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

[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.

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: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: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...