Toyota Announces the Winglet, Wannabe Segway Killer

Various gadget/toy venues are writing about the Toyota Winglet, a diminutive Segway-like personal transporter. (Toyota took over Sony's robot division a year back.) It comes in three sizes and offers about a third the speed and a quarter the range of the Segway; on the upside, it charges in an hour vs. Segway's 10 hours. Wired writes: "The Winglet is the first gadget to duplicate the celebrated, and often mocked, navigation system of the Segway Transporter."

Comments

Early abandoners.

[Snufu]

Segway Killer

You can't kill what's already dead.

Or you could just oh I don't know

[antifoidulus]

buy a bicycle. As much range as you have energy for, fits almost the same places a segway does, doesn't use gas, cheaper, and get this, is actual exercise. Something most people in the places that can afford one of these things can use more of.

Re:Or you could just oh I don't know

[Yetihehe]

With this winglet's 6km/h speed bicycle is also much faster. Also you can have some trunk space on bicycle, take small kid with you...

Re:Or you could just oh I don't know

[MrNaz]

You have a physically demanding job, yet cannot show up to work after breaking a sweat? Either your job isn't physically demanding, or you think that sweat is only worth sweating out if you're being paid for it.

And if you haven't got the energy left for a 10km ride on a bicycle at the end of the day, then how on earth do you have the energy to stand on a Segway for an hour?

I call your post BS, and I call your ass tubby.

Re:Or you could just oh I don't know

[Anonymous Coward]

The only car that could get you a threesome are cars with only two seats.

I dunno

[93 Escort Wagon]

Toyota's got a lot of catching up to do - the Segway has already taken the world by storm.

Re:I dunno

[j01123]

Toyota's got a lot of catching up to do - the Segway has already taken the world by storm.

I can hardly remember life before the Segway.

Re:I dunno

[mobby_6kl]

That was a joke, but we shall see who'll be laughing once the Chinese segway cavalry rolls over your defensive lines.

Both McCain and Obama,

[Snufu]

if elected, pledge to make it their highest priority to fall off one.

Severely disappointed

[Ihmhi]

I was severely disappointed with the Segway. I hear about the "revolution in personal transportation" PR they had going, and I expected one of three things:

* jetpacks
* hovercars / flying cars
* teleporters

And instead, I get a golfcart cut in half with a gyroscope and scooter handlebars added. What a fucking disappointment.

Re:Severely disappointed

[Tablizer]

PR they had going, and I expected one of three things: * jetpacks * hovercars / flying cars * teleporters

The Jetsons have f*cked everyone's expectations. See, if you watched Flintstones, you weren't disappointed when the bottom rusted out of your car, exposing your feet to raw road.
       

Re:Range

[j01123]

It has a range of 5km. But it's so small I can probably use it to drive from my car to grocery store on opposite side of parking lot.

This could be the answer to that ubiquitous American dilemma: How can I get from one end of Walmart's parking lot to the other without getting any actual excercise?

There is something to kill?

[RockClimbingFool]

I am going to go out on a limb and state that the Segway has almost no real legitimate use.

A bike is way more agile, and is able to cover a much wider assortment of areas.

A bike is able to travel just as fast with little effort, and can travel faster if you want to put that much power into it.

A bike doesn't need batteries.

There are health benefits from this thing called "exercise."

Now if you are talking about a battery powered vehicle that can travel on a road and get you back and forth to work, sign me up. Otherwise its simply a toy.

Re:There is something to kill?

[Anonymous Coward]

I have seen one perfectly valid use of the segway, and having travelled the same area for the same length of time, agree it would be worthwhile: Large Conventions. Seriously. If you have a convention you're going to be at for 12+ hours out of a day, spanning anywhere from a quarter to 2 miles (think fairgrounds perhaps here) then being able to hang a ride on a device like that could be a godsend for your legs (when I was doing it on foot I barely had enough energy left to either walk the half mile back to my hotel, or worse yet the half mile to my car followed by a commute out of town to my hotel.) For things like that it makes perfect sense. And according to the guy I talked to who had one, it used basically no power while idle, so if you plan out your route through the convention center well, you can spend all day there and only use perhaps 3/4 of your charge. Furthermore there ARE people with knee and hip injuries who it would help feel less bad about their condition that running around on canes/crutches/wheelchairs. Look I'm hip I've got a segway. It's not that I can't walk, I'm just too cool to do it! :)

Just my 2 cents.

