bumper sticker seen in the Edmonton area years ago:
"Jesus saves. Gretzky gets the rebound. He shoots. He scores!"
I for one am very interested in the Segway. I might even buy one. But I've never, ever, seen one 'in the flesh'. I can't go into a store to buy one. I don't know anybody who has one.
It's such a new product and so unusual that for people to buy one sight-unseen at this high a price requires a leap of faith that is uncommon amongst consumers.
This guy needs to put them in stores. Lots of stores. The stores need to let people test ride them. They need to do demonstrations in the streets at lunch time so people can see how cool they are.
I wouldn't be surprised to see them be a big hit, but the average guy will want to try one first.
I live in New England. We got 27" of snow here this week. And, when it isn't snowing -- it's either cold, raining, or miserable out. Out of 365 days it is probably nice, warm and sunny about 85 of them. So if you want to talk about impractical -- the Segway is it. If you live in Arizona where it is warm and sunny 91% of the time.... sure. But, in this climate a Segway is nothing but an expensive toy that you can putz around on. It's not going to replace the automobile anytime soon!
Let's see, one person transport, two wheels?
Tried and true technology, been around since the 19th century, with plenty of refinements that have made it better over the years...
Oh, and no %$#@$#% batteries to charge...EVER!
It's called a bicycle!
Look - the Segway is an attempt to alleviate the total unmitigated disaster that is modern automotive traffic.
If you could all be so kind as to take a step back.. waaayyy back. Think of cars, particularly in cities. The fatalities. The noise. The pollution. The cost. The traffic. The space they take up. Were a self-respecting geek to examine this system from above, encountering it for the first time, I imagine they would recoil in horror. I can't see it as anything but a giant cluster-fuck.
Look at New York, downtown. Practically everyone living there would tell you that traffic is nigh-on impossible. But still, we tolerate it. We love our cars. We cannot give them up, not now, not ever... in fact, we want bigger ones!
People will not come to terms with the fact that the responsible thing to do is to explore these options. We simply must.
Now, I am fully aware of the Segway's limitations. Obviously it has problems with inclement weather, battery life, etc. Again, I must remind the reader that this is the first of it's kind. The arguments presented against the Segway are often ludicrous:
- "i can't use my hands".. you can't when you drive either
- "i've gotta stand up".. that's part of the point, they take up less room
- "they'll kill people on sidewalks".. amazing, this argument. It's a total non-starter. Anyone on rollerblades or a bike is much more of a danger.
Come on! We are the ones who should be embracing this! Who's gonna convince Kamen to invent the Segway you really want? You know, the chariot version, that gets 5x the distance, and is 1/5 the price? It cannot get here by itself.
I'm sorry for the rant, but frankly the blank-faced pessimism disgusts me. Where is your sense of wonder, Slashdot? Don't be like those fucking lemmings who close the case on new technology before it's even been tried.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
"If they don't come up with a Stirling engine or a killer fuel cell, this thing will go the way of the 128K Mac," says Saffo
Kamen could only dream that the current Segway would be like the Mac 128. After all, it's the machine that has now led to a multi billion dollar company on machines that are descended from it. If 12 years from now 7% of his market were riding iSegways and he had billions of cash in the bank, he'd be a happy man.
Perhaps a better comparison is in order, say something like "Betamax".
At 80 pounds how do you get it out of your car's trunk? "It's easy," Smith chirps. "I grab one side and get a friend to lift the other."
Tell those engineers to put away the happy pills.
A guy who works in my building has one that he rides around occasionally (his wife works for Segway), and he let me try it out.
It's pretty fun to ride around, actually, very simple to use. I got the hang of it in about 5 minutes with coaching, and was doing loops around the third floor atrium of the building (Morse Hall at the University of New Hampshire) shortly thereafter.
If I had $5,000 to spend on a toy, I'd do it in a second.
That being said, I'd like to repeat the sentiments of previous posters: In the final equation, it has few advantages over a bike, and several disadvantages, and If I needed a way to get around without a car, I'd buy a bike first. Bikes go faster, even a mild lardass like myself can outride the segway's ~15 mile charge, and you can attach all kinds of trailers and racks to a bike if you want to haul stuff. Plus, there's the health benefits to providing the motive energy to moving your butt around.
