
How the 'hoverboards' took off in spite of laws against them - nns
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34053740
======
markh1967
"All of them should be allowed on the pavement, because people aren't stupid,
they will get out of the way if they see one coming."

Speaking as someone who sometimes puts his back out and spends a few days
hobbling slowly about, I shouldn't have to quickly get out of someone's way if
I see them coming and they shouldn't be allowed on pavements.

~~~
wyager
It's not practical to design everything in the world with the very slowest
people in mind. The efficiency losses would be huge. Imagine if every
pedestrian crossing light went for five minutes. Vehicular traffic would grind
to a standstill.

That said, I see no reason why the people riding these things couldn't just
move around other people. I rarely have problems with people on bicycles,
because we can mutually avoid each other.

~~~
omellet
Bicycles aren't allowed on the sidewalk, either.

~~~
atomicfiredoll
How fast do these go compared to a bicycle? I saw a few of them on the street
and they didn't seem to be moving faster than a brisk walker.

My impression was that bikes are generally banned because they move fast
enough to cause serious injury yet are silent enough that pedestrians don't
hear them coming.

~~~
dogma1138
I've seen a few of these in London they aren't really faster than a fast
walking speed which makes people who use them look very silly.

They are quite often laughably used in shopping centers or and super markets
mostly because allot of the pavements in London are horribly uneven which
probably doesn't provide a very good surface for those. I've seen 2 guys on
those things at Westfield last weekend arguing with a bunch of confused staff
that didn't knew how to treat them.

I don't really get this device it doesn't help you to commute any faster, it
doesn't increase your pedestrian commute range if you aren't fit to walk you
won't be able to use one of those (they got quite a stringy weight limit, and
require quite a bit of effort to balance yourself on) anyhow.

It's a bit funny to see fit and young hipsters pretty much using a 500$
mobility scooter...

------
alexc05
To be clear, with most of the celebrity adopters, they're often given the
device and sometimes paid to use it.

Here in Toronto, I've seen marketing teams of people handing out this device
and rolling around Yonge-Dundas square (sometimes cast as times square in
feature films) in a guerilla marketing push.

It doesn't mean they're not cool and fun, but the breathless articles about
how cool, hip, and trendy people are "suddenly using the device" are often
coordinated.

~~~
digi_owl
No surprise there, as one of the objections mentions is the "stare" factor.
That is, how much do you like to be stared at while doing something.

------
mortenjorck
What's fascinating to me is that now, 14 years after the Segway failed to take
over the world and became indelibly associated with upper-middle-class nerds,
similar technology is now 90% less expensive, has found a more socially-
acceptable form factor, and is actually becoming associated with celebrity
tastemakers.

It would be quite the irony if the breathless hype about the Segway circa 2000
ended up being realized a decade and a half later, without the Segway.

~~~
Plough_Jogger
A humorous and insightful PG post on Segway:
[http://www.paulgraham.com/segway.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/segway.html)

~~~
TrevorJ
I've thought about that a lot, and I think new tech adoption relies more on
the social framework that's in place around it than we think. Simply put: if
it makes you look/seem like an asshole then it's not gonna happen unless it's
too good to ignore.

Smart watches and bluetooth headsets are great examples: they work fine but
they make you look like a tool because of the social frameworks we have in
place (it's rude to check your watch while in a conversation, it makes people
feel weird when they think you are talking to them but you are just on your
bluetooth.) Smartphones didn't deal with this friction because there's a long
history of social rules around reading in public, and smartphones are
essentially the same thing. We know when it's rude and when it's not, we know
how to handle somebody reading next to us in the train, etc. In short, using a
smartphone didn't make you look like a tool, it was just the next logical step
from reading a magazine.

I definitely think Segway fell victim to this.

------
JoshGlazebrook
The funny thing is all these "hoverboards" are the same exact device from
China. You can get them off alibaba for $200 or spend $1,500 for some American
branded version that is the same exact thing.

~~~
josefresco
Link for the curious?

~~~
andrewmunsell
You can try Alibaba or Aliexpress usually:

[http://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?catId=0&initiative_id=SB...](http://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?catId=0&initiative_id=SB_20151014073139&SearchText=hoverboard)

------
lightbritefight
Boosted boards are still the best "hoverboard" for my money:

[http://boostedboards.com/](http://boostedboards.com/)

The price is prohibitive, but the market now has something like 7 or 8 brands
competing, so I expect the price will come down in the next year or so.

~~~
andrewmunsell
I happen to have a Yuneec E-Go, but recently there's been some cheaper knock
offs appearing.

Honestly I'm not sure what order they came in, but the Magneto electric board
has several look a likes that are in the ~$300 range:

\- Magneto:
[http://magnetoelectricskateboard.com/](http://magnetoelectricskateboard.com/)
\- Alternatives on Alibaba: [http://www.alibaba.com/showroom/electric-
skateboard.html](http://www.alibaba.com/showroom/electric-skateboard.html)

~~~
digi_owl
Hmm, off-road boards...

------
copsarebastards
> American rapper Wiz Khalifa claimed on Twitter that he was handcuffed by
> customs and border patrol officers at LAX airport because he refused to
> disembark from his transporter.

I don't know whether the officers were justified in ordering him to get off
the transporter (I tend to side with civilians), but this is kind of dumb.
What was he expecting to happen? I can understand getting arrested
intentionally to make a political point, but is this really the political
stance he wants to take?

Either he was too dumb to know he was going to get arrested, or he's making a
pretty irrelevant political point.

