The Segway is officially over.

Segway was acquired by a Chinese company a few years ago and they are ending production of it.

I only seen it once. I was at a mall few years ago and the security guard was on a Segway.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/23/tech/segway-pt-shut-down/index.html

Well, there is always a hoverboard.

Segway was a fad that lasted for a couple of years and then it got relegated to mall security cops for the most part.


In my opinion the segway never caught on with the mainstream consumer because it really didn't offer anything better than a bicycle but yet it was much more expensive.

$5000 sticker price. Personal transporter.For who? For the wealthy that see $5000 as sofa cushions change.

Great idea. Too expensive.

I think the first person to buy one was Bill Gates.

I don't know if he was the first but he really pushed the Segway publicly and it made a splash for a while but once the initial exuberance wore off and most people realized that the Segway wasn't worth the price then it dropped from the pop culture radar.

Had a go on one a number of years ago, fun and easy to use, but oh my sticker shock

The price was nonsense. If they were really serious as a business about growing market penetration, they would have done some common sense market analysis and resolved that anything over a couple hundred bucks was ridiculous and nobody would pay for it.

The Segway turned out to be pretty much a fad, but with some utility (like security and warehouse transport). But the technology that stabilizes it I think is really exciting. It would be great if it could be adapted for something like a standing wheel chair and other mobility aids.
It could change lives.

It already was.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBOT

The Ibot is pretty neat, but not as easy and seamless as marketing material makes it out to be:



Still, for those making their way about the streets on an average day, encountering a single step here or there, the technology is pretty nifty and useful. But is the $25,000.00 price tag worth this, considering the average electric wheelchair is about 3500.00? Most insurers--the ones who truly pay for most of these devices, likely will say no.


If you want to invent something world changing and change the world, you also must make the technology accessible by the masses.

I have an uncle with MS and when he really started going downhill he looked into getting one. Test drove one and it would have been great and helping him move around. The only thing standing in the way was the price.

Didn't the inventor kill himself on one?

Dean Kamen was the inventor, and he's still alive, but the owner of the company who bought the Segway company, Jim Heselden, went off a cliff on one.

And he's buying a Segway To Heaven.

Am I going to hell if Wangos post made me laugh?

Thanks.

The iBot is $25000 with Medicare paying $5000. Most disabled, handicapped, ill people can't afford $20,000.

Therefore a complete waste of time and money.

I'm sure a lot of people thought the same of Orville and Wilbur Wright. Total heretics. Totally out of touch.

No pain no gain....

I imagine the Segway would have been an insurance nightmare as well.

The only thing I could think of when I saw that picture of the inventor of the Ibot and Bill Clinton in the oval office was that it was probably about the same spot that Slick Willie and Monica played hide the cigar.

And then there was this...

[video:youtube]https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=segway+hits+usain+bolt[/video]