Bikes are much larger, but much lighter. It's a bit easier to keep your clothes clean & pressed while riding a segway, so it could be a bicycle substitute for the suit type- as long as they don't mind looking like dorks.
This thing could be fairly useful for door to door postal service and similar applications.
Most people here probably know that the Segway is based on the technology developed for the Ibot 3000 , a balancing, standing wheelchair- truly an innovation for the disabled, and I'm sure it will sell very well.
The Segway, then, might be a good thing for the elderly, those still healthy enough to stand at any rate, to help them get around. But if they're fit enough to ride on this, maybe they should be riding a bike too...
Anyway, my conclusion: Fun, but a waste of money for anything outside of a few specific demographics and jobs.
Get a bike. You'll live longer.
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms should be the name of a store, not a government agency.
You mean someone came up with a way for the American population to get even fatter and it isn't selling?
You will not drink with us, but you would taste our steel? - Walter Matthau, The Pirates
Dean Kamen designed some incredibly sophisticated electronics and computer controls that do the job of a third wheel.
If your bitterest enemies are people who hack the heads off civilians, then I would say you're doing something right.
Perhaps they realized that all the goo-goo gaa-gaa that they generated at launch still doesn't overcome the dork factor; that people riding these look like dorks who are trying to hold in a massive bowel movement, while at the same time, thinking "Look at me! Look at me!"
"Would it kill you to put down the toilet seat?" -- Maya Angelou
I think that the 'angry' responses are from people who would buy one if they could easily afford one - much like linux users who put down macs, while secretly drooling over one.
Did it deserve the huge media hype? Does American Idol? Probably not. Will it make you fat? No. Will cities tear out roads to accomadate it? No. Was it overhyped? Yes. Is there any reason to kick it when its down? No.
The Segway seems to be a good product that is trying to fill a niche. Since it *is* overpriced, and fighting a cultural battle (SUVs driven to get the mail at the end of the driveway), it won't do well. I think the idea is ahead of its time. Change the way cities are built? Maybe. But not now.
Just remember, the Segway didn't have sex with your mom. I did.
I still wonder, what changed? What caused him to suddenly try to take over the world like this? I prefer to think that it was just the pressure of the dotcom boom that got to him. Too many venture capitalists whispering in his ear that he was missing out on the big picture. It's a shame, really. If this thing came out with about a hundredth of the fan fare, then he'd probably be doing fine, and none of us would be looking at him like a crackpot -- and a few years from now we'd all have one. But this nonsense about hiring thousands of lobbyists and such was really pretty ridiculous. He knows full well that "good for you" technology cannot be shoved down the public's throats. I just don't understand what he was thinking.
www.HearMySoulSpeak.com
Your analogy is utterly flawed. The difference between then and now is that the automobile was MUCH better while the Segway is, at best, a little better, but overall, actually much worse.
Because the automobile offered so many advantages over walking and the horse and buggy, people were willing to pay the price of building and rebuilding roads to suit the new vehicle. But, who is willing to rebuild our cities to use a Segway? Because of weather our cities would have to be domed. Are you willing to pay for that?
If not, are businesses willing to provide showers and changing rooms for employees who drive in on Segways? No way. Currently their employees get to work via cars, busses and trains. Why should businesses be compelled to spend MORE money so employees could get there via Segways?! There is no advantage to change.
Similarly, there is no advantage to change our streets, because we are currently getting where we need to be without changing them.
And right now I can go shopping and actually have room in my car to bring home enough groceries for a family of 4. There is no advantage for me to suddenly change my shopping practices and go every day, getting only a few things at a time. Wasting MORE time at the supermarket is certainly not an advantage in my book!
I could go on and on, but it's a simple fact that the automobile offered huge advantages that the horse and buggy did not. That is why we changed our society to suit the automobile. We will never do that for the Segway because doing so would mostly offer disadvantages, not advantages.
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
Then again, I'm just a technician. "What do I know about diamonds?"