Re:There is something to kill?

[neuromanc3r]

Seriously. If you have a convention you're going to be at for 12+ hours out of a day, spanning anywhere from a quarter to 2 miles (think fairgrounds perhaps here) then being able to hang a ride on a device like that could be a godsend for your legs (when I was doing it on foot I barely had enough energy left to either walk the half mile back to my hotel, or worse yet the half mile to my car followed by a commute out of town to my hotel.)

No offense, but if you have trouble walking 2 miles in a couple of hours, you should probably use every opportunity to get some exercise.

Your point about Segways being a kind of hipper wheelchair makes sense, though.

Re:There is something to kill?

[Ihmhi]

I don't think you've ever been to any sort of themed fan convention. Walk 2 miles and stand up for approximately 12 hours, with a 5 minute break every hour. I'd love to see how you fare.

No matter how strong you are or how much endurance you have, standing/walking around at a con for that long is going to take a toll on you.

Re:There is something to kill?

[untaken_name]

Paris has tours on segways. Also, I have seen them available in a couple of Spanish cities.

They are hardly dead. It seems like they are in use for more things every day.

Born in America, despised in America, loved in Europe. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Segway: the David Hasselhoff of personal people movers.

Useless

[Anonymous Coward]

offers about a third the speed and a quarter the range of the Segway

IOW, it's twelve times as useless!

Re:Undead, perhaps?

[j01123]

I actually want this to take off.

So do I, but unfortunately it doesn't have a jet pack, it's just low speed scooter.

Re:baby winglet?

[Ethanol-fueled]

That's so kids can become fat and lazy before they're old enough to play videogames and browse slashdot.

Segway killer?

[linuxelf]

I thought the Segway was the Segway killer...

Thank god!

[jwiegley]

A lot of us have been disappointed in the Segway. However, having my PhD in robotics, I've been downright frustrated.

While I would agree that Dean Kamen is "inventive" and very good at marketing, his products are not at all ground breaking in terms of technology. To add insult to injury his products are way over priced.

Robotics has been able to do his Segway balance trick for many decades. "Gee, sense where center of mass has moved and move the support position under it." In fact, we've been able to do a two link version of this problem as well (Think one Segway on top of another except the top segway has no power.)

However, Kamen burns through $150M duplicating the already known and is heralded as the most visionary man on the planet. Puuhleeeease.

His iBot wheelchair is the better of his products (It, by the way only requires the same basic robotics principle as the Segway.) It is slightly more "visionary" on its application and appreciably more sophisticated in its control loops to provide stair climbing abilities. But again... the cost of this beast is $26K. Placing it quite out of reach of most people who need it.

I'm sure somebody who is a better manager at actually manufacturing a product at reasonable costs could knock these off at half the price or less and provide a greater good to the world than Kamen does by having his face plastered all over magazines. But, sadly, they can't can't because of Kamen's patents.

I hope Toyota teaches him a lesson about how to really manufacture and sell a product. But, personally, I think the the entire Segway concept is flawed. A "trick" that is cute to behold but the luster wears off fast enough that people come to their senses before actually buying something they don't really need.

Re:baby winglet?

[A nonymous Coward]

You don't use your hands on the small one or the middle sized one. You lock the small upright handle between your legs, leaving your hands free. Sheesh. Even the still photos show that.

The sweaty effect of humid climates

[A nonymous Coward]

The amount of sweat you will emit is highly correlated with the amount of training.

Right there you show your ignorance. Try riding a bike ANYWHERE in a humid climate and tell me how dry you stay. Or just a plain hot climate -- try riding your bike 5 miles to work when it's 90F outside.

Report back when your education is complete.