Rent A Segway... Get Arrested

from the oops dept

Reuters has an article that's getting picked up all over the place this evening about a company that just started up to rent the incredibly overhyped Segway scooters to those unwilling to pay $5,000 for their own. The rental prices run at $20 for half an hour with a 90 minute limit (so you get back before the battery runs out). You can also "test it out" for $5. In order to prevent theft, they've hidden GPS devices on the scooters. Interesting idea, though, it still seems like a niche audience. Who really wants to rent such a thing for an hour? More importantly, though, this other operation that's looking to do the same thing is discovering that they may be breaking the law. Police in Vancouver are investigating another Segway rental company, saying that the devices aren't legal on streets or sidewalks in their city. This other operation will rent the scooter out for an entire day. In the meantime, after having trouble getting police to buy into the scooters in the US, Segway is looking overseas. They're talking to police departments in the UK who are experimenting with the scooters. What the company should do now is try to get the police in Vancouver to test out a couple of the Segways. Then they could ride up to the Segway rental place and arrest them via Segway.
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  1. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 16 May 2003 @ 9:54am

    No Subject Given

    San Francisco too. Willie brown made an over dramatic speech on the subject last year. What an ass.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 18 May 2003 @ 5:46pm

    when segways are outlawed...

    ...only outlaws will ride segways.

    I can see it now... outlaw segway riders hopping up their segways to outrun the "normal" cop segways. I wonder if the police will come up with a "sweep" maneuver designed to bring an segway outlaw to a stop (maybe they could just stick their nightstick in the outlaw's spokes)

    Let the war of the middle aged, overweight, overpaid, falsely-environmentally-sensitive, white males begin.... this should be better than "robot wars".

    They hypocracy is so thick on this one, I could spread it with a knife.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 10 Jul 2003 @ 11:06am

    No Subject Given

    F*cking Canadians, love our money but hate all Americans and their ideas.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Roland, 19 May 2005 @ 12:34pm

    Segway rentals.

    Something must be in error about renting Segways for '90 minutes' before battery runs out' since the Segways operate for up to 10 hours, 11-15 miles PER CHARGE and also automatically RECHARGE just going downhill.....

    link to this | view in thread ]


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