Say what you mean, dude. Like this:
For the six year period from 1993 to 1998, an average of 1,640 people in New York were killed annually as a result of motor vehicle crashes. During this same period, an average of 286,000 New Yorkers annually were injured in traffic crashes. Data for New York City indicates that 26.7 percent of these total statewide annual traffic fatalities, and 43 percent of total statewide crash injuries occurred within city limits.
This can be avoided. We should try, at least.
Pollution is being handled with hybrids and fuel-cell developments. The cars 50 years from now won't be polluters at all.
Pollution could be stopped today. The Segway obviously doesn't pollute. 50 years? That's confortably out of your frame of reference, isn't it? "I won't worry, they'll have it solved in 50 years." Ridiculous. Take some responsibility. We all need to.
Noise? You get used to it. Deal.
Why should I? It doesn't have to be this way. Why are you so against fixing the problems with the current situation? Or do you really believe that it cannot be improved, that all this is a necessary evil?
Cost? Cost of what? Bottled water costs more than gas and you can get cheap ass used cars off of ebay. What cost?
You have got to be kidding. I can't believe you even typed that. I'm not going to get into the cost of running a car in a city. I will quickly mention that your average condo parking spot - a square of concrete - in Toronto is $CDN 30,000.
Traffic? Yeah it sucks.
It doesn't just suck, it's totally insane. Imagine the productivity lost with everyone spenind 2+hours a day in their car.
The space they take up? Do you know how large the US is in terms of space?
The Segway is meant to alleviate the most obvious traffic problem, that of congested cities. It clearly can't cross great distances. There is no alternative to the car for this right now.
Despite the hate, SUV sales contine to grow, grow grow, grow!
To my grow, grow, growing despair.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
I'd be interested in learning how the Segway has achieved the ENORMOUS amount of hype that it has. It's crazy I tell you. I've talked to people who think it uses some new alternate energy source that will revolutionalize the world. I mean, they have acted like this thing is going to bring us world peace or something. The wierd thing is, I have NEVER seen any journalist say, "Segway... so what?" All you ever hear is them drooling over the thing and begging the company to let them try one. I've never heard ANYTHING negative from the media. I don't ever remember seeing this level of hype, and lack of criticism, about any product before. Anyone have any clues as to how they achieved it?
One of the engineers from Segway HT was giving a talk at Boston University this afternoon, which I missed because usually they are later in the day. I caught him leaving the building, gliding along on the Segway out onto the slush and snow. I have to just say that I am impressed with its handling given the weather. At least I was surprised, I expected it to fumble around and be difficult to maneuver.
Or riding a Segway is learned skill and you need some experience to handle it in the snow, which I would assume a Segway HT engineer would have.
The modern automobile is an unmitigated disaster, one that has buried the earth in asphalt and caused more wars and strife than assassinations ever did. However, corporate America's expectations are also an unmitigated disaster. We have become subjected to a daily hypemachine stuck on some sort of feedback loop that drowns out real conversation. Kamen contributed to that hype immensely with the Segway, which when viewed by a real human is just a scooter. It's a scooter with a few neat tricks, but it's a scooter. "IT" flooded the news when it was leaked, "IT" flooded the news when it was released, and now "IT" is in the news because of the failure of "IT". The extensive newscoverage of the Segway is even reported as news.
Compared to other alternative forms of transportation, the Segway ranks pretty low. It involves no real user-power, so it isn't particularly healthy. It weighs 80 pounds, so it isn't particularly portable. It involves pretty extensive electronics, so it is impossible to work on. It requires user intervention, so you can't read a book. Compare that to Electric bikes, which have longer ranges, lower weight, can utilize user power, cost nearly one-tenth as much money, and can carry a sizable number of groceries. Or to the subway, which requires a high initial investment and understandable traffic loads, but which can carry hundreds of thousands of people to their destinations faster than automobiles, and free the user to do with their time what they wish. Or motorized scooters, which can travel faster than the segway for much longer distances at about the same cost. Really, the only thing the Segway has over current alternative transportation options is the ability to go backwards. The balancing mechanism at the core keeps the price too high to be a real alternative to anything, but remove that and the entire design is gone.