~~~
DasIch
He's a celebrity and this got his name in the news. Isn't that more than
enough of a reason?

~~~
copsarebastards
You're right, I understand his motivation now, and I hate society a little
more.

~~~
DasIch
Well, it's not that different from writing blog posts in the hopes that they
show up here. Humans are social and connections even asymetric ones are
valueable.

~~~
copsarebastards
My objection is that Wiz Khalifa's bid for attention _worked_ , despite the
fact that he had nothing of value to say. I'd hope that if someone wrote
something of no value it wouldn't make it onto the front page of HN.

------
TazeTSchnitzel
I'm not sure the ban on public use is a bad thing. I imagine they'd become a
nuisance if a lot of people were using them. There's quite a difference
between someone walking into you and someone crashing into you at 14mph on a
10kg set of wheels. Bicycles are used on bike lanes and on the road for a
reason.

~~~
fluxquanta
>I imagine they'd become a nuisance if a lot of people were using them.

My image of them was already soured by just one guy in an airport a couple
weeks ago doing a lazy slalom in front of me while I was trying to get around
and to my flight.

~~~
togusa
Yep exactly.

I saw one pile into the side of a bus stop going flat out. Smashed the glass.
That's a nuisance.

------
swang
I have one of things. Bought off Alibaba for about ~$300 shipped.

It is fun, but you have to be very careful about stepping on. It is one of
those things where the more you panic the more something goes wrong as you
overcompensate. I fell when I tried to step onto one on concrete and it was
way faster than I was use to so I overcompensated for the pressure my foot was
causing and landed hard around my tail bone. And by that point I was pretty
experienced getting on (just not on concrete).

Snowboarders seem to have a pretty easy time with it. But again, getting on
without help is probably the most difficult step.

------
amelius
Let's not call them hoverboards until they actually hover.

~~~
twic
I believe the correct term is "swegway".

~~~
csours
hmmm, can I call it a smegway?

~~~
beeboop
smugway

------
ZoeZoeBee
Why do people insist on calling these things hoverboards?

It's 2015 Marty McFly would be extremely disappointed.

~~~
thoman23
Completely agree. I don't see any hovering going on. Of course, I'm still on
the losing side of the battle against the "sharing economy" phrasing, so I
might as well accept this one too.

------
jessriedel
How does these compare with the single-wheel versions?

[http://www.theairwheel.com/buy/airwheel-carbon-limited-
editi...](http://www.theairwheel.com/buy/airwheel-carbon-limited-edition/)

~~~
JulianMorrison
I'm guessing, the larger single wheel gives you a smoother ride? They're
easier to pick up and carry like a briefcase, too. But I imagine, harder to
ride.

~~~
Retric
They also have a double wheel version that also uses large wheels which seems
like a better idea.

[http://www.theairwheel.com/buy/q3black340wh/](http://www.theairwheel.com/buy/q3black340wh/)

------
Paul_S
Don't want to sound like a killjoy but those seem absolutely pointless. If you
made one so small it would fit in a sole of a shoe I'd reconsider but in their
current form they're just as inconvenient when not in use as a bike and
infinitely less useful when riding.

------
phkahler
Was going to say it appears that the Segway patent has run out. But then:

[http://www.theverge.com/2015/9/15/9330361/segway-
hoverboard-...](http://www.theverge.com/2015/9/15/9330361/segway-hoverboard-
patent-hovertrax-lawsuit)

I was working on iBot cost reduction stuff back in 1999 when that patent was
filed. I was under the impression the company (our customer) had a lot of
balancing machines running around at the time and figured the patent must have
been a few years old at that point. Guess not.

------
6stringmerc
Well, as long as people are willing to risk life and limb in the pursuit of
fun and thrills, I can't really talk down on them.

Also I can't wait to get some more traction in my side project so I can get my
"recreational personal flight device" into a prototype and testing stage.
Think of it as akin to JetMan, version 2.0, and not needing a helicopter.

------
hodwik
Have been riding one of the single wheel versions of this. Incredibly
difficult, but fun none the less.

------
fsloth
Is there any open source for the control system? It's not rocket science but
from what I understand getting a control system running with dynamic feedback
is not trivial either? Anyone experience with the theory? Any books/papers you
can suggest?

~~~
jeffwass
Try starting by looking up "PID loops" (Proportional Integral Derivative).

------
k__
Are these the real life version of conveyor belt sidewalks the scifi autors
wrote about?

~~~
digi_owl
Reminds me that a design company was pitching the conversion of the London
underground into a network of conveyor belts.

5 lanes, 3 speeds, so that the ones closest to the edges were just about
walking speed, while the innermost was somewhere close to a jog (or perhaps
even a run).

~~~
zyxley
Take that and multiply the width by a couple of times and you've got
Heinlein's rolling roads.

~~~
dTal
Or Arthur C. Clarke's "moving ways" (Against the Fall of Night / The City And
The Stars)

------
WorldWideWayne
It's way more conspicuous than those sneakers with the wheels on the bottom
and those sneakers really took off in some parts of the US. Did they cause a
lot of problems for people?

I don't know, but these hoverboards probably won't be as popular as those
sneakers.

