A dorkcycle built for two
By adamg - 4/7/09 - 11:00 am
Mass. High Tech reports that Segway and GM are teaming up to build a sort of Segway for two people, which should be great for the mall cop we saw at the South Shore Plaza on Sunday who had to actually walk while he talked to his Segway-riding counterpart in the food court.
The publicity photo shows the contraption, which allegedly can get up to 35 m.p.h., on a sidewalk. Yeah, that'd be just great on the sidewalks in, say, Chinatown or the North End.
Comments
yeah, just great.
yeah, the Globe Overlords are all on it today too.
This is better than a bike, why? oh, right, because no one will have to expend any calories to get anywhere. Gotcha.
On the other hand, if it's the roaring success that Segway was...
Problem with a Segway-thing
Problem with a Segway-thing is that although you don't have to pedal like with a bicycle, you also don't get to sit down. So for the Lazy amongst us, there's one further evolutionary step required for the Segway, a seat; at that point we're pretty much talking about a motorized scooter or wheelchair thing (like the conveyances in the movie Wall-E)...
Fully evolved
The thingie looks more like a motorized wheelchair than a segway. Or like half a rickshaw.
So I guess it's fully evolved for your needs.
Not mine; I don't think it'd fare well on 128.
Enclosed rider
The main advantage I see of this over a bicycle is that it protects the rider from rain and snow.
The main disadvantage
Where do you park it? What do you do with it when you are not using it?
Doesn't it just fold up into a briefcase?
And doesn't it sound something like this while in motion?
As seen on South Park...
http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/153051/
"Personal transportation vehicle", not car?
Segway brought us those annoying upright things, and then tried to convince municipalities to allow them onto sidewalks. Some cities obliged, while others thought a little bit harder about it.
Now Segway is bringing this two-seater thing which their press release refers to as "small electric transportation", "personal transportation", or as a "vehicle." But nowhere do they use the word "car" or "automobile".
What's next -- trying to get these things onto sidewalks, too? (Like Adam notes the publicity photo shows.) Avoid all federal, state, local regulations (emissions, parking, licensing, safety) because they claim the things aren't cars?
Note the ludicrous language Segway uses to dance around the issue:
and how Segway nowhere tells you what they are comparing the P.U.M.A. to! Of course, they want you to think of a comparison with a car, but if they made the comparison explicit then all these regulations would kick in. Hmmmm...
Scooter equivalent
It gets up to 35 mph, goes about 35 miles, and holds 1-2 people. It's a scooter. It's just an electric scooter reformatted onto 2 wheels using Kamen's balance technology. Tada.
It would park/go where ever you would have parked your scooter (to answer SwirlyGrrl). It would meet the same lax requirements of a 50cc scooter in terms of registration, etc.
It's a wide format electric scooter with super-cool balance. I like it, but I think I'll stick to my scooter.