The Segway's obvious limitations as transportation are not why people are venomous about it, but people are venomous about hype that doesn't pan out. Look at the backlash against the commercial that hyped the second-to-last Joe Millionaire as if it were the last. Many people spent the last 5 years being taken in by hucksters who believed their own exaggerations, then exaggerated thoes until they believed their exaggerations^2, then exaggerated those... We've had people claim that a way to complain publically about websites would revolutionize human communication, a way of selling dogfood online would make all public shopping spaces obsolete, a system of releasing odors into the air on cue would necessitate the re-purchasing of all human interface displays, and a way of trading low-quality recordings online would revolutionize world law. Dean Kamen's IT falls squarely with the former three examples, as a hype machine that grew monstrously out of control. A market valuation of 650 million dollars? Two-hundred sixty times gross revenue? The yearly salry of 16,320 people? For an expensive electric bike company?
I don't think most people here are closing the case on this new technology. I think most people here are closing the case on another company that grossly overpromised, tremendously underdelivered, and stood there blankly wondering where their fortune was. If they can redesign the entire internal mechanism to run on inexpensive mechanical principles and low-cost electronics, can get the range AND SPEED up to 30 miles at roadway speeds, and can sell the thing at real stores rather than online, they still would need to readjust their expectations from inherited world domination to working eagerly to satisfy the customer's needs.
Kamen us all to flock to his new invention like so many lemmings just makes us feel cheap. He should be working his tail off if he wants our money. He contributed greatly to the health of many Americans, but if he wants to break into this new market he needs to drop the entitlement.
The ______ Agenda
It's a stupid status symbol. So many americans are so fucking obsessed with their image it's not even funny.
They could have put a more efficient engine in the H2 without a major drop in performance (if any at all), but no... People want to show off they can afford the extra fuel. Of course, having people buy these increases the demand for fuel and drives the price up (it's already high enough IMHO.) This makes a few rich white fellows rich and happy, but also helps make heating oil too expensive for the poor.
If you must know I drive an '89 Volvo 240 that gets about 20 mpg in the city. I spend $20 a week on gas, so about $1,040 per year (and that's if the price doesn't go up as it already has.) I'm by no means a rich fella (just out of college and paying back loans.) so I can't afford a new car for a while (I want to pay off my student loans before commiting to any new loans)
If I could, I would buy a civic hybrid (about 40 mpg) I'd pay half of that $1,400... $520 a year... plus a one time $2,000 tax deduction. If the civic lasts for 10 years. that means I'd have saved $7,000.
Or, I could buy a Honda Insight. 61 mpg in the city means I'd be paying 1/3rd of that $1,040, or about $650 in savings a year (plus the one tme $2000 tax ditty) 10 years would mean $8,500 in savings.
Now, some freak on CNN is estimating that if America goes to war gas could go up to $5.00 a gallon. I'm guessing that's a bit extreme, so $3.50/gallon is a fair guess. $20 a week at $1.40/gallon means I'm buying 14 gallons o' gas. 14 * 3.50 = 49, so, 49 * 52 weeks in a year = $2,548 a year on gas with my Volvo. or $849 a year with the insight. $1,698 of savings isn't bad at all. Over a 10 year period I'd save $16,980 on gas plus the $2,000. nearly the price of the car ($20,000 with manual trans, AC and stereo.) That'd be like buying the car for $1,020. damn... my Volvo is worth more than that.
Heh... just calculated savings at $5.00/gallon... $26,270 over 10 years.
But keep in mind I'm not much of a super self image kinda guy... I don't have fancy rims on my car, I don't dye my hair or dress in crazy clothes, I don't wear logos (what a great idea! pay some rich asshole extra money so you can be his bitch... I mean billboard.) I don't like being ripped off by rich guys who don't need more of my money. My guess is that it's fashionable to buy fuel inefficient veicles because of the amount of cash oil companies are sending car companies who never seem to make a nice looking car that's fuel efficient. Why not? They could use their more efficient engines in SUVs. People don't need a 340 horse power engine in a 3/4 ton Suburban. My Volvo weighs about 1.5 tons and has a 114 horse power engine. It can tow 3,300 lbs and has a gross vehicle weight of 4800 pounds. Typical suburbanites will never need to tow that much.
