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Segway was supposed to change the world. Two decades later, it just might

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Re: Segway was supposed to change the world. Two decades later, it just might

#11

Post by nrp »

gwern wrote: post #7

One thing I didn't understand here was, what exactly does Segway have to do with electric scooters in the first place? Why do scooters need the fancy self-balancing tech from the original Segway, or, if that's not what it's doing, what are they doing? Surely it's not something as lame as having a bunch of patents on the idea of sticking a battery in a scooter?

Segway/Ninebot build a range of personal transportation products. All of them except the powered kickscooters are self-balancing in some form: http://www.segway.com/products/consumer-lifestyle

Re: Segway was supposed to change the world. Two decades later, it just might

#12

Post by sjwright »

justinator wrote: post #9

I really don't know what's happening with Segway, but an antidote: I was at the grocery store, and an older lady was riding one of those cheap-looking hover board type contraptions inside the store - except that there was a post, and seat attached to it. She was whizzing all over the place on it with ease and grace. It was an excellent sight.

> an antidote:

Definitely an antidote to making them “cool”.

Re: Segway was supposed to change the world. Two decades later, it just might

#13

Post by 27182818284 »

readhn wrote: post #2

ohh another hot air bubble product.. "electric scooters" ... that will pass too. what we really need is updated modern public transportion network, high speed electric trains/ efficient transportation hubs..... not bicycles and scooters LMAO !! This is a 21st century! Why are we going backwards? They make a good toy though.

I'm not with you on this one.

I don't live in California and the amount of electric scooters I've suddenly seen out of nowhere is crazy. It might be a fad, but unlike you, I'm more like 30% thinking it is a fad vs 100%.

My reasoning:

* Batteries have gotten better than even the basic Segway days

* The scooters are portable. You can fold them and take them in to your dorm, apartment, etc, preventing theft. A lot of work places won't complain about you charging them at work either

* The entry level price is so much lower. I never saw a casual person on a Segway, but I see casual people on the electric scooter bandwagon already

* There is also a large subset of folks that had Razor scooters. I wasn't part of that, but I can understand them being more willing to adopt if they had previously used unpowered scooters.

* Running in to someone might be a problem on San Francisco sidewalks, but it isn't on, say, ISU's sidewalks.

Re: Segway was supposed to change the world. Two decades later, it just might

#14

Post by xapata »

ehnto wrote: post #4
readhn wrote: post #2

ohh another hot air bubble product.. "electric scooters" ... that will pass too. what we really need is updated modern public transportion network, high speed electric trains/ efficient transportation hubs..... not bicycles and scooters LMAO !! This is a 21st century! Why are we going backwards? They make a good toy though.

It's a ridiculous headline that's for sure. Electrified personal transport can help with the last mile but it's of no use if you never get to the last mile without a car. Also, it's a scooter, "change the world"? If they mean by changing it from having x scooters on the market to x+1 scooters on the market then yes.

Cars aren't the only way of getting to "the last mile." Closing the last mile has been public transit systems' problem for a long time.

Cars changed the world. If scooters change the way people think about public transit and distance within cities, it could very well change how people consider where to live and how to organize cities.

Re: Segway was supposed to change the world. Two decades later, it just might

#16

Post by briandear »

readhn wrote: post #2

ohh another hot air bubble product.. "electric scooters" ... that will pass too. what we really need is updated modern public transportion network, high speed electric trains/ efficient transportation hubs..... not bicycles and scooters LMAO !! This is a 21st century! Why are we going backwards? They make a good toy though.

I ride my EcoReco electric scooter from Mountain View to Cupertino every day. It’s great and I don’t have to wait on buses. Are you going to spend billions to run a train from Mountain View to Cupertino? In the meantime, I have a heck of a fun commute.

Re: Segway was supposed to change the world. Two decades later, it just might

#17

Post by ehnto »

xapata wrote: post #14
ehnto wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a ridiculous headline that's for sure. Electrified personal transport can help with the last mile but it's of no use if you never get to the last mile without a car. Also, it's a scooter, "change the world"? If they mean by changing it from having x scooters on the market to x+1 scooters on the market then yes.

Cars aren't the only way of getting to "the last mile." Closing the last mile has been public transit systems' problem for a long time. Cars changed the world. If scooters change the way people think about public transit and distance within cities, it could very well change how people consider where to live and how to organize cities.

I think you may have misunderstood. I want cars gone. But the public transit system isn't good enough in many if not most places to warrant that, regardless of the last mile, so we should fix that first. Fixing that would change the world (incrementally).

Scooters have been around for literally decades, even electric scooters have been around for a while. Changing people to accept a bit of physical effort to get to their job, be it cycling, walking or electric scootering, is probably a great thing, but it won't solve the underlying lack of infrastructure.

You can't organise around infrastructure that isn't there. In cities where it is there, people use it even without electric scooters and people already move to be close to good public transport.

Re: Segway was supposed to change the world. Two decades later, it just might

#18

Post by ukulele »

justinator wrote: post #9

I really don't know what's happening with Segway, but an antidote: I was at the grocery store, and an older lady was riding one of those cheap-looking hover board type contraptions inside the store - except that there was a post, and seat attached to it. She was whizzing all over the place on it with ease and grace. It was an excellent sight.

Regarding the other comment: you probably meant "anecdote"

Re: Segway was supposed to change the world. Two decades later, it just might

#19

Post by icelancer »

readhn wrote: post #2

ohh another hot air bubble product.. "electric scooters" ... that will pass too. what we really need is updated modern public transportion network, high speed electric trains/ efficient transportation hubs..... not bicycles and scooters LMAO !! This is a 21st century! Why are we going backwards? They make a good toy though.

"What we really need is [large project x] and [public good y] so therefore no one should work on [other project z]" is a stale argument and even if some benevolent dictator got their way, wouldn't even work.
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