Honda take on the segway

[Gandalf]

I'll take your high tech zimmer frame and make it cool!

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=cuIJRsAuCHQ

[YOUTUBEHD]cuIJRsAuCHQ[/YOUTUBEHD]

[Penfold]

Wowzers

[smilodon]

Great piece of tec but here' a though, if you want to get somewhere why not ..... walk.

[Penfold]

I agree, it's totally pointless but one can't fault the engineering.

[smilodon]

It needs a practical application to really shine. The two girls looked a bit daft trundling about like that. I can certainly see all kinds of uses to improve mobility etc and then technology is definitely amazing. The Segway seemed popular for ramblers and I know several companies used them to take people on tours round country parks and outdoor attractions. I do think it will end up being a niech product or technology used in some other application


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[smilodon]

Tapatalk mangling your words one message at a time

[Vargen]

Well if it wasn't controlled by balance and had a proper seat it would be an awesome alternative to a wheel chair. It would probably tip over when the battery was flat though.

[JonnyAppleSeed]

I never want to walk anywhere again !!! How much fun will the office races be now ... they were good before with the rolling spinning chairs but this ....

[T-Bag]

They are trying to develop a mode of transport between walking and riding a bike, just like segway did.

Walking long distances is slow and tiring. Whereas cycling is fast and effortless. When you get somewhere if you've walked you're fine and ready to go. If you've cycled you've got to chain your bike up outside and find somewhere to put your helmet and maybe change your clothes.

If you had all the advantages of riding a bike but in a small enough package to carry around with you (and put in your office or car where its safe) you can quickly go around places which would typically be hard to park without the inconvenience of a bike.

Having looked at the specs 6km/h and one hour operating time don't really sell this as anything but a gimmick (Segway is 20km/h) and can go nearly 40km. Backwards laws forced the segways off both pavements and cycle paths, so there's not really the opportunity to market this as a bike replacement and that's really the only viable market for a device like this. So basically I can see a potential market for a lightweight electric vehicle with a range of around 10km and a top speed of anything over 10km/h providing it is small enough to be carried around and stowed in an office or car boot easily. The price would have to be competitive with typical commuter bikes (<£200) or be so cool that people are prepared to pay the difference.

I think we'll see something one day, but there is zero use for a product like this in a typical indoor environment. Unless the user has suffered some sort of injury, or it's used to carry heavy loads (and not sat on), even then a wheelchair or a wheelbarrow are probably far more cost effective...

[DannagE]

Nice tech, but I couldn't help noticing that using the skinniest girls available might put it out of the reach of most people that its aimed at. Chunkies