Well, again, I don't think the Segway company was responsible for a lot of the hype; it started with news reports of a few celebrities like Steve Jobs and Steven Spielberg talking about how amazing and revolutionary "IT" was. Once that started they had little choice but to throw what amounted to a coming-out party for "IT"; I suspect if they had to do it over again they wouldn't have shown the prototypes privately to start with
"How will this benefit me right now" isn't the question the current iteration seems to be designed to answer. It's like asking how owning an airport rental luggage cart will benefit you. Unless you're buying it for an airport, it won't. That may seem like a silly example when talking about "disruptive" technologies--but it was pretty disruptive if you were a porter. (I wonder if the reason those "SmartCartes" haven't made it into hotels is because hotel bellhops are unionized.) Segway is, like SmartCarte, concentrating on corporate vertical markets for now.
Common criticisms of the Segway HT seem to often be "it's not radical enough" and "they won't modify cities to accommodate these things." Aren't those two criticisms looking at it from opposite angles, though? They'd have to modify cities to specifically accommodate them if they were too radical.
If they can fit in to planning for both bikes and pedestrians, though, we're talking about changes as simple as making walking paths and sidewalks a little bigger, or putting in more bike lanes (like I've seen in some new construction around here, where there are bike trails to the side of the road). Things that make cities "Segway friendly" make them more friendly to all forms of personal transportation, instead of cities designed around cars. This is already the trend in city planning.
If another more consumer-oriented iteration of the Segway HT has a price under $2000, I think we really will see them popping up in cities. Not in huge flocks--just early adopters, first (look at buyers of the current iterations of "eco-friendly cars")--but they'll be there.
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momijizukamori
Re: Disruptive technology...
Date: 2002-04-21 07:34 (UTC)"How will this benefit me right now" isn't the question the current iteration seems to be designed to answer. It's like asking how owning an airport rental luggage cart will benefit you. Unless you're buying it for an airport, it won't. That may seem like a silly example when talking about "disruptive" technologies--but it was pretty disruptive if you were a porter. (I wonder if the reason those "SmartCartes" haven't made it into hotels is because hotel bellhops are unionized.) Segway is, like SmartCarte, concentrating on corporate vertical markets for now.
Common criticisms of the Segway HT seem to often be "it's not radical enough" and "they won't modify cities to accommodate these things." Aren't those two criticisms looking at it from opposite angles, though? They'd have to modify cities to specifically accommodate them if they were too radical.
If they can fit in to planning for both bikes and pedestrians, though, we're talking about changes as simple as making walking paths and sidewalks a little bigger, or putting in more bike lanes (like I've seen in some new construction around here, where there are bike trails to the side of the road). Things that make cities "Segway friendly" make them more friendly to all forms of personal transportation, instead of cities designed around cars. This is already the trend in city planning.
If another more consumer-oriented iteration of the Segway HT has a price under $2000, I think we really will see them popping up in cities. Not in huge flocks--just early adopters, first (look at buyers of the current iterations of "eco-friendly cars")--but they'll be there.