-Derick
Segway Human Interactive Transporter
Insert sig here (slashdot) Insert cig here (Lewinsky)
That's the big problem. Delivery people, who might actually find this thing useful, can't use it all day because the battery life is too short. For casual users, it's too expensive.
The real problem, of course, is excessive hype. This is a minor invention with way too much promotion.
Would many companies have some reason to buy Segways? I can't see the senior staff of mine demanding Segways as perks.
One of the many things I hate. thingsihate.org
I've been scratching my head over the same thing. The only thing I can come up with is that it seems that Dean Kamen has a Steve Jobs-type charisma and celebrity status, and everyone knows that half of a journalist's job is celebrity ass-kissing, which is why you haven't heard anyone say "So what?". Everything you see written about Dean Kamen says stuff like "inventor, entrepreneur, all round great guy, blah blah blah", but what it comes down to is that he's trying to sell a scooter for 5 grand that's being outlawed in the very city centers it was intended for in the first place....San Francisco comes to mind.
Here's why I think the Segway is failing: Those who can afford it and those who would use it are two separate markets. The people who can afford it would tend to be successful professionals who have cars to drive to work and live in suburbia. Are they going to drive their cars to the edge of the city, pull their 80-pound Segway out of the trunk, and cruise to work that way? I think not. Those who would use it would most likely live in the city where they work and would cruise there in a Segway. The problem is that when you are paying $2100/mo for 600 sq ft, you might want to think about stretching your legs and walking instead of racking up another $5000 bill. Also to consider is the fact that most city dwellings are in highrise buildings...Are you going to haul your Segway up the stairs?
-R
Oddly enough, I read this article last week, about one hour before I went to my product design class - with Professor Karl Ulrich. We spent half the class talking about the Segway, and if I garnered anything from the lecture, the main reason for the failure (thus far) is because the company forgot the basic tenets of product design. Rather than creating a product based on customer needs (i.e. a portable dialysis machine), they tried to create customer needs based on a product family (dynamically stabilized transportation, a la the ibot).
As a side note, the Segway uses a lot of expensive parts, and two of them at that. There is one gyroscopic unit, but two motors, two controls boards, etc.. When you add it up, the price becomes unreasonable for almost anyone. Granted, most of us probably thought it was neat, but we definitely can't afford one.
1. Rollerblades are easier, work better, are more maneuverable, and a Lot Cheaper.
2. Bicycles go just as fast and have an effectively infinite range with no recharge necessary (except for that stop at the pub). And, are cheaper.
3. Skateboards can probably go just as fast, are just as maneuverable, don't have to be recharged... Etc.
4. People have had all of the above cheaper, better alternatives to the Segway, but they don't use them because they're dangerous to put in the street and are illegal to use on the sidewalk. Mainly because of the danger to pedestrians. Which is why the Segway won't be legal for sidewalk use either.
Result: The segway doesn't stand a chance. How could it? Can't put it in the road (you'll be roadkill), can't ride it on the sidewalk (you're just as dangerous to pedestrians as an inline skater)...
Kind of makes you wonder how much thought they put into this weirdo pogo-stick-looking thing. Are all the people in startup companies yes men? Did no one speak up and say, "Yes, but if they make riding things on sidewalks legal, can't I use my bike or rollerblades?"
Tsk. Rich people are crazy.
Farewell! It's been a fine buncha years!
Bitch, bitch, complain. I wouldn't buy a car without renting the same model first. Why should Segways be any different? If there is anyplace to RENT a Segway, I haven't heard about it. How about renting them, for example, at all of the Las Vegas Strip hotels? You rent the thing outside the lobby of Casino A and turn it in at Casino B. When you are ready to return to your hotel, you get another one from the pickup line at Casino B and return it to Casino A. The Segway is the perfect vehicle for Vegas Strip transportation: The casinos are all within 1/2 to 2 miles of each other, and few tourists carry any baggage except for their (dwindling) bankrolls. Only problem, it would put the Vegas taxicab mafia out of business.
