Sinclair's Answer To The Segway 302
slumos writes "BBC News Online is reporting on Sir Clive Sinclair's reaction to the Segway. The British inventor thinks it's fine for factories, but not for crowded streets, and he's even planning some competition in the form of a top-secret follow-up to the Sinclair C5."
Re:Oh what a surprise... (Score:2, Insightful)
The problem is with your assertion that it is 'somewhat cheap' (read expensive) is cumbersome (want to carry it up to your flat to re-charge?) and offers few advantages compared with a bicycle.
I use a bike for my commute into work, for quick trips to the shops (hey you can put panniers on it - where is the storage on a Segway?) and for pleasurabe jaunts into the countryside. By comparison the Segway isn't very versatile.
Re:Oh what a surprise... (Score:4, Insightful)
I actually agree with you about the various merits of the Segway, yet I can say I abso-fucking-lutly hate it. Not because of what it is, but because of what it was made out to be. And I suspect my reaction is the same as many people, especially us
Personally, I only think good can come from the Segway and future rivals going into widespread use. I mean, at the very least it isn't really going to ever hurt anything even if they all fall by the side as a technological curiosity. However, I'm pissed because of the hope I had. I remember in the months before the Segway came out, it was hyped as IT. It was going to more or less revolutionize some major facit of modern life, if not all of it. The inventor, Dean Kamen [usfirst.org], is a very intelligent man, and if anyone could live up to his own predictions for a device of his design, it would be him. So when he said stuff like, "It will change the way cities are built. They will be built around IT." (Or something like that, he did say it would forever change city design) I really believed him, and I think so did most of us, hence the hatred for the Segway. I personally was thinking, "Ok, it sounds REALLY far-fetched, but what if this is something really bad ass? What if this is cheap and easy nuclear fusion, teleportation, a viable personal air transport, (or any of a hundred other things I've only dreamed of)." IT really got my hopes up. And then the big day of the unveiling comes up and, anxiously I awaited, only to find out IT_IS_A_FUCKING_SCOOTER!? This had to be, by far, the absolute biggest let down of a product in the (at least recent) history of mankind. After months of hype and hope, we get an advanced toy/novelty that's over priced [amazon.com] any damn way.
So really, I think the deep, intense hatred of the Segway is not a product of the product, but rather a product of the crushed dreams brought on by the hype of the product. Had we only known Steve Jobs' initial reaction [slashdot.org], I think the let down may have been softer and the backlash much easier.
hmm (Score:2, Insightful)
Why is this news? (Score:3, Insightful)
Reporting on what he comes up with when it's actually launched, that's a story. Adding to hype about a product that effectively doesn't exist yet, surely that's just encouraging the sort of disappointment people felt about IT/ginger/the Segway when it was launched.
A solved problem (Score:5, Insightful)
There are feet, there are bicycles, there are electric bicycles, there are go-peds, there are electric go-peds, there are electric scooters, there are petrol scooters, there are motorcycles, there are cars.
All of the bases are already covered. Why would I want to spend a small fortune (4,500) on an segway when I can buy an electric go-ped with similar performance characteristics in a much more convenient package for 200?
Big pieces of plastic suffer from fatigue. (Score:2, Insightful)
The C5 showed that Clive Sinclair has little design sense. It put the driver in a position to see himself crushed as a car ran over him. Of course, hopefully the driver of the car would see the little flag on the C5.
Re:What's so wrong with what we HAVE? (Score:2, Insightful)
Private automobiles really do have a lot of advantages.
Not solved yet... (Score:4, Insightful)
The problem is that cities are built wrong and people have funny goals.
As I see it:
IMHO, the ideal would be to all but discard the car as a method of transportation and focus on public transportation, alternative methods of transportation and high speed networking infrastructure to encourage those who can to work from home.
Workplaces should have (or locate near heath clubs with) safe bicycle racks, changerooms and showers, and the roads should have wide lanes so that those who really do need to drive don't try to sqeeze cyclists, inline skaters, slow scooters, segways and other junk off the road.
But, that can't happen overnight... so you need some stupid new technology to inspire people to think about how dumb they all are spending hours transporting a thousand kilograms of metal and glass back and forth across the city on a daily basis.
Re:Oh what a surprise... (Score:3, Insightful)
The drawbacks to the Segway are many: Able bodied people don't need it. Those who are unable to walk are usually unable to stand long enough to use it. It can't compete with the automobile. It hasn't got the range, speed, or storage space to do anything but replace walking. It's expensive. It costs as much as a lot of people spend on a used car.
Segway adoption wouldn't hurt anything, but in most cases would provide no benifit. It has a 'cool factor'. It would also be ideal in some situations like sight seeing in Washington DC. Generally, though, it's a fancy waste of money. Many here on Slashdot seem to have written it off as cute but useless; a product that was hyped as being able to change the world, but unable to fulfill that promose.