NaveWeiss's Journal: Segway

Segway makes me disappointed.

I liked the idea a lot, and read a lot about the product, too. It seems like some kind of a magical and futuristic transportation device to me - the thing that finaly can make me feel that we've reached the year 2000.

The a big problem, from what I can see, is the limited range of the device. It can't do more than 25 kilometers. I think that's the thing that the testers most complained about in slashdot's last article about it. I guess it's the problem of the batteries who didn't develop much in the last century (fuel cells, anyone? ;)

But the main problem is the price. If it was a smaller price, it could have more success, but right now.. people aren't going to buy much of it so the price won't get down.. Segway could be great for me, like for travelling between the campuses of the university (4.5km). But I guess this will stay a dream and I'll have to use the shuttle. :(

Price point

[Degrees]

On the recent /. article regarding the Segway, one of the posters thought that the thing would be a huge success, if they got the price down to $500. I tend to agree. I think that at that price, parents wouldn't mind getting their kids one, and on a college campus, they could be really handy.

One of the better decisions I made in life was to buy a house less than a mile and a half from work. I still use the car, but really, it is overkill. As one of those "professional" types, I can't come into work all hot and sweaty from riding a bike. A Segway would actually fit well. But....

There is no way I am spending $5,000 on one.

$500 is too little

[NaveWeiss]

It's hard to believe someone would be able to lower the price of the thing to a tenth of the original price - unless the thing would run on special proprietary fuel.. ;)

I would have payed $1000 for this thing, since it's so cool, but for $5000 you could buy a good used car instead of that thing. Anyway, can't you ride your bike slowly? That way you may arrive to work without sweat, unless there are notable slopes in the way to your work.

Re:$500 is too little

[Degrees]

I'll take that bet, and up you a quarter (so to speak.) Yes, I could ride my bike slowly. Here in the central San Joaquin valley floor of California, there aren't any hills. I could even walk (which very occaisionally I do.)

My wife bought me one of the $99 electric scooters you sometimes see in the mail-order catalogs. And I did use it for about a week going to and from work. The problem with it is that the electronics on it are too stupid - when you let off the current, your own momentum creates an electric backwash - the motor just became a generator, trying to stuff down the current flow from the battery. After that, the battery just cannot get the current flowing back again. (I should say it takes a while - sometimes a good bump will kick the battery back into solid current production, sometimes it doesn't come back for a day or two.) So you end up going slower than walking speed.

My point is that using off-shore production, and ultra-cheap manufacturing, someone really is building electric scooters for $99 - sure, the thing won't take over the planet - but with a budget five times that, something ought to be do-able.

So it sounds like we think somewhere in the $500 - $1,000 range is the magic number.