There is no doubt that the many urban problems you cite exist and we need to solve them, however the urban changes that would make the Segway even remotely useful (combined residential/business, paths, etc) would also make all other common forms of transportation equally useful. Any city designed to accomodate a Segway would probably be better suited to a bicycle (smaller, greater range, more flexible). A little planning on the part of individuals would also help... if you don't want to spend 2+ hours in traffic, plan your work and residence so that you don't have to... The Segway is simply unrelated to urban problems. I already have the better Segway... a Litespeed bicycle... of course it costs about the same :(
I'll give you a tip. You don't "win" the argument by proving that you don't feel any need for a segway. The person is not claiming everyone should need or want one. They are saying it has legitimate uses for people, and the hostility towards this possiblity is really unnecessary.
I'm sure bicycles looked silly when they first were starting to be used. I know cars did... and at the time they were considered redundant and only for the wasteful rich.
The car needs money, and gas: "It's easy, just get up and walk. You'll make it there eventually, and think of the health benefits!!!"
The laundry needs doing: "You just buy 3 gallons of Febreeze, and forget about washing. Clothes can only get so dirty, and let's face it, brown looks much better on you than white."
The Segway is $5,000 for about $500 of advantegeous value: "Just walk. Or bike, or blade, or skate. Sure, you may not like the exercise and work now... but would you do it to save $5,000?"
I hope Kamen felt terrible when he said that crap about the battery and that guy's response to the weight. If he used the mentality of "just do it yourself" to combat low battery life and heavy weight, we should use the menatility of "just do it yourself" to screw the Segway and lose some weight cycling/walking.
The thing was over priced, with a TON of hype for what turned out to simply be an electric scooter with a fancy control mechanism. Big deal. Get yourself an electric Razor scooter and forget the over-hyped, over priced thing.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
I admit that I'm looking at this from a NY perspective but...
How do you lock the dang things? Can someone just hop on your Segway and drive off? Even if you lock it, can't someone (according to the article) "just lift it into a truck"? And if you got a bicycle lock, where would you attach it?
Considering that, in NYC, most delivery people carry heavy chains and locks and drive beat-up bikes so no one steals them, I can't imagine that the lifespan of a Segway on the New York City streets would be much more than 5 minutes.
"Hey, guys! Come down and see my cool Segway. Hey, where did it go??!!!"
recently on Car and Driver Television (on TNN?) they did a comparison of the H2 vs. the Hummer
Don't buy too much into shows like "Car & Driver television" (do they ever give a car a bad review?).
The conclusion was the H2 provided 80% of the capability of the Hummer
The H2 has nothing in common with the H1 besides the name, and the H2 is based off of the Tahoe. No wide wheel base, run-flat capability, engine snorkel. Plastic bumper bits and body cladding. Heck, even a locking rear differential is optional on the H2.
at 50% of the price.. with much more comfort.
No argument there. The H2 is a "luxury SUV" with heated leather seats, sunroof, etc. - something the H1 never claimed to be.
The Hummer folks kept a very close eye on GM to make sure they weren't tarnishing their name.
I call BS here. GM purchased the naming rights from AM General. They took a Tahoe and made the body look as much like the H1 as possible - even fake air intakes and fake lift hooks. Expect to see more of this in the future - the public assoicates the "Hummer" with a quasi-exotic military vehicle. Now that GM has the name they can re-body existing vehicles and call them a "Hummer", hoping to market them on the name recognition. Which is exactly what they have done with the H2.
Do you even know anything about perl? -- AC Replying to Tom Christiansen post.
Agreed--I'd love to buy one, but not for much above $1000.
What if they were available some other way besides Amazon (the only place I've seen them available)? Start small (too late for that) and open a few Segway dealerships in places likely to draw business. Perhaps have a Rent-a-Segway in spring break places like Daytona Beach or Lake Havasu, where college kids with money to burn in a week would go Segway-cruising up and down the strip.
My thoughts...
Government's idea of a balanced budget: take money from the right pocket to balance...oh who am I kidding?