Segway's Breakdown

[Alfred Thompson]

Anyone want to comment on the article in Wird magazine? I'm surprised not to see any here. The article is at http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.03/segway.html

[D.Fahringer]

Interesting article (and long)

There certainly is nothing "broke down" on the Segway. It is a fantastic achievement in it's design and quality of construction.
The perceived high cost is one holdup and lawyers are probably the other. I feel that level of technology in a vehicle like the Segway is a great bargain really.

One area to save money on the Segway might be to dismiss the redundancy features such as the 2 separate motor windings and the 2 daughter board control systems that will take over if the other fails. We don't get that in ultra light aircraft or cars and motorcycles. Look how far Dean goes to insure a safe product!

Hopefully they will start marketing them through stores or dealerships where the public can see them touch them test them
and learn to trust these machines.

Dave F.

[Joe Matt]

Hey Dave! I have to agree totaly. But also remember this, the Segway has just started shipment, so it's hard to call it a failure. People these days want a full news story in just 30 seconds, so people are ready to skip the meat of the story (that it just started to ship and the Segway is constantly the top 200 seller of over 1500 in Amazon electronics) and just get to the punch.

[Alfred Thompson]

Personally I think that price is the big barrier. I think that most people who try one, as I did last week end, are likely to want one. But justifying the price is a bit harder. I know I can't.

If I lived in the city I might be able to though. In a real city I would rather use a Segway and mass transit then use a car. It would be less expensive to own a Segway and rent a car for those times when I really needed one.

[Scooter]

First of all, calling the Segway a failure is assuming a lot. I think that it is quite the other way. My main piece of evidence to back that up would be that the Segway has been above 200 on amazon.com's top seller list since it was made publicly available (Dec 2002). Considering how many electronic items amazon sells, there would have to be a fairly large number of units sold to keep it up there. As for the price being a barrier, I think that with time it will drop (case in point: DVD players. They started out at very high prices and now they are down to less that $100 ea). As more units get out there, more people will buy them, and the more people that buy them, the more flexibility Segway has to drop the price. Segway is also due to release the 'P' series, a smaller, lighter, lower performing model of the 'I' series that is currently available. These, in my book, are more practical because 1) they are more suitable for home owners (the 'I' series was originally intended for industrial use), and 2) they are going to be cheaper (latest prices are said to be about $3500, which is an excellent deal considering the technology within).

Dean Kamen has gone to great lengths to create a safe system. This was done for two reasons: 1) to reduce liability, to make a safe machine, and 2) to give law makers less of a reason not to pass laws allowing the segway on streets (Segway friendly laws have been passed in 38 states). It seems that Segway is doing well just on consumer sales. They are also marketing them to companies. Amazon has bought over 100 of them to use for produce picking, the military is taking a serious look at a souped up model of the 'I' series, as well as several postal carriers have purchased them for routes where it is too short to drive a truck and too long to walk. Aside from that, a couple of national parks are looking at purchasing them, Seattle, WA (they are trying to create a green fleet for their city services), and several oil companies.

It looks to me that they are doing fairly well, considering this is a new technology. I think that the WIRED article was unfair to them and inaccurate (they were not able to cite any evidence that Segway is doing bad; Segway has not released any sales figures, but it can be estimated from looking at units sold across the country).

OK..I'll get off my soapbox...If you want any more info, check out http://www.segwaychat.com/, an online community of Segway enthusiasts...Almost any question can be answered there.

Bill B.