Looks Like A Segway... Doesn't Balance Like A Segway
from the is-self-balancing-really-that-important? dept
Here come the knock-offs. While the Segway has not proven to be a real commercial success, it always gets people's attention. That's all that knock-off makers need to know in trying to build a cheaper, simpler version. It happens with plenty of hyped up products. Remember when the Sony Aibo robot dog was first launched? Suddenly, other robot dogs, that looked quite like the Aibo, started showing up in toy shops. They were much cheaper - but for a reason. They couldn't do almost everything that made the Aibo cool. However, that might not be the case with the new Rad2Go Q electric scooter, which looks pretty damn similar to the Segway, but skips all that "self-balancing gyroscope blah blah blah" stuff, and just sneaks in two extra wheels on the base to make it stay upright. It's also about one quarter of the price.
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Lets see if *IT* sells.
The Segway has a few issues, one of them is price.
If 'you look stupid' riding a Rad2go, you are going to look the same 'stupid' riding a Segway. If you would run afoul of local laws on a Segway, the same laws would bust you on a rad2go.
If Rad2go's show up all across the country VS the no-show status of the Segway then the reason Segway has had 3 presidents since the announcment is a pricing problem and not a 'lack of a marketable product' problem.
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small wheels
It would be a shame to have those small rear wheels hang up on a segway-clearable bump and send the rider hurtling over the handlebars (or into them).
I feel this whole idea is pretty stupid-- bicyles do the same thing cheaper and with the exercise benefit. If you don't want the exercise, slap a little motor on the bike-- it's still cheaper.
Segway does seem to be a pretty good technology for robots though.
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