From: jeff davis (jrd1415@yahoo.com)
Date: Tue Dec 04 2001 - 00:10:15 MST
Friends,
--- Adrian Tymes <wingcat@pacbell.net> wrote:
> Frankly, I fail to see what the excitement is about.
> So we have another
> make of electric scooter on the market...
Yeah, one that costs three grand!
Okay, I don't like being a naysayer. The price will
come down.
This item may make its inventor some money in specific
applications, but in the consumer market I don't see
the appeal. Able-bodied people would rather use a
bike. In fact, I'd like to see it go toe to toe with
a bike. I'd guess that a bike is more maneuverable in
regard to turns, because it appears that on the Segway
you can't bank--lean as you turn. The idea of
traveling at 12 or 17 MPH standing straight up,...is
just plain scary. (Or else I see a market for a full
body airbag.) If you slow down to walking speed, then
why is it exactly that you're on the thing? Cause you
can't walk? But you can stand? Now the market begins
to narrow.
When a person is standing, they better be moving their
legs--dancing, jumping, skipping, running, etc--or
they're in for circulatory discomfort in their legs.
I applaud Mr. Kamen's devotion to technology, and what
he has accomplished here will certainly not go to
waste--the computerised and gyro-stabilized
self-balancing platform will end up being a step to
something worthwhile--but the Segway came out of the
build-a-better-wheel-chair project, and needs people
who can't walk to be more than a plaything.
Kamen needs someone from ExI to show him the way.
Macro-scale machine self-replication, that's the
ticket. This is just such a waste of talent.
Best, Jeff Davis
"Enjoying being insulting is a youthful corruption of
power. You lose your taste for it when you realize how
hard people try, how much they mind, and how long they
remember."
Martin Amis
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