
Segway was supposed to change the world. Two decades later, it just might - ddlatham
https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/30/tech/segway-history/index.html
======
gwern
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?

~~~
nrp
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](http://www.segway.com/products/consumer-lifestyle)

------
justinator
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.

~~~
rsync
"She was whizzing all over the place on it with ease and grace. It was an
excellent sight."

I was in a country other than the United States and I saw an older lady _run_
to catch a bus. She was easily 65, maybe 70. It was neither interesting nor
noteworthy to any of the other (swiss) people on the street with her.

Walking is the universal medicine and we live with an enormous burden of
health, fitness and longevity problems (including obesity, diabetes, "lower
back problems", knee and hip issues, etc.) due to the car culture that we live
in and the related _near refusal_ to walk anywhere.

No, this was not an excellent sight - it's the sign of a sick society that
will _do anything_ to avoid the simple, free and easy remedy to almost all of
their problems.

~~~
pvg
Walking is not a universal medicine for someone who has trouble walking. You
don't see that person running to catch the bus because they can't. They might
not even be able to get to the bus stop. They can't get their own groceries.
Sure, you can try to tie this to some generic tangent about 'car culture' or
whatever, but the idea that a person (whose health history you know nothing
about) being able to exercise their autonomy is somehow a bad thing is pretty
odd.

~~~
arcticbull
I think the argument being made is a lifetime of neglecting your body (poor
diet, lack of exercise) leads to an inability to use your body, which in turn
encourages you to use these assistive devices, which makes the problem worse
still in a viscous cycle.

A biological analog would be Type II. You consume too much glucose, you
develop insulin resistance, you take insulin, which makes your insulin
resistance worse, and so on. The problem there too, is diet and exercise.

~~~
pvg
Right, but there's nothing in the story posted that suggests this argument is
relevant or appropriate - it's just judgy, tangential ranting. You can be the
world heavyweight champion of walking and still end up disabled late in life.

------
8bitsrule
Scooters may be handy for people who don't live where there's significant snow
or ice on the ground for months at a time.

I see all kinds of people riding exercise bikes in gyms. May they should
switch to non-electric scooting instead.

------
analogmemory
I'm surprised they didn't talk about the crowdfunding campaign they have going
for their new e-skate, The Drift

[https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-
drift-w1-experience-s...](https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-
drift-w1-experience-segway-s-new-age-e-skates#/)

~~~
telltruth
Wow. Is this already copied by the Chinese cloners?

[https://www.amazon.com/Koowheel-Electric-Balancing-
Hovershoe...](https://www.amazon.com/Koowheel-Electric-Balancing-Hovershoes-
Freeline/dp/B07CZV53F1)

~~~
analogmemory
Not really? It feels like they basically saw hover boards and then split them
in two. If anything Segway probably saw a market opportunity.

------
RyanShook
Not sure about the article’s “world changing” claim but I do love electric
scooters. The Segway ES1 is $600 on Amazon -
[https://amzn.to/2SH2zYh](https://amzn.to/2SH2zYh)

~~~
village-idiot
Replacing the car for last mile transit _is_ world changing, if it happens.

~~~
davidmr
Other than for people with limited mobility, can you help me understand why
people think this is so? To me, it seems like evolution solved this problem
for us when we became bipedal. It’s entirely possible (even likely) that I
could just be a crank, but I genuinely don’t see the point of scooter rentals
for healthy, sufficiently mobile people.

~~~
njarboe
A scooter has about the same functionality as an e-bike but can go on
sidewalks without seeming nearly as threatening. Use in bike lanes, go 4 times
as fast as walking, no sweating like a bicycle, and more portable and much
cheaper than an e-bike. If my commute is a mile from a train station on both
ends, that is 40 minutes of walking a day. Probably good for your health, but
cutting that down to 10 minutes by using a scooter could make trains much more
useful for many people. Make it 2 miles on each end, then a bicycle is really
needed. Bulky and not allowed on many subways. e-scooter could work just as
well.

Plus they are pretty fun to ride.

~~~
masonic

      without seeming nearly as threatening
    

Quite the contrary.

Scooters are viewed by the riders as _less_ dangerous than bikes. Result: they
take more risks, especially risks to pedestrians.

~~~
njarboe
A person on a scooter is barely bigger than just a person. They stand maybe 4
inches higher. They are like like a person running. A bit annoying and going
too fast, but not that big a deal. A bike going the same speed is a much
bigger object.

~~~
masonic

      They are like like a person running.
    

You've clearly never seen a scooter clip a person's ankle and break it. I
have. The point of contact is not torso to torso, it's metal to ankle.

It's common here for scooter retrievers to stack multiple scooters crosswise
on the driven scooter's floorboard when carrying back for charging or
deployment, making it a 3+ foot wide wrecking platform.

------
touristtam
Is Ninebot not owned by Xiaomi? [https://www.mi.com/global/mi-electric-
scooter/](https://www.mi.com/global/mi-electric-scooter/)

~~~
ihuman
Xiaomi has invested in Ninebot [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ninebot-
xiaomi-investment...](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ninebot-xiaomi-
investment/xiaomi-backed-chinese-firm-acquires-iconic-scooter-maker-segway-
idUSKBN0N60GN20150415)

~~~
RyanShook
They also make an electric scooter that competes directly with Segway/Ninebot
[https://amzn.to/2RvYp4b](https://amzn.to/2RvYp4b)

------
devit
How do they compare to bikes for city transit?

Also, the prices of Segway kickscooters from Bird and Lime (1$ + 0.15$/min)
seem way higher than Mobike's prices (around $10/month, unlimited rides).

------
readhn
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.

~~~
27182818284
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.

~~~
cauldron
Charging inside your house is very dangerous, especially in NA where most
houses are wooden.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EljeP5XmETA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EljeP5XmETA)

~~~
randyrand
Same is true of cellphones and laptops. It depends on the brand.

~~~
cauldron
1 scooter battery equals several or tens of notebook batteries, mobile devices
generally use safer li polymer ones nowadays.

These scooter batteries sustain intense charging and discharging cycles, I
won't bet my house and life on it.

~~~
androidgirl
At my hackerspace we charge our 18650 cells inside those green ammo boxes.
Battery lockboxes are a way to stay pretty safe, even if a li-on, li-po, or
lead acid battery explodes, in a steel box it can't do so much.

Obviously, doesn't help without removable batteries, which are more common on
ebikes.

